The following piece is written by Knerf, Member of Northern Coalition
In the time honored tradition of the SM3LL corporation, a celebration is never complete without the sacrifice of blood, ships and whiskey.
With the four year mark rapidly approaching the CEO of SM3LL White Aero spared no expense to make an unforgettable weekend in space. With three fleet comps ready to go at the cost over 150 billion isk, a bloodbath it certainly would be.
Orthus was the first ship of choice and damn, it was a great one to challenge the hordes of HONOR. On the orders of fleet command, mass undock began in FAT and X’s quickly spammed for warpins on a tackled ratting carrier. Our armada landed perplexed to see an archon piloted by Nalessi, a well known Vince Draken alt ratting in an asteroid belt. White Aero, enraged with the idea of our alliance leader ratting could not remain in his normal calm demeanor. Broadcasts for primary began splurging into our windows faster than we could lock the objective. The Vince alt put up a valiant fight but stood no chance against the volleys of his countrymen. The aftermath and rumors that spread so rapidly throughout that day are a complete mystery to many of us. Maybe a story for another day
The SM3LL lead prowl of 30 ships moved with purpose to the staging system, and weekend freeport owned by the Brave Newbies. Our fleet of rapid launching warriors were quickly greeted by the 300 shoot anything but purple local HONOR had setup. With White Aero in the FC position, orders rang out for warpins at zero to the station. Upon arrival we found the field already mangled with over a hundred wrecks from hours of wave upon wave of assaults. We set our gaze upon easy targets at first with these beautiful little war machines, until a bold brave newbie pilot undocked in a dead space carrier, seemingly ready to join our fleet of fun and adventure. Once the Archon was in our ranks ready to battle beside our powerful Orthus fleet, he instantly warped to an asteroid belt to rat. White Aero once again enraged by the audacity this pilot, announced him primary and let fly our rapid missiles. This fleet was frosty and well versed in the small skirmishes we experienced for nearly an hour pirating around HED. Orders were blurted out to anchor a medium bubble at the sun to make to devil dogs come to us. It quickly became a fish in a barrel situation with one after another warping to their deaths, stuck in the entanglement of the warp fields as hundreds of rapid missiles pierced their meager hulls. A few behemoth battleships warped in at zero with eyes on a brawl to which the humble SM3LL corp happily obliged. The minuscule amount of battleships seemed like an easy target to be overwhelmed by our agile death machines, but it was a trap of sorts. While weaving in and out of the massive targets at full speed while inside our own bubble a scout yells out “bombers uncloaking!”. The call snapped us out of our blood lust, so focus could fall onto the daunting task ahead of us. With the tiny amount of shield buffer and current activation of our state of the art micro propulsion modules, the ability to tank the damage was completely out of the question. The echoing sound of a safe align point roared out of battle comms with the bold urgency everyone recognized as a life or death order. With the first wave of electron bombs hurling death toward the center mass of our warp trap, another scout blurted out “another wave” to which we could only see as the final nail in our coffins. The second squad of cloaky bombers was to our benefit over eager, and hurled their payload several kilometers into the void. With quick wits and proper key assignments all but one ship made it clear of the blast zone. Having fulfilled our blood sacrifice for the day the SM3LL warriors returned home.
The second day of celebration began early with many pilots still drunk or hungover from the previous nights blue on blue docking games fueled by free flowing whiskey. As SM3LL’s day two birthday fleet began to form, eyes became wide with the MOTD staring capsuleers in the face.Today we will be flying 40 rooks and 20 curses into battle with no logi and little support. Our fleet commander for this mornings roam would be Tyler, a great EU time zone leader. With barely enough dps to break a marauder class battleship, we knew the secret to our success would have to be in spreading jams to completely control the battlefield. Our first target system was once again the HED, known to be picketed by the endless mongols of BNI gangs. Even with the HONOR freeport event still in full swing and more than 200 in local, we had little confrontation while piloting the normally dangerous system. With the patented “to catch a noob, you have to act like one” approach, FC ordered one of our greatest scouts and fourth largest bounty holder Warn1ng Soul to stay and bait. Orders made clear, our ewar monsters rushed out of system and burned two jumps only to re-approach the gate with hopes Warn1ng could pick an out numbered fight. A few minutes slowly dragged by when finally comms erupt with Warn1ng calling for backup quickly. Propulsion fired off with the urgency of a feral cat inroute to its prey. Listing off the size and comp of the enemy gang, the experienced veteran gave us the perfect warpin to trap and squash the mediocre fleet of Moas and Eagles. The small brawl was not enough to fill our bellies, with HED unwilling to engage we went north towards providence where invaders do not go unnoticed. The prospect of being blue ball’d became a probability with our massive ECM numbers, so we reached out to the legendary Rooks and Kings alliance, who fly their powerful and overly efficient fleets in the providence area. While reaching out to a RnK fleet commander in their public channel, we unknowingly gained the attention of a CVA commander who believed the best offensive would be an RnK patented pipe bombing fleet. While joking about reaching out to RnK and being pipe bombed by their overwhelming force, our lead scout called out over comms frantically “cyno and Heavy interdictor with a bubble up on out gate”. Tyler’s excitement could barely be contained at the failed attempt, he immediately ordered the fleet to warp to a perch well above the short range threat of battleships stuck in there own trap. While foaming at the mouth, orders were given to engage the seemingly helpless targets at our optimal ranges. Very little could be done to defend themselves and to their luck our fleet of heroes had very few pilots able to hold the massive tankers down. The enemy scourge desperately lit off their micro jump drive and scattered like roaches, leaving behind two Abaddon class battleships and their Devoter to die to the delighted mob. With a short romp around Providence leading to little, our birthday bloodfest came to an end.
Jabber pings viciously rang out over and over again way too early on a sunday morning after drinking and amusement filled the previous night. The messages were from our newly re-appointed alliance leader Vince Draken. It was CTA time, and this meant thousands of pilots piling into one system fighting vigorously in what can only be described as an amazing fight brought from all sides that eventually killed the eve server, literally. After several minutes of everyone cursing CCP’s name, massive pilots logged back into where a marvelous fight WAS going on moments prior, only to be sent home.
“The time is now!’ states White Aero as the north side of providence is announced for the stage of our final and most epic birthday roam. The 40 man fleet comp will be a remote armor repping Nester fleet with one officer fit Bhaalgorn as our center, and two dead space guardians as mobile batteries. This news of course frenzied the troops with the stirring motivation that only a pimped RR fleet can do. The masters of Logistics began putting all their cogs into motion to organize all the savage clan members into one system and fit the monster ships to be handed out to yearning pilots. With the magnificent fleet finally all huddled together in all its majesty on the Y-MPWL gate awaiting our glorious dash to certain death. Our overly substantial target lays only a few star systems away with the knowledge of our incoming. “Today” announces White Aero “is the day we face 150 CVA with 40 SM3LL Nesters.” Some peace loving scared of the killboard hipsters wouldn’t not see this statement as motivation in the slightest, but not the champions of the SM3LL clan. The extreme odds only thrilled the spirits of these battle hardened heroes for the clash they are about to undertake. The system of choice is IS-R7P, which is defended by a 150 man CVA gang desperate to kill all infidels invasion of their space. The orders are crystal, we will die here and we will take as many with us as possible. White Aero’s orders are belted out, “Warp zero to station, hardeners and watchlist up.”. We land on station to see only a smattering of Prophecy’s and support looting the torn warzone. Primaries roar out with broadcasts following, one down, two, three. This was a turkey shoot that we knew could not last long with the main enemy flotilla flying around the backdrop of the system. No more than two minutes go by before short range scans light up with uncountable combatants. Landing on our elegant fleet at zero, CVA shook the field dropping hundreds upon hundreds of combat drones intent on destruction. White Aero’s Bhaalgorn was their first primary, but with our repping power the colossal ship only dipped into 50% armor before clawing back to full EHP. A lone warrior seeing our perilous predicament lit a cynosural field to bring in a triage Archon designed for one purpose, to postpone the inevitable death of his companions long enough to make our glory even more immense. The CVA commander would have none of this, and near instantly neutralized the entire capacitor and repair strength of our potential savior. Nesters swiftly one by one were wiped from the field in single volleys eradicating half the armor repair capabilities afforded by the ship platforms. The honor of a warriors death was in full swing as White Aero’s Bhaalgorn finally dipped into structure and was erased in an instant. Calls for an honorable retreat was made and Micro Jump Drives were refitted and activated launching a dozen shattered Nester hulls into a star burst. Safe points were quickly made for escape, and pilot’s laughter at their illustrious battle filled the once serious battle comms. Every heroic pilot in that fleet made it home in one way or another sharing tale of a weekend birthday filled with some of the best fights many have seen in a long time.
White Aero’s Bhaalgorn Lossmail
I would like to personally thank:
White Aero, who personally set up 90% of this weekends event with the sole purpose of entertaining his troops.
HONOR and CVA for the fights, Truly are the last beacon of what pvp should be in EVE o7
