Trading War Stories

A minute after I have destroyed a Wolf ratting in Amamake's III-1, I get a convo from its pilot.
Nursultan > 0/
Ryddic > give me 60 milion o i declar war you
Ryddic > i and me alleans declar war you
Ryddic > 60 milion
Ryddic > have 5 minut time
Nursultan > hahaha
Ryddic > wtf you ahahah mother b---
Nursultan > i'm at war with all eve
Ryddic > ???
Ryddic > you us a noo
Ryddic > and your corp is dead
Ryddic > 60 milion
Nursultan > please go ahead
Ryddic > ???
Ryddic > no pleas no
Nursultan > wardec me
Ryddic > you give me 60 milion o your noob corp is dead you no undestand
Ryddic > ok
Ryddic > ahahahahahah
Ryddic > 3 player
Ryddic > huhuhuhuh
Ryddic > 60 milion
Ryddic > o you is dead lol
Ryddic > onorata societa (corp link)
Ryddic > is cor for me friend
Ryddic > and declar war your corp
Ryddic > +
Ryddic > me corp
Ryddic > +
Ryddic > hikage (corp link)
Ryddic > you undestand
Ryddic > ??
Ryddic > 50 milion
Ryddic > 30 ship
Ryddic > 20 fitting and rig
Ryddic > camon
Nursultan > Ryddic, I will not pay
Ryddic > no pay...in isk...ok pay in pod and ship....
Ryddic > for me is no problem
Ryddic > you dead no me
Ryddic > o
Ryddic > 50 milion
Ryddic > o clos your corp
Damien Korrybane > ?
Nursultan > i'm waiting for your wardec
Nursultan > bye

Trigger Hippie

I've podded people too much lately. It has become an instinct to lock a pod after a ship goes boom. But I really should think more about what I do after that.
The first case was a young Drake pilot running a mission in Siseide. Oblivious to scan probes, he let my mate pinpoint is location to which I then jumped in my Hurricane. I landed a bit too far away so the Drake warped out but soon he returned to the mission site and I got him. We were the only pilots in the system at the moment. I destroyed the Drake, managed to catch the pilot's pod and started negotiating a ransom. My victim was a bit slow with his replies, probably contemplating my offer, and finally said something like "bleh k". At that point I noticed local spike and, being a paranoid that I am, decided a rescue mission may be on its way. I one-volleyed the pod just as its pilot was typing, "wait a sec, I'll transfer the money". Argh!
I felt really bad about the whole thing and sent some money to the guy along with apologies.
The second case took place in Olfeim, a lowsec dead-end frequented by carebears. I spotted a Thrasher in a deadspace complex and went after it in my Wolf. As I engaged the destroyer, a Hawk assault frigate jumped in and started locking me. I quickly finished off the Thrasher, podded its pilot and overloaded my midslots to catch the Hawk. It was a long fight as he kept moving away and I was using short-range ammo, but in the end he died too. With adrenaline rush preventing my brains from working properly I quickly podded the Hawk pilot as well. WHY?!!! I should at least have tried to ransom!!!
Finally, I had a fight with Venom Orchid of the notorious Hellcats. I spotted her Rifter in Amamake's III-1 and started approaching in a Rifter of my own. She accepted the implicit duel offer and we were soon circling each other, shooting and repping. I won the fight (Venom said she was a bit slow with overloading her guns and actovating the repper) and again instinctively locked the pod. I didn't really want to pod Venom and started looting her wreck while thinking about my options. I mean, it's not every day that you get to have a sexy pirate chick next to you, scrambled and defenceless... Oooh the perverted fantasies!
"GET OUT!" a warning from my fleetmate, Leeloo Malaquin of Genos Occidere, brought me back to reality as a Pilgrim recon ship showed up next to us, probably after warping to Venom's wreck. I warped to a safespot as he was locking me, saved by the fact that he went after Venom first. Again, I felt like a dumbass for letting some random guy pod Venom, although she didn't seem to be upset with that.
WTB podding management courses.

Straight Outta Clone Vat

Kill & loss statistics since the last report:
- killed eight frigates, five destroyers, four cruisers, an interceptor, an assault ship, an industrial ship and five pods;
- lost five Rifters, two Wolves, one Rupture and a pod.

Ah, another week full of good fights. I'll mention just a few that have been the most interesting.
There have been a couple of good Rifter duels -- I lost the one against Arquebie and won against Switch 4. Then there was a great Wolf duel with Pax Sex. I was ahead in the damage race, but my guns were reaching critical heat levels so I toggled rack overloading. Unfortunately, this way I also overloaded my neutralizer which burnt my guns in just one cycle, allowing Pax Sex to finish me.

I also had my first fight in a Rupture last week after taking it to Egghelende. I jumped to a planet after spotting some frigate there, but it quickly warped off while another frigate, a Punisher, showed up, soon joined by a Firetail and a Rifter. I sent my ECM drones after the Firetail while focusing fire on the Punisher which soon exploded, its capacitor emptied by my neutralizer. Just when I switched fire to the Firetail, a Thorax joined the party. I refocused my fire on the cruiser, seeing it as the biggest threat, and sent the drones after him as well. My armour was melting under the combined assault of the three ships, but before going down I managed to kill the Thorax. I then tried to kill the Firetail as well and missed the chance to save my pod. Well, that just meant I made it back to Amamake a bit faster.

Another good fight was against two Ghost Festival pilots: my Rifter was able to tank and kill their Incursus class ships, both in proper PVP setups. Staying at a 7.5 kilometre orbit has helped me dodge blaster fire. Finally, there was a fight with Zombiedeadhead's Claw. He attacked me at a gate from Siseide to Amamake and I was unable to get within scram/web range so I jumped. Of course, then I just burned back towards the gate and jumped again. This time, for some reason (maybe due to bumping into the gate), he allowed me to get in close after which the Claw was doomed.

Somehow, I'm much more efficient with Rifters than with Wolves: lost the second one in a week yesterday after jumping a Harbinger which was quickly joined by a Vexor. Must be more careful with these expensive toys.

The Bloody Saturday

Here's what I've done within the last three days:
- killed 10 frigs, 3 destroyers, 4 cruisers, 1 interceptor, 1 covert ops ship and 7 pods
- lost five Rifters.
I think I've also set my personal record for kills within 24 hours - 19 ships and pods.

It all started on Friday night. I undocked in Amamake and began checking nearby solar systems for targets. It didn't take long: Herbatrix's Caracal was dealing with a battleship rat in a belt in Dal and quickly died under my Rifter's fire. I snatched and killed the pod too. My next target was Axebearer in his Thrasher in Amamake. He also failed to save his pod.
About an hour later I scanned down and destroyed Flash StingeR's Osprey in Egghelende where he apparently planned to mine peacefully. He sent me a funny message in Russian in which he called me a "slit-eyed hydrococksucker". Thanks, man, that totally made my day!
I stayed in Egghelende for a while and soon caught The FaIIen's Rifter in a belt and then destroyed Midla's Catalyst that drifted too far away from a station. Podded him too. I then decided to have some sleep and docked up for the night.
I started the next morning by killing GunRo Chin's Probe in Auga and podding him. Gotta love the new scanning mechanic that makes pilots completely oblivious to what's going on around them. Got a message from him as well, asking if that kill had made me satisfied. Yes, thank you sir.
Back in Amamake, I attacked Omegadeity's Rifter in a belt, but by the time I finished it, a couple of guys from the Drunk Gang arrived and destroyed my ship as well. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I jumped into another Rifter and went on searching for targets.
I found Aiya Kiko's Crusader in a belt in Siseide and she apparently decided to fight me, closing the distance quickly. Her DPS was good, but my tank was better. She was cool about it, unlike some of my previous opponents.
Half an hour later, I was in Amamake again. VarWar RUS was up for a Rifter duel after I arrived at his belt and we went for it. I ordered my ship to stay at the 7.5 kilometre orbit and shot from afar with Barrage. It turned out VarWar had Hail loaded and was thus unable to hit me from that distance. We chatted for a while after the kill and I explained my tactics to him. VarWar soon came back in a new Rifter and tried it out in a "no killing" fight with me. We then ganged up on Kacmop and destroyed his Rifter. Before that, however, I managed to lose my own Rifter while trying to kill a Maller together with Krrak in his Thorax. Everything went well until Snakefartz arrived in his Rapier and helped the Maller kill both of us.
Another hour later, I was in Egghelende killing Royalhunter's Punisher. This place is truly a gem, bordering on so many high-security systems and always full of targets. Just eight minutes later I scanned down an Incursus and a Punisher in a belt there, both transmitting their novice pilots' names openly. Seeing this as an invitation, I warped to the belt.
It wasn't as easy as one could have expected because the guys seemed to be well prepared: they both tackled me and the Punisher activated his energy neutraliser, quickly draining my cap. I overloaded my high and low slots and focused my fire on the Incursus which I managed to take down. I then turned to the Punisher, my cap at zero by that time, and was gaining the upper hand when he warped out. Stupid me, forgot to activate the scrambler when cap started to regenerate.
After a bit of rest I decided to bring some violence to the Olfeim system - an isolated lowsec pocket not far from Amamake. I got a Rifter hauled there and started scanning the belts. Pretty soon I spotted a Rupture and Thrasher who seemed to be ratting together, once again their rookie pilots' names visible to everyone. I decided to take out the Rupture first and settled into a tight orbit around it. The cruiser sent its Tech I drones afer me which a started to dispatch one by one when suddenly my speed dropped to zero - must have hit a bloody asteroid. The Trasher closed distance by that time and together they made short work of my Rifter.
I decided to raise the stakes and got a Wolf hauled to Olfeim. Immediately after undocking I found a Stabber in the same belt where my Rifter had died. I warped in and landed on top of him which meant quick death to the cruiser that relies on speed and distance. And its pilot's pod.
A bit later I also killed a Merlin in the same system which belonged to the same corporation as the Rupture that had killed me before. Ah, sweet revenge.
That was it for my Saturday killing spree. I spent much less time in space on Sunday, killing Euripades' Stabber and pod in a belt in Dal and Original Me's Cormorant in Egghelende. Lost two Rifters as well - one when trying to kill Euripades' Rifter (got jumped by a Dominix, a Punisher and a Manticore) and another in a duel with Drek Grapper (I always bump into him when he's got the low-grade Slave set).
I continued on Monday night and killed Cpt Kunaaii's Punisher in a belt in Siseide. Just a few minutes later, I scanned down Psykeu's Helios at a planet and destroyed it as well, snatching the pod. I love Apocrypha!
Finally, this morning I took a quick roam around my hunting grounds and Kazaji, seeing my ship, offered a Rifter duel. He employed a tracking disruptor, but still could not hit me from 7.5 kilometres while I ate away at his shield and armour. Gf's were exchanged.
Now, next time I'll probably try employing a prober to get a taste of w-space. I hear it's fun.

Olfeim local chat

Mister Marram > that guy is back
Mister Marram > he is dying
Mister Marram > fuckhead
Mister Marram > bb
Mister Marram > close
Mister Marram > nice fight
Flores Negras > who won?
Mister Marram > him
Mister Marram > he is in the 2/10 plex
Mister Marram > clever bugger
Mister Marram > neuting

Just a few comments: I jumped on Marram's Ishkur in my Wolf some time last weekend. He managed to escape having taken some structural damage.

To the Forge and Back

Bored with Amamake blobs, I decided to travel a bit last week and set the Forge lowsec as my destination. I chose a Wolf for this journey as it would allow me to take on bigger targets (and of course some Bastards(TM) then caught me cheating on my Rifter).
I was surprised by the number of shuttles, noob ships and industrial ships moving through systems like Ingunn and Gusandall. While they did no interest me as potential targets, it later turned out they were still useful.
My first engagement in the journey wasn't successful: I attacked a Jaguar in a belt in Bogelek but it was soon joined by a Sacrilege and a Zealot and my ship went down. I got a Rifter and a new Wolf hauled to a nearby system and roamed around in a Rifter for a while. I scanned down another Rifter in a plex in Gusandall and warped to it. ManTan LNJ was up for a fight, but my Rifter turned out to be stronger.
I eventually reached Akora where DirgeMon, who was hanging around next to a station in his Kestrel, responded to my lock by opening fire and died quickly.
I then turned back, making a stop in Wiskeber. There was a Ferox class battlecruiser in a belt and a quick background check showed its pilot was unlikely to have neutralisers - the biggest threat to my assault frigate. I warped in and activated my guns keeping a tight orbit. The bigger ship's guns could not hurt me and its destruction was only a matter of time. When the Ferox was about to die, a Stabber cruiser warped in. I was going to tackle it when a Raven also showed up and then my overview was full of ships. I quickly warped out and waited. The blob disappeared soon and I was even able to pick up the loot.
I docked up in Wiskeber to get some sleep and undocked a few hours later to find a Drake on my scanner. I quickly pinned it down to a station, warped in for a check and saw that the battlecruiser was taking sentry fire while killing industrial ships. What could be better? I quickly warped back to the station, tackled the Drake and let my guns spit out EMP rounds. Smith44 sent his drones after me, but I quickly dispatched them with the help of sentry guns. The Drake got popped quickly under heavy fire, leaving some nice loot.
The rest of my journey back was uneventful, save for an encounter with the Bastards' gang that included Hallan Turrek and Flashfresh. I docked up just to be on the safe side and had a good laugh watching Hallan pretend to be a noob. I think he also said they sometimes wear adult diapers while roaming.

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.

Gangsta Trippin'

My first Taranis

I was hanging around in Hadozeko with a corpmate when we saw a Taranis on the scanner. I warped to a planet in my Wolf to scan through its belts, but then the Taranis jumped to me itself. I haven't been attacked by anyone for quite a long time now and got used to the role of aggressor so much that I was a bit lost. Still, I told my mate to warp to me, tackled the Taranis and engaged my weapons. My armour was melting quickly, but the overheated repper was doing its best and I killed the Taranis with 13 percent structure left. My mate arrived when the fight was over and helped me scoop the loot and drones which I had ignored. It was only after the fight that I realised I had RF EMP ammo loaded because I had been chasing a Thrasher earlier. That mistake could have cost me the fight, but now I know the time spent on learning Hull Upgrades V was worth it.

Roxxorz Your Vexorz

A day later, me and the same corpmate, Art Kz, were in Siseide looking for targets. I scanned down a Caracal and warped to it, but then its pilot told me we had a positive standing with his corporation so I disengaged. A few minutes later, I saw the same Caracal in another belt joined by a Rupture and a Vexor. With ten drones flying about, it was obvious they were fighting. We decided to help the Caracal pilot and sent our assault ships to the belt. The Vexor which had engaged the Caracal and his friend in a Rupture was already low on hit points, but so was the Rupture. We finished off the gallente cruiser, allowing the Rupture to warp out to safety.
A bit later we were joined by another corpmate, Azgor Khan, who brought a Vengeance class assault ship. We moved to Vard by that time and eventually scanned down a Vexor which could be in one of two nearby belts. I jumped to one belt and Art and Azgor rushed to the second one. Suddenly, just upon arriving to an empty belt, I was disconnected from the server. When I logged back in I saw my mates fighting the Vexor in their belt - one of them had already lost his Harpy. I warped to them, locked the cruiser and activated my autocannons. That's when I got disconnected again. Logging back in, I was expecting to find myself in an escape pod, but it turned out the Vexor had been destroyed. To make things more funny, I had dealt the final blow despite not being able to see it and the pilot of the Vexor was Kachak, the same guy we had ganked earlier in Siseide.
It looked like he got a bit angry with us - while passing through Vard later in another Vexor he asked me why I was helping noobs and advised me to be more careful about who I fly with. To this I say:
- Don't take it personally, I'd be just as happy to be in a gang with you,
- But if I'm already in a gang with someone I will help them and fight together with them until we agree to go our separate ways.

Gate Fights Are for Good Boys

After that Azgor left our gang, but two more guys joined us, adding a Retribution assault ship and a Manticore stealth bomber to the fleet. We travelled all the way to Hadozeko without a single kill, spending a lot of tiime chasing elusive targets. We finally found a target in Resbroko - a lonely Thrasher ratting in belt. I pointed it and told others to owarp to me so we would share the killmail. We also managed to get the pod.
We then headed for Amamake, but stumbled upon a fight on the Ardar side of Hadozeko-Ardar gate. I remember that a Typhoon, A Zealot, a Drake and a Myrmidon were involved. We targeted the Myrmidon since that would not have triggered sentry fire and it went down quickly.
Unfortunately, by that time the Typhoon switched its attention to me and the rest of the gang could not engage him due to my criminal status. Very soon I was tackled, my cap drained and angry drones were swarming around me. My Wolf exploded and I warped out in a pod. A stupid loss that could and should have been avoided. At least I should remember the lesson.

More Outlaws

A quick summary of kills and losses since my last post:

• Killed a Rupture and a Rifter solo, a Jaguar and an Arbitrator together with a corpmate.
• Lost a Wolf to another Jaguar, another corpmate lost a Probe in the same fight.

Now, to details.

A BAD IDEA
I've made my first kill in a Crow class interceptor after hours of fruitless roaming around Heimatar and Metropolis the other day. I arrived at a gate in Eszur and saw a Rifter hanging around. I decided to provoke its pilot to start attacking me by settling into a 20 kilometre orbit and targeting it. The trick worked: the Rifter started blinking red in my overview and I engaged my warp disruptor and missile turrets. The frigate was unable to scratch me and died quickly. I then found out it was set up to maximise speed at the expense of defence so I guess the pilot thought he had a chance to outrun me.

JAGGED
A day later, I was cruising around Gulmogorod in my Wolf and spotted a Rupture in a belt. Its pilot had made a mistake of not renaming his ship which allowed me to quickly check his background and identify him as a potential target. I warped to the belt and started my usual routine while chatting to my corpmate who was also keen to do a bit of shooting. Everything looked fine until Cactuz III entered the system and quickly scanned us down. His Jaguar started doing some serious damage to my ship and I asked my corpmate for help. Unfortunately, he was in a Probe frigate set up for scanning with just one autocannon and our combined firepower was not enough to break the Jaguar's tank. Cactuz dispatched both of us.
Of course, it was a mistake to bring in the Probe since it really made no difference. An even bigger, and more fundamental, mistake was trying to do something in a fleet without voice comms. Fortunately, I was able to arrange a better small fleet operation the following day.

DYNAMIC DUO
I was just warming up when a corpmate (another one) asked in the corporate channel whether our alliance was running small-ship operations for inexperienced pilots. I invited him to Amamake area and he soon arrived in a brand new Harpy assault ship. Having arranged proper voice comms this time, we sat at a safespot in Auga scanning belts when I spotted a Jaguar and rushed to it. The Jaguar escaped and commented in local that he was not interested in a fight he'd likely lose.
Well, we made him fight by catching his ship in another belt some 10 minutes later and destroying it easily.
Just eight minutes later, we caught an Arbitrator in the same belt cluster. He sent his drones after me and I concentrated on the pesky litle creatures while my mate was tearing down the cruiser's defences. The drones were hitting me pretty hard and the Arbitrator pilot did a smart trick of activating a tracking disruptor on me, so in the end I switched my fire onto the cruiser and we killed it just in time to save my ship from the drone assault.
I then took my mate on a roam around the area, but unfortunately no other targets came our way. We did scare a ratting battleship, though, which served to boost our confidence.
I think I should do more small-ship small-fleet ops.

I'm cooking BC's like a pound of bacon

EVE System > Channel changed to Hadozeko Local Channel
EIDREICH HUMA > ocatvian
EIDREICH HUMA > help me
EIDREICH HUMA > warp to me
Nursultan > gf

I jumped into Hadozeko solar system in my Wolf and warped to one of my safespots to see if there were any targets. A-ha, looks like there's a Harbinger class battlecruiser in a belt. Making things even better, there were just two of us in that corner of Metropolis and a quick check showed EIDREICH HUMA, the Harbinger pilot, was someone I had a chance of taking on. I jumped to a planet to pin him down in a tight cluster of belts.
With that done I initiated warp and checked if I had the correct ammunition loaded into my 200 mm autocannons. Luck was definitely on my side that night as I came out of warp some 7 kilometres away from the target. Lock, scram, nos, fire. His Vespa II drones were already out dealing with rats, but instead of sending them after me Eidreich recalled the drones. That could be bad news: does he plan to release a pack of ECM drones? Hmm, looks like he doesn't. The same Vespas came out a bit later only to melt under my guns' fire. I was orbiting him at a comfortable tight range, completely evading the Heavy Beam lasers' fire.
The Harbringer's shield and armour dropped steadily despite his attempts to repair. When the battlecruiser's armour was below 50%, a third player, OctavianUK if I recall correctly, appeared in local. I quickly hit the scanner to see if he was a threat, but found out he was flying a Buzzard covert ops ship not designed for combat. It was at that moment when Heidreich started desperately asking Octavian for help. Octavian did not respond and soon disappeared from Hadozeko, although that could mean he'd be coming back in a fighting ship. I overloaded my guns to make things quicker.
When my target was well into structure, I ran out of Republic Fleet Fusion ammo which I prefer to use against armour tankers. I loaded Barrage and continued my assault.
Suddenly, the local channel showed several new arrivals. They did not belong to the same corporation or alliance as my victim, but I began to scan the surrounding area frequently to see if someone could interrupt us. Sure enough, two battleships soon showed first on the scanner and then at our belt. Should I retreat? No way! Heidreich's ship had about 10 percent structure left and I focused my attention on him. A few sloooow seconds later, the Harbinger exploded.
Both battleships were locking me already as I aligned for warp. One lock even resolved before I left the belt, but that did not stop me from warping out. Were they carebears or ratters with no tackling gear? Guess I'll never find out.
I was happy with the kill and didn't mind losing the loot. But while I was still waiting out my global criminal countdown the system became empty again and I was able to check the wreck. Thank you, guys! All the loot, worth about 20 million isk was there! I scooped it up and docked as soon as the red timer disappeared, my hands still shaking slightly from excitement.

Wolf Week

I have been mostly flying Wolf class assault frigates for the last couple of weeks and here's what I've learnt the hard way, having lost seven of them:
- A cruiser/battlecruiser with ECM drones will kill you;
- A cruiser/battlecruiser with energy neutralisers will kill you;
- A fast frigate/cruiser with long-range weapons (including autocannons loaded with Barrage) will kill you;
- An Ishkur with two webs and blasters sitting at the undock point will kill you.
An especially stupid couple of losses happened when I tried to kill Cirock in his Stabber cruiser. I had killed him earlier on that when he allowed me to get close, but in our second fight he stayed about 17 kilometres away and shot me with Barrage rounds. I had a second Wolf ready and decided that together with BiggerGuns in his Rifter we'd be able to win.
I engaged first and, when Cirock once again settled into his preferred orbit, told BiggerGuns to warp to me at 20 kilometres. Of course, things rarely work the way you plan: 'Guns' Rifter appeared too far away and he could not approach Cirock in time. I lost a second Wolf, but at least my wingmate managd to get away.
To address the speed issue I've decided to carry a microwarpdrive with me and switch to it when I see a proper target, someone who can kill me from a distance but won't be able to track me at point-blank range.
Now, to good news. I've finally scored my first battlecruiser kill thanks to xxphilkeyxx who was ratting in a belt in Kamela in his Prophecy. I don't know if he had noticed me arrive at the belt, but that wouldn't have changed much as I came out of warp close to him and battlecruisers aren't known for their agility. I locked the larger ship and activated my guns, nosferatu and scrambler. He responded, with a bit of delay, by sending three Tech 1 drones after me, which I quickly dispatched. His guns were not hitting me at all so the whole fight was about me chewing first through his shield and then armour. I zoomed out just in time to see the battlecruiser explode.
What I like about militia guys is that they don't care what's going on in asteroid belts. There were about 15 of them in local when I was slowly killing the Prophecy, but no one disturbed us. Neither did they intervene when I destroyed johnny2combs' Omen in another belt and his Coercer at the same spot 15 minutes later. Guys, at least watch the scanner when ratting in lowsec!
Sadly, I ended the week with another Wolf loss. I killed another ratting cruiser in Lulm and docked at one of the stations. When I undocked, an Ishkur and a Jaguar tackled me and started hurting my ship badly. I tried to dock again, but did not make it. I checked the Ishkur pilot's records later and found out he specialises in killing other assault ships with an interesting setup - two webs and a scrambler in midslots.

Maximum Overdrive

Last week I made my first flights in a Wolf class assault frigate, a ship based on the Rifter hull but with better defensive and offensive capabilities. It has a drawback as well, lacking the third medium slot, which makes it less useful in fighting small and fast ships.
My first fight was against a Thorax cruiser. I destroyed his Hammerhead II drones and settled into a tight orbit to evade his heavy blasters, but his armour was pretty strong so I decided to overload my guns. Unfortunately, I did not turn the overloading off in time and the autocannons broke so I had to leave. Looks like four cannons break quicker than three...
A bit later I took my new ship to Lulm where I saw a Rifter in a deadspace complex. Expecting an easy kill, I jumped in. Turned out I was wrong: the Rifter, piloted by FirenDisco, was much faster than me and orbited at about 15-20 kilometres pounding me with artillery cannons. I tried to throw him off the orbit by maneuvering close to complex structures, but in vain. Soon, my Wolf blew up.
I had another Wolf ready and later on that day I challenged Tefer Bo, who was flying a Vengeance assault frig, to a duel in Amamake. The fight was very close until I overloaded my guns and repper which gave me an advantage. Unfortunately, I then tried to dock before my GCC ran out and got stuck at the docking perimeter for thirty seconds - more than enough for sentry guns to destroy my ship.
With no more Wolves left in my hangar I jumped into my good old Rifter and decided to try ganking FirenDisco together with BiggerGuns, a pilot who has just started a pirate career in the Amamake area. I equipped my ship with a microwarpdrive to be able to catch FirenDisco. But when I jumped into the same plex I realised it did not work there. Fortunately, FirenDisco was not in the first pocket and I just warped out. I apologised for wasting BiggerGuns' time and challenged FirenDisco to a duel. He was fine with that, BUT would only fight inside the plex.
There was no way I could beat him in his lair. Or was there? I checked the available reports on FirenDisco's setups and quickly figured out I could outrun him by dropping the repper and the damage control unit in favour of an overdrive injector and a nanofiber internal structure module. That is, if I overload and he doesn't. Still, the chance was there and I decided to take it.
I returned to Lulm and we quickly agreed on the duel. I found him some 30 kilometres away from the plex warp-in point and started the chase, overloading my midslots. My shield died quickly and armour was taking some damage. I checked the speed of both ships: yes, I was som 100-150 m/s faster. Come on, I've got to make it! When I was at about 40 percent armour the distance between out ships has been reduced to web range. After that, I was only taking damage from his sole missile launcher while my autocannons worked their magic in optimal range.
"Good fight," FirenDisco said in fleet comms channel.
"gf," I confirmed a few seconds later when his ship exploded.
And it really was a good fight, one of the best I've ever had in my career: a nice and strong opponent with an unconventional setup and an environment that limits your options making you come up with a special setup of your own. Nice loot, too - a Gistii B-type Small Shield Booster to partly offset my ealier loss.
Concluding the week, I managed to lose my third Wolf in a fight against a Thorax which had a pack of ECM drones. My ship was quickly jammed and destroyed.