The Competition

Right in front of my eyes, a fellow kindred spirit hunter stalking the same prey.  I had seen a Manticore a few systems back.  A lot of times folks will use Stealth Bombers to bring into Pochven to try and improve their standings with the Triglavians.  A Stealth Bomber is not the most efficient way to do this, but can be effective as you can certainly eliminate some NPC targets and potentially eliminate some player industrials if you are lucky enough to find them.  

For myself on that evening, not finding targets and soon forgetting the Manticore I continued my roam and search for targets.  As I was almost done for the evening I hopped into system and what did I see?

An Endurance.  Sadly the Endurance of a target I have already collected 3 corpse trophies from.  But an empty night and an empty few days so I will take what I can get.  I settle into my approach, the long 145km crawl towards the target.  Along the way I have time to admire the ship, his efforts and the mining laser.

Kinda dark and intimidating if it wasn't just an eager mining vessel doing their part to provide resources into New Eden.  As I near my prey, to my surprise...

It's the other Manticore.  They too have eyes for this Endurance.  And a bit ahead of me as they were already upon the target with me still 97km to go.  As fate would have it the prey was able to escape.  Seen here, note the Velocity.

Our fellow hunter likely saddened by the target simply warping away.  Likely our hunter with a single Warp Scrambler or possibly a single Warp Disrupter.  Our prey likely with a Warp Stabilizer and able to effectively negate the hunter's tackle effects and make their escape.

As you'll recall in my Unconventional Fits discussion, I have learned to utilize two Warp Scramblers in my setup.  One being a faction variant that has an enhanced feature to make my scram ability to be -5 and the target only able to be a +4 at best, commonly a +2.  A powerful lesson for the hunter.

I took a moment to see what the fellow hunter's engagement history looked like.  Using Zkill I was able to see what they used, how they commonly hunt, if they are solo or in groups.  Then I looked through the losses.  I found a few Stealth Bomber losses.  Notably a couple odd Nemesis fits that appeared to be configured for a tackle setup in a fleet.  Tackle being no real ability to damage the target, just hold them until the fleet can arrive to take the target down.

I did find one fit, quite similar to my unconventional fit, but our fellow hunter using two T2 Warp Scramblers, -4 at best.  

This likely good enough to hold the Endurance, but will lose a Venture if they are properly fit with a stabilizer.

So, an empty evening for me.  But some entertainment from watching the encounter.  Always good to know others are around.

For now,

Be Well New Eden!