Thrasher - Destrucktor Kirijan

Starwalker was in his novelty fit Merlin and seeing what he could find in the space lanes of New Eden. This was a fit for low security space with the intention of finding close range brawlers or scram range kiters. It would have an exceedingly hard time against point range kiters and MWD fit frigates given the lack of a scrambler.

The directional scan indicated a Thrasher was in space but that was probably a little hard for the Merlin to beat. Thrashers and destroyers generally were designed to kill frigates and a T1 frigate might not last very long in a fight. Despite that, Starwalker waited in his Merlin at a small complex - daring the Thrasher to come in. It came in.

This Merlin was all about brute force and so Starwalker applied the two webs and came in very close to apply the DPS. The Thrasher wasted no time in returning fire and apparent that it was auto-cannon fitted. So both ships were in their optimal range and it was a simple race to destruction, a race to see who would be destroyed first.

However, it wasn't just auto-cannons that Destruktor Kirijan had in his box of Thrasher tricks - he also had an energy neutraliser and that took its toll. The Merlin's capacitor ran out as the Thrasher was in structure and Starwalker had to spam the blasters to keep firing as soon as some capacitor recharge was available. The problem was that the Thrasher was tearing away at last slivers of Merlin armour and starting on structure.

Both ships entered deep structure and trailing flames, Starwalker got the final blow with 12% structure remaining. It was a very good fight and very close. The Thrasher could have warped away at any time but that was an unlikely choice given the general expectation of a destroyer killing a T1 frigate. So the Thrasher stayed until the bitter end and paid for it with its destruction.

The Thrasher fit was very normal emphasising close range guns, with DPS enhanced by a gyrostabiliser, damage rig and close range ammunition. The tank was provided by a medium shield extender and shield rigs, and in short was a perfectly good fit to roam around in:

[Thrasher, Destruktor Kirijan's Thrasher]

Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II

Medium Shield Extender II
1MN Microwarpdrive II
Warp Scrambler II

200mm AutoCannon II,Hail S
200mm AutoCannon II,Hail S
200mm AutoCannon II,Hail S
200mm AutoCannon II,Hail S
200mm AutoCannon II,Hail S
200mm AutoCannon II,Hail S
200mm AutoCannon II,Hail SSmall Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I

Unfortunately for Starwalker his victory was short-lived as Balthar Xerxes' Federation Navy Comet had unusually fit an ECM and that broke the Merlin's target lock after a short while. Without being able to shoot back the Merlin could do nothing else but wait until it was destroyed. Clearly Starwalker had waited in the complex too long, as who would expect an ECM module on a Comet, Balthar must have refit especially to fight the Merlin. 

Last Sliver of Structure

Starwalker had been in two very close fights recently, fights that had ended with both combatants in deep structure. Most interesting had been the fight with a Thrasher, which as a Minmatar destroyer was designed to kill frigates.

The Thrasher had first been spotted near the Sun in Covryn and Starwalker had arrived there in an especially fit Breacher (tracking disruptor) to take it on. However, it was around 100km away and as the Breacher moved closer it simply warped away. So, disappointed, Starwalker returned to base and undocked in a Tristan instead to head out for a roam.

Jumping through to Iges and scanning from the gate nothing interesting appeared on scan but the same Thrasher pilot from earlier arrived in system. Starwalker warped to the sun at 100km and started to scan from the sun. He did not expect the Thrasher to arrive at the sun but was prepared just in case, then it suddenly appeared at close range.

Starwalker immediately went into action with lock, scram and web. The default orbit range was set to around 4km and from the incoming damage it was clear that the Thrasher was auto-cannon fitted. Starwalker increased the range as both ships tried to get the kill.

The damage dropped as Starwalker increased range to around 7.5km but it was still hurting badly and soon the Tristan was on fire. But the good news was that the Thrasher shields had gone and the race was on to see who would die first. Starwalker knew that he could have escaped as he had complete range control but he also wanted the kill.

It was very close as the ships slugged it out with the Tristan now reliant on its small ancillary armour repairer to work at 70% efficiency. It was going down to the wire as the Thrasher was trailing flames too. Starwalker's Tristan had just 3% structure left when the Thrasher exploded into a glorious fireball of destruction.

The fight had been incredibly close and there was no way to be sure when it was in progress who would win. Starwalker knew that it could have gone either way but he was very pleased to have got the kill. Killing a destroyer in a T1 frigate was always an unexpected pleasure.

Slasher Meets Thrasher

Starwalker had fitted up some Slashers with the intent of taking on turret based ships, especially above class ships like destroyers and T2 frigates. The master plan was put on hold whilst he dispatched this Burst. When he saw this Wreathe in Amamake he could not believe an industrial was really mining in the asteroid belt but he went in anyway. It was not bait, it really was mining or perhaps AFK as the pilot was podded too.

Back on the master plan, Arnstur seemed to have a Thrasher in a small complex - it would be a great test as Thrashers could put out a metric tonne of damage and had a reasonable tank for a destroyer. The question was would it be artillery or auto-cannon fit. Starwalker decided to load the tracking speed script as the fight might start in brawl range and there would be very little time to mitigate the damage. There would be more time if it was at artillery range to change to the optimal range script.

The Slasher warped in and the Thrasher was waiting at zero, it was the right choice of scripts to have loaded. Starwalker immediately set an orbit at 500m and applied his scram, web and tracking disruptor. The first Thrasher high damage shot came in and the Slasher dropped to 50% armour, another hit like that and the Slasher would be a wreck. He started the small armour repairer and saw that the afterburner had not started, he started it - again.

The range was ideal for the Slasher and the repairer started doing its magic of repairing the armour damage and just as the armour was fully repaired another high damage shot got in and took the Slasher into structure. The Slasher was on fire but the Thrasher was being hit by the Gatling guns and its shield was being stripped away. The overheated armour repairer had repaired the Slasher damage again and the shields were slowly regenerating - it was looking good.
 

The Slasher had the Thrasher locked in tight and it was going nowhere, the Gatling guns were now chipping away the armour and Starwalker was confident of the kill, assuming no one else came into the complex. The Thrasher was finished and exploded into a glorious fireball of destruction.

Harpy Destroyed by Station Camp

Starwalker had undocked in his Merlin looking for trouble and this hapless cyno-ship was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had warped in, fired a shot and then warped out and back again. This allowed him to kill the Magnate at leisure and when he shot the pod the sentry guns opened fire again. This Merlin had just over 8k EHP and so he had time to collect the corpse and go.

Starwalker had fitted up a nice Harpy to go with his complement of Merlins and took it out into the space lanes of New Eden. This cyno-ship was hardly a stern test of ship capability but he felt almost obliged to take an easy kill and at least it showed that it could take the sentry gate gun fire for a short while. In fact, long enough to not bother warping away before killing this cyno-ship piloted by Talia Tessony. Starwalker accidently left the system by the wrong gate and when he came back in Talia had a second cyno-ship up but not for long.

A little while later a quick directional scan of the next system revealed a Tristan and that it was ratting. Starwalker warped in to the asteroid belt and the Tristan was soon destroyed along with the pod. He docked up to take a short break in station and when he undocked he saw three ships at the undock, two Cynabals and a Talos. He decided to try to warp to the out gate wondering if he should have simply re-docked. It was an insta-locking station camp and the once proud Harpy was a ball of flames within a few seconds. He should have simply re-docked his ship and waited.

As always, the loss of a ship was no reason to stop flying and soon Starwalker was in space with another Harpy using the same fit:

[Harpy, MWDMSE]

Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II

Medium Shield Extender II
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
[empty high slot]
Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I

He landed in a medium complex where a Vengeance decided to take his Harpy on and it came in to a really close orbit. Tactically that was a mistake, as the Harpy was blaster fit not railguns. The Vengeance armour tank struggled to keep up with incoming damage and then finally it gave out and the once proud Vengeance exploded. Something similar happened shortly afterwards with this Thrasher.

However, Starwalker did not have it all his own way as he landed into another complex and all three ships were just waiting for their next victim - the Harpy was soon gone. Similarly, a short while later his Merlin succumbed to a gate camp. Starwalker then spotted an Incursus and warped his Merlin into the complex. The Incursus was waiting and its first action was to gain range and start using its railguns. Starwalker tried to manually pilot towards the Incursus with an overheated afterburner but the range closed far too slowly and his Merlin expired from sheer exhaustion.

Starwalker loved the sheer firepower of blasters but kiters presented a real challenge as the blasters were a short range weapon system. He knew that trying to move directly towards kiters failed miserably, so he would try to move away and slingshot them in future. It would likely result in the loss of a number of brawlers as he had very little success to date with using a slingshot to get targets into scramble range.

MWD Scram and Web

Starwalker had been considering a micro-warp-drive (MWD), scram and web combination since the TESF roam to address the pesky kiters. He had a Merlin that was fit with those modules along with a medium shield extender and he had also fitted a Hawk with those modules along with two ancillary shield boosters.

[Hawk, RLMWD2ASBW]

Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Stasis Webifier II
Medium Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 50
Medium Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 50

Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket
[empty high slot]

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

The rocket damage was not spectacular (~178) but the active shield tank (~369) was pretty good for ~20 seconds with both boosters going or ~40 seconds if staggered. Starwalker wasn't really sure if the fit was very good against afterburner T2 frigates but he would give it a try. The general intent was to be able to tank the damage from brawlers or kiters within scram range. Kiters within point range would likely be caught by the speed of 2.6km/s or it would be much easier to slingshot something fast.

Placid seemed to have a number of targets in space and Starwalker found:

• An Executioner that was waiting for a target to enter the complex but Starwalker made short work of the Amarr frigate. He had thought initially that the Executioner would be MWD fit but the killmail revealed an afterburner fit. That was a surprise as the pilot, LokFonRey, in theory could have tried to dictate range but he did not even seem to try
• A Magnate with four warp core stabilisiers but the pilot, Welfare Queeen, must have been away as her ship was destroyed
• A Tristan who was also looking for a fight at the complex but Starwalker ignored the Hobgoblin II drones and simply destroyed the Tristan. But he had no time to scoop the loot as he found himself chased by three frigates and a destroyer

He decided to leave the system and as he did so the Thrasher, piloted by VileDK, jumped out with him. Starwalker was immediately locked and pointed and was fired on from 20km away. If Starwalker knew what was going to happen next he would have reacted differently. As it was he fancied his chances of destroying the Thrasher and so he approached and set his propulsion going, except he had taken two hits already and he had not started his active shield tank yet. The third shot popped Starwalker's Hawk.

Starwalker had forgotten that the MWD had a signature bloom effect and he had also approached reducing his traversal to zero. Worse, the destruction of his ship had been such a surprise that he hadn't even started his shield boosters. He would need to remember that expensive lesson - his active tank was really good but his buffer tank was minimal.

Undeterred by the loss Starwalker returned to base and undocked a second Hawk and found a Navitas at a complex, which he destroyed along with the pod and collected his corpse. A while later, Starwalker returned and found the same pilot in another Navitas - so he destroyed that too and claimed his second pod and corpse.However, he didn't have it all his own way as his dual propulsion Taranis was lost within a few minutes of undocking to this Dramiel that was waiting to pounce at a complex.

d00med Roam was Doomed

Starwalker was in his Thrasher for the Destroyer themed d00med roam organised by Kaeda Maxwell and had fitted it with 200mm autocannons, medium shield and a MWD. For some reason, Starwalker didn't really like the destroyer class of ship. There was no obvious reason for that as it offered considerable gank for a small sized ship.

Foolishly, Starwalker had volunteered to be the +1 scout for the fleet and for the one fight that happened he was in the next system. By the time he got to the scene of the destruction Kaeda was calling for any ships that had survived to warp away as the local militia had attacked en masse. Given that it was late this was also the ideal opportunity to drop fleet and so Starwalker returned to base.

It was as he returned to Eugales the following day that Starwalker lost his Thrasher, lurking at the sun as usual looking for targets. Indeed, he had seen another Thrasher on scan and as he searched - it was suddenly next to him. The extra few seconds of surprise made all the difference and Starwalker's similarly fit Thrasher exploded.

Starwalker had also been flying around recently in an Incursus as he wanted to try some active armour tanking as well as fly a ship he had not flown before. He had two close calls:

1. Another Incursus was kiting fit and had Starwalker on the run as he was unable to dictate range in a dual repair fit. After fruitless trying to get into range for some serious damage with his Neutron blasters Starwalker gave up and warped away. It seemed to be easy enough to break away as the fight was on the edge of scram range but generally this engagement emphasised the need for speed against kiters
2. Yet another Incursus fight also ended in a warp away but this time by the target as Starwalker was too slow to replenish his capacitor in time and his point dropped. The other pilot, Silver Wasp was sufficiently on the ball to to get away during that brief window

The initial Incursus experience was interesting for Starwalker as he realised that he was not watching his capacitor at all and only knew it was gone when Aura announced it. Repairers repaired at the end of the cycle rather than the start and also seemed to be very capacitor intensive, especially compared to the capacitor free ancillary shield booster. The advantage of armour tanking was freeing up mid-slots for other uses beyond shield tanking but generally armour plates slowed a ship down with the extra mass.

Over time Starwalker had noticed that his ship selection and fitting philosophy had evolved towards relative superiority and it was also being refined with consideration of additional features beyond the usual tank and gank. In particular, this included:

• Damage projection beyond fighting at optimal
• Establishing range control with speed or piloting
• Managing Capacitor  

The real problem was that no one ship he had (or had in EFT) was able to do everything he wanted. So beyond the engagement and various factors it was also about what compromises to make or strengths to emphasise. This was leading Starwalker to take much more notice of ship features and capabilitities and in particular bonuses.

Starwalker was also aware that theory and tools like EFT only gave an indication of ship performance and that there were many other factors at play such as situation, tracking, pilot skills and errors. There was nothing quite like practice to really understand a ship and also to improve.

Just In Time to Die

Starwalker had managed to run into a gate camp (Hurricane and Curse) and died very quickly. The surprise - first gate camp in some time - had resulted in Starwalker turning on his tank but forgetting to try to burn back to the gate or generally escape. Although the Merlin's demise was sufficiently quick that it probably would not have made it. Worse, he was podded too.

Starwalker upgraded his clone from the default medical clone, paused the training queue and then plugged in another set of +3 learning implants:

• Ocular Filter - Basic
• Memory Augmentation - Basic
• Neural Boost - Basic
• Cybernetic Subprocessor - Basic

Plus some additional cheap implants for minor boosts:

• Zainou 'Deadeye' Small Hybrid Turret SH-603
• Zainou 'Gnome' Shield Management SM-701
• Inherent Implants 'Noble' Mechanic MC-803
• Eifyr and Co. 'Gunslinger' Surgical Strike SS-901
• Zainou 'Deadeye' Rapid Launch RL-1001

The total cost was around 40m ISK, which was a level that Starwalker was comfortable losing when podded. The +4 implants were just a little too expensive to lose. Undeterred from the loss Starwalker was soon out again in another Merlin.

Angron Vail noted an Incursus at his local sun in the corporate communications channel and called for some help as he thought it was with a Thrasher. Peri Simone responded that he would help and soon called point on the Incursus. Starwalker replied that he was three jumps out and that it would be all over by the time he got there.

Just as Starwalker arrived at the home system gate Peri Simone called point on the Thrasher and immediately Starwalker jumped through and warped to the sun. Peri Simone was in a Republic Fleet Firetail around around 50km away with a Thrasher and an Incursus. Just as Starwalker started to burn towards them Angron Vail returned in another Rifter.

The Incursus, piloted by Raiden Rattlehead, turned towards the new arrivals and the distance closed rapidly to engagement range. Starwalker's Merlin applied scram, web and blasters and the Incursus tanked like a champion. It was clearly another dual repair active tank fit and they were really strong. 

The Thrasher had rejoined the frigate fray and was targeting Starwalker's Merlin and it was struggling to stay alive. However, the other Rebels tipped the balance and the Incursus became a space wreck. Starwalker switched target to the Thrasher as the point dropped on the Merlin and considered whether to leave to repair as the Thrasher was already damaged.

He took too long to decide and the Merlin joined the wreckage. The Thrasher though did not last much longer and it too went down in flames. Starwalker had not expected to join this fight as he thought it would be over by the time he got there but as luck would have it - he was just in time to die.

Hulkageddon Suicide Ganks

Starwalker was in Tividu picking up some data cores and this happened to be just 8 jumps from Kador Prime where Kaeda Maxwell was preparing for some Hulkageddon suicide ganks. It was too good an opportunity to miss and so he joined the fleet, where Kaeda even supplied the T1 Thrasher, ammunition and fittings.

It was not long before a target was spotted in Khafis but it was either nervous or just finishing mining operations because it docked up. However, that initial excitement and disappointment was soon gone as another Hulk was found in Amdonen. 

The fleet warped in and locked up the target and fired with Starwalker doing the same. Nothing happened - Starwalker had to acknowledge the message that he wanted to fire! He did and Rum Stiltskin and his Hulk were shot and killed. Concord arrived soon afterwards and then Starwalker was in his pod heading back to Kador Prime.

It was his first suicide gank and it had been a success. It was perhaps more exciting to have targets shoot back but this was fun too. However, the next potential victim was lucky due to a mix up with bookmarks when using out of corporation/fleet scouts - no fleet warp in. By the time the bookmark had been transferred to someone in fleet the Hulk had left the system.

Iader Saimon was in a Hulk in Khafis and the Rebel fleet arrived at the scene and locked him up. Starwalker had his overview set to fleet and realised the error of his ways as the Hulk position moved in the overview and Starwalker targeted a fleet member instead. He cancelled the lock and reacquired the Hulk but it was too late - he was dead. So instead of dying with his fleet mates he witnessed Concord blowing up his fellow Rebels.

Starwalker immediately reset the overview to "combat" and returned to base. He got it right the next two times as Maxim Thodt and Drannar Deddog went down. Dreksl also found it amusing to get in on Starwalker's death to Concord. However, what was more amusing was Kaeda Maxwell entering local on the way to Kothe and a local shouting a warning that he had arrived. The warning did not save Serena Jarati who was either too slow or did not see it. 

The final suicide bank of the night was located in Kamda and the fleet warped out. However, a Raptor on gate was very fast and managed to snag Kaeda Maxwell as the fleet jumped in. Fortunately Kaeda's scout Kohana Maxwell was part of the fleet and able to provide the final warp in. It was Deathamarr's turn to die and he did but not before launching drones onto Starwalker.

Starwalker had great fun. It was his first time on a suicide gank and over the course of a few hours he had been on five kills and two loss mails. It was also a timely reminder of how dangerous the Destroyers are, especially in a gang.

Cormorant Maiden Flight and Choices

Starwalker was distracted whilst waiting at the sun and since nothing had been happening he quickly disappeared from the flight controls rather than go to a safe first and then disappear. It was the wrong decision, he should have gone to a safe.

He returned just in time to find that a Thrasher at 22km had begun to fire at the Cormorant, which was slow boating to conserve its capacitor. At least that was better than finding a wreck. Starwalker immediately hit approach and turned on his micro-warpdrive to get under the artillery guns. That was perhaps the second wrong decision - it was too late and too slow.

The distance was slowly closing but he was still 13km away and the Cormorant shields were nearly gone.  On a shield fit ship that was not good but it was too late to change course now and Starwalker hit the overheat again as it appeared the last command had got lost.

The distance closed to 10km but Starwalker was in armour now and progress noticeably slowed, he was simply not going to make it. The Cormorant had soaked up all the damage that it could and the fatal blow came - destroying the ship and bursting it into a million pieces. 

The Cormorant was blaster fit and never even came close to being in close combat range. Starwalker would never know if he had started his approach earlier at full (overheated) speed whether that would have made any difference. 

Starwalker had also noticed that he was strongly influenced by what had killed him last:

• If killed at range by a fast kiting ship then he felt that he should also be in a fast kiting ship
• If killed at close combat range by a brawler then he should also be in a brawler
• If killed by an active tanked ship then he should active tank
• If killed by a buffer tanked ship then he should buffer tank

It was the logical equivalent of trying to win the LAST war. Starwalker considered whether he should simply select an arbitrary ship and fly (and lose) many of them before moving on to any other ship. He currently had a tendency to shift between ships albeit the range of ships was actually quite small - Minmatar and Caldari - frigates and destroyers.

Whilst he flitted between ships he knew what he liked:

• Flexibility to engage a wide range of targets (frigate to battlecruiser) with a reasonable chance of solo success
• High DPS for the class of ship, ideally good damage projection for kiters
• Fast and agile to quickly close to scrambler range or to slingshot kiters
• Strong tank to soak up damage brawling and prevent low DPS kiter kills
• Capacitor stable or will last really well when in full use

Maybe part of the reason for moving between ships was that he hadn't really found a ship and fit with the best combination of the above characteristics. He also knew that pilot error was a big reason for losing ships and not the ship itself. The choice of ship was more about learning to fly and fight in that ship inside out. Using that previous analysis, perhaps he should focus on flying and fighting in the Hawk, although the afterburner fit might be too slow. Would something faster like a Taranis be better?

Starwalker considered his options - should he really focus on a single ship for solo combat? If so, what ship? What about his training queue such as Gallente Frigate V or Interceptor V or his foray with covert operation ships or the stealth bomber? Choices, choices, choices.

RIFTA says Hello and EVE Welcome by the North

The R1FTA holiday in the North had started and Ilik Tanikalot was beginning celebrations with a roam around the local area. It was a frigate and Thrasher party and the meet up started in The Citadel.

Starwalker had a Merlin and was testing out a new fit as an alternative T1 frigate to the trusty Rifter. Starwalker was still enjoying experimenting with ships, even if that had almost exclusively been with frigates so far. 

Training for a larger ship had commenced and Battlecruiser V was currently being trained but Starwalker wondered if he had dismissed the cruiser class too quickly. Maybe he should actually fly them before battlecruisers, however, that question could wait, as Starwalker returned to the task in hand - to fit the selected modules to the Merlin.

The new Merlin experiment failed immediately as Starwalker tried to actually fit the T2 blasters. He did not have the pre-requisite skill level. Starwalker had forgotten to train the blaster skill before starting battlecruiser V. In turn, this then emphasised a problem with only keeping a few ships and fittings at a station - few or no alternate choices for fitting the ship.

Starwalker replaced the T2 blasters with 200mm auto-cannons and knew that his carefully selected set of modules for the ships present in station had just been thrown into chaos. A rethink and resupply to the station would be needed to realign the ships and their available modules.

The Merlin was ready and smoothly slid into space and joined the other R1FTA pilots. The fleet meandered through The Citadel looking for targets of opportunity and eventually their patience was rewarded in Black Rise, Akidagi. A Tengu was spotted and engaged.

The R1FTA pilots swarmed in and initiated - death by a thousand cuts. Point was established and maintained as frigates and destroyers swirled about the Tengu but the Tengu was not alone and as it started to go down his friends joined the fight - Cynabal, Vagabond, Stilletto, Pilgrim, Blackbird and Ares.

The R1FTA swarm was being depleted fast but they focused on the Tengu and brought him down. The remaining R1FTA pilots then bugged out to reorganise and re-ship as needed. The R1FTA hello to the North had resulted in a great Tengu kill.

With spirits high and alcohol flowing freely the reorganised fleet set off again but the North hadn't properly finished welcoming the R1FTA pilots and the fleet was decimated in Akidagi again and Starwalker lost his lovely Merlin. Undeterred the R1FTA fleet set out again with Starwalker buying an available fitted Thrasher. It did not last long as the R1FTA fleet again succumbed to the locals and the newly commissioned Thrasher became a new wreck.

Starwalker returned to base to re-ship and was unable to fit a Merlin so undocked in a trusty Rifter but with an artillery fit. Starwalker preferred brawlers with more tank but his choice was limited to what was in station. The reconstituted fleet headed off to Syndicate null-sec and received yet another warm welcome from many locals and the artillery Rifter was gone.

Having had a full evening of entertainment Starwalker headed back to base - in his capsule. It had been fun and the highlight had been the Tengu kill. No doubt it would be an interesting holiday here in the North and Starwalker reset his clone location to local. Given the warm welcome so far it would only be a matter of time before he found himself in the clone vat.

Destroyer Destroys Hawk in Bosena

Starwalker was heading back to Heild from Uemon and it had been very uneventful. His Hawk was moving through the systems scanning for targets but nothing of interest had appeared to be flying in space.

Entering Bosena Starwalker went to the Sun looking for a fight with a local. Given the number of pilots in local it seemed that someone would arrive soon and so he waited. A Retribution appeared and as the Hawk closed to around 40km the Retribution started firing its lasers. However, apart from the light show they were not having any effect.

The Retribution was still well outside point range when it disappeared. Starwalker assumed it was because another R1FTA pilot had arrived in local. It was pure coincidence and it was certainly not a trap, if Starwalker was in fleet then he would have at least established point first.

Starwalker waited as the R1FTA pilot moved on and then the Retribution pilot, Arasul, came back in a Thrasher. It seemed that Arasul did not like his chances against the Hawk in a Retribution and had returned in something that was scarier but not too scary. Starwalker decided to engage – that was what he was here for.

The Hawk was quickly in orbit at around 5km and the Thrasher was firing away with 200mm auto-cannons. The Thrasher’s orbit closed in to around 2km from the Hawk and then back out to 5km.  The damage was coming in hard for both and as the shields started to give way on the Hawk Starwalker activated the shield booster.

The Thrasher's shield was going down as well and it was becoming a DPS race. The Thrasher was into low armour as Starwalker heard the capacitor give out and was no longer providing any shield boost. The Hawk entered armour but the Thrasher was entering structure and Starwalker turned back to watch the Thrasher die.

It didn’t die fast enough and the Hawk exploded. Starwalker was so surprised that he had not aligned out to save the pod and that was caught too for another 70m ISK loss of the last +4 implants.

In hindsight Starwalker knew that he could have improved:

• Noticed that he was being neutralised and so he could have used range to break that
• Used a better range to fight at, 5km was probably too close but he had been fooled to some extent by the Thrasher starting to fire at range and so Starwalker went in a little bit closer
• Starwalker had overheated the rockets but should have overheated the auto-cannon too. That little extra might have made the difference, assuming he did not burn them out
• Used the combat booster, that was there and unused in the cargo bay – it had simply been forgotten
• Used the shield booster earlier and it should have been overheated earlier rather than wait until when the shields were already down to 25%

Rebels on Roam in Heimatar and Devoid

Kaeda Maxwell had set the Rebel roam to start in Aliette, Heimatar. It was not a bad location to start but Starwalker was in Heild and decided that he would cross hi-sec in his Rifter to get to Aliette, as he couldn’t be bothered to go around via a low-sec route.

The first stop for the Rebel fleet of a Thrasher (Kaeda Maxwell) and three Rifters (Vincent R’lyeh, Kooba Kaundur and Starwalker) was in Amamake in a deadspace complex. Like waiting at the sun or the top asteroid belt it was a clear advertisement to local pilots of a wish to fight. It looked like the wish was answered as a Cormorant, Rifter and Thrasher jumped in.

However, as the Rebels engaged and made the Cormorant the primary target the rest of the enemy fleet jumped in and the Rebel ships were slaughtered within seconds. It appeared the Heretic fleet had come in with more than double the number of ships and five of those were destroyers. Clearly the Heretic fleet had not under-estimated the danger of a Rebel fleet and felt the need to arrive with overwhelming odds. That was not a problem – this is EVE.

Starwalker had aligned out well before his ship exploded to save his pod but for whatever reasons spamming the warp command had simply produced no result and his pod was destroyed too. A bit of a shame, as that marked another set of +4 implants gone.

Of course, for Rebels, losing a ship was not a deterrent to getting into another ship and going out again, and it was not long before the Rebel fleet was reformed in Aliette. Strangely enough this time the fleet was bigger and included more Thrashers and Rifters.

Soon the fleet was out and roaming again. In Auga it was decided that waiting in a complex would be a good idea again, despite what had happened the last time. However, it produced a strange result as an Imperial Navy Slicer entered, was caught almost immediately and destroyed. Starwalker was inclined to believe that the pilot had simply warped in, without checking first, and had been surprised that it was occupied.

The fleet continued on through Devoid but Starwalker’s Rifter started flashing its service light and so he set off alone back to Heild to get it checked out. On the way back, a Hyperion in Amamake tried to destroy the Rifter with three smart bomb bursts as Starwalker warped to the gate. It was not enough to destroy the Rifter and Starwalker jumped through and simply returned to base.

Hookbill Dies to Thrasher in Angel Complex

Starwalker had scanned a Tristan and Thrasher to a (2/10) complex in Heild and wondered if they were missioning together or fighting. There was only one way to find out and Starwalker warped in at 70km.

There was no target ship after coming out of warp and so Starwalker burnt towards the acceleration gate and activated it. The rockets were pre-heated and as Starwalker landed there were many mobs waiting around 14km away and a Thrasher at 4km. Starwalker hit the approach and realized a few seconds later that he really needed to get some distance and so hit orbit at 9km.

The Thrasher did not wait and started hitting the Hookbill hard. Starwalker returned fire with the rockets but in the first few seconds the shields were already disappearing fast as hits of between 370 and 470 came in. Starwalker was hitting back for 225 to 280 but it was not enough and he tried to gain distance but it was simply not happening and overheating the afterburner was nowhere near effective.

Starwalker realized that he was going down and desperately tried to avoid destruction by doing more damage. He belatedly applied the webs but it was all looking like too little too late. The Thrasher shields were nearly gone but Starwalker’s Hookbill was now on fire with structure simply vanishing and Starwalker was too slow to get the pod away and that too was cremated. 

The pod loss included some +4 implants but Starwalker knew that was simply the price that he had paid for being too slow to get his pod away. The destruction of the Hookbill had happened in less than thirty seconds and the fight had started badly by landing too close to the Thrasher. It had got worse by not being able to gain distance fast enough. Of course, it appeared that the Thrasher pilot (Jaxartes) had planned that and Starwalker had fallen victim to the trap.


One question on Starwalker’s mind was why the mobs that were so close had not engaged, in asteroid belts, mobs could be 100km and still engage? Starwalker’s losing streak was continuing but at least he had gotten into a fight and that was pleasing.

Stilletto Tackles for Gang on Arzad Gate

Starwalker prepared to set off again for Pure Blind after his previous attempt ended in being podded in 93PI-4. Another new Rifter was pulled into service, the last from this station, and the journey started.

It started uneventful and Starwalker started to read the EVE News as the jumps blurred into one another. Then arriving at a star gate there was a Stilletto, a well-known interceptor ship, providing tackle for a gang. Starwalker jumped through to Arzad and the Stilletto followed, piloted by Wynning Blodtann.

Starwalker waited, holding cloak, as there was nothing else on the other side except for the Stilletto but just maybe the Stilletto was on its way elsewhere. It was not flashy red so Starwalker was not about to attack it. If it was part of a gang then no doubt the gang was inbound.

Starwalker attempted to warp away and the Stilletto engaged, establishing a fast scramble. Starwalker did not hesitate and went for the Stilletto, if he was going down he wanted to take the Stilletto with him.

The Stilletto quickly entered armour and started to burn away looking for escape, the rest of its gang hadn’t arrived yet and was taking longer than expected. Starwalker chased the Stilletto and overheated the mid-slots but the Stilletto was too fast and moved out to around 20km as his friends arrived.

Starwalker started to burn towards the gate as the gang was starting to engage at range. A Thrasher tried to establish a point as the Stilletto came back in and damage was starting to arrive from the Thrasher’s 250mm artillery and jjohnpaul’s CN Scourge heavy missiles. Zenton Karvash’s Tachyon Beam Lasers were missing and that might have made the difference as Starwalker’s Rifter entered deep armour damage.

Starwalker starting firing at the Stilletto again and it entered structured but Starwalker had forgotten to reapply scramble and the Stilletto warped away in deep structure. However, it was the Stilletto that had Starwalker’s Rifter scrambled and as he warped away Starwalker was also able to warp away trailing fire. He had escaped! Starwalker was pleased at how well his “heavy tank” Rifter had performed under fire.

Very soon Starwalker was continuing his journey after applying copious amounts of nanite paste to the badly overheated modules. Fortunately, the rest of the journey was uneventful as Starwalker chose to dock up before entering Pure Blind and then entered cautiously at a quiet time.

Starwalker made his way to the Pure Blind station that had his Caldari Navy Hookbills, delivered by Starstepper. Starstepper had narrowly avoided destruction from gate camps in EC-P8R from Torrinos whilst Starwalker was doing the tourist thing in New Eden.

The Hookbill, a new ship for Starwalker and one that he was looking forward to flying – its sleek black lines would look good in flames.

Thrasher Trashed in Heild

Starwalker headed into the deep of space in Molden Heath growing disillusioned with his ability to find targets and get into good fights. Spending hours on hours searching for targets was becoming less fun.

Starwalker ruefully noted that not finding targets was not the same as being a target and not getting any meaningful kills was not the same as not being killed. Indeed, Starwalker’s Thrasher had been caught at the Heild gate.

In reality Starwalker had made a mistake, by jumping through to Heild as a Slicer and Retribution arrived at the gate. They immediately followed and were able to quickly establish point and get to around 20km away. Too far away for the auto cannon fit Thrasher to hit but not too far to be hit by the kiters.

Starwalker made a desperate attempt to get back to the gate but the Thrasher was very slow with the 400mm plate fitted. The situation was not made any better when a Republic Fleet Firetail and Crow joined the Slicer and Retribution.

It was not long before the Thrasher exploded but as was becoming normal Starwalker was able to get the pod away to safety. Starwalker reviewed the fight and knew that he should have waited for the kiters to aggress and then jump through. It might not have changed the outcome but it would split the attackers at a minimum and offered more of a chance, to either get a kill or escape.

Starwalker got back to his quarters and poured a drink – maybe it was time for holiday.

Solo Thrasher Kill

Starwalker knew that he had messed up with the Punisher that got away but was pleased to have found a fight after what had seemed like ages. After some nanite repairs and a quick jaunt away, Starwalker returned to Adirain. Just as he jumped in WirtuEks Deninard was there with a Thrasher and just warping away. Just like buses none come for ages and then two come close together. The Thrasher was a dangerous frigate killer but given a young pilot it was a chance worth taking. Target acquired, hunt on.

After warping around and looking for the Thrasher with d-scan it seemed to be back at a Stargate. May be it was hunting too? Starwalker warped in at 100km and saw on grid that the Thrasher was 254km away. Just as he started to burn towards it the Thrasher warped to the gate. Maybe the Thrasher was looking for a fight? On a hunch Starwalker started to burn away from the stargate to get 150km away from it and checking for the Thrasher. The Thrasher was closing the distance, the fight was on.

Once the range had been gained from the stargate Starwalker turned and burnt towards the Thrasher. Lock, orbit, scramble, fire - check scramble, just in case. The Thrasher had not fired as the distance closed so this was going to be a brawl and Starwalker hit overheat to maximise damage. It was close, very close.

The Thrasher was into deep armour but the Rifter shields were nearly gone. The Thrasher entered structure but now the Rifter armour was disappearing in great chunks and suddenly no capacitor, the Thrasher had drained it and could now get away but it would be suicide to try now. This was do or die and given how close it was to killing the Rifter it decided to stay to try and finish the job.

It didn’t, it exploded (http://r1fta.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=10174318) just as Starwalker entered structure. This was a long awaited and very satisfying kill. However, checking the killmail Starwalker realised how lucky he was as if the pilot had used faction ammunition or fitted a damage control II it would have been a different story.