Brawl

Last night I logged in and looked for a fleet. There was a roaming plexing fleet ready to PvP if the Caldari came knocking so I jumped into a blaster Ferox and joined up.

We worked some plexes in Old Man Star for a while and then moved into Ladister where the fleet commander found another plex is run down. I was getting itchy so I decided to scout into Old Man Star while we waiting.

There was one war target in local, HazeInADaze, which I knew was flying a Caracal thanks to a scout in Heydieless. I used the scanner and saw it floating around planet VIII environs. I kicked into warp to land at the planet figuring if he's not there, I'd scan around and see if I could find him.

As I came out of warp, there was no Caracal on grid. But there was a neutral Punisher only a few thousand meters away. I may be in faction war but I'm still an anarchist at heart, so I of course started locking and primer my scram and web. The Punisher was looking for a fight because he locked and attacked me back (locking first and saving me the GCC too). This is the great thing about Feroxes...

No one runs from a fight with a Ferox.

Historical Side Note:

When the tier II battlecruisers were released, the Ferox became immediately obsolete as the Drake did everything the Ferox could do but better (excepting sniping at long range which was not all that useful on the damage-poor railguns). With 7 high slots but only 5 optimal range bonused turrets and 5 unbonused missile hard points, fitting problems for the 250mm rails, slow speed, it was outclassed at everything by the Drake and/or Brutix (with 7 bonused hybrid turrets). As a result, the Ferox became a joke and was practically only produced as a build component for Nighthawk and Vulture command ships.

But over time the small improvements to various things have made this ship slowly move into respectability. A sixth turret was added. Caldari ships were given a bit more agility once, and then again when hybrids were revisited. As part of that balancing, hybrid weapons took less powergrid to fit and they got damage increases, and blasters got tracking improvements.

As I engaged the Punisher, the other shoe dropped. You see, this frigate was a member of the Blue Republic far from their home grounds up in the Forge where Red Versus Blue takes place. And he was not alone. Out of warp came a Condor, Rifter, two more Punishers, and a Kestrel. I admit I consigned myself to destruction as I saw the Condor put a nice 20 km range point on me, but I was heartened by the lack of Tech II ships to bring the damage. I launched drones, turned off the initial overheating on my tackle gear, and got to work.

I finished off the initial Punisher and targeted the next closet frig, a second Punisher. My shields were 75% when he went down too. I started working on the next Punisher but switched everything put my guns to the Kestrel figuring he would be a squishier target. I was right about the Kestrel, and then I finished off the third Punisher.

In the middle of this the war target Caracal I was originally hunting warped in and decided to try and tip the balance by throwing his firepower on me. I was about 33% shields so I figured I was in trouble and called in the fleet to come and try and catch him gloating over my wreckage.

I ignored him and turned my attention to the Rifter and Condor. My drones were still untouched so I ordered them to attack the Condor that had his point on me in case I wanted to try and run. Hmmm, my shields are going down but not that fast. The Condor and Rifter made a run for it before I could get into range and I swung my ship around to charge the now-alone cruiser. Lucky for me he did not run and as my armour dropped I ripped into the Caracal and it flew apart at the seams.

And I was alone. I called off the fleet as there was no more targets to engage and warped off (without my drones) to let my shields recharge.

* * * * *

About 8 minutes later I realized I forgot my drones so I warped back to planet VIII at zero to get them. And what should I find looting wrecks? That Blue Republic Condor. He must not have been paying attention because I locked him and scrammed/webbed him. And well, a tackled Condor is a dead bird.

I picked up my two remaining drones and went back to base.