Kill #4: The first interceptor

I’ve been re-evaluating some of my habits lately. I no longer stay away from drone ships. And just recently, I decided to break my fear of Interceptors. I was jumping through Agoze when I noticed a Taranis-class interceptor, the Uncredible Hulk, on my scanner. My instinct was to move on and look for other targets.. so I did. I jumped into Intaki. Running through my usual spots for scanning the system, I noticed the Uncredible Hulk on scan once more. I warp into a planetary orbit that’s closer to where he is, to try to further scan down his location.. and he’s in the same planetary orbit, 140km from me.

Starting out a fight with an interceptor from 140km gives me a bad feeling. The Taranis is known for being a short-range interceptor, but I’m betting the ship tops out somewhere in the 5-6 km/s range. Even with an advanced microwarp drive attached, the Heritage Two barely pushes 2-3 km/s. Impressive against larger ships, but nothing to an interceptor. Before the Taranis decides his own course of action, I re-align to another planet and warp out.

The instant I drop out of warp, I swing my ship around for a return trip. This time I’ve set the warp destination to land on top of the Taranis. A few seconds of spatial distortion and… nothing. The Taranis was gone, but I had a hunch. I powered on my warp scrambling batteries and my rocket bays, and waited.

It wasn’t long before the Taranis returned, warping in only 4 klicks from my position. My powered-on systems spun up instantly after my targeting computer gained a lock-on, and my stasis web cut his speed shortly after. I found myself committed to a situation I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in – his high-tech blasters were the most devastating frigate weapon systems, and his two high-tech Hobgoblin II drones were chewing away at me. But my advantage is my Khanid armor. The interceptor is fragile, and every salvo of Phalanx Rockets I fire makes a noticeable difference.

The Taranis is into structure, and my armor is holding when I hear the report from the ship’s computer - “The capacitor is empty.” My armor repairer gives out, and the Taranis’ blasters begin cutting into my structure. I freeze as I watch the warning lights report my imminent destruction, when my view lights up with the interceptor’s explosion. My structure was at 30% integrity and flames were pouring out of my hull. I quickly moved to scoop up the loot from my opponent, and warped off to find a safe location while my crew worked on temporary repairs.

I exchanged adrenaline-filled comments with the Taranis’ pilot over the local comms, saluting each other’s fighting ability. The Taranis is considered the most deadly of the close-range interceptors, and I had taken one down. I’m really beginning to like the Heritage Two.