Thank You, Duvolle Labs

There once must have been a lunatic engineer among the blaster-crazed people of Duvolle Labs who had a vision of an interceptor that would imitate an assault frigate. Until today it is unknown which executive had granted funds for a questionable project like this, but the outcome of it was the Taranis.

Let's recap this vessel:

• Three slots for guns, whose power output can only be described as crazily irresponsible
• A reinforced and thus ultra-stiff structure, which is essential to withstand the turrets' brutal recoil
• Room for up to three weapon upgrade modules
• Alternatively enough power grid to fit a 200mm plate, accompanied by a repairer and a damage control
• Three mid-slots to either give it full tackling ability or two different propulsion units
• Two light scout drones that can somehow be crammed into the tiny hull

Bottom line: flying a Taranis provides ungodly amounts of fun.

After mainly flying the modest workhorse the Incursus is, being strapped into a Taranis is quite the experience. There seems to be a constant pounding on your temples. It stems from the turrets, which are going through "dry" cycles while standing by. Otherwise they would take to long to warm up to their heavily boosted operating temperature once you decided to let it rain. It's not exactly painful, but you sure grow impatient and a tad bit more agressive the longer you have to endure their constant "nagging". And once you let them go, you'll be thrown into a frenzy for the first couple of times. It gets better with time, but there will always remain that familiar "SHOOT IT 'TIL ITS DEAD"-feeling, giving reason a hard time suggesting to maybe disengage if things shouldn't go so well.
Your senses and concentration are heightened as well by a mild tingling that keeps crawling over your cerebral cortex. It helps a great deal when buzzing around at ludicrous speed and initiating maneuvers the ship can perform with pin-point precision.

It has been roughly a month since I purchased my first Taranis ("Skyhook") and had plenty opportunities to put it to good use (victims' milage may vary).
By now I roughly have earned a bit more ISK than the ship cost me, mainly because I still remain to pick fights which promise to involve hardly any risk. Among the usual rookie frigates, destroyers and cruisers there however happened to be some more interesting engagements. They too weren't close calls, but they show how much of a destructive force this interceptor can be.

On the very first small gang action Skyhook saw, it tore an Arbitrator apart. You'll notice that there isn't much of a gang that participated in this ship's destruction. Fellow Tusker Oshi Daro could only witness how it melted under heavy fire. I simply didn't expect my guns tearing it apart this quickly (and that its tank would be that weak). Didn't even have to worry about the drones which didn't make it to my buffed hull.

The other shipkill I'd like to mention was another interceptor. The Crow's pilot was so kind to warp right into my lap when I was going for a much younger capsuleer's Vexor, who was just as kind not to move an inch. Good thing I was patient and closely observed the Crow on scan, wouldn't want to be kited by one of these fast buggers.

When I have gathered a bit more of an ISK buffer I might look for some real challenges, but right now I'm still satisfied with going for the easy kills. I'll also have to look closer into some advanced combat maneuvers to break orbits of faster ships with a greater range etc.

What I'm also definitely going to do is to get my newly purchased Ares (the other Gallente interceptor, which is much more aware of being one than its sister) into some fleets to tackle whatever my FC wants to have kept in place. Gotta love going as fast as 5 kilometres per second after all.