This is a fictionalised account of the first real battleship PvP experience I had in EVE. I’ve been addicted to, and really bad at, battleship PvP ever since.
DEKLEIN, STAR SYSTEM 209G-D. JACKDAW CLASS DESTROYER NERISSA
This had not been the quiet evening I had hoped it would be. Rather than having a calm evening of separating the local Guristas pilots from there CONCORD bounties, it seemed everyone has decided to come through my little corner of the universe with the intent of killing either me, or my friends. As such, I had just spent the better part of half an hour chasing another ship around with nothing to show for it. Intel showed some activity further north, but I figured it was time to go home and attempt to salvage something out of the evening. Then comms crackled to life.
“Hey Robby, do you want to go try and kill the guy who just got reported in OVO?” The voice belonged to one of my alliance mates.
I activated my microphone. “Why not, got nothing better to do. Where are you at?”
“Burning that way from JU, thinking I might take a Bridge. What about you?”
“One jump of of JU. Will need to stop and…” I was cut off before I could finish.
“Don’t you dare bring it.” This caused others in the channel to laugh, they all knew what was being referred to.
“I wasn’t going to.” I replied. “As I was saying, need to top off my magazines. What are you flying?”
“‘Fessor” came the reply.
“Jackdaw here. Just hitting the JU gate now.” Want me to take a Bridge and catch up?”
The intel channel lit up again.
“What the hell?” My alliance mate had clearly seen the same broadcast. “Who brings a Myrmidon to the middle of Dek?”
“I think something bigger than a pair of destroyers may be in order here.” I replied, trying hard not to laugh at what I knew was coming. Between a Confessor, Jackdaw, and anything else that might show up to fight this Myrmidon was toast. It was however, a great excuse to bust out a big toy.
An exasperated sigh filled my ears. “Fine, bring the damn Hyperion.”
I chuckled to myself in the confines of my pod as the channel filled with laughter. This guy hated my Hyperion with a passion.
The author’s Hyperion undocking from a Gallente Outpost.
DEKLEIN, STAR SYSTEM OWXT-5. HYPERION CLASS BATTLESHIP VALIANT
The jarring sensation of being catapulted by the jump bridge faded as I began aligning Valiant to the OVOR-R gate. I keyed up “Ok, I’m in OW. Warping to and ready jump into OVO whenever.”
“Ok, I’m still a couple jumps out.” My partner in this little adventure was taking the gates up in case this Myrmidon tried to run south. I was the northern bulwark. The plan was to try and catch him on a gate as he ran one way or the other. The Confessor was to snag him, I was there to bring the damage to take him down fast.
Intel it up again. “He is reported on grid with this station. I think we should go for it. How far out are you?”
“Couple jumps, go for it if you want.” He replied.
“Why not, jumping now.” I sent the jump protocol to the gate and the strange sensation of being catapulted to another start overtook me momentarily before I arrived in OVOR-R. Pulling up my navcomp, I began accelerating to enter a warp to the station. “Here goes nothing” I said to the interior of the pod walls. The warp drive activated and shortly the station came into view. With it, the Myrmidon, sitting just under one hundred kilometers from where I landed. “Man, you are not going to believe how perfect this is.” I keyed up to inform my cohort.
“What?” The reply was a mixture of question and sarcasm.
“He is within a perfect MJD shot.” I said as the hull of Valiant swung to point at the Myrmidon. “He is about to get a rude surprise.” I sent the command to begin spooling the micro jump drive to the computer. Valiant responded with a shudder that reverberated throughout the hull as is the ship was being pleasured. “Surprise mother…” the rest of my witty comment was cut off by the drive reaching capacity and activating. Instantly Valiant popped back into existence right next to the Myrmidon. I began locking up the Myrmidon while again keying up the comms channel. “I’m right on top of this guy. Just beautiful.”
The lock alarm sounded. Within moments the Myrmidon was warp scrammed and trapped on grid with me. After ensuring this, I applied a web to make sure he would stay still and began draining his capacitor. Then with a simple command, the six large blasters on Valiant’s bow vomited forth antimatter which crashed into the Myrmidon’s shields. The flight of Berzerker drones finally cleared their launch tubes and begin lobbing explosive shells at the mostly stationary Myrmidon. The Myrmidon opened fire in return, his own drones swarming around me, but his shields crashed down before he could make much of a dent in mine. The hull of the Myrmidon began crawling with the glow of armor repair nanites as antimatter and shells crashed into it. A pair of Vespas then started attacking the Myrmidon. One of my corp mates had undocked a Gila of her own initiative and decided she wanted a piece of this guy. A third ship appeared on grid, a friendly Nemesis, who began applying sensor dampeners to the Myrmidon while he moved in range for his torpedos. Within seconds, the glow of nanites faded, and the Myrmidon’s hull began to break apart as the armor failed. My cohort in the Confessor arrived just in time to get off a parting shot before the Myrmidon exploded under a barrage of antimatter, shells, and torpedoes. The local channel lit up with something about blobbing as the escape pod warped off.
The Confessor pilot spoke up. “Nice work Robby. Did not expect him to go down so fast.”
“Nether did I.” I replied “Guess the neut pressure was to much for his capacitor.”
“Maybe.” The reply came in as the Confessor started to align out to the gate home. “See you back in JU”
“See you there.” I replied following his align. On returning to JU-QWQ, the crew was directed to paint a Myrmidon on the side of the ship marking her first kill. Sometimes, even a Hyperion is the right ship for the job.
