The Cleansing Pt.1

Looking through my assets I was shocked by the sheer amount of crap I've been hoarding up since joining R1FTA. For all the noise I was making about my money problems I sure had a lot of shit to sell. To add to my disgust I discovered fitted ships that I have long forgotten and were now gathering dust in hangers all over New Eden. It was time for a cleansing, to relieve myself of these unused items and ships. I'll start hauling the items over to Jita soon, but the ships, they've got to get blown to pieces!

Going through my assets I compiled a list of what I have in my arsenal:

22 Rifters
2 Vigils
1 Imicus
2 Firetails
1 Hurricane
1 Tristan
6 Maledictions
3 Ruptures
1 Wolf
4 Merlins
1 Slasher
1 Procurer
1 Probe
1 Incursus
1 Thrasher

First up was the Thrasher. Passive armor tank, nothing out of the ordinary. I set a roaming path and soon I was traveling the spacelanes looking for some thrills. I bagged a cyno, but it looked like there was no fun to be had as I reached the end of my roam. I decided to head back to Heild. On gate I found an Ares, not flashy though, and I decided to lock him up and see what he does. He jumped to the next system and I followed suit. He uncloaked on the other side and I watched him to see where he warped off to. He didn't warp off however and started to burn back to the gate. Very well, I thought, let's see if I can close range. I activated the afterburner and watched the distance close. He locked on and pointed me. I didn't open fire yet as I didn't want to be kited to death. Soon I was within scram range and then I let all hell loose on the Ares. The first volley did quite the number on him, and I wasn't really hurting at all. It was looking very much like a one sided fight. Then a Wolf appeared on grid and locked me up. Now the adrenalin was pumping. I finished off the Ares as I locked the Wolf. I started an orbit on the Wolf and fired all guns. It was a close race, but I was a little behind. Looking at my direction of travel I realized we were flying in a straight line trying to orbit each other. Desperate, I swung my ship around, hoping to get a few solid hits in at the risk of him doing the same. It worked! My autocannons teared into the Wolf with devastating effect and one fireball later, I was the victor of the skirmish. Thoroughly impressed by the Thrasher's power I headed back to Heild to dump the spoils and repair my ship. It was difficult to leave the two T2 wrecks behind, but I had no salvager close.

I headed out again, filled with confidence that the Thrasher means business. I soon found a Moa on a station, a fellow R1DER in a Rifter also nearby. I opened fire at the flashy Moa, but soon I realised that this was a mistake. I did little damage to his massive shield tank and was loosing huge chunks of armour. So used to being in a nimble frigate, I didn't think that I'd get ganked so easily by a cruiser. My Thrasher exploded and fled in shame with my capsule. It seems that the Rifter had better luck avoiding the Moa's firepower, but it ended in a stale mate with the Moa degressing and docking.

I arrived in Heild and immediatly looked for my next toy to play with. A Firetail, never really flew them succesfully in combat before. It had a medium shield extender with nanofibers to make this one nimble little beast. The 125mm Autocannons would mean less DPS, but nothing can be lower than my Malediction's rockets. I undocked and headed on another roam. After a few systems I found a Daredevil on dscan, a frigate I've always avoided fighting. Not this time I thought and after a short while we were on the same grid and locking up. My nimble little Firetail was brought to almost a standstill by his webs, and his blasters tore up my shields fast. I wasn't doing too bad either, the 125's doing a number on the Daredevil. It wasn't enough though as my Firetail turned into space litter. Still, it was a fun encounter.

Next, I activated a jump clone in Hakkonen to climb into Rupture I had stored there. This was my favourite little pocket for cyno massacres, and soon I bagged a couple of cy nos. I wasn't looking for cheap thrills though, and I started hunting for a worthy opponent. This prospect was soon ended as I ran into a gate camp. With no hope of reaching the gate in time I went out guns blazing.

I jumped into a Rifter next, but after flying around for a while, decided to call it a night. I've still got a ton of ships lined up for destruction as operation cleansing continues. Stay tuned for the next installment.