Punching Above Your Weight: Kronos, Meet Hurricane

Sometimes that last “oh ok, one more scan for the night” moment can lead to some pretty great bear kills, made even better by the knowledge that they almost got away with it.

Marauders in general are something I tend to stay away from when salvaging missions. For one, they tend to be salvaging as they go, and 2), I honestly tend to view them as punching above my weight class. Call it ignorant fear as I know really nothing about them, but Marauders usually intimidate me into not wanting to tussle with them.

That all went out the window the other night though. After sneaky-killing a Hurricane in a belt, I tried out one last round of mission-scanning and came up with 3 hits, and there among them I spied a Kronos. It drew me. Ignoring the Domi and Harbinger hits, I made all haste to the Kronos mission. Warping through the first two gates, I found the Kronos pilot, Gallindra, puttering towards the very last wreck in the room. No! I overheated my Vigils AB, burned towards my last hope for aggro, and just as Gallindra got within looting range, I snagged some crap ammo from the wreck.

Gallindra sat there for a bit doing nothing, and I was beginning to think about checking out those other hits, when suddenly he deployed drones. Well well! I started to burn into a wide orbit as he targeted me when suddenly, he went red and I went insta-pop. Way to go orbiting at his rail guns at optimal range =/.

I ran for the Orca, switched out to my Hurricane and started to warp back to the mission. I voiced a few uncertainties in corp chat about a BC vs a Marauder, but after a few “Get under his guns and you’ll melt him” comments, I got pumped.

I jumped the second gate and landed 42 km from the flashy Marauder. I was sure I’d lose him, as even with my overheated fleet boosted point, I can only range about 31km. Nonetheless, I deployed drones, overheated my AB and charged right towards him. Amazingly, he aligned towards me and sent out his own drones.

I can tell you this, railguns on a Marauder sitting at range hit HARD. As I watch my shields evaporate in about 2 seconds followed by about 1/3 of my armor, I started to get a little worried. However, range is important with rails, and as soon as I got under his optimal and into range of my 220mm vulcan II’s, the tide started to change. I flipped on both my neuts, got into a nice close orbit and started to pummel on him as my drones took out his. I also remembered to turn my armor resist gang link back on on my Orca, as I’d managed to turn it off while warping it from  a planet to a new safe.

I did try for a hefty ransom in local but he would have none of it. With 1/3 of my armor left and holding fine, Gallindra dropped through armor and into structure, and finally, the inevitable. Interestingly enough, even after I had half of Jel local bitching about me and my shenanigans earlier in the evening, they all seemed to cheer for Gallindra’s downfall and watching them reject his attempts at soliciting help was hysterical.The only response he got was from a guy who ended up just wanting to know where his wreck would be so he could salvage it ;).

Watch as Gallindra tries to rationalize his epic loss by playing up the “pve vs pvp” element, switching to the tactic of downplaying the loss as a whole, and even goes into empty “watch your ass in low-sec” threats. And your guess is as good as mine as to what an “anti-pve” ship is ;):

Aiden Mourn > 900mil
Aiden Mourn > do it now
Aiden Mourn > or you will die
Aiden Mourn > doesn’t really look like I’m kidding does it
Ruthless eficiency > got something big? where?
Aiden Mourn > kronos
Gallindra > Lol I’m pve fit and he’s killing me
Ruthless eficiency > where at
Odiir > Dont pay him
Gallindra > in jel

(lol, yeah no shit)

Gallindra > Any help would be rewarded greatle
Ruthless eficiency > i want to watch him blow up
Gallindra > greatly*
Ruthless eficiency > tell me where gall
Ruthless eficiency > i can rep drones
Gallindra > Why not me?
Gallindra > You won’t get aggro
Ruthless eficiency > rep u with drones
Ruthless eficiency > where u at?
Aiden Mourn > the end of his structure
Aiden Mourn > ok so that was awesome
Ruthless eficiency > where at lol
Aiden Mourn > http://tears.evekb.co.uk/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=1444411
Aiden Mourn > woops
Gallindra > pve fitted ship stood no chance against an anti-pve ship
Aiden Mourn > I mean, it was a battlecruiser
Aiden Mourn > against a marauder
Mekkii > that was an expensive mistake
Aiden Mourn > easy pickings right?
Dalloph Vanorn > huh I don’t feel so bad anymore

( =) ^^the Hurricane pilot from the belt earlier )

kubaryi Corvus > so he popped you then you came back and popped him ??
Aiden Mourn > I did offer a ransom
kubaryi Corvus > he deserved it then IMHO
kubaryi Corvus > silly mission runner
Gallindra > yeah I should have known to dock up
Gallindra > Oh well, you live and learn
Aiden Mourn > well, you died and learned
Gallindra > Don’t let me catch you in lowsec aiden
Gallindra > I will get your pod
Aiden Mourn > of course you will
Aiden Mourn > Oooo…..another 8mil in salvage to top it off
Gallindra > Meh, I really didn’t lose anything, I traded an unused proteus for it.
Aiden Mourn > you lost a kronos
kubaryi Corvus > lol
kubaryi Corvus > thats like a miner saying his ore is free
kubaryi Corvus > would like to invite you to a place I know about
kubaryi Corvus > its called “reality”

o7,

-Aiden

~ by Aiden Mourn on May 24, 2010.