Bait and Gank

Today’s report details the perfect bait and gank. KingRizen in a Raven, Moridin in a Tempest and myself in my Drake decide to take a trip down to our low sec HQ in Itrin and look for trouble along the way. Our friend Mel was also traveling in the area and was frequently giving us intel reports. There was a good deal of activity in the area and we were thirsty for blood. It was blood we found, Blood and Steel to be more specific.

Blood and Steel is an alliance operating in low sec between our low sec office in Itrin and our null sec office in KFR. In my recent activities in light ships in low sec I have seen small numbers of Blood and Steel operatives wandering around in Bantish and its neighboring systems. The Skull’s have had no formal diplomatic contact with them so they have remained neutral to us. Up to this point I have not had the opportunity to fight any of them, but a few days ago I did have run into them at a planet while scanning around for targets. A mixed group of four. I noted their mix of experience and ship types and their low security status and bounties. These guys aren’t noobs and looked like they’d even show up for a good fight. When I woke up and scanned the reports today I notice that we had set Blood and Steel hostile. I smiled at this good news.

Our way down to the pipe turned up several potential targets. They all panned out to be very small ships, pods or shuttles. We didn’t manage to catch anything until we arrived in Bantish. I, in my Drake with its massive shields, was being used for bait. I role I don’t mind at all. I would jump into systems hoping to attract some attention and then Mori and King would jump in and seal the deal once I had a target locked down. That’s pretty much how this went down.

Arriving in Bantish the computer reports several potential targets. A few Blood and Steel guys and a few no-name neutrals. Nothing is on scan so I proceed to the next gate. Sitting at this gate is a Blood and Steel Raven. I report the good news to my friends and hope the Raven sees me as a juicy target starts a fight. It only took a few seconds for the Raven to decide to engage. The computer indicates he is locking me so I return the favor. I report to the gang he is locking and wait for the first torpedoes to come at me. I was not disappointed. A salvo of torpedoes lands on my shields barely straining them. I report that he’s aggressed. King and Mori quickly report that they are the way. At the same time I am locking him down with my Warp Disruptor II and launching my first salvo of missiles at him. The warp disruptor keeps him from warping away and I head towards him full speed to ram him to keep him from quickly approaching the gate. Lucky for us it looks like he has not intention to run as his torpedoes mercilessly continue to impact my shields. As an added bonus because he aggressed me the sentry guns on the gate are targeting him. A couple of his friends warp in and out in small ships, one even targeted me and took a few pot shots. But they did not have the fortitude to stick out the fight. They cowardly left their friend in the Raven to die.

Mori reports they are in warp, but at battleship speed. King asks if my shields are holding out okay. They are fine, but dropping. I’m not sure yet that I’ll be able to hold out for the entire time it will take King and Mori to make it to me, but I’m not worried. A few seconds later as we exchange missiles it seems my shield is stabilizing at about 25%. It doesn’t look like this Raven will be able to break my shield. I notice that he is NOSing me. It has pulled some juice from my capacitor, but I think I’ll be able to hold out. If he could get my cap down, he might have a chance of breaching my shields. But we won’t let that happen.

I’m doing a significant amount of damage to his shields, but it’s clear I wouldn’t be able to take him down on my own. Mori and King come out of warp. This Raven is going to learn the meaning of hurt. My friends unleash their weapons, King asks again if my shields look good, I report them steady at 25%, the Raven will go down long before I do. The Raven’s shields melt away quickly and his armor and structure doesn’t last long at all. It explodes. I couldn’t catch the pod.

Looking through the wreck we find lots of high end goodies. Mori and King collect them up and we move on to the next system.

http://www.red-skull.co.uk/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=2440

We executed a perfect textbook bait and gank. The raven thought he could take me. In fact he couldn’t have, but I wouldn’t have taken him down myself either. The raven also made the mistake of aggressing against me first. This kept the fire of the sentry guns on him rather than me. I understand his decision on this, he though his torpedoes would break me.

Enticing him into battle and locking him down worked perfectly. Thank you for the excitement Blood and Steel, see you next time on the battlefield.