T1 – Kestrel Wings Clipped

Rocanegra issued a challenge for a T1 tournament duel and Starwalker answered the call, undocking in a Merlin. Rocanegra was likely to use a Kestrel as he had won four times previously with it.

The Merlin had been specifically fit with a micro warp-drive to close to scramble range against a kiting fit. The question was what would Rocanegra bring to the fight? If he brought something else then the battle plan would need to be adapted.

Kestrel jumped in at 100km – mystery over. The next key question was could the Merlin close to scramble range? The Kestrel closed to point range and its missiles started hitting hard; Starwalker didn’t bother trying to shoot back at 20km. The micro warp-drive was kicked into life to close to scramble range, the seconds ticked by and… it wasn’t working, the range was being held around 20km.

Starwalker overheated the micro warp-drive and then suddenly the distance closed rapidly. Fantastic - scramble applied and finally the guns and rockets returned fire. The Kestrel was about to have its wings clipped, the Merlin had broken into close combat range and it would be over soon. The Merlin shields were down to 40% but the Kestrel simply melted (http://r1fta.griefwatch.net/?p=details&kill=2771) at close range.

Starwalker was very pleased and exchanged a “good fight”. It was then that he noticed that the micro warp-drive was burnt out and lots of other overheating damage. Well, it didn’t matter now as the fight was over and won.