Kill #8: The Distant Merlin

In Old Man Star, I found a Merlin-class frigate on scan. I was quickly able to track it down to a planetary orbit, but when I arrived it was 250 klicks off, sitting motionless. Was it powered down? Did the pilot think that sitting so far off from the standard orbit would keep him safe? Or was it a trap?

I aligned the Rust III towards another planet in his direction and warped out, returning moments later by warping in 100km off the mark - this put me at about 150 klicks from the Merlin. I set my navigation for flat-out approach and burned hard towards the target. I realize at about 80km that I've accidentally had my crews fit a Warp Disruptor II module instead of a Warp Scrambler - normally not what I'd want on a Rifter, but at least this time it would let me lock down the target as soon as he was within targeting range.

At 24km, my targeting systems acquired a lock, and the disruptor kicked on. The first of the Merlin's missiles was already in flight, and impacted against my shields a split second later. I was still 20 klicks out from effective range, and only gaining slowly as the other ship fled. I was taking a barrage of missiles and railgun fire. My shields melted and my armor took enough damage that I kicked on my repairer.. but then finally I was within 10km and caught the Merlin in my stasis web. From there, it was all over. I was too close and fast for his missiles or his railguns, and the battle was almost one-sided.

I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy piloting Rifters.

Kill #7: Ratting Fat Man

Back in Old Man Star, I was sitting at a safespot avoiding the large fleet of Battleships and Assault Cruisers that had been called in by some local militia pilots to scare off their enemies. Scanning everywhere but the gate they were gathered at, I did manage to find a Tristan in an asteroid belt, hunting bounties against the local Serpentis.

Militia pilots, and pilots used to high-sec, often erroneously consider systems with large numbers of friendly militia as ‘safe.’ I wondered if that was why he was so leisurely fighting in that asteroid belt.

Despite the easy catch, the Tristan put up a good fight. He managed to destroy 70% of my armor before exploding.

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>

Kill #5: Frigate miner

Still adrenaline-charged from my last kill, I resumed my roaming and came to Costolle. I scanned down an Imicus-class frigate in an asteroid belt, and made quick work of him.

Looking over the CONCORD report of the incident, I noticed that he was a very young pilot, and had fit nothing but mining tools. Feeling a twang of guilt, I opened a channel to him and told him I'd leave him his wreckage. I even transferred him the minimal cost of a new Imicus. Hopefully he'll avoid low-sec until he's better prepared in the future...

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.

Kill #3: I hate killing the fat man...

After just two kills, CONCORD has already made some notes on my record. I'm still allowed in 1.0-security space, but not for much longer at this rate. Given that I've got a number of ships and other assets stored in high-security space, I've been making the long, slow trek back to Domain to start moving my things to more accessible stations.

Almost every system in Gallente Federation space was buzzing with pilots as I made the journey, though. Strange for this time of night. Most of them were moving too quickly to pinpoint their locations on the scanner. I managed to track down a Rupture-class cruiser, but he was 20km away when I warped in, and he knew enough to warp away. In the system of Ouelletta, however, I ran across a young pilot bounty-hunting Serpentis ships in the asteroid belts. He was piloting a Tristan-class frigate, which is the favorite of a good Gallente hauler friend of mine. I have to say, I agree with him.. and I was a bit sad when this particular Tristan went down without much of a fight. My Rifter spent some time orbiting the other frigate, its autocannons slowly whittling away at the Tristan's strong armor. In return, I only received a handful of missiles against my shields.

The pilot contacted me later, asking for some advice. I was happy to oblige. Hopefully I'll be making my way through Ouelletta again soon, only to be attacked by a much more fearsome Tristan.

Kill #2: Half-fit in Low-sec

After taking my time in Mercomesier to make sure the local authorities wouldn't be on my tail from my last kill, I continued roaming in Placid. It was getting late by the time I made my way to Aubenall, but it turned out Local was bustling with pilots there. There were even members of some of the more infamous pirate groups there, including pilots from the Black Rabbits and MOD. There were some younger, unaffiliated pilots around, though.

Previously, I would have been wary of hunting in such a bustling system. With so many pilots around, any potential target is much more likely to have friends waiting in the wings. But with my confidence up after my recent kill, I began meandering among moons and planets, just to see. I scanned down a lone Catalyst-class destroyer, and I decided to tempt fate. I tend to think that destroyers get a bad name - everyone says they're terrible in real combat. But pouncing on a well-outfitted Catalyst was bound to send me to my capsule from a hail of blaster fire. Lucky for me, this was no such Catalyst.

I dropped in on the destroyer, who was already tangling with a local Serpentis ship. I warped in 20 klicks off of his position, and I only had an afterburner. I threw my rifter into top speed, and held off on targeting him until I was in under 10km, hoping he was too focused on the Serpentis ship to notice my arrival. My gamble worked. By the time he had targeted my ship, I was through what was left of his shields, and his armor was taking a beating. He must not have equipped any defensive modules, because he exploded within a few seconds. He did almost no damage to me, which was curious. I jammed his capsule's warp drive while I dispatched the Serpentis ship, but as I did so, I stretched my range too far and he escaped. No matter, he was young enough that I wasn't going to try ransoming him anyways.

There was one question still plaguing me as I arrived at the wreck of his Catalyst, and therein lied the answer: it had been fit with nothing but two tech-2 mining lasers, and afterburner, and a single gatling pulse laser. Now I know why destroyers get such a bad name...

Kill #1: A game of cat and ... cat.

I’ve been roaming around the Placid region lately, far from my home in Domain. On this particular night, I passed through the Mercomesier system several times, only to find two other pilots in local, both idle in a station. On my third pass through the system, as I was leaving, someone else showed up in Local. I quickly warped back towards the core of the system and began hopping through the planets, trying to scan out the new arrival. I imagined that I’d catch a glimpse of him just before he jumped out to another system; all my possible targets had ended up that way for the last few days.

This time was different. I caught a Rifter-class frigate on my scanner and thought I might be in for a fight. I had just insured my ship, and was itching for some action despite my lack of experience, so I threw my own Rifter into warp towards the planet where he was located.

Dropping out of warp I found.. nothing. He was gone. I picked him up on my scanner again and narrowed him down to a different planet. I warped in, again coming up empty handed. I realized he was doing the same thing I was doing – scanning me out and trying to get to me. After another minute of cat-and-mouse, (or maybe cat-and-cat?) I dropped in on him around planet five, and immediately started to orbit and warp-scramble him. He was ready, though, and was already firing back as my guns spun up. My shields and armor melted pretty quickly – faster than his did. I was doomed for sure, and as my structure was shredded down to the last bits, I began hammering the command to warp out so that my capsule would at least get away. As my warp engines kicked on, I saw that I left him behind in his own capsule – had we both been destroyed? I looked around, and to my amazement, I was still inside my Rifter. It was flaming out of every compartment, but it was still in one piece. I had made my first kill on the road to piracy.

Heading back to the scene of the crime, I found his wreck and rummaged through the remains. He had been using Faction-level ammo and rockets, and a tech-2 overdrive injector. No real other tank to speak of. The expensive ammo (and a weapon stabilizer) explained his improved damage output, but my own armor repairer must have made the difference in the last seconds of the fight.

All in all, an excellent fight, and I look forward to more like that one.