Head of the Hydra

After a week of a very slow contract, where our targets, Nihil-Obstat (an alliance of 95 members) and Balkan Express (a corp of 43 members) pretty much refused to fight us. Considering their numbers combined were about 140, they should've been able to field a larger force.Anyway, there were some kills on either sides, but no-one was enjoying it much. Some people like to talk about PvP and others like engaging in PvP.So, our new contract proved to be more promising. This time it was versus Hydra Alliance:



Apart from having a cool alliance logo, I didn't really know much about them. I knew they'd been at war permanently from one alliance or another, so they weren't going to be noobs who'd run and hide. They are friends with, amongst others, Morsus Mihi, Pure, Roadkill/ Smash

We got the order to move all our stuff down to Taisy, where we'd be able to move into their 0.0 space via P3EN-E (Vale of the Silent), which was 2 jumps from Taisy. Also, Taisy borders onto the 0.0 entrypoint into Tribute, via M-OEE8, which is usually camped by Morsus Mihi.

So, I got my Tempest to Taisy just in time for a hastily assembled small fleet to jump into M-O and kill a Scorpion belonging to Golluk Forsight, Alliance: Combined Planetary Union. I didn't get a chance to get a shot in as I was late to the party. Oh well.

Shortly after, we received intel that there was a sizeable Hydra camp on the P3EN-E gate. Although our contract hadn't officially started, there are no rules in 0.0, and they were big boys.

We put word out, soon gathered a bigger force than previously (mainly battleships), and hauled ass over there. We were given the order to jump through as soon as we arrived at the gate. I took a deep breath as we jumped through the gate....

A maelstrom of drones, ships and light hit me after I arrived on the other side. The confusion was showing itself all over my overview until I clicked a filter on which removed everything bar the enemy ships. The FC immediately started calling targets. They had about the same numbers as us, and were obviously feeling confident, as the majority of the ships were on the gate. They could've jumped through and escaped but engaged us, thus disallowing the gate operators to process them though.

Primary target was KvaNTy Troiden in a Rokh, sat on the gate. He had warp scrambled tigerduck, our CEO. It seemed tiger was the primary target as his shields were flaring from the incoming hits, dissipating some of their force. I engaged guns on the Rokh, and drones on the secondary target, Eldest 007 in a Raven, also on the gate. They were very close and I was concerned my 1200s wouldn't be able to hit them so close. However, BS sized targets which weren't moving were no problem for them. My projectiles slammed into his shields.

About this time I started taking damage from 2 ships that were sat some distance from me. I think they were either Ravens or Drakes as they were exclusively using missiles. My shields buckled, but as soon as they hit my armour and it's boosted resisitances, nothing much was going on. They were shooting EM and Kinetic missiles at me, which didn't really do a great deal.

I had to ignore them, they weren't a primary or secondary target, but I was prepared to call for armour repping should my armour drop significantly. tigerduck had done precisely this as his armour started collapsing, and immediately was repped up to full armour by many of us who has remote reps fitted. I am sure this must've been frustrating for the people who'd primaried him!

We concentrated on primaries and secondaries and the targets fell quickly. Just as we were thinking that was it, an Arazu and Cerberus showed up 100km from the gate. I frantically cycled some long range Tremor ammo to my guns, muttering to myself "don't warp, don't warp". At the same time, Eddz and BeetleBoy shot out toward them, and managed to lock them down. Me and the people who could hit them at that range pounded on them and the Cerberus fell. The more lightly armoured Arazu crumpled and exploded in a blue flash, spitting out the pod which was targetted and killed in short order.

So, the final tally was:

Armageddon
Raven
Rokh x 2
Drake x 2
Hurricane x 2
Cerberus
Arazu

Not half bad for a start. We lost none whatsoever. Interestingly, most of the pilots were from Imperium Sanctus Formare Romanus alliance, about 260 strong. They too appear to be friends with Hydra then.