“Ahhh, this ship upgrade feels so good! I was feeling cramped in that old frigate. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I’m just saying this is so much better.”
“I’m glad you like it ORI.” Reiko grinned at the compliment. Her selection of mining and mission contracts and being frugal with spending on module upgrades led to her buying a brand new Caldari destroyer in a few short weeks. She had decided to have her AI transferred to the new ship, having grown fond of his banter during the long and boring mining missions. “I personally like all the weapon slots. And the increased shielding.” She took stock of her ship’s weapons and defenses as part of her mental checklist.

In fleet combat the small frigates would frequently target larger ships, taking advantage of their small sensor signature to engage at close range, orbit, and “web and scram” their targets. The small sensor signature of frigates made them harder to track and engage by vessels of cruiser class and larger as the frigates closed to optimum range. “Web and scram” referred to webbing the sub-warp engines and scrambling the warp drives. This would prevent the ship from warping away to safety and also slow the affected ship to a crawl, making the victim an easy target while simultaneously making it harder for said victim’s weapons to track and engage the orbiting frigates.

The destroyer was thus conceived as a “frigate destroyer” or “ship that destroys frigates”. The Shinmai Maru, as Reiko already named her, was built especially for long-range fights versus frigates. Her new ship enabled range bonuses on any mounted gun turrets, with space for up to 7 in all. All 7 slots were filled. Five with long-range 125mm autocannon and 2 with the shorter-ranged but more damaging 150mm railguns. Plus 1 missle launcher. Since the destroyer mounted the same weaponry as frigates it would have no problem tracking and engaging the little ships as they tried to close the range. The ship’s 4 mid-module spaces were filled with shield extenders, shield boosters, and an afterburner. The extender increased the maximum shield points, the booster enabled rapid shield regeneration at the expense of draining stored power from the ship capacitor, and the afterburner let Reiko boost the engine max speed up to 400 meters/second. The afterburner provided the extra boost by draining the ship capacitor of stored power as well. Her checkout complete, she turned her attention to getting her ship underway.

“So what do we do now, Rei-chan?” asked ORI. “Pirate hunting. Seems like there’s a pirate turf war going on over some brothel shacks in-system. Our job is to remind them that such overt showdowns are not tolerated, even if whoring still is.”

“I sense from your tone that you dissaprove of the oldest profession?”
“Careful ORI. I know a 3rd-rate garbage flitter that could have your name on it.”
“Right. Lets get those pirate bastards!”