Rorqual Kills in Malpais

When the ping says “Rorquals and Supers Tackled get in fleet now” you go.

After a three day weekend where I missed out on a number of fleets simply by being a minute late and getting the “fleet is full” message… :goonrush: is a thing and I’ll have some more on that in another post… clone jumping back to our SIG staging to jump into stealth bomber for some capital kills seemed like a good idea.  And when the follow up came asking for dreads I sent my dread alt back over there as well.

PanFam has decided to concentrate their forces in SH1-6P as a base of operations in order to strike at any exposed Imperium operations in Tribute.  That has pulled forces away from other areas of their holdings, including Malpais, where ratting and mining had previously been under the protective umbrella of NCDot.  This, in turn, has led groups like Bomberwaffe and Black Ops to start hunting for targets there.  They found nine Rorquals happily mining away in an anomaly and the call went out.

I logged in and clone jumped down to our old staging, which was just two gates from where Zungen had a black ops battleship ready to bridge us.  He sent us to a mid point, jumped in with us, then after a bit of a cool down sent us on our way to the target system in Malpais.  One DBRB and his bomber fleet had already dealt with one Rorqual by the time I dropped in, but there were plenty more on the field.

I arrived in time to see that first one blow up

The Rorquals on field were in various states of defense.  We were sharing coms with DBRB’s fleet, which was a bit of a challenge at times.  Those familiar with his enthusiastic style will know some of what I mean, but he also kept forgetting that there were two fleets on grid and in coms and had to be reminded to call out target names rather than just saying, “Shoot the target I just broadcast.”

Rorqual getting hit, another in the background

We were only a couple of kills in when the first defense response showed up in the form of a small Jackdaw fleet.  That would have done for DBRB’s fleet, but Black Ops dropped in Lokis, which were enough to chase off the Jackdaws.  A few bombers showed up to take shots at us as well, including one guy in a Manticore who managed to get the final blow on himself with his own bomb.  It has to sting to get your own kill mail.

Meanwhile we were still shooting and watching the time for the Rorquals that had gone into PANIC mode.

Rorqual with the PANIC mode active

Six Rorquals had gone down and we were working on a seventh when NCDot showed up with a Muninn fleet.  When they appeared on grid with us it was time to go.  We warped out, got to safe spots, and cloaked up.

Zungen got his fleet cloaked up on his black ops battleship and we were soon back at the Astrahus mid-point from which we had dropped on the Rorquals.  That was as far as my dead alt had made it.

Dreads tethered up on the Astrahus

The part about supers tackled didn’t pan out, so there was no call to jump the dreadnoughts in.  That’s a pity, as my insurance is going to expire soon on my Naglfar, so I’m disposed towards losing it.  I’d have jumped it in on the Rorquals if asked even knowing it was doomed.  But I guess I at least got to undock it and drive it around a bit.

We bridged back to our initial jump point, followed by the dreads, and escorted them back to our staging.

The Rorquals all top the price list for recent kills I am on

This is the reason I log in when Zungen pings.  At least half the time we end up just sitting on the black ops battleship waiting to bridge, only to stand down as the target was spooked or moved on.  But when it does pan out, it is always a blast to drop in and blow up something big.