Two Rifters at the Sun in Tama

Starwalker was cruising around The Citadel in his Crow and enjoying flying at interceptor speeds ~3km/s. Jumping in to a new system a Kestrel was around 50km off the gate and Suzu Fujibayashi asked whether the Crow was an SML or Rocket fit.

After considering the question for a moment, Starwalker replied "Rockets" and went to the Sun.  His thinking was simple - if the Kestrel was missile fit and could successfully kite then he could simply run. If the Kestrel was also rocket fit then it should be a victory. The Kestrel arrived at the Sun 100km away and Starwalker burnt towards it.

The Crow started orbiting and firing away with the rockets at around 18km and the Kestrel started to lose its shields. After a few seconds the Kestrel simply decided to leave, gained distance and warped away. Starwalker was surprised that the Kestrel could get away so easily and wondered if he should have approached or used a tighter orbit to make the Kestrel's escape a little harder.

Starwalker moved on, was soon in Tama and warping to the Sun. Two Rifters were there around 100km away, piloted by Cyberkilll and Gerhard Faust. Starwalker hadn't scanned the sun beforehand and so it was a surprise to see them there but he did not hesitate and simply charged straight in.

The first Rifter was locked and being orbited at around 16km with the Crow's rockets tearing away the shields. The second Rifter was closing fast and was around 10km away and applied a web very quickly. Starwalker tried to keep the second Rifter at distance but it didn't work and suddenly the Rifter was at 3km with a scram applied.

Starwalker thought it was looking bad but he kept his overheated rockets on the first Rifter and it exploded. The incoming damage was very low but he had no time to think about that and quickly switched targets. The rockets now pounded at the second Rifter and as that Rifter started to crumble he noticed that very little damage had been received or was being received despite the fact that the Rifter was still close. It too erupted into a ball of fire.

Starwalker had won his first 1v2 even if both victims were new. Whilst this was the first time that he had engaged two ships solo and won he considered his mistakes. He had not:

• Considered positioning his Crow to engage one at a time, he had simply charged in and set the orbit
• Reacted to the second Rifter soon enough, he had not watched the second Rifter approach and he should have tried to keep it at range earlier
• Seen the relative positions of the ships, he had watched the battle through the overview and HUD and so was never aware of relative position, only relative distance 

Whatever the faults of the fight, Starwalker was please to get some kills and looked forward to flying in the Crow again. That reminded him, his training for Battlecruiser V was now finishing, he would complete Destroyers V next and then do Interceptor V.