Tussle

Last night as I was "watching" TV with the wife on the couch I had the laptop on and I used the relative downtime to consolidate some assets in empire (Ninveah needs logistic drones!), chat with corpies, and manage the market orders.

Near the end of the evening as I was going to get the last of my ships three jumps away, I saw a war target in a Drake battlecruiser on a gate I passed through, specifically Kostantin Mort of Exalted alliance (ok, technically "Exalted." but that period screws me up when re-reading the post). I wasn't in anything that could engage so I carried on my way and picked up my Buzzard. I went back to the system and saw he was still in local but not on the gate.

I warped to my station and saw him sitting on the undock port. I docked as the Buzzard was inadequate for fighting (obviously) and considered my options.

It was a low-odds scenario for me. Not on my main computer, no voice comms, no intel from surrounding systems, no friends in close proximity. For all I knew that Drake could be bait and a fleet ready to jump in and engage me next door. Exalted pilots are not fools.

But...

But I really wanted to shoot him. Action had come looking for me and I was loathe to turn it down without giving it a shot. Despite the little voice in my head shouting "This is a bad idea!", I began to rummage through my hanger for a ship to fight with. I quickly settled on Vera Causa, my Rokh battleship built with one thing in mind: hitting something hard. I figured the Drake would have a good tank so I would try and overpower it as quickly as possible.

I undocked and he was still there and he targeted me. I returned the favour. As faction heavy assault missiles and drones flew at me, I worked to get optimal range and activated my own weapons and sent my ECM drones at him. My shields held up nicely but his shields? Well, when you have a full rack of Heavy Neutron Blaster Cannon IIs with Caldari Navy Antimatter ammo and four tech II Magnetic Field Stabs, almost anything will feel it.

He warped off. I had no tackle gear so it wasn't an unexpected result. Last I saw he shields were falling quickly below the 50% mark and mine were holding nicely and I think had we traded a few more salvoes it would have been very much in my favour. Pleased that I gave him something to think about, I recalled the drones, saluted him in local, and logged to go to bed. I'm sure I won't catch him offguard or alone next time so I'll have to be less cavalier, but sometimes you just need to engage even if its not the best situation to do so.

Cheers Kostantin Mort, hope I see you again.