Combat in Eve, as we all (well, most of us) know, normally consists of a few ships being obliterated by an opposing force with more ships, or huge fleets locking horns and duking it out. I've always been more of a loner myself, but until recently I've had to go with the flow and rely on others for support in order to survive. While I'm not saying that I had an epiphany, I did realize something today... Who cares if I die? I have enough isk to buy some decently fitted ships as well as sufficient clones to retain everything I've learned thus far, so what do I have to fear? Nobody and nothing, respectively.
When I hopped into my pod today, I decided then and there that I was going to get into a fight, and that I didn't care if I won or lost. My first thoughts were to head out to a 0.0 chokepoint. I thought back, and of course I realized that if I was able to find one that wasn't already camped, I would be hard-pressed to keep from getting ganked by the next gang running through. I left my current base of operations in a Condor to scout things out. I scratched EC-P8R off the list immediately because it was way too busy, and I wanted to get into a somewhat fair fight - the constant gate camps there would ensure that I wouldn't.
So I headed out to F7C-H0, the chokepoint I used to travel through all the time to get to FLA's territory when I was a member. I used it because it was quiet, close by, and any camps that I had ever encountered there had been fairly small. As I passed through Vlillirier, I picked up a tail - it was a Crow. No biggie really, and when I jumped into F7C-H0, I found a Stabber on the gate. Shortly after, the Crow jumped in, and immediately approached the gate - for all they knew, I could decloak anywhere within 12-15km of it, and they wanted a nice, central location to be able to lock me down from. Still, I wasn't worried. The Condor wasn't the ship that I planned on bringing to the fight, it was simply my scouting ship. I counted to 28 before I reapproached the gate and fired my MWD... had I tried to do so earlier, the stargate would have made me wait, and I would have surely been destroyed. Of course, as soon as I decloaked, the Crow locked me, then the Stabber. Before I knew it, I reached the gate and jumped, laughing because I could imagine the two getting all excited over the littlest kill and having it get away so easily.
On my way back through my low-security route, I encountered a proper gate camp on a far-side gate that would be my jump in point for that system upon my return with the combat ship I had prepared. Several battleships, battlecruisers, and even a command ship were busy locking down and destroying everything that came through. As I made the jump, I knew that F7C-H0 would be out of the question as well. I was trying to remember the name of the 0.0 chokepoint right near Oulley when another idea struck me. Considering the possible consequences, I realized that they would be the exactly the same if I were to pick a fight in a lawless region.
Once I got back to the 0.5 system that I was currently calling home, I jumped into my Moa, yes, a Moa, with the only T2 fitting being a Signal Amplifier. I undocked, and fired up the Directional Scanner, looking for possible targets. I found one, and it looked to be a challenging one at that... a Hulk, most likely piloted by a capsuleer that was probably paying anything but close attention to what he was doing. I warped to where I believed he was and found him doing what Hulks do, but noticed that he had a friend... in a command ship. I decided that I'd put them down as a last resort if I couldn't find any other targets, and continued searching. I eventually found myself alone with a Retriever. It was piloted by a young man, who's name I'll keep to myself to avoid any possible embarassment. Reading his Concord provided pilot information sheet, I saw that he was quite new... perhaps too new.
Finally, I decided to hell with it, and mozzied up to the can he was filling with Scordite. While my Moa was crossing the dense field of secure cans, a Kestrel decided to show up. I was beginning to think that if the Retriever had T1 combat drones, and the Kestral engaged me as well, I might have a decent fight on my hands. Sadly, the Kestral's pilot (who was by then targetting me) wasn't in the same corporation as the Retriever's. I made it to my target's jet can, and stole a single unit of Scordite. I jettisoned it soon afterward, intending to move his entire harvest into my own can, but for some reason or another decided against it. I waited, and sure enough, the Retriever targeted me. He launched his drones... all two of them. I was about to warp away to go and find a more able target when his ship accellerated into warp. I decided to wait and see what he was going to bring back. If it was an industrial ship, I'd leave... there's no sport in that, and quite frankly, a can full of Scordite didn't appeal to me - besides, I wasn't even able to fly an industrial myself - never had the need, so I'd be stuck hauling it back and forth in my Moa's already-cramped cargo bay. He didn't bring an industrial though, he brought a Drake. NOW WE'RE TALKING!
While he was away, I had moved out of the belt to put his jet-can at my optimal, as I was fairly certain that he would warp right back to it. He did, but didn't fire right away. He began closing in, and I was wondering if he was still considering the fight. When he reached about 25km, I saw the flare of missile exhaust leave his battlecruiser, and smiled. This would be very interesting indeed. Volley after volley of heavy missiles hit my shields, and I sent volley after volley of Lead M at his, along with a pair of my own heavies. Shortly after the battle began, I was jammed. I cursed aloud, causing me to taste the wonderful ambiotic fluid in my pod - I hated being jammed, but got tickled to death when I was on the giving end of electronic warfare... kind of a double standard, but hey, I'm only human. His electronic counter measure failed the second cycle, and I resumed pounding his shields. I checked my shield guage, 50%, then his, which looked about the same.
The vollies of heavy missiles ceased when he apparantly had to reload, and I took full advantage of the ten seconds to bring his shields all the way down. When he resumed firing, his next volley brought my own shields to a dangerous 10%. After that, my armor would disappear quickly, as I had not fitted any armor hardners, but I didn't care. If he beat me, it would be fair and square, and he was perfectly entitled to his kill mail, as he most certainly didn't have the level of skills that I did in combat. As though my ship had a mind of its own and sensed its probable destruction approaching, it seemed to fire it's railguns and launch its missiles faster. A later review of the combat logs said otherwise, so perhaps it was simply my own adrenalin making me think that my ship was behaving abnormally. My shields reached 0%, but I remained. From the targeting computer's damage assessment, I saw that half of the Drake's armor had been plinked away. I realized then that it was still very possible that I may just survive this engagement.
When the Drake's armor reached around 25%, he accelerated into warp. My own ship's internal damage assesment computer told me that my armor was still almost entirely intact, and that he had only eaten through about 10% of it. I watched the trails of his engines, and followed them as they disappeared into the void... directly toward a station. I had 30 (or is it 60?) seconds to continue the engagement before he would be allowed to dock, so I warped to the station his engine trails were pointing to. Much to my dissapointment, another station, further away, had also been in line with his warp vector, and of course it had to be the one he had warped to. I cursed again - eventually, I'll grow to like the taste of pod fluid. I arrived at the station just in time to see his battle-scarred Drake being towed inside. Not sure what to do then, I docked myself. I smiled at his name in the list of docked guests, and wondered if he was going to try switching out some modules to continue the engagement or wait out his Concord-mandated 15 minute aggression timer, when I would no longer be able to fire on him freely without their intervention.
Only moments later, his name disappeared from the list - he had undocked! I followed him out of the hangar, and found him just sitting there outside the station. As I locked him, I noticed the eerie green cloud of armor-repairing nanomachines. Without thinking, I began firing again, knowing full well that he would dock again as soon as he could. When he did, it dawned on me that he might have been using the armor repair module because he lacked the funds to pay to have his ship professionally repaired.
My conscience, which I had believed to have died a long time ago, stabbed at me. If he couldn't afford to repair his ship, he most certainly wouldn't be able to afford to lose it. I felt bad... enough so that I wired him about what it would cost to have his ship repaired, with a little left over to cover the ammunition he expended, and a pittance for his time spent away from mining Scordite.
In the Local channel, I thanked him for the fight. After all, I did have fun, and it was exciting to fight a ship that should have blown mine to pieces. We exchanged a few words, mostly him asking me what the hell I was packing on my cruiser, and he was cordial... always a plus in my book.
I decided then that I would never use a warp disruption module for my thrill-driven high-sec hunts. I would allow my opponent to get away if he so chose. I wasn't after the kill mail, all I wanted was a challenging fight. Besides, a warp disruptor takes up a slot that I could use for something so much more useful.
Cleared for publication by: Ander