Hunting down an Orca

It's been over two weeks since I have logged into EVE. My last act before going on vacation was killing a Megathron from a corp I have been stalking. Time to check back in and see what's up.

I log in in a deep safe and do a combat probe system sweep. I get 5 ships hits. I send probes out and warp to the tower. There I find an Orca sitting. Nothing unusual. I have seen this Orca before. It never left force field and I assume it's a ship that guy simply logs out in. Nothing to get excited about.

I fly around the system to find remaining ships. D-scan reports bunch of mining ships in space. I quickly pinpoint their location, which is at the only Ore site in the system. But something feels strange. Something is not quite right. I see an Orca on scan. It would be fine, except the tower, that Orca was sitting at, is out of range. Holy crap, can it actually be at the Ore site? Why yes, yes it can.

My god. It's been 5 minutes since I logged in and here I have a potential target that I couldn't get while stalking these guys for over a week. Unfortunately, my first warp in was less than 150km and by the time I made a tactical bookmark Orca was already picking up speed, warping back to his tower no doubt.

Thar she blows

No biggie, I can wait. So I settled in and patiently waited for the whale to reappear. I see new cans pop up in space. There should be a collection run soon. I keep waiting, but nothing happens. To make matters worse, I see one of the miners swap for Mastodon, a deep transport ship.

What the hell is up with that. Did they have me on watch list? No, that ain't it. They wouldn't be mining at all. Probably. I must say I get a bit upset. Timing is everything and I was starting to accept that me logging in 30 seconds too late might have cost an Orca kill. I continue my watch. At the worst case, I should be able to get that Hulk. It goes over 220 mil in Jita, so It is more expensive kill than Megathron. Not nothing, but since I'm in no hurry, I might as well wait a bit more.

Once again patience is rewarded. I see an Orca on scan. There's no mistake, it is on direct course from the tower to collect that ore. I get ready and align. Once I see industrial command ship land on grid, I initiate warp to one of containers. Decloak, get a positive lock on Orca and Hulk. Scram and point confirmed, Domi fleet in warp.

I can feel excitement in my bones. I try to stay very focused, watching for any ecm drones that might appear, getting ready to bump that Orca until the cavalry arrives. There doesn't seem to be any drones and once my Dominixes land, it is already too late. I get secondary points and start unleashing the pain, Orca being the primary.

It tanks quite well. I have 3 sets of Ogres on it, but it doesn't go down as fast as I wish. Hulk is slowly burning away. My point can still reach him, but it's on the edge. How strange that they don't panic enough and try to burn out of point range while not carrying any drones neither in Orca or Hulk. Finally Orca goes down.

Ahh, there she is. It's been a long time since last time I had killed a whale. Isn't she a beaut? With Orca down I continue working on a Hulk. He did not manage to escape after all.

Over a billion damage done. A gank went flawlessly. I could even say it went much better than I anticipated. For whatever reason, Retriever and Procurer stayed on grid while I was slaughtering their friends. I duly pointed and killed them too.

A battle went with 100% efficiency. Op success. I quickly get rid of all the evidence of violence by destroying wrecks and containers. I warp out back to safe spot and cloak up. I guess I'm done with this system.

Later I also get an email. It looks like I am being watch listed.

I try to use an opportunity and get some money for my services. Unfortunately, they decline paying ransom and tell me that they will just find another system. I ask them to offer their price, but they are not interested. Apparently it is easier to reallocate to another system than try negotiating a price with me. Since I have no intention of evicting anyone and neither my business is to ransom people, I let it go and continue on my pilgrimage. There are a lot of systems to be explored!