[Solo] Rikki roaming

[Rikki Bigg]

So I have a fun little story to share about my experiences during a roam, starting around 0200 on a Sunday morning:

I started out in Slays HQ, and swapped my learning clone for a clean one, since I was going into low security space. I started to look at the map, but then decided to head to Amamake, and set prefer less safe to see what might show up .

The first eleven hops through Caldari-Gallente faction war space were rather uneventful, aside from a Firetail that seemed to be traveling parallel to me; he wasn't interested in a fight the couple times I paused for an engagement.

Ten more hops through Gallente space, this time non faction war space. Even more dead than the first leg of the transit, aside from a small gang of about 8 cruisers including logi. They tried to catch me on the gate, but I wasn't having any of it and kept on my merry way.

I finally reached the The Bleak Lands and was back in faction warfare space, this time Amarr-Minmatar. As a Minmatar Nation Warrior (entry level rank from the short time I was part of the militia while waiting for my interview to join E-Uni; I wanted to taste what it was like having read it was something I wouldn't be able to do after joining) I thought it might make any Amarrians more prone to a fight. Sadly the next eight jumps were emptier than either of the preceeding sections, a lone Venture farming a large plex the only exception. Without enough tackle to keep his inherent +2 to warp stability countered, I proceeded.

As I entered my destination Amamake, I was greeted with a local channel occupied by numbers greater than the sum of all my earlier system transits; odd I figured for a Saturday evening. As I scanned down a Tristan and Incursis in the novice plex, Local lit up with some banter:

[ 2017.05.21 03:41:30 ] Travis Bagzwell > that certainly was a good fight in the novice
[ 2017.05.21 03:41:40 ] Desmond Markos > and fair!

Extrapolating that these were the two players in said plex, noting they were of the same corporation, I concluded it was bait. I bid my time, and within 10 minutes the Tristan had left dscan of the novice plex.

I took the bait, and took the gate, and made my first miscalculation: I entered with Mjolnir Rockets, even though I had all four damage types in my hold (EM being the strongest native resist of T1 armor, so I was shooting into his strong resist). Fortunately my Hobgoblins helped out with some thermal damage, but shooting Nova (Explosive) might have made the difference. I had incorrectly assumed that being bait fits, the explosive hole would have been patched. In this case, I still would have benefitted from loading Thermal or Kinetic, but I was in a rush to enter while the Tristan was elsewhere.

My fit tanked like a champ though, I think my target was somewhat surprised with how well I held. I was repping through my cap booster reload, and wearing down my targets capacitor. Then I saw a second target on grid, and knew my time was limited. I burned in to my target to get that last volley off, as my top rack had been heated since the start of the fight. As my tank broke and I entered hull, I was given the satisfaction of seeing my target expire and disappear from my lock, followed by myself entering my pod.

The next part took me off guard, and is honestly the main reason for sharing this AAR; I received my lossmail, but didn't get that killmail I had worked so hard for. I sat for almost two whole minutes on grid, trying to decipher what had happened; there was a pod and a ship on my lossmail, but no record of my target having lost his ship.

After I regained my senses, I set a course to rens to reship, and come back to fight again...and was promptly podded on the gate by a smartbombing proteus. As I woke in Slays, and after hopping back into my learning clone, I set about to find out just what had happened.

For the intermission, I submit for your perusal some killmails:
http://killfeed.eveuniversity.org/?a=ki ... _id=419568
https://zkillboard.com/kill/62417687/
here are also the assumed fits of my dance partners, from ships they lost earlier in the evening:
https://zkillboard.com/kill/62416805/
https://zkillboard.com/kill/62417170/

After doing some research, the only conclusion I can reach is in part due to how killboards work, if a corporation does not submit internal kills, they never show up. My assumption is that once my target realized he would would not win the fight, his corp mate in the tristan promptly killed him first, removing all evidence of the kill (other than his pod showing up on my killmail, instead of his ship). If someone wishes to correct me and I am mistaken, please do help us all learn about the game mechanics, otherwise I will file it under elite pvp'ers doing all they can to keep that killboard green.

I am satisfied with my fit, and though I was disappointed with the lack of players on a weekend evening, US time zone might have been a factor, or the route I chose may have been an issue. I take comfort that I got interesting kill I can't really prove happened.