Defenders at last

I have always wondered why so few people are willing to defend their home system. Tonight was different. We jumped into a static to see a couple of ships and a tower on d-scan. With a static C4, that in itself has been rare recently.

Scouting the POS reveals that both ships are piloted and a combat probe is also visible in system. We assume that with a single probe up, it is only a matter of time before they know of our connection so we deploy core scanners and start resolving signatures.

Sure enough, a couple of minutes later additional probes show up and several hauling ships and mining ships show up in system. Evidently, the locals were mining in their static C3. Makes sense, since there are very few signatures in the local system.

We find the connecting wormhole (c3a) and jump a Harbinger through on our static and a Drake on c3a to see what kind of response we will get. Probes start moving in on our home connection and we are pretty sure they have the wormhole pinned. One of the pilots jumps into a Dominix and warps to c3a.

Our Drake engages and we jump our fleet into the static and jump to the c3a wormhole. While we are in route, a Falcon decloaks and jams our Drake and the Dominix warps off as the fleet lands. We have shown our hand and have nothing to show for it.

We warp back to the home wormhole and are discussing our next move when the locals reship into what appears to be a combat fleet. They have a Maelstrom, a Dominix, a Abaddon, a Hurricane and a Drake. In addition, the Falcon pilot is still out there somewhere.

We bubble up the home wormhole hoping they will warp to us and for a nice change of pace, we get our wish granted. They warp in and the fight begins. They target our Broadsword while we go after the Dominix.

A couple of our pilots hold back waiting on the Falcon to engage and once it does, it is called as primary. Unfortunately for the Falcon pilot, the bubble has dragged him in close and the Falcon explodes rather quickly.

As the Falcon dies, our Broadsword is forced off the field at critical shield levels so there is no hope of catching the capsule. We return our focus to the Dominix and take it down as well. Meanwhile, I have been primaried and as the Dominix goes down, I am forced to leave the field as well since I am now deep into armor.

Our remaining fleet goes after the Maelstrom and takes it down while the remaining members of their fleet bug out. We give them a good fight in local and then roll the wormhole instead of hanging our disrupting the rest of their play time.

While this group did not manage to get a kill, they were able to force a couple of our fleet members off the field. Instead of having us disrupt their entire evening, they put up a fight and we withdrew once it was over. I tip my hat to these guys for being willing to engage and defend their territory. If we had not had an escape door at our back, they would have gotten a Broadsword and a Proteus.