The curious case of the Sleipnir

This last weekend I found myself online for a few hours. During the course of the day I managed to get a few kills. It all started with Grumblecub 2, my Rifter finding an Omen ratting in Adirain which was little challenge as the pilot had fitted shield and armour tanks along with a mix of lasers, artillery & missile launcher. Sometimes I feel like I should tell the pilot about how to better fit their ship, however they never seem to want to hear about it after their prized posession has been destroyed.

Next up, a call went out that a small BC gang had been seen a few systems from Hevrice. Three Tuskers including Kirith in BC's plus one in a Dramiel set off in search. We eventually lost them as we were a few jumps behind, however our scout found a Hurricane and we caught him as he jumped through the gate, the dual webs on my PODLA Drake thwarting his efforts to reach the gate we destroyed him in short order.

Heading back towards Hevrice I was trailing behind the gang and caught sight of a Catalyst ratting in Costolle. His warp core stabiliser failing to save him as two volleys of heavy missiles were sufficent to destroy him before he could warp away.

Much later in the day I was cruising around in my Dramiel (can't remember if I said I'd bought another?) and saw a Retribution and Sleipnir slowboating away 450km off the Hulmate gate in Onne. I advised the Corp of my sighting and moved on. Back in Adirain and a Brutix had jumped in seemingly afk from Arnon, knowing that time would be of the essence I jumped into a Drake and made best speed to the gate. He must have come back at some point during my missile bombardment as he returned fire and started telling me to stop in local. It didn't take long before his Brutix was destroyed and swiftly after his Pod too.

While waiting out my GCC for popping the Brutix, Corp chat picked up on my comment about the Sleipnir and a small force assembled to engage it. Running the gate guns our response force waited at the Onne gate in Aeschee. As soon as the Sleipnir had been tackled we jumped in and quickly took it down with the Retribution swiftly following. We were surprised with the speed the Sleipnir dropped and the lack of bling loot contained within. During the process of dealing with these two a Rupture was found in local and swiftly dispatched.

We still have no idea what the Sleipnir was trying to do just slowboating off into space.

All in all, quite a fun day

A busy evening

Tonight set out looking very quiet on a evening roam of the local systems. Continuing however in the hope of finding something to shoot I was not disappointed on entering a system and seeing a pilot flagged as an outlaw for some misdemeanor.

I fairly quickly, for my scanning skills are improving managed to scan him down at a planet, however also on scan was a second ship. Deciding to warp in anyway I saw both ships on the overview, around 20km apart. I set about the flashy red ship first, which was a Maller cruiser. It didn't take long to get through his shields but his armour was a different story. During the fight the other ship, an Omen cruiser engaged aswell sending his hammerhead drone after me. I switched fire from the Maller which by this point was only at 60% armour to the drone and took it out fairly quickly. The pressure of the two ships and drone were starting to tell as smoke and flames pored from Baron Greenback. I got in a couple of rep cycles before dropping into the escape pod. Reviewing the fight in hindsight whilst on my way to grab another Rifter I would have been comfortably able to take out the Maller solo were it not for the other guy who joined in.

The second engagement of the evening took place after another spell of unsuccessful roaming. Back in my home system I scanned down a Rifter, piloted by a five year old character, warping into the belt I tackled the other Rifter, but took no fire in return (not that I noticed at the time), very quickly a Crow Interceptor warped in starting to pound on me with Rockets. I popped the Rifter but was heavily into armour/structure. Switching to tackle the Crow I took out some of his shields before been relegated for the second time this evening to my pod, luckily escaping with my pod. Again with hindsight, had I noticed that the Rifter wasn't shooting me I could easily have downed the crow and then the Rifter, but then I live and learn. Clearly the Rifter was bait.

Back to the station to pickup another Rifter. Only 4 days to go now until learning skills are finished and I can start training real combat skills.