A Farmer's Tale

The trouble is that things never get better, they just stay the same, only more so.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Eric)

Take Two

I'm not normally vindictive but when I am it's probably best just to leave system.

Last night was such a night and I only had one thing on my mind, killing Pissonp as many times as I could. Well, my original plan was to get him to eject from a Raven but that didn't go down too well so it was down to killing him.

My friend in her covops had scanned out a Raven in Ingunn, I received the call and boarded my Pilgrim, a ship I was really starting to enjoy flying and a good challenge to use going up against a Raven. I joined fleet with my covops friend and headed over to Ingunn, jumped into system and hit warp to her location. She had patiently set up the warp in but she relayed to me as I was in warp that a scout had arrived on the gate. All I had to do now was hope the acceleration gate wouldn't decloak me as I landed. Unlucky for me as it did and the scout definitely spotted me because as I burst out of warp, having cloaked again, the Raven headed back to station.

Not really too worried about him turning tail and legging it, I patiently waited, cloaked inside the mission, he'd be back.

I waited for a good hour or so as he did a few other missions in system, I knew he'd be back as his scout warped to this mission a few times to check things out.

Nope, nobody here besides us sneaky, cloaky types, nothing to see, move along.

After a few more minutes the scout warped to the gate again, my friend relayed the info and said the scout warped into the plex, I confirmed he was inside with me and then she reported the Raven landing on the gate.

"Excellent!" I thought to myself.

The Raven landed 7 clicks off my port side, I waited a few seconds, savouring the moment.

I uncloaked, target lock resolves, scram and web go active, a bank of energy neutralisers glow green on my HUD. He returned lock and launched a volley of cruise missiles my way just as I released a swarm of Hammerhead drones in his general direction. They bit into his shields as my Pilgrim rocked from bow to stern from the missiles impacting its shields. Armour hardeners and damage control go active, I set the armour repper running whilst maintaining a tight orbit with afterburner glowing in the Ingunn night sky. His shields fail and I open up a convo with the pilot.

Pissonp > no
Pissonp > Let me complete the duty
Kane Rizzel > eject or be destroyed
Kane Rizzel > this is not a negotiation
Pissonp > Was me to give you raven
Kane Rizzel > that's the plan

I gave him my terms.

He chose... Poorly

I was left alone in conversation and carried on assaulting his ship, Grand Theft Raven™ would have to wait for another time. Cap Booster charges were being consumed as I continued to rep armour, but soon his Raven was a smoldering wreck, bits of debris raining against Kumano-San-Zan. His escape pod barely made it out before the lock resolved but I was satisfied with the loot he left.

I recloaked and basked in my own awesomeness.

Interlude

Noz gave me a call as he was hunting Pissonp too, he had scanned out an Armageddon, had it tackled and asked if I wanted in?

"On my way" I said.
"It's Disco" he replied

A smartbomb Geddon would be tricky for me but I would just use my energy neuts to cap him out and set drones on him, it didn't take us much time to explode him.

Not long later, a call from a pilot in Independence channel piqued my interest.

"Freighter tackled in Gultraten, on Ingunn gate, need DPS"

Well now, how could I resist? I warped on over and jumped into Gult where Nozaro was engaging the Obelisk freighter in his Broadsword, as luck would have it the Freighter was blocked from crawling back to the gate by a Concord Billboard :D

I smiled wryly as I engaged, knowing full well I would be losing drones to sentries. Sentry fire was shared between Noz, myself and my drones but eventually we downed the massive freighter but were disappointed to find it empty of any loot. But still, a kill is a kill and a freighter is a big one.

Take Three

I headed back to Gusandall to repair what drones I had left and re arm with some new ones before heading back to Ingunn and the mission plex. Pissonp would be back and I wanted to be there when he did.

I shot the breeze in Independence before falling asleep in my ship, cloaked in the plex.

Hours later I was woken up by the sound of explosions, I was expecting this and it makes a change from the horrible beeping of an alarm clock. As predicted, the Raven was back, 15km from me, I closed the distance under cloak.

Decloaking in range of warp scrambler I locked and opened convo with my prey.

Rejected :(, Oh well, Grand Theft Raven™ was put on hold as I resumed the routine of making his day that little bit more interesting. I set a flight of Warrior drones to intercept his Hammerheads as volley after volley of cruise missiles battered into my recon, my armour repper and cap booster keeping up as my energy neutralisers sucked the life blood from the Raven.

Then my moment of "nubness." In my haste to get back I neglected to reload on cap boosters and I had just run out

"DOH!"

Well, now it got really interesting as Pissonp got clever and started on my drones, this gave me the respite I needed to really pay attention and the game of "Scoop and Redeploy" started. As he missiles hit a drone I scooped it and redeployed. He would then target another and launch a volley at it, wash, rinse, repeat.

My Hammerheads were doing an amazing job of chewing into his armour and hull as we played but eventually he ran out of both as he exploded in a violent flash of light.

Damn, that was actually close, a damn good fight and I must give props to Mr Farmer, good job, awesome fun.

I scooped the loot and warped out, I returned to Gus but not before warping back to the mission gate and dispatching the scout for good measure.

I docked and repaired my drones, made sure to resupply with cap boosters before heading out to do some things. A good night and a good start to the day.

Pissonp has lost three Ravens to me in two days, six altogether in four days to Nozaro, kerjn and myself. It's just not his week