The Thrill of SLF-flying Bounty Hunting in a HiRES
16 Jun 2017Vizz Curio
::CMDR Vizz Curio on the Jupiter Jazz, docked at starport Carpini Terminal, Qa'Wakana::::personal log::
I bought a Keelback in November 3302 once Ship-Launched Fighters (SLFs) were available because it was the cheapest ship I could afford that allowed for the SLF hangar bays.
I initially had some fun zipping around canyons and craters on planets, blasting at speeds faster than my normal ships. But knowing the Keelback isn't a combat ship like my Vulture at the time (or FAS now), I never took this kit bounty hunting.
That was a mistake, and 6+ months of wasted fun time!
Tonight I hired a gal, Ms Lennox Gilliam, as a crew member. She's rated by the Pilots Federation as "Mostly Harmless" which means to me she only qualifies for a small cut of my profits, but I'm going to train her up to my level of combat expertise.
This past week I found favor with the Knights of Karma in the Qa'wakana system thanks to their plea for pilots to assist in protecting traders and generously rewarding us valiant champions. I returned to Carpini Terminal tonight to pick up my CG reward, almost 6 Million big fat ones (if you know what I mean and I think you do sir), and figured I'd take my Keelback and its GU-97 Imperial Fighter out for a combat test.
Since Carpini Terminal is between an Earth-like planet and its rings, there are 2 scenic HiRES spots right there which I'm familiar with already so I jumped into one.
My Keelback didn't have a Kill Warrant Scanner and was only armed with a pair of Medium-size Seeker Missiles. My GU-97 Imperial Fighter has the frosty "Gelid G" loadout which is 2 gimballed Beam Lasers.
Dropping into the HiRES site, I got my bearings and had Lennox launch in the fighter. We quickly found a Wanted sucker, a Dangerous-rated Cobra Mk IV, and I told her to attack while I hung back and watched to evaluate. I kept the Cobra in my sights and locked-on with my Seeker Missiles' reticle, ready to unload everything at it myself and call my fighter back if this attack went sour. I wasn't sure which way this would go at all and set my expectations very low.
To my shock and delight, she roasted him so fast he was toast in no time!
Pleased with this surprise, I tossed her at a few more targets one-by-one. She did extremely well when at least one System Authority was assisting in the attack, probably drawing aggro off of my fragile fighter. I'd fire off a final "clean up" volley of Seeker Missiles.
Satisfied with watching my crew member rack up a few kills and getting us bounty claims, I wondered how well I could pilot the fighter in actual combat myself.
IT WAS THRILLING!
The speed and maneuverability combined with the hard-hitting punch of 4-pips-to-weapons Beam Lasers -- this is exactly my style of dog fighting: pick the opening shot, fly in there, stay out of line-of-sight of their guns with superior maneuverability, zip around them, and BLAST 'EM. Take a couple of hits and the shields are about to/do go down? Then afterburner the heck out of there at speeds they can't catch ya with a laser, then 4 pips to shields and they've regenerated in no time -- get back in there and destroy them.
In maybe 40 minutes I had racked up ~1 Million credits in bounty claims, and that was without a Kill Warrant Scanner (not usable if you're piloting the fighter anyway) so no additional out-of-system claims for that total. That's as good as any of my bounty hunting sessions and this was far more FUN!
::end transmission::
-------------
Combat in the SLF is a lot more like the Wing Commander games or Freelancer and less like normal Elite Dangerous combat. And in VR [have owned an HTC Vive for a year now] this whole experience was just the best.
-------------