With the CFC’s invasion of Fountain more than a week old the
constant calls to join fleets and attack or defend assets makes for a near
constant state of exhaustion for my crews.
I have elected to strip the crews off of several ships in razor space
and have the transported to B-D to allow for rotations of my crews to keep the exhaustion
at bay for as long as I can.
I have already been on three different fleets so when the
call comes out to form up yet again for a new fleet I almost say no and get
some much needed rest for myself as well, but the call is for both battleships
and stealthbomber doctrines. This might
be good so I order my hound prepped and transfer my pod to the ship and get
undocked and ready to go.
I undock from the outpost in B-D and head into J5A to the
rally point. Several other bomber pilots
are already waiting at the POS we are assembling at and getting ready to
go. We only have to go 1 jump from J5A
into EI- so there is no sense of massive rush.
We are using a different fitting from what I normally fly with my hound
and this causes a great deal of discussion in fleet comms as perhaps the cause
of the low numbers of bombers present in our strike force.
The FC waits for several more minutes as a handful of other
bombers joins us before giving the order to jump into the target system and
warp to the designated point. We are
sitting on the IHUB for the system just waiting for something to happen. The FC has us setting up long range
observation points so we can see the area and adjust our positions for bombing
runs if needed. For this op we are all
carrying shrapnel bombs which my hound was designed to fire.
The friendly battleship fleet has formed up and is ready for
battle as well. They are sitting on the
IHUB waiting for the order to attack……
All of a sudden a cyno appears on my screen right near the
IHUB….and suddenly the gravimetric sensors begin to scream as space and time
are warped by dozens of point sources…..only one thing can produce a signature like
that…incoming capital ships…..many carriers appear on the field of battle and
the FC gives the order to begin alignment to the cyno ship and prepare for a
bombing attack.
We have already sorted ourselves into the different squads
needed to prevent the fratricide that is all to common to bomber pilots. We make our first run but we miss and the
target is not destroyed. As we are
regrouping a second than a third cyno appear on the screen as enemy sub-capital
ships are bridged in.
Where the allied fleet contains Megathrons the enemy fleet
is in Rokhs. This will make target
calling easier for both sides. Our
bomber group reassembles and we wait for the fleets to get set before starting
our run.
Several of my fellow bomber pilots are shot down by the fast
locking support ships being used to screen the enemy capital and battleship
fleets. I am lucky and survive all the
runs with only shield hits. Our bomber group
lines up and we warp in to begin our runs….bombs away and cloak is the order
given.
As we are bombing the enemy I notice that the enemy has also
brought in a contingent of stealthbombers who are bombing allied ships while we
are bombing theirs.
Given the number of heavy ships on the field on dedicated/specialized
ships are detailed to anti-bomber work and our group looses relatively few
bombers to the enemy. We line up and
strike the enemy over and over again resulting in the loss of several enemy
ships. I fire a total of 3 bombs then
have to withdraw from the fight and go to our resupply ship in the system to
get more. Fortunately our FC has had
another corpmate of his sitting in a remote spot with a covert ops hauler carrying
ammo for us. I arrive at the location
and grab three new bombs reloading my launcher and back into the action I go.
The battle lasts only about 30 minutes, by that point the
enemy has repaired the IHUB and their capital fleet jumps out of the
system. Once their capitals have left
the field the sub-capital fleets begin to disengage and return to their own
systems.
Overall it was a win for both sides. The CFC caused a lot of damage but the enemy
managed to repair the IHUB and the CFC will have to be back to fight over it
again.
For myself I score the final blow on 3 enemy ships and
assist in the destruction of 17 more.
This has been a good day for me.
Ranger Gama
Str8ngeBrew
