I had quite the experience in EVE last night and I wanted to share. These are the kind of experiences that only happen in this game and it's one of the reasons I keep playing. This is a heavily edited version of what I published as an after action report for Kite Co. with as much jargon removed as possible. Sometimes this game has so much to offer in crazy experiences that you just have to write it down. Now, where Kite Co. lives, you can attack or be attacked at almost any time by almost anybody. That's what leads to things like this.
Kite Co. was out on a roam looking for trouble and it was getting late in the evening. I'm an old man at heart and I have have to wake up for work in about seven hours. We're 14 jumps away from our home system and you know... That's a long way in a hurricane. A hurricane isn’t particularly a small ship. I’ve never been much of a speed demon either. So I'm warping back through the catch region and there's a newbie following me back home in a Vexor(Cruiser class ship thats just smaller than mine). He’s the same newbie who we thought was insane or unmotivated because he tagged along on our fleet but never followed directions. Turns out he was super new and afraid to let anybody know. We offered to help him as long as he asked but he turned back towards home anyway. On my (our?) way back, I hit the gate at the same time as a Dramiel (really expensive but small ship) two jumps out of the Brave Collective staging system. I meant to stop my ship and let the Dramiel jump through while I waited for the innocent noob but I'm sleepy so the Dramiel and I went through at the same time.
Everyone else is still roaming so I warp ahead to the next gate to wait for my Vexor buddy to land. I don't think at this point he even knows we are buddies. He was a little slow but... God save the newbies, right? The Dramiel locks onto my ship me and orbits about 20k out. I'm unsure if he’s going to try to force me through the gate or not. I’m almost too big to be effective against smaller ships so I'm hesitant to aggress back. My Vexor buddy lands and I jump through with him. I hold my cloak and make a comment to him that is lost among the fleet chat. The Dramiel decloaks and so does a.. Crow? I'm not sure. It was a frigate and I knew it had a warp disruptor. That would make sure I’d be stuck here and forced to engage. "It's okay," I think.
The Vexor decloaks and I wait for him to have to fight the two hostiles that are eyeing him. “This can be a defining EVE moment for him," I think silently. I can drag him to another channel in our mumble server and we can maybe die together and he can learn something about the game in the process.
Then without so much as a word he silently warps into the distance leaving me alone on the gate. "Cool" Maybe those ships were never interested in him at all… I think I know what they were interested in, though… I decloak and am immediately warp disrupted. "No problem?" I think trying to reassure myself. My heart starts to pound. This is it. I convey my impending demise to my corp-mates. They knew it was coming and so did I. I’m roaming through hostile space in a big slow ship and unsupported. "Oh well." I’m gonna try to jump back through the gate I came in through and find a safe spot to log out on the other side. More frigates decloak and my view fills with hostiles. Rifters and some other stuff appear next to me. I'm kind of panicking." A Hurricane is fast. It’s okay." I think. A warp scrambler keeps me from turning on my microwarpdrive. That hurts my speed a bit. "It's okay. A hurricane is still fast without a propulsion mod." I think. I can crash this gate. The Crows on field help to put me in about 50% shield as a stasis webifier lands on me. That's a 50% reduction in speed. "Maybe I’m not so fast anymore... It’s okay..." I think as I resign myself to my fate. I keep telling myself that. "It's okay." "No problem." Maybe I've embraced death? Death is okay. The kill-mail will be embarrassing but I knew I was doing to die.
So let’s try to kill something, I guess. I start by taking potshots at the ships that are about 10 kilometers away from me. Autocannons might hit that. At this point there's maybe 7 enemies on field and all of them have me warp disrupted to some degree but one dude has me webbed. I launch drones and try to kill that asshole. I only really know him as the guy who's webbing me since the start. "Stop slowing me down." I think. His shield starts to dip and he runs away from the fight. This feels like some small moral victory.
I'm still painfully disrupted and taking damage. At about 30% of my shield I remember I can overheat resistance modules. It may destroy them and turn them off completely but for now I could use extra tank. That helps a little. My heart is still racing and I really don’t want to die right now. So now it’s me versus quite a few interceptors (really fast frigates) and various frigates who are too close for my guns to track and hit them and some who are too far to hit with autocannons entirely. So it’s about this time I remember I have an energy neutralizer my ship. Ships need energy to run their modules and this guy sucks the life out of enemy capacitors. I neutralize the guy who's super close to me and assign drones. He takes damage and warps off. Or something. My thought processes get pretty hazy here. My mind just keeps looking at my overview and seeing warp disruptor effects next to the enemy ship names. "You know what? I got one too." I think to myself. So I start warp disrupting the frigates back. I notice a pod appear on my overview. Strange. I have no clue why thats there. I keep applying drones and damage based on whoever has the scrambled effect next to their name on the overview. It's like tunnel vision has kicked in and I'm just focusing on what I have to to keep alive. I keep doing this and Crows, Rifters, that Dramiel keep dancing around me. I can’t shake the enemies but at least my ship is pointed in the right direction to get out of there when I get the chance.
Then I notice another strange thing... I’m not taking nearly as much damage as I was before. There's also another pod on the field. It sinks in.. It’s okay... It’s actually okay. I'm not just not dying, but I'm kind of winning. These pods are the remnants of ships I’ve actually killed. I keep going and remember to stop overheating resist module before I fry everything else on my ship. It’s been a couple minutes and I speak back up in fleet. I'm alive. I'm actually alive. And did I just kill that Dramiel? I look back to the overview and the warp disruptors are gone. There's a single Rifter targeting me from near the gate. I won. I WON! I gotta get the fuck out of here. I take a pot shot at the Rifter as I run to safety.
Later that night I wanted to know what actually happened so I dug through the game logs and fed them into an analyzer. I wish I had been recording. It almost feels like it couldn't have happened.There were actually six ships that I fought against and a couple others that did not shoot me at me. It's was at least six on one and I killed three of them.
Kill: Lerroy Jankins (Stiletto)
My hands were shaking, my heart was racing, and I most certainly didn't die. I didn't do anything of the sort. Whoa. I rode that adrenaline rush for the next 2 hours. So much for going to bed on time and being responsible. Also, sometimes this game is pretty damn cool.
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