Vengeance v Rifter & Falcon

The hunt:

One of the more common Tusker roam routes is the loop that runs from Hevrice to Essence and back. It passes through Aeschee and Old Man Star, which are both pvp hotspots, if a bit blobby.

It was on one of these solo roams that I noticed a Rifter looking for a fight in OMS. I decided to oblige him, but we spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to find each other; I'd jump in on him as he was jumping in on me, etc.

On a few occassions, we would warp into the same belt, but at different ranges. I would burn towards him, but he would warp out. He was obviously looking for a fight, so I was a bit puzzled by this behaviour; why not just engage me directly? It's not as if my Vengeance could kite him.

Finally, we both managed to land together, and we started to engage. I had Foxfire Rage loaded, as thermal damage is generally the best damage to have loaded if you can't be sure of a shield or armor tank.

Rather predictably, I started winning. Most Rifters can't even break my tank, so I'm definitely the favourate. However, this was not some fool pilot that did not recognize the limits of his ship; he had a plan. And that plan uncloaked about 20 km from me - he had brought a Falcon as backup.

Suddenly, his pre battle maneuvers made sense. The Rifter couldn't just burn towards me because the cloaked Falcon would not have been able to keep up. Interesting.

Of course, I immediately lost my lock, and I reacted by sending out a call for backup. The nearest Tuskers were a few jumps away, though, so I had to hold out until they arrived. Fortunately, the combined firepower of the Rifter and the Falcon did not seem to be enough to break my tank. The real danger was that they could call for backup faster than I could.

I don't know much about Falcons, but this Falcon was not able to lock me out completely. About every third or fourth cycle his jammer would miss, and I would be able to target something. The first time this happened I continued pounding away at the Rifter; I was obviously not going to be able to grind down the Falcon between cycles.

However, with backup en route, I decided on another strategy, and turned towards the Falcon. My goal was simply to land point, and hope that this coincided with the arrival of more Tuskers. That way the Falcon, the true enemy, would get his just desserts.

This clearly occured to the Falcon pilot too, as he warped out when I got within 5km of him. This left me alone with the Rifter, and I turned my point and (overheated) guns back to him. Predictably, the Falcon warped back in at range, but by the time he did so I had the Rifter at less than half armor.

Jammed again, they continued to chip away at me, struggling against my tank. I kept my focus on the Rifter, though, orbiting him tightly. When the next cycle failed, I threw everything I had at him and watched his armor disintergate before I bit deeply into his structure.

The next jamming cycle hit me, and I lost the lock with the Rifter hanging on by a thread. I cursed; he was bound to warp out now, and I would lose the kill. But rockets are funny animals, and I had forgotten that they had a travel time. One last volley had left my launchers as the jammers hit, and a half second after I had given up hope, they slammed into the Rifter's hull, sending it to Hades.

2011.07.17 13:33:00

Victim: Page Amatin
Corp: The Legendary Conquest
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Rifter
System: Old Man Star
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 3356

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.7
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vengeance
Weapon: Foxfire Rage Rocket
Damage Done: 2935

Name: Serpentis Soldier / Serpentis Corporation
Damage Done: 421

Destroyed items:

Damage Control II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 40
Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Fusion S, Qty: 70
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Fusion S, Qty: 768 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

'Malkuth' Rocket Launcher I
Small Armor Repairer II
Fusion S, Qty: 140
150mm Light AutoCannon I, Qty: 3
Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 1473 (Cargo)

Now I could focus on the Falcon.

I turned towards the Falcon, knowing that I had to deal with it before the Rifter reshipped into something bigger. The Falcon seemed uncertain; I was still unlikely to win, but things had definitely not gone the way he had planned. His mind was made up when my backup arrived in system - I give him full points for alertness - as he warped out immediately.

Gfs were exchanged in local, and  I thanked my backup for their timely arrival.


Afterthoughts:

This was the first 2v1 that I have survived, let alone killed someone and survived. As a result, I'm just going to bask in the happy glow of not exploding rather than pick apart (my undoubtedly flawed) performance.

Draco Victor

The Dragon wins.

(And yes, I've wanted to be able to say that for a long time)