Bad Combat

"Quick, get on comms, we've some action happening next door. They've already killed a hauler".

This was my first indication that I should board my ship and get into action. Up to that point I had been watching a holoreel about an ancient world where a great warrior once lived and fought other warriors with swords. Well, now was my turn but I wasn't going to be swinging a bit of metal around.

"Get into my Nemesis" I was ordered by a corp mate. Well, that works for me, means I don't have to risk my own ship. I was still a little unsettled when I started to receive orders on where to go. An unfamiliar ship and no chance to get my own head online properly contributed that feeling.

Jumping into C4a was easy enough as the targets were in a Hawk and a Jaguar inside their POS bubble, and this was out of range of the entry wormhole. I wasn't in long when they warped off from their bubble. Possibly it was random, but more likely it was to engage the bait drake we had just jumped in and parked near a planet. "Warp to me, they've engaged" confirmed their manoeuvres were less than random.

Warping across took no time and I landed at range and started trying to get a lock which never came. "Gah, what's going on? Why won't this damn thing... Oh, I'm still cloaked. Bugger". I realised too late and decloaked just in time to see the last ship warp off. "Oh, well that's probably the last we'll see of them".

"Let's just see about that came the FCs reply".

We could still see them on d-scan yet they weren't at their POS. Clearly they were jumping between safe spots as probing them out proved tricky. After a few minutes of these jumping games they returned to their POS and the Jaguar pilot reshipped to a Myrmidon. Oh, did this just escalate a little? Well, they're not moving so who knows.

"Looks like these guys aren't moving now" I said over comms after watching them for a few more minutes. Our bait drake was parked near the C2b but they we're interested or at least they weren't interested initially. Then they warped right over and the Myrm engaged. I warped the SB over and joined in, remembering to decloak this time.

I landed closer than I meant to, got a good lock, scrammed, painted and tracking disrupted the Myrm. The Drake was eating through the Myrm reasonably well by this point and clearly the Myrm wanted my point removed so set his drones on me. I noticed the damage coming in but wasn't unduly worried. I aligned out and started thinking about warp. That was when I insta-died and started spamming warp to get the pod out in one piece.

What had I done wrong? Well, when I landed I noted only one enemy ship on the field - the Myrm. I promptly forgot that a Hawk was anywhere in system and never noticed when it joined the fight. I guess he landed, locked me up and popped me so the Myrm could flee. Oh, well about time I lost a ship as it's been quite a while - best part is the ship wasn't mine. Sorry, Epi.