POS UNbashery, WH style

     So there we were prepping to knock some neutral dude's POS down, when what to our wondering ears did appear, but eight tiny invaders and an alliance member with a POS issue in his WH space.  Ok, so the invaders weren't actually "tiny" . . . and, ok, there were more than eight.  Actually, I think there were EIGHT Guardians.  Anywho, this rescue effort happened just before, and between a previous POS being put in reinforced, and it's eventual unceremonious death.

     The WH owner gave us the system for the WH entrance, and I asked over vent what I should bring, and it was suggested a stealth bomber and a passive armour BS with RR capability.  NP.  I had a Purifier-of-extreme-destiny close by, so I went and got it and was told that I could go to system, warp to a dude at the entrance, and then given a warp-to toon for the POS itself.  Got the shield PWD, and in I went.  POS was already in reinforced, the bad guys were only in the WH in token numbers, and not a lot was going on.  In typical fashion, it seemed like one of those scenarios where the attackers were conveniently in a different timezone than the defenders.  At any rate, nothing much was going on, so I got the all-clear to pod back out to the high sec entrance and grab a Geddon with a RR.  Got the Geddon, all insured, and warped back to the entry system.  Docked at top and waited a little as it seemed like there was increased activity in the hole.  10 or 15 minutes passed, all clear was sounded, and we warped to the entrance hole, formed up with a handful of us, and in we went.  Warped off toward my POS bookmark, aaaand WOW, nice bounce off the shield!!  :)  Oh yeah, it was the BOMBER that had the password, and this is not the same ship.  Derp!  NP, enter the PWD, in through the shields, and jumped back into the Purifier.  Not a lot of activity in the hole ATM, so I thought I'd jet around and make a bunch of safes.  A very mature and prescient decision on my part it would turn out to be later.  Maybe everyone does that on a POS saving attempt in womrhole space, os maybe it wasn't all that mature OR prescient . . .

     At this time, the other, other POS bash was announced and a bunch of people formed up to go put it into reinforced.  As the Geddon was the only BS I had at the time, and the event was happening a fair distance away, AND there was already a decent amount of people fleeting up, I stayed in the hole to finish with the bookmarks, and then the POS owner and I went around and did a little repping on some of the batteries to get them back online.  He in his Guardian and me in my Geddon-uber-armor-repper were the only ones hanging around and none of the reds seemed to be present either.  We got a couple guns up, and he went around re-supplying some of the gun batteries that were still alive.  I logged in the hole for the night.

     Next day, I log in, and the dude is already up again and still working on repping some guns.  I jumped in my Geddon and decided to help out too.  We got another gun back up, and then some of the reds started showing up.  2 guardians and an Abaddon at first.  We slow boat to the shield wall, poke our nose out, get to reppin', he'd warp in to about 80km, we'd head back in and he'd start shooting as we went.  Then they'd warp off either to about 300km, or right off grid.  I'd target him and shoot back as I went in, and he had some fairly hefty firepower, but I was in no real risk of losing my Geddon.  I really didn't have too much planned, so I hung around with the POS owner and we played cat and mouse and tried to do some more repping and making sure he stayed busy and active by poking my nose out and making him come in.  I was alternating playing Minecraft and WOT at the same time.  :)  As a couple hours passed, more reds were online and in the hole.  They would come in with force, and the Abaddon would warp in and start offlining the guns while supported by 3 Guardians.  Not much we could do.  One of their HICs ended up dropping by once the guns were all offlined again, and set up warp bubbles at all the cardinal points of the tower.  There were a couple small holes to get out of, but overall, it was a fairly tight "rape cage".  I had to go out but left the toon logged in and in the hole.  I came back later in the evening and jumped out through the bubbles with my SB and went to make sure I had a sniper Apoc ready for the POS takedown the next morning.

     After the other POS was down in the morning, the alliance dude's POS was going to be coming out of reinforced later in the afternoon.  More alliance members were online by then and a plan was being formulated on defending it.  The reds numbers about 15 or more, with a LOT of Guardians, so we needed some major numbers with some good boats to have any kind of chance of doing anything.  The reds also had 2 or 3 boats outside the high sec WH, and the WH was near ready to pop.  Understandably, it was assumed that as soon as a big fleet landed on the hole, they'd no doubt jump back in trying to collapse it, and if it didn't collapse, any boats of ours that went in would likely be slaughtered.  Not being a tactician or strategist, or knowing what boat would help against another boat, I just waited til they said what boats they wanted people in.  It was decided that we'd primarily fly nano BCs, so I fit up a suitable Harby and we all waited a couple systems over for the word to move.  At this point, some wimbling ensued and a decision on how to proceed was trying to be worked out.  We still had a couple guys inside, and one of them was off probing for a back door and the second was ready to scan another hole once this one popped.  Still another player offered to fit up a boat with a pile of smart bombs on it, jump in the hole and see how many of them he could take out before they nuked him.  He was to be a bit of a distraction for when we either decided to jump in, or jump off to the new exit hole.  Also, it turns out the POS owner had lost his Guardian in one of those poke-the-nose-out-and-rep attempts.  Bummer.

     Time was ticking closer to the blue POS coming out of reinforced.  We needed to make a decision.  A bunch were told to land on grid and see what their reaction was.  Understandably, as anticipated, the red ships jumped back in, and closed the hole, BUT, not before our smart bomb boat went in too.  I think there were something like 5 or 6 boats at the WH, and I think he managed to take out 2 before they popped him, but in the mean time, our other player was busy scanning down a new exit.  He found one that took him through a couple more worm hole spaces, and then deposited him 27 jumps away in high sec.  Not so bad - we still had time to make the jumps and be in the POS shield before it dropped.  There were almost 3 dozen of us that started the trek to the new entrance, and, that's sort of when shit started falling apart . . .

     Some people weren't happy to make the jumps, so a couple quit fleet - alliance discipline to follow them later.  Some people had security issues and couldn't fly through some of the high sec systems.  So some had to drop fleet while others podded to the new entrance WH, while other characters ferried their BSs and BCs to the system for them.  We finally get there, everyone is gathered, we still have about 30, the other side of the hole is clear, so I BM the entrance hole and we all jump through.  I BM the wormhole space side, and we all warp to the toon at the next WH.  Everyone arrives, I BM this hole, the other side is clear, we all jump through.  I BM this hole now, and we all warp to the next WH.  One more WH system to go and then we're back in the POS WH.  Excellent, lots of time yet too, as in, still about 30 minutes.  But wait . . . what do you mean the BS can't jump through??  Nice, the next WH space is too low of a class to allow a BS through the worm hole.  Obviously, at this point, people are going WTF!??! and wanting to know why this wasn't realized earlier/told to people earlier, so they could have shipped down, in something that fit the hole.  Well, things were in a rush, and certain details got missed, I guess, by the FC.  Ok, so we lose a few more people that jump back out into Empire.  Now, we're down to about 2 dozen small boats, and from the intel we're getting from the POS hole, we are nowhere near sufficient firepower to do anything significant to the boats that they've got in there now.

     Meh, well, it's decided to go jump in anyway.  NP.  The remainder of the fleet jumps in.  This side of the hole is clear.  We mass jumped, and the hole is still there, so I quick BM it and name it GTFO!.  We were told there were a couple bubbles up around the POS, so we had to bounce off one of the planets first.  We all warped to the planet and then were told to self warp to the POS.  NP.  Just as we're getting ready to scoot, a whole pile-o reds land.  Holy baby Jeebus!  They're either a) in possession of a really good scanner, b) set up this location based on how and where they set their bubble, or 3) both.  My vote was for #3.  So, we all managed to get the hell out of dodge, and landed in the POS shield.  Everyone had the password, so no bounces.  At least one thing worked properly.  We got into shield and then the FC and some of the senior players were deciding what the next move was based on what ships were available at the POS, and what was outside the shield ready to make us cry.  They definitely had the advantage, so the plan was to grab whatever we could, self destruct the rest, and get the hell out of the hole, hopefully, with some ships and gear and our asses, intact.

     We're down to just a few minutes now.  I'm in the hole with my shiny new BC and I also have a Geddon.  We're told to SD everything and try to save as much of our expensive mods as we can, and our most expensive ship if we want.  My Geddon was worth way more than my BC, so big mistake, I jumped in that.  Someone else was going to SD some other boats and one guy was in there in his pod for some reason, so I told him he could fly my BC out.  Ok.  All is ready, ships are popping and we are all full speed heading for the exit WH.  Did I say that I shouldn't have taken the Geddon?  Anyway, we all jump just as our blue scout lands at the exit WH.  Uh oh.  The bastardy reds have closed it - we're already in warp, land on nothing.  A second toon in space is already scouting down new WHs and another toon is acting as safe spot target for fleet warps.  At this point, the FC is really starting to get a little wobbly - I don't blame him.  Another fleet member unofficially and gruffly steps in so "we don't all get fucking killed" and starts fleet warping us to the safes as the warp scout keeps hopping, and the WH toon keeps scanning.  We jump, land, align, and start to warp, as a red fleet about the same size as us lands on our ass.  This happened like three or four times and I am/was completely amazed that my Geddon managed to get its fat ass swung around in time to get out of there.  By the third of fourth time, the scout announces success - we have an exit.  Awesome!  Fleet warp to the new exit, just as the reds land.  Were goin' home Nancy, we're goin' home!!!

    Mid warp, "There's a snake in my boot!"  err, wrong line.  "There's a bubble on the exit!"  Well, shit.  I would have rather had a snake in my boot, or even my underwear, but that ain't Eve, is it!.  So we all land, and everyone is told to burn for the exit.  The reds have a Guardian, a Hurricane and another boat - likely the HIC that bubbled the exit, the bastard.  So, while I've got my trusty old Geddon firewalled, and burning to the gate at a healthy ~150m/s, I figured WTF so I targeted the Hurricane and started to lay some lazar love on his ass.  I was making good headway on him until his guardian Guardian thought that wasn't cool and started to rep him up like a good Guardian should/would/could.  I could do little else, so I let the drones go too, while our guys were jumping out, shooting, and a couple blues popping.  Meanwhile, the rest of the red fleet is starting to land.  It took a while and I'm not sure why.  They were so fast before, surely they would have jumped to their fleet buddies like we did to ours.  ?  Anyway, they were landing and shooting things up.  I had everything going, and shooting, and hardening, and repping, and droning, and figured I might as well start beating the hell out of the jump button.  At about 10km they started to focus more and more fire on me, as the rest jumped out or were popped.  I'm just coming under 8km from the gate, and I'm starting to think, "Man, I just might freakin' make it!!  Holy shit!"  I see the dude in MY BC jump out - cool, and that's when I realize I should have had my stupid ass in the BC, as a nano BC had no problem closing the distance to the hole.  Next time, I give away the boat with the fattest ass - I don't care HOW much it costs . .

     At about the 7km mark, I'm generating enough heat with my finger pounding the jump key that it actually feels like the plastic is starting to melt a little.  I'm grinning like that creepy fucking cat from Alice in Wonderland, and then I'm confused.  WTF?  Where did the WH go??  OMG!!!!  The hole closed!!  NOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooo!  Ok, ok.  Now what, now what??  I had my BM folder for the WH open, so I immediately started trying to warp to any bookmark available.  Somewhere I had read that if your aggression timer is ticking and you log out, you can still be scanned down and popped for 15 minutes.  So, I spent the next 15 minutes trying to avoid a couple enthusiastic scanners, in my pod.  After the first couple jumps, they gave up chasing me and went back to beat the holy hell out of the POS tower, so I kept jumping around, and then logged.  Oh yeah, and the dude that made it out no problem in MY brand new Harby?  Yeah, he got popped by Concord because he was KOS.  Meh . .

     So, for the next two days, I'd log on every now and then, waiting to find a time when a couple of the other alliance members that had stayed in the hole, were on and could help me get out.  I finally found one, so he scanned down an exit to high sec and waited at the hole, cloaked.  I told him I was in a pod, so he needed to be ON the hole :)  He didn't want me to de-cloak him, so I told him I'd activate warp to him, then he could take off.  It worked like a charm, no bad guys at the hole, and I docked up to the first station and bought a shuttle.  Busy couple of days.  Time to go "home".

The Point?  A)  Have a plan.  2)  If you take it into a wormhole, consider it gone.  C)  Have a plan.