Speed Freaks - Part II

I've been rather passive recently and so once again let this slip a little, but thankfully not to the extent of the previous versions. I won't dwell on the subject though, instead I'll dive right back into the story.

At the end of the last entry, myself and Caster Rom were ready to embark on out epic Dramiel roam. I mentioned my fit briefly in the last time as well and for completeness sake, and the curious amongst you, this is the fit I had chosen to use on the inaugural run:

[Dramiel, Present]

Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Tracking Enhancer II

Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

Warp Disruptor II

1MN MicroWarpdrive II

Gistii B-Type 1MN Afterburner

Medium Shield Extender II

200mm AutoCannon II, Barrage S

200mm AutoCannon II, Barrage S

[empty high slot]

Small Ancillary Current Router I

Small Projectile Ambit Extension I

Small Projectile Ambit Extension I

Warrior II x3

Warrior II x1

Fit aside, we set off into Cloud Ring to see what we could find. As it turned out not much. We had a couple of fights but they didn't turn into kills unfortunately. I had a close call when I nearly got snagged by a gang that was Blue to Cas but not to me, but the Dramiel's face melting speed ensured my survival. It wasn't till we got up into Fade that things started to get interesting in a serious way. We entered a system designated FI01-8 and got a few likely targets on scan. We chased a couple of ships for a while before catching a Caracal 100km of a gate. His paltry weapon systems barely scratched us and he went down in short order. My first Dramiel kill! The pod also felt the bite of our guns. This obviously got the attention of the locals as almost immediately a Drake landed on our position.

We quickly reorganised and engaged the Caldari battlecruiser. Before we had made any appreciable dent in the Drake's shields another battlecruiser landed on grid, this time a Harbinger. We backed off, burning a few hundred kilometres away. The two of them together were a little too much for us. We didn't leave the grid hoping we could drag them apart and engage them. Our patience was rewarded with Drakes departure. I swiftly warped to a wreck a few K's from the Harbinger and got a point, bullets swiftly followed; hammering into the ship. Caster quickly joined me, adding his weapons to the fusillade. The Drake pilot returned, this time in a Taranis. Clearly he was trying to fight fire with fire, but the Taranis is inferior to the Dramiel in almost every respect. On top of that, there were two of us. We quickly switched targets and the interceptor was reduced to space trash in short order. We returned our weapons to the Amarr ship, which we had kept pointed, that too was destroyed. We were just about to start collecting loot when the Drake returned! quite what he hoped to achieve we had no idea, but we turned our weapons on him without a second thought. annoyingly he decided to take out his anger on our poor drones and a we each lost one. It was all for nought though and his second ship of the engagement bit the dust. We caught his pod this time, and we cracked it open like an egg. It seemed at this point the locals had got bored of dying and remained docked in the station, so we moved on.

That was the peak of the excitement for this roam however as we didn't get any more decent engagements. We snagged a Manticore that, for some twisted reason known only to the pilot, decided to try and bomb us. He was dead before his bomb exploded, although he was quick witted enough to get his pod out intact. This is where the outing took a serious nose dive for me. As we were attempting to exit null sec I got sandwiched between two sizable gangs. One landed on me forcing me to jump into a second that was just landing on the other side. I made the hasty mistake of trying to cold warp away, which would have succeeded had some rude individual not put up a bubble at the last moment, yanking me unexpectedly out of warp. Before I could engage my mwd I was warp scrambled by several ships and blown to smithereens! With hindsight I should have just burnt away from the gate and then warped when I was well out of range. It was a galling mistake and one I won't make again. A short lived but brilliant birthday present! I shall have to save up for another.