Two Republic Fleet Firetails!

I jumped out of the Auner station in my slasher looking for trouble.  There were 8 or 9 pilots in the system and my dscan revealed a couple Republic Fleet Firetails  - a frigate a step or two above my slasher in price and performance.

A quick scan of the only faction warfare plex in the system showed one of the firetails there.  I've fought firetails with this slasher fit (tracking disruptor and barrage ammo) with success in the past so I turned everything up to 11 and headed in for a battle!

I landed close to the firetail, targeted, orbited and turned on all the modules.  My tracking disruptor and the speed from the afterburner did their jobs and I was taking some damage, but working my way through the shields of the firetail pretty quickly (the killmail shows that the firetail was equipped with a Miura Bull Seal of Approval for Enemies Small Shield Extender).  Once the small shields were gone, the armor and structure went quickly and as my slasher was approaching my armor reserves - the firetail exploded in a blaze of glory.

I headed over to pick up anything that had survived the explosion in the wreckage of the ship - but was interrupted by the arrival right then of the second firetail!  Fight or flight?  My shields were gone, my modules were red from overheating, and I was only carrying one load of ammunition (which was depleted in the first fight) with no spares.

No question - fight!

I repeated the target, orbit, spew hot projectiles routine with the second firetail and it turned out to be a much tougher fight.  Since I already had heat damage to most of my modules, I was a bit leery of overheating them for this fight - nothing worse than burning up guns or the armor repper...  A death sentence.  Plus my capacitor was a bit low from the first fight and I had to manage that closer this time too.

And it turned out that this firetail had a Miura Bull Recommended Medium Shield Extender - so he was a much tougher nut to crack.  Expecially when he managed to smash into me with a 350 hp explosion at one point that practically took all of my armor away in one instant.  I overheated the armor repper and managed to pull back the damage, but it was a scary few moments...

Eventually my barrage ammo worked it's way through the medium shield extender of the firetail and once I got into his armor things went much quicker.  A few seconds later he also blew up in a fireball!

GFs were exchanged in local (I had been too busy to get that done after the first fight) and the second pilot, Rayve Aries, opened a conversation window.  We chatted about the fight and I passed along my slasher fit for him to review (I've lost enough of them that just a quick look at my killboard will show anyone what it carries - so it's not a secret).

We parted ways with promises for a rematch and I was very happy to win a pair of fights against firetails.