Mano-a-mano

My Taranis slowly drifted out from behind the shadow of one of the many planets in the Dantumi system. I had been taking a nice afternoon nap and groggily powered up my directional scanner to see who was in the area. I slowly sifted through the garbage in the list... asteroid... planet... hot dog stand... Taranis interceptor... Starbucks... wait... what is this? Another Taranis? I quickly adjusted and refined my scanner direction and pinpointed his location directly towards a nearby stargate. After only a moments hesitation, I punched my own ship into warp and began my approach towards the gate.

I had only ever fought one other Taranis in a one-versus-one situation and had won out thanks to some Serpentis pirates in the belt jamming my opponent. I was wary as to whether or not I could actually win in a completely fair fight being that I am still a young, inexperienced and somewhat unskilled pilot. I landed on the gate and noticed that my opponent was a pirate himself, with a bounty and that I could engage him immediately at the gate without fear of repercussion. I locked him, launched my combat drones, closed range and began cycling my ion blasters before I was even close to optimal range. My opponent was apparently not taken by surprise by my arrival or immediate engagement because he did the same and the duel began. It would not be a duel of skill or wit but simply a matter of offensive ferocity. Whoever could pour on the damage faster would come out of this fight alive. I watched as our shields and armor disapeared at an almost identical rate and as both our ships began leaking gas, exploding and collapsing...

Someones ship exploded and it was mine. My opponents ship looked as though it could barely even limp itself home but he had outlasted me and I quickly warped away, disappointed and beat in my capsule.

I later on got in contact with my opponent and discussed our encounter. He told me that he fits his ship in slightly more offensive manner than mine. He had fit neutron blasters (slightly more powerful than my ion's) but I honestly didn't think that was what had made the difference. It was the years of skill and experience he had beyond me that had won him the fight. If I had only been able to fire one more volley then I very likely would have destroyed his ship...