Just In The Nick Of Time
Posted by Stropp on February 19, 2009I had decided earlier on Tuesday to do the Eve story mission that popped just before I logged off on Monday evening. So when I got home, and just after dinner I headed into my study to start playing the game. Unfortunately there had been a power failure earlier in the day, and the power supply on my computer is a bit dodgy so I couldn’t power up my computer. The power light just flashed orange. Luckily there is a work-around. Just unplug the computer for about an hour and whatever charge is stored that causes the problem, dissipates and I can plug it in and power up.
Anyway, once that was done I logged into Eve, flew over to where the story mission giver lived and took the mission. Turned out it was a trade mission that required me to acquire 999 units of veldspar. So I just flew to another station in the system, bought the veldspar and flew back. Mission accomplished. Pretty sad really, I was expecting a chain of missions at least, something that would be a bit of a challenge. At least the standings increase was decent.
So with that out of the way, and about an hour fifteen before the server shutdown, I flew back to my home system and took the second part of a mission chain that I had started the previous evening.
That was easy enough, and took about 45 minutes from undock to dock including checking each wreck for loot. It pretty much involved my currently standard kill method. Fly to target range, lock on and aggro the bad guys, wait until they get under 30km away, and run away while shooting them with my missiles. Activate the next gate, rinse and repeat. Great method so far since I rarely even scratch the paintwork. The nice thing about this method is the wrecks are all pretty much lined up for me to loot afterwards.
I’m now back in dock, and wondering if I have the time to do the third part of the mission.
It’s 9:00pm and the server goes down at 9:30. Yeah! I’ll give it a bash.
Accept mission.
Ookaay. I have to fight through some bad guys, the bulk of whom will be occupied somewhere else in the system due to a diversion that is being kindly arranged by the Spacelane Patrol guys, and destroy the gate that the Gallente forces are building in this Caldari system. Thirty minutes. Hmmm.
I warp over to the first mission point. There are only a few frigates and a battery guarding the gate there. I take them out in the usual manner and head to the gate to activate the next ‘room’ of the mission. Should I loot? Nah. Better not, time is short.
The next ‘room’ is the same. I clear it out pretty easily, takes a bit under ten minutes. Hey, it looks like this isn’t going to be a problem. Though I am aware that killing the Gallente gate will take a little while. I activate the next gate. I enviously eye the wrecks that I am leaving behind.
The final room. Once again my little Kestral takes out the guards, but this time it takes a little longer since there’s a cruiser in the mix. Around the ten minute remaining mark I’ve cleaned out the guards and I’m heading over to the Gallente gate. It’s quite a distance, and I’m keenly aware of the remaining time. I should have kited them in the direction of the gate.
At 40km I lock the gate.
At 30 I fire on it.
Oh oh. There’s a bunch of red dots 50 to 60 km out and heading to me. These must be the pilots who fell for the diversion. They’re probably pissed. I unlock one of my missile launchers — my Kestral has three — and lock the incoming frigates. Easy pickings, each goes down with one hit.
That action seems to compress time, and I’m now orbiting the gate at 7500m, while firing two launchers at it. I’m making a dent but not much. And there are more mobs closing.
The five minute to the end of the universe countdown appears. I haven’t done much damage to the shield yet.
Panic sets in. I could continue to lock on and fire at the incoming ships, they’re easy pickings after all and I can get them before they get me in range, but I need to burn this gate down.
I do the only thing I can do. I lock the third missile launcher on the gate and start firing.
The incoming ships now have me in range, but they’re using railguns or hybrids. I change my orbit of the gate to 2500 meters. Hopefully that will throw off their targeting systems.
It works. They’re close enough to hit me now, and they cause a lot of damage when they do, but my continual change in angular velocity gives me time to use my shield boosters to fully recharge before the next hit.
Three minutes to shutdown. I finally deplete the gates shields. The space around me is swarming with angry Gallente.
At about two minutes to galactic total entropy I get the gates armor down to zero. Only the structure remains. It’s getting close, my heart is racing. I’m easily managing any damage. I sense the desperation of the pilots around me.
90 seconds left… about a third of the way through the structure.
60 seconds… nearly two thirds through. Boom. I take a couple of big hits that nearly deplete my shields. My heart rate increases slightly.
40 seconds… KaaaBooom. The gate collapses in a spectacular explosion. Some of those pilots were close enough to get a good tan I think.
Now let’s get out of here.
I activate my shield booster to compensate for any damage while I am aligning to warp, and head off to the station. The second I arrive, I hit dock.
Docking completed.
Five seconds to spare.
The universe ends.
I need a coffee.
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Posted under Eve Online
Haha, sounds like a hell of a mission run.
It was good fun. It’s amazing how a mission that would normally be a walk in the park takes on real intensity when there’s a tight time limit involved.
Yea, kestrel! Love my kestrel.
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