Entry: seven hundred thirty-three.
Got my new deployment orders: GJ0- in Catch.
Intel was quiet, as has been the case lately. Alliance killboards are looking like some poor bastard bled out on an operating table. No roams posted, no fleets up, no one doing anything except money-grubbing.
Or maybe prepping for the move, who knows. I don't sense the mood though, and it's usually more active for that besides.
I made the trip from 49-, made some pounces along the way for systems I hadn't created them for. When I finally arrived in GJ0-, local was pretty neutral. I made some more pounces, one for each gate, and then started making undocks. At my final undock, some eleven hundred off, a Merlin appeared on sensors.
I warped to station, he was a hundred off. I warped to a hundred from my first undock and appeared a hundred beyond him. He came for me though, approaching quickly.
At first, I was a little skittish. He had friends in who knew what who knew where in system. A few seconds' indecision, and then I reciprocated his advance.
I shot past him, too fast on my approach, easily missing scram range. I spattered a few laser beams at him while keeping some range, then went in again.
'Orbit 1000m. Switch to Multifrequency. MWD off. Scrambler on, activate weapons, preheat small armor repairer.'
I snagged him, slowing down and managing to keep just in range to keep him scrambled. Everything out here uses a microwarpdrive, and last thing I wanted was him getting away. I reset the orbit to get in close, and let the lasers do their work, figuring his mix of blasters and rockets wouldn't work so great if I got a good orbit on him.
Rockets and blasters were hitting, the armor repairer almost recovering all the damage. Still, I was slowly bleeding out. His shields were taking their sweet time. It was his medium shield extender vs my unbuffered but regenerative armor. Capacitor wasn't going to last long at the rate I was using it, between the lasers, scram, and repairer.
I entered structured, he was still in armor. My cap ran dry, guns and scram taking every drop of energy. The repairer ceased functioning, and I was torn between the killing and the living. The desire to live won out, and I managed to get a cycle out of the repairer before it shut off again, stopping my lasers for a few seconds in the process.
There wasn't anything else to do at that point except spray and pray. I was down to half structure, the Merlin at the same, my lasers and scram running on the wisps of energy remaining.
Another few shots and his ship exploded. I'd won the day, his ship in pieces of melted slag and mine riddled with holes and burn marks.
It's been a long time since I felt this good about anything.
Computer: terminate recording.
Nice fight!
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