Celebrity Death Match #9 Manasi

Manasi - The Mule, Blogger Extraordinaire (29th August 2009)

Manasi is a busy man. It had taken some time to pin him down and find time in his busy schedule to meet me for a fight. Being in a 0.0 alliance and pretty much constantly at war, the man has many operations to participate in. I wonder how he still manages to write the amount of brilliant blogs he does…

First contact with Manasi was made some weeks ago. We had exchanged some emails and spoke briefly over private chat channels. He kindly complemented me on the Celebrity Death Match idea and was keen to participate. It’s always nice to hear people like what you do.

I had offered to fly to any location of his choosing but having the luxury of a jump-clone it was very clear that logistically it would be easier for him to meet me instead. Mental note; need to get jump clones.

Fighting Eve celebrities has by the most part worked out well for my RL schedule. It just so happens that most celebs are on American time zones and I am usually on in after 12 midnight my time. I had just finished another gruelling 15 hour shift at work and on arrival home poured myself a nice glass of XO rum and logged in.

‘Manasi’s Death’ had been prepared fairly soon after I had made initial contact with the to-be-recipient of its might. A Caracal with microwarpdrive and a buffer tank.

I had settled in with my drink and my feet up. Skill queues updated and ready to log off I had a quick look at the address book. In it is a folder named ‘to convo for 1 vs 1’ and in it was Mr Manasi. Let’s see what he is up to, I thought, requesting a conversation.

It appeared I got lucky and Manasi who was nearing the end of a war declaration was happy to meet me. He jump cloned from many solar systems away to just 11 jumps from my location. I undocked the speedy Cruiser and set off.

In the time I took to get to his high sec base he managed to shop around and find the modules he intended to fit. After a quick scout of the navigational map we agreed to go to a nearby low security system to avoid CONCORD’s interest in our business.

We had by this point met up on Eve voice, a feature I had not used for some time but worked really well. Manasi and myself chatted about the stuff Eve pilots talk about. It is always nice to talk to nice people and we had a laugh throughout. Neither of us expected to win the fight which thankfully took a little pressure of the event.

It is always a surprise to see what your opponent turns up in and I had not been sure again this time. Not that it would have mattered as the only cruiser I can fit half decent is the trusty Caracal.

Our ships met at the first of four gates and our Rupture and Caracal travelled together to Aldali . Manasi’s flying style I would describe as having excellent 0.0 mentality; always cautious. We scouted the system briefly and found our intended battleground to be deserted, excellent. Manasi’s experience in o.o showed again as he prepared a safe spot about 500k from the furthest planet from any gate.

In my couple of weeks chasing around famous Eve pilots my security status has taken a bit of a knock. I went from a decent 4+ to a -1.1. Surprisingly for a pilot in an alliance that shoots anything and anybody Manasi still holds a respectable and clean +5. Apparently a feature his fellow alliance pilots give him some stick for every once and a while…

With both our capacitors recharged and having stolen from a jettisoned can, the fight was on. I had intended to fit my preferred tech 2 launchers however the tight fit would not allow for all 5 launchers to be just that. Instead I had to sacrifice 3 of them to be of the ‘Makulth’ variety. Not an issue per se however this did split my range; with 2 launchers being able to hit at 38k and the others at 18k. Mental note; do not split weapon types and/or ranges.

My microwarpdrive quickly burned up the 30 kilometre gap to be about 20. With all launcher primed, missiles where expelled from the safety of their launchers as soon as my lock resolved. The foes ship at this stage still static returned the favour but the Caracals speed negated most of his damage output. As I expected his shield were no more within seconds of the fight beginning. My shields held up magnificently even though they started to take some hits. As my speed reduced the pain he was inflicting came in twice fold.

His secondary armoured defence had taken severe damage and reached the half way mark by the time my shields reached theirs. This was to be a close fight for sure, His armour breaking would guarantee his demise but my shields cracking would spell my doom. Overheating weapons and drones did their best but with my capacitor dying it was kiting then speeding up again.

Shield and armour separated from both our ships and sweat started to appear on my forehead. ‘Crap’ I uttered as our fragile hulls appeared at the same time. With my capacitor bone dry all I could do was watch in terror as my hull kept decreasing and his armour started to show signs of regeneration.

Time slowed and my ship erupted in a ball of white fire. ‘Argh’ I started, ‘so close!’. Manasi had brought a good fight and his combat expertise showed. His fit was better and his skill and experience surpassed mine.

We laughed some, docked and waited out the Global Criminal Countdown timers together.

As said Manasi is a busy man. During and shortly after our scrap he was also in various other chat channels and at least 3 other forms of voice communications. One of his friends was taking some flack in a carrier and off he went.

Close, but getting second place in a 1 vs 1 doesn’t win any prizes. My once 4 point lead against the Celebs has been reduced to a mere 1 point advantage this week.

Grrrr!

Related links/posts;
Manasi side of the story; http://www.ceptacemia.com/AMIE/?p=719
Celebrity Death Match Kill Board; http://818-k.eve-tools.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=15
Sys-K Killboard; LINK PENDING