Low Sec Mining Op = Great fun

Last night it was so dead around Hevrice that I decided to go on a 30+ roam to my old stomping ground in Otou.  I loaded up my Jag and headed out.  While enroute, I got tackled on a gate by a Ruppie.  Now normally I don't like fighting Ruppies in frig ships but I decided to give it a shot.  The fight was going pretty well and I was doing a good job of staying under his guns when a Dramiel showed up and started laying into me.  I decided that was a bad deal and deagressed.  I love my Jag.  The tank on it was more than enough to wait out my aggro timer and jump through.  Actually in looking back on how easily I tanked them, I probably should have continued the fight.

So I continued my roam and noticed a single system low sec pocket that was just two jumps away.  I thought maybe I might catch a ratter off guard so I decided to check it out quickly.  I jumped in system and hit D-scan finding nothing.  However the stargate was far center of system and there were a few people in local. So I warped to the top belt with the intent of doing a quick scan once I got in the middle of the cluster.

This was all done kinda half-hearted because I wanted to get back to my long roam and was only about half-way done.  Imagine my surprise when I landed right smack in the middle of a mining op being put on by the 101st E Company!  My overview showed a Retriever, Mammoth, Ferox, Hurricane, and Prophecy. The shock of it made me freeze up a second.  Then I had to double check to make sure I actually was in low-sec and didn't just mis-read the map.

With that confirmed, I locked the Retriever and started my orbit.  The BCs started targeting me but I was steady beating down the Retriever.  Then suddenly I lost my lock.  Damn they were using ECM drones.  With  my kill being thwarted, there was no reason to stick around so I overheated my AB and started spamming my warp button.  Soon I was safely across system and trying to catch my breath.  It had all happened so fast I was still processing stuff.  I realized that I had very little damage from being shot at by three BCs.  I did a little research on Battleclinic and noticed that all three pilots were about a year old but had horrible kill stats.  Hmm...

I sent my cloaky alt to check on the op and to my surprise they were all still there and were jetcan mining.  I guess they thought that they were safe since I had run out of there like a scalded dog.  My alt bookmarked the jet can and warped me to it.  I was prepared this time and had overheated my guns prior to landing.  I went in a quick orbit and the mining barge died before they could really even react.  Once again I overheated my AB and lit out.

I figured they would call the op at that point but apparently they really need that ore.  The Mammoth bailed along with the Ferox and Prophecy.  They then returned in a Drake, a Keres, and another Retriever.  Hmm....I guess they figured the Keres would jam my pants off and put an end to my silly game.  Unfortunately for them, the Keres has a horrible tank.  My alt watched for a while to find the best warp in point.  When the timing was right, I landed on top of the Keres and shredded it.  I warped back off but my alt noticed that the Retriever, Drake, and Cane didn't leave.  I warped back in and had a sense of deja vu.

That pretty much ended the op.  Thank you 101st E Company for a wonderful night.  There is nothing like picking off ships out from under their escorts and getting away without a scratch.  Makes me love this game.