Loss #12: The Cunning Moa

Ouelletta was unusually quiet when I came up with the best target I'd seen in days on the scanner: a Moa-class cruiser had gone into an asteroid belt. Moas aren't weaklings, but I knew its cruiser-sized blasters just wouldn't be able to catch my Rifter. I warped in, cheering as I caught the cruiser with my warp scrambler - I had already won, I just needed to wait out its shields.

As my autocannons wore down its heavy shields, a swarm of drones poured from its drone bay. "Ah good. It will be a fight, then," I thought. I turned my attention to the drones and managed to keep up with the damage they dealt to my armor as I destroyed them each in turn. I finally turned my attention back to the Moa, and worked my way through the rest of his shields.. when a proximity alarm suddenly flashed red on my HUD.

The combat had started quite far from any of the asteroids in this belt, but the Moa's pilot had inched us closer and closer while I had been focusing on taking down his shields. The structure of my Rifter groaned as the computer compensated, breaking and banking hard to avoid collision with an asteroid; vectoring me directly away from the Moa. I was a sitting duck as the Moa's blasters finally were able to align and pounded my ship with round after round of hot plasma. I escaped with my pod as I congratulated the Moa's pilot for his excellent job of using the terrain to his advantage. And I cursed to myself for losing such an excellent target.

A tale of two Myrmidons

The black-hulled Heritage Two sat in my Oursulaert hangar, and the ISK Guillome had so recently transferred me was no longer in my account. I made sure everything was in order and undocked at twice the throttle as was allowed by the station crews. I was determined to get back to Intaki before the Myrmidon pilot left.

It seemed there was to be no luck. I returned to the system and the pilot was no longer registered on the local comms channel. But before the gate-induced cloaking field dissipated, his callsign appeared on my HUD. He had returned. The Myrmidon decloaked not ten klicks away, having even jumped through the same gate. I watched as he warped off towards a nearby asteroid belt, and as soon as he was gone, I punched in a course to follow him.

I arrived almost on top of him, and tried to think about what I had gone over in my head a thousand times. Turns out, it's a lot harder in the heat of battle with all the adrenaline in your system. Still, I managed to get it right: scramble his engines, kick on the microwarp drive, set the furthest orbit I could without losing the scrambler's lock, and then stop thinking about the Myrmidon. I began targeting his drones and loosing salvo after salvo of rockets into them. The high-tech drones stood up to the barrage better than their lower-tech cousins, but they still took heavy damage.

I had managed to take out three of his drones before I brought my attention back to my own ship. My amazing Khanid-made armor had repelled the drones well, but I was already taking structure damage. I gave the command to warp out, and managed to get away with 80% structural integrity left. Looking over the list of pilots currently registered on the local comms channel, I was satisfied that none would be too quick to scan down my location, so I set the ship to planetary orbit, and gave the command for all hands to focus on getting the Heritage Two repaired as soon as possible. Given her advanced armor systems, the armor was restored in short order.

I exchanged friendly words with the Myrmidon pilot, and he noted that my second attack had gone much better than my first. I thanked the pilot for a good fight, and told him I wouldn't harass him a third time that evening. I later regretted saying that, knowing I had worked through some of his drones, but I was true to my word; I may be a bandit, but I'm no liar. After waiting out the requisite time for my criminal actions to fade from high-alert status, I returned to a station in the system for some brief downtime.

I later took the Heritage Two over towards one of my favorite hunting grounds, Oueletta, which is usually a pretty crowded system. There seemed to be only a few pilots on the local comms this night, though. I began my usual run-down, scanning the system for potential targets. I get only one result: A Myrmidon. This Myrmidon also was only a few months out of the academy, so I decided to push my luck.

I warped in fairly far off from the Myrmidon's location - probably about 30 klicks. I held off from targeting him as to not alert him to my intentions until I was within fifteen. Once I had him warp-scrambled, I locked his Hammerhead drones and began working my way through them. Not being high-tech drones, I made pretty short work of them and turned my attention back to the battlecruiser. Salvo after salvo of Gremlin rockets slammed into his shields, but he had a shield recharger working in concert with the Myrmidon's already impressive defensive systems. I managed to work through his shields after nearly fifteen minutes, and he hailed me over the local comms. "Seems like this could go on forever."

I offered to leave him alone for the price of my ship. He replied with boasts that his ship was such a tank, that I'd run out of ammo before I could damage him. I told him I agreed, but pointed out that I still had him warp-scrambled, and was in no danger of running down my capacitor. He made numerous threats about what would happen once his alliance arrived. I, on the other hand, was asking for help on what few comms channels I know where I can find other pirates. Sadly, none were nearby.

What finally broke up the encounter was the arrival of a Rupture-class cruiser, flashing red in my overview. A quick database lookup showed that this was the very same pilot that destroyed the Heritage One. I debated briefly if I should convince him to help me because of his outlaw status, but thought better of it and left. The Rupture pilot later hailed me and invited me into a group to try trapping the Myrmidon. For all his boasting, however, the Myrmidon pilot decoded against taking my bait.

Lessons learned - take more firepower when trying to take down such a tough target.

Loss #3: Age can be deceiving

After jumping over to Orvolle to outfit another Rifter, the Restock One, I wandered around Placid and Verge Vendor again, itching to get back into the fray. Finding myself in Ouelletta yet again - it was the only system around with active pilots in it - I started looking for prey again. As it turned out, most of the pilots around were off fighting at hidden Serpentis outposts, and I didn't have the probing equipment to find them. I did track down a young pilot, only several months out of the academy, who was patrolling the asteroid belts in a Vexor-class cruiser. I decided to test him, given his young age.

I warped in about 10 klicks out from him, and instantly had his engines scrambled and was tearing through his shields. His guns couldn't even hit me as I orbited, and I began to get confident. Then, as if he had forgotten for a few seconds, his drone bay opened up and five Hobgoblin II drones swarmed out at me. I was caught off guard that a pilot so young would have the skill to control such high-tech drones, but the proof was right in front of me.. and it was chewing through my armor. I tried to warp away when I realized my error, but only escaped with my capsule. I acknowledged to the pilot that he had bested me, and went to hide in a local station to plan out how to proceed from there.

The night was turning out to be a night of expensive lessons...

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...

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.