010 - Criminal? guess so.

Criminals are not welcome into Gallente space - leave now Mdih Lihu, or your vessel will be destroyed!

I double checked my navigation computer, this system was rated 0.9 security status. Had my security rating dropped so low already? When I was first granted my pilots license, I hadn't planned on becoming an outlaw. My interest lay in exploration, the sheer size of the universe had amazed me, I wanted to fly from one end to the other. Then I witnessed my first explosion, the fact that the ship had been mine didn't make a difference, I was addicted. 

The common belt and mission rats hadn't been enough, only the destruction of another pod pilot and the rush it provided had sated me. I could rationalise that they weren't really dead, their consciousness would be instantly transferred to another clone and they would live on, unlike the thousands of crew that would die every time other ships were destroyed.

What would I really be giving up by leaving highsec behind me? The space around my small Incursus was awash with ships, the local comms channel registered the system population in the hundreds. Crowds and pushy authority figures it seemed.Plotting a course for the closest lowsec system I engaged my engines. My cloak dropped, the local police removing my shields in a single volley before I escaped into warp.

Passing through Aeschee a short time later, carefully sweeping my scanner over the belts I detected a Covetor. What was that I wondered, some kind of cruiser? My ships database corrected me, a mining barge, in lowsec. I landed almost on top of damedia, only taking a few seconds before I had him locked and tackled. Lone hobgoblin and blasters tearing into his shields, the ship slowly began to turn as my Incursus settled into orbit. 

I kept expecting it to launch a flight of drones in defense, but as the seconds ticked by there was nothing. The last of its shields disappeared and the armor started to melt as the ship disappeared into warp. That wasn't supposed to happen, the pilot must have fitted two warp core stabilizers which had cancelled out my warp scrambler.

Waiting out my global timer in a safe spot, I scanned a Rifter jumping around possibly looking for me. I decided to see what would happen and jumped into a nearby belt at 50km. I wasn't waiting long before Magnulf's Rifter landed at the centre of the belt and we started burning towards each other, the extra distance giving me a few more seconds to send my drone in at him before we started exchanging fire. I juked back and forth as I came at him until our ships practically collided, we slapped tackling gear on each other. The fight was short lived, his autocannons tearing The Green Nugget apart as I finally broke through his shields, a good many of my shots missing his ship completely. We exchange Gfs via local as my pod escaped into warp. Rifters scare me.

In my backup Incursus, I found a quiet nearby system and began shooting Serpentis cruisers to cover the small loss of my ship. Before long two names appeared in local at the same time. Cptn Elmo less than a month in a pod, Tilem nearly 3 years. A quick scan showed neither had bothered to rename their ships, Tilem in an Incursus and Elmo in a Punisher. It took me a little while but I finally zeroed in on them both at the same planet. At first I hesitated, imagining them sitting at the planet, tackle gear primed and wondering if I'd be stupid enough to warp into their trap. Yes, yes I would.

Warping straight to zero on the planet I landed right between the two ships. I began locking onto them as I realised they were shooting each other. The Punisher had no shields and my overview had him labelled as an aggressor, I scrambled and began blasting away. Launching my drone as the Incursus locked me, I let it loose at the punisher. Tilem's Incursus fired on me and my shields started to disappear. My drone was taking damage and I redeployed it several times hoping to throw off the lock. 

For no reason at all I panicked when I saw my armor start to disappear, at the same time I realised neither craft had scrambled my warp drive, without thinking I initiated warp to a nearby planet, somehow managing to scoop my drone. While travelling through the warp tunnel I chided myself, why did I do that? I was barely into armor, yes my drone was nearly dead but it wasn't worth running away over. I resolve to head back even though they'd had ample time to make their exit. Spinning my ship around I aligned back to the planet, initiating the warp command as the Punisher landed directly on top of me. Cancel warp, cancel warp!!!

Locking onto the Punisher again and relaunching my drone, Tilem arrived just in time to see his friend explode. Locking down the pod I cracked it open as punishment for chasing me. Tilem and I began trading blows, cursing my lacking capacitor skills and vowing to make them a higher priority I escaped into warp. A few minutes later Tilem disappeared from local comms, I was left alone in the system running over the fight in my head. 

I checked my combat log as I returned to scoop Elmo's loot and corpse, three new entries under the kills section. Three? Elmo's Punisher, Elmo's pod and Tilem's Incursus. After firing on my 'innocent' vessel Tilem had warped to a gate and exploded to sentry gun fire. Checking his wreck I discovered several tech2 modules. That sure beat shooting at Serpentis to replace my earlier Incursus loss.