Editor’s Note: This is an after action report (AAR) by Signaleer Sloopy Noopers for an in corp Fireworks event held on March 28th, 2020.
When times are dark the best defense we have is each other, and what better way to celebrate this than to get together and make a proper racket! This was the idea at the core of the fireworks in Zoohen on the 28th of March. No one was getting a send off, there was no national holiday or historical event to mark, it was simply a celebration of the companionship we can offer through this unique community.
I started my day by stocking up on supplies and purchasing a ship for the finale of the event. Using a number of alts to haul these through High Security space, a chore which took considerably longer than expected (more on that later), I deposited the required goods at our offices in Zoohen.
The plan was to make a ship go boom towards the end of the event. With this in mind the ship in question had to be of appropriate size and pretty enough to mark this particular celebration. I’d decided that this should be a battleship, what with these being the biggest ships available in High Sec, so I opted for an Armageddon. These are, in my opinion, a very attractive looking ship and I had a couple of swanky skins knocking about in my hanger.
Having not flown anything larger than a cruiser since my mission running days, long before I joined Signal Cartel, I’d forgotten how slow and cumbersome these ships were, a situation made worse by my decision to haul this through over twenty systems using a very, very low skilled alpha alt. The journey was painful!
Having extracted myself from J-Space for the first time in eight weeks, I clone jumped to Zoohen, and prepared for the festivities. I always enjoy the build up to an event, watching corp members slowly filling up local and the last minute planning is strangely exciting. Katherine Skysong was good enough to set up a fleet for the event. After begging up some extra supplies from some lovely Signaleers, it was time to go!
As I undocked I saw my overview was already populated with a number of eager Signaleers who were getting the show started. Eager to get into the thick of it myself, I set a course to orbit my corp mates. However, having completely forgotten how slow an unfitted battleship actual was, I started my crawl towards the party at a speed comparable to an asthmatic slug and promptly got caught in the station structure. After some off-comms, family unfriendly language, I managed to cajole my lead footed ride free of the station and headed out with all launchers blazing!
It wasn’t long before my overview was a sea of purple fleet-mates and the fireworks were coming thick and fast. As I crawled my way further out into space more and more Signaleers appeared and I quickly found myself targeted multiple times. Someone decided to web my ship, as if I needed slowing down any further! Effectively immobile I took the opportunity to take my time getting images.
After around an hour of bangs, whizzes, and chatting in comms, it seemed time to blow my Armageddon and free myself into a more agile ship. I jettisoned what was left of my fireworks, set the two minute timer, and readied myself to pop out in the Navitas I’d stowed in my frigate escape bay. Sadly I didn’t catch the exact moment my ship blew, but below is the last photo as the explosions started.
Finally as the celebrations came to a conclusion and people started signing off from comms, I headed for home and fired off a few final pretties.
This gathering was a massive amount of fun and a very welcome distraction from the events currently consuming everyday life. It was a pleasure to see so many fellow Signaleers together, a rare event due to the nature of exploration. Hopefully more events will come in the near future to bring us all together again!