Essence is home to many a R1DER pilot these days, specifically Adirain. Yesterday I went there to see if I can find anything worthwhile to shoot at. A quick glance at my D-Scan revealed another Rifter on scan. Delighted I checked local and spotted a fellow R1DER in the system, Bobby. A quick enquiry revealed that it was him sporting the Rifter. Dismayed at the loss of a possible fight I continued abusing the scan button and pretty soon a Catalyst showed up. I informed my fellow partner in crime and checked who the third person in local was. It was a new pilot, dipping his toe into losec for a quick thrill no doubt.
Both Bobby and me were hard at work trying to find his location till I pointed straight at him with my d-scan with no celestials nearby. A quick change of filters confirmed my suspicion, he was ratting either at a mission, sig or anomaly. I was holding thumbs for the anomaly theory to be true as I did an onboard system scan. To my delight I found one in his direction and warped to it instantly.
Alas, it was not to be as I landed too far from him to point before he warped away. I headed to the planet in the direction he warped off to. Not there, but I quickly had him on d-scan towards the hisec gate. He'll just jump when I land I thought, and instead I waited for him to gather some courage and head to the anomaly again.
After a bit of waiting he disappeared from scan but was still in system. I warped back to the anomaly, checking the d-scan if he was there. He was indeed and I pre-heated all my modules before landing. Once again I was disappointed when I landed 100km from him, and he warped off to the gate again.
Deciding that I wasn't in the mood to chase a Catalyst to and from this plex the whole time, I warped straight to the gate after him. I landed next to him and locked on, hoping that he would panic and engage, but expecting he'd jump. Then a full volley of a fail fitted Catalyst crashed against my Rifter's shields. I couldn't help but smile at the thought of this pilot realising he can't jump through the gate anymore as I engaged and moved in under his guns.
I hailed Bobby to join in on the fun, and turned off my autocannons till he arrived. With his Rifter on grid I decided to let him have the honour of taking the kill, but then I noticed I was being webbed scrammed and shot at.
Confused I checked the overview again, was I missing something? Is it the Catalyst unleashing his full fury only now? No, I realised, it was Bobby shooting me. I called for him to stop but he didn't listen and decided to take down the Catalyst first. It didn't take long, but now I was at half armour.
Was Bobby really that evil? Was he...a rogue rebel? Would he really kill me after I graciously allowed him to whore on the killmail? Well I'm not going down without a fight I thought and unleashed the full fury of my Rifter against his. Overheat everything! We're taking him out! I was just about done with his shields and very low on my own armour when I noticed his modules disengaging.
"Sorry!" he said, "I was on the phone while fighting," then with a little grin, "Not a good combination."
Relieved I disengaged as well. I was worried that Miura Bull's new training methods have turned these new recruits rabid, making the hell raisers turn on everyone. I mean, we're all scum but you got to have some morals right?
Our laughter ended abruptly when a Caracal appeared on scan. Back to business as usual!
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