Some Solo Rupture Fun in Curse and Catch

For my earlier post about the Rupture I had tried experimenting using a 800mm plate and fitting a bit more gank. The result was pretty unspectacular and I went back to using the 1600mm plate Rupture as described in the article. The problem with the 800mm is that the tank kept on running out just a little bit too soon, resulting in my own death instead of my enemies. So I thought to avenge my failures with a few solo roams.

For various reasons Providence right now is mostly set temporarily blue to Agony so I had to wander further and check out curse and catch. First blood was a satisfying Taranis kill in 9KOE-A. The Taranis has just dispatched a Pandemic Legion Dramiel (Very nice kill btw) when I showed up. He warped off when I appeared. I quickly bookmarked the wreck (it was quite a bit off gate) and warped off myself, so I could warp back to the wreck. I am not sure exactly what the Taranis pilot was thinking but I imagine when he saw me disappear off d-scan he felt safe enough to return to the wreck. I landed pretty much on him. Normally a Taranis is a pretty tough cookie, however once I locked him I saw that he was deep deep into structure (must have been a nice fight with the Dramiel) and was pretty much instapopped.

I got a nice deadspace afterburner from the Dramiel wreck. Nice! I returned home to drop off the loot.

The next night I returned to the same hunting grounds. Things were very quiet at first. Then I came upon a Manticore Stealth Bomber sitting uncloaked by a gate. Assuming it must be a tarp I checked the other side and found nothing. Quickly returning the Bomber was still there. 10 seconds later it was now a wreck. The pilot must have woken up as his ship exploded and his pod warped off. A quick check of the wreck provided for some more high priced goodies He was hauling some nice large T1 and small T2 rigs. I didn't want to haul the stuff back to friendly space so I docked in station and offered to sell him his loot back for 50m isk which he accepted.

A few jumps later I came across a couple of Goonswarm Ishkurs. This is where the Rupture really shines. In a Jaguar I would be very hesitant about engaging two assault frigates. However in the Rupture I went for it knowing that unless they had an unusual fit, I would be victorious. Sure enough I grabbed one, applied scram/web/neut and put the ecm drones on the other. The first went pretty quick and I switched to the other which also went down. I barely broke shields :).

The next night I was back in the area. After seeing almost nothing I spotted a Wolf and a Crow sitting on a gate. I engaged the wolf first, unfortunately I choose poorly for ammo types with Phased Plasma. It seemed to take forever to bust through his 400mm RT plate. Meanwhile a Stealth bomber uncloaks and starts pounding me with Torpedoes. Eventually I break through the Wolf's tank and then dispatch the Crow. As this is happening an Eris appears and bubbles us all in. With my Armour dropping below a third I start powering for an exit. I put my DPS on the Eris hoping to drive it away from me out of point range and succeed. I manage to warp to the sun just before hitting structure. As I land at the sun I find myself at 0 with the Eris again. LOL we both tried to escape to the same celestial. I start pounding on the Eris as I observe a Falcon uncloaking. I get jammed, but not before Eris explodes. Again I beat an hasty retreat and live to fight another day.

At this point I am feeling pretty cocky. For three nights in a row I have had some GF and made some good isk. In EVE cockiness is what gets you killed. The next night I set out again feeling quite invincible. Then in K-B2D3 with 4 in local I warp directly from gate to gate, only to land in a bubble camp. The Wolf and Rupture on the bubble would have made for a nice fight. With some lucky Jams from the ECM drones I might have been able to shut down the Rupture while killing the Wolf. Unfortunately a Blackbird 50km off made sure that this ship would never make it home.

All in all it was some great fights. It was a shame to finally loose the ship but it certainly delivered. I made about 100 mill in loot in exchange for a 10 million isk ship. It is nice to know that Solo PvP is alive and well in New Eden.