Monday 18 August 2008

Chances taken, opportunities lost

The story so far:
In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Chances taken


A weird evening for me, got back from the club after a bit too much to drink and sidled over to my Rifter, what a pretty Rifter. I roamed a bit with no real targets of note, my head all fuzzy like it's wrapped in cotton wool, me thinks I had too much bourbon. Of course flying under the influence is never recommended but details such as this have never stopped me.

I jumped into Gultraten and spotted a Rupture seemingly auto piloting to the gate, I decided to give him a nudge and see what he would do. Well... he evaporated my shiny Rifter in short order, at least I had the presence of mind to warp my pod out. I convoed the pilot and offered a Rupture 1v1 and much to my surprise he accepted. I headed back to HQ and quickly boarded my Rupture, a sturdy beast, not as fragile as my Rifter and packs a massive punch. I made all haste back to Gultraten and made arrangements for the 1v1, I would allow him to Fleet me and let him warp to my safe spot for his peace of mind. People are so untrusting of Pirates.

So, here I am, sitting at a safespot and waiting, I check my systems, ammo and drone bay just in case I forgot to load my guns, which wouldn't surprise me at all this evening. Much to my annoyance I had small ECM drones in the drone bay, these things have never worked for me... NEVER but have been used against me to great effect. Oh well, I would just have to make do.

The Rupture pilot warped in and the fight began, autocannon rounds bridging the gap between the two Ruptures, I was certain he was running a similar plated setup to mine and it was confirmed as we both slowly chewed into each others armour. His hobgoblin II drones were doing a good job, I had yet to deploy my ECM drones. Overloading my guns had allowed me to edge ahead in the damage race, even though I wasn't using drones but now the time had come, I gave the command and 5 light ECM drones were launched from their bay. A quick flick of my command console sending them racing towards my opponent. They were spinning wildly about him even as we continued to trade blows and then a strange thing happened, they got a jam cycle. Well I'll be damned, they do work, my opponent starting to dip into structure, his drones still buzzing about me but not doing terribly much. He started to reacquire target but then something even more amazing happened, my ECM drones got another jam cycle. The fight was as good as over, his last bit of structure vanishing, a brilliant explosion lighting up the Gultraten skyline and I felt kind of bad, my hate for ECM now being shared by another individual. To be honest though I was out damaging him, our setups similar but his being more tanked than gank.

We had a good conversation about Piracy and combat then went our separate ways, good fight Myrkala.

Later on I was bumming about in my Jaguar, getting Keys for the 2/10 plex so I could hunt more efficiently in there when I warped back to the station, much to my surprise a Navy Issue Vexor undocked, well hello there. This faction ship a rare occurrence in our parts and it prompted a mass undock of the locals, all wanting to get a look, maybe shoot at it and shoot at it we did.
It didn't last long, flashing into nothing. The pilot made two mistakes... Number one, he undocked, might seem innocuous but it's the death of many, especially when there's a bunch of bored Pirates about... Number two, he agressed me, silly thing to do, means he wouldn't be able to redock for a bit, it's this little nugget that led to his downfall as the station emptied of Pirates eager for a faction kill. We were under sentry fire for most of the fight but it didn't stop us, we would gladly sacrifice ships for a shiny explosion.

Opportunity lost

I woke this morning to a bright hangar, I forgot to put the lights out last night, passing out in my bunk with everything still on. Keira's gooing to have a fit when she sees the electricity bill. Oh well, I'll deal with that later, right now my attention was drawn by a blinking message on my comms unit.

"Two Ravens probed in Ingunn, bring something with teeth"

Yumm, Ravens for breakfast. My friend in her Cheetah was up early and had probed out two Ravens in a mission, they had an Ibis pilot as scout so timing would be important. She had not warped to the probe hit yet as it tends to decloak her and she didn't want to tip them off just yet.
I powered up The Fifth Elephant™, a Sleipnir having enough teeth to deal with Ravens in the right hands.

Undcoking into the black of the Gusandall sky I made my way to the Ingunn gate, waiting for my friend to report she was in position before jumping in and warping to her. I didn't have to wait long, she reported she was there but much to her dismay she had been decloaked by the gate, the Ravens started to align out even as I jumped in and initiated warp to her postition.

"DAMN"

My Sleipnir burst out of warp just as the last Raven warped out towards the station. I was annoyed so locked the Ibis and introduced him to my 425s, his corpse joining "The Morgue"

I would have camped the plex gate but had to join some friends for drinks, not a very good start to the day for me and I felt bad for my friend after all her good work. I have developed a new strategy that I will use next time to avoid this happening again. Time will tell.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great write up Kane and I feel your pain. Pity you could not get the Elephant to bite into those two Ravens.....

Anonymous said...

Try putting your covops on the gate you're going to jump in through, in command of your squad in the fleet. Gang warp to the result and they'll have no warning at all. :)

Kane Rizzel said...

Yeah, that's kinda my idea, have the covops gang warp us to the gate so they have no time to react

Anonymous said...

It works, it's a very effective tactic. It's how I've been catching ISK farmers in Feythabolis. :)