Kill #6: A Tusker

After cleaning myself up and getting checked out for any long-term damage that being adrift for so long might have done to me, I headed to the hangar level of the station to procure myself another ship. Some kind benefactor had left my accounts 30 million ISK richer while I had been gone.. this time, it hadn't been Guillome. I used the money to outfit another Vengeance, the Heritage III. It was time to get back in the saddle. I fitted the Heritage III with high-tech pulse lasers instead of rockets, as the rockets from my usual supplier had changed their payload, and seemed much less effective now.*

I began roaming my old hunting grounds, and decided to stray a little outside my usual path. This took me to the system of Hevrice, home system of The Tuskers, a group of pirates I quite respect. There wasn't much on the scanner, so I took my time exploring the system, until an Incursus-class frigate showed up on the scanner, hiding behind the first planet of the system.

I practically collided with the Incursus as I dropped from warp, and began my orbit. Then I noticed his ID tag on my HUD. The pilot was Two50, a member of The Tuskers. I knew I was in for a fight. And that it was; Incursus held its own quite well, and actually managed to be doing damage to my armor in between cycles of my repair module. I was also having a harder than normal time hitting it with my own turrets...

Damn. I hadn't enabled my stasis web. I slapped myself for falling out of practice. I willed it to activate, and the Incursus slowed noticeably, suddenly allowing my turrets to pound away the last of its armor. His pod didn't attempt to escape, but I decided I didn't need the security hit on my record just yet. I told the pilot so, and he transmitted back a brief complement on the fight as I warped off.

I had some business to get to in high sec...

* OOC: <whining> Damned missile nerf. It was already dumb of me to fit rockets instead of pulses pre-patch, but they needed an additional damage nerf?? C'mon guys, change the Vengeance to get a laser bonus instead, or fix rockets. </whining>

Loss #5: A false start

After failing to find prey while hunting, I was sitting outside a station in Old Man Star, thinking I might keep an eye on any passing traffic. After a little while, an Incursus-class frigate warped in, and sat outside the station as well. After a moment, he approached my Rifter and jettisoned a piece of ammunition from his hold. I knew the drill - he wanted to fight, and taking the ammo he dropped trick the sentry guns into thinking I had stolen from him so that we could fight without intervention.

I targeted him, grabbed the piece of ammo, and waited. My ship flashed a notice on my HUD, and I punched all my weapon systems into action. Apparently, that notice had not been about incoming fire, as the sentry guns spun up and tore through my Rifter in seconds. The other pilot was good-natured, and let me know over the local comms channel that he wished the sentries had not intervened, he'd been looking for a fair fight. Looks like I'll have to give him a rain check..

Loss #2: Don't fly angry

Infuriated by some issues station-side, I stormed into my hangar and jumped into the Rust Two, intent on blowing off some steam. I hadn't gone hunting again since I lost the Rust One, and I was ready for more action. I made my way back to Ouelletta, which was becoming one of my favorite systems.

Once in the system, I scanned down an Incursus-class frigate, which seemed to be moving alone. I warped around, trying to pinpoint his location, and eventually warped in right on top of him around a planet. I kicked in all of my systems and everything spun up in the dance that I was starting to get used to, but.. one piece was missing. Something didn't sound right. My guns weren't firing.

In my haste to get out of my hangar, I had forgotten something entirely basic: to load any ammo into my guns. I cursed loudly as I figured out too late what had happened. The Incursus had me scrambled, and its blasters were already working deep into my armor. I laid out a course for my capsule and punched it into warp as the Rust Two exploded behind me.

An entire ship lost because of a stupid mistake. Now I know why they teach you to double check your entire systems list before takeoff in the academy...