Last week our CEO, Ka Jolo, called for a Tuskers operation in Molden Heath. At the moment I am trying to get involved in things as much as possible so I signed up straight away. At 2300 last night I was sitting in Bosena waiting for the operation to begin. Quam Singulari had been camping the station for most of the evening but their numbers were beginning to dwindle and this was the perfect time for us to sally forth.

Jolo asked me to bring my Cyclone along to act as bait and also provide a significant chunk of our DPS. Supplementing my Cyclone we had two Stabbers, a Thorax, and a Rifter as well as a cloaky wing with an Arazu and two stealth bombers to help spring our trap. We’ve found that the Molden Heath residents seem to prefer to fight on gates or at stations. Personally we prefer to fight in belts, away from the safety of docking and jumping. Our plan was very simple. I would sit in a belt providing a tempting target while our covert ships would watch carefully and provide intel on the surrounding systems. The main attack wing waited at a deep safe ready to leap to my aid should we find a target. On top of all this we had a friend in a covert ops ship who could help us find our enemies if they were hiding off grid.

In Bosena we attempted to bait a Cyclone into a fight in a belt but he was cautious and was only interested in a battlecruiser duel at a safe spot. Because we were on a corporate operation I ignored his requests and he moved on. Nothing particularly juicy looked like taking our bait but we at least found a Thrasher in a belt and made short work of it. To avoid giving our opponents time to muster a force against us the order was given to move on out in Oddelulf where we repeated the process.

Oddelulf was empty and the fleet held position while our scouts checked out the neighbouring systems. In Atlar we found an Abaddon and a Hawk at what seemed to be a safe spot. I took up position in a belt while our friend dropped his probes. The safe spot turned out to be an exploration site and the fleet scrambled as Jolo went in to try and get the tackle. Both ships were too quick off the mark and were able to escape before Jolo could pin them down. Disappointed I returned to my belt and the fleet warped away while our cloaked wing waited on the acceleration gate to see if they would return.

While we were waiting someone spotted a Thrasher in a belt and the rest of the fleet were despatched to deal with it while I sat in my belt. Humph.

The next target called was a Stabber Fleet Issue. It didn’t take long to probe down the faction ship’s safe spot but he was on the ball and managed to evade our tacklers. At about this time Master Technique of Club Bear dropped out of warp in my belt. He was flying a Ferox and had landed in scrambler range. I activated my tackle, fired up my weapons, and began to move out of blaster range. Initially I was taking heavy damage due to our proximity but as I moved further out the damage slowed. At this point the rest of the fleet landed and the Caldari battlecruiser melted pretty quickly under our onslaught. Master Technique was obviously disappointed that it hadn’t been a fair fight but graciously acknowledge a well-sprung trap and that we all had to make a living somehow. Courtesy goes a long way in situations like this.

On a side note Master Technique informed us that he, Kil2, and the rest of the Bears were actively playing again so fingers crossed for some new videos from them soon.

Almost immediately after we’d scooped the loot Ka Jolo informed us that he had a point on the Stabber. We leapt into warp only to discover that the pilot had initiated an emergency shutdown of his systems. We couldn’t tolerate this kind of behaviour and tore his ship apart. His pod warped to safety but our prober was on the ball and we managed to pin him down just as his systems came back online. Despite our fair ransom terms he declined and complained that his ship had offlined because of a technical failure. This wasn’t our problem, we had faction items in our holds now, so we sent him back to his clone bay.

During these proceedings Atlar had begun to heat up. A Blackbird, Astarte, and Maelstrom were on scan and we decided that, because it was getting late, it was time to take our loot back to Bosena. My ship was the heaviest of the gang so we sent some eyes ahead of us into Oddelulf. Our scout reported two Dominix class battleships waiting on the gate. It seems that the gang was ready for us and preparing a trap of their own. Thankfully we are good at knowing how long our advantage lasts for and had already decided that there was something fishy in the air. The gang warped to the Oddelulf gate and my Cyclone jumped through first while the rest of the fleet held in Atlar. The Astarte had landed on the gate with us and followed us through but neither the command ship nor the two waiting battleships had a chance of locking my Cyclone as I aligned to a planet away from them and easily entered warp. With my ship safely away the rest of the fleet jumped and warped to our rendezvous point. We repeated the procedure on the Bosena gate and quickly arrived safely back in station despite two poorly executed attempts to catch us on the gates. Why don’t gangs bring a fast-locking tackle ship with them, even in low sec? You never know when that pirate gang is going to jump into you.

While we had good numbers of ships in system we decided to take the opportunity to escort a supply convey into our station. Our delivery had been stalled in high security space because of persistent camps so it was a relief to be able to get it into system and safely docked in the station.

Thanks to Ka Jolo for his excellent leadership and to all the Tuskers who came along. Oh, and to Master Technique for being a good sport. Sadly I can’t say the same of the Stabber pilot.