Rouge Archon

In Eve, the context of which ships make an appearance is just as important as the ship itself. Take the most popular carrier for instance, the Archon. Unused, poorly fitted in a hangar somewhere in lowsec it's mostly wasted potential. In a slowcat-fleet in nullsec it make for a pretty effective doctrine, but still reduced to just a number. In my hands it works good as a ISK-maker and escalation-trigger in class 5 w-space. In the hands of a fleet from Rooks and Kings or Verge of Collapse, it will most likely play a very crucial part in whatever fight about to take place.

Not to speak of the where. If you have access to an Archon in nullsec, you are a statistic. If you fly it in C5/C6 you are an important and central asset to the fleet but not in any way a "win-button" - there will be several other caps on field, even if the wormholes restrict any big cap blobs. However, if you have one in a C2 system, you have a incredible upperhand on any engagements that might happen there. And if you combine the carrier with some flying know-how and friends, then things that's usually hard or takes some effort becomes much, much more doable. You have an opportunity to boss that system around quite a bit.

This is why I kick myself for not open up a convo with the dude I found in our static C2 the other night. If I had, chances are I would have ended up with an Archon in a C2 full of POS'es. Reinforce one and use the carrier as surprise logi when/if anyone came to defend. Cloak it up together with a Rapier at a POCO and start bashing it with a jucy battleship as bait. Fight at the HS with a carrier you could lose without care. Oh what fun we could have had!

But non of that would happen.

I was on my way back home, everybody had logged for the night (except for the usual empire/constant AFK guys) and it was late. Then suddenly I saw this Archon on scan, and he was not at a POS!

At the same time somebody said "hello?" in local, but at this time I did not know it was the carrier-pilot. That I realized when I got on grid with him in a half done site where we had killed a Nighthawk just an hour before. There was plenty sleepers left and he had some fighters out going at them.

Ok, archon plexing a C2 with fighters while talking in local. Where is the gank-fleet? This must be a clumsy bait, right? No way this dude was anything but bait.

I could not even decloak and point him because the sleepers would rip me apart and I didn't have any friends incoming anytime soon. I had to just watch him pull fighters and warp away to a safe. A few minutes later a carrier wreck showed up on scan. It was not before I saw it that I understood what had transpired.

A previous inhabitant of the C2 had returned to game and now he just wanted to get rid of his carrier and get out. He would most likely had turned over the Archon just for a route out.

Well, I guess sometimes you really should talk in local.