Punisher 16.2

The fit:

3 Gatling Pulse Laser II (Navy Multifrequency & Scorch)
5W Infectious Power Malfunction

Cold-gas Arcjet Thrusters
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Inhibitor

2 Adaptive Nano Plating II
Damage Control II
200mm Rolled Tungsten


The hunt:

I was on a Molden Heath roam, and I had gone north into Metropolis/Heimatar when I saw a Rifter on scan in a system that connected to highsec, albeit in a fairly remote location. He was a fairly new player, but he knew enough to quickly disappeared off D-scan. I guessed he had docked up, and I set about loitering in the system.

After about 10 minutes or so, he became used to my presence and ventured out again. I began scanning him down, but every time someone else entered the system he docked up until they left, which meant I had to keep starting from scratch.

Now, I was fairly certain he was missioning, but I wanted to be sure, so I persisted. However, over the course of a few minutes several cruisers and another Rifter entered the system, but did not seem to have any intention of just passing through.

Two of the ships, the Rifter and a Stabber, where in the same corp, and they were clearly hunting. They tried several times to pin me down, but I did not fancy my odds, 2v1.  The other two cruisers were from different corps, and seemed to be minding their own business.

As much as I did not want to tangle with the two hunters together, I did fancy my chances against the Stabber pilot. He was fairly new, and I thought I had a decent shot, if only I could separate him from his fleet mate.

After continually trying to track me down, the hunters seemed to get the message, and the next time I saw them it was just the Stabber pilot. I had burned quite some way from the warp in point, so he activated his mwd and moved to intercept me. Perfect.

I moved to engage him, but just as we pointed each other, BOTH of the other two cruisers warped in. Unable to warp out, all I could do was commit to the fight and hope that the cruisers preferred the cruiser killmail to the frigate killmail.

My guess about the Stabber pilot proved correct; he lacked the skills for the ship he was flying. He launched no drones, had no web, and I was completely under his guns. He did have a neut, however, which I countered with my nos, and I overheated my guns.

Ultimately, though, the two new cruisers both targeted me, and I started to get some drone action from the second Stabber. Although I had not yet taken a huge amount of damage, the outcome was now clear, and my thoughts turned to preserving my pod. I aligned to a celestial and started spamming the "warp to" button. Incidentally, this meant that I was no longer keeping up my transversal, and the original Stabber started doing massive damage to me. I think I found out where he put his skill points.

Eventually I popped, but I did manage to get out. I offered them a "gf" in local, which was not returned.

Victim: Taurean Eltanin

Corp: Strategic Conflicts Incorporated

Alliance: Unknown

Faction: Unknown

Destroyed: Punisher

System: Aralgrund

Security: 0.3

Damage Taken: 1725

Involved parties:

Name: Zakraln (laid the final blow)

Security: 1.1

Corp: Old Spice l

Alliance: EveBowl Alliance

Faction: NONE

Ship: Stabber

Weapon: Dual 180mm Gallium I Machine Gun

Damage Done: 1156

Name: Rikhturh

Security: 2.9

Corp: T.R.I.A.D

Alliance: NONE

Faction: Minmatar Republic

Ship: Stabber

Weapon: Hobgoblin I

Damage Done: 569

Name: Lord Frifri

Security: 4.7

Corp: Warpig Industrial Solutions

Alliance: NONE

Faction: NONE

Ship: Caracal

Weapon: Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II

Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Damage Control II

Imperial Navy Multifrequency S

Adaptive Nano Plating II

Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters

Small Armor Repairer II

J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

Dropped items:

Gatling Pulse Laser II, Qty: 3

200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Imperial Navy Multifrequency S, Qty: 2

E5 Prototype Energy Vampire

Scorch S, Qty: 3 (Cargo)

Post battle review:

Well, I'm a both pleased and disappointed. I'm pleased that I was able to correctly access the capabilities of my enemy, approach without taking damage, get under his guns, and counter his neut. Whether I would have won or lost would depend on whether he was able to shut down my afterburner, and if he could, whether this lowered my transversal enough for him to start hitting me. I can't be sure, but if I could have that fight again as a 1v1, I would take it.

However, I'm disappointed that I engaged in such an unsafe system. I wrote off the possibility that the cruisers were working together just because they had different tickers, and that was obviously a silly thing to do.

At the time, I really kicked myself for accepting the fight, and for my lack of discipline. After that initial reaction, though, my views have softened. I need two above class kills, and if things had gone a little differently, this guy stood a really good chance of being one of them. 

Equally, I could spend a great deal of time worrying about traps, but Eve is just a game, and I think I'll enjoy it more if I play with enthusiasm rather than with caution. So yeah, they got me. 

This time.

Lessons for the future:

Fleets do not necessarily enter a system all at once, and they are not necessarily wear the same corp badge. So if local spikes, assume they are all together, and they are all looking for me.

None of that means I shouldn't try to kill them.