DED Touring

When Glorious Leader Miura Bull recently posted a proposed 2/10 DED Roam - I loaded up a rifter with ammo and headed out!  It looked like my sort of activity - I like the gambling aspect of the DED sites and it should lead to some fights.

I was right on both accounts.

I emptied a couple of the sites in Hrober and Altbrard with no jackpot at the end.  So much for the gambling aspect.  But as they say on the forums, "random is random".

The next stop on the roam, at the aptly named Hedaleolfarber, had an empty DED site - someone else had gotten there before me.  Same with Erstet.  But there was a wolf in Erstet, and since I was also looking for some fights I headed to a safe spot and tried to find where he was.  Surprise!  He was at the DED site I had recently left.

I turned everything up to 11 and headed towards him - landing right on top.  To keep the gambling theme alive - I threw snake eyes.  I orbited and spewed hot projectiles while he did the same to me.  The wolf can spew a lot more projectiles than my little rifter and soon the tide of battle had turned.  I blowed up.  I warped my pod to safety.  GFs were exchanged in local along with some disparaging remarks by the other pilot, 1scoria, on the rifter and people that fly them...

A side aspect of this roaming through the DED sites that I hadn't considered was the possibility of blowing up far from any replacement rifters.  Very, very far from any replacement rifters.  I slipped into a station to pick up a rookie ship and eventually found a station with some of my rifter stock.  I headed back to continue the circuit.

From this new station, the closest DED site on the route was Ragnarg.  I headed over there and immediately spotted a condor flown by Syrias Bizniz (nice name!).  I don't think I had ever come across a condor before (though my memory isn't what it once was) so I chased him from asteroid belt to asteroid belt in hopes of noble mano a mano combat.  Since it seemed like he was avoiding me by jumping from place to place - I took that as a good sign.  Apparently I'm not as good with signs as I used to be either...

Eventually I found him at a belt and attacked!  Things did not go well.  That condor hardly noticed my hot projectiles.  I don't think I ever had his shields anywhere close to half destroyed.  I blowed up.

Looking over the killmail it might be that Bubba - Miura Bull's cousin or stepchild or brother-in-law (or whatever he claims to be) who manages my equipment in the warehouses - was again cutting corners.  The killmail lists the ammo as "Phased Plasma" - but I specifically ask for all of my ships to carry the more expensive "Republic Fleet Phased Plasma".  Damn that Bubba!  He sold the good stuff on the black market, loaded up crap in my rifter, and no doubt spent the proceeds on exotic dancers!  I'll have to deal with him somehow...

After our fight, as I was waiting out the GCC, Syrias Bizniz and I chatted about things.  We both agreed that the rifter is no longer the monster it once was (though in the comfort of my pod I knew nothing about this ammo switch!).

Personal Death to Flying Things Campaign Score:  13-27-1