Viper01 Down!

Set ResCAP Bosena V....

The last couple days ops have not been as successful as early this week. I lost one frigate Tuesday evening because...well, I jumped into a fight I really had no business being apart of. I wanted to see how my Rifter would handle a, uh, larger target. All was well until some drones popped out from the drone bay of the target ship, and then its Energy Vamp basically one-shotted my capacitor - I took too big a bite, and my Rifter went POP. I knew I'd probably loose, I wish I'd have paid attention to my what my instincts were telling me. Please note, when in New Eden I'm learning I have a really bad habit of ignoring the greater sensibility of my instincts, letting my itchy trigger finger be my guiding compass - really need to stop doing this.

Fast forward to this morning - before heading off to work for the day. I was drinking my morning cup of coffee, and decided that there was enough time that I could log into EVE and do a short roam through Bosena. It was close to server down time, and I thought I might be able to catch something on it's way to docking before the server went down, or perhaps even someone salvaging in the belts - trying to make that last little bit of isk before logging off. So, I undocked and proceed towards the Bosena jump gate.

I jumped into Bosena, checked out the vicinity of the jumpgate before dropping my cloak and warping to my first safe spot. Everything was clear at the gate, so I set the navicomputer to my first waypoint in Bosena. I hopped around the system checking things out, when I finally I stumbled across a ship 60k away that was flashing red on my overview. "Bingo!" I thought. It was obvious from the outset that the capsuleer piloting the other ship was experienced at PvP - the Skull and Bones was a tell-tale sign that this pilot had plenty of blood on his hands. After a quick investigate with my ships scanners it was clear this other pilot was flying a Recon Ship.

I have absolutely no experience with Recon Ships, as a pilot, or flying as wingman with one. I had no idea what their combat capabilities were - in short, I had zero intel on this target. I decided to warp off to another asteroid belt and see if the Recon ship would follow. I expected he would since he was flashing on the overview, it was obvious he was out doing the same thing I was. Looking for last minute targets.

I warped 70k outside the next asteroid belt, shortly thereafter, the Recon pilot did the same, except he must have expected me to warp to zero as he came out of warp smack-dab in the middle of the belt several kilometers away from me. I realigned my Rifter towards another belt, and warped to it. The Recon pilot followed suit and, again, landed smack-dab in the middle of this new belt.

So, it went for a few more warps around the system. Me warping here, and the Recon pilot shadowing me. I thought I was good and safe because I set warp to exit several dozen kilometers outside the belts we were hopping around to, but this Recon pilot kept warping in at zero. Finally, me luck ran out, I'd been enjoying making the Recon pilot hop around the belts shadowing me, but he eventually got the best of me.

I warped into the last belt just I had the others, and the Recon pilot warped in at zero as usual, but this time, he achieved lock on me when we were separated by 60-65k of space. Much to my surprise (and I can't emphasize how much I was surprised) he warp scrammed me???? I didn't even know that was possible at that distance. I couldn't believe it. I tried warping continuously over the next 5 seconds....all that happened during my frantic mashing of the warp button was Aura shouting at me "So and So has you warp scrammed dumbass! Find another way to evade!".

All I could think of was to turn towards my opponent, hit the afterburner to gain some speed, and try to keep my transversal speed as high as possible to make it harder for his guns to hit my Rifter as I closed the distance between us. I needed to get to him within atleast 4000 meters if I was to have any good chance of landing some shots on his hull.

I started roaring towards the Recon ship, then, much to my horror I see 5 drones pop out from under the Recon Ship. I knew at that moment this was going to get ugly, and get ugly real fast. I turned 180 degrees away from my opponent. I made the decision to try and use my afterburner to get out of the range of his scrambler (having no idea still what it's max range actually was). This seemed to me the only chance I had to save my Rifter.

Beams of laser pain shot past my cockpit, the drones where now orbiting my Rifter gouging it's armor to nothingness. I was slowly pulling away from the Recon ship, but he was still able to land a few good hits on my ship. With the drones, and his beam turrets he quickly evaporated my shield. Next, my armor started melting away under the onslaught. My armor-repper couldn't keep up with the damage and I knew the fight was going to be over soon. I was now about 30-32k away from my opponent. Still too close to break the grip of his warp scrambler.

I waited for my Rifter to pop, took one last look at the cockpit. BOOM, escape pod released, selected a jumpgate to warp to, and initiated the warp. I sped away from the fight. Hit the jumpgate, and jumped back through to Teon. Back in high-sec now, I hailed the Recon Pilot over comms, and we had nice little chat for a few minutes.

I docked my pod in the station I had left about 15 minutes before...in my Rifter :(

Searched the marketplace, and placed an order for a new Rifter which should be ready for pick up sometime this evening. I unstrapped myself from the pod, and walked out of the hanger. I set my eyes towards the bar just outside the hangers. It was definitely time for a smoke, and a quick drink.

[Intel Update] After a bit of research, I've learned a little more about the ship that turned my Rifter into scrap metal. It was a Force Recon ship, namely the Arazu. Up to now, I had not read about, nor encountered this ship. I've learned that the Arazu has a bonus to Warp Scrambler range (20% per skill lvl - frickin' sweet for the Force Recon pilot). So, this explains why the pilot was able to scram me from so far away. As I said previously, I wasn't aware any ship had that kind of scram bonus. Lesson learned though, stay the "fudge-nut" away from Force Recon Ships. I want one now :)