Tuesday 9 October 2012

A few good fights

After a fair drought from ~goodfites~ and doing some carebearing/exploration on my alt of late (gotta afford all the ships I lose somehow, and I've tried to not sell Plex for a while now), the last couple days have been pretty fun.

Started yesterday, when Spar and Erik, two of our newer pilots were trying to catch a couple of ice-miners in Agoze, a couple times without luck, but with their spot bookmarked, I figured I'd take the Loki out for it's maiden voyage, and we went for it, only to not get enough points on the warp stabilized barges, and having them warp out.

Heading back home to Iges, there was a Megathron out running a mission, which we quickly ganked, nothing too much to write about that. Spar then had to get off for the night, and Erik went back roaming, before too long he told me that those guys were back at it in the belt. Having not bookmarked the site from earlier, I figured I'd take my Dramiel out for a run, so I'd have some speed to get to them if need be. Warping into the bottom of the ice belt, so I could grab a BM from a roid up top near the mining barge, an Atron soon landed on top of me. Burning off and locking, I realized I hadn't set my orbit/keep at range commands since a system crash had lost all my settings. Attempting to manual pilot a 20km orbit around the Gallente Frigate while going at around 4km/s didn't work all that well, and soon I was out of lock range. Good time to fix the settings. 

Soon he was joined by a friend in another Atron, which I start to go after, but still fumbling around with range control on them, I get the first into half armor when they warp out. Having not gotten a good bookmark yet, I stuck around in the belt, trying to get one right at the top, I was surprised when a Brutix landed nearly on top of me. 
Locking, and hitting orbit, I was surprised when I didn't suddenly start pulling range, sure enough my orbit had been set to just over 2km, rather then out to 20km. Correcting this, after eating a couple of glancing blows from the Battlecruiser, and using the shield-booster on the Angel frigate, I was soon in a comfortable orbit, with a comfortable shield buffer again, outrunning the tier one drones. 

While that happened, the Atrons had warped in once again, I had called for Erik to warp in, and he went after the Brutix, brawling it, while I dropped one Atron, who was chasing me, and then the other that was causing Erik issues (I've since told him a few things about proper killmail whoring). Focused back on the Brutix, we were able to drop it without any more issues.

Props to all of those guys for fighting, all quite new characters who are out trying to live in low-sec.


Today, getting online earlier then usual, I figured it'd be a good time to grab my last remaining Slasher and see if I could get any fights with some FW types. Getting to Intaki, I saw a Rupture on scan towards an outpost. Landing on the acceleration gate 10km off the Rupture, I hit the afterburner and got into a tight orbit. Working my way through his shields fairly well, he soon started to neut me dry, and I warped off to the sun, since he had nicely never disrupted my warp drive. Thanking him in local, I landed next to an Incursus, figuring this must be a sign, I overheated all the things and went to work, when I soon realized it was a gun-less button hugger, and figured it wasn't worth the cost to repair damaged modules.

With the Incursus pulling back gobs of armor every time it repped, I got in close and finally saw some structure, as the Rupture landed, while I had next to no transversal velocity. I overheated all the things once more, popped the Incursus, and barely had time to remember about my ASB before my Slasher followed suit.


After some carebearing this evening, Xedam and Vivien were out in Heydieles playing around with a FW group. Having picked off a Tornado before, they were baiting with a Stabber Fleet Issue, with a Caracal Navy Issue, and a bunch of other assorted Cruisers/Frigates/Assault Ships and a Falcon on the other side of the gate. Arriving in system with a dual large ASB Cyclone, Viv called the order for me to warp in and spring the trap. Opening fire on the flashy-red SFI, he started reapproaching the gate, while the gate started flashing repeatedly. CNI. Manticore. Vexor. Hawk. I didn't pay too much attention beyond that, and just locked targets as the Stabber jumped. Unfortunately, by the time he jumped, and I realized I should be focusing elsewhere the CNI had managed to just get out of overheated web range, so I set my neuts and drones on some Frigates, while taking a few shots (that barely landed due to being TD'd) on the Vexor, while Viv melted it. 

Using the blue-pill I had brought, the incoming damage was just higher then a single overheated booster was able to tank, but I soon capped out the Hawk, which was the main tackle on me. As the second booster ran out of charges, point/web dropped from the Hawk and I was able to get ~15km away, but wasn't aligned at the time. Thinking this was a great time to get out/get cap/reload, I started aligning. Suddenly, no targets! In the mess that was my overview, the Falcon had come. Xedam had been going after it, but we weren't on voice, so our communication wasn't the best. I lost the lock on the Hawk, and he burned at me right away. With very little cap to run the MWD, and no way to neut the Hawk off me, I soon found myself locked down once again. 

The first ASB reloaded, and was already pre-heated, but by this time I was already half-structure, and quite unsure. Seeing my structure drop just a little more between each cycle, the Falcon missed a cycle and I was able to get a lock on the Hawk, but without any cap to neut it off. I tried firing at it, to see if my guns would get a few lucky hits though. Structure nearly gone, the pre-heated second booster loaded, but before the second cycle was able to start, the last of the duct-tape blasted apart.

Xedam also was unable to get out, and lost his Thorax, though Viv did escape in the end. Battlereport is here, showing the Tornado from before I was there. Definitely a fun time, would do again.

Fly dangerous

Chord

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