Imperial Navy Slicer Kites Hawk

Starwalker was cruising the Angel deadspace complex in Heild with his Hawk. This one was brawler fit with rockets and an afterburner but it was significantly slower than Starwalker had originally expected.

The new mid slot for the Hawk had now given Starwalker a good reason to fly the Hawk instead of the Hookbill. The Hawk was better in nearly all areas except for speed. The Hawk (with level 5 skills) using an afterburner fit had a speed of around 850m/s versus the Hookbill of around 1370m/s. This is quite a difference.

Starwalker wondered if it was too slow to catch a kiter or whether his pilot skills would be good enough to slingshot into scramble range. He was about to find out as an Imperial Navy Slicer, piloted by Krole, jumped into the complex and sped towards him. The speed clearly indicated a micro-warpdrive fit.

The engagement began with Starwalker taking damage from around 20km and the Slicer dancing around the outside out of range. The first attempt at a slingshot was not good and shields were now more than half gone. Starwalker decided to try the slingshot again and heated the afterburner going in a straight line towards an asteroid belt.

Starwalker also loaded Javelin as he decided that he should at least try and hit the Slicer. At the moment, he was being kited to death and unless he could get a few shots in he would not even be able to force the Slicer away never mind catch him.

The distance increased to 22km and Starwalker was waiting for it to start to close again before executing the turn when three more pilots from Gunpoint jumped into the complex. The distance had now increased to 25km and Starwalker hit the warp button, hoping the Slicer was not fitted with and using an overheated Warp Disruptor II, which had a range of just under 29km.

Warp engaged and Starwalker was away. He found a safe spot and considered what had just happened and that he had probably had a lucky escape.