Shizuka's Quest for Content

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Shizuka Shinano
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Joined: 2016.11.28 13:39
Title: Ensign, Freshman

Shizuka's Quest for Content

Post by Shizuka Shinano »

Now that I've convinced myself that there's content to be had out in Null-Sec, I've decided to poke my head out of any Null connections we get here in WHC. Since these should (hopefully) become a regular thing for me, I figured I might as well properly journal my trips out and my encounters.

01/06/19

We had a connection to the edge of Syndicate and Cloud Ring (A-SJ8X) so I figured I might as well poke my head in with my shiny new cloaky Tengu and look around. I was having a few issues with accessing Dotlan so I had to make do with EveEye and it was telling me that Syndicate was quiet so I went up into Cloud Ring to look for the one or two systems with positive deltas.

The first system was 1-3HWZ with a single VNI in it, but he docked up really fast upon seeing me show up in local, so I just moved on. The next system was G8AD-C so I made my way up, passing through Z-Y7R7 along the way. I did note another Tengu flying around the area, but I didn't want to get into a fight since I was still quite new to solo Null-Sec PvP and I've never soloed anything in my Tengu before.

Z-Y7R7 was the busiest system I'd passed through so far with a grand total of 5 people (including myself) in local. A quick D-Scan showed me that there was a mining fleet out of 3 Hulks and an Orca. I quickly checked which of the two mining anoms they were at by changing my D-Scan range and managed to determine that they were at the Ice belt, so I warped to the belt at 10km but I arrived to see an empty belt. They were still on 1AU D though, so I checked the ore anom but it too was empty. I then checked the nearby Refinery because I only then remembered that moon mining was a thing, and there they were.

Except they were all tethered up and clearly not mining. I was going to warp off to the out gate when I noticed there were abandoned Mining Drone IIs in the asteroid field. I figured they were mining the moon rocks and maybe if I left they'd go back to mining, so I moved on to G8AD-C.

G8AD-C initially seemed like it would be exciting, with a +100% NPC Delta and both an Ishtar and a Rattlesnake on long D, but a few D-Scans later and I was looking at their POS. There were two other pilots in local, so I figured they'd continue ratting once I left and made a mental note to come back later.

Now that all the systems in Cloud Ring with positive deltas had been checked, I had to find a new area to search while I let the miners and ratters get a bit more comfortable, so I looked at the surrounding regions and settled on visiting the small pocket at the corner of Pure Blind since it was pretty close by and it had the highest Delta of the region.

Passing through Z-Y7R7 again, I warped back to the refinery and found the mining fleet at a rock and I settled down to watch and see what they would do. As I expected, they warped back to an instadock on the refinery and just tethered there, so I moved on but at least I could confirm that they were moon mining.

The short trip to UI-8ZE was uneventful and the only other ship I saw on D was a Heron, not really worth the effort to probe down. The systems along the way were empty and when I got to UI-8ZE, there was only one other pilot in system. One long D-Scan later and I could see he was in a Gila and he had an MTU out. He docked up before I could D-Scan which site he was in, but I found the site his MTU was in so I bookmarked the MTU and warped off to the out gate. I figured he would have to go back for the MTU eventually, so I jumped out and waited on the gate.

Around ten minutes later, I was getting tired of waiting, so I jumped back in and immediately warped to the MTU at 10km, but evidently he still hadn't undocked. At this point I didn't have a lot of free time left, so I began to head back home. The way back to Cloud Ring was just as quiet though I did see that Tengu I saw earlier in the area.

As I passed through Z-Y7R7 for the third time already, I made to warp to the refinery from my D-Scan window, when I noticed that I couldn't see the refinery anymore, so I warped around manually for a minute or two before I realized I was being an idiot and the gate I came in through was just too far away from the refinery to be in D-Scam range. I warped to the refinery from my out gate and this time, the miners hadn't tethered up even though they'd had a few minutes to warp off, so I figured they were getting used to my presence. I bookmarked the rock they were on and warped off to the out gate to go check on the ratters next door.

They were still hiding in their POS, so I just crashed the gate and went back to Z-Y7R7.

Upon entering the system, I warped to the previously bookmarked rock at 10km to try my had at killing a Goon Orca but they had moved on to another rock 50km away from me. I slowboated my way towards them, taking care to avoid getting too close to any rocks that would decloak me until I was sitting just 7500m away from the Orca. While I was slowboating, I asked in NSC chat if a Tengu could take down an Orca and I was told they could, but it would be a 5-15 min process and if the Orca had a cyno, they could drop a fleet on my head. Based on their zKillboard, their previous Orca had a cyno, but I was feeling frisky and the novelty of getting a fleet dropped on my head was something I didn't mind anyway. So I decloaked and locked up the Orca

Upon decloaking, the Hulks warped off to the refinery and docked up while the Orca aligned to it and pulled drones. With the Orca scrammed and webbed, I knew it wasn't going anywhere and it hadn't popped a cyno, so I figured I had this in the bag, then I met my first problem with killing an Orca - Drones.

A flight of Caldari Navy Vespas had been launched and o figured "Eh whatever, those things can't hurt me that badly...GEH! Where'd that 25% of my shields go!?" First lesson of the day: Orca drones hurt.

Luckily I had small target accounted for when I made my fit and I was carrying mixed missiles. I blew up my first Vespa by switching my RLMLs to shoot the drones, then I promptly ran out of ammo before I could kill the second. I had an X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster and my tank was holding pretty well, but I was beginning to wonder if my RLMLs would finish reloading first, or if my Cap Charges would run out first. Then I ran into the second problem of the fight - the Athanor.

By now, his friend (or alt) in the Hulks had taken control of the Athanor and was beginning to lock me up. If that thing had offensive modules on it I knew I was in for a world of hurt, so I aligned to my out gate and hoped I'd be able to escape before I get red boxed. The Athanor managed to red box me before I could warp off, but luckily for me it only had a neut on it. I wasn't familiar with structure neuts, but I figured I'd be fine since my shield booster ate cap charges instead of- Oh god where'd my cap go? Second lesson of the day: Structure neuts will destroy your capacitors.

A single cycle of his neuts had brought me from 80% cap to 25% cap so I knew I had to bail as I'd probably break without the two Invuln fields I had running and my RLMLs STILL hadn't finished reloading, so I warped off with just a tiny bit of shield damage.

We had a friendly conversation in local, and he didn't seem too angry with my attempt at his Orca, then I made best speed back to the connection to WHC, seeing that same Tengu on D on the way back but never seeing him on grid.

While I didn't get any kill or loss mails on this trip, at the very least I still have my ship, got myself a fight and I'm a bit smarter to not engage miners (or at least the tank ones) on their own structure.
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