Rifters At Dawn

Last night I logged in and divided my time between looking for fights and getting some logistics done. Earlier in the week I had snuck an Orca into low sec in Pelille to pick up a couple more ships (including Hurricane #5) and a ton of modules and ammo I had left behind. Last night I got the Orca into low sec near my base in Dal and now I can move them over to base using a sneaky blockade runner.

While I was waiting for my alt, I was cruising around in my Vagabond looking for trouble. In Egghelende I was waved in local by religiosa, a member of the Yarr Collective alliance and someone who I dueled in the recent past (lost a Hurricane to his Drake, ECM drones were very on target). He asked for another 1v1 and I declined as I didn't want my poor Vaga to end up like my Hurricane. He then offered to go in Rifters to avoid any drones and I had just purchased but not set up a Rifter a little while ago, so I said yes, if you give me a couple minutes to go get it.

Then a member of his alliance piped up, "You can have my pre-fit Rifter." Hell, sounds good. I docked up, got traded the frigate, and undocked and went to a safe spot to wait for my foe. He arrived at 50 km from me, we approached each other and got into the death spiral of mutual close orbits as autocannons ripped off shields and hunks of armour.

Seeing my opponent was not trying to keep range, I focused on cap and overheating management, trying to keep my small armour repairer running while getting some extra DPS out of the guns and an extra HP boost out of the repper. Finally, just as my cap finally exhausted and my armour level hit 10%, he exploded.

I docked back up, repaired the damage, traded the ship back to religiosa's mate, and flew off with a small smile on my face.

Image Courtesy of Evelopedia.