Baiting the Baiters

After killing the Noctis, we decide to push farther down the chain. I jump my scout into the connecting C2 and find 2 complete sets of Sisters Core probes on d-scan. There is also a tower but no visible ships and wrecks. Curious. The only wrecks I see are sleepers so maybe someone was interrupted and is now scanning for the source of the threat.

With two sets of probes on d-scan, we decide 1 more set can't hurt anything. I send a scout to the outer planet to drop probes. He is still in warp when a Drake appears on d-scan at what can only be a wormhole.

I report is general area and the scout probes out the position and finds the expected wormhole. Since the wormhole has a static high sec, we are expecting the signature to be a B274. Today must be our day for the unexpected. The wormhole is a K162 from a class 5. Bait Drake!

Since it is no fun to put out bait which is never taken, we form up a small fleet. C5 corporations can be unpredictable about fleet sizes so we are rolling the dice with little to no information on what we might be up against.

Evidently, the bait doesn't have enough patience to deal with us. He jumps back into the C5 and disappears coming back almost immediately in an Interceptor. He jumps through the wormhole and warps to the sun where he sits motionless. Trying a different kind of worm.

Since we know it is bait, we decide to jump our scout into their system to let them know we are active and get some intel. They have a Revelation, Moros, Orca, Devoter, Brutix and Legion visible on d-scan in the wormhole.

The dreads cannnot be jumped into the C2 so there is little concern about them. We do not have sufficient numbers to take a dread and carrier so we need to make sure we do not get polarized in the C5. While we are gathering our intel, the Interceptor goes back to his tower but a cloaky Tengu and the Legion jump into the C2 and disappear.

Time to see what they will do, I warp back to the wormhole in the C5 in my Proteus and sit their uncloaked for a minute before jumping into the C2. I burn away from the wormhole and they take the bait. Both the Tengu and Legion decloak and I lock the Legion.

The cloaky portion of our fleet decloaks and I have one of them jump through to the C5 while everyone else piles on the Legion. They land a Drake and the Brutix and our pilot on the other side of the wormhole engages them. The Tengu pilot sees the incoming fleet and jumps back through the wormhole. A couple of pilots follow, but are unable to lock him before he cloaks.

In the meantime, we have managed to push the Legion nearly 10k off the wormhole. Our webs have him down to less than 15 m/s so he has no chance to getting back. The Legion goes down and the Drake who came to help goes down with him. I like the fact that the Drake pilot jumped into the fight knowing they were outmanned and stayed to the end instead of trying to escape like the Tengu and Brutix pilot.