Vendetta

Saturday morning a big winter storm was blowing through so I had a few hours to kill. I ran some missions to work on my standings with Caldari Navy, but then got assigned another one in next door Passari and as I didn't feel like loosing another ship, I decided to wait for quieter times during the week.

I decided to hunt for some targets. I jumped into my Falcon and headed towards the Placid region next door. For the next hour and a half I looked for a target in low sec space to kill and found nothing. No ratters, no miners, nothing. Through Placid, then Citadel, and finally back to Lonetrek region. Finally I spent 15 minutes hunting a Blackbird cruiser that I never got close enough to even sniff.

Frustrated and annoyed I came to the Dantumi system and opened my scanner one last time. A Rifter and Thorax appeared on scan and I went to work, doubtful of finding anything. A few minutes later the Thorax left system and only the Rifter was there. A couple times I thought I had him but I would warp to an ice belt and nothing there. I became confused: I could get him on a 5 degree angle on the directional scanner, and using range finding I determined he was practically on top of the belt, but warping there revealed him nowhere to be found. What up?

I became fixated on this Rifter.

I warped once again to the belt and did range finding to narrow him down. Damn, he's within 2500 km of the belt, enough to be off grid but close enough to make my mouth drool. I decided to scan him down because after all, the rest of the morning had been a waste. I opened the market browser and saw a recon probe launcher and Snoop scan probes two jumps out. I leave to get them, having to gimp my setup a little to fit it on. I come back, warp to belt, open scanner and see he's still close by. Probe launched! Ninety seconds to scan... got him!

I warp as close as I can and arrive to see him speeding away. Dammit, I think, he's running! But wait... he's not warping. I try to approach and lock but he's 21 km away and moving fast... in a straight line? I realize he is AFK and doesn't know I am here. I unlock and cloak to determine my options. I'm not fast enough to catch him; he's going around 600-700 m/s and I hit only 212. I can't get ahead of him as there is no objects to warp to and warp back from. If I want to kill him, I need to be faster.

I move from fixation to obsession. This Rifter needs to die for taunting me so.

The market browser again, this time looking for after burners. Two jumps away again. I warp away from the Rifter, by this time he's 50 km away, and vow to return. Minutes later I'm back. Warp to the belt. Deploy probe. Scan 90 seconds. Got him! Warp to him, by the time I'm on his position he's already 20 km away. I move to intercept and activate the AB. He's at 24 km away... 25km.... come on, come on, back down to 24 now that I'm at full speed..... 26! DAMN! He's still to fast!

Obsession becomes VENDETTA. This Rifter must die!

Fortunately, I took precautions when I got the afterburner and picked up a Micro Warp Drive at the same time. I warp to station in system, dock, refit the MWD gimping my setup even more, warp back to belt, drop probe, scan, got him, warp to his position, move to intercept, activate MWD... YES, I'm closing on him! The question is now can I catch him with my webber before my capacitor gives out.

I watch the distance close slowly and my capacitor seem to drain away quickly. Come on, come on, I need to be within 10 km, that's all. 16... 15.... come on, just a bit more! 13...12...11... almost, almost... 10! Webber activated, MWD off! I GOT HIM!

I orbit at 3000 meters and open up fire with my two Heavy Neutron IIs. His shields and armour melt away and in seconds he is in his escape pod. I targeted it as well and finished him off with a satisfying splat. It cost me a lot in security status but this guy had pushed me into madness through no fault of his own except being slightly out of reach too many times.

In the end it cost me a lot of time and money to get him, but at least I did not dock empty handed. Its quickly becoming apparent that if I want to get more PvP I'm going to have to go out to 0.0. I've avoided it so far but at Saturday's dry spell I need more options.