Rifter Artillery Kills Rifter in Auner

Starwalker was simply moving stuff around in Auner when he noticed a Rifter sitting on a station. The pilot was Amun Khonsu and a quick check in Battleclinic revealed a top ranked pilot (4,859) with 2,083 kills to 245 losses.

The current ship was a Rifter fit for a brawl but this pilot was from 2006 and lots of kills, so a straight up fight was likely a losing proposition. Consequently, Starwalker re-shipped to an artillery-fit Rifter that would hopefully have the element of surprise.

Next, warp into a random belt at 100km and then burn away, waiting for the enemy Rifter to arrive. Within a few minutes it did, along with a Rupture, but 150km was a safe distance. The Rupture (Kmelx) then offered to leave the “1v1” and Amun Khonsu burnt towards the Rifter at around 940m/s. So afterburner fit, unless he was being clever and probably armour tanked based on the speed.

Starwalker patiently waited for the Rifter to catch up and at around 60km turned to engage. His heart was pounding and his pulse was racing Target locked, pointed and orbit set to 15km the artillery cannons opened up and started dealing damage. There was very little return fire but the distance seemed to reduce to 12km so Starwalker set “Keep at Distance” 13.5km.

The artillery was overheated and the enemy Rifter started to bleed into armour. It was incredibly slow progress and then suddenly Amun Khonshu got a good hit that took the shields down to 40%. Quickly checking the range it was still around 12km – must have been a lucky hit.

Using ROTA (Range, Overheat, Tank, Attack) Starwalker kept checking the key events and noticed what he thought was an enemy point but later realized it must have been the tracking disruptor. Things were going well and the artillery finally destroyed (http://r1fta.griefwatch.net/?p=details&kill=2917) Amnu Khonsu’s Rifter.

The exceptionally pleasing aspect was the idea of establishing relative superiority – range. Waiting at the asteroid belt, at a safe distance from it to see what ship arrived. Continuously checking ROTA, especially range and noticing the “attack” icon.

The other aspect that also became clear for Starwalker was that the tournament fights did not have the same adrenalin rush as these random fights like the Vengeance and this kill. It was simply not the same and perhaps related to the fact that maybe Starwalker did not like killing other Rebels.