Between a rock and a hard place.

I decided on having a change of pace. Obeying my agents every whim and command was fun and all, but I wanted to feel the adrenaline pump through my body. It just so happened to be there was a string of low security systems right next door to my main agent in the Domain region; I would find my prey there. My Rifter looked like a nice ship to use: fast, hard hitting, and most importantly cheap. I wasn't willing to risk anything bigger than a frigate, as I'm generally risk averse.

After jumping into the nearest low security system I scanned the local channel. A few new players, and few old players, and no one with a security status below -1.0. I probably won't encounter any real pirates in this system, so I decided to take to the belts. Perhaps it would have been a good idea to scan things first, or see how many people are in the station, but I was too excited about the possible coming carnage.

I can feel the anticipation build up as my Rifter enters warp. Will I find my prey? Or will my body feel the grip of a cold death in the vacuum of space? My heart starts racing as my ship exits warp, the overview stutters for a moment as it loads the data, and...

nothing. An empty belt, even any large asteroids of note.

Disappointed I choose the next belt in the list. Hopefully there will be something in that one. It takes mere seconds to warp to the belt and I'm greeted with a group of 2 Sanshas rats. Bah.. if I wanted to kill rats I would have stuck to doing missions. I'm just about warp to the next belt in the system when a new entry shows up on my overview.

An Omen. I select the entry in the overview and recognize the small portrait of an Omen cruiser in the top left corner. Panic grips my heart, can I really sink a cruiser with my small Rifter equipped only with standard tech1 equipment? I look at the pilots info and see he's been flying for only 4 months. By this time I am still in space, and no aggression has been directed towards me. He seems more interested in the rats.

Suddenly a devious plot enters my mind; I will see that Omen spread across the sector as wreckage by the days end. Instead of targeting the Omen I target the Sanshas rats, and proceed to eliminate them. The Omen pilot, disheartened by how swiftly I dispatched the rats, warps off to another belt to continue his hunt. I wait a few seconds and then follow him to his destination. Hopefully he won't find it suspicious that I'm following him. After all, I am here for the rats.

When I exit warp I see the Omen pilot dealing with a small group of Sanshas. While the pilot was preoccupied I set my course to bring my Rifters 200mm Autocannons within range. I hold off targeting the Omen until I'm within range. The Omen pilot has already destroyed one Sanshas and only two small frigates remain; I had to act quickly. My afterburner kicks in and rockets me within range. I lock the Omen and activate my warp scrambler and webifier before turning my guns and missiles onto the vessel.

The Omens shields have already been stripped away by the Sanshas and I could see a sliver of his armour gone. This hopefully won't take long. I don't think the pilot of the Omen had any idea what was going on. I had taken him by complete surprise, and stuck between a rock and a hard place. I saw a second Sanshas rat explode a good 30 seconds after turning my guns on his ship. It was even longer after that that I saw myself taking any damage, and it appeared to be coming from the last Sansha rat. I had the Omens armor down to 25% before the pilot turned his guns on me, but thankfully I was far to close and moving far to quickly for his lasers to track me.

A wonderful bright blue-white explosion filled my field of view as the Omen disintegrated into nothing. Satisfied with my kill I let the pod go, I am a nice guy after all. I warp off to the nearest planet and wait out my aggression timer, and allow the copious amounts of adrenaline in my system to dissipate.

Cleared for publication by: Ander