Last night I readied my Iron Horse. Our fleet was up, pressing the enemy, who was playing cat and mouse with our ships outside their hive. Their fleet commander (FC) was no dummy. We caught one Rupture-class cruiser off their HQ, but that was it. The rest were buttoned down tight in their station. So we warped off and jumped out of the system.
The next hour was a chess match. They geared up a cruiser fleet to come after us. We warped to a safe spot off grid and a few of us upshipped to cruisers to make it a fair fight. We warped back, but only to sporadic engagement as each FC wanted a battle on their terms.
Then the call came down. “We’ll use the frigates as bait.”
Sure, I was getting tired of this ship anyway.
All of us in frigates and a lone Thrasher-class destroyer formed up and warped a ways off the gate while our cruisers stayed behind. They were the closers, we were the bait.
But 8-10 ships, mostly Vexor and Rupture-class enemy cruisers were having none of it. Instead of rushing to us, they deployed a hailstorm of drones. They rushed in and caused temporary panic in our frig fleet before the FC brought us around.
“Stay close and target those drones.”
“I’m primary,” someone called out. “I’m going down…”
“They’re on me,” someone else said. “Warping out.”
“Everyone target those drones now and take them out!” the FC said.
The drones battered us and shook our morale before we regained composure.
“Okay guys, we’re taking a short warp to the gate and engaging,” the FC said. “Cruisers, be ready.”
We warped, pulses racing into a force that would rip us apart in a few short minutes if help didn’t arrive. But when we got there, the last cruiser blipped off my combat overview. They had warped out.
We regrouped and headed to a safe spot in-system. They didn’t take the bait… this time. 15 minutes later we tried again.
Warping in to 70km off the gate we saw a lone Merlin-class frigate. They were trying to bait us. Missiles from our Kestrel frigates hit home once we were 35km out. But then our FC had second thoughts.
“Guys, orbit our Maller cruiser and slowly burn away. Let their fleet come to us.”
We did. A minute later my combat overview lit up with almost a dozen ships—mostly cruisers—that had jumped through the gate. This time they meant business, grouping up and burning for us while letting loose another hailstorm of drones.
We were ready for the drones this time though. We targeted them quickly and my autocannons took out several Warrior-class ones.
Before we knew it, they were on us. Our cruisers entered the fray in force. The FC called out the Ruptures as primary and secondary targets. He also put our ships with tracking disruptors on them to mess with the accuracy of their guns. It worked. While we had trouble coordinating fire on the first ship, it went down. It was the morale boost we needed. The next was faster.
We moved on to the Vexors with the FC calling them as his voice cut in and out over the comms. They were chewing us up though. Explosions pocked the sky. Our FC went down, calling targets without concern for his own demise. Then I went down too, but not before putting fire on another cruiser.
I escaped in my pod and rushed back to our HQ, reshipping in a Punisher frigate. Many other pilots did the same. On my way back to the battlefield, I heard through my comm link that the tide had turned. By the time I got there, it was mop up. The chess match had ended in our victory. Being bait wasn't so bad.
