Vengeance v Rupture

 

The hunt:

Encouraged by my recent above class kill, I decided to jump in on this Rupture when I otherwise might not have. I found him in Jovannion, which is a fairly quiet system, so I thought would have the time to wear him down.

Jumping into the belt where he was ratting, I landed close enough to establish point right away. I then moved in under his guns and waited for the million ISK question to answer itself: did he have a neut? Apparently not.

After killing the drones, I had all the time in the world; he couldn't hit me except with his missiles, and I easily tanked those. Eventually, he went boom.

2011.09.04 16:30:00

Victim: Stoakes
Corp: Starfinger INC
Alliance: OUTER SPACE ASSHOLES
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Rupture
System: Jovainnon
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 12120

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vengeance
Weapon: Phalanx Rage Rocket
Damage Done: 11059

Name: Serpentis Safeguard / Serpentis Corporation
Damage Done: 1061

Destroyed items:

Medium Inefficient Armor Repair Unit
Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 58
Phased Plasma M, Qty: 194
800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I, Qty: 2
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I, Qty: 2
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Assault Missile Launcher I, Qty: 2
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Warp Scrambler I
Sabretooth Light Missile, Qty: 360 (Cargo)
Phased Plasma M, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
EMP M, Qty: 2603 (Cargo)
Hobgoblin I (Drone Bay)

Dropped items:

Dual 180mm AutoCannon I, Qty: 4
Phased Plasma M, Qty: 194
Damage Control I
Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 174 (Cargo)

I also managed to catch his pod and we had been on the verge of agreeing a 15 million ISK ransom when a Sabre jumped in! It was my old friend toothslayer, and he wasted no time in engaging me.

Well and truly caught by surprise, I did my best to rally. I destroyed the pod, primarily as the fastest way of clearing my targeting, while moving into a tight orbit around the Sabre. I had no idea if that was the right move or not; I knew nothing about fighting T2 destroyers.

Clearly, it was time to overheat everything, and I started chewing into the destroyer. However, I had rat aggro, and in a dps race like this the small delay in getting my guns on target was telling. Ultimately, I was unable to overcome that initial handicap.

2011.09.04 16:32:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Vengeance
System: Jovainnon
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 4711

Involved parties:

Name: toothslayer (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.9
Corp: Guild of Assassins
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Sabre
Weapon: 125mm Gatling AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 2060

Name: Stoakes
Security: -2.8
Corp: Starfinger INC
Alliance: OUTER SPACE ASSHOLES
Faction: NONE
Ship: Unknown
Weapon: Warp Scrambler I
Damage Done: 2037

Name: Guardian Initiate / Serpentis Corporation
Damage Done: 614

Destroyed items:

Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Foxfire Javelin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Small Anti-Thermic Pump I
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Warp Scrambler II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Foxfire Rage Rocket, Qty: 776 (Cargo)
Small Capacitor Control Circuit I
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 5
1MN Afterburner II

Dropped items:

Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Damage Control II
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 432 (Cargo)
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 15
Small Armor Repairer II

Still, I managed to get my pod out, this time.


Afterthoughts:

From the safety of, well, a safe spot, I congratulated toothslayer on his ambush. I also told him about the ransom he had cost me, effectively doubling the cost of my loss.

Initially, toothslayer did not feel that the loss of the ransom was significant one way or another, but I pointed out that piracy was my sole source of income - I have no second account. He had, effectively, managed to do the equivalent of gank a pirate while missioning! Surely this was an occasion for lols all round; that kind of irony does not happen every day.

While some people try very hard to shrug off their losses ("meh, I didn't really like that carrier anyway", "I've got five more in the station", etc), I'm generally pretty happy to give the winner his due. Equally, toothslayer has always been a courteous opponent, so I have no problem letting him know the true extent of his victory. I've never seen much mileage in trying to misrepresent my situation - especially as I'm just going to be blogging about it in a week or two anyway.

However, in this case my after battle chatter had an unexpected consequence; toothslayer dropped 30 million ISK into my wallet to reimburse me for the ship and the lost ransom. Apparently he likes blowing me up so much, he wants to make sure I keep undocking!

On a more serious note, though, I think Mara summed it up well in her recent post: "be gracious win or lose; you never know when unexpected random acts of kindness will come your way."

It's as true for carebears as it is for pirates; yesterday I sent a million ISK to a noob I killed because he fought well, made a sensible ransom offer (which I declined), and was courteous throughout. Assuming he insured his ship, he actually turned a profit on our fight.