Curse the lack of Curse!

Having a NullSec static is a new experience for me, as a Wormholer. I mean, sure you get transients and those delightful Q003 connections, but with a static you come across new and interesting things more often.

I had only just logged in and got on comms when I heard someone call out the presence of a Tengu on our NullSec static in our home system. I expected he was a cloaky prober that would just jump and warp away when someone tried to tackle him so didn't make a move immediately but it soon became clear the Tengu was there for a fight. We were disorganised and unprepared but #YOLO so a few pilots tumbled through the Wormhole into NullSec to continue the chase. Obligingly, the Tengu didn't try to escape, instead pointing and firing on a fleet mate until he was forced to withdraw, and then my late arriving Cerberus until I was forced to withdraw. My 700+ DPS Cerberus had put him into very low shield but I was very suspicious he was bait tanking me to get me off the connection, so I played it cautious until reinforcements arrived. I've tangled with enough bait tanked Tengus to know my buffer tanked Cerberus can't hope to crack it without help.

Help soon arrived but it was light on eWar. The speculation was that it was a dual ancillary shield booster fit and that eventually he would run out of charges and die. Well, the speculation was wrong and when a Gila joined the Tengu we soon lost a Sabre and a Cerberus. The Gila was driven off and soon replaced by a Dominix which was quickly primaried whilst maintaining tackle on the uber tanked Tengu. With the neuting Dominix gone attention was once again focused on the Tengu until the Dominix pilot returned in his Gila. Once again, DPS was focused on the new arrival and he was dispatched before he could cause any headaches and, once again, we refocused on the Tengu. Try as we might, his tank just would not break. Heavily webbed down, scrammed and being bombarded with all kinds of damage types he just kept on boosting.

Finally someone brought the neuts, our Bhaalgorn landing on field and sealing the Tengus fate. The kill mail does make for some interesting reading...

As interesting as the fit is, the pod mail deserves a lot of the credit. We know he had skirmish links so I'm going to assume there were Siege links in system too, combined with the High Grade Crystal set and a pretty shiney Deadspace fit, it would certainly account for the damage he sustained.

The whole engagement dragged on for about 45 minutes with the Tengu tanking almost half a million hit points of damage before finally succumbing. Despite being very slow to get neuts on the field it was a pretty ISK positive engagement however, costing us about 350 Million ISK for about 3.5 Billion in kills, not to mention the important lesson that comes from not having a neuting ship in your gang. Always bring a Curse people. Always.