Holding Battleships Hostage

Entry: eight hundred fifty-eight.
 
Yesterday was going to be another regular solo Harpy roam. Then Serah hopped down and made his way to me in BWF-, and then Evil hopped down and wanted to join. I had to go for ten minutes, so Evil had enough time to buy and fit a Crusader. By the I got back, my map was lit up with a huge blob in Etherium Reach located at HV-. Just as we were going to make our way there, Tem hopped down and wanted to come as well.
 
Funny how that happened.
 
After we all got together in LXQ, we blitzed for HV- and immediately warped to station. No bubbles were up, blue and neutral supers were on station grinding away. I tried to warp out as I called a warp out for those landing behind me, but my drive wouldn't turn over. Before I could figure out what was wrong I found myself quickly relieved of my Harpy, and warped to planet one at zero. The sight that greeted me was a Crow and Tornado at planet one at zero. As I made my way back to Maila to reship, I ordered Serah, Tem, and Evil to warp to planet one at zero.
 
When they landed, they made mince meat of the Tornado, frantically overheating and calling out orders to each other over comms. Serah and Evil weren't able to warp out however, having been scrammed by the Crow and landing support. Tem got away and went to meet us at LXQ.

So far, we were down one Harpy, two Crusaders.

After reshipping in Maila, we went back via a different route, and arrived a few minutes before the neutrals, Persona Non Grata, started to roll out. In just our Malediction, Crusader, and Rifter, we made the next hour and a half excruciating slow travel for PNG as they headed home. We tackled stragglers, forcing the group to warp back to save a comrade. We rotated in and out of the system on the PNG fleet's stargates so that they could never kill us. I would jump in, hold cloak, then crash as Serah or Evil jumped in and did the same. We would repeat this over and over, always seeming to tackle a straggler. After an hour and a half, even though we hadn't gotten any kills, PNG had it made it a grand total of five jumps out of HV-, not exactly a speed record for travel.
 
Was the PNG fleet in any real danger from us? Not at all. But we made it hard for them to move quickly, often making them double back several times in the same system, or hold on gates in their attempts to catch and kill us. I was hoping that they would leave the random Geddon behind however, a sacrifice for the rats nipping at their heels.
 
Eventually, I had to give up the game though, and Evil and Serah decided to call it a day with me. We managed to mostly die on our way back: Evil in heading back to Detorid, and Serah in a spontaneous combat with a PNG Taranis pilot on a stop bubble. I take full responsibility for Serah's Crusader loss. He had mentioned earlier that he had broken a Conflag crystal, and I had forgotten. That combined with my not realizing that the Taranis would take out Serah's Crusader so handily, I felt a bit bad. I tried to get revenge, but the Taranis pilot in hull was trying his hardest to slingshot me, and with only a web and long point, I was sure I would be dead if he caught me. I chose the better part of cowardice and let him slip by before returning to Maila. Looking back, I should have done everything possible to kill that Taranis.
 
Serah and Evil both seem rather excited about my roams. We're usually a small group, and I don't mind warping to stations in home systems at zero, something that seems to freak Evil out just a bit when he sees fifty neutrals in local and I say, "Yeah, so what?" He asked me today if I was going to run a roam today, and I was admittedly planning to, but Archie put a roam up, and that combined with my fatigue over this weekend has left me with little desire to stay awake much longer today.
  
Computer: terminate recording.