Unlucky...

"Luck is my middle name," said Rincewind, indistinctly. "Mind you, my first name is Bad."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times)

Luck is a fickle mistress, still reeling from a serious case of not having any, I decided to run around in The Cunning Man, yet to get used to this new clone, a little stiff and in need of some smiling from the Lady herself.

A Vagabond from Electus Matari had entered Eifer and I would need something a touch more... Potent.

Enter Flubber, born from the ashes of her predecessor, a Fleet Issue Stabber and a ship perfectly suited to duel the Minmatar Heavy Assault Cruiser.

I head on over to Eifer and start moving around system... Waiting... Patiently.

My patience is rewarded, belt 1-1 was to be the place as he warps in on me at 50km. There would be no Lame Kane, no Crazy Ivan's as the Vagabond comes right at me, pauses and moves off at range, overloaded webs reach out and slow him down enough for a overloaded scram, shutting off his MWD, which allow my webs to be more effective.

Flubber moseys on over, right up the Vagabonds nose, drones and ammunition already flying between us, my shields stripped, a race for survival, guns overloaded and his shields start to wane, once stripped his armour and structure become a casualty of Flubber's guns and drones.

Unlucky for the Vagabond pilot but a good fight none the less, as much shared in local

It's not the size of the man in the fight, but the size of the fight in the man

"When it's time to stop living, I will certainly make Death my number one choice!"
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

My day started off with two successful hunts, one a Hurricane running an anomaly and another, a Ferox in a belt.

But...

Those were just the hors d'oeuvre*

A Rupture undocks from Gusandall station, an associate reports this and I board a Rupture of my own, hastily undock...

Why does this always seem longer when there's mischief to be done?

After what seemed an age, I undock just to see the Rupture warp to the 4th planet, I hastily engage warp, to zero.

I burst out of warp right on top of my prey and engage, tackle is go, guns are go, drones are go...

JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMEEED!

Motherfucker, ec-300s full cycle and the Ruppie pulls range very quickly, must be one of those fancy shield Ruppies, a Vagabond warps in, a corp-mate of the Ruppie pilot, he engages, I try to close on the Ruppie...

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS, 450m/s? WHO THE FUCK PUT AN AFTERBURNER ON THIS MOTHERFUCKER?

That who would be me, admiral dumbass, as I last used this ship chasing a mission runner and forgot to swap it out.

I'm unable to close on either of my attackers and wait for the inevitable...

TO EXPLODE, SO I CAN GO FETCH ANOTHER SHIP TO EXTRACT DELICIOUS REVENGE!

I warp my pod out sharpish and dock at the station, there's only one thing for this kind of situation, Flubber, y'all know Flubber right? My Stabber Fleet Issue is particularily suited to this kind of fight and I undock as fast as I can, even as I'm being fed intel via an associate that the two are still at the planet.

I warp to zero, they're still there but a good forty to fifty clicks away, I hit my MWD but set it to 50% thrust, Rupture is first to bite, he engages but keeps range nicely, I hit full thrust, overload and soon I'm humping the Ruppie like a pitbull on Viagra.

Rupture isn't long for the universe as he tastes defeat, I turn towards the Vagabond just as I spot my MWD blink out from overheating...

OH BRILLIANT, WELL FUCKING DONE KANE, ARE YOU RETARDED?

Right, stay calm, change of tactic, this Vaga is going to chew you up if you don't redeem yourself.

I make as if I'm trying to run, I'm deep into armour, about to hit structure, no MWD, I overload my scrambler and webs...

Vaga chases, a little too keenly, one web, two webs, Crazy Ivan, scrambler, Flubber licks the Vaga and the race is on.

My structure is evaporating as I burn the Vaga's shields, I lay waste to his armour and with the smallest of margins I win the race, the Vagabond explodes.

EIGHT PERCENT STRUCTURE

Eight percent is all that stood between me and a second loss to these guys, eight percent and Flubber would have said her goodbyes to the universe, perhaps never to see the like of her again.

But Kane Rizzel has sweet revenge...

I also got most my loot back :D


*An appetizer served before a meal

Going Postal™

"I believe it's very hard to have fun in Iceland without fish being involved in some way."

-- Looking for a good place to party (Terry Pratchett, Johnny and the Dead)

Painting the system red

Going Postal™ is once more out in Eifer, it's pilot eager to kill something. The usual array of haulers and travellers passing through but nothing of note. The Rifter's primeval scanning equipment shows a Griffin on scan and under the expert direction of the pilot warps into the belt. The scanner is still doing its rounds as it picks up a Vagabond, Going Postal ™ lands in the belt and engages the Griffin but is interupted by the Vagabond, the Rifter's warp engines fire up as the pilot takes the smart option and leaves well enough alone.

The Vagabond leaves but the Griffin is still about, quite obviosuly bait for the heavy assault cruiser.

Going Postal™'s pilot is no fool, well sometimes he's a little too cavalier for her liking which has resulted in many of her kin meeting with a sticky end but he's no fool. She's glad she has such an accomplished pilot, not many of her kind have been so fortunate. He has fitted her with the most high tech gear he could find and is always taking her out on epic adventures.

Local comms shows an aquaintance of her pilot had entered Eifer and he's in one of her kin. A few minutes later another aquaintance popped in flying a Vengeance, the pilots spoke in a shared intel channel as the Griffin appeared back on scan, the Vagabond was back in system and a plan was hatched, spring the trap and engage the Vagabond.

Going Postal™ was ready, this was her reason for being and her pilot was just crazy enough to pull this off.

Griffin was engaged in the belt by the other Rifter and the Vengeance, Going Postal™'s scanner waiting for the moment the Vagabond entered the belt, aligned to insta warp in and go to work.
The Griffin popped just as the Vagabond appeared on scan, Going Postal™ fired her warp drive and was instantly launched into the belt. She landed right on top of the Vagabond, pulsed her afterburner and settled into a nice easy 5km orbit. The other Rifter and Vengeance were already engaging the Vaga, his warp core and microwarp drive scrambled, his speed halted with stasis webs. Going Postal spun up her guns and rocket launcher. The Vagabond launched drones and the other Rifter was slightly too slow to react as he was chewed up by the autonomous drones. Going Postal™'s pilot knew well enough to start targeting the drones, the Vengeance followed suit and soon they were all killed, back to the Vagabond who was now a sitting duck, his guns too big and slow to cause much harm to Going Postal™ as she rained down sweet death upon it.

After an epic few minutes the tank of the Vagabond was broken, Going Postal™'s pilot gave an almighty roar as bits of Vaga rained down on her, Going Postal™ loves the rain.

Mad props to Jorge and Hallan from The Bastards for the epic kill

The Bastards

The Bastards are a great crew based a few jumps away from me and I've been honoured a few times to be invited to fly with them. Tonight as I was sitting in Gus station basking in the afterglow of the Vagabond kill I got a call from them asking if I wanted to take The Fifth Elephant™ out for a spin. They had scanned down a Maelstrom, Myrmidon and Hulk in a system right next door to Gus. Unfortunately they found the quarry to be in a mission/hidden belt so I asked my friend in her covops to go have a looksee. Soon after entering system she had dropped a snoop probe and after three scans got a hit on the Hulk, she warped in at range as not to get decloaked and started to try and get us a good warp in. Unfortunately there were loads of wrecks and drones all over the place so she got as close as she could without getting decloaked before giving us the go ahead to warp in. The assembled gang jumped in and soon we all landed not far from the Myrmidon and Maelstrom. The Hulk was too far away but the other two were already tackled, Myrmidon was primary as the smaller ships tried desperately to get in range of the Hulk but were too slow as the mining barge warped out. No matter, the Myrmidon and Maelstrom would have to do and they did nicely, both being destroyed with out breaking a sweat.

As the gang was going it's own way, a Drake and Myrmidon were reported one jump out, on the gate and engaging, we all rushed on over and introduced the pilots to some good old fashioned lowsec violence. They went down so quickly I barely had time to take note of their names.

I headed back to Gusandall, content with a good nights hunting. Thanks you Bastards, was awesome fun