“I don’t like losing ships.”<\/p>\n
“Then we should stop trying to find fights, because we’re going to lose a HELL of a lot more fights than we win. Let’s head back to the base, I have an idea.”<\/p>\n
The comms are silent for awhile. “Why’d you say you wanted to go looking for a fight if you thought are odds were so shitty?”<\/p>\n
“Our odds are always going to be shitty, unless we start learning.” I reroute my path through Old Man Star to get back to the home system faster, dodging a gate camp in the process. “Only way to learn is fight, and fighting means losing ships. Hell, just getting a fight that isn’t a stupid blob of ships that make the whole thing meaningless is a win, as far as I’m concerned. Getting a fight is the point<\/em>.”<\/p>\n “Winning is the point,” CB counters. “For pretty much everyone.”<\/p>\n “Yes. Fine. True. Good point.” I enter the home system and aim for the station docking ring. “Lots of guys will fly around with another guy somewhere in the system providing fleet boosts. Or they’ve got a Falcon buddy ready to drop cloak and jam out anyone stupid enough to engage. Sure. Lots of guys, the only reason they’ll take a fight is because they believe they can win, and they won’t<\/em> take the fight if the odds aren’t totally<\/em> in their favor. Yes.”<\/p>\n “And?”<\/p>\n “And that’s not me. All I want is a fight — if I get one, I win. Period. Full-stop. Even if my ship blows up, because for me the hard part is just getting the fight.” I look over my ship hangar. “You still have that Rupture you named Huntard?”<\/p>\n “Yeah.”<\/p>\n I swing the hangar arms over to unberth a Vexor. “Hop in — we’re going to go find that guy again.”<\/p>\n “You’re never going to find a fair fight,” CB points out. “Not in New Eden.”<\/p>\n “I don’t –” I cut myself off. “I’m going after a guy in a Rupture with a Rupture AND a Vexor cruiser. I’m obviously not looking for a fair fight — I’m looking for fights that aren’t pointless and stupid, where I can learn something useful.”<\/p>\n “Did we learn something useful in the last fight?” CB asks. “I blew up too fast to notice.”<\/p>\n “We learned we need to communicate better and not make assumptions about what the other guy’s doing.”<\/p>\n “And to not attack Ruptures in frigates?”<\/p>\n “Well…” I shrug. “Not to attack them in a pair of frigates who are trickling in one at a time, yeah. Kind of figure we already know that.”<\/p>\n The last gate looms ahead of us, and we jump.<\/p>\n “He’s still in Local.”<\/p>\n “Yup. Let’s jump up to that acceleration gate again.” We do, but directional scan is clear. I extend the range and swing the beam around. “Ah. He’s down by the station. Stay here, let’s see if I can bait him out away from dock range. I warp down to the station and wave to the Rupture with a couple of my guns, but the pilot ignores the invitation to a fight and simply redocks when his shields start to get low. “No joy.”<\/p>\n “I’ve got another wartarget in system,” CBs voice is already tense. “We should get out.”<\/p>\n “It’s just two,” I reply. “That’s still a good fight for us.” <\/p>\n I get only a grunt in reply, then: “The new guy’s in a Rupture, too.”<\/p>\n “Perfect. 2v2 cruiser brawl. Sounds fun.”<\/p>\n “Sounds like a good way to blow up.”<\/p>\n “Same thing.”<\/p>\n Another grunt. <\/p>\n
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