The Slasher had proven itself against a destroyer but not yet against a T2 frigate, it was about to have its chance as the directional scanner revealed a Retribution in a complex. Starwalker had fought earlier against another Retribution piloted by Sheja Laval and had learnt a key lesson - do not overheat too early. Starwalker had overheated guns immediately and then later had to turn it off as the fight progressed.
As it was, Sheja was in deep trouble with his Retribution - it was caught and in 50% structure. But he had also called in a friend, who had arrived in a Harpy and Starwalker had no alternative but to escape quickly. It might have ended differently if he could have overheated and finished off that last bit of structure, in short, when the Retribution was in low armour was when he wanted to overheat guns.
The Slasher warped into the complex and the Retribution was there waiting. Starwalker immediately went for a close orbit of 500m and applied his scram, web and tracking disruptor, which was loaded with the tracking speed script. The Retribution got some good solid hits in early and the Slasher had to repair the armour damage but after that the incoming damage was easily managed.
The Retribution for its part was completely at the mercy of the Slasher, it could not escape and it could not hit back effectively. As the Retribution armour dropped to around 35% Starwalker overheated his guns and soon the T2 frigate was just another space wreck. The pilot, Mekaniker, exchanged a good fight and noted that his lasers had been burnt out. Whilst that was true, and it could be seen at 23:00:15, it would not have affected the outcome.
Roaming through Placid Starwalker had spotted a few cruisers and battlecruisers and so he had decided to re-ship into his Moa. The Moa was fit with blasters and two large shield extenders and boasted some impressive statistics for a cruiser: 493 DPS and 47.5k EHP. Less impressive was that the capacitor lasted less than two minutes with everything going and it aligned in 8.4 seconds.
[Moa, ION2LSE]
Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Large Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Large Shield Extender II
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Warrior II x3
In the cargo hold Starwalker carried a web for fighting frigates and the three warriors were also there to help. As he jumped into another system a non-flashy Jaguar arrived on gate and then waited. Starwalker held cloak deciding whether to engage, he was fit to fight cruisers and he would have to be aggressed first. He de-cloaked - the Jaguar had no hesitation and engaged immediately, applying a scram, tracking disruptor and energy vampire. He was aggressed and decided to fight.
Starwalker fired back and initially had some success in applying damage but as the range closed to less than 2km his fire became ineffective and virtually no damage was being applied. A Retribution landed on grid and also started firing at the Moa too. It became clear that with the medium turret tracking and without a web he was unable to hit the close orbiting frigates effectively. He tried to align to the sun to reduce transversal but it had minimal impact, so he decided to de-aggress.
He wasn't sure if he could make it back to the gate in time as the damage was depleting his shields fast but he headed back in a desperate attempt to save his ship. As he hit low armour he was within range and hit jump but the gate denied access, the aggression timer was still running down. Starwalker was running out of structure and time and he hit jump again but with the same result, his ship exploded.
It was an object lesson in how easily a frigate could take down a cruiser by getting under the guns. Starwalker had an impressive tank for a cruiser but all that really meant was that his ship took longer to explode. Unfortunately, he had decided too late to de-aggress and he had even completely forgotten to deploy his drones, although he suspected that would have made no difference.
