Prelude
As I arrived in PC9, I immediately spotted a neutral machariel, sitting 50km off the JH- gate
I quickly warped to station, and began the usual routine of checking the pilot's killboard, corp activity, and asked intel about possible neutrals in the backpocket (there were none at the time), when it became clear that this was a safe-ish fight to take, I blew the horn and rallied the troops.
By the time I got the gang organized, the mach was sitting on the undock
The Fight
We undocked our gang, the machariel already pulling range, stopping at ~90km from the station.
In order to neutralize its range advantage over our composition, I immediately began applying damps and ordered our Hero Tackle, Genevieve Nakrar , to warp to a citadel in line with the Mach's current position.
As the machariel burned in closer to shoot at us, I ordered the tackle to warp back at range, landing roughly on top of our target
"Scram! Web!" we hear, as we burn in closer and closer, setting our drones, cycling our guns, the first stripes of pink beginning to show on the target's shield.
This is going well, the damps re... What's this? A sudden voice pulls me back to reality:
"He's neuting me... He's neuting me HARD!" - our tackle calls, a slight note of worry piercing his ever present stoic composure.
NoNoNo... How could this happen, I had the perfect plan
Over comms I begin calling for more people to get in the action, begging for scrams and webs, but to no avail. The machariel, already in structure, steadily pulling distance. Our guns no longer hitting, I called for the chase to end, and told my brave companions to warp back to the station. There was no way we could hold it in place long enough to apply enough damage to break his tank.
Still enraged, I begin working on the machariel's drones, which he abandoned close-by, when he switched to lights during the pursuit.
Round 2 FIGHT!
As we murdered drones, the machariel warped back to the station, we almost had him, now his weapons timer was down, he was probably going to dock up and repair, all that work undone, all th...
Wait, what...
The Machariel agressed me again...
Maybe he did not appreciate me blaping his drones, maybe he thought he could kill me, seeing how I was already in half armor.
Whatever his reasons were, the fight was on again, I called it on comms, somewhere in here QFAN joined us with a second tackle, to which he very cunningly applied a nosferatu.
We started throwing everything we had. Me watching, with a devilish smirk, as my armor slowly disappeared, but buying Luc Arbosa enough time to get some work done with the real dps, his cane.
Celestis - https://zkillboard.com/kill/63083296/ - 16,140,230.48 ISK
"Xana is down, xana is down... keep working on him, overheat if you can, I'm reshipping to a thorax, we need more dps"
Finally, as I was undocking and cycling my guns on the target again, the machariel turned into a blinding flash, blue shades flickering across my hull, as the enemy was replaced by a smoldering wreck.
Machariel - https://zkillboard.com/kill/63083307/ - 509,657,432.55 ISK
We gave gf's in local, and I can't speak for everyone in our little deadly gang, but I really appreciated this change to use tactics and teamwork to take down a larger opponent.
Thank you so very much to all those who answered the call, you guys were brilliant, couldn't have asked for better wingmates :p
And to all those that were in the Standing Fleet, and in comms, but simply failed to undock, I'll remember your names
