So I just killed the Arlington gang Idris.
Solo
With a Freelancer.
and the other 80% of it's HP I took out with an IAE rental Ares Inferno that I can still access and fly. Had issues getting it rearmed so I switched to the lancer, managed to take out the rear shields with it and cause some serious damage. Very slow and very tough process. Funny how the Idris can rotate and change direction waaaay faster than a lancer, I almost got shot in the face twice with the railgun point blank cos of that. It also eventually caused me to crash into the Idris so I tried the ares rearm again and it worked. I went out again, emptied a full load into it, went back, rearmed, and finished off the Idris which wasn't even moving by that point, probably because it registered me as dead from the crash before.
Overall the whole process thanks to the bugs took over an hour, but 225k credits is not something to scoff at.
I guess I will get a celebratory whiskey now, feels like I deserve it. Cheers!