A Short Explanation

Haven't posted for a while - I'm in a foreign country at the moment. I do log in quite often (although playing on a laptop with a 1024*768 screen is a pain) and joined guys from Pyrotechnics on several occasions. Will report more in the coming days.

A Deadly Duo

Shortly after entering Siseide, a system adjacent to my sweet home Amamake, I saw a Drake on scan, piloted by a relatively inexperienced capsuleer. As I narrowed down my search to a single belt, I saw there were also a Brutix and a Malediction there. I decided to have a look from a safe distance, but the two battlectuisers warped out as I arrived.
Malediction pilot Jyren's Rage, who had negative security status and a bounty on his head, opened a convo and offered to deal with the two battlecruisers together. 'Sure,' I replied and accepted his fleet invitation. I scanned a random couple of belts and there they were, sitting at one of them. I gave the coordinates to Jyren's Rage while warping and quickly tackled the Drake after landing on top of it.
The Brutix disappeared shortly after my partner in crime arrived and together we quickly broke the Drake's shield tank. Its heavy missiles were no good against my Rifter and its neutralizer wasn't much of a problem because I had a capacitor booster equipped - stole the setup from Gneeznow after watching one of his fantastic Getsu Fune videos. As the battlecruiser entered structure, Jyren's Rage left to find the Brutix while I finished off the Drake. He suggested that I grab the loot.
Shortly after, he had the Brutix pointed and helpless with its railguns unable to hit our quick and nimble ships. It didn't last longer than the Drake and this time the final blow and the loot went to Jyren's Rage.
So, within less than ten minutes we destroyed two larger ships worth a total of 75 million isk - way to go for pirate cooperation!
I docked up as we exchaged compliments and agreed to commit more crimes together.

Clickity-clank. Clickity-clank. The money goes into my piggy bank

Amamake's busy as usual with about 50 pilots in the system. Most are concentrated at a couple of spots indicating relatively large gangs. But my attention is drawn to a Typhoon class battleship which is sitting alone at a belt, its inexperienced pilot's name visible on the scanner screen.
I warped to the belt, settled into a tight orbit and opened fire on the huge battleship. It activated a warp disruptor and sent a pack of Tech 1 drones after me which I soon destroyed one by one. But my armour kept dropping, mostly due to missile hits I guess. I overloaded my afterburner, aligned to a random celestial and soon was free to dock up, repair and get some more ammunition.
When I was back in space, a quick scan showed the Typhoon had not gone anywhere, but had been joined by another Rifter. Andrik R was also circling the battleship and spraying it with bullets. Together, we were dealing enough damage to break its tank and when the Typhoon exploded I quickly locked the pod and sent its pilot into the clone vat.
Among the debris, there were a couple of intact Harvester Mining Drones which I scooped up. I sent Andrik R 75 million isk after checking out their market value.
This was my first battleship kill and my biggest loot drop so far. Should help offset later losses of two Rifters, one of which was completely avoidable - I warped to a safespot which had earlier been busted by the Drunk Gang. Oh well, at least they brought a couple Taranises, an Arazu, a Falcon and a Vexor to kill me.

Slice Like a Ninja, Cut Like a Razor Blade

Yesterday morning was great and the evening was just as good.
I scanned down a couple of Rifters ratting at a belt in Siseide and warped to them. Targeting the one that was closer, I settled into the usual 7.5km orbit and activated my tackling gear and guns. The second Rifter reacted slowly but eventually targeted me and started helping his mate.
I could deal with two of them, but then the third one warped in and joined the party. My overheated armour repairer could not catch up with the damage they were dealing and the lack of capacitor charge forced me to start pulsing it instead of running the module nonstop. Fortunately for me, my first target soon exploded, after which I quickly moved the tackle onto another frigate and moved away from it into an orbit where my Barrage ammunition would give me distance advantage.
I kept my guns overloaded and continued pulsing the repper, but was already taking hull damage resulting in the familiar flame and smoke. About halfway into structure, I managed to get rid of the second Rifter.
When I faced the last opponent, I had virtually no armour and no cap left. Suppressing the urge to try and run away, I once again ordered my ship to widen the orbit and, as soon as cap regenerated a little, activated the afterburner, the web and the scrambler. That helped me reduce incoming damage and start repairing my armour bit by bit. The third Rifter turned out to be the weakest one, but just as his armour was giving up, a flashy red Maller showed up at the belt and sped towards us, releasing a pack of Tech 2 drones.
Seeing no chances to survive a fight against the cruiser, I aligned to another belt and overheated my midslots. I did not expect to get away quickly, but suddenly my warp drive was free from disruption and I was in the safety of a warp tunnel. Turned out I finished off the last Rifter while trying to flee. Checking out my ship stats I noticed I had 19 percent structure left.
Extremely satisfied, I docked my own Rifter for the night as soon as my criminal timer expired.

Good Morning!

This morning, before getting my cup of coffee, I decided to see what was going on in Amamake.
I quickly scanned down a Stabber at a faction warfare plex and rushed to it. It was at the acceleration gate entrance and I went through the usual tackling routine. Suddenly, my cap was gone - damn, a neutraliser! Rho Jones made quick work of my cap-drained Rifter and I warped out in a pod. Those Stabbers are a coin toss really: you either beat them easily or die quickly.
As usual, I had another Rifter ready at a station and soon undocked again, looking for targets. Belts were empty, but there were a Thrasher and a Punisher moving between safespots. They lingered for too long at one of those giving my friend in a covert ops ship enough time to define their exact location.
I warped in, but the Thrasher quickly disappeared from the grid. I bookmarked the location and returned to my own observation spot. Soon, the pair were back and I was on my way. By the time I arrived, the Punisher had disappeared, but the Trasher was there and was up for a fight this time.
Despite being a relatively young pilot, Cowardly Sniper was hitting me hard, stripping my shield off in a couple rounds. I overloaded my guns and repair systems, settling into a tight orbit and spitting out EMP shells. When the Thrasher's shield - its primary defence level - was gone, his mate in a Punisher showed up. Will my armour hold under the assault or will it crumble? Read the next paragraph to find out!
I went on shooting the Thrasher and finally it exploded, but not before making several holes in my Rifter's hull which started letting out a trace of grey smoke clearly visible against the pitch black sky. Still, my overheated armour repairer was patching up the broken plates when I focused my attention on the Punisher.
Scram, web, orbit at 7.5km, switch to Barrage, keep pulsing the repper, laugh manically, choke with smoke, overheat guns again to break the armour at its peak regeneration level, job done.
I exchanged compliments with Cowardly Sniper and Cloudnebula while I scooped the loot.
The morning looked much better now, but there was more. I waited out my GCC, docked to repair and unload the loot and rushed back into open space. There was a Claw not far from the station, but it did not respond to my baiting attempts. However, a bit later I saw the same Claw at a belt to which I immediately jumped. Luck was definitely on my side as I landed right on top of the interceptor and had a quick tackle. Marlbor0 Man fought well, but Claw's tank is no match for Rifter's.
Satisfied, I docked up and went for my cup of coffee.