Another Lesson Learned...

... but at least this one didn't cost me anything...

I was in Auner looking for some action.  And there was a rupture on d-scan.  My encounter with the rupture yesterday was a real learning opportunity and I wanted (now that I have drones showing on my overview!) to see if I could do better.  I didn't expect to survive but Rifters are cheap and the experience is valuable - it's a good trade.

So I narrowed down the rupture's asteroid belt, I warped to zero and in warp set everything to overload, checked to be sure the damage control unit was operating, and loaded EMP projectiles to destroy the expected drones.

I landed 5k away from the rupture!  Excellent!  I held down the control key and clicked on the rupture in the overview to target him, hit "orbit at 500m" and noticed a pop up screen.  Something about not being able to target the rupture.  Hmmm...  Probably I had hit the button before I had finished warp.  So I hit the target button again.

Battle stations everyone!  It's going to be a rocky ride!

I managed to target the rupture this time and then hit the orbit button again for good measure (I wanted to be close).  I was in no hurry to hit the scramble and web and nos - I expected him to be reaching for those same buttons.  But I had him targeted for only an instant before the rupture, a cruiser and much bigger than my little rifter, warped away!  He fled the scene!

Wow.  That's the third time I've had someone flee rather than destroy me.  Maybe my reputation is getting around.  Nah.  More likely the Black Rebel Rifter Club's reputation is getting around - my corp mates are all more dangerous than I am...  And now that my security status is a negative (ok, ok, it's only -0.3 the last I checked...) it could be that the rupture's overview showed me as some sort of scary bright flashy color (depending on how he had it set up).

But run away he did and I had another lesson to learn.  Land, target, and scramble!  Don't dawdle!  You never know who might be timid.  Or probably better, turn on the scramble enroute so that it automatically scrambles the enemy ship the instant it gets targeted (I think it works that way).

But in the end, my rifter lived to fight another day after attacking that rupture.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

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PS - the rupture pilot was less than a month old player and I probably scared him enough by landing on top of him that he had to have the command chair re-upholstered.