Another pilot (well a pirate), who would have been KOS to us was in trouble from some anti-pirates. After some garbled messages, the gang all jumped in to assist. It was already too late though - he was already in a pod and the three frigates landed into the welcome embrace of a tackling drake and friends. Drones swarmed all over us and I was popped in short order. I think I managed to destroy one drone before my lovely Jaguar-class assault frigate was turned into scrap underneath me.
I got out - Sil and Rai also got popped. So endeth the gang, pt 1.
I docked up and grabbed the stabber - the spindly cruiser slid out of space dock and into space. We were to hunt further down the Metropolis pipe and with Sil in another rifter and Rai in his hurricane - we were looking good. Two jumps in and Sil once again had tracked down another rifter. It was inside the belt and he had trouble tackling it. I jumped in and gunned microwarpdrive and hit 3000m/s and easily chased down the fleeing rifter. Being inside belt was troublesome and we all kept on bouncing off the rocks. We called in Rai and his hurricane barrelled in to get in on the kill mail.
Making our way to Brin and Helgatid; we only encountered docked pilots. Sil then had to log, leaving the gang of two. With no scout / tackler it should have been a bit difficult. We did get a new addition who could scan probe so we went to missioning heaven: Evati.
Bad mistake.
In our safe spots there was a call that a thorax was approaching to a gate and it was a blinkie. However, Rai was 70km off the gate and it was up to me to get him. Christ, a stabber to tackle and bump a thorax off a gate? The stabber is designed to stay off at 10km+ and to use it's speed to control the distance. I had to get close to the thorax and BUMP it off the gate. I hope it didn't have a webber!
Hitting warp, I tried to think of a strategy but couldn't think of one. I had to tackle and bump the thorax until Rai could get close enough with his hurricane to blast it. Exiting warp and there was the mark: a flashing thorax. I took a deep breath and hit the mwd. We engaged and I bumped him off the gate, he also drew aggression on me as he fired first. In hindsight, I should have hit the mwd and got the fuck into range but I hesitated and I found myself webbed at 2KM. My base speed was still high but not enough and I crawled away drawing fire all the way. My autocanons chewed away the thorax's shields but it's an armour tanker anyways so it meant nothing.
'Where the fuck was Rai?' I yelled as my shields and then armour was ripped off. One can't go toe-to-toe with a thorax in a webbed stabber.
I popped out in my pod and zipped out. I then discovered why Rai was not around, he was in a pod too.
'Fuck.' Said Rai.
It turned out that a big gank squad with a vagabond in tow had also appeared and powered straight towards Rai's hurricane. I didn't get the details but it wasn't too pretty.
So, what's a pirate to do? Had my ass kicked and I needed a pick-me-up. So, I started again; got another ship and started cycling the system. I entered Auren and saw a myrmidon on scan. He was difficult to track, he and his corp mate (in an omen) were jumping from one safe spot to another. They then disappeared from my scanner.
There was only one place he could have gone: the Eddar gate and I powered my hurricane there. As I approached, the scanner gave me hard returns on an omen and a myrmidon. Should be a challenge. I exited the warp and targeted both ships. Since they were under the protection of the sentry guns; I would be foolish to fire my weapons. The myrmidon would be handful at the best of times.
Lucky for me, the myrmidon pilot ( a brave pilot called 'A Saint') decided to engage and it was game on. I webbed the myrmidon and got into optimal. My Nos came on. My disruptor was on. Saint replied with drones and autocanon as well; he was tanking me and doing a very good job. I drifted too far out of optimal and tired to get back into optimal but I was a bit worried about his tank. It was too tough and maybe it had a cap booster installed? Interesting.
I noticed that his shield was gone so I switched to some armour piercing rounds. Still quite tough but oddly, Saint withdrew his drones. Odd behaviour I thought. My change in ordnance helped and I managed to break his tank. No chat in local which was odd but I was half deciding on ransoming him when my drones (obviously on a good run) chewed his hull off and popped him real fast.
The salvage and loot was good however. Very good.
Well done Saint, you fought well.
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