It's almost a year now since I moved to Gusandall, a year that has seen me grow as a pilot both in skill and determination. I have made many friends and many more enemies and through it all I'm still learning.
Something that always bothered me about our local 2/10 plex was that when I scanned out targets there and warped in they were nowhere to be found, meaning they were deeper inside than I was able to go, with this in mind I started collecting the keys for the various gates for a chance to introduce a plex runner to my autocannons. I have tagged a few pilots in my time here and have done research on them adding them to my friend finder so that I would be notified whenever they entered system.
Tonight was such a night, I opened my friend finder and saw that an old adversary was in system, a pilot who has been known to run dual warp core stabilisers on his Hawk class Assault Frigate, I have only managed to catch him once before and I wasn't going to let him slip by me. He had managed to escape me a few nights ago as I only had a 2 point warp scrambler fitted so with this in mind I had my deck crew fit another 2 point scrambler to "Crop Duster™" my Jaguar class Assault Frigate. I watched the local intel channel and made sure my mark was still in system, he was and I undocked into the black. Gusandall's station undock allows an insta warp towards some stargates and to the Angel Creo Crop plex and I used this to sling myself directly into warp towards the plex. Once there I activated the ancient stargate and was flung deep into deadspace. Coming out of warp my systems resolved and the mark was nowhere to be seen but I expected this and hit the afterburner towards the second acceleration gate ignoring the Gistii deadspace frigates targetting me. I reached the gate and narrowed my onboard scanner to scan in its intended direction, the result was positive, the Hawk was in the second room.
I activated the gate using one of the key cards designated for it and was launched into warp towards the second room and my prize, I had a key card for the third gate were I to need it but as I came out of warp I was greeted by the sight of the Hawk killing Gistii frigates and assaulting a deadspace structure. I activated my afterburners and closed the distance as he was slightly too far for my scramblers which were eagerly pulsing as they were primed awaiting lock to resolve.
Once I was close enough I started the lock and as it resolved the scramblers kicked in "Let's see you run now" I said to myself with a wry smile, I activated my weapons systems and my autocannons and rocket launcher started their merry song. From past engagements I knew the Hawk's shield systems were very strong and it was only then I noticed I had the wrong ammo loaded as he was repping easily sitting at 10% shields, I deactivated my weapons and started the reload procedure which would take 10 seconds, the Republic Fleet EMP rounds and Caldari Navy Gremlin rockets would make short work of the shields and it would need to as in that 10 seconds he had repped to 100% shields. Reload complete I hit fire and the guns and launcher responded with eagerness, the Hawk's shields taking a battering and his complex shield booster straining under the relentless barrage. Shields failed and I was into the meat of the Hawk, its fragile armour melting and within a fraction of a second so did his structure, his escape pod jettisoned into space amidst the shiny explosion.
Stabs won't save you
Unfortunately he was very quick to get his pod out before my lock resolved and I was denied his corpse as a trophy. I scooped the loot and warped to a safespot in system to allow my systems to recover from the assault, I had taken some damage and some of my systems were damaged from overloading but I had some nanite paste on board and set to repairing whilst allowing my Global Criminal Countdown to expire.
I docked up, a short, succesful and satisfying hunt, I finished up the evening paying bills for office and hangar rent that needed attention and caught up on the days news.
It's been a long day, I need some sleep and my bunk looks very inviting, I put some music on, light a cigarette and take a sip of my Earl Grey tea, all's well with the universe.
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