Ninja Salvaging Series 2 - Fighting outnumbered

Lately I have been coming across  many missioners running sites with 2-3 friends. Unless that extra ship is an alt, I believe it is a complete waste of time and rewards. I usually treat such groups with caution. My area of operations is Gallente space, meaning most of ships I encounter are drone ones. It's sort of ninja on hard mode as drone boat is very hard to fight against. Especially multiple ones. Thus I adjust my strategy. If I am surrounded by multiple drone ships, I do not have illusions to tank and normally don't try to get under their guns, but instead, I try to provoke engagement and change ship. This time I visit Hurricane, Hyperion and a Noctis.

I get yellow boxed by Hyperion. He suspiciously is approaching me, without firing. My experience rings warning bells. I quickly pre-align my both logi alts. Something is up.

Standing your ground

Suddenly Hyperion and Hurricane opens fire on me. My fears came true, I get pointed, webbed, neuted and tracking disrupted. Sigh. Why would Hyperion, of all ships, have a bloody tracking disruptor if they expect to kill ninjas in a mission, which usually is a frigate or a cruiser at best?



Anyway, shit was going down. Being heavy neuted I couldn't even run my afterburner. I ordered my 2 Augorors to warp. They land just in time. Cap chain is up, repairs are on. Now I tackle Hyperion and start working on his tank. Time passes on and I am slowly getting into Hyperions armor. I do not expect to break him, but I also do not see any reps. Is he buffer fit? In a mission?

Just as I thought I got it all under control, the fun part was only beginning. I suddenly see a Sleipnir land. Sleipnir is piloted by Orions Lord, a competitor ninja, that I had encountered before and we have been after each other ever since. He tackles my logi. Coincidentally, I now also have a Hurricane switching focus to my logi.

I keep my Augoror on far away orbit on opposite sides. If they want to get it, they will have to chase it. I am not making it easy. Furthermore, it has also teeth.

I tackle Sleipnir pilot. He got himself into this mess and is not going anywhere. I seem to be able to tank incoming dps. Once I'm done with Hyperion, I will give him the fight he was looking for. Just as I thought situation couldn't get more stressful I'm proven wrong again. I see Rook, a t1 jamming ship, land on grid. A logi's worst nightmare. At this point I do not expect to win a fight anymore. All it needs to do is to have few lucky cycles on my ECCMless logi ships and fight will turn sides very fast.

But it was not over just yet. You see, I too have something up my sleeve. Few seconds later my Orca lands on grid. I have stopped my aggression with Enyo in the middle of the fight. While they were busy killing me, Hyperion pilot might not have noticed that he had no scram on him anymore. Once Orca landed, game was about to change. Rook or no rook.

Once in range, I try to swap for a Brutix. Bloody CCP mechanics! First I need to open fleet hangars to throw away nanite paste from my cargohold so I could board my Brutix. Maybe they forgot, that when they introduced ancillary armor repair module, nanite paste now is also used as a charger. Me trying mutlibox multiple logi ships, swap a ship and keep tabs on what is going on didn't work so well. Once I was sitting in a Brutix, field has changed in a matter of seconds. Everyone ran away, like cockroaches when the lights get turned on. Before I could lock Hyperion, there was nothing left anymore. Well, apart from a slow Hurricane that didn't warp off and got tackled by one of my Augorors.

What continued was a slow death. Zosius did not have any engagement left on him anymore, only both logi pilots had it. So 8 hobgoblins on unbonused ships were slowly eating away Hurricane's shields. Looks like pilot lost hope getting out alive. Was waiting for his doom while abandoned by his friends. Where is that Rook now? I would seriously look for better friends.

It was a good fight indeed. I was a bit upset about not being able keep 100% control and let Sleipnir and Hyperion get away. I thought they would stick at least for a moment. I should have checked all the tackles before swapping, but maybe my ambition is too high. Perhaps managing to get alive and score a kill in this situation is already an achievement.