Ninja Salvaging Series 3 - Rusty skills, Part 2

Tengu was getting further away. I swapped to my Enyo and burned to him at full speed not to lose my 5 minute aggression timer. I had him tackled and Orca was 120km away. It was 100m/s faster than Tengu, so it was a waiting game now.

Suddenly I get a convo request. Let's see what he has to say. I have nothing better to do, so I might try ransoming him.

I tried to start ransoming process. I always ask for a fit, so I can give an proper ransoming price. I believe it carries some weight in it rather than just spewing random sum of money based on the ship type. Unfortunately, Sithris was not willing to disclose his fit, which rang me some bells. Instead, he had a question he wanted to ask.

Ah the high-sec people. Even after CCP dumbing down mechanics to simple buttons, some are still lost. I have a feeling that if it was the old system, some of them would have been concorded. But then was then and now is now. I give my ransom offer of 500mil. A reasonable sum.

Sithris Arkuro > how do i know yall will leave
Zosius > i have no intention to drag this much longer
Zosius > as it is hard to kill you
Zosius > but for a price i am willing to let it go
Sithris Arkuro > 300 mill then?
Zosius > 500mil as i am sure you got fit not t2
Zosius > my orca will be in range soon and i will scan you
Zosius > price will go up once i check value of your fit
Sithris Arkuro > :)
Sithris Arkuro > yeah but my value isnt really the thing here, it more of who mhas more tie
Sithris Arkuro > time
Zosius > thats why i ask you for a fit
Zosius > if it is t2 i am willing to let it go for 300mil

I get an offer of 300mil. My gut says I should have taken, but my stubbornness insisted on at least 500mil. While we were negotiating, I noticed something strange. Orca was not that far away. Too close. Looks like Tengu changed direction again and burning back to the beacon. A quick look at d-scan shows extra ships. A Vexor and a Thorax. Looks like his corp is mobilizing a backup again. I use the opportunity and burn to Orca ahead of Tengu. Move my webifier to Orca hanger, swap for Brutix and change burnt webifier to one from Enyo. As expected, Tengu was passing by my path so I grabbed him without problems.

Now he's mine. He should give up under pressure of 3 neuts.

Zosius > last chance
Zosius > 500mil
Zosius > cant tank without cap mate

I give a last chance to pay me a ransom, while waiting for Tengu defenses to give up. I am not very bothered about the t1 cruiser backup as I am confident my Augorors can tank them. Unfortunately, time was passing by and Tengu was not giving in. I tried to cycle my neutralizers in timed loops, but no success.

One might ask, why I'm not swapping for more neutralizers from Orca? Well, for some reason, my fleet hanger was empty. I guess last time I did some  reorganization and did not put my stuff back in. So I had an Orca that allowed me to refit ships, but no modules to refit to. A painful mistake I will try to avoid in the future.

More ships came to help. I guess not very well fitted, but time was not to my advantage here. We were so far from beacon that I really was not feeling like warping out with my Orca to get the loot as it probably would take a half an hour for it to get back. Longer this fight dragged, more it became a cluster fuck.

I was asking for support in Ninja channel and minerbumping. If I had a friend that could support me with reps I could drag this out for a little while longer. Unfortunately, closest response I got was someone from Forge region, which is too far away.

Checking d-scan I spot a logi ship coming in. This will be a very big nail to my coffin if  I stay. I won't be able to kill anyone and they can take their time to bring more and bigger ships to a fight. I decide to cut my losses. Somehow, my logi pilot manages to get out of point and webs. I align all to a station, do a quick check if anyone is tackled and warp out.

My Orca has a ship scanner. I check the value of Tengu's fit and immediately get hit by a bat of regret for not doing my preparations right.

That's over a billion worth of loot that got away. It would have been a great start. These opportunities do not come very often. An expensive lesson.