Any wizard bright enough to survive for five minutes was also bright
enough to realise that if there was any power in demonology, then it lay
with the demons. Using it for your own purposes would be like trying to
beat mice to death with a rattlesnake.
-- Why summoning demons is a Bad Idea
(Terry Pratchett, Eric)
I've been super busy of late but wanted to recount a little bit of piracy from a few weeks ago, I was busy sorting out loot to be moved to highsec when an associate reported a Tempest running a Cosmic Anomoly in Eifer. I've much enjoyed my time flying the Proteus, an ugly but vicious little cruiser.
One would under normal circumstances not take on a battleship in a cruiser, but these weren't normal circumstances, and this wasn't a normal cruiser, it was strategic, of the tech 3 variety, packed a brutal punch and could take a bit of punishment to boot.
So with that I set off to Eifer, my associate had already found the site and was waiting for me, I entered system and initiated warp to her position, overloaded disruptor and scrambler primed. It was a gated site so as I landed my cloak collapsed, I activated the gate and was catapulted into the site, I had just managed to reactivate my cloak as I landed, a full 78km off the Tempest, easily dispatching the local rats. I started to close, one of the bonuses of this particular Proteus is extended range for warp disruptors and scramblers, overheated my disruptor had over 50km reach and this was the number I eagerly counted down to, once within range I dropped cloak, acquired the target and proceeded to corkscrew my way in to a tight orbit.
The Tempest immediately engaged back, aligning out the the highsec gate of Emolgranlan, but once I was in orbit I activated the scrambler with a further three points of warp scrambling power, and the bonus a shutting down any microwarp drive or microjump drive the Tempest may have had.
The Tempest however was fitted with an afterburner and was desperately trying to claw range from me, every so often getting just out of range of my blasters. His shield was strong, easily boosting away the damage of my faction Ant Matter rounds smashing into it, I made the decision to change to void ammunition, a much higher damage choice, but limited range and tracking, meaning I would have to orbit tighter.
His damage was appreciable, and he made the choice of taking out my drones with his own to mitigate some of the incoming DPS, I consumed two boosters, one to improv my tracking and the other to boost my armour repairer which was by now keeping up with the incoming damage, as long as I kept up my transverse speed I could easily rep.
This was taking too long, I was overloading in bursts, careful not to burn my blasters out, but trying desperately to deal as much damage as possible to break through, slowly but surely his shields were breaking, I considered calling for help but the damage was taking its toll, big chunks of shield disappearing with less and less boosted.
After what seemed like an eternity, and almost 200km, the running battle neared its conclusion as his sheilds finally gave in, huge chunks of armour stripped away under sustained blaster fire, the reward for my persistence, an almighty explosion as the Minmatar battleship ceased to be, raining bits of metal and rust on the Librarian, the Proteus earning its spot as one of my favourite hunting ships since my return to the Black.
The loot wasn't much to write home about, the Abyssal shield booster didn't survive, I imagine it was so fragile after the onslaught it had endured, that there was no chance it would survive.
An enormously enjoyable bit of violence, it had me shaking after, adrenaline coursing through my veins, I grabbed the loot and headed back to Gusandall.
What are your thoughts on Abyssal modules? I've not much experience myself and was wondering if others had
