Roots

"No running with scythes!"

-- (Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time)

The feeling of speed is incredible, it has been far too long since the universe sped by at such a rate. The faster I went, the slower my heart beat became. Once more, one with the universe.

Dramiel

The Dramiel is the most long-standing and often-used ship design in the Angel Cartel's vast repertoire of vessels. A frigate workhorse if ever there was one, this sharp-tusked, dangerous beauty can sting unimaginably hard if one is not prepared for its assault.

Special Ability: 100% bonus to Small Projectile Turret damage
Minmatar Frigate Skill Bonus: 10% bonus to Small Projectile Turret falloff per level
Gallente Frigate Skill Bonus: 7.5% bonus to Small Projectile Turret tracking speed per level

Recently updated, the Dramiel is now the fastest ship in the universe, capable of speeds even Interceptors can't compete with. While not as fast as my record setting Crusader of old, a mindblowing 63km/s, it can get up to 15km/s with Keira in her Claymore and my skills.

I decided to refit an old Dramiel I had gathering dust in the hangar and venture forth. Wandering around lowsec it seemed to be barren of any targets, eerily barren. Jump after jump yielded no opportunity to unleash the speed.

Getting rather irritated by lack of any action I decided one more stop in Eifer before docking up.

Thorax on scan, ratting. Whilst not a challenge, it still represented a target so I tracked it to a belt, warped in and engaged. The superior speed, guns and drones meant the Thorax stood very little chance. It exploded, pod scrambled and ransom offered. Unfortunately a "friend" had warped in with his Wolf and exploded the pod before the pilot had a chance to respond.

:(

C'est la vie. The Thorax pilot was of good age and would have resulted in a nice ransom had he had the chance to accept.

Oh well, I headed back to Gus to drop off the loot I was able to scoop and take a well deserved smoke break.

News of two Crows nearby, reached me and I headed on out to intercept the Interceptors. Apparently the two were hunting in Katagumar, I was just about to jump in when they jumped into me. First Crow drops gate cloak, I close and lock, they weren't outlaw so I had to rely on them engaging me, which they kindly obliged. The speed of the Dramiel takes some getting used to, after so long flying tanked ships this was a breath of fresh air.

I lost scram range on a few occasions but they stuck around long enough for me to drop the first Crow. Seeing his friend explode caused the second to bail. I need to get used to this, I could have easily taken the second, I could also have exploded but managed to win the engagement despite a fair number of mistakes.

This takes me back to my roots, back to the glory days of pure speed and it feels fucking good.

Stay Classy