Punisher 19.8

The hunt:

I was on a roam through Molden Heath when I was joined by fellow Tusker Kishin Hattori. He was flying his Slicer, and he wanted to collect some loot from out of system, so we left Molden Heath struck out across low sec.

On the way, we spotted a Hawk and an Ishkur on scan. Two different locations, but in the same system. Kishkin narrowed the Ishkur down to a belt and we agreed that we would jump in and take the Ishkur, but that we needed to be fast - the Hawk would almost certainly jump in on us once the fight started.

As we were jumping in from different parts of the system we had to stagger our jumps to land at the same time. We actually made a pretty good job of it, and we landed together. However, the Ishkur was 20+ km from the warp in point. Kishkin's mwd Slicer crossed the distance in a flash, while I overheated my afterburner and tried to catch up.

The fight was well under way when I reached them. I pointed the Ishkur and opened fire, overheating my guns. In return, he turned his attention to me. Kishkin asked me if we should take out the drones first, or try and burn the Ishkur down.

I had about half a second to make a decision, and the deciding factor was cost. On our journey we had been talking about Kishkin's Slicer, and he had mentioned that a properly fit Slicer cost about 40 million. On the other hand, I knew my Punisher was worth perhaps 5-7 million. If the Hawk jumped in on us, Kishkin was set to lose far more than I was. This needed to be fast. I told him to burn down the Ishkur.

The Ishkur was entering armor when the Hawk jumped in. He decided to help finish me off first, but I am a little fuzzy on the details. I think he webbed me, and this then allowed the Ishkur to start doing MUCH more damage with his blasters. My range control had not been great throughout the fight - I had rushed in too close trying to catch up - but it had been reasonable, and I had been tanking the damage reasonably well while my cap held.

Not any more. The Ishkur was entering structure when my hull gave out.

2011.05.02 14:29:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Punisher
System: Wiskeber
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2443

Involved parties:

Name: ChongDM (laid the final blow)
Security: -3.2
Corp: Rodents of Unusual Size
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Ishkur
Weapon: Light Ion Blaster II
Damage Done: 2443

Name: DeMogg Chong
Security: 0.0
Corp: Rodents of Unusual Size
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Hawk
Weapon: Rocket Launcher II
Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Gatling Pulse Laser II, Qty: 2
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S, Qty: 2
Scorch S (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Control II
E5 Prototype Energy Vampire
Small Armor Repairer II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
1MN Afterburner II
Scorch S, Qty: 2 (Cargo).

Both ships turned their attention to Kishkin as I warped my pod out. I really wish I had been able to stick around, because what happened next must have been some pretty fancy flying.

Kiting both the ships Kishkin proceeded to finish off the Ishkur and drive the Hawk into structure before his cap gave out, causing his point to drop. Taking advantage of this last minute reprieve, the Hawk waped out, trailing smoke and engine fire.

2011.05.02 14:29:00

Victim: ChongDM
Corp: Rodents of Unusual Size
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Ishkur
System: Wiskeber
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 3156

Involved parties:

Name: Kishin Hattori (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.7
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Imperial Navy Slicer
Weapon: Medium Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 2786

Name: Taurean Eltanin
Security: -1.6
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Capsule
Weapon: E5 Prototype Energy Vampire
Damage Done: 370

Destroyed items:

Small Energy Neutralizer II
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 106
Damage Control II
Small Trimark Armor Pump I
Light Ion Blaster II, Qty: 2
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
1MN Afterburner II
Nanite Repair Paste, Qty: 93 (Cargo)
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 9634 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 1514 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 212
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Light Ion Blaster II
Hobgoblin II, Qty: 4 (Drone Bay)


Post battle review:

After the fight Kishkin scooped my loot and the loot from the Ishkur. He very generously gave it all to me, which meant I was not significantly out of pocket for the fight.

I was hugely impressed by the Slicer, but even more so by Kishkin's flying. I would be happy just to survive a 2v1, and Kishkin was beating himself up for letting one get away.

Welcome to the Tuskers, kid.


Lessons for the future:

The truth is that I got frazzled and got too close to the Ishkur for too long. I might actually have outlived the Ishkur if I had not taken that initial dose of blaster to the face.

I am also determined to come up with a better solution to drones. They are my bane, and I'm tired of dying to them. I appreciate that I'm hardly alone here, but I need to come up with an answer. I was determined to try a different approach with my next Punisher.