Yesterday when I logged in I appeared in the station I logged off in the day before, which happened to be Murethand. Luckily I have some ships stocked there and decided to jump into a Rifter for the two jumps back to Ouelletta. I was surprised to see people in system, Mure is usually sparse and even when there are people in local they tend to be docked up. But there on my d-scan was a Daredevil. Inside a plex.
This wasn't even a Rifter that I had fitted up. I have a bunch of them in that station that were donated to me by another player who left the game. Along with a bunch of other ships. So I wasn't even all that confident in the fitting. And, as I learned after undocking, it only had one type of ammo in the hold. So not the best confidence builder for attacking a pirate frigate.
I quickly realized upon entering that my worst fears were true. He was blaster fitted and sitting at zero. Now, normally I would already be dead. Even with everything already over-heated a webbed blaster DD is nothing to take lightly. But then I learned something new about my opponent - his Daredevil had a MWD fitted. Which wasn't working because my scram had shut it off. I was already at my range with my over-heated AB running. After he exploded I would also learn that he had used Void in his blasters, which explained why he stopped hitting me. 4 million isk T1 frigate takes down a 100m+ pirate frigate. That felt good. Great way to start the day.
Later in Abune and now flying a Thrasher Fleet Issue with Phoenix in his Slicer we managed to catch and kill a Cormorant Navy Issue. His corporation mates most not have been too happy with this result as we found out shortly afterwards when we attacked another on of them flying a Coercer Navy, which quickly escalated into a rather precarious situation from which I could not escape. Another Coercer Navy, Cat Navy and two Hookbills are a bit much, even for me. Although we did end up killing the original Coercer Navy. Which was worth more than my Thrasher.
Some players I won't name tend to get very, very angry when "blobs" like this happen to them and they lose ships. I do not. Of course, I don't enjoy getting blobbed - who does? But it happens. Dudes are out together in a small gang looking to score kills. We do that, everyone does that. And sometimes you are just on the wrong side of that equation. It happens. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Lighten up people, it is only a game.
For every great fight there is countless missed opportunities. I can't begin to tell you just how often we slide into a faction plex and watch the ship warp away to a safe spot. Or a station. Or vanish even before we slide. This happens 10-20 times for each fight we do manage to get. And yet, we keep trying because you can't predict these things. And frankly, sometimes I do it just to be annoying. Especially if they keep running away. I've literally sat inside someone's plex until they give up and leave or log off. I can be very annoying at times.
So it was that I slid into an Incursus fully expecting it to warp away. But it didn't. This was the only person I podded yesterday because they need to learn. I suspect they were either afk or distracted by being attacked by the handsome and glorious Pirate Lord - but either way they can do much better next time.
And then my worst fight of the day. I made all sorts of mistakes on this one. Primary among them was attacking the ship in the first place without my wingman to help. I'd watched on d-scan as he had already killed another ship and based on that information I pretty much knew how he'd be fitted. But I went ahead and did it anyway. This is the opposite part of the audacity I talked about with the Rifter versus Daredevil fight - the negative side of that confidence and swagger. I tend to take fights I shouldn't more often than I should. But then again, how does one judge? If that Daredevil had simply been AB fit he would have killed my Rifter easily. Eve is incredibly complicated and foreknowledge hard to come by.
Onatoh is not close to Ouelletta, so that was a long pod journey home. By the time I got back I was tired and jumped into a Garmur for a quick sweep around the neighborhood. I did tackle a Tristan in it but decided to let it go once I realized the player was a month old. Kitting a month old player to death in my Garmur is not a good fight and I thought it would be nice to end the day with an act of kindness.
I may be the Pirate Lord of Low Sec, but that doesn't mean I'm heartless.
Not ALL the time.