Orca; The high-sec carrier

The ORE Industrial command ship; the Orca. Where do you commonly see them?

1.       In belts amongst a fleet of Hulks, giving them boosts to the range, cap use and cycle time of their mining lasers, they mine and deposit ore into it’s corp hanger, the Orca pilot then moves the ore into the Orca’s Ore bay and cargo hold. A cargo-rigged Orca with 2 Expanded cargo modules in it’s low slots has over 170,000k m3 for moving Ore from belts to station. It can also accommodate 2 Hulks in it’s Ship Bay.

2.       Undocking from trade hubs, The Orca’s spacious cargo capabilities and Corporate hanger are a favourite for traders and smugglers, customs officials and pirates cannot scan the corporate hanger or ship bay, so drugs, plex, ships and other expensive items can be carried in relative safety.

Can the Orca Tank a Gank?

Simple answer, yes.

If you sacrifice the cargo expanders in the low slots and fit a Damage Control and Reinforced bulkheads will give you over 200,000 ehp. The generous Power Grid and CPU specs of the Orca also allow you to fit 2 XL Ancillary shield boosters and 2x Invulnerability fields. This will give a half decently skilled pilot over 215,000 ehp and a 1350dps tank for the 52 seconds till the Cap boosters run out. (or 2100dps for 44 Seconds when overheated) This will survive all but the most concentrated multiple tier 3 BC suicide gank. Plus you have no shortage of cargo space for cap boosters.

Mini-Profession carrier

My personal favourite role of the Orca, is carrying a fleet of ships to run scan down sites in High sec.

The 400,000m3 ship bay allows me to carry:

·         Assault frig  (racially chosen for resists to the NPC area I am working in)

·         Covops scanner, for scanning signatures.

·         Bomber , for wandering in WH space looking for juicy targets.

·         Salvaging Destroyer, Useful for salvaging combat sites and running Magnetometric sites.

·         Codebreaking Frigate, Get some juicy loot from cans in Radar sites, I usually use an interceptor

·         Analyzing Frigate, Go all “Indiana Jones” and do some archaeology in Magnetometric sites. Again, interceptor is my choice

·         Mackinaw, Mine out Gravimetric sites containing Ore not usually found in high sec, plus occasionally find rare ores in combat sites.

·         PvP ship, never leave home without one, Vagabond is my weapon of choice.

Load up the cargo bay with some spare modules and ammunition.

Next, check Dotlan, find some nice little high sec pockets of systems, with very few jumps in the last 24 hours. Park the Orca up in station, scan, shoot, salvage, mine. Load your booty into the Orca and move onto the next station, rinse and repeat.