Vengeance v Vexor

 

The hunt:

I don't actually go out of my way to scan down mission runners, but I do like to have a scanning ship available when a corp mate needs a hand. As it happened, I had just returned from lending this kind of assistance (it was a bust - they saw the probes and docked up) when I saw a Vexor in Hevrice.

As he was clearly running a mission - he was surrounded by wrecks - and I was already in a scanning ship, I decided to try scanning him down. Managing to get a fairly fast lock, I reshipped to my Vengeance and popped in to say hello.

As luck would have it, the Vexor was not too far from the acceleration gate, and I was able to establish point before he warped out. Knowing the Vexor combined turrets with drones, I settled into a tight orbit and set to work.

Now, it may seem that I approached this fight with a rather laissez-faire attitude; after all it was only a series of happy coincidences that had led me to the fight at all. However, I take drone ships very seriously. One of the reasons that I settled on rockets as my weapon of choice is because I am pretty obsessed with destroying drones; they've killed me far too many times, and now I owe them.

So I did not immediately turn my attention to the Vexor, and I had not loaded Rage rockets. Instead, I maintained point on the Vexor, and used my web and faction rockets to take out the drones. And there were a lot of drones. Waves and waves of them, in fact.

Fortunately, they all seemed to be Warrior drones, so they were hitting my best resists and my tank seemed to be able to handle the incoming damage. In hindsight, I might have been able to ignore them completely, but I don't like taking risks with drones.

The drones dealt with, I reloaded Phalanx Rage and turned my attention to the Vexor. It did not go down quickly, but without drones, it was only a matter of time.

2011.07.16 20:17

Victim: Balaam Balak
Corp: Federal Navy Academy
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Vexor
System: Hevrice
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 8129

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.63
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vengeance
Weapon: Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket
Damage Done: 4854

Name: Gistii Hunter / Angel Cartel
Damage Done: 3275

Destroyed items:

Limited Neutron Blaster I, Qty: 2
Salvager I
10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Thorium Charge M, Qty: 955 (Cargo)
Guardian Iron Charge S, Qty: 958 (Cargo)
Warrior I, Qty: 3 (Drone Bay)

Dropped items:

Guardian Iron Charge S, Qty: 18
Salvager I
Thorium Charge M, Qty: 124
150mm Railgun I
Stasis Webifier I
J5 Prototype Warp Disruptor I
Damage Control I
Small I-a Polarized Armor Regenerator
Warrior I, Qty: 2 (Drone Bay)

I also managed to snag the pod, which I destroyed when no ransom (of any kind) was forthcoming.

A little while later I saw the same pilot in local, so I took a chance and jumped back to the mission. I managed to catch him in a Tristran.

2011.07.16 21:11

Victim: Balaam Balak
Corp: Federal Navy Academy
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Tristan
System: Hevrice
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2284

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.69
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vengeance
Weapon: Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket
Damage Done: 1199

Name: Gistii Ruffian / Angel Cartel
Damage Done: 1085

Destroyed items:

Flameburst Light Missile, Qty: 39
Salvager I
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 115
Civilian Shield Booster I
1MN Afterburner I
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 380 (Cargo)
Hobgoblin I (Drone Bay)

Dropped items:

Standard Missile Launcher I, Qty: 2
Light Ion Blaster I
Piranha Light Missile, Qty: 39
Damage Control I
Piranha Light Missile, Qty: 353 (Cargo)
Flameburst Light Missile, Qty: 353 (Cargo)

I managed to catch his pod again; in fact, I caught it several times. Eve kept crashing, you see, so we would both auto warp, and then I would log back in when the server was up again. I'd wait patiently at the mission site, and a few minutes later his pod would come warping back in as he logged on. It felt a little like playing fetch.

Any way, we had a long talk about life in low sec - seems this chap is aiming for pvp, and is running missons to put together some cash. I gave him my standard chat about jump clones, D-scan, cheap ships, etc. I also pointed him towards Blood Money Cartel, which, given that they closed down soon after, was possibly not the best advice.

Finally, I let him go and he jumped out.


Afterthoughts:

I was pretty pleased that I was able to take on a Vexor, albeit one piloted by a fairly new player. I felt I handled the drone situation well, which has been an area of weakness for me in the past.

My instinctive warp to the mission point served me well, too. This is the second time in a month that simply paying attention to who I had actually scanned down resulted in an extra kill.

As for Balaam, I hope he find success in pvp. Eve is a rough game, especially when you are starting out, and he took his losses well.