Not Our Finest Hour
It had already been a long day for me working a 12-hour shift with my volunteer ambulance service and then having dinner with my grandparents. When I got home Paul, who is going into his weekend, was up for doing wormholes sites. I had scanned down a C2 while I was waiting for him to finish his dinner, and then we ran all of those anoms.
Back in our C3, we started going through the single anom and radar/magneto sites; we'd been talking on Skype for hours and things were getting silly (Paul's new musical hit coming soon to this blog - stay tuned). We were running with four Drakes and our Thanatos carrier. Then Paul's terse announcement: "Legion coming in!". The Legion pointed the carrier as we tried to decide what to do.
Unfortunately we didn't have many options as directional scanner showed a small fleet - which arrived on scene a few moments later. Three Dominix, a Dominix Navy Issue, an Abbadon, a Typhoon, and a Damnation. We quickly realized their target was the Thanatos as they pointed it and threw all their firepower into it. We were initially hopeful that my flight of 11 fighters and some additional ships could break their tanks... but they had an excellent spider tank setup, and despite best efforts, no amount of fighters and ship DPS we had on hand was going to work for us.
When it was clear that eventually they were going to break the Thanatos tank - it was fit for resists and reps, but against this much DPS it wasn't going to last - we started trying to get ships out from the carrier bay. We ended up losing a Devoter and a Drake, but we got other ships safely out.
The bad guys attempted a ransom - which we obviously weren't going to take - but we tried to stall for time by counter-offering:
[06:03:39] bumnz > 500 mil we let ya go
[06:03:49] bumnz > clock is ticking
[06:03:56] Marius Atilla > moo
[06:03:56] bumnz > tick tock
[06:06:00] Marius Atilla > better hurry mate
[06:06:13] Marius Atilla > u bout to die
[06:06:16] PaIIadium > lol
[06:06:20] PaIIadium > not today
[06:07:30] PaIIadium > busy hole you got here
[06:07:42] Radjax > for a minute
[06:07:50] Markus El'kar > 400
[06:08:01] Marius Atilla > deal
[06:08:01] bumnz > ok 400
[06:08:06] bumnz > send to me
[06:08:09] Paul Clavet > logging on an alt
[06:08:22] PaIIadium > whats going on in here?
[06:08:40] Paul Clavet > to get the money
[06:08:41] PaIIadium > a ransom perhaps?
[06:08:52] Paul Clavet > ya
With the Thanatos going into hull, I started the self-destruct timer. If I was going to lose a carrier, I was going to at least get my base insurance payment out of it. Of course the bad guys didn't like this, leading to some amusing tears:
[06:10:33] Syl Kougai > So you're going to SD instead of take it like a man? That'll be good in your blog.
[06:10:34] PaIIadium > that things taking a beating
[06:11:13] Markus El'kar > Insurance.
[06:11:24] GodfreyOfIbelin > i didn't know wh's had stations
[06:11:32] Markus El'kar > They don't. I still get 262m for it.
[06:11:57] Markus El'kar > I have to say I'm impressed what a group of RR Domis can do; nicely played
[06:12:15] Syl Kougai > Be sure to blog about how you sd'd like a bitch.
[06:12:19] bumnz > for selfdestructing im gona leave my alt in here
[06:12:30] bumnz > put that in ya blog and smoke it
[06:12:31] GodfreyOfIbelin > bunch of pussies
[06:12:38] Paul Clavet > lol pirate tears
[06:12:42] Markus El'kar > Deny you the kill and get money back? Yeah, clearly I'm the dumb one =)
The ship self destructed around the 50% hull mark and we warped away; we lost no pods, which was a small blessing. The insurance payment was indeed worth it, and denying them a killmail and drops was added bonus. I would have done it just for the insurance money in any case.
From: Secure Commerce Commission
Sent: 2011.08.22 06:11
RefID:1003045796452 Your friendly insurance company has transferred 262,052,019.20 ISK into your account for the recent loss of your ship. This payout is the default payout for an uninsured ship. If you are interested in better insurance then please visit a station with an Insurance Service for further details.
The resulting smack talk was amusing, considering that we admit they played a nice trap, and that we had failed to do a good job keeping an eye on what was going on.
[06:12:56] Marius Atilla > well you did get caught
[06:12:58] Marius Atilla > so, yeah
[06:13:00] Marius Atilla > you are
[06:13:03] Paul Clavet > Very well sprung trap though, gents
[06:13:09] Syl Kougai > Well
[06:13:12] Syl Kougai > Was worth the try.
[06:13:44] Paul Clavet > yep, well executed
[06:18:22] bumnz > see ya tomo
[06:21:48] rockpoker > ../
[06:21:55] rockpoker > dont forget to update
[06:25:12] rockpoker > any gf gf peace out
[06:25:21] rockpoker > anyway**
[06:26:24] Khalia Nestune > Oh, we will.
Paul and I spent a good while analyzing our billion-ISK lost. What did we do wrong, what could we have done differently, and what lessons did we learn? Paul will have another post shortly with his own perspective from being in law enforcement.
The primary lesson here was that we got complacent, and in EVE when you get complacent, you die. We should have left the Thanatos just outside the POS and assigned the fighters. I had been doing this most of the time, but for radar and magnetometic sites the additional RR from the carrier and agro onto the carrier was useful. Useful it was, but it left the carrier too vulnerable. Secondly, we did not put sentries on the wormholes in our system; or at least the wormhole from the high security static entrance. We had been doing this recently, but in our rush to get the sites done, we again got complacent and assumed nothing would happen. Tiredness and impatience are a bad combination.
Discussion of what we could have done differently was limited. Really once they had sprung the trap our fate was sealed; there was little we could have done with our on-hand ships against their spider tank setup. Our own set of RR fit battleships, complemented by the carrier RR, might have forced a different outcome, or a draw. Aside from this there was little we could do.
Paul and I have both suffered losses we consider more "dumb", from a "I can't believe I lost that ship" point of view, and this wasn't even the most expensive ship I'd ever lost (a faction-fit Tengu holds that 'honor'), but it was a sharp reminder that to let down your guard is to invite disaster. You can be sure it isn't a lesson we will ignore.
Off-topic, but major respect here for being a volunteer in an ambulance service. You guys don't get enough praise for what you do everyday. Thank you for putting your lives on the line to save other's lives. <3
[...] « Not Our Finest Hour [...]
Dam he mad he didnt get his little ransom.
ps. Lol ransoming ninjas what will they think of next.
vOv. We weren't going to ransom him ofc. He takes ransoms and kills ppl and writes about it here. Were just going to return the favor.
I WAS MAD BRO.
Also:
You're a nigger!
Itp: Paul doesn't know you get insurance either way.
I think you mean the bad guys didn't know. Paul and I were well aware, which is why we self destructed.
So, like seriously. That carrier suicide could have been this vid:
http://fukung.net/v/2808/tokyo_drift.gif
What kinda moron doesn't know you get the insurance payout even if others kill you?
Also, lets do a blog, bring attention to our epeens and general idiotic immature behavior... without thinking anything might happen.
Well, PWND - and the only tears I see here, are yours.
As Paul has often said, we neither have nor care about "epeen". Hell, we admit to being crappy at pvp, but pretty good at extracting tears from mission runners, naive corporations and random people.
You might wish to reread our comments in local and the other side, and redecide who is crying. If we're going to lose a carrier, we could at least extract some humor from it
I think I see the confusion here. We self destructed because it denied drops and killmail, and allowed insurance payout. We knew we would get the insurance if blown up, but where's the fun in that?
It was very late and as mentioned, I was already tired, when I wrote this.
end result is the same , op was called to destroy carrier and its dead
please get some more shiny ship in there so we can come back again
They do something to you or one of your friends bro, you seem pretty fixated on em. Running from dead NC to shooting ninjas in wormholes, failing down is always an option I guess.
Guys didnt u listen to me b4 :)
Scouts - Preferable alts sitting cloaked on WH with sound up, no one will come in without you hearin.
Probes - Have a scout with probes out to check for any new sigs, if any pop up, well get on it ASAP or pull back whilst its checked out
I did think it off my self you warped in a carrier, to me in my corp that screams Target which is most likely what these guys done, saw you were eager to use the Carrier like that.
Plus why a carrier for C3s? A couple of People in Tengus or even drakes can do them pretty quick, carry is a bit OTT IMO.
Fighters make the C3 sites fly right by; it's also useful for WH defense. And, honestly, because I don't get other chances to build and fly capital ships =)
Well, if you guys weren't such loners and came out to 0.0 land, we could fix that. :P
Fair enuff, but it screams target, i remeber we were doing a POS bash with some blues in a WH, where an alliance member in another WH some 15Jumps away found a carrier sitting on a HS WH (Cant jump out, we can jump out if it goes to shit!) and we all put the pos bash on hold an went for it. The guys ended up Self Destructing also lol
Sorry i missed the 3rd Paragraph from the bottom where you mention sentries etc lol
Carebears making carebear mistakes, to much lol....
all i see lately is wh farming for isk, wtf happened to u lot?
u guy's used to pound on newb player's in hi-sec and now you
hide in a C3 wh? and on top of that u make carebear mistakes?
Because ganking noobs in High Sec is SO much more difficult than WH PVP?
Retard.
no because wormhole farming for isk is very much carebear behaviour
and i expect a bit more from these guy's, FYI i live in a c4 wh and know full
well what life in a wh means, further more it seems like they have a guest
in there wh space so things might get a tad more interesting from here on, lol
Paul has a new business, and I have been in classes; and both of us wanted to do something different (and get Space Rich).
well, if they did logoff a alt in youre wh it might have become a bit more troublesome then it has been so far.