Carrier in a Hole...A Story of Carebear...

In the vast universe of New Eden we all have our own style and way of doing things. Before I created Deep Void Industrial Group and Deep Void Merc Syndicate, I was a director of a corp known as Axiom Navy. I learnt a lot in Axiom and in many ways still think of it as my home. The plans and Skill Training plan that I give my Newbie Corp members today is close to the one that Frank Graden and I created there. It was also in this corp that I met a good friend in New Eden, Rudolph Jimler.

Like many new pilots in New Eden he wanted to get out there and fight. He wanted to lead the way and bring glory to Axiom Navy and Axiom Alliance. It was this energy that made him a fun pilot to fly with, and though several times I warned him of the dangers of jumping right in to ships, he continued to push the limits of what he could do. In a lot of ways I like that about him. 

Now several million skill points later Rudolph has gone his own way. He was in TEST, Gallente Militia and then Caldari Militia before finding a home is a C2 Wormhole. Wormholes are good ISK makers for those that want the life and in many ways are safer than other parts of know space cause of the low traffic that goes through them. But none the less there is not true safe space in New Eden, and the proves to be doubly so for those pilots that fly cap ships. As I told Rudy when he first joined Axiom, "The moment you buy the ship and its in your hanger consider it destroyed."

Every story in New Eden though needs a villain. You know they man with a top hat and monocle that seeks out the innocent. While she doesn't wear a top hat and monocle, Svodola Darkfury of Heaven's End is as close to a villain as we will get. 

".....I think I'm going to call it an early night, but I think I'll scout a high-sec for us real quick and check out the chain." Svodola would say over comms to her corpmates as they prepared to close operations for the night. Coming into Class Two wormhole, she finds two pilots are active, the first is in a Helios, the second is in a Badger. Svodola warps to their POS to watches the two wormhole dwellers. 

Rudolph Jimler doesn't know that he is being watched. He has just returned from Highsec with his badger filled with new mods for his new Chimera class carrier. In a Wormhole a carrier is a great assets to have, to do complexes inside, but cause of their size many times once they are built in the WH they are there until they are destroyed. Ever the eager beaver Rudy jumps in his carrier and begins to fit up, for running a complex. 

"Badger pilot switched to a Chimera, and a Domi is bumping it out of the shields?" Svodola would report to back to her corp members. Those online had their ears pricked. Most of them were thinking a corp heist? This Caldari carrier is being jacked. So they began to switch into PvP ships.

Meanwhile Rudy had a corpmate logs in and nearly bumps him from the PoS shields. Rudy tells him to get ready to run a site and so both his alt and his corpmember switches to a Dominix and warps out to the an anomaly, but his is also wondering about his new carrier. He wants to test its DPS, so he figures why not, and aligns the ship and in one fatal move sealed the deal for new ship, he pushed warp. In a few short minutes it was going to explode.

Rule number one of EVE is fly what you can afford. Rule number two is, keep an eye on local and Check d-scan at all times. In known space one can see everyone there, in the local chat channel. This knowledge is reported everyone in intel channels, and has created the Meta game of "AFK Camping" where a pilot logs into space in a cloaked ship and sits in space undetected.  The fear of this unknown person in Null Sec space away from Concord prevents people from running sites or going about their normal thing. In wormhole space local chat does not show everyone it in. Instead it only shows those people who talked. If you don't talk in local then most than likely you will not be seen as you pass through. The only way of knowing that you ship is in trouble is D-Scan. But when the ship hunting you is able to fly cloaked, often you find out until its too late that you are being hunted. 

"....Chimera is aligning...warped, under the sun..THERE'S AN ANOMALY THERE, PROTEUS GOING FOR HERO TACKLE, EVERYONE MOVE YOU CRAP UP HERE!" It was more than what Svodola could have hoped for. She followed the capital ship into warp and landed with it. Uncloaking she grabbed point. 

"PROTEST UNCLOAKED" called Rudolph's corpie. The worst words that he would here. He quickly moved to switch damage on to his attacker. Then clicking D-SCAN, he saw the rest. 9 more ships landed on the field, three Falcon EWAR ships, two Lokis, an Onyx and three Pilgrims. These ships would try to make quick work of the Chimera, but first the two Dominix had to go. 

Once the Onyx took over as heavy tackle on the field Svodola would go back up the chain and grab her Astarte command ship that had both heavey DPS and energy neuting power. Rudy in the mean time would kill one of the Falcons, the other two would warp out and come back in heavier DPS ships. Also bringing in a Logi ships Svodola would prevent any move loses. With the Lokis and Onyx killing his drones, his cap failing, Rudy would try to save ship. In local he said, "I'll pay you, just don't kill the carrier."..."We'd rather have the kill mail" came the reply. Fate decided he clicked self destruct in once last chance to have some control of the outcome. Over heating guns and applying full DPS Svodola and her gang beat the clock, and claimed the life of Rudy's carrier. 

There are many lessons to be learned from this tale. And many people other people reading it on the forums or Eve-kill can't help but to wonder why was a carrier sent to do anomalies in this wormhole. I could say that a fool and his money are easily parted. I could question how crazy it was that will all the drones he had he had never thought of having a ECM-Drones. Or that he only took out 70 drones in a ship that could hold 500. And while those are all good questions they only seem to bring out more questions. I doubt that Rudolph himself knows the answers to why he did the things that he did, be as stated at the top, everyone in New Eden flies a bit differently and has their own way of doing things. 

The reader would be happy to know that while the bad guy in this story, Svodola Darkfury is not without a heart. Short after killing Rudy's carrier and podding him back to high-sec. She sent him a conversation to give him some tips.
Killmail linked here.