Doril and roaming

I had just finished an excellent bottle of the local wine from Sendaya, and was relaxing in my berth in between patrols, when a call was received for all pilots to help out a KIA gang in Doril.

Pulling on some overalls as I sprinted down to the station's docking bay, people were deftly moving out of my way, well used to pod pilots sprinting to their ships- especially in Sendaya.

Sendaya is a border system, the last link of Empire security before you jump into Doril and the lawlessness beyond. Concord decided to build a station here, the only one in the system, to keep an eye on things spilling over into Sendaya. Although they have no jurisdiction in Sendayan lowsec, they keep a quiet eye on things.

The station was a dull, utilitarian affair, but what did you expect from cops. Even the station's bars were a little boring- well lit and clean. And mostly empty. Hence drinking wine in my own berth.

Anyway. I called ahead as I ran, and my Huginn Recon ship was prepped as I arrived in my hangar. It was hung in mid-air, moving gently as the anti-grav units worked to keep it still. Clambered into my pod, and it started to fill as the lid closed. I felt it rock as it was lifted and a thump as it was placed in the Huginn.

Quickly ran-pre flight checks, then undocked into the blackness. Quickly orientating myself, I pushed the ship into warp toward Doril gate. I was tuned into the Alliance comms, and there seemed to be a huge fight going on, opponents unknown- no-one had time to give me details. I assumed it was clear to jump in, and upon arriving at the gate, did so.

The scene that greeted me as I arrived in Doril was quite amazing, and initially I struggled to take it in. The overview filled right up immediately, and I filtered out the friendlies. It flickered, and filled up with enemies. I adjusted the view screen, and gawped. Stretching for about 120km off the gate was a series of small battles- pilots caught in life or death struggles with an Alliance called AAA. The distance off the gate negated the ability to call primaries, we were too spread out. Our fleet commander was calling primaries, but at best they were 90km away from me, and up to 120km out. I looked at the overview, and gawped again. An Ares was travelling at 20km/s... I didn't think this could be correct, maybe the overview was wrong? I found the Ares, and his movement seemed to indicate the overview was, of course, correct. In fact, most of their ships were travelling at ridiculously fast speeds in bursts, so a stretched out battle like this suited them down to the ground. They must be "nanoships".

I kicked in my MWD, and headed out to the nearest fight. It didn't look good for KIA, some of pilots were in pods, and the others seems to be struggling. We couldn't bring enough firepower to bear fast enough, and I cursed my Huginn's lack of speed. The FC quite correctly told us to withdraw and jump back through to Sendaya. Disappointed I couldn't help more than I did, I turned my ship around, and jumped back through. I waited on the other side, along with 2 other neutral ships who were either scouts or just naturally cautious, and saw most of our fleet back in.

So, we took a bit of a battering, but some days you kick, other days you get kicked. Such is the nature of this life!