Raid #4 The Snake pit

Karma is a bitch. And my karma ain't exactly the shiniest. And sometimes I take on more than I can chew. Anyways, the raid started quite peacefully. I was again in Gliese 868 because of the network of traders I have been building there for some time. We know each other. It's easy cash, no guns fired. So I was expecting some steady profit as usual. Traders were hauling their asses to starports like every other day. Some of them were smarter, noticed me and reacted accordingly with evasive maneuvers in super cruise like this dude CMDR MAREK15. I guess he finally learned his lesson and upped his game a bit. And that's what I like to see really. So props to him.

I was also hailed by CMDR PIRATE AMEAL who said he knew me from http://www.reddit.com/r/ElitePirates. To be perfectly honest, I hate other pirates in my system because it means what? It means lesser profit and more scared traders of course. And we can't have that can we. But I had that sixth sense telling me that I should let this guy work with me for this time. So we made a gangsta duo. And boy, was I glad I met him only few minutes later.

I noticed CMDR JAG cruising in his 'conda. A trader apparently but with some decent armaments. And since we pirates don't give a shit, we decided to jump him. I instructed my new wingman to follow me in ASAP so we could share cargo and cover each other just in case the anaconda turned defiant. And like hell she did.

Homeboy started blasting his big guns and a fierce battle erupted.

Things were going to shit real fast. I needed my wingman and I needed him now.

My canopy started looking like it would need some proper regrind real soon.

And then it happened! My wingman to the rescue at long last!

And the 'conda? Zero fucks given ladies and gents. He continued pummeling my wreck like nobody's biz.

This trader decided to hold the ground at all cost. No cargo for filthy pirates apparently.

But my wingman started doing some work here.

And CMDR JAG sleeps with the fishes... I then quickly took my crumbling wreck for much needed repairs.

Various stuff was happening until we ran into CMDR DERATH. This guy has been apparently exposed to cargo scanner rays so many times it might have left him in poor health condition. His bounty was exceeding 36M. It wasn't my first contact with this guy. He has been trying to hunt me down in this area before.

Since again, we pirates don't give a shit and we don't play fair I told AMEAL we could get him and pay for some prostitutes with his juicy bounty. His loadout was triple C3 beams and twin C2 frags. Triple beams are pretty standard for any PVP fitted python. I know twin C2 frags are quite destructive up close and especially in my case because I was running mirrored armor. So I could tank the beams but would have been shredded if I got close enough. The idea was one of us would interdict him and stall him long enough for the other to join. Of course, we were both wanted and with cops flying around there was a very real risk of getting interdicted right before entering the FSD wake.

First attempt went kinda smoothly. AMEAL interdicted him, stalled him and I quickly came in boosting to mass inhibit him just in case AMEAL couldn't tank him anymore. Unfortunately he noticed me quickly enough to hit that FSD which I inhibited only partially. And that 10-15 seconds it bought us wasn't nearly enough to do any damage on a running python.

Second time it was me who was stalling. I tried to keep my distance while occasionally shooting at his general direction not to arouse any suspicion (but of course he knew my wingman was on the way). AMEAL then jumped in but it was a bit late. I lost my shields, relying only on mirrored armor to tank the beams but I bought some nasty frags during one of my maneuvers and I had to run. I kinda needed AMEAL to take some heat now so I could line up some rail shots but he didn't really bother with him and kept chasing me. Canopy breached. Only D rank life support now. Man, I should really stop smoking in that cockpit.

I jumped to nearby anarchy system as usual. Didn't really want to risk landing at fed stations for obvious reasons. The oxygen supply was supposed to be just enough to land at 1000+ ls station. But at that time I didn't realize Frontier beefed up the interdiction rate in anarchy systems. And of course that's what followed. It was a harmless viper with mad interdiction skills (I know the game is cheating here a bit but it's fine with me). So I was fighting for a little and then had to submit.

Hell yeah boiz, this shit is gonna be tight.

Have to boost and do some flight assist crazyness. It's now or never.

And by a millisecond it's the latter :/ I grazed the rails which slowed me a little and yeah...

Luckily the fellow pirate folks quickly recovered my suffocating body, offered me some rum and I was good to go for the next round ;) Since it was technically an accident, my bounty was not claimed by CMDR DERATH. But he should probably count it as a kill anyways ;)