How we killed billybobob

The story goes as such:

I noticed a cyno on the map next door to our home system. Upon hurriedly logging in another scout alt to investigate (because my main one was in Hi Sec on her way home in an Iteron Mark V), I found a kestrel at a safespot by itself. A couple other neutrals were in system, but none of them seemed to be related to each other judging by a quick check of corp history. The kestrel was in faction warfare, the Nyx pilot billybobob (though I didn't know he was a Nyx yet) had just joined an NPC corp a day ago. The other neutrals were randoms transiting as far as I could tell.

Since random safespot jumping Jump Freighters were not that unusual for Mifrata, I chalked it up as probably just a new JF target to watch for. I watched one of the neutrals land on the cyno in a Maller and pop it, eliciting a typical "thanks for saving me time" and "you're welcome" in local. I noted the cyno spot and pilot and used my second alt to scout in my hauler, copied over the cyno location bookmark for my main scout and logged the other out.

I went back to Mifrata and sat watching the cyno frig wreck for a few minutes, on the off chance billybobob was whatever jumped in and was cloaked on grid. it happens sometimes. I noticed the cyno alt returned to local for a minute and left again, but his cyno safespot was not on Directional Scan from any of the gates, so I didn't know which way he was going. I wasn't too interested either; I prefer to predict or subtly guide cyno alts to light where I want them, not chase them around. Four or five minutes later he came through system again. Curious, but not extremely unusual.

Periodically checking the starmap, I soon noticed a couple cynos two and five jumps further down the Low Sec pipe to Devoid. I rushed over to Onsooh, but the cyno must've just gone down. There was a ten or so man gang of Reverberation Project battlecruisers in local though. ECHO is part of a coalition that lives in southern Derelik and like to play at pvp. A couple of them had suspect status. I quickly inferred by the ECHO frigate wreck on the Hi Sec gate that they probably jumped in a JF and it was several minutes gone. And even though the Hi Sec pocket it had jumped to was an island, it was very unlikely the JF would be returning. After exchanging some banter, for most of ECHO knows my alt, and what I was there for, I hurried off to the other cyno in Gomati. I found a logged off cyno lit on the Hi Sec gate again. Not someone I'd seen before, so I added him to my watchlist and jumped into Hi Sec there to head home, as it would be faster than the way I'd come.

If you look at an out of game map or know Derelik, you'll see I was making an eleven jump circuit and returning to Mifrata. However, in Gamis, a popular Hi Sec connection to Hothomouh, one of Derelik's hottest cyno waypoint systems, I noticed the cyno alt from Mifrata again. While warping to the station to see if he was docked, his pod came on scanner. I D-Scanned him heading to Shedoo, back towards Mifrata, before he left local. I followed, out of curiosity and because I was going that way anyway.

When I arrived in Mifrata, he was there. I pinged off of the Sendaya gate (his most likely exit if he were just transiting through system) and then all the corners of the system as quick as possible when I didn't see him on D-Scan there. My timing was unlucky, and he left system without me catching him on D-Sscan. On a hunch, I rushed back to Hi Sec, and he was there, still off scan by the time I arrived. It's a 70 something AU warp across that system, Ihal, to get to Shedoo and then Gamis or Berta and the rest of empire. I arrived at the Shedoo gate in time to see his self-named Hyperion jumping out, and then it all clicked. This guy was emptying ships from a cloaked capital. My first guess was simply a carrier. Of course I rushed home to switch out of my bomber into a probing ship with bonuses, yelling on Teamspeak as I went that there was a cap to kill in a few minutes next door to us.

As I was warping through Mifrata again and relaying to Rocket and the other three pilots active on coms at the time, it suddenly hit me. The cyno alt had just left in a battleship, and this guy had been at this for almost a good half hour or so. I jumped into our home Faspera with the one line that really perks up PHEW's ears these days: "This guy could be in a Super."

Trusting my judgment, Rocket started rage pinging for HICs and as much of our own Supers as possible. I had to hurry. I didn't think I even had time to jump in my Nyx, so I booted up another Eve client, but didn't log it in, switched my main to my Megathron, warped to our Titan and left it. Luckily, my main combat alt was already in his Aeon. I docked my scout and switched to an Anathema. I have two in her hangar, and I've hardly flown them in years.

I booked it back to Mifrata, deployed my probes, and just landed on the Hi Sec gate in time to see the cyno alt's pod warping to a Safe a few AU above the Majamar gate. Being in such a rush, I only made an 8 AU square with four of my probes and left the other four in the middle of my cluster at the same size. I ran my first scan cycle and practically orgasmed on Teamspeak: "It's a Nyx!"

I had about eighty-something percent strength on him. I centered my probes better and scanned again. Ninety-something. What the fuck. Oh, he was much lower above the plane of the system than I thought. One more scan cycle got him, and there was no capsule or other ship with him now. I recalled my probes as I warped in at 10 km. The grid was clear, as I expected, but I was seriously fearing I'd taken too long and he'd seen my probes and warped to a new safe.

Upon assurances from rocket we were as ready as we were gonna be, I approached the Nyx bookmark until I stopped and then decloaked. Nothing. Rocket urged me to light our cyno so we could bridge in a shit ton of shit to decloak him. I balked and relayed I strongly feared he had warped and that would bust the entire endeavor for good. After a moment he compromised and jumped his boosting Legion through the gate and warped to my alt. I started aligning towards his cyno's location, far above system, Rocket flew towards the sun and inner celestials. Rocket got about half a sentence out telling me to come back to zero to drop a can for reference. During that half sentence, I was reloading my probes, and checking my ozone, when I saw my worst unexpected fear. The ozone was there, but so was a standard cyno module. I moused over my cyno icon on my HUD and groaned. This was my covert cyno Anathema. And then Rocket decloaked the Nyx.

Rocket: There he fuckin is, get 'em! Light it light it light it!
Me: I've got the wrong cyno, it's covert!
Both: Someone jump to Mif in anything with a fucking cyno NOW!

Rocket started trying to hero bump the Nyx with his Legion, who appeared to be at warp speed already anyway, but wasn't going anywhere. I scurried back to Faspera, loathing what might soon be a repeat story, with just a different plot twist.

Fortunately, we here at PHEW believe that if your ship doesn't have a cyno fit, you're doing it wrong. Within moments we had one of the HICs warp and jump to Mifrata, then the boosting alt, hero point, and save this funny story from becoming an embarrassing derp the likes of which you don't often see outside of null sec fleet ops.

At about the point the HIC was warping in, the cyno alt returned to system. As I said, we're pretty sure the Nyx had sufficient warp speed, or was just under the threshold. A few moments after the alt entered local and the HIC landed, the Nyx logged out right after point was called. Our working assumption is he was totally ignoring the Nyx while it was cloaked and aligned to the middle of system as he was flying the alt back and forth. Rocket is also certain the Nyx logged out with his hardeners off, despite it being decloaked for an agonizing ninety seconds or so before he logged, which supports this theory

In all the rush, I wasn't in bridge range with my main character's Megathron when the cyno went up, and because I'm that guy, I then finished logging in my Nyx and proceeded to switch rather than approach and catch the bridge or jump in through the gate, even though I was the one who called out the Nyx logged as soon as he was pointed. The Nyx was melting pretty fast, and I didn't call for DPS to hold, because that's a policy we try to enforce in PHEW unless it's a real LOL kill, and I thought I might make it anyway. But alas, the ship boarding session delayed me from being able to jump by about five or seven seconds too many.

Maybe you can call it a little karma for not checking which Anathema I was undocking with. Or that expediency should supersede ego. However, I've missed kills before. Completely missed them simply because I was too sleepy to put on my headset and be reachable when I was slumped over my desk, drooling on my travel pillow I keep near my PC for naps.

Besides, that's my Aeon at the top of the killmail anyway