Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

I stopped by the computer on a Saturday morning to see if there was any activity in Auner.  Usually there's someone around that I can harass and today was no different.  An Imperial Navy Slicer was in the direction of one of the FW sites, so I headed over to check it out.

Usually I would shy away from a slicer.  It's a much more expensive advanced frigate and as the Eve description says, "the skilled Slicer pilot is able to take out most frigates with ease."  Hmmm...  Let me repeat the last part of that description, "take out most frigates with ease".

But recent kills have created a sense of confidence in me (YOW!  That's a scary thought!) and as I headed there I thought, "Well, it's been a while since I've lost a ship..."

My slasher was loaded with barrage and had an optimal range tracking disruptor included - so my plan was to set the orbit at around 6k and hope that the lasers that the slicer would be shooting couldn't hit me.

I landed on the empty gate and jumped through.  The Imperial Navy Slicer was 40k away and I started burning towards him.  He turned and headed towards me!

My plan to orbit at 6k was immediately made inoperative by the slicer's preference to orbit at 20k.  He had my warp drives inactivated due to a warp disruptor and all I could do was chase him.  So I set an orbit of 30k (in hopes of slipping away from his warp disruptor sometime) and let fly with my 200mm autocannons.  After a few minutes we were both halfway through shields, but neither of us was concerned since we both relied on armor for our real defense.

Then the slicer pilot got impatient and tried to approach to do some real damage with his lasers.  I managed to note this fact (something that 6 months ago I probably wouldn't have) and tried to go back to my original plan of a 6k orbit and barrage-him-to-death.  His laser quickly went through my shields and into my armor, but my repairer did yeoman duty in recovering the damage.  I also was doing some serious damage to the slicer and was into his armor too.

He returned to his 20k orbit (I might have been slow on webbing him to keep him from leaving quickly) and we were back to the stalemate.

Then he again made the approach to attack and we had a re-do of the previous experience.  But this time it was to the death.  Truth be known, I was sure my slasher was doomed.  I quickly went through my armor and found a celestial for my escape - I began spamming the warp key to get my pod out safely.  All the while my 200mm autocannons continued their damage to the slicer and it's laser continued to eat back the armor that my repairer recovered.  I had some of my hull torn away.

Then I heard the explosion.  I expected my overview to go blank as my pod warped away, but instead it was the slicer that had exploded.  My slasher (not my pod!) was warping to the celestial! \\o//

GFs were exchanged in local - it really was one of the best fights I've ever been in - and I returned to the scene to collect the loot from the wreck (which was a very good idea because there was a Gistii B-Type 1MN Microwarpdrive in the wreckage that sells for 33million isk in nearby Hek...)