Starwalker was feeling experimental and the recent buff to active tanks (ancillary shield boosters and ancillary armour repairers) beckoned enticingly. The Kestrel could easily be fit with both modules:
[Kestrel, Duality]
Damage Control II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer
1MN Afterburner II
Warp Scrambler II
Stasis Webifier II
Medium Ancillary Shield Booster
Rocket Launcher II,Caldari Navy Mjolnir Rocket
Rocket Launcher II,Caldari Navy Mjolnir Rocket
Rocket Launcher II,Caldari Navy Mjolnir Rocket
Rocket Launcher II,Caldari Navy Mjolnir Rocket
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
The cost for the dual tank was to lose the Ballistic Control Unit and consequently the already low DPS dipped to around 100. Starwalker found a Breacher and it seemed the ideal opportunity to try it out. The Breacher had a bonus to active shield repair but he reckoned that he could use the extra range of rockets with the Kestrel or if in close kick in the armour repairer.
Dark Magni was waiting and the fight started immediately at around 3km and despite trying to pull some range the Kestrel was never able to pull any further away. Worse the incoming damage was really hurting and the Breacher was winning the DPS war. As Starwalker's Kestrel dipped into armour he set the ancillary armour repairer going.
Despite overheating both modules he hit structure first and the Breacher was only in armour. As the Kestrel structure was stripped away the Breacher entered structure but it was too late for the Kestrel it exploded with the Breacher still having around 30% structure remaining.
Starwalker wondered if he had fit a Breacher with a dual tank would that have turned the loss into a kill. So he fit a Breacher with a dual tank and went out to see what happened. Unfortunately, the Atron that established a point on his dual tank Breacher was a kiting rail fit that maintained a range of around 20km and eventually the Atron got the kill after having done more than 9,000 damage to the Breacher.
[Breacher, Duality]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer
1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Medium Ancillary Shield Booster
Rocket Launcher II,Inferno Javelin Rocket
Rocket Launcher II,Inferno Javelin Rocket
Rocket Launcher II,Inferno Javelin Rocket
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
It seemed Murphy's law had struck again, if he had been in the Kestrel the longer range of the Javelins would have probably forced the Atron away but the Breacher Javelins could only reach out to around 15km.
So for one last time that night Starwalker set out in another dual tank Kestrel and the Tormentor that he found was looking for a fight too. The fight started and stayed around 7km. To Starwalker's surprise the Tormentor seemed to be incredibly tough and he was finding it a problem to kill it, both ships entered structure and they both marched towards zero in almost lock step. Another Breacher entered the fight and it would get an easy kill as both the Kestrel and Tormentor were on fire.
The Tormentor exploded and Starwalker tried to warp his Kestrel away with just 4% of structure left. It was too late, the Breacher had fired its rockets and they destroyed the burning hulk that was barely still recognisable as a Kestrel. The Kestrel exploded.
Starwalker was enjoying his Kestrel, especially in the afterglow of a battleship kill. A Condor arrived to find the battleship wreck being looted and took the opportunity to get a lock on the Kestrel. It started orbiting at around 20km and its light missiles began to chip away at the Kestrel's shield.
Starwalker tried an initial slingshot but it failed with the range only dropping to around 16km and so he switched to Inferno Javelin rockets for just such an occasion and started to return fire. The Condor started to take some damage but it stayed in the fight as it was still trying to collect the kill.
It was clear that the MWD Condor could leave at any time against the afterburner fit Kestrel and so Starwalker waited for his opportunity to escape. He knew that if the Condor thought it was in any danger of being destroyed first it would simply leave. So he aligned towards a cluster of celestials and watched the Condor orbit.
As the range started to increase from around 16km he overheated his afterburner and as the range passed 24km the point dropped. The Condor had not overheated his point to increase the range to 28km. Starwalker was ready with a random celestial selected and almost immediately warped away to within 70km of that asteroid belt. Even if the Condor rightly guessed which of the five celestials he had warped to he was very unlikely to guess the range too. The Condor pilot didn't guess right and it was a clean escape.
Some time later Starwalker saw a Merlin at a deadspace complex and warped in with his Mjolnir rockets loaded for EM damage. As he approach the acceleration gate his scan revealed that the Merlin had left but as he arrived at the gate he was met by a Republic Fleet Firetail. The hunter had just become the hunted.
His main concern was that he had fit a J5 Prototype Warp Disruptor I. This was fine against his intended prey of afterburner fit frigates as it allowed his point to be maintained beyond normal scramble range and his Caldari Navy rockets would continue to apply damage to around 13km - 15km. The trouble was that many Firetails seemed to be MWD and artillery fit and so the Firetail would be able to establish range control.
The Firetail locked and opened fire quickly and despite being webbed was soon moving to around 12km to 14km away. The Kestrel rockets could still hit the Firetail at that range but the incoming damage was worse than the outgoing damage. The Firetail entered armour around the same time as the shield fit Kestrel but the Firetail started to repair its armour damage and it was clear that the Kestrel would be destroyed. It exploded and the glorious battleship killer was just a wreck.
Starwalker was roaming through towards Adirain in leisurely preparation for Patrick Kasper's Rebel Roam themed around the Moa. He was looking for distractions as he was going as he had plenty of time to get there and there was no hurry. He noticed one other pilot in local and a Tempest on scan.
Starwalker checked the pilot information and saw that he was less than a month old. It seemed too good to be true as he scanned the Tempest down to an asteroid belt near the sun. It would be an excellent kill for his Kestrel if he could do it and there was only one way to find out.
As the Kestrel landed at the belt he was within 10km of the Tempest and immediately Starwalker applied the web and point. The Tempest had been ratting with some beaten up Hobgoblin Is and these were turned onto the Kestrel but they were easily dispatched. The Tempest was getting some glancing blows with the Kestrel orbiting by default at 7km and Starwalker tightened the orbit to 2.5km.
The meagre incoming damage disappeared and the Kestrel rockets slammed into the Tempest's shield whittling them down very slowly. Starwalker had to reload his rockets when another pilot appeared in local, and he wondered whether that pilot had come to assist the Tempest. He kept an eye on the directional scanner but nothing came in to assist.
The Tempest pilot initiated a conversation but Starwalker could not understand the Cyrillic characters. The Tempest desperately released two more drones but they also were destroyed and it was clear that the Tempest was helpless against the Kestrel that had now reached its armour defence. The pilot decided it was all over and initiated self destruct.
Starwalker had to reload yet again and he tried to overheat his missile launchers to get the kill before the 120 second self destruct completed. The Tempest went into structure and at 50% its self destruct blew it apart. The killmail was still very sweet and was accompanied by the pod too. A solo battleship kill in a T1 frigate - it was a great feeling.
Afterwards, Starwalker found out that he had been awarded a medal for that sensational kill - Black Rebel Torpedo. It was the icing on the cake, especially as this was the first time he had killed a battleship solo and in a frigate as well. This was the stuff that dreams were made of but the killmail proved it was no dream. Starwalker was one very happy pilot.
Starwalker wanted to buy some Reactor Control Units and they were a few jumps away in Barleguet. It seemed very straightforward to simply go there, pick them up and come back again. He jumped into system and saw a cyno beacon and had automatically started to warp towards it when he noticed that local had 102 pilots.
The direction scan showed many war ships and he decided to cancel the warp but before he could do so the warp had initiated and he was on his way there. As he feared the cyno location was at a station that was seething with ships looking like they were station camping.
Starwalker docked up immediately, knowing that he was lucky that the cyno was on the station docking ring and not 10km-30km away. As an outlaw he doubted if his Kestrel would have been able to escape if he was 30km away from the station. The problem now was that he had been an innocent bystander but he was as much a prisoner in the station as all of the other pilots in the station.
After a couple of hours of rest and recreation at the station Starwalker undocked but he suspected that it would still be station camped as local had gone up to 126. This was in a system that he rarely visited but when he did it had been quiet with less than half a dozen locals and sometimes zero. The station was still surrounded by many ships and so he docked up again, he was going nowhere for now.
Starwalker spent his time almost exclusively in low security space, recently, that had primarily been around Placid and Metropolis. Similarly, whilst he regularly roamed with the Rebels in a small gang in low-sec he still spent the vast majority of his time solo. Consequently, when he was in a roam he was often using a ship fit that was typically his solo fit for that ship, however, that was not always the case, especially with Patrick Kasper's themed roams.
Patrick had a roam themed around the Caldari Navy Hookbill and a recommended fit, which Starwalker had managed to lose before even getting to the roam rendezvous system. That Hookbill fit was:
[Caldari Navy Hookbill, Rebel Roam]
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Beta Reactor Control: Reaction Control I
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Rocket Launcher II,Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
Rocket Launcher II,Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
Rocket Launcher II,Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
This fleet fit featured two key characteristics that was not normal for his solo fit. First, it was using a micro-warp drive (MWD), which was great in a fleet for chasing down targets or moving quickly from one target to the next during an engagement. Secondly, this particular fit also favoured extra tank by combining the fairly standard medium shield extender with a shield hardener.
This combination of factors led to a fast frigate fleet that was also able to absorb a little more damage than normal. The number of frigates would provide plenty of tackle and web and the preferred ammunition was Scourge Rage Rockets, which was good against above class ships like a cruiser or battle-cruiser, the target of choice for the roam.
For solo work there was a different set of considerations, in particular speed and range control. Against another frigate fit with an afterburner the MWD Hookbill would lose a lot of ability to control the range. Without range control the Hookbill would have to hope the target stayed in range and similarly it would also give up the ability to extract from the fight.
Given that, Starwalker favoured a build that was based on an afterburner for low-sec space and for the Hookbill he was currently using:
[Caldari Navy Hookbill, Solo]
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Ballistic Control System II
1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
This fit was slower than an MWD fit but against a frigate within scramble range it had complete range control. The ballistic control was important as it raised the Hookbill's firepower, to help kill a target that little bit faster. Killing targets fast enough was often important when the target had friends in system willing to help or they were part of a gang baiting hunters into a trap.
That was the situation with this Tormentor kill. Starwalker had engaged the Tormentor, establishing a range of around 7km and with dual webs applied was working through the armour whilst it was actively repairing the damage. Then a Merlin and Kestrel landed. The Merlin was only 15km away and had soon burnt in to close range, whilst the Kestrel was about 20km away.
The Tormentor went down and with it the scramble it had was lost. The Merlin had applied a web and tracking disruptor and Starwalker realised that he could extract if neither the Merlin or Kestrel applied a point. Strangely the Kestrel seemed to be moving further away and out of point range although still in light missile range. So he turned his attention to the Merlin at 2km and had soon moved out to around 7km.
The Merlin was active shield tanked and was soon dipping into armour but by now the Hookbill was on fire and still neither the Merlin or Kestrel had applied a point. Starwalker had waited as long as he could for the Merlin's ancillary shield booster to finish but he could wait no longer and the Hookbill aligned out and warped away on fire.
Comparing the two Hookbill fits, the solo fit had complete range control in scramble range and a little extra firepower, which was a trade off compared to the greater speed and tank of the fleet fit. One could not be said to be objectively better than the other, that distinction could only be applied when each ship and fit was in the same situation. As always, the choice of ship and fit came down to what you wanted to fly and expected to fight, as each ship and fit would have advantages in some situations and disadvantages in others.
