I’ve got a nano Tempest that I’ve been using to have fun in low sec when there’s not much going on out in Catch. I’ve had quite a few fun engagements in her, kiting the tacklers from a gang and getting away from from superior numbers. I’ve had a couple of great fights like this and they really do get the adrenaline pumping. In fact, about the only think she hasn’t done is get a kill other than ganking a Scythe and Cheetah who were lured into a false sense of safety by my security status. Well, I saw I’ve “got” a nano Tempest. Now its more a case of I “had” a nano Tempest.

Bored of Old Man Star and wanting to have a little poked around my old home I decided to go to Hevrice and pay The Tuskers a visit. Upon warping to Hevrice V station I was greeted by two outlaw Broadswords camping the station. Perfect. I closed in after making a few feints and started to shoot the closer of the two. I was pretty sure he’d dock if he got into any real trouble but I was curious to see what he’d do. Mal Asha, a young Tusker undocked in a Rifter and warped in towards me. No problem. I can melt a Rifter at 50 km. I told my computer to move me out of point range of the Broadswords and locked up the Rifter. With his afterburner he was under my guns in no time.

Mistake the First: I should have used my microwarp drive to keep him at distance and shredded him from 40 km away.

No worries. With dual neuts and light drones I’d soon have him down. I put the neuts on him and unleashed the drones. It wasn’t long before he dropped point on me and I pulsed my MWD to try and gain range. Before I knew it his scram was back on me and I was back to a crawl again. In the mean time he was taking my drones down and before long I pulled them in an unleashed my EC-600s. These did precisely nothing and were all down before I even checked on their progress. This was starting to get a bit worrying now. The Rifter’s shields were holding at about 50% and I was out of drones and burning cap charges while my own shields slowly dropped. By now both Broadswords had docked and I was alone with the Rifter.

Mistake the Second: Why, oh why, did I let the Rifter tackle me. I have positive security status and he would have been melted by the sentry guns. I could easily have ignored him and played with the Broadswords.

This was starting to look like a really dire situation. There is no way in hell I was going to lose this Tempest to a solo Rifter. Next time my neuts hit it was time for me to warp off. Another Rifter and a pair ofHurricanes had undocked and were loitering at range, waiting for me to get out of sentry range. My neuts did their thing, the Rifter dropped point, and I started to hammer the warp button. Aligning… scrammed again. What the fuck?!

Mistake the Third: If you’re kiting people make sure you’re aligned so you can warp off the very instant they drop point.

By now I’d realised my mistake and this time I aligned for the sun. The second Rifter was now alongside me but had not yet got point. Why not? For good value I shifted one of my neuts onto him which, of course, gave him aggro and he scrammed me. With two Rifters on me the rest warped in and I melted in short order even though I did offer to pay a ransom for my ship in local. Pirates these days, eh? It turns out I had no cap charges left anyway, I had been burning through them like nobody’s business in my certainty of killing the pesky Rifter.

Mistake the Fourth: See mistake two. Yet again I needlessly allowed the second Rifter to tackle me.

Despite it not being a solo kill, my litany of mistakes has lead to a very embarassing and, above all, avoidable lossmail. Despite my mistakes, though, it was excellent piloting by Mal Asha, especially because it turns out he was able to do all this under dual neuts and with no nosferatu, and this leads me to the biggest mistake of them all.

Mistake the Last: Underestimate the power of a well flown Rifter at your peril. They really are amazing little ships!

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