Eventually haerod sorted out the belt where the rupture was loitering and I warped to zero. Haerod arrived a few seconds later. The rupture, instead of sending a flock of drones my way and unleashing his 425mm autocannons at me before I could get too close, cruised leisurely in the opposite direction. I overheated the afterburner and tore after him like a rifter out of Hell! Elvis was looking for a fight!
Eventually, I caught up to the rupture, hit all the right buttons on my control panel, and started filling him with hot Republic Fleet Fusion while orbiting at 500m. His shields went down painfully slowly and I discovered after a short time (an announcement from that unearthly voice) that my capacitor was empty. Hmmm... Usually that only happens when my armor repper is turned on and I was nowhere close to needing that. Wonder what that's all about? But I paid it no heed and continued my attack.
Then the drones arrived.
I webbed and targeted one of them and started laying into it with a vengence.
Then the battleship arrived.
Oh oh. Battleship??!??!?
Then the battleship's drones arrived.
I continued my brave attack but soon the stars were blacked out by the whizzing drones and all my dials went red and sirens were blaring everywhere.
Elvis has left the building.
What did I learn? Several things...
- The rupture was obviously bait because he was sitting alone in the belt, didn't attack when I arrived, and seemed to be wasting time. He was waiting for his backup (a battleship!). In the future, if I'm ever worried about losing my ship (instead of flying a rifter to have some fun and get some experience) I should warp away if I see this odd behavior.
- When the capacitor mysteriously goes belly up it's probably because it's on the wrong end of an energy neutralizer death ray.
- These guys from Applied Creations declared war against the noble Black Rebel Rifter Club and are showing themselves to be a bunch of cowardly curs. They need a cruiser and a battleship against a couple rifters? With one of the two rifters being piloted by the feared pirate Jack Dancer (whose solo record stands at 1 win and an infinity of losses)? And looking over their past kills - more of the same. Always lopsided fights. They are not interesting in honorable and sporting duels. I've had it with them - they'll not have any more of my rifters for their killboards.
In the end GFs were exchanged in local and they apologized for the overkill saying they thought there would be four of us... No doubt they feel a cruiser and a battleship would be necessary if there were to be four ferocious rifters on the field of battle. And maybe they should keep something additional in reserve (like another battleship?) if the fight against the scary rifters starts to go bad for them...
Hey Jack,
ReplyDeleteI left Auner a long time ago because of behavior like this. It gets old fast. You did a good job on the Ruppy so take it as a learning experience. I choose not to count, nor dwell on losses like this. There wasn't anything you could do and not engaging means you'll never get the kill. Keep fighting and expect the blob. Be pleasantly surprised whenever it DOESN'T come.
Thanks Duke. It seems like odd behavior to rely on overwhelming your opponent - especially when the opponent is in a rifter. But to each his own.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy flying spaceships and don't mind when they blow up - though I have to admit it's more fun when they blow up in close contests with like-minded opponents...
Hey now, lets not trash applied creations, while I agree that it was completely overkill (and said so in corp, while I was in corp (newports indeed = aznwithbeard), we have fought you outnumbered as well, dont forget that.
ReplyDeleteWin some, lose some, gank/get ganked. Its only Pixels.
Thanks for the comment Newports! Nice to see that my readership is expanding beyond the disreputable Rebel crowd (many of them probably have to have the blog read to them by someone with literacy skills…).
ReplyDeleteBeing a rifter pilot I’m fine with losses (as has been documented here repeatedly…) and actually don’t mind the occasional ganking (though I’ve been relatively lucky to mostly avoid them). And from my relatively mystified perspective (also documented here repeatedly…) I thought this fight was well thought out on your part – the clever bait carrying the neutralizer death ray and the arrival of the cavalry in the form of the battleship. Though, it would have been polite to let the cruiser do its best against the two little rifters before the arrival of overwhelming force…
And I’ll stand by my comment that looking at past kills, overwhelming force seems to be a common theme for the Applied Creations corp.
Since this fight, I’ve seen Applied Creations members on a few occasions where, in the past, I would have had a crack at them in my trusty (err… “rusty”) rifter – but now when I see another AC member in local I’m passing on the opportunity. I don’t mind 1v1 rifter vs. cruiser (or even battlecruiser) just for the experience and excitement – but the possibility of suddenly being on the wrong end of a 1v2 or 1v3 slaughter isn’t as appealing.
But I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. You seem like a nice guy and I’ve had no problems with your corpmates really. Maybe I’ll go out of my way and ask for 1v1s in the future and see how that goes. I have a lot of rifters to blow up and maybe the Applied Creations members will be helpful in that endeavor.
Thanks again for the comment!
I am no longer part of APCR, they have a strict "no piracy" clause that I decided I did not want to be apart of, therefore i joined the tuskers pirate corporation with my main, aznwithbeard. Newports is keeping a low profile atm.
ReplyDeleteyou can read my stupid ranting here
http://omgazn.blogspot.com/
and yes, asking for 1v1s would help, i KNOW acpr will accept, and if they dont, Ill go back and kill them all :)
HAHAHA! Nice to see that you've turned from the darkside and joined a reputable group like the Tuskers (they have higher standards than the Rebels and probably wouldn’t let my sort into their club – rightfully so!).
ReplyDeleteI'll keep an eye out for aznwithbeard and will add your blog to my list at the right. Good luck (except when you meet a Rebel).