Where's Your Karma Now?

I don't believe in karma. I don't consider myself as much of an evil person, but there have been plenty of helpless victims I have liberated from their ships and pods. I am however still having great luck against real opponents (in case I don't die horribly because of stupid mistakes). Therefore, if I believed in karma, I'd have to cower in my quarters all day long, fearing the massive blow it has got to deliver anytime now.

But that would be a bit boring, wouldn't it? Which is why I rather decide to do things like going on a dual Slicer roam with Tusker comrade Kishin Hattori for example. Good choice, let me tell you...

Off we went, heading for Placid in our speedy little laser boats. The first few jumps offered nothing too particularly interesting. There had been a Caracal on a mission, but given the pilot's little experience, we didn't bother to bring a prober.

Entering Placid, targets kept making themselves rare or displayed obvious traps. Eventually, Kishin and I split up to cover more systems and hide our small, but very deadly force. It wouldn't be long until we perished any doubt about that.

While Kishin was scouting Intaki, I had a closer look into Vey. Just as I was about to move on to the next system on route, Kishin reported a Jaguar in a belt. Not wasting any time, his Slicer hurled itself into warp, going for the tackle. By the time I arrived in Intaki myself however, the target had left.

There was no time for being disappointed, as things started to liven up a bit; almost simultaniously, we scanned down a Crusader in a nearby complex. The bugger was even faster than our Slicers, though, and managed to escape.

Just then the Jaguar made a questionable move by appearing in another belt within our scan range. Finally we had something to shoot at, because this time we had it neatly pointed in time.

The ensueing fight mainly consisted of watching the Thukker Mix assault frigate squirming around without much hope to escape or even return some of the hurt. The hurt we generously donated barely made it through the Jaguar's heavy EM-resistant shields. We- no, actually I had to worry and keep a look out for potentially hostile reinforcements; knowing Kishin, he must have been hoping for some.

And just as the Jaguar went down at last, a Vexor appeared on the scene.

Since I wasn't aware of Kishin's joyful anticipation for more actually dangerous things to shoot at, I warped out after the loot had been scooped up. Kishin put a tackle on the drone boat instead (eek). Luckily, its Hobgoblins didn't cause too much damage to Kishin before I was able to rejoin him. After neutralizing the drones, we merrily began to fire at the now helpless Vexor.

As we were gnawing at yet another target with a large buffer tank and strong resistances against our lasers, a Myrmidon decided to check out what all the fuzz was about. The pilot was not an ally of the Vexor, but he chose to help the poor slob. Oh dear.

But first, the Myrmidon had to bridge a gap of roughly 100km.

We started overheating our weapons and now were throwing everything we had at the Vexor, with the Myrmidon crawling closer every second. Our laser guns were nibbling at our target's armour much too slowly for our liking. But despite our brief discordance before, Kishin and I were on the same page again: we would either take this thing down or die trying.

Eventually the Vexor entered structure - but we were far from over the hill, as Gallente ships tend to have sturdy hulls; no exception on this one.

Due to our fast orbit speed, it was hard to judge the true distance of the incoming Myrmidon. But rest assured, it was getting way too close. As I was swooping around with the Vexor reaching 50 percent hull, my trajectory lead me right into the Myrmidon's fangs: a fleet of Warrior II drones. It was here.

All my efforts immediately went into getting the hell out. I had to have my armour repair unit running beyond its capacity to buy me at least a few seconds to escape the warp disruptor range of the battlecruiser.

While I was straining my capacitor with an overheated repair unit and a micro warp drive, Aura calmly informed me of my capacitor being empty. "Shit - this is it", I thought. In a situation like this, the protocol includes measurements preventing the capsule from being harmed upon ejection: keep hammering on whatever is left of the warp drive console.

And neatly following protocol, my capsule leapt into warp shortly after. What was entirely not according to protocol, was that my Slicer was still firmly attached to it.

After most of the resulting wave of sweet euphoria had washed over me, I finally bothered to ask if the Vexor actually popped. Kishin happily confirmed that. And then - while I was reconstructing my armour almost from the bottom - he had the nerve to tell me, that he would have liked to take on the Myrmidon, too.

It have now been a few days since this engagement. One of my most exhilarating fights, my luckiest escape by far. Whatever force majeure there may be still refrains from throwing me in front of interdictor gangs at every gate I pass.

Quite the contrary - but more on that soon.