Pirate Attack

The day came to go on the prowl. A group of 5 of us in three different corps linked up to do some pirate hunting.

We had one unarmed scout and a logistics so there were only 3 attack boats to do the fighting.

Unfortunately the target I had been stalking the last week or so decided to take the night off. We checked a few systems near my home station that usually have a couple pirates roaming the belts. All was quiet so we decided to head over to Rens. Always a lot of action a few jumps from this system.

Right away we knew we were probably in over our heads as there were more pirates from various corps then we were ready to take on. After talking it over we unanimously agreed that we prepped to fight and that we may as well see what we could do.

We sent our scout in ahead of us to see what kind of action was happening in the system. He warped to a belt and set up some warp points. Then we moved in our cloaked vessels to 150+ KM from the belt so that they would be able to warp in once we got aggressed the only exception was the logistics. We set that ship up at 65km so all she had to do was uncloak and start repping.

After everyone was in place we warped in my harbinger as bait. A couple NPC rats showed up and I was able to shoot them down to set the stage.

I got swarmed by 4 pirates and the first 30 seconds were the scariest in the fight as all my back up needed time to recalibrate after uncloaking. The logistics came online right in time to save my armor and made it possible for me to tank the incoming damage.

We weren't up against new players and after a minute we watched two pirates warp out. I immediately called to the logistics to reposition to the other side of the belt, but it was too late. They got the jump on her before her drive engaged and jammed her. Knowing she was doomed she stayed in the fight repping as long as she could. Her actions allowed us to take out one of the pirates in a prophecy. Now it was three on three as the scout could do nothing but watch the carnage.

Everyone in my fleet was a carebear and had spent all our time training for missions. The pirates were as old as 2004 and the youngest was born in 2007. I highlight this as we learned a valuable lesson in this fight. In the next few minutes we held our own and almost took out 2 more pirates. Unfortunately they managed to stay out of stasis range and and get out of warp jam range with only a few points on their hull remaining.

During this my fleet was also taking a lot of damage, but each of us knew we were outgunned and if one of us left the other 2 would fall shortly thereafter so we were stuck in the fight without the ability to jump out and return.

The pirates had better weapons, speed, range, and EW then us however it seemed we had better communication and coordination. They were working individually and attacking two of us at the same. The three of us were working together and attacking one target at a time.

In the end all but our scout fell. Contrary to the essence of being a carebear we were celebrating this loss. Outgunned and out skilled we held our own for nearly 10 minutes and killed one very experienced pilot and nearly 2 more. If this had been a 4 on 4 fight (not accounting for the logistics or the scout) or if we only were able to keep ahold of one of the pirates that warpped out and then returned nearly healed we could have won the fight.

This put a feeling of confidence in each of us as this fight taught us a lot about PVP. Younger pilots can take out a experienced pilots. Albeit isn't an easy task, but good communication and coordination with your fleet mates can make up many short commings in skill. Of coarse this theory only applies if the pirates aren't communicating well.