AAR: OUR FIRST COALITION ARMOR IHUB TIMER, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Drop the Dread

It was 2:45AM Pacific, just before downtime. After a successful coalition op planned by beloved BAERS FCs BBP and Thandion, with outstanding capital FCing from Arik Alabel and subcap FCing by (I believe) Nancy Crow, Malphas Innius (sp?), and Mattisen Arkeneh (sp???), I was tired. We had just reacted 3 new timers for ourselves by RFing 2 ihubs and a STATION (FUCK YEAH), using a small group of <OPSEC> (lol) dreads and carriers, with hundreds of HERO subcaps in support.

The STRATOP had ended hours ago, but I was stuck running logistics out of a wormhole for several hours. I was ready to sleep. But sleep and me, we don’t get along so well. I hadn’t quit mumble yet, and so as DT rolled in, I heard the sultry sounds of Malenek Askelus in command channel, urgently inquiring if anyone had any information about an IHUB timer that was coming out in the area where we had just been operating. Nobody knew shit. Intel/strategic information distribution throughout the coalition is still experiencing growing pains. Some of our coalition bros (SORRY DUDES I FORGOT YOUR NAMES PLZ COMMENT SO I CAN ADD U BBs) hopped in command to help organize their alliances’ contributions to the subcap wing, as well as providing crucial intel in theatre, and attempting to rally cap support (Thanks heroz).

Malenek astutely observed that there was no fucking way we could grind down the IHUB in subcaps, and I promised to try to rally a small band of dreads to help do the deed – NEXUS FC <your name here bro> had offered up 2 dreads, which in addition to my Moros, would be able to grind down the IHUB in about 30 minutes (as opposed to the hours it would take in subcaps). With everything “in place” or as in place as it was going to get, Malenek set out with about 120 in fleet IIRC to make the 18 or something jumps from Sendaya (sadly none of our 25 titans were available nor our CCP dev bros who teleport our fleets occasionally).

CFC first blops bridged into system with about 30-36 bombers. Due to excellent positioning, the bombers proved virtually ineffective, with each run popping one or two frigs only, and CFC bleeding bombers each time. They left system after several failed attempts, and we decided to greenlight the dreads. Unfortunately, no coalition dread support ended up being available, so myself and two other BRAVE HEROs put their caps on the line to begin the grind.

We sieged green for one or two cycles (I forget), and then CFC showed up in the neighbouring system in a harpy fleet. Note for future op FCs: instalockers, interdictors, and most of the subcap fleet should be on standby to occupy any in-gate on this kind of operation. In this instance, the harpy fleet made it into system without trouble, and warped on grid at range. Fortunately, we were near the end of our cycle, so as the CFC fleet looked on, we sieged red and moonwalked out before they could land on top of us.

The harpies with their 80km (WHAT THE FUCK CCP) engagement envelope, insanely small sig with MWD on, and excellent response to reps, began alpha’ing our cruisers off field, and Malenek struggled to adapt the Pocket Rocket doctrine to dealing with these fast moving assault frigates. After doing an amazing job of warping and engaging repeatedly, he decided they had bled enough of the fleet off and called for a tactical withdrawal.

Harpies are something we have struggled with and new doctrines are being developed to deal with them.

After bailing out several systems towards Sendaya, we realized the harpy fleet was nowhere to be found, and that they had bridged forward to intercept us. We looked around and decided to ninja the fucking IHUB under their noses. #yoloswag.

I desperately called for more dreads in all channels I had available, as ideally we would be able to “one cycle” the remaining armor on the IHUB down to 50% and into the next RF timer. For those of you who don’t know, dreadnoughts operate by “sieging” for a FIVE MINUTE cycle, during which they cannot move, warp, or jump. In siege mode, their DPS is increased by roughly 10x, and without sieging they do about as much DPS as a pimped out battleship.

A few dedicated pilots stepped up, all BRAVE, but we still didn’t have enough. One of them was a TEST pilot (I think? Sorry if you were NEX or SS bro). One of them had already dropped with me the first time. One of them was me. One of them ejected from his thorax and podded himself to the cap staging system, but he didn’t have a dread, so I gave him one out of our corporation stockpile. So after what seemed like hours (but probably more like 15 minutes) of desperate clawing, I managed to cobble together a fleet of 4 dreads – not enough. AND THEN AT THE CLUTCH MOMENT, BELOVED EU [BAERS] FC THANDION LOGS ON AND I CONVO’D THE FUCK OUT OF HIM. And we had our fleet – still not quite enough, but fuck it, we’re HEROs.

With the subcap fleet back in position guarding the gate, as well as Cagali Cagali’s reinforcement fleet arriving from Sendaya, I lit the cyno and we jumped in. The armor on the IHUB ticked down painfully slowly, and 50% into our siege cycles, I realized we were not going to 1-cycle this bitch. I asked for intel on the hostile fleet, and got none – we had plenty of scouts out (BY THE WAY GOOD JOB LAST NIGHT LEVERETS AND OTHER BRAVE SCOUTS, YOU WERE CRITICAL TO THE MISSION AS ALWAYS), but no eyes on the harpies. I crossed my balls and ordered one more cycle. 3/4 of the way through it, we did it.

WE FUCKIN DID IT BROS, THE VERY FIRST HERO COALITION ARMOR IHUB TIMER M88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

As we approached 30 seconds left on our timers, coms lit up with intel of the hostile fleet jumping into the neighboring system. I yelled for my out cyno to “LIGHT IT LIGHT IT LIGHT IT LIGHT THE CYNO LIGHT THE CYNO CYNO GREEN CYNO GREEN CYNO GREEN” (sorry for your ears cagali and cap wing) and just before our timers ticked down a sabre landed on field. Fuck. As I prepared my butthole for the 10b hit that my corporation was about to collectively receive, as well as 2 other dreads on field, the frigates we had assigned to on-grid guard the cap fleet pounced on the sabre and popped it. Too late, bubble was up. Our siege cycles dropped, and a flycatcher landed on grid and bubbled. Seconds later those dictors popped, but the bubbles were up.

I ordered the dreads to begin slowboating out of the bubbles, then changed my mind and ordered them to halt – if we were going to go down, we were going down fighting, and there was no way we would be able to hit anything the CFC brought in to support their harpies in an anti-cap capacity if we were going any more than 0m/s. The dread pilots collectively clenched their buttholes, but remained impressively calm as we waited for the dictor bubbles to fade.

The harpy fleet landed on grid. If they were able to chase off our subcap support, we would be sitting ducks for them to bring in reinforcements and take us out. They landed on grid, but they landed 300k off at a tactical. They aligned toward us. The bubbles dropped. And once again we moonwalked home to safety.

The subcaps <SOMETHING SOMETHING INSERT WHAT HAPPENED HERE BECAUSE I WAS NOT FUCKING LISTENING AFTER THE CAPS GOT OUT> and began to make their way back to Sendaya.

tl;dr OP SUCCESS. I was up till 8am Pacific, but it was worth it. This is the first time the BRAVE Alliance and the HERO Coalition have put an IHUB into armor reinforced. Timer comes out on Tuesday, bros. If we win this timer and online TCUs, we will have sov. Cultural fucking victory. Mad props to Malenek and our HERO bro FCs, as well as all the dread pilots who but their babies on the line, as well as to all the HERO subcaps who stayed up for 5 fucking hours to make this operation happen.

P.S. Correct me if I get the details wrong, but halfway through the long journey back to Sendaya, Malenek was contacted by the goon titan pilot, and offered a bridge home. Yes, that’s right, the goon titan pilot offered the BRAVE fleet a bridge home. Being understandably sketch, Malenek yoloswagged and took him up on the offer, and there was no treachery: the whole BRAVE fleet got bridged home by the enemy titan. Cultural victory #2.

I am Dropbears Anonymous, and SO CAN YOU

Who are Dropbears Anonymous?

We are a small, tight knit BRAVE corporation that specializes in small gang wormhole PVP. We operate out of Barleguet introducing newbies to wormholes, as well as any number of jspace (Wormhole) systems that we may or may not happen to be living in at the time.

We emphasize creativity, individual initiative, comradeship, and intelligence. If you have these things and want to fly with other bros (and bro-ladies) who share your mindset, we may be the corporation for you.

What does Dropbears Anonymous do?

Depends on the day of the week. At any given time we may be doing lighthearted PVP such as assault frigate/interceptor roams, serious business like jspace evictions, or engaging maximum carebear mode to replenish t3 stockpiles. Most of the time we are hanging out on coms bullshitting and mocking each others’ choices on plug.dj.

Our Barleguet wing works closely with the Crow Vanguard channel to teach newbros about jspace by running daytrips into C3s as well as having fun PVP roams.

Who can join Dropbears Anonymous?

Anyone who’s not a douchebag. As a newbie himself whose first trip into jspace was in an Atron, CEO a DAMN PATRIOT welcomes bros of all SP levels. What matters is the person, not the character. If you show a willingness to learn and contribute, that’s all we need.

Also we welcome all spais, AWOXers, and traitors, and invite them to deadspace fit their favorite T3 to pay us a visit.

What kind of ships do you fly?

Our fleets consist of everything from t1 tackle frigates to dreadnought and carrier class capitals. We fly armor 99% of the time, and we push all our members to specialize into the t3 of their choice, as well as support ships such as interceptors, dictors, and Guardian logistics. We also regularly field caps, with special favor for the Moros, Naglfar, and Archon.

But, if you haven’t skilled up past a t1 tackle frigate yet, don’t let that discourage you. Check out the Dropbears skill guide and find out where you are: can you do any of those things? No? Train the scanner and get to scanning. THE JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES BEGINS WITH A SINGLE STEP, M8.

If I join BAERS, does that mean I have to leave Barleguet and can’t participate in Alliance operations?

Fuckin, no. We have a Barleguet wing, and we pride ourselves on using high mobility to move assets and pilots between

Patriot, you make me so wet, how can I come in your hole?

Join the Dropbears Anonymous chat channel in game, and follow the instructions. Don’t not follow the instructions. Once you pass our background checks and “interview” (we talk to you and inquire about your sexual experience and make sure you’re not a douchebag or obnoxious), you’ll join corp and start flying with our Barleguet wing. In Barleguet, you’ll learn jspace basics and begin to teach them to your fellow newbros.

Follow the skill plan, and as you gain SP and begin to step up to FC fleets of your own, the wonders of jspace will be opened unto you as you join the veteran BAERS in our home hole, or wherever we happen to be deployed to at the time.

7o M88888s see you in space

a DAMN PATRIOT

CEO/Supreme God-King

Dropbears Anonymous

BRAVE Collective

Republishing the Skill Plan

Because it's such a fucking pain in the ass to search on reddit, here's a link to our skill plan: this one has evemon files so, good.

Purge the Heretic Ch. 3: I Accidentally an Eviction

Purge the Heretic Ch. 3: I Accidentally an Eviction

As I observed in my last ode to BOB, some days you run into someone who can change your game forever. Some days you run across a series of coincidences so unlikely that you are sure the VOICE of BOB is speaking to you. Today (not actually today) was one of those days.

There are 348 Class 1 wormholes in EVE. There is a single constellation of Class 6 wormholes with Class 1 statics. The odds of 2 C6/C1s sharing a static are 348 to 1. The odds of me logging on in the morning Freedom time, scanning down the chain to get an alt out of our last target system, finding one of the 6 other C6/C1s was connected, finding a lonely large POS with a Revelation floating, and finding a direct losec connection capable of supporting a capital assault fleet? Approximately 3720 to 1.

BOB spoke to us with the loudest, most clear voice imaginable. Everything was lined up for a purge. I couldn't resist. 

However, duty to the alliance came first, and BOB would bless us during our operation if we began by shedding the blood of kspace tryhards. BRAVE Alliance leadership was calling for caps to be on standby for an R64 operation, and we had to purchase new dreads for BOB's work regardless. Running around like headless chickens, we sent blockade runners, cyno alts, freighters, and cap pilots in shuttles across the galaxy in the scramble to fit and fuel a fresh archon and 2 newly purchased dreads. 

The chain went up just as Alliance FCs called for dreads to be ready, and the BAERS cap fleet cynoed onto Barle HQ Undock. Then, moments later, the order to stand down. At least we got to look cool and wear our stunnas on at night.

Due to <circumstances>, it was several hours before our fleet was reformed and ready for BOB's work. And holy fuck the c1 static to kspace was in the ass end of nowhere. 7o to my hero subcap fleet who did 30+ jumps into some dumbass losec area to stage. And then, evictus interruptus: a new signature spawned in the target hole, meaning a new wormhole, probably a c6. Meaning, hostiles. Meaning, a fight? 

I checked it out, and BOB displayed HIS sense of humor: it was <RE D ACT ED>   < RED ACTED> < REDACTED>< REDACTED><REDACTED><REDAC TED>< REDA   CTED><RC I  BET  YO U THINK YOU'RE   PRETT Y CLEVE R DON 'T Y OU YOU FUCKING C UNT  C TED><REDA C TED><R EDAC T ED><R EDAC TED><REDACT ED><REDACTED><RED ACTE D><REDACTED><RED ACT ED><REDACTED><REDACTED><REDACTED>

  After much devious scheming by the Baers, <REDACTED><REDACTED> did something unexpected:<REDACT ED> <RE      DACTED><REDACTED><REDACT ED><REDACTED><RED ACTED>< >< RED ACTED><REDACTE D><RED ACTED><REDACTED><RE DACTED><REDA  CTED><REDACTED><REDAC TED><REDA CTED><REDACTED><RE DACTED>

So, our hopes were dashed. After a 12 hour day for me, and 8-10 hours for many of my members prepping, moving, waiting for this operation, <REDACTED> <REDACTED> and the operation was impossible. I had to call it off.

But BOB works in mysterious ways. We logged off in the hole for the night, because wormholes and reasons and it made sense trust me.

I logged on the next day to scan down our new kspace exit, and found one. But not the one I expected. I found a freshly spawned connection to losec. Two days in a row, BOB spawned for us a capital capable losec hole, something which I honestly have never seen before. 

The message was clear. BOB commanded the purge.

As for the rest, it was largely uneventful. The residents proved their unworthiness by failing to even attempt a fight. We RFed and rapecaged the single hostile POS. I convo'd the corp CEO and anyone else I could think to contact who might want to save their POS by paying BOB's ransom, but they foolishly declined to submit. During the night USTZ, they hilariously attempted to bring in a squad of Yulai Federation bombers, but through the heroic efforts of our EU FC Thandion (lol), they failed to even enter the hole.

BOB smiled upon us again, as the heretics had set their stront timer for 24 hours: the worst possible for the defenders and the best possible for us. Protip: don't set your POS to come out at your enemy's primetime.

Also sometime during the night BBP killed a tengu or something. Another protip: 60% of the time, BBP's cloaked in a proteus watching you, every time.

As the RF timer ticked down the next day, we circled the POS in cloakies, hoping they would attempt some sort of breakout or any resistance whatsoever. Alas, heretics will be heretics, and they resisted in the only way heretics know how: by self destructing each of their ships in turn, from hulks to rohks, and all manner of vessel the unfaithful are wont to fly. 

A comedy drake did attempt to pop one of our bubbles and make his escape, which couldn't have been more hilarious if it had been an EVE sitcom. The self destructing continued until, minutes before the RF timer was up, there was only a piloted Archon and an empty Revelation left. 

The Archon pilot safe logged where he sat, unable to bear witness to his shame. We knocked down the POS and captured what little treasure the heretics had called their own.

You may notice that I failed to name the operation, or even the corp which we purged. They were unworthy even of a name. We never officially named their hole, deigning only to call it "TARGET." And so another cult of the unworthy was purged, and BOB's name was praised. 

And HE rewarded HIS faithful with yet another capital ready connection through a wandering C5 into null the very next day, and the cap squad made its way back to Barleguet, home of the BRAVE.

BOB be praised.

Purge the Heretic, Chapter 2: Operation Burn Sintax

Day 1. Invasion. Some days you run into someone who can change your game forever. For the lovely members of the Sintax Err0r alliance, that person was me. I am a DAMN PATRIOT, CEO and supreme God-King of Dropbears Anonymous, the premier wormhole corporation of BRAVE. It all started during a simple move operation, as we prepared to seed capitals into a new wormhole - designated the Lake House - for some corporate rest and relaxation time, burning sleepers in the name of BOB to replenish our PvP stockpiles. After a few quiet hours of rolling statics, scanning, rinsing and repeating, we found a solid kspace to bring in the second set. Thandion, beloved Euro FC, and recently returned to the fold after a holiday vacation, spoke up on comms as we were moving cynos into place. He had some interesting observations about the POSes in a C6 that was randomly connected to the C5 we planned to move through. Multiple caps floating unpiloted, but no online defensive modules - no hardeners, EWAR, or guns. Was he seeing it right? He suggested I get a scout in to double check. It was true - brazenly, a Caldari Control Tower sat with caps on display, and no defenses online to speak of. Upon further exploration, we found 5 total POSes in the system, all belonging to SiNTaX err0r, the local alliance. They were lightly defended; two sported no shield hardeners whatsoever. With the DPS from even a single dreadnaught on field, it would take less than four hours to reinforce both of them. A bit of research into their killboards, as well as information gathered from fellow disciples of BOB, suggested that they had been measured before, and found wanting. Even worse, this was a C6-C1 static hole, meaning that no capitals could move in or out unless a random connection spawned into the hole from outside. We decided that it would be fun to poke a dread in and RF an undefended tower. A bit risky and foolish, but probably fun, and certainly BRAVE. I convo’d Pell Helix, alliance executor of Surely You’re Joking alliance, longtime friends of BRAVE, to bounce ideas. Go balls deep, or don’t go at all, was his advice, with a full invasion compliment of 1 archon and 2 dreadnaughts (the most that can fit through a C6-C5 connection. Doing that meant all other corporate activities would cease, and we would be committed to JXXXXXX until we had either welped into, ransomed, or burned down the Sintax Err0r alliance. I talked it over with my online leadership, and the consensus was clear: let’s do this. I opened up our shared corporate mapping tool and renamed JXXXXXX to “TARGET.” It would be our first solo C6 invasion. A C6 invasion/eviction is one of the most intensive operations in all of EVE, generally requiring constant scanning, scouting, and fighting over a 72 hour period. Our last C6 eviction, where we supported our friend Dmitry Wizard and the Ragnarok. alliance in evicting Reaper’s Grin, was a grueling exercise that reminded me of my time in the Marine Corps infantry: staying vigilant through the long hours of the night, maintaining control of strategic chokepoints, and watching for enemy activity. The Patriot army of alts began trips to various parts of space, and I pinged the corporation - if we were going to do this, we had to go all in. With the caps all ready to cyno in to our planned vacation home, and easily diverted to the target hole, we began to move subcaps and logistics into place. Black Bart Pirate, my second in command, moved in to get his own eyes on the situation, and about two hours after the “go” decision was made, we lucked upon our first kill: Jarvin Spoo, who turns out to be a key player in this the second chapter of the Purge the Heretic saga, jumped through his C1 static in a scanning loki, at the wrong moment. My phobos was in position. We were worried that the jig was up, but the residents showed no signs of realizing that this was anything other than a random gank. I told everyone to be ready. The invasion would officially commence when our temporary attack POS went up, and everything we needed had been pulled from the Lake House - once the final cap came in, that connection would be severed forever. Already Thandion’s Moros and BBP’s Archon were seeded into the Target system and logged off safely, and Seth Goa’Uld’s Naglfar was waiting for the signal to crash the hole. The subcaps were staged in a hisec system connected through the opposite end of the Target, it’s c1 static. I put out a call to our sister corp and fellow wormholers The Desolate Order, who jumped at the chance to be involved in a C6 invasion, and formed up a small cruiser fleet to get in on the fun. All the pieces went into place, the first invasion tower was up, and I pulled a final hauler through the C5-C6 wandering connection. I gave the order for caps to log on. The armor t3 fleet waiting in the hisec connected system flooded in through the c1 static, and Seth’s Naglfar crashed the C5-C6. We warped to the first undefended POS at XIII-20, and sieged green. We had hoped to RF both unhardened POS within the first two hours of invasion, before the residents even noticed us or formed a response fleet, but as the heavy siege guns of our dreads echoed in the quiet of space, a lone SiNTaX pilot logged on in the POS. Notifications popped up on the screens of the locals, and the siege was on. I opened a conversation with Jarvin Spoo, the loki pilot we had podded earlier, and CEO of the Clandestine Management Group, a SiNTaX corporation. > 2014.02.04 04:14:59 Jarvin Spoo > hello > 2014.02.04 04:15:25 a DAMN PATRIOT > we seem to have capital ships in your hole > 2014.02.04 04:16:44 Jarvin Spoo > yes. you do. > 2014.02.04 04:17:43 Jarvin Spoo > so....you have caps....so do we. how do you want this to play out? > 2014.02.04 04:17:53 a DAMN PATRIOT > well > 2014.02.04 04:18:15 a DAMN PATRIOT > we noticed that your POS were relatively undefended, and we couldn't resist ... > 2014.02.04 04:23:07 a DAMN PATRIOT > price for us to leave is a sacrificial chimera and 10b ISK > 2014.02.04 04:23:10 a DAMN PATRIOT > relatively cheap if you ask me He chose not to respond further. This would ultimately prove to be a mistake. More SiNTaX pilots began to log on, including chimera and thanatos pilots,http://imgur.com/CqIAUe1 and as they milled nervously about the POS, we prepared for resistance. A few attempts were made by the besieged to escape the POS or offer some resistance, including one foolhardy attempt that ended in disaster for the pilot. Our subcap fleet maintained hole control on the c1 static, and caught some enemy scouts, podding them out of their beloved home. The pos went RF, and I ordered the dreads to retreat to the assault POS to wait out their combat timers and then log off in safe spots to prepare for further action. We deployed Large Mobile Warp Disruptor IIs at top, bottom, front, back, left and right positions on the POS, preventing any hostiles from warping in or out. Just before the last bubble went online, three carriers and a bhaalgorn managed to warp off to the POS X-8. As the expected resistance grew, we put out the call for some of the BRAVE alliance to get in on the fun. Bombers and damps, I asked for in Barleguet Defense Fleet comms, and I asked a few of the gents present to be in charge of forming up the fleet. The hostile fleet now matched the number of Baers in the hole, but sported a total of 6 capital ships, as well as the dreaded capacitor-draining Bhaalgorn battleship. We regrouped at our staging POS, and the residents impressed us by warping on field with their fleet, dropping sentry drones, and beginning to work on the unhardened small tower. By this time the first small wave of BRAVE bombers, led by beloved propagandist BAER Markonius Porkbutte, had entered the hole and begun to get organized. The second group was a few jumps out, with several more bombers and a small swarm of frigates. As we positioned our fleet to emerge from the POS shields to move to the attack, the Sintax fleet began to align out. We hit our MWDs and burned out to tackle them, but they disappeared from grid before we could land point. We hadn’t expected them to run. As the Syntax carriers were pinging our assault tower, I was picking up the batphone and ringing up other wormholers who might be interested in a good fight. I sent this picture to Dmitry Wizard, longtime friend of Dropbears, asking if he was interested in some capital kills, but the Ragnarok. fleet had disbanded for the night, and he promised to form a fleet on the next day. Surely You’re Joking was my next call, but by this time the hostile capitals had already left field and POSed up. The BRAVE frigate fleet left for home, and I ordered the fleet to log off in safes for the night. SYJ suggested that due to the timing of the RFed tower, and the imminent log on of the EU TZ that SYJ’s EU wing could possibly roll the C6-C6 static of Bastion, their home hole, to quietly seed more capitals over the night and set a log off trap for Sintax. I had been impressed by the fact that Sintax formed a fleet to fight us initially, and I decided that we would probably not end up evicting them. After a good fight, an invading force of wormholers will be satisfied with the sacrifice to BOB and disappear back into the void. If only Sintax could muster the courage to fully engage, BOB would be satisfied and so would we. With the plan set in motion, I set up a secondary small invasion POS and logged off for the night. Day 2. Fight or Die. After a late night, I logged on for the day at around 2000 EVE/Noon US Pacific, and checked on the progress of the SYJ Euros. Cheung Fu, one of SYJ’s EU FCs informed me that they hadn’t rolled into us, but that they could burn a t3 squad for the c1-kspace connection. They set out at around 3PM PST and logged off or cloaked up in the hole, unseen by the residents, who foolishly failed to ever attempt to control their own static, and often failed to even observe it. Over the night, the US heavy Sintax fleet had alarm clocked and RFed both of our small invasion towers and destroyed the bubbles which wrapped their RFed POS. It was time to set up a larger base. I took a cloaky legion to the c1 static and investigated it for hostiles, before importing a large Amarr tower and onlining it. A Sintax scouting interceptor burned around the anchoring tower helplessly as BBP and I watched from cloaked t3s. The tower went up without a contest. SYJ’s US wing began to log on, and Pell offered subcap support. I planned to log on dreads in US evening and begin to RF the remaining POS, hoping to provoke a fight. Pell formed a small fleet and burned toward a hisec connected by C2 to the C1 static of the Target. They arrived and held in the C2 while Pell came in in a cloaked t3 to get his own eyes on the situation. We had rebuilt the rapecage that held down the hapless defenders of VIII-20, and our subcap fleet was prowling its edges, looking to burn down any foolesh enough to attempt escape. As I formed the dropbears to begin the second assault, our scouts in the C1 reported an unknown fleet on dscan. I ordered the subcaps to burn out of the bubbles on VII-20 and warp immediately to the c1 static, at the same time as SYJ jumped in from the C2>C1 and followed. During this time, Pell informed us that one of the CEOs of SintaX had contacted him for help, as SYJ is a merc corp and had actually done work for Sintax once before. We joked that Pell should accept the contract and then help us burn Sintax anyway, but as a merc corp, SYJ had to maintain its reputation. He informed them that they were blue to us and could not help them with the operation. He did not, however, inform them that there was currently an EU SYJ fleet logged in their hole, and another fleet waiting outside their static. We found this hilarious. My phobos landed first on the hole, and I immediately bubbled the hostile fleet: a Senex Legio zealot gang with guardian and oneiros support. They burned out without firing a shot, and as the rest of the fleet landed on the hictor bubble, we only managed to tackle a slow devoter, (pod) and unlucky zealot. Sadly, the easily disrupted C1 static collapsed before the whole SYJ fleet could enter, leaving several pilots trapped outside. At this point SYJ had actively engaged the enemy, and we had shown our hand. It was time to fight. Their alliance leader had already messaged Pell seeking his help, and now that it was known that SYJ was in the hole on our side, Pell explained to him that if they fought, we would leave. They agreed to fight. We formed up to drop on their POS, and at 9PM US Pacific, we dropped on 10-10 and began to RF it. For Sintax, it was fight or die. We waited, siege cannons blasting away at the POS shields, for the enemy fleet to land. They never did. Therefore we proceeded to local spam gif links and various demands to fight, or be evicted. Pell managed to get on their coms, and hilarity ensued. We RFed their POS without a fight, and fleet stood down for the night. I messaged several members of CMG, which seemed to be the corp most willing to fight or negotiate, and received hope that resistance would be encountered at the timer tomorrow. They would have to fight, or their first POS would be levelled. My message to them was simple: fight at the timer, or be purged from wspace. Day 3. Sintax Burns The time for reckoning had arrived. With the clock ticking down to the first RF timer, Sintax’s tower was about to go vulnerable, and with the valuable SMAs and industrial modules that populated it. They had made noises about wanting to fight, and if they did, it would mean that BOB was satiated and we could all go home happy. I hopped on BDF coms again and asked for anyone who wanted to be on some carrier and tower killmails, and Piri Conrad and Altrue stepped up to lead it in. They formed up about 30 bombers and mauluses - I asked for bombers and damps, to fight sentry carriers - and burned towards our entrance. We warped our fleet to the POS as it began to come out of RF and sieged green. There were few Sintax pilots online, and it looked like they would once again fail to step up. Carriers began warping out from the POS, and Pell grabbed a pro warpin for my Phobos. 45 seconds after I landed and bubbled, a Chimera appeared in my bubble, and we called in the Euros and BRAVE bomber fleet to whore on it. The fit made our eyes bleed. The pilot attempted to escape by boarding an Ares in his hold, but our instalockers were too swift. As our subcaps were laying into the Chimera, the dreads finished levelling the tower. The BRAVE bomber fleet headed home and we proceeded to RF and rapecage the rest of the tower in system. Most of Sintax’s carriers had escaped to the POS at 10-8, the next one coming out of RF. As we rapecaged and RFed the final POS at 9-18, a hero named Emilio Deckard #yoloswagged his proteus into us, and then challenged us to a 1v1 at the sun, for the honor of which we let his pod go. Over the next 4 hours we circled the POS at 10-8, patrolling like sharks in the water, bumping out and killing anyone foolish enough to try an escape, including two carriers who tried to use fighters to down a bubble and warp off. Also Kael accidentally a jaguar in the c1 static. As the timer ticked down, the desperate defenders made a final push to escape, pushing towards the top of the tower and primarying the single bubble blocking their escape. The small fleet of last survivors went down one after another, Archon, Chimera, Zealot, Raven, and Guardian. As all this excitement was going on, I took the perfect opportunity to set up a little bonus content for the troops. Neon Torpiliko had joined BNI and immediately applied to Dropbears, but the circumstances were never quite right to let him in. He had mailed me a few hours prior, and I excitedly offered to get him in immediately. You see, he was a known AWOXer and spai, well reviled in the wormhole community, with his name on the list of all dirty traitors banned from wspace which is maintained by wormholers. We had plans for him, as we do all AWOXers who attempt to infiltrate the corp. They involved requesting him to bring in his most pimped out legion and help us with the fight. He arrived too late to whore on all the killmails, but just in time to burn into the bubble with us and receive his just deserts. Shortly after, the second Sintax POS came out of RF and fell our guns. With their capital fleet in ruins, it didn’t look good for Sintax, and all that was left was to burn the system to the ground. Day 4 & 5. The Heretic is Purged Over the night, the vigilant heros of the EU tz spied an orca trying to escape with all the spacely possessions he could log off with. Later, one of the final remaining zealots of Senex Legio took some foolish potshots at my phobos sitting on the C1 static. We knocked down the final POSes during the final days; 10-10 in the afternoon, and finally on the morning of the fifth day, the two final towers. The last of the Senex zealots decided to heroically burn out 2 sets of crystals trying to kill the TCU we anchored at the sun before we finally decided it was time. So ended Sintax’s 19 month foray into C6 space. What amazed me most and my favorite thing about the operation, is that something as random as a wandering C5-C6 connection and an impulse decision could results in the destruction of an entire alliance’s collected assets in less than a week. I can only imagine that Jarvin Spoo wishes now that he had accepted my ransom offer of 10b and a sacrifice, or had rallied his alliance to a fight and proven themselves worthy. With their last tower levelled, their alliance driven off, and their last ships burned, Sintax was purged from wspace in BOB’s holy name. Some days you run into someone who will change your game forever. 

A guide to FCing wormhole daytrips for fun and profit

How to fly backwards into a wormhole and die

brought to you by a DAMN PATRIOT, Dropbears Anonymous, and the BRAVE Collective

Nullsec isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Wormholes.

This guide is designed to not look like Sunday afternoon sperg while simultaneously being Sunday afternoon sperg. It’s also designed to take you from 0 knowledge about wormholes to knowing how to “safely” or “competently” FC a resource extraction™ wormhole dive and make it out in as many pieces as you came in, plus blue loot and nanoribbons.

A little info about holes

Before you go flying your ship backwards through a hole, there’s a few things you need to know.

1. No Local.

Technically, delayed local. In other words, the local chat list is populated as people chat in local, and not instantly like in K-space (where landlubbers are). This means that even if your local list is completely empty, you have no idea how many people are in system. Could be 1 cloaky scanner alt, could be 100 xXpizzaXx’s.

Rule: Don’t talk in local.

2. Mass/time limits.

Wormhole connections have mass limits. Here's a guide to them. These mass limits are very simple: mass/jump is the largest ship you can put through a hole without lube, and max mass is the total amount of mass a hole can handle before it gets sore and collapses. We’ll get into hole rolling in a later guide (hint, you can always run a BS with prop mod on through a 2000Gg hole while it is before the verge without collapsing it).

Wormholes can spawn with mass that is up to 10% lower or higher than their typical mass - a 2000Gg rated hole can actually spawn with 1800Gg or up to 2200Gg.

But (as brave provisions knows), you can only put so many ships through a hole before it collapses. To give a rough idea, a 500Gg hole can handle… nevermind, don’t fucking go through 500Gg holes, they’re stupid and pointless. A 2000Gg hole can handle [all of the] cruisers and battlecruisers. It can also handle approximately 8.5  battleships for a roundtrip. Don’t put that many through one.

Mass limits are why T3 cruisers are such a popular option - in many ways as powerful as a battleship, and very low mass.

Wormhole connections also have time limits. All you need to know, is that if a hole was “reaching the end of its natural lifetime” when you found it, you can’t go through it and expect to come back out. If you saw it change from “won’t last another day” to EOL, then you have at least 4 hours from the last time you saw it “LAD” until it collapses. Set a timer, or don’t go through it. Or go through it, I don’t care.

Rule: Check info on a hole before you go through it. Know how much your hole can handle, and don’t collapse it, unless you’re into that kind of thing

3. Bookmarks

Wormholes aren’t like gates - they don’t appear in your overview. You have to scan them down. If you are in a wormhole, and you don’t have bookmarks out, and you don’t have a probe launcher (preferably with probes), you are well and truly stuck. In this case, try talking in local. The residents of the hole may or may not help you out (or explode you).

Rule: So, as you go through a wormhole, whether you scanned it down or had your hand held there, bookmark that shit on both sides.

4. D-Scan [this should really be #1 guyz. guyz? ...spai?]

Check. Yo. Mothafuckin. dscan. Open your scanner, hit the Directional Scan tab, set your range to 999999999999999999, your angle to 360, and uncheck ‘use active overview settings’. You can use dscan instead of combat probes 90% of the time to hunt down targets in a system, but that comes later.

Since you don’t have local chat, you don’t know who’s in system. Which means it’s fucking imperative that you spam your dscan, so that you know what ships/structures/bullshit is around you at all times.

Max range on dscan is 2147483647km, or 14.3550415 AU, or for your purposes, 14.3 AU. Dscan will give you a readout of all ships/structures/wrecks/drones/celestials within 14.3 AU, except of course cloaky faggots.

Know what your fleet looks like - if you’re with an unfamiliar group, have them all name their ships with a tag - symbol, word, dick, whatever - so that you can easily identify when a non-fleet ship pops up on dscan.

Rule: dscan is your friend, spam that shit. Make your fleet spam that shit.

5. Threat assessment/Hole Info

Bookmark http://wormhol.es/. Trust it. Hit the refresh button. It will tell you what static connections the hole has, what kind of hole it is, how much activity it has seen recently, who lives there, and when the last kill was. This info, plus dscan, can give you an assessment of how dangerous the hole is.

Every wormhole has a static connection - that is, a hole that will always spawn to a certain type of space - nullsec, c1-6, losec, hisec. They will also have a chance of spawning wandering connections, and having incoming wormhole connections from other space.

Every hole has a type and some have attribute modifiers. C1s are shit and worthless except as connections. C2s often have hisec/losec/C3/C4 statics. C3s are ideal for newbie fleets. C4-C6 are other more scary things for later.

Generally speaking wormhole residents won’t tangle with a 10 man BRAVE daytripping fleet - the odds of you being in their hole at the same time as they have enough guys online to schwack you is low.

But it’s definitely possible. And don’t be surprised when a 3 man T3 fleet wipes your 13 man battlecruiser fleet. Because T3s, that’s why.

Another danger is the lone wolf logging on and hunting down your noctis/salvage dessie which is trailing behind salvaging your shit (and carrying the whole point of why you came in here in the first place.)

If you see ships in the hole on dscan, use the angle adjustment and tracking camera to narrow them down to a known point in space (usually a POS at a moon). Usually they are just emtpy ships floating in a POS.. Sometimes they are duders running a site. [go kill them][more on that later].

Rule: find out what’s in the hole before you go in the hole. It could have something nasty.

6. Safe Spots and Perches

Make safe spots and perches. A quick safe spot is made by warping to a customs office at a random distance and dropping a bookmark mid-warp (the book drops when you click submit). A true safe is made by warping back to that safe and then to a customs office, and dropping a mark which is not in line with any two celestials.

If you are at a safe, you are completely safe from being warped to, until you see combat probes (or you’re in a carrier, in which case you can be combat scanned from outside 14.3 au.)(also why are you reading this guide and flying a carrier?)(stop it.)

Make perches. A perch is a place near a place. For your exit wormhole, make a 150km (on grid) perch that you can observe from, and an off-grid (within 14.3 AU) perch that you can dscan from.

Rule: Make safespots and perches. You will think it’s pointless until you need them. Then it will be pointful.

How to FC that shit like a boss while not giving a fuck

I joined BRAVE when I was a week in. My first day, (after blowing up on the Mendori gate), I shitted up corp chat until a particular Australian said some shit about a wormhole fleet and I put my newbie hand up. He let me fly around in there in an atron and I didn’t even die. And he gave me isk. And I was fucking hooked.

I trained into a shit-awful T1 logi ship and then started putting fleets together, as a 2 week old newbie. I may or may not have welped a few fleets. But people (all with way more SP) than me followed me in anyway, because we made ISK and we had fun, and because of my silky smooth voice.

So this is how you herd newbies into a wormhole with 7 total SP and 0 total experience and 0 fucks given.

1. Fleet Comp

There are 2 main fleet comps that you can use to WH dive. I always used armor, because I started off as an armor logi, and armor is better and shields suck. That being said, drake OP solodrakbansolodrakbansolodrak.

Armor

Armor fleets rely on logi to stay alive, because there’s no way to boost your passive armor regen to stupid levels, and because real men don’t fit self reppers.

Your logi fleet will consist of:

2x-3x Logi

5x-10x DPS Cruiser/BC/BS

1x Salvager

1-3x Some scouts or something

If you fly with 2 logi, when one gets primaried, he will probably have to warp out, because now only 1 other duder is repping him. Or, you can fit RR on one of your DPS ships (probably a myrmidon, prophecy, or dominix) and use Augorors - they orbit the RR DPS ship and pretend he’s on day 37.

Any DPS armor cruiser or up will do, it’s up to you how you want to distribute loot based on DPS or what have you.

Requirements for tank are 55% minimum resist with 3000 armor HP. This is insanely easy to achieve. Anything less and you will get alpha’d off the field and be sad.

Tell your DPS to fit medium range guns - sleepers spawn at 30-55k and orbit at 5-12k. Use guns to clear off cruisers-battleships, and drones to clear off frigates.

Salvager needs to have salvage 3 and fit salvage tackle rigs on his noctis or salv dessie.

Scout should be good at cloaking and probing and shit.

And that’s your fleet.

Shield

Drakes, or something.

Salvager

Scout or something

Get your tech II tank going and smooth out your resists, fit shield relays and stuff (I have no idea how shield stuff works). Fit HAMs and an MWD because if you use heavies you’ll just take forever to clear sites.

You can also use Ravens, if you so choose.

2. Find yourself a hole

If you have some good duders that you run with, maybe you can get them to help you find holes. If not, you’ll have to find your own holes. Usually my fleets began with, “Hey guys, found a really good C3, who wants to come?” They ended with welp, but nevermind that part.

Scout around your area, losec primarily if you’re looking for C3s, until you find a C3. Assess how dangerous it is and look at how many combat anomalies there are. Figure 50m/site, and decide if it’s worth your effort to run the hole.

If you want to be professional, you should scan down every sig in the hole. If you’re cooperating, you can use a copy of a publicly editable siglist, like this (Make a copy of it.) That way you and your duders aren’t scanning the same shit at the same time and can share info easily. If you’re really a boss, you can use siggy. But that’s another story.

Bookmark all data/relic sites, and maybe even explore neighbouring wormholes.

3. Herd your newbies into the hole

Do your normal fleet stuff. I found that when you’re starting out, it could take up to 1 ½ hrs to organize a fleet and get it to the hole. Yeah, I know. Once you have a contact list and know reliable people [or use the dropbears anonymous channel], you will be able to organize fleets much faster. Use normal procedures, including a +1 scout, to make sure you don’t welp on the way to or from the hole. That’s always stupid.

You can leave your scout on the outside of the exit hole watching local (because people like to chase newbies into womrholes and kill them, it’s the darndest thing), or if there’s another hole connection that you think is really dangerous, you can put him there, watching, waiting, commiserating.

4. Run some sites

A sleeper site in a C3 generally consists of 3 waves of frigates, cruisers, BCs, and BS. If you type the name of the site into google, you’ll come up with an eve-survival guide to each site, with DPS figures, and triggers. When you’re starting out, you’ll want to kill everything on a wave before popping the trigger. Once you get a feel for their DPS output and how solid your fleet is, you can just start popping everything.

Keep watching dscan while you’re running sites. People can show up to ruin your day. If you see ships on dscan that you don’t recognize and/or are afraid of, and you aren’t sure what to do, make sure noone is being scrammed by sleepers, and then bail the fuck out to your losec exit.

Bookmark sites so your salvager can come behind and salvage that shit. Salvaging is where you make a large part of your money, so don’t skip this step, jackass.

Relic and Data sites aren’t very worth cracking, but they have NPC spawns just like anomalies, so they’re worth running as if they were normal combat sites. If you really want to crack some cans, the Relic sites are much more valuable than the Data sites, on average.

Hang out at the last site until your salvager catches up and salvages everything.

Leave the hole.

Don’t welp on your way back.

5. Split up the loot

If you can afford it, it’s nice for everyone if you can buy out the loot at the end of the site. If not, just promise to give everyone their money once the loot is sold.

Sell melted nanoribbons and a few other valuable salvage items in Jita.

Sell blue loot (you’ll recognize it once you see it) to NPC buy orders. Just show market details on your blue loot and look for the buy order which is a round number price (like 1,500,000) and a round number quantity (like 555). Watch out for scam buy orders by players. Seriously. If there are no NPC buy orders in your region, use evecentral.

Use a covops or blockade runner to move this shit. Moving it in anything else will get you suicide ganked.

We use this loot sheet to distribute loot in dropbears. Put in your pilots and their roles. Any pre-filled roles that don’t have a pilot, change the role to none. Put your total number of sites in the appropriate boxes, and if someone joins or leaves your fleet, put a -X site modifier for how many sites they missed. On the rules sheet you can change your corp tax and define new roles, such as low DPS or hacker.

And that’s it, I think. If I missed anything, you know who I am and where to find me. 7o fly hard.

~a DAMN PATRIOT