At waypoint "Quantum World (Flyiedgiae QN-T d3-17 AB 1 b) aka the smallest stellar body we've found in the galaxy, with a radius of 138km, I had this wild idea of launching myself into orbit in the SRV. The gravity of the body is so weak (0.03G surface gravity) that it didn't take long until I built enough momentum (646m/s@13.8km altitude in the SRV is the last speed i checked before going into the void). When the altimeter starts to stay around 0 without any input, it means you've reached orbital speed for that body.

So I drifted and drifted... Seeing the moon becomes smaller and smaller, until i learnt that when you leave the gravity well of the stellar body, the roll/yaw/boost on the SRV becomes unresponsive. The turret was also shown as "bugged". I looked up in the sky. There is only one thing that I'm drifting towards - the gas giant nearby.

Eventually the gravity meter read 0.00G, although the coordinates were still showing. The little moon became so small that I cannot establish visual contact anymore. I'm in pure void. A few CMDRs went to the coordinates and couldn't find a trace of me - because I was too away from the moon. I winged up a few CMDRs so that they could drop in at my beacon. Only to find that I was drifting so fast that none of them could catch me up - not even Ship Launched Fighters. There was claim that I was going way faster than 700m/s because one of the ships could boost to nearly 700.

And so I drifted, helplessly, into the deeper void.

Later CMDR Leasley showed up in his Cutter. He dropped in 1000+km in front of my current vector, trying to catch me head to head, instead of from behind. Eventually he managed to match my vector as much as possible by flying backwards. His ship showed up on my scanner at 50km range - and it became 40 - 30 - 20 - 10. And I waited for the impact.

It didn't kill me.

But it did bring the shield down. The good thing is now I'm at a reasonable speed so that his ship could catch up and change my vector/speed by bumping into me. Another selfie of the IMPERIAL CUTTERand the SRV.

A few minutes later I was sent on my way back to the moon that I launched myself from - according to CMDR Leasley, I was 0.21 ls away from it when I started the journey back.

And there is the SRV, that attempted to go on Distant Worlds 2..... alone.

album link: https://imgur.com/a/qCd6GNA

System: Robigo, shipping lane

Ship: Diamondback Scout "Hym's Shadow"

As soon as I dropped out of hyperspace, I checked the contacts panel as usual - it's more of an instinct than a habit : one Federal Corvette. I thought to myself : "I'm just a shieldless Diamondback Scout with no cargo, no cabins and no pledge to any faction or superpower. No one would want anything from me."

I was wrong.

As I continued my supercruise towards Robigo Mines. The Corvette aligned his vector to mine. INTERDICTION! His ship established interdiction tether to my FSD. I quickly checked the target - CMDR OWL SAURON. I am in no way a combat pilot. But his name seems unfamiliar. He shouldn't be one of those professional gankers. "calm down" I said to myself, "we will have at least one secret weapon to let us survive this".

I pulled the throttle all the way to the back, and submitted.

Just after dropping into normal space, I immediately pulled the stick up, made a 180° turn and put full power to engine for a boost. A flash popped up, the Corvette also dropped in! "Silent Running" my COVAS does exactly what I told her to do. Two seconds later as my ship was disappearing into the black, I disengaged Flight Assist, turned my ship towards the Corvette to see what he's up to.

"It must be working!" I said to myself as I saw the Corvette blindly turning to search for my heat signal - it's not there. I know this ship well. Her idle heat level is 12%. Nothing can lock up unless it's within finger poking range.

It wasn't long until he had visual on my ship and started boost chasing. I kept flying backwards, seeing the huge ship getting closer and closer. I quickly checked his sub-systems: laser weapons, shield boosters, Guardian shield reinforcement. At some 5km range, the Corvette started blind firing his long range gimballed lasers.

"If you want a fight, we'll give you a fight." My hardpoints are also deployed.

I boosted towards him. Upon 2km range, I fired off a salvo of torpedoes - giving the ordnance enough time to arm. I knew he will turn around to chase me, so my torpedoes will hit despite their slow speed. Just as I flew pass his ship and finished another 180° turn, I saw the impact of my torpedoes. "Target shield offline!" COVAS reported. Now the game's on.

Quickly changed the subtarget, I started puncturing his power plant with two railguns. The cockpit quickly became too hot - I have 9 heatsinks for keeping a comfortable interior environment. But the Corvette clearly wanted to end this fast. His guns started blazing - although without lock on, the two huge hardpoints still did some damage to my ship. I kept deploying heatsinks to be able to rapid fire the railguns. One! Two! Three! Four! I quickly checked my hull, still over 80%, while his ship is in no good shape. In about less than a minute, the railguns punched multiple holes on his hull. I quickly realized that I have the upper hand - 43% hull on the Corvette, while my Scout had 78%. The cockpit starts to get extremely hot. But I kept on firing, not even caring about heat level anymore.

"Warning: frame shift charge detected!"

It should be obvious what the Corvette is up to at this point: run. Unless I could interdict his ship right after I enter supercruise, there is very little I could do. So I engaged FSD, entered supercruise. Right there I saw his ship on my radar. And he immediately high-waked to an unknown system. As I went on my way to the station, hands still shaking.

o7 CMDR OWL SAURON

Fly dangerously. Thanks for my first taste of blood and the (not so good) fight.

TL;DR

I'm not a combat pilot (rank competent). Flying a shieldless stealth torpedo bomber Diamondback Scout in Robigo today and got interdicted by a master rank shield tank Corvette. This was my first actual combat encounter against another player, despite the panic I had, after one torpedo salvo hit and some railgun needlework. I managed to teach him a lesson and made him flee.