Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was, "Oh no, not again." Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now.
--Douglas Adams
In the Amarr line of ships we find some truly terrifying names. Ships that should strike fear when their name is simply spoken. Crucifier, Executioner, Punisher, Malediction, Curse, Damnation, the list goes on. Sadly, the Arbitrator is not one of those ships. It's a ship that brings to mind the peaceful resolution of disputes between parties. Perhaps I should have considered a more bad-ass sounding ship when I decided to undock my first Cruiser in the pursuit of Piracy.
Forming up a gang for a quick roam often means putting together puzzle pieces. This particular puzzle was being formed together with our FC in a Myrmidon for DPS, a Covops to probe, and a Rifter to tackle. Having nothing that could compete with these other ships in those roles, I offered my own Punisher, Vengeance, or Arbitrator to my FC's sacrificial altar. My Arbitrator was fit with no guns, only Medium and Small Energy Neutralizers in the High slots, but if we could find a mission runner in the right ship it could be just what we'd need in order to secure a ransom.
As we got the roam started, our prober was off doing his probe thing while the rest of the gang was at a safespot waiting on the word. As we were waiting, I reminded the Rifter pilot (being even newer than I) that he should remain aligned to something in case he needed to warp out quickly. These words still haunt me to this day. It wasn't long before the prober had found a Drake on D-scan that appeared to be running missions and had set about his task of scanning him down. We were all licking our lips in anticipation at ransoming him for all he was worth. Unfortunately, our bloodlust had clouded our judgement enough that our safespot was soon joined by a Rapier.
Reacting immediately, I warped to the gate I was aligned to just in time to hear our FC call that he wanted to engage. Coming out of warp a few seconds later, I put myself right back into it with the destination being our own Myrmidon who was now engaged with the Rapier. I was already in warp by the time the Rapier's own backup arrived in the form of a Hurricane. I was still in warp while hearing our FC state that he was going down, and to get our own ships to safety. Too late for that.
Practically landing on top of the Rapier, I set my Energy Neutralizers and Drones on him while lighting the Hurricane up with Tracking Disruptors with Tracking scripts loaded. Our Myrmidon, convinced he was going down and spamming warp to get his pod out instead saw his ship enter warp. I had managed to neut the Rapier enough to break its tackle. I was surely to be a hero met with a parade of streamers and flowing champagne. I surely to be called primary by the enemy.
Now sharing the field only with an enemy Recon and Battlecruiser, I set my own ship aligning to warp. Only to discover that my tank was nothing compared to the enemy 'cane's Alpha. Having a lethargic align time of a little over ten seconds wasn't helping matters either. Truly hoping that I was going to manage to get out of there in time, my hopes were dashed as my ship exploded while still building up speed and my pod warped away. Well, at least our Myrmidon was saved.
On a bit of a side note, I'm actually quite skilled at getting myself killed while managing to take no other losses to the gang I'm flying with. I'm not entirely sure that's a good skill. It either shows that I'm extremely good at saving other people's ships while sacrificing my own, or that I'm extremely good at getting myself blown up while better pilots are able to get away. I'd like to think it's the former...sometimes I'm not quite sure.
Regarrrds,
FNG
No comments:
Post a Comment