Shooing a Golem
5th April 2010 – 5.55 pmA Golem is in our system, killing our Sleepers. The marauder, the Tech II version of the Raven battleship, is from the same alliance we should be friendly with, one of whose member corporations bombed our tower, and he's probably come from the w-space system that recently left me feeling stupid in a pod without an exit. The few bodies we can contact are called in, and suggestions are made as to what our plan should be. We could try to talk to the pilot and explain our supposed mutual standings, hoping he will back down gracefully; try a show of force to repel him from the system; or engage him in a direct fight. Personally, if the head of the alliance doesn't want us to appear friendly to them, and after the annoyances they've inflicted on us, I am up for a fight.
We have a man in a covert operations boat watching the Golem's progress as he fights the Sleepers, and we stay out of particularly sharp ships for now, trying not to make him suspicious whilst we formulate a response. And although I'd quite like to blow up the Golem, or explode trying, it looks like asking him politely to leave is becoming the preferred option. Well, maybe more 'forcefully' than 'politely'. We'll wait until he's just about finished clearing the anomaly of Sleepers, then jump in to combat ships, block his exit and chance of quick reinforcements, and then 'ask' him if he wouldn't mind leaving our system.
I think the plan is quite clever, which is a good sign I didn't think of it. The last Sleeper is nearly killed and we pounce. I board my Onyx heavy interdictor, warp it to the connecting wormhole and jump through. As I am travelling, a conversation is started with the Golem pilot, our other pilots also getting in to combat ships in preparation. I get to the wormhole and jump through, holding my cloak for as long as possible. I am to raise my warp bubble on top of the wormhole, in case he gets hostile and calls for reinforcements. With my HIC's bubble up, any ships warping to the wormhole will bounce off the bubble potentially twenty kilometres from the wormhole, from where they will then have to crawl to the wormhole in order to jump. I'll jump back myself and, by the time they are in our system, will be long gone, warping to 100 km from the Golem's position, as dictated from corporation fleet members. I am then to raise my bubble again, so that the reinforcements bounce off me and don't get in to optimal range to help the Golem. It sounds like a good plan.
On the other side of the wormhole a Raven sits a little over 100 km away. I hold my position. When my cloak drops I raise my bubble, at which point the Raven targets me and launches missiles. He is slightly out of my targeting range, so I can't return lock and fire, but I can't be worried about a few missiles when I am protected by the mighty buffer tank of a HIC. I get a message that the Golem pilot is retreating gracefully, unaware of our connections with the alliance, which is decent of him. I disengage, jumping back through the wormhole and warping to our tower. The Raven pilot apparently apologises for firing on me, so I am told, but it wasn't a problem. The situation is defused. I would have preferred a more direct approach, but in this case the diplomatic one was probably best for all involved.
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