Lowsec Is Dead

Or so they say.

I was just about to kick off my regular roam when I noticed Suzu Fujibayashi on local comms. We've run into each other a couple of times, so I assumed her in an assault frigate, probably Gallente.

I hopped into my Vengeance and undocked. Suzu's Tristan was sitting right next to the docking bay. As I was pondering about re-shipping to level the playing field, Suzu charged me guns blazing. Two blasters and two rocket launchers were tearing into my armor at point blank, but I knew it was nothing the Vengeance couldn't handle. Thus I got to enjoy me some loot delivered to my doorstep, minutes after I had me plugged into my pod. Not that I was proud of dispatching a respected opponent's frigate that easily, but a decent way to get the day started regardless.

A little while later I headed out in a stealth bomber, equipped with two warp scramblers and close range guns. I was expecting an industrial pilot, who frequents Jovainnon to take care of some business around the local customs offices. Her Mammoth had escaped me before, thanks to warp core stabilizers.

I was sitting there cloaked for quite a while. Sadly no industrials bothered to show up.

At some point Valgore requested some firepower for taking down a Dominix Navy Issue he was about to probe out. A few Tuskers took up the call immediately, and I as well went to get my Hurricane. When I reached the gate to Lisbaetanne, Valgore had just entered warp to tackle the battleship.

When Valgore appeared about 60km away from the Navy Dominix, its pilot must've shut down everything in panic, as he dropped out of local comms. He was hoping for the emergency warp protocol to save him, but Firetails tend to be quite fast. The package was safely pointed and all I had to do was close in and whack it open. Loot piñata, best piñata.
(High sec incursions must really make some stupid amounts of money...)

Later that day we had another well known visitor: the illustrous Lady Spank, out in a Tristan as well and looking for some nice duels. Tusker Cable Udan was the first to oblige and got his Rifter exploded. I proceeded to avenge my fallen comrade undocking my own Rifter. It also got exploded - in a rather embarrassing fashion. Pro tip: don't wait to switch on your repair module until a quarter of your armor is already gone.

I didn't want to let Spank depart Hevrice 2 for 0. This time I chose a Punisher, its guns loaded with Fusion ammo, expecting the Tristan to try exploiting my weaker tracking and range control.

We met up at top planet once more and commenced the boat violence. It quickly became apparent that Spank wouldn't close in this time either. All I could pretty much do was overheat everything (as it is custom in the old and honorable way of the lone frigate samurai), activate my guns, afterburner and repair module and watch.

Both our little armor bars were steadily declining, yet flickering back up a bit with each repair cycle. Our distance was bobbing between about 6 and 7.5km. Eventually we both entered hull, a small sliver of armor still creeping back up on each side now and then. In the end we both agreed that it was quite the good fight.

On a sidenote, Spank's rigs were dastardly clever choices. The ambit extension gives the neutron blasters some deadly range, which won't have to worry about opponents coming close either. That's why it can afford to get slowed down by an anti-explosion pump, which boosts up the resistance against the damage type it will most likely have to tank. Long story short, I shall steal this fit.

I was pretty much about to call it a day, exhilarating as it had been. Before going to bed I needed to scout the high sec gate for one of our haulers. To be quick about it, I picked a Taranis. As I was confirming that the gate was clear, Cable called for assistance. His Hurricane had a Proteus pointed at the other side of Hevrice. No time for re-shipping, so I dashed for the belt right away.

As I arrived, Cable reported to be in bad shape, given his ship was fit for kiting but got tangled up in the tech 3 blaster boat's webifier. I dove in close to put a scram and web on it myself, maybe giving Cable enough of a speed advantage to escape. Unfortunately his Cane went down; now the Proteus turned its guns on me.

They couldn't turn quick enough however - even webbed, my Taranis was able to avoid any incoming fire. Tusker reinforcements arrived eventually and the Proteus went down, leaving behind some tasty modules too. Bringing them home rounded off this day nicely.

"Lowsec is dead", they say.