TARP Target: The Last Chancers.

I’m happy to announce that I’m in and I can also announce my target, TLC.

TLDR: I sneak into TLC's home hole, blow up some wrecks, get two of my bombers smoked. lolz. 

 

 TARP: Target: The Last Chancers, living in a C6 Static C6. Current membership 350+. Current online POS, 20+. 40+ members during peak about 10 during off peak.  

 

The Last chancers are a formidable foe indeed. They are known for their overwhelming home defense style, the carrier pantheon. They are also known for their very consistent response to people fucking with their ISK making. These guys take ISK revenue VERY seriously as I will describe.

So on Wed of last week I was adding everyone active in TLC to my watch list. Good way of doing this is going through their kill boards. The most recent kills I saw at that time was with some friends I have in Task Force Proteus. Since I still wasn’t in their home hole yet, I thought I would open a convo with the TFP guys and see if they were still connected. If they were still connected, they may able to sell/give me an in to their home hole. Turns out they weren’t just brawling with them in a mutual chain.

The Last Chancers had tried to evict/Invade Task Force Proteus and here is the amusing part. They did it because TFP fucked with some NPC wrecks of theirs. The fight didn’t go well for The Last Chancers, they lost in two separate engagements while out numbering TFP. I got this information because shortly after talking with TFP I was adding someone to my contact watch list and accidently opened a convo with him. UGGGG!!! Just for those who may not know, convos in wormhole space don’t just “open” strangers don’t just talk to one another and shoot the shit. Every convo has a chance to reveal valuable intel both by the person initiating it, and the receiver. Why is he talking to me? Why is he asking this question? So on and so forth. I couldn’t simply open a convo and then close it. That would raise even more suspicion. So I just winged it, going on what I already had.

[ 2014.05.27 05:25:08 ] Longinius Spear > o/
[ 2014.05.27 05:25:21 ] Longinius Spear > what was that whole TFP thing about?
[ 2014.05.27 05:25:22 ] Arkanadra Imperator > Whats up
[ 2014.05.27 05:25:36 ] Longinius Spear > nothing, was talking to a friend they said you guys where at war
[ 2014.05.27 05:25:51 ] Arkanadra Imperator > *sigh*
[ 2014.05.27 05:26:02 ] Longinius Spear > not good?
[ 2014.05.27 05:26:02 ] Arkanadra Imperator > some assholes from protean concept
[ 2014.05.27 05:26:07 ] Arkanadra Imperator > Stole our loot
[ 2014.05.27 05:26:20 ] Arkanadra Imperator > So our higher ups decided to invade them
[ 2014.05.27 05:26:40 ] Arkanadra Imperator > both times we were undermanned and had a shoddy performance on TS
[ 2014.05.27 05:26:54 ] Arkanadra Imperator > so even though we had them outgunned and outnumbered, we were already dead
[ 2014.05.27 05:27:12 ] Longinius Spear > doh
[ 2014.05.27 05:27:16 ] Arkanadra Imperator > Yeah
[ 2014.05.27 05:27:35 ] Arkanadra Imperator > so right now we're the laughing stock of the forums.
[ 2014.05.27 05:27:37 ] Arkanadra Imperator > :P
[ 2014.05.27 05:27:59 ] Arkanadra Imperator > Btw, we haven’t rolled into you guys in awhile
[ 2014.05.27 05:28:00 ] Arkanadra Imperator > Makes us sad
[ 2014.05.27 05:28:05 ] Longinius Spear > meh, i have given up the forums for a bit, was just checking you're side of it, i know how you guys like your loot

** I referring to a threat of invasion a year or so ago, when some of SUSU in our C4/C3 thought it would be funny to run off with some of TLC’s sweet C6 loot in frigs. They tracked us down, and gave us an option of paying them back or face eviction. I paid, but it was worth the money for the laughs we had. ** 

[ 2014.05.27 05:28:33 ] Arkanadra Imperator > Yeah. Both times we were underprepared.
[ 2014.05.27 05:28:56 ] Longinius Spear > shit happens o/ fly safe
[ 2014.05.27 05:29:05 ] Arkanadra Imperator > You too o7

I can only hope at that point they were not putting me on some watch list or setting my corp red or some other random crap that I wasn’t prepared for at this point.

SAT:  

I get a ping from Foetus to login to mumble and he has a surprise for me. Bob in his mighty crazy wisdom provides. TLC is connected to my corp’s home hole.  THANK YOU BOB!

My characters/alts were not as prepared as they should have been I just knew that I needed to get at least 1 scout in there before they either rolled the hole or it expired. The clock was ticking. Within 10 minutes I had a scout in TLC’s home hole. Within 20,  I had 3 characters with bombers in there. Within 30 minutes I had a cloaky transport holding bombs, hull reppers, most deployables, mobile warp bubbles, ammo, probes, launchers… All the toys that would make my stay in TLC’s hole enjoyable.

On my way to their hole I renamed all my ships to their ship tags. The average ship naming doctrine pilot will just check D for similar ship tags, he hasn’t a clue what everyone in the giant ass alliance is flying, he just knows that if it doesn’t have similar tags it’s a possible threat. Ship tag doctrine is silly imo, but o well.

SUN:

In the morning I began the task of figuring out where everyone in the hole lived, what they flew and which POS are fueled active. Turns out they have shit load of POS in there. Every single moon in that hole is occupied with a POS and I would say that over 90% are fueled. I don’t feel like doing the math right now, but the fuel consumption on that hole must me tremendous.

I bookmarked every POS, which moon, which planet, and who was currently in that POS. The great thing about EVE is, if you open info about a character there is a little “Notes” section attached to every person in EVE. This is a wonderful place to put info if they are an alt, what ships they fly, what POS they live at and what timezone you think they play in. I did that.

There were so many force fields and POS towers on D-scan I couldn’t see all the ships, so I had to create a new tab for each of my characters that would focus on ships only. These guys

Around 4pm PST TLC formed up for home hole ops.

I’m not kidding I got that great feeling in the pit of my stomach that I was about to set off a chain of actions that were very dangerous. I LOVE THAT FEELING! I missed that feeling! That’s why I’m doing this and I like the danger of it.  This is Bobs message to me that I’m along the right path.

Two Archons, 6 Moros, 2 Revelations, 1 Naglfar, 4 Loki and 1 Noctus later TLC began to run home sites. They had about 10 or so other cruisers on D scan for whatever reason along with a couple interceptors. Grrrrr interceptors. They are my main threat but I’m not turning back now.

Wrecks on scan…

Finding their fleet wasn’t hard but having not announced my presence yet I wanted to make my first hit a good one.

http://gyazo.com/fe1204d12ab9c02f0975c0bc22d0dba1

http://gyazo.com/512d1d0c5258895e7b04aafcb1fb978b

http://gyazo.com/1c4fbd2992f6f7a8d45c8cfba0f9660e

I waited till the dred/carrier/loki gang moved to the next site.  The noctus hadn’t finished the previous site and there wasn’t anyone there, so I figured I could do the most damage with torps over a bomb. I ungrouped my launchers, uncloaked and locked wreck after wreck… exploded wreck after wreck… Each un-looted wreck is worth 20m. 20m, 40m, 60m.. 1^st volley.. I align to a planet, 80m, 100m, 120m, 2^nd volley. 140m, 160m, 180m, 3^rd volley…. An interceptor lands on grid, Grrr I launch a bomb and warp. Not to hit the interceptor but to get every wreck within 15m of the explosion. I don’t know how many wrecks I hit with the bomb but I know it was more than 1.

The first blow was struck. They now know there is a bomber in there with them.

I get greedy. I return to the site and the Noctus is there along with the interceptor. I decide for whatever reason that now is the time I should try for the noctus. I get my other bombers lined up. I’m going to try something I have only done one time before, a multi box bombing run.

I line up my primary character to the Noctus and bring my two other characters to him. We are 35k from the Noctus. A 2^nd Noctus lands… o this is going to be good. I begin my cycle. Uncloak, bomb, warp… uncloak, bomb, warp.. uncloak, bomb, warp…

Well I fucked up. Turns out, and I new this just forgot it… When you click on a windowed mode instance of EVE the first click doesn’t count. Not only that, but there is some kind of really lame server lag that occurs. So I uncloak but only launch 1 bomb. ARRRGGGG! What’s worse is, I warped to a planet at 0 with all characters, exactly where their POCO is. Can’t cloak when I land, interceptor lands on grid and I only get 2 of my bombers out. FAILURE!

I’m not sure what I hit, but I can only image there were some wrecks in that blob of Noctus. I know it was more than 1 for sure. At 20 million a wreck I’m not doing half bad.

Spears Dead Bomber (dat fit?!? I put it together in a hurry)

Not only didn’t I drop all my bombs at the most perfect set of targets, I fucking killed my bomber with an inanimate object (poco).  For fucks sake I’m bad at EVE. O well, when failing and punching a hornets nest, best keep at it!

I go in for another bombing run, at least 4 wrecks destroyed 80million more,  and again I warp right on top of a fucking POCO. I get caught… again.

Sir Lomax Dead bomber

Each time I’m podded, which is ok by me honestly, not like I could just fly out of their chain and reship.

I’m frustrated because I didn’t need to die to these guys in such a dumb way. These should have been easy bomb runs where I had surprise totally on my side. O well, I guess I just need some practice. After conveying my thoughts to friends, they gave me some helpful suggestions on how to try again. I guess the best way to learn to bomb is to just keep at it. I’m very ISK positive, at this point. I log off and do some RL stuff.

Later that night, I got my exploded bomber pilots back into their home. Till the next time.

Overall I’m happy with the 1^st days effects. At least 400+ million in raw isk damages. Losing bombers was not planned but at 35m each and my pods I’m down about 100m. So, overall.. not bad.

I have stepped up, wacked the shit out of a bee’s nest and Honey Badger don’t give a fuck.