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.

Stupid Losses, Juicy Kill

Kills and losses:
- killed six cruisers, three frigates, six pods and one interceptor;
- lost a Wolf, a Jaguar, a Rifter and a pod.

I
It's been an interesting week (eight days to be exact). Last Sunday, I scanned down a ratting Rupture in Bosboger. I warped to the belt, but it warped out in time to avoid my tackle. I returned to my safespot and soon saw it in another belt, to which I immediately sent my Wolf. This time I caught the cruiser and opened fire. When it was halfway into armour, the pilot opened a convo with me and pleaded for mercy. I halted fire and decided to try ransoming him, but then realised the rats would kill him anyway and activated my guns once again.
The Rupture's pilot, apparently new to New Eden and its low-security area laws, complained about spending a lot of money on his ship. Now, that wasn't the first time I saw such complaints, but, unlike many others, the guy did not insult or threaten me. So, in a gesture not typical of me, I gave him the money he said he had spent on his ship and then briefly instructed him about the dangers of lowsec. Please don't expect me to do that again, guys.

II
I did not get much action until Thursday, the day that started rather well with a Stabber kill. I went on roaming the Amamake area and spotted a Thrasher at a gate. I ordered my Wolf to orbit it, awaiting aggression from his side. He started locking me and when I thought I saw him blinking red in my overview, I activated my tackling gear and guns. I made a mistake: I attacked him first and was destroyed by sentry guns. The Thrasher pilot also made it into the killmail and then squished my pod.
Things like this make me mad with myself and also provoke an uncontrollable rush to even out the score, so I quickly got back to Amamake and boarded a Jaguar. I then moved to Siseide and started scanning belts. When I was sure I identified a target in one of them, I hit warp, but landed next to another ship instead. It was a Moa class cruiser and I, keen to get a kill, decided to engage. Sure enough, his corpmate soon showed up in a Thorax and together they blasted my Jag.
Cursing myself for being such a stupid bait-taking idiot, I docked up for the night and decided (for a hundredth time probably) to be more cautious in future, especially when flying relatively expensive ships.

III
So, come Saturday, I was in the mood to kill as many ships as I could while losing as little as possible. This meant, of course, that I would be flying a Rifter.
My first victim was MEIRIYAHHALOM who was ratting in Siseide in her Stabber that could not put up much of a fight against my Rifter. I snatched the pod and blasted it too.
Half an hour later I killed an Imicus in neighbouring Egghelende - not much of a fight either. But then things got more interesting: I spotted a Nemesis stealth bomber in a belt. I warped to it, the bomber cloaked and I sent my ship back to the safespot. Just when I was warping out, a Claw interceptor landed close to me which meant he warped to the belt at zero - a bad habit for an interceptor pilot. I could not stop the warp, but started watching the Claw move between the belts, apparently also chasing the elusive Nemesis.
I tried to catch either of them a few times, but both seemed to be quite fast. Finally, as I was spamming the scan button while approaching a belt, I saw the Claw was still there and overloaded my tackling systems to make sure it does not escape.
Indeed, the Claw was there, less than 4 kilometres away from me. I started locking him and activated the tackling gear while also trying to close distance between us. The Claw must have activated his microwarp drive for a short while before my scrambler kicked in because he managed to get as far as 11 kilometres away. But the overheated web was still holding him and I quickly reapplied the scramble.
After that, the fight was really short since the interceptor's defences were pretty weak and his artillery cannons could not track me. I scooped the loot and docked to have a look at it - the Claw pilot was a criminal, just like me, so attacking him had not caused sentry guns to shoot at me. Mmm, Domination Overdrive...
I guess I was still in a bit of euphoria an hour and a half later when I engaged Dec Apilatour's Rifter in a belt in the same system. I must have clicked on him too early or clicked in the wrong place so he was already shooting me while I was staring at the screen like an idiot. I realised my mistake too late and was punished for it.
Still, that didn't spoil my good mood after the Claw kill annd I quickly assembled a new Rifter to kill another noob frig in Egghelende as well as its pilot's pod.
A bit later my mate joined me in his own Rifter and we roamed the area for a while. We found a Rifter at a belt in Auga who escaped us but then showed up at a planet. We warped there and started chasing him which took quite a long time. I have no idea why he did not run away, but as we got close, he himself initiated the fight which of course he had very little chances to win. We killed the pod too.

IV
Sunday night was about killing cruisers. I killed MEIRIYAHHALOM's Stabbers twice that night, and snatched the pod on both occasions.
My final engagement for the night was with Heavans Soldier in a Caracal who put up a good fight but still died to my Rifter. He was cool about it and I hope to meet him again, maybe in my gang next time.