Oh my God, I won!

No, I didn't win the lottery, although that would certainly be nice... I won a fight.

I'll pause here for you to pick yourself up off the floor.

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Ok, shall I continue? Thank you.

Birdog and me went on a small hunt before that accursed system downtime that affects everyone's ships at the same time. I really wish they would fix that... Anyway, at first we set up a trap in a belt, where I pretended to be mining in my Thorax with a can sitting nearby. I was bait. I was 50km from the warp in point, so that it was close enough to engage if 'safe', but far enough away to be able to run for it if something nasty came along. Birdog was cloaked and nearby, and together we waited for someone to 'take the bait'. I guess we were fishing, in a way...

We were watching the scanner, seeing various ships appear and disappear as they were warping within scan range and then on past it. Birdog said that if the Curse or Rattlesnake we spotted appeared in the belt, I should run for it. I didn't argue.

Suddenly, the Curse appeared in the belt, 43km from me.

"RUN!" yelled birdog, but I was already running! I slammed my finger down on that warp button so hard, I think I dented it. I was out of there before you knew it!

I had warped to a safe spot and birdog said the Curse pilot was following me. Impossible, I thought, so he must have been going on to the gate. I decided to go to the gate too, and see if he would attack me there. I arrived, but he wasn't there. I then spent ten minutes at the gate, waiting. No one came.

So we moved on to another system. The Curse pilot was still around, just not coming to the gate. He probably thought it was a trap.

When we got to our destination, birdog called out, "Warp to me." I did, checking the scanner as I approached him. A Prophecy was showing up. Hmm... A battlecruiser? I guessed maybe we could take it...

I arrived and found birdog already engaged with the Prophecy. The belt was lit up with the flashes of exploding missiles. I quickly moved in and locked the battlecruiser, webbed and scrambled him, and then set the guns and drones on him. He was at about 20% shields, when suddenly birdog warped out.

"I'll be back," he said. I didn't have time to think much about it, but he obviously needed to repair. It was up to me now...

If I'd had the time or the ability to bite my nails, I wouldn't have any left by now.

Here I was, alone in my cruiser against a battlecruiser, and he was pounding his way through my shields. I'd activated my Damage Control, adding a bit of shield boosting, but it certainly wasn't enough to slow him down. He hit the armour, and I activated the armour repairer.

I was very conscious of my cap; with everything on, it was draining fast. My armour tank was holding at 100% as I watched my weapons and drones chewing into his own armour. By the time he was down to about 10% armour, my cap was getting low. I switched off the guns, letting the T2 Hammerheads do the rest of the damage. The cap was down to about 15% now, and I switched off the armour repairer, leaving the web and scrambler on. My drones were chewing into his hull now, so I figured that I could afford to turn the armour repairer off.

When his hull was at about 10% and my armour was around 60%, my web and scrambler failed as my cap ran out. I could feel the sweat on my face, and a muscle in my back knotted from the tension. I ignored it all, just focusing on the battlecruiser in front of me. He was going to die!

A few seconds later was the beautiful fireball of a mighty battlecruiser exploding. Birdog hadn't come back, leaving it to me to destroy it.

I whooped! I laughed! I shook the pod around me as I cavorted in it!

I let the pod go and made my way to the wreck, realising I could actually loot a battlecruiser wreck. He had mostly T1 stuff, with some T2 fittings. I had won because he was a young pilot, only a couple months into his journey. But it was still a victory.

Birdog says the kill wouldn't have happened without me, but I know it wouldn't have happened without him either. Thanks birdog!