A poor day in the saddle

Today has been sub-par, I think that would put it mildy. I have lost two Rifters today but it feels like I have lost many more.

The first fight was quite enjoyable against a fellow Rifter pilot of similar age, it was incredibly close fought and came down to structure, he finished on 20%, I finished on none. Had I been in my cap-boosted fit there is no doubt I would have been the victor.

This evening I tracked down a Thrasher to a belt and went in guns blazing, or so I thought. Wondering why I was doing zero damage to him I noticed at 20% armour that my guns were inactive (Doh!), I attempted to warpout but didn't make it before I had been reduced to my pod. An embarrassing loss but the opposing pilot was good natured about it.

This evening I located a young pilot in a Rifter and throwing caution to the wind engaged, not optimistically after the days performance so far. He died and so did his pod. His fit was bad and I think I did Rifters the world over a favour by killing this one.

I feel that my confidence in my original "classic" pvp Rifter is diminishing so perhaps this is why I am dissatisfied with the days performance as I have been "using up" my stockpile of classics.

My first proper solo low-sec pvp fight

Well last night I logged on to have a quick roam before I hit the sack. I planned on taking in just three systems. The first system was quiet, only me in it so I moved on to the next in line, Wiskeber. In the system two other pilots were present, one I knew to be one that flew around low sec in a shuttle, the other 0utlaw star was an eight day old character. Warping to a safe spot I scanned down a shuttle and a Rupture. Within less than a minute I had the cruisers location pinpointed in an Ice Field.

Now I am still training my learning skills so only have the combat skills of a 1 day old pilot but I thought it was worth a shot as I have heard stories of what characters even a few hours old are capable of. Making sure my Damage Control was active I warped to zero on the belt and sure enough landed right on top of him quickly tackling and getting point on him. I orbit him and really slowly start pecking away at his shields, keeping a close eye on local I see it start to get alot busier mostly with people with low-sec status. The Rupture pilot is also commenting in local about how I will not kill him bound to attract attention from my fellow pirates. I make the decision that I will keep at it as at this point I am neither webbed nor scrammed. He's running a shield booster while I am attacking him and gradually depleating his shields so I know that combined with my Nos, his cap isn't going to last forever. I am taking some damage all this while, not from his artillery fit but from his assault launchers but with the nos running and cycling the armour repper, I can take it. After unloading two full hoppers of ammo into his shield they are practically non-existent and he's been getting some armour bleed the first pirate I saw appear in local decloaks and primaries me and within 20seconds I was reduced to my pod and warping to a safe spot. On my way out I gave "gf" in local which was reciprocated by my stealth bomber assailant, I just hoped he had taken out the Rupture and that my efforts were not wasted. I was gratified to see soon after the Rupture Pilot on scan in a capsule.

Whilst I didn't win the fight(s) I thoroughly enjoyed them and hope for more success when I start actually training some combat skills!

Lessons learned;
- Currently using my afterburner to maintain orbit doesn't gain me anything other than losing cap.
- Orbiting in an Ice Field isn't great as I kept bouncing off rocks.
- Even a one day old in a Rifter and Meta 2 modules can take down a cruiser with sufficient time.