Rifter Drifter

I do like a good frigate duel. Rifters are cheap enough that I can afford to take on a fight with odds that I’d usually avoid in more expensive ships. I’m also pretty good at flying them these days, in fact I’ve kind of regressed back into them from flying more expensive cruisers and interceptors but that’s for another post.

I was pootling around Eifer looking for targets when a Rifter comes up on scan. I tool around a couple of safespots trying to scan him down and eventually have him pinned to a safe location between Eifer I and Eifer II. From the fact that he’s in a safe spot he probably knows how to handle himself and he’s probably looking for me. I warp to Eifer II and align to Eifer I and try to use the range of my scans to work out where he is. As I’m doing this a red flashing Rifter drops out of warp 100 km from my location. The fight was on.

I fired up my microwarp drive and keyed in an orbital distance of 7,500 m, right in the falloff of my Barrage ammunition and out of range of any high damage faction ammo he might be carrying. As we approached a couple of shots bounced of my shields, alerting me to the fact that this was a tough opponent, much older and more skilled than me. I didn’t care, though, I’d committed and I was going to fight to the death. As our ships came together the sky between us lit up with autocannon rounds, stasis webs, and warp disruption fields. I was taking damage hard and fast so quickly overheated my repair systems and guns in the hope of being able to hold on long enough to take him down. There was little chance of this, of course, because he was doing the same to me and had a head start. I exploded while he still had a comfortable amount of armour protecting his pod.

It was a good fight and I enjoyed it. If I’m in a similar situation again I need to seize the initiative quickly rather than wait until I’m in the optimum location. The damage that I suffered in the approach and didn’t return set me back through the whole fight and I suffered for it. Next time I’ll open up my guns as soon as I can lock. I might not hit much but every impact will make a difference and what’s a few rounds of Barrage between friends?

I’ll definitely be sticking in the Rifter for a while longer. The kills that Rylak is clocking up in his Punisher are making me think that the frigate is definitely the way to go while my cruiser and battlecruiser skills accumulate.