Sunday 14 December 2008

Hide and Shoot

"'E's fighting in there!" he stuttered, grabbing the captain's arm. "All by himself?" said the captain. "No, with everyone!" shouted Nobby, hopping from one foot to the other.

-- Making Friends and Hitting People (Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!)

Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I've just been busy is all.

I stumbled into the hangar and winced as I hit something that might have been ammunition. Everything is powered down and there is no light to speak of until I find the cursed light switch. Slowly dawn breaks upon the NovaKane hangar and makeshift office. Ships, mods and ammo litter every corner. I walk on over to my desk and get to working through the mass of mail and station bills. Interesting times again as Mean Corp and The Bastards have ended a long relationship and initiated hostilities to each other. I did help Mean down a carrier a week back and I do enjoy flying with The Bastards but I'll just do my own thing and stay out of it.

Keira has been busy in highsec helping a cousin get standings with one of the Empire corps so he can get jumpclones but other than that it's been quiet for the family.

I boarded my Rifter as my covops friend had said there were a few of its kin in system, the paperwork could wait. I undocked to see if anyone wanted a fight, I scanned out two of them and headed towards their location only to miss them as they warped to the station. I followed as is my way and waited to see if they would engage me, one did and paid the price. The other became the victim of the station's automated sentries by engaging another Rifter who wasn't an outlaw.

I docked up as I was itching to try a new ship, something I've been training for a while now and finally felt comfortable taking it out and getting some red on it. The Pilgrim force recon is a sexy little beast although it felt weird flying something which didn't actually have any guns fitted. Its main offensive capabilities being energy neutralisers and drones. I went on over to Eifer to see what was about and soon was vectoring in on a Jaguar and Retribution. I warped in on top of them both, uncloaked and started targeting but they warped out before I could get a lock.

"Too slow" I said to myself as I cloaked and warped to a scan spot.

"There's a Raven in Gus... Missioning"

"You have a probe out"

"But of course, by the time you get your ass here I'll have the warp in"

Awesome, a true test for Kumano-Sanzan. I jumped into Gusandall just as my friend stated she was on the acceleration gate. I immediately intiated warp, cloaking in the process. I arrived, the gate alone in the dark, my friend safely cloaked above it, I activated it and was slung into the deadspace. I burst out of warp to see the Raven fighting some Amarr cruisers and battleships and still under cloak I closed the distance. Once in range of my scrambler and web I uncloaked and engaged. The Raven locked me and cruise missiles were launched in my direction. A flight of Hammerhead drones spewed forth from my drone bay and started stripping the Raven's shields. He was tanking comfortable enough as the first assualt from his cruise launchers slammed into my Pilgrim.

"Probably a good idea to turn on the armour hardeners and damage control."

My drones were slowly eating his shields as he desperately tried to tank but this was made difficult by my energy neutralisers sucking the life out of his Raven. My cap booster was chewing through its charges as my armour repairer kept up with the cruise missile damage. His tank was broken, capped out and no way back now as the Hammerheads hammered the final nail into his coffin.

A satisfying kill and some nice loot. I'm going to have some fun with this ship

I might not be around much until January but fear not, the blood and tears will flow once I'm back.

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