The most frustrating fight was when I tangled with a celestis - it had dampners, drones and missiles and the pilot played with me. Not only was I webbed but my targeting range had dropped to about 4k....which I could never do due to my webbed frigate running a less than 10 meters per second. I was also scrambled and got leisurely taken apart by the celestis pilot through his missiles and drones. More recently, I ran right into a combined ADF and Red Squad gate camp that shredded my stabber in under three seconds. Got podded also into the bargain so someone is 1 million isk richer.
However, one must never give up and in a short period, in order to recover my wits and some isk I went on a rampage and knocked out a thrasher, three rifters and a caracal.
The caracal pilot's response to my ransom demand of a mere 5 million was:
Oh well. He popped under the 200mm Autocanons and his flash frozen corpse now joins all the other meat icicles I have in my collection. I always love challenges though and never back down from a potential good fight.
So the other day, I was in my punisher - the last of the current batch and configured along the lines of the infamous 'bleeder' setups. I moved from system to system hunting for appropriate targets. A decent pirate never stays in one place for too long.
A Minmatar hurricane-class battle cruiser appeared on my scanner but then disappeared just as quick. Local had five pilots, two I recognised. The other three must be one of the hurricane pilots. The 'cane was also towards one of the three gates. God, I hate it when this happens!
I quickly hit the warp engines and jumped towards the first gate. Nothing.
The 'cane was back on scanner and I chanced the second of the gates. I arrived and still nothing and the 'cane had gone. I lost track of who might be the potential pilot as two had left and four more had come in. At least whoever it was had gone through the third (and typically) the last gate. Without hesitating I jumped to the other gate and went on through, gate command firing up the massive jump engines and letting me zip across light years in the blink of an eye.
Bursting from space, I spotted nothing but the 'cane was on scan...then disappeared. Local had not gone down at this moment so the 'cane was in-system and outside my range. There were no stations for it to dock. This system had five gates in it and I had the scanner at 360 degrees so not a chance to get an guess a location but exercising a bit of logic (who said pirates can't think?) I deduced that due to the range of the scanner and the no change in the population count in local count, he was near one of two gates over 14AU away.
Guessing I jumped to the more populous one. I set the scanner to 180 degrees and pinged ahead and got a contact: the hurricane.
The gate had already stopped firing when I arrived as the hurricane had disappeared. Surely it had jumped? I arrived only for me to catch the disappearing engines signature of the battlecruiser! He was heading towards one of three gates, all in-line with each other. So I gave chase. This went on for another ten minutes with some false leads but I was never more than two jumps behind.
I managed to catch up just as the target 'cane had jumped. It was an exciting chase, though I doubt the hurricane pilot knew that I was on his tail in a punisher. Not wishing to waste more time, I requested a gate activation for me and was quickly processed; arriving at the next system. My eyes widened as I finally saw the target. The hurricane-class battle cruiser is a beautiful ship, I have one in space-dock at the moment and getting some rigs installed.This beautiful killing machine was awesome in it's destructive powers.
Pity that I was planning to kill it in my punisher.
The hurricane pilot was moving away under speed from the gates and it was activating it's shield boosters. So this gave me the first clue: a shield boosting hurricane would be far easier to take then an armour tanking one. Also, it would have one less slot for a webber - which would be the death of me. The pilot was also only three-months out of pod school so this would be to my advantage. However, the battle cruiser was still under the protection of the sentry guns and I was not going to risk a long fight with a battle cruiser as well as getting pummeled by automated sentry guns.
The hurricane pilot also did not target me let alone fire on me so I left and warped to a safe spot and waited. There was no way he would stay near the gate. Eventually, he would leave for a belt or planet or the system entirely. Doubtful he was running a mission for an agent either.
I kept an eye on the scanner and after ten minutes (God, what was he doing?) - he moved and I tried to track him. He had moved off scan and a quick flick through the scanner and I realised he could be at one star gate or the IX cluster. I choose the cluster and went to there ready to double-back if there was a mistake but mid-way through the warp - the distinctive hurricane signature appeared on scan. My heart started to beat faster as I was slowly closing down on him.
My scan spot now told me he was in one of two places - the IX-1 belt or the planet IX itself. I scanned for wrecks but found nothing but decided to try the belt anyway. I landed and was promptly targeted by some irritated Angel cruisers. The 'cane was still on scan and was either in a safe spot or the planet IX itself.
I swung the punisher around and pushed towards the looming presence of the planet. As I exited warp, there was a slight lag as the interface was loading up. A good sign that it had detected a ship and was updating the view.
I think I have him.
Coming out of warp I landed a mere 5km from the hulking presence of the battle cruiser. There was a 'yaaarr' from my frigate crew and it was all hands to battle stations. On came the warp scrambler and the small nosferatu. I waited a few seconds for any drones to appear as re-acquiring targets alway slowed things down.
Several seconds went by and nothing, no drones. No Nos either. Could I be so lucky?
I opened up with the x3 200mm auto cannons and the EMP shells streaked out and hammered into the considerable shields of the hurricane. The hurricane replied with the distinctive recoil of 650mm howitzers. Oh yes, this battle cruiser was built for range and had nothing for small stuff. Amazingly, no webber either.
I set the 0rbit for 2km and settled in. Slowly, slowly chewing his shields down - he was furiously boosting his shields and even with a capacitor booster - it could not go on forever. I stayed around him for over 5 minutes, firing at him before his shields bled out and I was into his armour. I was increasingly nervous however as the longer the attack, the greater the likelihood that there would be 'guests' appearing.
The hurricane's armour now was slowly being chipped off, a meter at a time and I checked to make sure I had enough emp shells - the inventory informed me that I had over 3500 rounds left. Should be enough I hoped.
When his armour was down to 50%, it crepted back up. An armour and shield tanking ship?
I opened up convo with the pilot and asked for a 15 million ransom and all that came back was a polite 'No'. He either didn't have the money, wasn't inclined to give it to me or thought he could survive it.
Then something odd happened. A can appeared next to the hurricane. I quickly opened up and saw over 100 scan probes and two, shivering exotic dancers. Bemused I went in closer (having drifted too far) when the can disappeared. Shocked, I rechecked my overview setting and it confirmed my suspicions. The can was destroyed.
Another can appeared, it was filled with salvaged stuff and ammo. It too popped.
The hurricane pilot realising his predicament had opted to deny me any chance of salvaging his cargo and was destroying it!
Damn it. All that isk.
However, I had to admit that it was a nice move and congratulated him on his move. I presented him with my ransom demands once more and this time he replied that he had only 460,000 isk left. One should never sink all your funds into one ship. Only fly what you can not afford to lose. This would be an expensive lesson for the rookie Hurricane pilot.
The armour was now stripped off from the once-mighty hurricane; it was on fire. I presented a new ransom demand to the pilot: eject from the ship to save yourself from being podded. He merely laughed and continued to destroy his cargo.
The hurricane was listing portside, my last salvo had knocked out it's internal gyroscope and it began to spin a little. It was a pity to destroy such a wonderful ship and I let it's stricken crew to leave. The captain, however had to be caught and taught a painful lesson.
The ship finally exploded, my ship rocking slightly in the expanding debris field. I quickly snagged the Captain's pod.
I congratulated on his cargo-destroying move and killed him before he could reply.
2007.05.24 14:07
Victim: Jeimdal
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Destroyed: Hurricane
System: Hrondedir
Security: 0.3
Involved parties:
Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm Light 'Scout' Autocannon I
Destroyed items:
EP-S Gaussian I Excavation Pulse
Medium Shield Booster II
Small Tractor Beam I
Salvager I
Scan Probe Launcher I
650mm Artillery Cannon I
Tracking Computer I
Y-S8 Hydrocarbon I Afterburners
Depleted Uranium M, Qty: 38
Depleted Uranium M, Qty: 38
Depleted Uranium M, Qty: 39
2007.05.24 14:10
Victim: Jeimdal
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Destroyed: Capsule
System: Hrondedir
Security: 0.3
Involved parties:
Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm Light 'Scout' Autocannon I
Feeling a bit refreshed I waited out for my flag to expire and pondered on the pilot's reluctance to comply. It is possible that the reputation of pirates as being generally untrustworthy meant that he had nothing to gain by paying the ransom or leaving the ship.
Oh well, the loss of the hurricane is a lot of isk to lose.
I ended the day with a successful ransom however: Jubes's T2 -kitted rifter-class frigate was destroyed in the nearby Angel complex and I managed to get a 2.5million isk ransom out of him. He came back for his wreck five minutes later, in yet another T2-kitted rifter and I destroyed him again but failed to snag the pod. I warp scrambled his wreck instead and he got away.
All in all, it is a good day to be a pirate.
Yarrr.
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