This Post is dedicated to Gorgoleon, A true Bastard and a joy to fly with. Good luck in all your future ventures mate and good hunting.
Last night was an epic night for the gang I ended up flying with. I logged on to buy myself a new Thorax when the call came down that there was a juicy target in a wormhole off Evati. The fleet mustered for battle and we set off to make someone miserable.
The probe-fu of Happy San is something to behold. from picking up a target on the directional scanner to getting a hit is usually no more than two or three minutes, barely enough time to get a fleet organised if there isn’t one already. The man is a probing god.
The call came in that he had a Nighthawk and Drake in a wormhole, and almost simultaneously someone said there was a Loki and Raven in Lasleinur. The decision was swiftly made that the Lagion and Raven were far juicier and the probers went into action. Happy, focussing on the wormholing targets, quickly had hits on both, whilst AntonioBanderas managed to get hits on the Loki and Raven at 100% but it turned out they weren’t warpable.
Whilst this was remedied we waited with our gang on the Lasleinur gate in Evati, shooting the breeze and chatting over fleet comms. An unlucky Cerberus turned up and we jumped through after it and made quick work of it. Looking ove the killmail later on we reasoned that this Cerb was probably on his way to help out the Loki and Raven in the level 5 mission they were doing. Fortune smiled on us it would seem. If we’d had a warpable hit a minute or two earlier we would have had the Cerb landing on us whilst we attempted to ransom the Loki. I don’t think it would have been much of a problem but it would have added some confusion to the situation.
As soon as the Cerb popped, and his pod was dispatched. We got the call that the hit on the Loki and Raven were fully resolved. Interceptors were dispatched, and points were called. It was decided that the Raven would be melted with no quarter and the Loki held for Ransom. The Raven was soon gone and the Loki was held in Armour for a ransom. The fool turned it down. Nearly a billion ISKs worth of ship and he turned down a ransom. Pop went the Loki. Both pilots got out with their pods before we could lock them so we couldn’t even salvage a ransom from their pods.
Wrecks were bookmarked, and we got out before the Level 5 rats decided that we were worth nibbling at. I don’t know what that particular L5 mission is called but its a nasty one, which we’ve busted a couple of times before. Very heavy Neut towers and a carrier make it a risky proposition for piracy but worth it if the targets are juicy enough.
With GCCs still active we headed back to Evati to sit on the exit from Happy’s wormhole. The drake and Nighthawk were off scan but a pair of Cormorants were around the sites they’d been clearing, obviously picking up salvage. Happy figured that they’d come in from another hole leading further into unknown space and proceeded to scan it out. The plan was to tray and catch them at a safe in the first system if possible and if not get them in a bubble at the other wormhole.
The Cormies left and the Nighthawk and Drake appeared on scan again, they were quickly probed out and interceptors were dispatched. Our interdictor pilot was ready on the other side of the presumed exit wormhole and the fleet jumped into the unknown system. We were good to go.
The interceptors landed and were just that little bit too slow to catch them, the bubble went up and our ‘dictor jumped back towards us to drop another bubble on our side of their escape route. Literally caught between a rock and hard place and after yo-yo-ing between the two systems for a minute or two the Drake melted and we got his pod. Points and webs were held on the Nighthawk and DPS stopped just as it hit hull. The pilot was convo’d and a ransom demanded in a channel we have specifically for that purpose. Even those who had bought passes from us in the past and could vouch for our honour couldn’t convince him that we wouldn’t pop his ship and him. So he ejected.
I’m not sure what he thought this would achieve. Maybe he though he could get out with his pod, forgetting that he was bubbled from both sides. I give up trying to rationalise the behaviour of some of our victims, who will try anything in a desparate attempt to escape. The call went out to others in our public channel for anyone who could fly a Command ship, but there were no takers. At any rate the pilot reboarded his ship and we popped him anyway.
All in all not bad for a nights work, it was unfotunate that we couldn’t get ransoms from the two juicier ships, they would have amounted to approximately 1 billion ISK split between 12 of us. More to the point the operation made a fitting swansong for Gorgoleon, who was Fc’ing, and will be leaving the Bastards so he can teach some of his RL friends to PvP. You should bring them down our way mate when you think they’re ready for a rumble 
Till next time, good hunting and remember, pirates are people too.
