A Tower Assist

Today, it's a weekend and I have just completed hauling around several weeks worth of supplies for my PI bases.  The PI is done, and there's nothing much to do in my system.  I am zipped up, of course, to do anything dangerous.  I think I'll unzip and have a look at the rest of the EVE universe.  Maybe I can catch something and kill it.

I get into my trusty stealth bomber and head into the inner system to be close to the wormhole.  I've already scanned it down.  I just have to warp to it to instantiate it.  I align to it, then when my speed is up, warp.  Nothing out of the ordinary; I jump into C4b.

From the wormhole I can see several ships and five towers.  Ugh.  A rather larger corp, it appears.  One of the ships is an Epithal, something I might be able to kill.  If they are stupid.  I am not fit right for it.  But anyway, can't do without trying.  So I start looking for it.

I eventually find the Epithal at a tower along with a Hyperion (what? -- battleship), and an Anathema.  I watch them for a while, wondering if the Epithal might head out to do PI.  But it does not.  Instead, the Anathema warps off, and the Epithal logs off.  Then the Hyperion swaps into a Loki.

I think they see me.  (Really, my wormhole, which is blaring out its presence on the discovery scanner.)  My guess is confirmed when the Loki warps 200km off to a perch, and fires probes.  Obviously he plans to search down my wormhole. 

I fly to the wormhole, to watch.  I want to see how they explore.  Also, I think about what I might do to cause trouble.  I am not keen to tangle with a Loki, not with several other ships on scan that I have not checked out. 

Then I have an idea.

I have mentioned before that I have a nasty decloak trap set up at my tower.  It gets a ship from time to time, but really it is difficult to kill anyone with a tower.  Ships that get decloaked have a good amount of time to recloak before being locked by a tower's defenses.  In fact, several times I have been idling in my POS when I have seen people enter my trap and be decloaked by it, but escape in time.  Each time I see that, I wish I had been sitting out near the trap with a warp scrambler.  Or perhaps disruptor; getting the range right might be hard.

Now I think that might be the right idea.  My alt Otto has been sitting at my tower.  Now I'll get him in a light ship... er... which ship?  After a bit of looking, I decide on a Hound.  It's a stealth bomber, so I can remain cloaked while I lurk.  It has a warp disruptor II on it, so my range should be plenty to pin down anyone I can lock.  I am a bit concerned that a Loki can kill me, but it's a reasonable risk.  So long as I can pin it until the tower locks, which is maybe 20 seconds, I should be fine.

As I decide this, Von sees a Helios jump into my system.  OK, better hurry it up with Otto.

I warp Otto out of my POS to our perch, and then into my trap.  I hope the enemy did not see that.  I end up just inside my warp bubble, which is a fine place.  I am cloaked, but anywhere that a ship would be decloaked will be in my disruptor range. 

Now I settle in.  My system has only one sig, our static wormhole.  So there is nothing to search down.  We have some anoms, but nothing a Helios could possibly want to do.  Thus he should be in my trap fairly soon.  Or he may decide to wait five minutes and then leave.

Hey.  Someone on grid with me!  Yes, it's him.  I whip the mouse to Otto's screen, get him uncloaked and locking.  I approach the enemy to stay in range.  The scout is in my grid of guns.  Otto locks him!  Disrupted!  The scout is accelerating quickly out of the decloak grid.  I turn on my microwarp to maintain range.  We burn out of the trap proper, but I have him locked and disrupted; he can neither cloak nor warp.  Any second now...

The scout blows up.  (Otto scores "top damage" with zero.)  I go for the lock on the pod, but my Hound does not have a sebo and the scout is alert.  He warps immediately.

Out of the trap, but still trapped.

I consider going for the pod with Von, but I have drifted too far from the wormhole to get back in time.  Anyway, it is basically impossible to stop a pod except with a bubble.  The wormhole sounds, and the pod warps clear.

The pod flees

Otto grabs the loot from the wreck, which is pretty nice.  Sister's probes and tech 2 parts.  Then he gets a salvager and grinds the wreck.

Now I settle in to watch.

The enemy sends a new Helios into my system.  This is surprising; I cannot fathom what they want in there.  Still, I get Otto back into the Hound and back into the trap.  It is possible, even probable that the first guy did not bookmark anything in his few seconds on my grid.  So, they'd have to again risk the trap to get on grid with my tower.  I doubt they will be so stupid.  But what else could they want?

After a few minutes of sitting, an Armageddon battleship warps on grid with Von.  Ah, that's what they want: to close the wormhole.  The Helios is there to keep information up to date on anything I am doing in my system.  The Geddon transits, returns, and then just sits there.  Just one hole-popper?  And just sitting there?  That's... odd.  Suspicious almost.

Not orbiting?

I think about ways to try to kill a solo Armageddon, but they are hard targets.  Drone bonuses make them dangerous to light tacklers; neuting bonuses make them nasty to handle with anything using capacitor.  They can fit micro jump drives so mere bubbles can't hold them. 

So I just sit.  The Geddon makes a second pass.  And again it just sits.

After a minute, it warps off.  That's again odd.  Then the wormhole sounds, and the Helios returns and warps.  Evidently the Armageddon was bait.  They don't return.