Chasing the shadow

Even after all this time, ganking countless people in wormholes, I still get a rush when there's action to be had. It's just something, I can't describe. The only other times I had such rushes was when I played Star Craft. I think to this day, my muscle memory could do a perfect two factory vultures start against Protoss. I jump to the system and get shocked by d-scan.

A Nightmare, in a wormhole with me, with sleepers in the system and not at the tower? I must be dreaming. My hands were shaking like crazy and I didn't even have him on the overview yet. I desperately tried to get his position, but he was not at any anomaly. I get his position at the direction of one of the planets.

I quickly warp to it, but he is not there. I don't understand what is going on. He is very close, but not within range of the moon or any signature. Then he suddenly disappears and I find his position on the other planet. I warp to my standard 70km distance only to see him land on grid, pickup the speed and enter warp again.

God damn it, that's one elusive Nightmare. I see him warp to another planet and I immediately follow, only this time, I warp to 20km. I should be able to tackle him, should he land on me and stay cloaked if I needed. That sounded nice in theory, but in reality, I get decloaked by a fucking customs office and Nightmare did not land. Took me forever to create distance and cloak up again. Where is the bloody Nightmare?

I'm wondering if he saw me. I do not know what the hell is going on, but he seems to be bouncing between the planets and safe spots. Is there someone else hunting him? Then I suddenly see a random pod appear.

Guy is from a different corp. I do not know what the hell is going on anymore, but Nightmare seems to disappear into the void. Probably back to whichever hole he crawled from. He was so close, yet so far! After observing for a few minutes I launch my probes. Don't think he is coming back so might as well scan the system and see what's up.

I end up setting orbit and watching high-sec entrance. My gut says that is where Nightmare came from and gone to. In a second I hear a jump sound. Nightmare pilot comes back. Yay! In a Probe. Blah. He warps to a random site and some random dude in a Hound follows him. He is from different corp, but they probably are friends as I watch them on d-scan for awhile and don't see no wreck.

This system is like Twin Peaks in space. Weird shit just keeps happening. I have signatures scanned out and I probably could crash the party and kill that Hound or Probe, but I don't and won't. I'm not even warping to get visual, because I don't give a shit. I want my Nightmare to be back. I am willing to wait.

Once Probe and Hound are done with whatever they were doing, they jump back to high-sec. Soon, I hear a jump sound again and see a Maelstrom on the overview.

Same pilot again. This time he warps directly to an anomaly. Maelstrom is no Nightmare, but I don't have time for false hopes anymore. It's as good target as I will get today and I'm going to grab him. Things start making more sense when I find the battleship in an anomaly, actually shooting sleepers.

Not that much time has passed since he was in a Nightmare. Was he running away from someone? Who is the guy in a pod and who is Hound pilot and why didn't he attack Probe? Am I dreaming or making things up? Is this Maelstrom is even real? Only one way to find out. I grab him by the throat.

Tackle mods are active and confirmed. That's a good sign, it means ship's not a ghost. Soon my Domi fleet lands and does the dirty work.

What a beautiful kill. I must say, that faction and deadspace mod suits Johanna well. I'm glad she decided to wear it. If only I could have had a peak at that Nightmare. I'm sure it would have been quite... ravishing.