It's ALIVE!!

Yes, the time has arrived, the time that me and probably quite a lot of other pilots has been waiting for- mobilisation for battle.

Apparently IAC's leader, Tyrrax Thorrk had been rather nasty about KIA, so the word had gone out that IAC was going to be KIA's first target.

For a few days, we had been moving ships and equipment to a system in Derelik, a few jumps from the 0.0 entrypoint, Doril, that IAC frequent.

At 2000, we undocked- quite a sight, and it gave me a thrill of pleasure and satisfaction to see what sort of force we could muster- approx 65 ships, all BC and less in size, all T2, ready to kick arse. We aligned to the out-gate and within a few jumps, were ready to jump into Doril. Our scout told us that there was nothing on the other side, so we jumped through.

Eddz, the boss, had been caught up in the hellhole of Jita, and was thus running late, so we set up an impromptu gate camp in Doril, to see what we could catch.

First kill of the evening was an unfortunate (and unscouted) Crow pilot:

[ 2008.03.23 20:22:49 ] (notify) Jay Deah [KIA]<KIA>(Flycatcher) has started trying to warp scramble "BA Akira [CAPZ]<QSA>(Crow)"
[ 2008.03.23 20:22:49 ] (notify) DerSchakal [LNSSE]<KIA>(Malediction) has started trying to warp scramble "BA Akira [CAPZ]<QSA>(Crow)"
[ 2008.03.23 20:22:49 ] (notify) Your attempt to target Crow failed.
[ 2008.03.23 20:22:49 ] (notify) Target is invulnerable.
[ 2008.03.23 20:22:49 ] (notify) Target is invulnerable.
[ 2008.03.23 20:23:00 ] (notify) xxxxxxx has started trying to warp scramble "TempSniper [KIA]<KIA>(Vagabond)"

Just for the lols, I included the line in red- the xxxs are a KIA pilot- we were all very rusty! Throughout the first 30-60 mins, we had a lot of people with guns hot locking up the stargates and webbing/ scramming/ shooting them. Amusing yet annoying at the same time!

I was in a sensor boosted (res script) Huginn and didn't even get a lock on. Humph.

Fortunately, we got back into the swing of things quite quickly, and when it counted, no-one messed up. We hung around the gate waiting for Eddz, and killed: an Ushra'Khan Anathema (don't quite know how he managed that), a Broadsword, Jaguar, then as we moved to Utopia, an Ushra'Khan Vagabond. He was fast, but not fast enough.

We made speed then up the pipe toward FAT, killing a Damnation, Falcon and Imicus along the way, all different corps/ alliances.

We were in CNC-4V, one jump from FAT-6P, and our scout told us there were many IAC ships in local, and they were warping to CNC gate. We hurriedly warped to FAT gate and jumped through- we wanted to engage them on the FAT side. Sure enough, a large gang arrived at the gate. We were told there wouldn't be any primary calling, as there were too many to sift through to pick primaries. As we all knew what our ships were capable of, we just got on with the job. The battle was epic. I was initially picking off Frigs and Inties, as this is what the Huginn is made for, then moved onto cruisers. Blue flashes were going off all over the place, drones and missiles filling the skies. Voice comms was very quiet, a good sign as everyone was concentrating hard. I didn't take any damage, which was down to luck more than anything else.

Eventually, the battle subsided, we held the field, and so it would seem, had taken relatively few losses. Once all the KMs were up, seems we fought 47 ships versus our 67. IaC knew what we had, so major props to them for engaging outnumbered.

However, it wasn't over yet. After clearing the field of loot, a few of us jumped through to CNC to chase a ship, but then IaC re-engaged on the FAT side with another sizeable force. We rushed back to the gate and jumped through, but IaC withdrew quite quickly.

It was getting late, and we decided to head back to Doril. We made good speed, didn't really come across much, but we got ambushed in F4R2, a few jumps from Doril. I am not clear exactly what happened, but they must've Jump Bridged ahead of us, and had about 100 ships, although only 50 show on the battle report as it was just those who managed to engage. We scattered. Fortunately, we could go around 1P, so I warped to VA6-DR gate... and landed smack dab on top of a huge IaC force, with a bubble up. I must've warped before they bubbled, as I landed on the gate. Sweating, and on my own, I jumped through, thinking they are bound to follow. Only one Stiletto did, but I had the advantage and managed to get out... phew.

Warped to K0CN-3, then back into 1P.. thinking I may be able to get away with this.... and thank the Jove, I did. Close shave. Picked up some straggler remnants of our fleet, and we regathered on Sendaya gate in Doril. We had taken some extra losses it seemed, but we were still in the lead in terms of kills/ losses.

The night wasn't quite over yet however. 6 Blackguard Coalition jumped into our camp and got killed. I called it a night then, time was getting on.

An excellent first op after so long to raise the morale, plenty of skirmishes and fun.