A Close fought fight

Logging into local to see 18 pilots was little bit of an eye opener. The highest I have ever seen in fact, there was a mix of newer and older players present. After scooting around a I happened upon a vigil in a belt, zooming in at max camera range I noticed that it was unarmed, thus sensing another trap (see yesterday) I decided not to take the bait.

I set off on a roam for some 30 minutes or so and came across a fairly new player in a Rifter, he appeared to be roaming the belts. Scanning him down was easy, however finding him at the scan location by the time I warped in was not, so after some 15 or so near misses and deciding that he was also trying to scan me down I waited at a belt. A couple of minutes later he turned up at the belt I had parked in and we entered combat, against his shields I definitely had the best of it, going through them quite quickly compared to his progress through mine. When we hit armour though things changed and mine fell away alot faster than his. I entered structure shortly before he did and started sprouting smoke and flames. Lingering in at around 10% structure I got another rep in but alas it was not enough and once again I was dropped to my pod with him at around 60% structure. I warped out to safety and we exchanged "gf" and briefly followed a short conversation of a good nature. Returning to collect another new Rifter from the stable and looking forward to just three days away when hopefully my combat prowess will be on the rapid increase.