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Affilliation
Pirates in Yong
[from Simoun Ibarra's EVE Online shiplog]
While I was passing by a jumpgate in Yong, I was surprised to find 3 Sansha rats (NPC pirates) hovering near the jumpgate. The security in Yong is 0.3, so it’s not exactly one of the safer areas. Still, pirates hanging around near a jumpgate seemed wrong. Being pirates, they should have bounties, so I went back to see if I could take ‘em out.
Being cloaked, I was able to shoot some missiles first before they could lock on to me. This allowed me just a small head start as they soon proceeded to attack. Fortunately, my little ship was capable of dispatching all three of them. I got my small reward, then moved on.
I passed by the same jumpgate again shortly after, and was surprised to find a new rat floating around, probably wondering why there are 3 wrecks where his/her comrades were supposed to be. Given my limited sensors, I didn’t know if this new rat was stronger than his/her 3 comrades, so I attacked it with caution. This rat turned out to be made of less stuff than the leader of the previous pack, and so he/she quickly joined the wreckage of his/her Sansha comrades.
I was contemplating on why these rats kept appearing in an area where I’ve never encountered them before, when I heard someone on the local comm channel mentioning about a True Sansha hanging around in one of Yong’s asteroid belts. Thinking that I was a message to notify his fellows of an opportunity to collect bounty, I proceeded to plot a course for home, wondering if Yong really was such haven Sansha that all these rats start appearing.
As I was about to jump to a different system, I heard that the pilot was not, in fact, scouting for bounty, but was a miner under attack! I disengaged my auto-pilot and decided to lend a few missiles to whichever pilot was addressing the apparent distress call. It turns out that the True Sansha was accompanied by 4 rats, and that the miner was under attack and alone.
I locked-on two of them and distributed my fire hoping to weaken more ships in a shorter amount of time, but the rats turned out to be made of sterner stuff than I’d have hoped. Noticing a thread shooting at their backs, they ignored the miner and started to lock their weapons on me. Perhaps my ship could have taken on 2-3 of them, but all 5, they were too much. I warned the miner that my ship could not take this much beating and that I would warp out and return shortly after my shields have returned to their full power. I managed to take out one rat before warping out of the asteroid field, shields depleted, and armor at half strength.
The miner mentioned that I managed to draw the rats away, but that now they were targeting her/him again. It would have been a great opportunity to go back and attack while they have another ship in their sights, but my ship was so badly damaged and my capacitor drained that I wouldn’t have lasted very long if I went back right away. I informed her/him that I still had repairs to do, but that I’d be back as fast as I could, unfortunately, I was not able to finish my repairs fast enough.
By the time I was able to warp back in the asteroid belt, the rats were gone, and all that floated among the asteroid was the wreck of what was once the miner’s ship.
Shortly after, a small ship warped in. It was the miner! She/he apparently managed to escape in her/his pod before her/his ship was destroyed. I apologized for causing only1 casualty to her/his attackers. She/he thanked me for trying, given that nobody else responded to her/his cries of help, but it was of little comfort to me knowing that this miner still lost a ship.
I hovered nearby as the miner retrieved any usable cargo from the wreckage. Should the rats return, they would fire on me, and I would be able to at least buy the miner some time to safely escape. The miner finished retrieving what she/he could. The rats did not return. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.
On my way back home, I still felt disappointed that 4 rats got away. Perhaps if I was piloting the Caracal I was saving up for things would have been different. The miner would still have her/his ship, and I’d have had more bounty to collect. It mattered not, that skirmish was over. It did, however, encourage me to continue my efforts to get a better fighting ship. Equipped with a better ship, perhaps the next encounter will end differently.
To that end, I will continue to mine for ore and do the occasional odd jobs. I will also be on the lookout for the True Sansha that got away. Perhaps next time, the True Sansha won’t be so lucky.
Tags: EVE Online
