Jump into Heydiddly, which is FINALLY not bubble camped after the stupid Insurgency thing has shifted to somewhere else. DScan, nothing. There’s a medium Faction War plex open on the overview, so I warp to the closest planet and scan it. Nothing. There’s a Thrasher nearby, but he’s in a Small plex and my Bellicose can’t get in there.
Boring. Let’s go see what’s up in Tannolen. Warp to the gate and jump into Old Man Star. There’s a Vexor on the other side, all by himself. He’s flashing, a war target. He’s not moving or jumping, just sitting there. Is this the fair fight it looks like or is it bait?
Nothing on DScan. Nothing in local except the pirates who are almost always docked. The only other gate is 50-60 AU away and leads to highsec anyway. ■■■■ it.
Click Approach and lock the Vexor. Overload top rack and spit out drones, just as his come out. Slam the F buttons. It’s on.
The drones get on him, but I realize I’m not hitting. He’s like 1km outside HAM range. Overload the afterburner but it doesn’t help, he’s got an MWD. His Ogres are tearing up my shield, so I use the most hilarious thing about my fit: An X-Large ancillary shield booster, from a fit I copied from a YouTuber. Shield goes from 0 to near max in one rep.
My own drones are halfway through his shield, but my Fury missiles aren’t doing anything, so I shut off the launchers and reload Navy missiles for extra range. After a reload that takes forever, the launchers are ready. Finally, the missiles are hitting and I get deep into his armor. We’re just hammering at each other, with me repping the shield back up to full every time the armor takes a hit.
Then suddenly he burns right at me and starts hitting me with neuts. He obviously thinks he can shut off my tank, not realizing I can keep repping regardless of my cap being dead. I rep one more cycle as I’m chewing into his hull. And that was the last booster charge. The ASB begins a 60-second reload. Oh ■■■■.
His Vexor-bonused Navy drones are chewing up my armor, while my unbonused Valkyrie IIs and Navy HAMs are knocking holes in his hull, but really slowly for some reason. Neither of us are repping. It’s a race to the last HP, and I’m losing. My hull is at 30% and still disappearing.
I start aligning to a moon. I can’t save the ship, but I’m getting this friggin pod out. But just as I get aligned, the stupid shield booster finally stops flashing. I click it and shield is back up to 70%!
And then it happens. The Vexor’s hull finally gives out and the ship explodes. My armor is gone and my own hull is at 13% and the ship is literally burning in space.
The red mist clears. My hands are shaking. I’m breathing like I just ran a race. I wake up the cats by yelling “Dude, Holy ■■■■!”
I just came back after a 16-year break and was already starting to get bored again. I couldn’t remember what I used to like so much about this game and was thinking of starting a new Baldur’s Gate III playthrough instead. Maybe a Druid this time.
But now, now I remember why I used to play this game. Vexor | PowerPow | Killmail | zKillboard