A scouts tale: A shadowlands love story

[ellahrairah]

So I am in a dog fight with Sally, my Strike fighter... A beautiful mosh pit of skill and adrenaline. I'm at yellow health, my shields are at half as my enemies and I engage in a glorious dance of hit, miss, roll, turn and dive. Then I die suddenly, like having a cold bucket of water poured on you when you’re in a warm comfortable bed. But not from my worthy and respected opponents with a missile lock on me or being toasted by their blasters. The suddenness, the shock and the let down of being yanked out of the fight with no warning can mean only one thing. The gunships are out... Again. The republic on my server is pretty well known for rolling heavy with gunships... So now I must stop using the strike, and get out my scout. I quickly find the first gunship. It's obviously someone who doesn't know the ship well enough because he has left himself way too exposed. I can see him pumping out shot after shot, which is good for me... He is lost in the myopic tunnel vision of the gunsight. When I get there, I lay into him, and hit him with a sabotage probe... Like a large game animal, I watch him bleed as I chase him. He is too weakened to run too far and I finish him off when his thrust has expired. While I was focusing on him another gunship finds me and gives me a love tap with a plasma cannon… As much as a cobra can love tap a mongoose. I hit my thrust and get behind a rock where I can lick my wounds but I have gotten too close to that glorious mosh pit and I have been noticed by too many. I have to abandon my hunt to bob and weave in and out of the asteroid field. A missile locks onto me and I give my thrust all that it will give me. I'm in the red, my shields are almost gone and I, quite accidentally, come across the same gunship who tapped me, or I assume rather. I didn't have an opportunity to see who lit me up the last time. He is in a bad way as much as I am. He sees me and I see him. Others are closing behind me... They smell blood, just as I do, and they focus on me rather than the objective. I'm screwed, and I am not getting out of this one. The missile locks are on my ***, and the gunship charges up for a shot at me. I dive straight at him blasting away and manage to get off a sabotage probe before he blows me apart. I see my name go up as a kill, but a few seconds later I see his name go up as my kill. So we died with each other's hands around our throat. It's a good way to go out as far as I'm concerned.

 

While waiting to respawn I count the number of gunships... If it's 2 or less I can go back to my strike fighter. I count 5, so I choose my scout again. I do a barrel roll right out of the gate and blast my thrusters. My plan is to go as high as I can and pounce any gunships. I begin to overshoot an objective when I see that glorious mosh pit again. It's a good one too, with the satellite in no one’s hands and an epic battle raging to take it. My job is to root out verminous gunships though... I can't be swayed... I am resulote... I am... Screw it! BANZAI!!!!! And I am in the dance doing what a dogfighting scout does... Get behind them, snap off a few shots... Missile lock! Roll, evade and once the lock is off... Re engage... I play my part and then... WHOOSH... My shield shields have vanished... Before I can say "what the f...." I'm toast. I know 2 things in that moment. 1) I was hit by a top tier gunship and 2) someone knows exactly how to use it with minimal power expenditure. I know this because they used 2 different cannons in quick succession with just enough charge to get the job done. Then I see who killed me, and I know the name. He is an exclusive gunship player with a top tier ship. I will have to be careful, and scout dogfighting is out of the question.

 

I decide to focus on him… I take my time and fly a circuitous route to get to him. I see that big bright haze of him powering up, as I begin my dive and hope it’s not me in his sights. He doesn’t see me coming at all and I let off short burst and try to get a lock. Big mistake, the probes lock on too slowly and the warning spooks him. He barrel rolls and gets lost in the rocks. I find him hull down on a rock, but he sees me coming and is off again. We play this game for a while, as he scampers from spots that I am sure he has used before and has committed to memory. Its more than that he knows the map, he knows his ship very well and he hugs the rocks as he tries to evade me. It doesn’t matter though, because my maneuverability will always be better than his. I have given up trying to lock onto him with a probe, and can only get some pot shots off on him. Nothing to really hurt him, just enough to spook him.

 

Time’s up.

 

I spent half the match chasing around this one ship. My team won, which is a rarity for the Imperial side. My score is pathetic. No medals. That guy isn’t on the top 5 like he usually is.