Disappointment again

After a fairly successful few days that I wrote about in my last post, the days after that didn't hold the same fortune.

It started out alright with me finding a Hound and a Tristan running a plex in Turnur. The only two pilots in system were in the same corp, but I figured it would probably be a decent fight for my Rifter yet, so I went in for it. Going through the Acceleration Gate though, they both warped off. The hound went off of scan, but the Tristan stayed, so I scanned him down to a belt, waiting. Soon the deadly dance had begun, with my autocannons throwing their slugs towards his ship. They're doing their work efficiently, as they start to dig into his armor while my shields are still holding at around half strength. Around this time, I realized I had actually forgotten to use my Nosferatu, and my cap had dropped much quicker then ti should have been. That delay caused me to stop using my ab/web in order to maintain point, which also let him start hitting me harder with his blasters. The race was officially on as my shields gave out, he was still at around half armor, with my overheated guns spewing the phased plasma shells towards him as fast as they could. Able to eat through his armor, and then make short work of his hull, my Rifter had 30% of its armor left. GFs were wished, and I waited out my GCC. It was a closer fight then it should have been, though I realized later that even with my nos running the entire time, his dual neuts would have killed my cap any which way.

I later found Haesslich Sokard in Uisper, and chased him from celestial to celestial for a while, but when an Electus Matari blob rolled into the system he docked up, so I figured that was that and left system. Coming back later, I saw him out again, and this time was able to find him, and he didn't warp away right then. Getting in range, I soon saw him launching missiles at me, and figured that this would be an easy win, and I was correct. Talking to him in local afterwards, it was his first time actually trying to fight, and not just getting ganked by someone who got the drop on him, and the ship was just thrown together with what he had extra, which explained the launchers. GFs were wished, and I hope he ends up getting out there and blasting some people now.

Soon after that, my luck ran out though, not used to being flashy red, I was sitting on a gate as Rebelskull (all kinds of caps in his name) came up in a Firetail and locked me. I heard that and came back, and figured why not, I'll engage this yet. Bad idea, his Firetail outclassed my rifter most definitely, and launched my pod. I was lucky to get my pod out though, he was on the ball and had it locked before I was able to get through the gate, (after taking some minor damage to my pod even).

That was the straw that made me spend more money though. I had been thinking about trying Firetails for a while before that, and a corp-mate had sent me a nice looking fit, so I figured I would try it.

[Republic Fleet Firetail, Solo]
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Damage Control I
Small Armor Repairer II

Experimental 1MN Afterburner I
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

'Malkuth' Rocket Launcher I, Mjolnir Rocket
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S

Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
Small Anti-Explosive Pump I

I've yet to really have a good fight to test this out in though, even though I've lost a couple.

I first figured I'd give an Oracle a shot, not actually expecting to get it. Warped to it and saw it very far off of the warp in, so I tried to get closer. Warping within about 80k of it, I decided to try burn for it, but it was MWD equipped, so I didn't have much of a chance. I landed a couple glancing volleys on me once I had gotten ~40km off, and ate through my shield and half my armor before I turned around and warped out. It was a good test, but not something I'll seriously try to engage again all that soon.

I also tried to fight a Caracal, I had Hail loaded, figuring it was large enough to hit with that in close range, but in hindsight, I probably should have stuck with RF EMP. He seemed to be AFK when I first engaged, and his shields dropped very slowly, and eventually he came back and started firing on me, at which point I decided to disengage. I tried again later after my GCC where he enaged me outside of the station in Naguton, with the same results, didn't even come close to breaking his tank. Things didn't go well with the last two fights, but I was happy to just get out both times. That didn't last though.

Yesterday, after another not-so-successful Repo. roam, I decided to head back towards the Metro area, and on the way I had picked up a couple Kestrels and Incursus on my scan. I thought this could actually be fun if I could separate them a little, and lo and behold, the one kestrel was sitting by itself on a gate. I locked him and went into orbit, and he locked back and fired. I made fairly quick work of him, and was hoping to get away before too much backup arrived, but right before I had gotten out, they were there, with more of a force then I had originally thought. I picked the nearest Incursus to me and started firing. My autocannons tore through his shields, and were doing work on his armor, and the incoming damage to me was nearly matching what I was doing to him. Knowing I wasn't going to escape with my ship, I aligned to a planet and had my guns and rep overheated. Sadly, with the Incursus entering hull, my Firetail became spacedust.

Heading back to Naguton where I had my last Rifter, I once again set out towards the Metropolis area. This time I saw Unbless83 in a plex, in a Rifter and thought it would be another fun fight. Using the Acceleration gate, he was sitting near the warp in, and we both engaged. Minmatar frigates dancing around each other, autocannons screaming. I noticed very quickly that he was shield tanked, as my shields were down while he still had around 1/4 remaining. I kept pulsing my rep to try and not run out of cap too soon, my armor was still depleting at  an alarming rate, though his shields were starting to run low. I then decided to go all in. I overheated my armor rep, and quit pulsing it, but it may have been too little too late. His shields gave out with my armor very low. Everything overheated, trying to keep things going, but my hull gave out with his still at half integrity. 

Not a good night. I got back to Auner in a Reaper, and logged on my hauler, bought some ships and fittings and set my autopilot for a station in Amo as I went to bed for the night.

Getting on today, I get into one of my fresh new Firetails and start roaming. Hours go by, and I find a whole lot of nothing through most of the day. I eventually found Takezo Kensi in a Sentinel on a gate in Ruerrotta. He's flashy-red, so I figured it was worth a shot. The problem was, before this, I had never seen a Sentinel, and really had no idea what it was capable of. Opening fire, getting my scram/web/TD/NOS on him, I notice very quickly that I'm running out of cap, and that's when I figure that I'm in real trouble. I tried to quit attacking so as to get through the gate, but his drones were able to destrpy my Firetail before I was able to de-aggress. I probably should have just kept attacking, and hope to get lucky, but that's what happens when you don't know what you get into. Lesson learned.

Now here's hoping that these next ships fare better for me then the last ones. Fly dangerous.