Two Thousand

Jaime had never realised that trees made a sound when they grew, and no-one else had realised it either, because the sound is made over hundreds of years in waves of twenty-four hours from peak to peak. Speed it up, and the sound a tree makes is *vrooom*.
-- (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens)

I'm sitting here trying to figure out how best to write this up and to be brutally honest, I'm at a loss. The fight was short and violent, like most fights but nothing about it stands out as a defining moment in my EVE career.

There's three frigates in my home system of Gusandall, a Vigil, a Rifter and a Kestrel. The three pilots appear to be unaffiliated but that's not always the case.

I grabbed the Cunning Man, once again rebuilt after his forebear was brutally slain.

I undock from Gusandall station and initiate warp to the first belt, The vigil is there and it locks me up, I return the favour but wait. The vigil engages as the other two frigates warp in.

Primary is the Rifter, everything is overloaded and the Rifter explodes in short order, Kessie is hitting me hard and is next on the block, it too doesn't last long and the Vigil is a wreck in the blink of an eye. The Cunning Man is in structure but only just, standing proud amongst the wrecks.

The Rifter piloted by Ishtarion Greyhawk was my 2000th kill and I'm glad I was flying the same class of ship that I got my very first ever kill.

Masquerade

The more interesting fight of the night came in the shape of a Wolf class assault frigate. It was loitering outside the station and I grabbed one of my favourite ships, an old and proud Stabber Fleet Issue, particularly suited to engaging small ships.

Shortly after undocking, I locked the Wolf up, he returned the favour, I activated my MWD but held back a bit, 0nly 55% thrust applied, I do this for a few reasons, for one it gives the appearance that I'm slow, plated, which gives the aggressor the feeling that they can out run me, and get under my tracking, it also forces the engagement as the aggressor then feels confident enough to engage.

The Wolf did exactly what I wanted him to do, he engaged, but he quickly shot out to around 20 clicks... Arties? Surely not

But he was hitting me nicely from range, so artillery it is. I hit the MWD again, full throttle, I'm faster than him, overloaded stasis webifier reaches out and slows him down further, just as I get in range of an overloadedwarp scrambler which shuts off his MWD. The time had come to hammer the nails in, a flight of Warrior II drones spews forth from my drone bay, my guns had been hitting but not doing a whole lot...

...And then it was all over.

He warps his pod out sharpish as I offer GF in local, to which he doesn't reply.