Rifter Drifter

Seeing as plenty of people have been offering up the contents of their hangar I thought I should probably join in. My hangar in GE-8JV contains the following ships:

• Rifter: I have about 15 of these kicking around with a couple of fits that I am trying out. They are usually just called Rifter but at the moment I have one called Freki after the alliance tournament prize and one called Agincourt after its victory over the French in Curse.
• Cheetah: Called Peek-a-boo and used mostly for probing exploration sites. My probing skills are terrible and I use the exploration sites to get some practice. Honest.
• Claw: I have two of these both confusingly called Claw and it takes me a couple of attempts to tell them apart. One is fit with an active tank and the other with a buffer tank. Not a ship I regularly solo in so the active tank ship gets more use in interceptor packs.
• Stiletto: My staple fleet ship. I currently only have one of these because they die pretty often. She’s called Point! and my fit is pretty standard for a tackle interceptor. Sometimes I like to put on explosive shield resist rigs when I’m tackling for a small gang.
• Hound: When I run frigate gangs I tend to FC from the safety of my stealth bomber. Hound is fit to be able to use torpedoes and bombs and the cloak makes it a good ship to lead from.
• Republic Fleet Firetail: Currently unassembled my Firetail is waiting for me to come up with a fit that I like before I take her out hunting.
• Dramiel: I have two of these sleek and popular Angel frigates. The hefty price tag and status as flavour of the month has put me off flying them. I should really sell them while their price is at a peak but I like having them around.
• Thrasher: This is probably my favourite ship to fly at the moment and I have seven in my hangar. Three of them are fit; one with artillery, one with autocannons, and one with an experimental setup I have yet to try. All of them are called either Sabre or Thrasher except the test one which is called Brick.
• Sabre: This is the most recent addition to my hangar and one that I am just getting the hang of flying. She’s called Sabre and has been out on a couple of gangs now.
• Rupture: Another staple and a ship I have been flying in solo a lot recently. I currently have two fit in my hangar. Freki is fit as a nano ship for pretending to be a Vagabond in and Rupture is a pretty standard armour tank fit.
• Muninn: A pretty standard sniper HAC that hasn’t been used in far too long. Named Muninn in case you didn’t spot the general theme here.
• Vagabond: Another staple of any Minmatar hangar. Eponymously named Vagabond she comes out in small gangs.
• Rapier: I haven’t actually used her in anger but she’s there for when I need her. Until then Rapier still has the manufacturer’s shrink rap on some of her controls.
• Scimitar: Because I only have Logistics IV I haven’t played with Scimitar much. She’s fit for roaming PvP gangs but I’m still adjusting the fit until I’m happy with it. I do sometimes fly logistics for alliance fleets but in those cases I use official alliance-fit logistics ships.
• Hurricane: I have just one of these called, imaginatively, Hurricane. She’s fit for damage and hasn’t seen the light of day for quite a while.
• Tempest: Machariel is my fleet fit Tempest for when DPS is the only thing we need. I prefer to fly in support roles but lately there hasn’t been any point so the fleet battleship has been brought out. Despite being a small ship pilot in general I have had fun flying Tempests in small gangs with some of my old pirate friends. I tried a nano fit but it died due to over confidence or lack of ability. Hopefully I’ll try another before too long.
• Typhoon: This is my ratting ship. I lost her predecessor due to accidentally turning off all my hardeners so this one is called Pay Attention. I don’t use her much these days because my alts provide most of my income.

As you can see, Wensley’s hangar is fully focussed on PvP. The Wolf, Jaguar, and Cyclone are noticeable by their absence at the moment but I’ll probably buy some soon. I like to be stocked for any eventuality. In general I tend to solo in the T1 ships and use the T2 variants in gangs and fleets.

The An’Har family, by contrast, have a selection of shuttles, a Prowler, and a Mastodon to their name. They’re saving up for a Fenrir but that is probably a little while away because Wensley loses ships at a phenomenal rate.

We’ve all done it. You’ve just got back from a fleet operation, you’re yawning and already thinking of climbing into your snug bunk. Your mind is idling and you’re just flicking through a few bits of paperwork and having a quick sort out in your hangar. Voice communications are full of people debriefing after the operation while the next shift of people are just getting up to speed and organising themselves.

Suddenly the gentle chatter is pierced by the report of a Brutix sitting in a belt. One at a time everyone scrambles to their hangar and jumps into a ship. No-one is co-ordinating things no-one is in charge. The target escapes but we’re now back in space and spread out. Another potential target is called. Its obviously bait but who cares? We all charge in haphazardly. The tackler dies before half the fleet have even realised he’s in a separate system. Never mind. We all jump in anyway.

The same Brutix is sitting just off the gate where he killed your corp mate’s Taranis. There’s no-one else around. You uncloak your Hound and without thinking hit approach and light up the Brutix with your target painters. Missiles fire, they hit, his shields vapourise. Wait. Approach? What? Oh shit. Hammering the “keep at range” command you notice your warp drives have been disrupted. Double shit. Oh crap, you hadn’t fired up your afterburner either. Now you’re webbed and there are drones all over you. Triple shit. Your Hound explodes. Bugger.

The moral of the story? When you’ve got home and decided its time to hit the sack, do it!

After a relaxing week away from the front lines I’m back in Hevrice and ready to kick some arse. To make my return even more momentous I thought I’d mix up the ships I was flying so Monday night saw me cruising around Obray constellation in a Claw.

Pretty much as soon as I undocked there was a target in system. PreZiDent was already out in his Thorax hunting for a Catalyst running missions for the Caldari milita. The destroyer pilot was on the ball and the slow cruiser was unable to get a good lock on him. Hopefully the advanced electronic systems of my interceptor would change this around. After I’d chased him out of his deadspace complex a couple of times PreZ and I settled in on the acceleration gate to try and camp him down. If I could get a scramble on his warp engines he’d be unable to activate the gate and we’d have him pinned down. (For those who don’t already know acceleration gates use your warp drive not an anchored wormhole like stargates so you can’t use them when your warp drive is disrupted.)

The Catalyst warped in and I quickly got a lock and settled into a tight orbit. My afterburner and reduced signature radius should keep me safe from his railguns. He returned lock on me and fired. By heck that hurt. And another volley. Shit. He was blaster fitted. Time to quickly get out to a safe range. As my ship began to take structural damage I was finally able to get out to a relatively safe orbit. By now PreZ had got his lock and his additional firepower melted the Catalyst. That was far too close. I got out with 20% structural integrity remaining.

For a while things were pretty quiet. There wasn’t much to be seen in Hevrice so I hopped back into my customary Rifter and went for a roam. On the Aeschee gate in Adirain I spotted a Helios sitting uncloaked. Now frigates really aren’t designed to operate under gate guns but covert ops ships are extremely fragile. I approached him and once sitting right next to him aligned to a planet, locked, and fired. I had him down at about half armour before I had to warp off to the safety of a planet. Never mind. He stayed uncloaked but ran off to hide at a POS. Not long after I scanned down a second Helios, this time sitting uncloaked at the sun. Again I warped in but this time he was 100 km from me and was able to warp out before I could close the gap. He stayed uncloaked but not at any celestial I could find.

Meanwhile back in Hevrice a cluster of ships were being reported including a pair of Ishkurs and a Kitsune. After a bit of debate the decision was taken to engage and I undocked in my Hound. The plan was simple. PreZ’s Thorax would act as bait with the Hound and Joc’s Pilgrim cloaked and ready. Suffice to say the bait was taken and the covert ships uncloaked to spring the trap. The Kitsune focussed on Joc initially allow PreZ and I to pop the first Ishkur before I turned my attention to the Kitsune while the others got their drones on the second Ishkur. As I got my first volley off the Kitsune jammed me and I retreated from the field in order to break his jam. By the time I returned the second Ishkur was down and the Kitsune had fled with heavy armour damage from my cruise missiles. My Hound is going to be having its systems updated soon so it can warp cloaked and fit siege launchers to better engage battleships. I definitely want to experiment with these new capabilities in gangs soon.

That was all the action I saw that night. After the fight I docked up and headed to one of the station’s bars to catch up with some friends. Tuesday saw me back in space and back in a Rifter.

I was able to scan down a Rifter but as I warped to its location it warped in to the planet I was scanning from. Damn. It was an outlaw too. I turned my Rifter round as a Tristan landed in my belt but by the time I got back to my original location the Rifter was gone. Never mind, the Tristan was where I left it so I warped back to the belt. The pilot was a young cadet who had already made contact with us on our forums. Unfazed by the fact I was a seasoned combat pilot he began to make a beeline for my Rifter. I returned the favour while telling my navigation computer to settle into a nice wide orbit, well out of the range of his blasters. Pinned down by my tackle systems the Tristan didn’t stand a chance and I tore it apart. As the smoke cleared and his pod warped to safety the pilot hailed me over comms and we discussed the fight. He was keen to learn more so I introduced him to the rest of my corporation while I continued my hunt. A Rifter was on scan but when I warped to his location he was 100 km away and he warped off to the Adirain gate.

I like hunting in Adirain and this guy wasn’t going to shake me off. I warped to the gate and jumped through myself. I warped to my favourite safe spot and began scanning. As well as a background of mission runners I saw an Arbitrator and the Rifter bouncing between planets. After warping in on them a couple of times with the Rifter at 100 km and the Arbitrator at the warp in point I decided that I could probably split them up and engage. I headed for the Rifter which promptly warped off and the Arbitrator gave chase. Interesting. Maybe they weren’t together and the Arbitrator was hunting too. I taunted the Arbitrator a couple of times, orbiting it outside of its warp disruption range to get a measure of its speed and capabilities. Each time he warped off I followed. Eventually I saw him with drones out and seeing that he had Hobgoblins I decided to engage. I tucked into a nice orbit at 7,500 m to make sure I was safe from any small energy neutralisers that he might have. Without my capacitor I didn’t have a chance to dispose of the drones. With his ship scrambled the fight was on. I engaged his flight of Hobgoblin IIs using my web to slow down each one while my guns popped it. Without his drones I’d neutered his damage potential and closed in for the kill. He unleashed a pack of Hammerhead IIs but the medium drones had a hard time hitting me. His defences couldn’t cope with my onslaught and I was able to destroy the cruiser but his pod escaped.

Overall a nice bunch of fights to ease myself back in from my holidays and a nice bunch of ISK in my pocket from the loot. I hope you all had a good Easter. See you in space.

Oh, and Roc, watch out… I’m heading in your direction…