Close Encounters of the Bait Kind

Starwalker heard the call for backup from some Rebels cruising Elarel, who were looking for trouble and had found an innocent looking Myrmidon, piloted by Johannii, that was simply belt ratting and minding its own business. It was agreed that this might be bait but worth having a go anyway to see what happened.

Starwalker’s Drake of gross inadequacy was wheeled out again and joined the Rebel Jaguar and Harbinger. Starwalker made a mental note to review fit and skills and do something about the fit rather quickly as the skills would take longer.

But no time to think about that anymore as the Jaguar sped in to provide the tackle and called for backup. The Harbinger and Drake arrived on scene to find the area swarming with drones but worse than that the Myrmidon had also called for backup and that had arrived in the form of a Megathron.

This was no time to complain about bringing knives to a gun fight and Starwalker engaged the Myrmidon as a swarm of Hammerheads, Hobgoblins and Ogre’s started for the Drake. It was not long before the closing trap had finished off the Jaguar (http://r1fta.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=10117416) and Harbinger (http://r1fta.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=10117417). Now with the main meal done they were looking for dessert, a nice tasty Drake. The Drake missiles had been going continuously but seemed rather ineffectual whilst its shields were nearly 50% gone as the drones continued to pummel away. It was not looking good.

The Myrmidon moved into close combat orbit range and started to apply its scramble and some more hurt with its Light Neutron Blasters. Starwalker could see the writing on the wall. With the Myrmidon this close he turned on his Small Neutraliser II as it might help to drain its capacitor and if that happened then the scramble would drop and so would the armour repair. Starwalker aligned to warp out more in hope than any certainty of getting away. The Megathron was still around 38km away but did not seem to be applying much direct damage, instead relying on its drones to do the work. Strange. However, shields were now at 75% and whilst the Myrmidon was 25% into its armour it was not obviously going down.

Suddenly the lock on the Myrmidon was gone, it had moved away. Starwalker warped immediately and was away. The Drake had avoided what seemed like inevitable destruction, getting away from a close encounter of the bait kind.

Starwalker reviewed the battle and had questions that would probably remain unanswered:

·         Why had the Megathron not applied any direct damage? Surely it should have, perhaps zanchen was too new or didn’t want to lose the battleship and keeping range provided a quick exit if things went bad

·         Why had the Myrmidon warped away? Applying the small neutraliser would surely have not worked that fast against a battlecruiser unless the Myrmidon was already close to exhausting the capacitor

It was a mystery and probably would remain so but Starwalker had no more time for this. It was time to turn toward the task of improving the Drake fit.