The magic 500

It's been a few days and the hangar is a mess, there's stacks of ammo everywhere and boxes of loot that should have been shipped to Rens by now.
It seems my Hangar Crew took a few days off in my absence, oh well, time to crack the whip so to speak.

Tying up some loose ends I head off into the black in my Republic Fleet Firetail, my local haunt is kinda busy with various pilots. I chased a Rifter around the system for a good few minutes but he always managed to be one step ahead of me.
I heard chatter on local comms channels from a Tempest pilot in system, apparently hugging the gate to the nearest high security system so I headed off to investigate, knowing full well I would not be able to engage as sentries would pretty much instapop my fragile frigate.
I headed back home for something a little beefier and settled on undocking "The Fifth Elephant" a Sleipnir class Command Battlecruiser. I headed back to the system and gate just to see the Tempest jump out, the gate was surrounded by other pirates.

A Hurricane jumped through into us and forgetting any differences we might have we killed the hapless pilot in no time at all, I immediately warped out.

Back in my home system I managed to tag a Slasher and Thrasher.

It had been a long day and I retired to the comfort of my bunk.

An new day dawned... well... the lights of my hangar fickered into life as Keira waltzed through to go out in her Cheetah. That woman is a morning person and it's damn annoying.
A few minutes passed and I had just got out the shower when I heard her disticntive voice over comms.

"Get your ass in gear, I have a Farmer Raven entering a plex."

I pulled on my flight suit and sprinted for the nearest ship, The Fifth Elephant was waiting, systems primed, I undocked and initiated warp to Keira's position, there was no time to waste as she had reported a scout on the plex entrance.
I burst out of warp and ignored the scout, activating the plex gate with all haste, I was flung by the arcane structure into the depths of deadspace, hoping to be greeted by the sight of the Raven.
Fortune smiled on me as I burst out of the warp tunnel and there she was. I initiated a lock and primed all systems. The lock resolved and my Warp Disruptor kicked in and in the same moment, so did my guns. The fight was very short and the mighty Raven burst into flames. I snagged the pod for good measure and added his corpse to my collection.
A few minutes later he came back to the plex with a Ferox, which was duly destroyed along with his scout and scout's pod.
A long while later he made another attempt with the same results but this time Keira had snuck a Rapier recon into the plex while I waited at a deep safespot.

This last kill brought my tally to 500 kills and it also saw Keira's first killmail.

I was basking in my glory when comms came alive, flashfresh, an old friend of mine informed me there was a mining op nearby and then left in a hurry so my intel was very slim. Nonetheless I decided to go have some fun and headed out to the system where they were reported.

I jumped into system and activated my onboard scanner, there were three Retriever mining barges, a Vexor and a Malediction. Good odds I thought as I narrowed them down.
I warped to the asteroid belt where my instruments indicated they were and engaged.
The closest ship to me was a Retriever and bore the wrath of my 425mm autocannons first, I had also locked the Vexor and closed the gap to him.
Retriver pops and I open up on the Vexor, the Malediction had me webbed and scrammed when a Chimera class carrier entered the fray.
The Vexor popped and I turned my attention to the Malediction, I needed to pop it to get out of web and scram or the carriers fighters who were on me now would eat me.
My shield tank had broken and I was into armor when the Malediction popped, without second thought I punched the warp drive to bug out, abandoning my drones in the process.

I got out and made my way to my HQ to get some more drones and asses the damage, it wasn't so bad so a short while later I headed back to play some more.
The Carrier was still there, joined by a Pilgrim and Maulus. I decided to primary the Pilgrim and got it deep into armor when the Maulus jammed me. the Pilgrim warped out and I closed on the Maulus, it's jam cycle over it was at the mercy of my EMP rounds as they smashed it to bits.
I was again being chased by fighters and I strung them out behind me as I popped them one by one, in all 10 fighters died before the Carrier pilot recalled them.

The Pilgrim had warped back in and was close to a wreck, tuning my nav systems I warped to the wreck and engaged him, the fight was short. The carrier pilot looking on helplessly.

So a Retriever, Vexor, Malediction, Maulus, Pilgrim and 10 fighters in exchange for my 5 drones, I consider that a fair trade ;)

I headed home with a grin on my face, I needed a cigarette and a stiff drink.

Minutes later my farmer friend from earlier was back in system, Keira was already on the case and had his mission plex scanned out and was waiting patiently for him to come back, he did and he died again.

Good times... good times :D