A tough customer, Part 1

I moved into a nice quiet little system. It was a c4 inhabited by a corp named New Divide. It had a quite few anomalies, but when it comes to signatures, the place was kept tidy. On my initial scouting trip, when warping to an outer planet to launch probes, I find two Rattlesnakes on d-scan.

I try to pinpoint them on one of the anomalies, but it seems they are in some signature. System is new and not scanned yet. Somehow I doubt they will be doing the anomalies so no point in waiting. I warp to another outer planet and launch my combat probes. Judging from small and medium sleeper wrecks that are piling up it must be a gas site. Gas sites don't have many sleepers protecting them, so time is of the essence here. Thanks to a new feature of seeing your d-scan in a map mode, I quickly get the position of the Rattlesnakes and scan them out. Unfortunately I land with only two small sleepers left on the field and by the time I make my perch site is cleared.

Radio Active's Rattlesnake is still at 0 velocity. I warp at range, but he quickly picks up speed and both ships warp away before I could make my move. Damn it.

There are still some signatures present. I do not know what types are they as I do not want to scan since locals are active. It doesn't take long when I spot a Rattlesnake in range at some signature.

Time for a second chance. Since they are doing another site, I assume my combat probes have not been spotted. My gut feeling says it's another gas site. Again, time is of the essence. I have my probes out already so I scan the ship right away and warp at 100. Upon landing ship is nowhere in sight.

God damn it. Only two small sleepers were guarding this site. I am too late. I wait for another opportunity, but nothing much happens. I guess there are no more sites to do. It's getting late. It's only my first day, but the wormhole already proved to be with potential. I scan the signatures and log out.

Next day I log in to a what looks like an empty system. I guess I started EVE earlier than locals. Of course you never know, but I take the opportunity and scan out all the sigs. Later in the evening I spot first activity.

How underwhelming. They downgraded from a faction battleship to a faction cruiser. I guess that is enough to clear c4 gas site, but I did see a Rattlesnake clear just two small sleepers and that's what I expected to see. I decide to leave this Vexor alone and wait. He clears the site and two Prospects lands to mine. Sigh. With a Rattlesnake following them. Wait, what?

Yes, a faction battleship is coming out of warp. Is he some personal escort for the Prospects? Did he miss-click and warped by accident or was fleet warped? I don't care what's the reason. He is right in front of me and I am going in. It probably was one of the fastest decisions I made. I get positive lock, tackle him and soon all my fleet is on grid focused on the Rattlesnake.

Radio Active goes down. I scoop the loot and warp back to the safe. Op success. Finally getting some luck. I guess these guys won't be doing anything for today. I use the opportunity and explore down the chain.

Usually leaving my BS fleet in one wormhole and flying away with a scanning Proteus is a small risk. I never explore wormholes that are end of life. So no risk right? I'll go around, do a sweep and come back. I do just that only when returning I meet a Megathron rolling the wormhole. Looks like these guys decided to close the doors. I feel really lucky to be back just in time and go in without a second thought. The Megathron goes back in and holds cloak. What an interesting opportunity. My priority was to get home and I did not really consider ganking the rolling battleship, but since he is holding cloak, for some reason, I burn to wormhole at 0, toggle my modules and lock the battleship once he appears. In no time, I am working on my second kill!

Poof goes the battleship. Two kills in the same evening of the same corp. I'm on fire! All of a sudden I receive a convo request.

Locals were interested in knowing what I am doing in their wormhole. They wanted to know if they can be in any way of help. I happily suggested paying 600mil ISK for the peace of their mind. Sending someone money always helps that someone. Radio did not like my offer and countered with an offer of his own - sending him a 1bil ISK for them not killing me. How quickly the tables have turned. Despite me doing 800mil damage and receiving 0, Radio was confident I was the one who was in danger and not his corp. We discontinue conversation with a disagreement. The question remains: whose side is the truth on?

To be continued...