29 million ISK rifter

Even after a day without flying Brutus is getting withdrawl symptoms and he's soon heading out into the black once more.

The first fight of the day is in Amamake with Drek Grapper, and a fine one it is too. Close enough to be interesting but not too close to be uncomfortable... He has an interesting setup on his rifter too combining a 400 plate setup with an energy neut in one of his high's. Good discussion afterwards, obviously a good pilot. The more I come across neut's the more I'd like to use one myself.

A little later I have a fairly easy kill against Barakaa in another rifter but then Amamake goes through one of its 'busy with assault frigs and intys' periods and I head off for a bit of a roam.

After some fruitless searching I find myself in Siseide and spot a rifter on scan in a belt. Warp drive active... I come out of warp and am right on top of him. I lock and engage immediately but soon my shield tank is taking real damage - he's obviously using EMP. I'm webbed too but by overheating the ab manage to keep some decent range and the tide turns quickly in my favour and Asmodean Shepherd's rifter expodes followed by his pod. Phew.

The next day is one of those weird frustrating days you get every now and again and at one point I'm reduced to chasing round after an Imicus from belt to belt in Egghelende. A rare day with no kills. But the next day is much better...

Back in Egghelende I spot a rifter at a belt. Warp drive active... Battle is quickly joined with muraini who is just finishing off a rat as I arrive. But again it develops into a tough fight. I seem to be taking a lot of damage while his armour shows all the signs of being a 400 plate. I try and extend my range and make some progress despite the web and slowly but surely gain the upper hand with my shield about to give out as I get him into structure. The explosion is very welcome... Good discussion afterwards but it's only later when I post the kill that I realise he was heavily rigged. Now I don't know how accurate the ISK figures on battleclinic really are but the figure listed is 28,945,360. Expensive by any standards...

But my fun wasn't over yet. A little later I was just arriving at the Siseide gate when the gate fired. Within seconds a rifter uncloaks about 20K away. Worth a try... so I start to head towards it waiting for a sign of aggression... and it comes. Fight is on! It quickly becomes apparent that I'm dealing with a shield tanker but even so it's proving hard work and it turns into a real game of attrition. I'm not using EMP of course but luckily it's apparent from the rate of damage to my shield that neither is he. Even with everything overloaded it seems to take an age to get through his shield but with the guns nearly cooked I get there and he explodes. There's something funny about two shield tankers battling it out with the wrong ammo... Turns out that he had three T2 Shield Power Relays in the lows - so that explains it. Haven't seen that before on a rifter.

A particularly good day was rounded off by a couple more fights. A fine fight with Azose in Amamake resulted in a decent haul of loot while much later I jumped a couple of rocket fitted Kestrels in Auga. Both Buchatar and Hit Lerooni went down pretty quick.

Happy days.