When a none-combat CMDR meets a ganker.
01 Dec 2018Vik!ngSail
System: Robigo, shipping laneShip: Diamondback Scout "Hym's Shadow"
As soon as I dropped out of hyperspace, I checked the contacts panel as usual - it's more of an instinct than a habit : one Federal Corvette. I thought to myself : "I'm just a shieldless Diamondback Scout with no cargo, no cabins and no pledge to any faction or superpower. No one would want anything from me."
I was wrong.
As I continued my supercruise towards Robigo Mines. The Corvette aligned his vector to mine. INTERDICTION! His ship established interdiction tether to my FSD. I quickly checked the target - CMDR OWL SAURON. I am in no way a combat pilot. But his name seems unfamiliar. He shouldn't be one of those professional gankers. "calm down" I said to myself, "we will have at least one secret weapon to let us survive this".
I pulled the throttle all the way to the back, and submitted.
Just after dropping into normal space, I immediately pulled the stick up, made a 180° turn and put full power to engine for a boost. A flash popped up, the Corvette also dropped in! "Silent Running" my COVAS does exactly what I told her to do. Two seconds later as my ship was disappearing into the black, I disengaged Flight Assist, turned my ship towards the Corvette to see what he's up to.
"It must be working!" I said to myself as I saw the Corvette blindly turning to search for my heat signal - it's not there. I know this ship well. Her idle heat level is 12%. Nothing can lock up unless it's within finger poking range.
It wasn't long until he had visual on my ship and started boost chasing. I kept flying backwards, seeing the huge ship getting closer and closer. I quickly checked his sub-systems: laser weapons, shield boosters, Guardian shield reinforcement. At some 5km range, the Corvette started blind firing his long range gimballed lasers.
"If you want a fight, we'll give you a fight." My hardpoints are also deployed.
I boosted towards him. Upon 2km range, I fired off a salvo of torpedoes - giving the ordnance enough time to arm. I knew he will turn around to chase me, so my torpedoes will hit despite their slow speed. Just as I flew pass his ship and finished another 180° turn, I saw the impact of my torpedoes. "Target shield offline!" COVAS reported. Now the game's on.
Quickly changed the subtarget, I started puncturing his power plant with two railguns. The cockpit quickly became too hot - I have 9 heatsinks for keeping a comfortable interior environment. But the Corvette clearly wanted to end this fast. His guns started blazing - although without lock on, the two huge hardpoints still did some damage to my ship. I kept deploying heatsinks to be able to rapid fire the railguns. One! Two! Three! Four! I quickly checked my hull, still over 80%, while his ship is in no good shape. In about less than a minute, the railguns punched multiple holes on his hull. I quickly realized that I have the upper hand - 43% hull on the Corvette, while my Scout had 78%. The cockpit starts to get extremely hot. But I kept on firing, not even caring about heat level anymore.
"Warning: frame shift charge detected!"
It should be obvious what the Corvette is up to at this point: run. Unless I could interdict his ship right after I enter supercruise, there is very little I could do. So I engaged FSD, entered supercruise. Right there I saw his ship on my radar. And he immediately high-waked to an unknown system. As I went on my way to the station, hands still shaking.
o7 CMDR OWL SAURON
Fly dangerously. Thanks for my first taste of blood and the (not so good) fight.
TL;DR
I'm not a combat pilot (rank competent). Flying a shieldless stealth torpedo bomber Diamondback Scout in Robigo today and got interdicted by a master rank shield tank Corvette. This was my first actual combat encounter against another player, despite the panic I had, after one torpedo salvo hit and some railgun needlework. I managed to teach him a lesson and made him flee.