Wormhole hunting. 2 Golems are better than 1, Part 1

Pilgrimage

About a week ago I left on a pilgrimage. It's my soul searching in eve that I do once in awhile. As mentioned in earlier post, I roll myself out of home WH and succumb to the unknown...and BOB's will. I roam the localless and otherwise empty space, poke my nose around into different systems.

Usually it's just me and the echos of an empty space. To find some action in wormholes is like winning in a lottery. The prize depends on how shiny are the ships you found. Taking the prize is another thing. I often like to compare EvE with the nature. Both have life cycle and a food chain. Eat or be eaten. It's a one big ecosystem where nobody wants to be eaten. That active tengu screaming for its life when tackled and trying to burn with overheated afterburner is like a poor deer trying to outrun the lion. Sometimes it works, but mostly not.

The hunt

So here I am, scanning my way around, until i stumble on a nice system that is a c4 class. What's so nice about it? Well, mostly because of this:

Someone's been busy. I like that. If that's not a sign of an active system, then I don't know what is. One signature and no anomalies confirms that. Ladies and gentlemen, we just found our new home. I warp around, check the tower, do the background research, map the pilots. All seems to be empty and quiet. Perfect, because I can settle in without being disturbed. I fly around, make some safe spots and log for a day as it's getting late.

Next day, which is Saturday (mind you, this happened 1 week ago 18th) I eagerly log in to eve with hope to find some plexing. Unfortunately seems I just missed it. Further investigation reveals that plexing usually goes quite early in the morning. For a big sleeper like me, that woke up at 12 afternoon that's a problem. Well, nothing can be done at this point, so I scan around, check neighboring wormholes. Without finding anything I go afk and play some other games, such as dota2, surfing the web or doing some chores and once in awhile check that D-scan for any changes. Time goes by and suddenly it's late evening. Talk about game of patience. Well thank god I can multitask and forget about eve. It's also a good strategy not to get tired of spaceships. Sometimes I leave the client just to chat with my corpmates. I promise my self to wake up "early" on Sunday and set my alarm for 9.30 in the morning.

Sunday finally arrives. I wake up, roll myself out of bed and navigate with my eyes closed to turn on the computer. I have everything loaded while taking a shower. Ok, let's check in on my russian friends. Quick peek shows all pilots logged off. That can't be good I thought. Checking the D-scan confirms, that there's indeed no activity going on besides the forcefield and empty ships at the tower. I take a look at wormnav and, for the love of god, I see plexing has happened a few hours ago, probably even earlier due to the delay. Of course there are no anomalies left either. What a way to start a day, all annoyed and grumpy. The fact that next day is a workday doesn't help the mood. I decide to do something useful  for a change and go make myself a breakfast. Not long after the downtime hits the server. The day just started, I thought. Let's see what plans BOB has for me today.

It comes when you least expect it

I log in right after downtime, like a model citizen of EvE. Launch my probes in deep safe and get ready to scan...when suddenly my friend logs in! Holy cow. What is this. The guy decided to stay up late tonight? But what will he do with only one sig in the system, and that being a wormhole? Hold on a second! I check the anomaly filter and it shows me fresh, new anomaly. I can't believe my eyes. Is BOB playing with me? I eagerly watch the guy sitting in his pod at the pos, waiting to see what he will do. Suddenly, a Golem appears! This is too good to be true. I was expecting a usual tengu or something, but a Golem? I thank CCP for a bastion module and a marauder revamp. The change where everyone wins. Gankers and the plexers.

Suddenly Golem disappears and pod reappears. As I though, BOB is teasing me! However after a couple of seconds pod warps out, and looks like it went directly to the anomaly. I duly follow just to find him making spot. Perhaps I shouldn't have rushed not to land on him and decloak, but it's hard to stay cold with all this excitement.  Pod comes back and without waiting much longer swaps for a Golem again and sure as hell warps to Anomaly. I warp after it to finish my 200 bm. My hands are shaking. I pray to gods that my internet doesn't crash as it likes to do sometimes. Get my Domi trio ready, align and decloak. Modules hot. Warp in with my tackle proteus and land directly on top of Golem and Domies soon follow.

I could only imagine what the guy was thinking when a proteus appeared near him. As far as he was concerned, new static spawn has not been opened yet (probably) so there should not have been any threat present. In a minute my personal dominix fleet lands and I get to work. Multiboxing 4 accounts is not an easy task when you got cap chains and reps involved with drones on top of it. Not to mention I couldn't tackle Golem due to bastion module and was afraid not to miss timing if he decides to warp out after time is up.

I quickly setup cap/repair chain. Keep checking for bastion timer and start grinding his shields. Now my soul searching trip is not only for ganks. I also like to be a good guy and give a chance for the unfortunate pilot to buy his way out of a gank. I do a ship scan, check the price of a fit and open a convo. Ship scanner shows me 200 mil, thus I start asking for a ransom. At this moment I am presenting myself as a professional ransomer. I link his fit and also forum where I state I honor ransoms. Be it my visit card if you will.

Krotttt > привет

Zosius > ransom
Zosius > 1.2bil
Zosius > http://evepraisal.com/e/1353117
Zosius > https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&find=unread&t=274219
Zosius > I honor ransoms 100%
Zosius > see forum

Unfortunately turns out the guy does not speak english and a language barrier was in a way to do a honest business transaction

Zosius > yes no?
Zosius > think fast
Zosius > ???
Zosius > I honor ransoms
Zosius > hello?
Krotttt > не стрке
Zosius > my business are ransoms
Zosius > 1.2 bil I let you go
Zosius > da net?
Krotttt > дам денег
Zosius > too long
Krotttt > not enough time for translation
Zosius > sorry
Zosius > could not wait
Zosius > gf

When ransoming someone, one does not have a luxury to wait long. Many things can go wrong. I learned this the hard way when 3 bil tengu burned out of range while I was giving my demands. I decide to cut it short and finish him off, which resulted in this beautiful kill mail. A 2.2 Billion mail, as it turns out, ship scanner did not capture X-type large shield booster. What a pleasant surprise. Both BOB and the loot fairy were pleased.

I scoop and shoot the wreck and warp out clear of the site. Still shaking of the excitement and looking at my hard earned module like a kid looking at a candy. I quickly scan around, find an exit to the empire and frog freight booster to Jita. I return and decide to log for the day as I did not find other wormholes to move into and decided that there's no reason to play my luck and be a winner today. New day always brings new adventures. What kind of future does BOB have ready for me? Will he demand a sacrifice or will he let me go on my way? As it turns out, the game is not over yet...

stay tuned for part 2.