Yesterday was boring. Despite warping around to dozens of systems in a wide variety of ships and trying to stir things up, it was just not happening. Time after time people either ran away or huddled up inside of plex with enough ships to deter any sense of proper combat. I once found an Omen Navy Issue inside one plex and made the rash decision to engage it with my Thrasher Fleet Issue only to discover that he also had a buddy in a Rook with him. So I warped out of that one. Things got so bad that I eventually derped myself into an obvious trap with a Hookbill and a Merlin, both of whom had TDs and Webs fitted. That fight went as well as I expected.
Not every day is a winner. So I went back to Ouelletta and decided to fit up some ships for another day. I also got bored doing that and decided to undock in a Stratios and just go for one more quick neighborhood jaunt. I chased a Praxis who eventually became so distraught that he literally vanished. He didn't dock or log off, he just vanished in front of me. Poof. Gone. So it was getting late and I decided that I should do the right thing and log off before I derped my ship into some other stupid attempt to generate content. It was then that my fellow Stay Frosty pilot Phoenix said the magic words, "Megathron on scan."
One quick note - every time I FC a roam and we are all finished and heading home I always say the same thing, can someone scout ahead and find us a Megathron out ratting in a belt. Because you just never know. Well this one wasn't in a belt, instead he was out running a site (I was told it might have been a 3/10, whatever that means. Yes, I literally do not know what that means. Phoenix explained it to me and I told him I would forget as soon as I logged off. And I have.) And of course I'm being a little untrue here, I know full well what it means - but I don't care.
So I was cloaked up in local in my Stratios and Phoenix was kind enough to go grab a ship with probes. I just want to say here that I truly admire people who are skilled at probing. I'm amazed when someone launches probes and then immediately says, got him! I have no idea how that is possible. I've tried this multiple times and it seems to always take me ages to narrow down locations smaller than the Sun. As in all things I will keep trying to improve. But some people are just insanely good at it. I'm not one of those people. And neither is Phoenix. I kid. He is very good and much better than me. Which is faint praise, because I suck.
I slid in on the Megathron and Phoenix went off to re-ship next door. Now my Stratios is bushwacker fitted - full rack of neuts, scram, dual web, passive armor tanked with a cap booster. All my dps is in the insanely large drone bay. So I was hoping this Mega wasn't blaster fitted. Otherwise I figured the neuts would alleviate any tank he probably had and my drones would slowly chew him to pieces. What I didn't count on was the ECM drones.
Those little bastages managed to break my lock three times! But luckily for me, since I was scram fitted, I was also very, very close. Close enough to immediately bump into him and then re-lock and get my scram back on him before he could warp off. That was the only real tricky part and I could easily have solo'd the battleship. But that would be unfair to Phoenix who tracked him down to begin with. And he showed up in his Orthrus and helped me finish him off.
We don't see a lot of Battleships around the neighborhood. This is probably why.
Anyway, I thought it was a good story worth sharing and a good excuse to bring back this old feature. As always I do not tell these stories to shame anyone or make anyone feel bad about their choices in game or out. This is just a game. And this is just what happened from my perspective. Kudos to the player involved for bringing it and having the courage to fly it proudly. I salute you.