Thursday 24 January 2008

Firetail of Doom

Waking up on the floor of my hangar with a pounding in my head is never a good sign.
All I remember is walking into Independence bar and it all went fuzzy as I imbibed some concoctions which are or bloody well should be illegal in some systems.

The cold hangar floor sobers me up enough to recognize I didn't quite make it to my bunk.
Oh well, nothing clears the head like a spot of Piracy. Looking around the hangar my eyes fall on the Republic Fleet Firetail that Keira bought, the name "The Lost Continent" carefully inscribed on the side. Oh well, might as well use it or as I assumed, suicide it.

It had already tasted action the previous night as I engaged a Breacher class frigate. The Breacher didn't offer much resistance and I added another meat popsicle to the collection.

Undocking and heading to my favourite haunt, there were reports of a Rifter gang in the area, maybe if I was lucky I would run into them.
A Bellicose cruiser had appeared on scan and I quickly narrowed it down to a belt, bursting out of warp, my warp disruptor primed I engaged the Minmatar cruiser. The shield systems of the Belli melted and soon it was in armour. I made a mistake at this point and drifted out of warp disruption range and the Bellicose pilot took this failure on my part as his que to leave, which he did. A missed opportunity and showed me I was rusty, need to hunt solo more often, sharpen up so that such mistakes don't happen again.

A few minutes later a report came in of the Bellicose pilot being destroyed sitting on a gate. Oh well, somebody got the kill.

Later on I spotted another Bellicose on scan, a different pilot but he was accomponied by two Rifter pilots. Oh well, best to give it a shot I thought as I threw the Firetail into warp. Entering the belt I found one Rifter and the wreck of the Bellicose, mmm. Time to crash the party, I engaged the Rifter and pretty soon he was deep into armour. Just then another Rifter burst out of warp and I thought they were together but the latest addition to the tango engaged the first Rifter. The first goes down and it's just the last and I, I naturally engage and soon another wreck is added to the belt. Quickly looting I got out of the belt as some Angels were trying to introduce me to the cold black.

Fortune smilled on me as I got another crack at the first Bellicose that escaped due to my mistake but this time he went down hard to the combined firepower of my Firetail and Deathstar's Vengeance. Satan's Minion lost his pod too for his trouble.

Hanging out in system I spotted a Caracal on scan, he was sitting in a safespot so I would be hard pressed to engage. Just then Deathstar, a pilot from Mean Corpv gave me a call saying he had scanned out the Caracal and asked if I wanted to help take it down, Death was in a Falcon so his offensive capabilities were very low. I of course said yes and primed my nav systems to Deathstar's position. Bursting out of warp right on top of the Caracal must have given its pilot an emergency pants moment. I engaged, Warp Disruptor active, guns engaged, and missile batteries firing, settling into an orbit around the Caracal. A moment later I lost lock and the Caracal warped away.
"AAAAAAAARG STABS" I yelled at no-one in particular, I kicked out in frustration and think I may have broken something. Oh well, I had spotted a Rifter on scan and decided to take my frustrations out on the poor pilot.

I came out of warp right on top of the pilot and opened up with everything, soon his ship was reduced to a wreck, his pod was snapped up for good measure (He was a very young pilot but I wanted to kill something and this is as close to kicking a puppy as it gets in this universe)
Later in convo with the pilot after he recloned in a station many systems away, I found out he had just spent his entire fortune on implants, oh well, I'm a Pirate, not the Salvation Army, I did give him some fitting tips and went on my merry.

Last mark of the evening was a Stabber pilot, I wanted another kill so vectored in on him and engaged, Deathstar had just come out of warp as the Stabber warped away.
"STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBS"
We got a second chance at him but it was futile as the cursed Warp Core Stabilisers would allow him to warp out at will, this time though he warped out and left system.

All in all, not a spectacular evening and the Firetail survives yet another night, wonder how long it will last. I dock at HQ and feel the hangover creeping up on me, probably a good time to hit the sack. I lie down, the darkness overwhelms me and I slink into a deep sleep.
Dreams of space and epic battles take over my consciousness.

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