Ranging far and wide, I wanted to hunt in more areas and pushed into Metropolis; I died a few times to some corps here and I wanted to test myself here. Hadozeko is usually quiet for me but it seemed quite busy this time. I scanned and spotted a thrasher, rupture, two rifters and a stabber. I also failed to kill a thrasher who was show-boating towards one of the gates. I locked him and he retaliated, I forgot to scramble him and he got away once his shields were gone. This place seems like a fun!
I ventured into Hadozeko a few times and the stabber was still there and I believe he was hunting me as I was of him. A quick scan for wrecks revealed a number of player wrecks. Looks like someone was hunting here. We scanned each other down and I landed in a belt; the stabber was over 90km away but in a flash he closed the distance. I think it was going over 4K per second. Almost interceptor speed. I tried to squirm out as a stabber would most likely sit and orbit me at between 10-15km and pummel me to death with missiles and auto canon.
So it was, I could not control the range, in this engagement and that usually spells death for me. The stabber stayed at range and my autocanons only managed to scratch his shields. My shields were taken out in short order and I was armour tanking when he was still at 90% shields. He peppered me from a range of 13km at leisure. I fired off a couple of cap boosters to replenish my capacitor and that enabled me to cycle the small armour repairer a few times. I sat at 25% armour and it continued to drop. It started to look almost hopeless.
To survive I HAD to get close and web him. I just had to.
With my afterburner burning hot, I kept on attempting to close the distance and orbit at 500m but the stabber resolutely stood outside the 10km range skilfully. I made the jaguar duck and weave in order to get closer but it was futile. However, his DPS was slowly down and my armour was going down a lot slower. I suppose my speed and size also made it difficult for the stabber to track me. Suddenly, I noticed that the stabber had dipped into the 9Km range. I hit the webber on and snagged it.
My guns started to bite. His shields shifted downwards. My armour tank held. Shit, I might have a chance.
A salvo of missiles and my armour was blown clean off. The rest of his shots bit into my hull. There was an ominous hissing sound as atmosphere started to leak out.
Shit.
I fired off another cap booster and hit the armour repairer. My armour jumped back to 20%. I had 45% hull. However, my beautiful tech 2 guns continued and had chewed through the considerable shield in short order and was working on the armour. This stabber would not have an armour repairer so my damage on its armour would hurt.
With him webbed, I could control the range though the stabber's natural speed meant that it could slip out and be off again. I concentrated hard on maintaining a near 1km orbit as possible.
The fight was shifting towards me. My webber made sure that I continued to keep the stabber close but even webbed, the stabber was still fast and I had my hands full keeping it within 10km of my ship. His damage had dropped to near zero with near misses and glancing shots. My hits however bit deep and bit often.
The stabber's armour was gone. The last bit spinning off as my barrage shells clipped him. Looked like a passive shield / speed tank for the stabber.
I had him. My God, I had him.
The stabber's hull cracked and his ship blew to pieces. I even managed to snag the pilot. He had a bounty and I ransomed him for 1 million. He told me to kill him. I did.
The stabber was nicely (and expensively) fitted and here's a link to the kill. 60 million isk lost? Nice kill that then!
That was a good fight, I never gave up nor did the stabber pilot. We chatted for a few moments once he had reanimated from the clone vats. He had only x3 +1 implants and wasn't too bothered about the pod kill. He enjoyed the fight as did I.
FF4A After Action
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The video above is my perspective on the 12th Annual Frigate Free For All
held yesterday for six hours down in Amamake - at least visually.
Tomorrow'...
20 hours ago
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