Kinda why I play ELite:

[Matt Varnish]

This obv isnt me.. but is pretty cool story, bro

After Action Report



Since getting back from my recent exploration foray I decided to kit out a Viper (nice to actually have enough money to do these kind of things now. But I digress.) and head over to Tanmark to work on the bounty hunting goal.

It was pretty crowded out there ... early on I saw a few wanted Anacondas but things started to dry up and soon it was about 10 CMDRs chasing sidewinder and Eagle scraps.

All through the weekend, when I bothered to scan CMDRs instead of others I would find them all Clean, of course, because who would run through a system teeming with bounty hunters for a known, system-sanctioned hunt, with a bounty on them?

And then I saw him. A CMDR in his Python, with a bounty, in a bounty hunter's system. Of course.

I know that Vipers are severely outclassed by Pythons in several ways, notably number of slots and armaments, but they no longer have an edge in speed or maneuverability - if they ever did. Vipers aren't the fastest in a straight line, but certainly more so than a python and the agility advantage is large, as will be seen.

After a few seconds of "will I or won't I", I thought, what the hell, I can replace this ship 20 times over, let's do it! And so I moved in behind CMDR Mal<redacted>'s python and tethered him.

At first he struggled like a fish but rather quickly (I thought) he submitted to the interdiction. I must admit a slight increase in my pulse when that happened ... he was choosing to fight. WILLING to fight. Perhaps even relishing it.

After dropping out of supercruise, while still spinning, I rapidly went through my customary procedure: select target, target FSD, balance power, 1 extra pip to engines and weapons.

After a moment I went with another pip in engines. The voice in the back of my head told me I absolutely HAD to stay behind this guy.

As we came about he brought his beams to bear. His first volley was high to the right of me. Good, he wasn't using gimbals. I do use them, even in a Viper - my longstanding (albeit Cobra-derived) philosophy being that it's more important to get weapons on target as often as possible, rather than try to line up for a big burst. I thrusted hard to the left and brought my pulse lasers to bear to start knocking on those shields. I knew it was going to take a while to get through.

As we passed I could see his turn rate was slower - whether this was a pilot issue or simply the capabilities of the ship I'm not sure, but I was thankful. I thrusted down hard, brought back the throttle and pulled up. I was on his back! Now, after a pip to weapons I was furiously applying the heat, and added in my multi-cannons (ammo bills be damned!).

Now I was through a bar of shielding while taking no hits myself. This was going well.

I was perhaps halfway through the second bar of his shielding when I made a mistake. He started to bank left and so I applied right thrust while rolling and yawing left to stay on his butt. What I didn't notice was that he just about killed all his speed. Before I knew it I was 800m away. Then 600. now 300! I couldn't stop myself so I decided to boost ahead to gain some distance and try to get around on him again.

But CMDR Mal<redacted>, clever Python driver that he is, only feigned a left turn. When I flew by he corrected back to the right and then unloaded a flurry, an alpha strike that knocked out my shields and 10% hull, too.

Reality set in quickly after that. I was going to have to be damn near perfect to take this man down, and he's too crafty in his higher-class ship to allow for any more mistakes. My confidence shaken, I did what so many pilots should but won't do - retract hardpoints, full pips to weapons, full throttle and boost. As fast as humanly possible.

Whether he gave chase or not I'm not sure - I wasn't exactly looking in the rearview mirror, but while I was spinning up the FSD I did send him a tip of the cap: "well, it was worth a shot."

And the reply: "Indeed."

As I jumped into CASSIE-L-PEIA I noticed an empty square on the ladar, behind and below my ship. Not wanting to press the matter any further I made a straight line into the station. As I was lining up over the pad I heard a distinctive buzzing behind me, and then lurched forward as a Python bumped my as it went by. Not hard enough to send me into a spin or cause me to crash, but perhaps a playful punch in the arm from the Pro that this amateur had tried to take down.



CMDR B FETT