After clearing that first guild mission I returned to ArcCorp and 4 more certification missions hit the screen. Low on quantum fuel I quickly grabbed the BlacJac certification mission to locate Leslie Holstein on Wala.
While reputation gained in previous patches remains after a patch update, the mission tree resets. After flying to Hurston to work on my rep there and finding none, a sole permit certification mission from the Guild popped up on my screen. So off I went to restart my mission tree with a visit to Yela to locate Kane Yazawa.
Apparently Phil and his merry band of pirates harassed Gallete Family Farms once too often. Phil was found near the scene of the crime as he and his buddies were trying to make off with the goods. Not a bad combo: a warden, a super hornet and a cutlass, but it would not be enough. OK, 500 creds for the super hornet, 1200 creds for the cutty, and 12312 creds for Bounty Complete!
My “Heartseeker” and the Super Hornet(on loan) are my two favorite bounty hunting rides up through the High Risk Target(HRT) missions. Normally you might want to eliminate one or two of the wingmen first, but here I was able to avoid their fire and take down Chase’s Valkyrie with out much trouble. The gladius trio providing escort soon followed.
Got jumped pretty good at the beginning of this bounty. Its dark and low altitude. Initially an Aurora LN (Floyd) and a Gladius (Jiro) appear on my HUD. As I targeted Jiro the HUD lit up, what 4 targets? Next some missiles, then the three bogeys flew by. Jiro’s wingmen closed in on me before I could nail Jiro. It was all I could do to fight for some altitude without getting shredded.
I looped around and found Neis flying a Gladius which I nearly took down before Toru and his friend were back on my tail. I needed to even the odds.
I quickly gained altitude, charged up the shields and once again looped back into action. Two targets now. Toru in an Avenger Stalker along with my bounty. I went for the bounty splash.
Climbing once again to the high ground I had two targets on me. I focused on Neis – splash. With Toru’s avenger my last target, the fight quickly ended.
Under the cover of darkness at low altitude, I approached the bounty with caution. After a quick exchange of missiles, I avoided Patrick’s wingman and picked off my target, a M50 on my second pass before rising out of the dark of night.
This high risk affair was led by Evan in a warden flying with his buddies in a hornet and a buccanneer. Lost my shields after meandering behind the slower warden, had I recharged them sooner I would have emerged without a scratch.
No sooner than I had taken down the first hornet, two new targets jumped in. We won’t be seeing that mantis again. 5 kills total.
The updates to the super hornet during the 3.4 patch were cruel. Not only did the SH lose it’s armor, the default loadout failed to impress as it was plagued with divergent PIPs. Fixing the super hornet up for use in the verse was an expensive proposition and quite frankly, not worth the risk and I ended up melting mine in favor of a larger LTI pack.
Fortunately the super hornet remains in my fleet as a loaner in the 3.5 patch and I have been quite impressed with the new gimbal system which turns the default loadout into a rather formidable package capable of running most of the bounty missions. If you replace its nose turret with a size 3 distortion repeater that I like to call the Doctor – the DR Model-XJ3, you can tame the larger multi-crew ships.