Good evening/morning dear readers,
It's gone 3am and I've literally just logged off of Eve. Good job I'm not back at work until monday and can get away with such frivolous gaming sessions! Tonight has been pretty fun I have to admit and I managed to snag another win though technically I had three tonight.
I started with my usual roams and ended up in the system of Onne. There were a couple of people in local and I set about pinning them down with d-scan. After a couple of minutes Zodiac Black - the Black Rebel Rifter Club pilot whom I defeated in a 1v1 the other night - appeared in local, along with a non-Rebel pilot, Tawa Suyo. An exceedingly fun game of cat and mouse began as I attempted to scan Zodiac down and get the jump on him. The Rebel seemed to have the same idea as several times we landed in the same belt or at the same celestial together albeit a great distance away from each other usually. Tawa seemed to be chasing us down as well but it wasn't long before my Eve paranoia in me set in and I was convinced that the two were working together to attempt to 2v1 me.
I eventually left Onne and went through to Aeschee where the space was a little more crowded. Soon after, Zodiac and Tawa entered the system and I casually issued a challenge to Zodiac. My 1v1 went unheeded in local but the man himself happened to warp into the same belt I was in and so I took the initiative. As I locked the Rebels frigate I asked if I was going to get jumped in local as I'd noticed another of the Rifter Club had appeared. Sure enough as Zodiacs shields dropped to around 50% a few more flashy reds appeared in my overview. I set my afterburner to ludicrous speed and managed to get the hell out of there.
It was then that Zodiac, Tawa and myself began chatting in local about PvP and stuff(tm) and the conversation was pretty good. The Rebel soon announced his departure though and I carried on my wayward flying.
I managed to scan down an Incursus not long after and engaged it willingly in my beloved Rifter. Here is the fit I was using:
[Rifter, Arty Rifter]
Damage Control II
Small Armor Repairer II
Overdrive Injector System II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Warp Disruptor II
1MN Afterburner II
250mm Light Prototype I Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Titanium Sabot S
250mm Light Prototype I Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Titanium Sabot S
250mm Light Prototype I Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Titanium Sabot S
[empty high slot]
Small Projectile Metastasis Adjuster I
[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]
One of the contributors from the thread I made on the forums sent it over to me and said it was good for obliterating cookie-cutter Rifters and would work well against pretty much every Tech I frigate. Despite the lack of tank and MWD, I can still hit 1.5km/s with my AB overloaded, and just under 1.2km/s normal, which makes it faster than any non-MWD Tech I frigate. I opted for Meta 3 guns due to not having Small Artillery Specialization trained yet. At heart I'm still an autocannon man!
Back to the combat though and the Incursus I had started bombarding from a healthy 15km was going down like a sack of potatos. Its shields melted like an ice cream on a summers day and it's armour didn't fair much better. The solitary Hobgoblin II he had sent against me was doing pitiful damage and its shots missed most of the time. As the Gallente frigate was down to about 35% armour a flashy red Hurricane warped into the same belt. I was in a convo with Tawa at this point and he said that he'd just been popped by aforementioned Hurricane when he was refused access to dock in the station. Knowing that this 'Cane was packing artillery I hit my warp button and landed in a safe. The Incursus pilot then spat out some babble about how I was a homogay (wait... what?) for bringing in a failfleet. I riposted by telling the Gallentean that I was of no allegiance to the Hurricane and that he was in fact the one who was failing because if the battlecruiser hadn't interrupted then he would have been my first killmail of the night. No reply was uttered from the pilot and he soon left the system.
As I now edit this post from some of the glaring errors made when typing at 0330 I've realised I'm on Tawa's 'Cane lossmail. It would appear that our earlier conflict wasn't wiped before he got alpha'd. I don't consider this kill to really be mine as my opponent had disengaged and only by bad luck did he wind up in front of the battlecruisers cannons.
Tawa and I then agreed on a 1v1 and after waiting out both our GCCs we met at Planet XI. I suspected he would fit to accommodate my fighting style and sure enough artillery bristled menacingly on his Rifter. The battle that ensued was by far the most fun I've had in all of Eve. Unmolested by the rest of the system we were left to our own devices and the fight lasted what felt like ages. I started off doing the most damage and using a combination of manual piloting (I needed to start doing it at some point!) and tactical use of overloading my afterburner and disruptor I managed to keep Tawa in range of my guns for the majority of the skirmish. Several times he crept out of disruptor range and even got as far as 30km away from me but it was then that I was pushing my afterburner to its limits to get back. After what seemed like an age of combat I got the Rifter to structure but he burnt away from me and managed to get out of the overloaded range of my long point. Warping away to live to fight again another day he conceded a verbal defeat in our convo and we both offered each other a gf before chatting about various fits and how the battle could have gone if X and Y were different. All in all very good I thought.
I was pretty happy with the outcome of the battle and docked up at the Sisters station where I repaired my modules and restocked from the modest arms cache I store there. Another duel was arranged with both of us happy to start when we'd fixed our ships up. I then had a thought to be dastardly and sneaky and so that's what I did. Knowing that Tawa would field an artillery fit I instructed the stations loadmasters to remove my artillery guns and other unwanted modules and replaced them with my favoured 150mm Light Autocannon IIs. Grinning with mischief as the RF Fusion rounds were fed into guns and the tungsten plates were welded on I let Tawa know I was soon on my way back to Planet XI.
Landing an uncomfortable 15 or so km away from my opponents Rifter I overheated my afterburner and made a direct line towards him. The first two salvos from Tawa's guns annihilated my shields and I was unsure then if I'd even make it close enough before I was blown away. The Gods of Pew Pew were on my side this time as I managed to get well under the artillery taking only one more volley which my repper easily handled. Engaging everything but switching my SAR off I knew the fight was mine as my fusion rounds pummelled away at a 500m orbit. Taking no damage at all from the poorly-tracking artillery it wasn't long before Tawa's frigate succumbed to my autocannons. Gfs were had all round and we began talking again about the fits we both used and PvP in general.
Noticing the time (almost 3am) I decided that after scooping up the loot I'd make my way back and then hit the sack. I docked up at the Sisters station and just as I was about to drag my prizes into the item tab the screen froze only to be replaced by the login screen just seconds later. No worries! thought I, I'll just log back in and carry on. Only I couldn't reconnect to the server and only when I'd restarted the client would it let me back on.
But what's this? I'm in my pod? Bollocks.
A little unsure of what happened I checked my combat log and it turns out I'd been popped by the sentry guns because of my GCC. The thing is though I was docked up before I disconnected. It was only when I opened my items tab that I got shoved out of New Eden. Am I bothered though? Of course not! Because as far as I'm concerned despite only having one killmail to show for the evening I know I won three fights tonight and that's made me pretty happy.
If only that bloody Hurricane had waited 30 more seconds...
(Edited in the morning for spelling and clarity. Killmails have also been added)
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