Scorpions, Russians, and Jump Clones

It was a busy weekend for me in Eve. On Friday I went and bought a new Scorpion in empire for a great price (56 mil) and proceeded to make two outfittings for it: one for plain ratting and one for PvP jamming.

Ratting Scorpion:
Highs: 4 x ZX1000 Siege Launchers, Tractor Beam, Salvager
Mids: Invul Field II, Thermal Hardener II, Kinetic Hardner II, 3 x LSE IIs, 2 x Shield Recharger IIs
Lows: 3 x BCU IIs, Shield Power Relay II

This thing has over 17K shields at resists over 70 for everything except EM which sucks at 30. Fortunately Serpentis rats don't throw EM damage. The torpedoes and 5 Vespa IIs will give me superior damage over the Ferox and I can loot faster with the tractor and salvager. Its no Raven but it will suffice for me since I can quickly swap mods out and go for the PvP Jamming build.

Jamming Scorpion:
Highs: same, or swap tractor for cloak
Mids: 2 x Sensor Booster II, 2 x Mag ECM IIs, 4 x Multispec ECM IIs
Lows: BCU II, 3 x Sig Disrupt Amp IIs

With this setup, I can lock down one battleship with ease, two with decent confidence if at least one is Gallente. Smaller ships don't stand a chance.

So Saturday morning I head to the pipe to Fountain which starts in low sec Aridia. I have a T2 fitted battleship with more T2 mods in the trunk, and I fit a cloak and 3 warp stabs for travelling. I've never seen a camp in Aridia before so I'm confident that if I scout the first jump into low sec first I should be ok.

Well, second system I jump into in low sec is gate camped by reds speaking Russian in local. My heart goes into overdrive as I sit there with the jump in cloak still active. Decent sized camp with a couple battleships, cruisers, and frigs. Close, about 12-20 KM away. Next warp gate is at my 3 o'clock and the scorpion turns and accelerates like a brick. I had my ECM setup on, and one or two or even three enemy ships I could have possibly escaped from, but this camp had enough ships that three warp stabs was probably inadequate. I decide to try stealth. Of course, last time I tried that a vegabond sped up and deactivated my cloak before I could escape but I was hoping this time I would be luckier.

I double clicked in space and hit the cloak and waited with my heart in my chest pounding. A couple frigs come closer... but don't find me. About the same time I tried my escape, a crow jumped in and I think distracted them. Having aggro'd the sentry guns, the camp jumps out to regroup and I can warp to the next gate. Whew!

Thinking that one close call was enough I immediately dock next system and jump clone back to empire. I can finish the low sec-0.0 trip on Monday when the population is lower and less active. For the rest of the weekend I run a couple missions, get a new jump clone as my standings are high enough now, and manage KODA corp. Then this morning I finished the trip to 0.0 in safety and am now ready to start ratting and pvping.