Pork-Inger

Pork-Inger draws First Blood

The Harbinger is the perfect example of Amarr philosophy, that is to say a heavy tank with great damage. They don't often bother themselves with mobility or much help from drones. It is almost like piloting a flying brick, if bricks were slick beautiful things that could fire 7 lasers that melted anything in their path!
After over a week of training Medium Pulse lasers V to be able to fit T2 medium lasers on my newest acquired ship, the Pork-Inger, I was itching to find a fight to test it out. Roaming around in low sec in a battlecruiser without a scout however, is not the recommended game plan for someone who doesn't have deep pockets. Because of this, my newest toy was now on its third day sitting in its hangar. Sure, I had taken it out for a spin or two around my home system of Hevrice in order to get acquainted with its controls, acceleration, speed and maneuverability. It was only a matter of time however, it will would finally be put to the test.
It was a day like any other, I logged on as I checked threads on The Tusker message boards. I went through my usual list of bloggers and read any new posts that they had done since last time I had checked the night before. Then, a call came through from the only other Tusker online Burn Mac. He had just been ganked in his wolf by a combined fleet of a rupture, 2x Omen, a rifter, an Incursus and a Velator, and he was trying to scan them down to take them on wiith his own rupture. Hungry for blood, I immidiatly expressed my willing to help, and saw the perfect opportunity to bring out my newest vessel, the Pork-Inger!
Eventually they left system and we began to try and find out which direction they had gone, we weren't going to let them go off THAT easy! Knowing the had small ships, I loaded up 2 flights of light drones which would have no trouble catching up to their frigates even if they had microwarp Drives fitted. While Burn Mac went to search Jovainon for any sign of them, I pushed my Battlecruiser into warp towards the Muetralle gate, and once I arrived, immediately jumped through to the other side.
As I came through to the other side, I quickly noticed that they were all here, at the Hevrice gate. No doubt they had seen me come in system and decided to wait to take me on. There was a side of me that wanted to shout for joy, the side that thirsts for blood and will do crazy things for it. But my other side also became worried, there were 3 cruisers known to do quiet a bit of damage, as well as being supported by two of the best damage dealer frigates around. There was no hope of escaping this in my Harbinger even if I wanted to. I stayed cloaked for a few seconds, and finally told myself that this is what I had been waiting for as a test for my new ship.

I uncloaked and hit my Microwarp drive as I began to lock up my targets. First ships to get locked would be the cruisers, as they would be more susceptible to my guns as well as would be locked first. I had to wait however on them to make the first move as we were sitting on a gate and the pilots were not outlaws. Finally, they opened fire with all they had and activated their modules on me. A grin came on my face and I began to pounce. The Omen is an amarr cruiser known to be a glass cannon, capable of heavy DPS but carrying only a small tank. Therefore, I put all 7 of my medium turrets on the first, while I sent my flight of light drones after their Rifter. A few cycles later, the first Omen went down , followed even faster by the second Omen.
Turning my attention towards the Rupture, I knew this cruiser had a good tank with good DPS. I began aproaching him and laying the hurt on him. Keeping my eye on the statistics of each of my oponents and of my own ship, I saw I was winning the battle, but thanks to the combination of their drones and turrets, I was starting to get low on armor, and without a repair system on-board, my heart began to pound with excitement as I realized that it would come down to the wire. I began to see that their Incursus was about to be destroyed by my drones, and when I saw my target dissapear from my HUD, I only assumed that it had been destroyed. I ordered my drones to go after their rifter as my armor kept going down and my guns kept smacking the side of the Rupture cruiser. The rupture is one of the few rifters I have grown to fear. Many of my corp mates make it their ship of choice, and for a good reason. It can orbit far out of reach of blaster weapons, fighting in its fall-off with good DPS while at the same time fitting a heavy enough tank to outlast any drones that you might send after it. This ability was showing well againts my battlecruiser, while He was in perfect range for my medium lasers (being able to reach out to 10km's easy), he tank was holding up well. My own tank starting to fail, I began to enter structure just as my weapons finally breached the hull of the rupture and destroyed it. A bit later, my drones finished off the rifter that valiantly stayed through the whole fight. My heart pounding, I immidiatly sent my Battlecruiser to warp to a safe spot while I asked my corp mate Burn Mac (who had not been able to engage since we were at a gate) to gather up as much of the loot as he could. Finally, I began to do a systems check. I had ended the fight with 47% of my structure left!! It was a damn close fight, and I was able to destroy both of their Omens, their rupture, and their rifter. Their incursus had been smart, entering into structure, he realized that I did not have a warp disruption module on him as it was being used on one of their cruisers and had warped away to safety.
I was extremely proud of my new ship and my crew. It had stood up to the combined firepower of what at times was 3 cruisers and 3 frigates as a second incursus also joined in the fight (and warped away when was low on HP). The fight had only lasted maybe a minute or two, but it was one of the most intense fights I have been part of. My heart was still pounding like crazy, and after I got the rest of the loot and jumped into Hevrice, I had to phisically stand up and move around some in order to get rid of my adrenaline.

Fights like these are what makes this game great. I was only around 2500 structure hitpoints from loosing my ship, worth around 40-50 mil with modules. But I had come out victorious and it was my opponents that would be left with the loss (specially as one of those Omens is valued around 90 mil ISK thanks to the rigs that were onboard).
With the fight over, and the usual "good fights" given in local, I docked up my battlecruiser. No longer will I feel the NEED to get a kill with it. I will gladly wait another 3 days, or a week, or even a month if the next fight that it participates in is as good and memorable as its first fight.