How a small org nabbed an F8 Platinum Ticket

  Accidental Adventures n Acquisitions, a small organization of less then 20 had a wild ride tonight. With only 3 members online we didn't have a plan for the evening but settled on collecting Halloween helmets. I (Nightraven009) flew from Crusader to Microtech to meet my group, WatchdogFL and Wild Munstratus. I was flying my 400i planning on picking up a groud vehicle for bunkers. Once I loaded my hoverquad I noticed the server chat going nuts about trying to get streamers into the server. I opened my mobiglass and noticed the "priority" mission tab and saw the Running the Gauntlet mission and asked the others if they wanted to try it. Wild was having a shitty day and was salty that we were going to change plans and refused, Watchdog took off at the mention of the event.

  Wild was, amazingly already in a mantis, but my QT was faster and I made it to MIC-L1 before he did. I immediately saw targets but I knew the 400i wasn't going to handle this so I docked up at the station and grabbed my 85x. Wild beat me to the combat zone and unfortunately died almost instantly but was only incapacitated and was able to feed me Intel. I flew as quick and close as I could without my little 85x getting blasted and jumped out and started to eva to the location. I pulled out my s71 and.... omg I can't see where I'm aiming because the gun was bugged. My character was holding the gun at a downward 45° angle. I thought well I'll have to make due and hope and pray. I managed to gun down 2 players along my way to the body holding the ticket. However someone else beat me to the ticket but I had the element of surprise and was able to kill them. At this point I knew I couldn't hold the ticket or I would mark myself. I happened to be near a constellation wreck so I decided to play keep away. I pulled out my tractor beam and held onto the body holding the platnium ticket.

  At this point Watchdog had called some friends from another organization (Charlie HQ) who jumped over to our discord. Watchdog was 45 million kms from the combat zone but managed to switch ships unbeknownst to me. He went from a nomad to an inferno to a herc m2 in the matter of 5 or 10 minutes. With the consultation of Charlie, Watchdog left where ever he was and headed towards me. Everyone is asking me to stream but im not letting go of this body. Now floating in space watching countless ships fighting each other holding onto the body with the platinum ticket holding it about 50 meters from me so hopefully not to give myaelf away. Ships are buzzing by trying to shoot and ram the body. Then a cutlass shows up and tries to steal the body from me but can't because I was still holding it. Needless to saw the cutlass didn't last. More ships flying around and eventually a corsair shows up. I did my best to move the body but the corsair flew in front of me and cut my tractor beam. But by whatever miracle, the back of the corsair was facing me and I was able to snipe trator beam the body back out just before the doors closed and watched the corsair get swarmed and destroyed.

  Wild has now respawned and Watchdog is still inbound. Longest 5-10 minutes or whatever it takes a Herc to leave a planet and qt 45 million kms with a TS2. Watchdog has now arrived at the initial warp in point for MIC-L4. More and more ships are trying to hit the body I'm now spinning around in circles to "imitate" a live player. With Charlie closely advising Watchdog how to pick me up he warps into the chaos. At 20km away I finally get shot at with small arms fire... I've finally be found. I have to think, run out into the void, try and fight or die. I move to the other side of the wreck and try to use my medgun.... uh oh, I changed my keybinds and forgot the bind the target self. I managed to use my med pens to stabilize myself. Watchdog is on final approach and... over shoots me. On the turn around popping all defense measures I get shot again. I let go of the body again and stab myself with another medpen and I'm capped at 75% health. Watchdog is coming back around getting blasted by everyone in the area, they know why he's here. He approaches low I frantically guide him to me and I fly into the void towards the M2. I yell, "NOSE UP AND GO!". Both me and the body slide all the way down the cargo deck and stop at the other end, talk about a movie moment lol. I shut the rear doors just in time to watch us leave the battlefield.

  With the ticket now on the ship we cut QT in dead space and I place the ticket in my inventory. We resume QT to Hurston and Wild meets us there to act as a shield for Kamakazie pilots. Charlie relays to Watchdog to just impound the ship. The server is congratulating Watchdog for the sweet snatch and grab. I'm congratulated for the prize but say, "it's not over yet". We QT to Lorville on Wilds go ahead. Lorville is mostly empty and Wild heads to the terminal to prevent anyone from blocking me. As we make our final approach we have one near miss and a direct hit (I think judging from the discards reactions). Watchdog struggles to impound the ship but eventually manages to impound it. I'm then teleported to Orision to turn my platinum ticket in. I rush to the tram and fly away, relieved that I managed to pull this off on a last second whim with 2 friends....... wait..... my tram is not on course... no.... .... 30k. I panic that we managed this just to have to taken away. I gave up but chalked it up to a fantastic almost for my organization. Charlie assured me that I would have it when I logged back in. So I logged back in and surprise there it was on my character. I rushed to the crusader showroom and turned in my ticket.

  A huge thanks to CIG for a fantastic event. Props to Charlie HQ for the combat consultation, and mega props to Wild Munstratus and WatchdogFL for helping this happen. I couldn't have done it without everyone.