Everyone is a winner

After getting a rare opportunity to score some shiny structure kills, I've set my eyes on a c3 with a high-sec static. I've caught locals shooting sleeper wrecks. However, the action was not present at any anomalies. I've waited for some time to see if I can catch them at some other site, but they were doing strange things instead of continuing farming. Some ships kept warping to the tower and back to the site and then staying idle, I assume, since no additional wrecks were appearing. I get their position with d-scan and decide to probe them out. I normally don't do this, but I am in a gambling mood. Perhaps they are too lazy and won't spot my probes. I align my ship to the direction and insta warp to 10 once I get a positive result. Locals stay vigilant and warp out before I can even land on grid, leaving mtu and wrecks behind them, but no sleepers. Of course now I find everyone at the tower.

Look at those ships. While the Gila and the Rattlesnake are hardly a surprise, it's been awhile since I saw a Nighthawk. I guess I just found my new home. Locals must have spotted me as they don't move an inch from the shields apart from a salvaging Trasher, which I ignore. I got time. Let's see how this will play out.

I've been watching them. I've been watching them watching others.

I would see some random chatters, but no opportunity would materialize.

They would just sit at the tower or warp only to high-sec. While I keep checking d-scan a wild Helios appears with wilder Rattlesnake. The strange part is that I see them at the data site. I do not know what Rattlesnake is doing there. Is he acting as a some sort of protection? I warp to take a look.

Both pilots are from a different corp than locals. Sometimes things just don't make sense. Regardless what Rattlesnake's intention might be, I decide to roll with the program and tackle it. Helios warps clear, but the battleship is kept in place. He deploys a mobile depot and throws ecm drones on me, but luckily my Domi fleet arrives in time and the Rattlesnake is destroyed.

Not too shabby. Too bad it was That day of the month for the loot fairy. I scoop the loot, shoot the wreck and go back to stalking.

While watching wormhole I did have a few scares here and there. Like a huge ass fleet landing out of nowhere and bubbling the wormhole when I'm keeping a relatively close orbit.

If that Rattlesnake gank happened one hour later this could have ended very differently. But in general, things have been rather quiet. Locals have been making some trips to high-sec day after day. Actually, there has been too much warping to high-sec. I would see transport ships going back and forth and eventually random ships jumping out and pods coming back in. Something isn't right. It's a moving out op!

What a strange coincidence. I feel a bit bummed that I probably won't be getting a shot at killing a framing ship, but perhaps, they will let their shields down too early and let me help myself to those hangers. One can only dream. Meanwhile, I have my new stalking partner - Gris X, join me on my adventures.

We watch the tower, but locals don't make any mistakes. They ship out everything in an orderly fashion and there's not much we can do about it as it all goes through high-sec. But they will have to unanchor that tower sooner or later and that will be our chance.

Fast forward some hours and I finally see the shield go down and unanchoring timer starting. Apart from defense modules, there's nothing left, but the tower is a faction large tower, that goes for almost a billion in Jita. I'm sure they will want it back. We might also get that pesky cloaky blockade runner transport ship.

Things get more interesting when my partner reports a neutral Proteus coming in, but never coming out. I bet they are watching the same tower as we do. We manage to get the name which allows us to do a background check. Pilot seems to be from a small corp and doesn't appear a threat. Oh boy, this has potential to turn into something fun. My gut says we might get that Proteus.

Tower countdown goes to 30 seconds and we warp at 10km and get ready. 20..15..10 Crane decloaks! I decloak. I try to lock the transport ship, but he is unlockable and soon cloaks up again. Damn, he was smart and decloaked at range. Must know he is not alone. Last position I saw him he was 9km away, so I burn at full speed to that direction. To my surprise he still hasn't warped and I end up decloaking him. To my even bigger surprise, I now have a Proteus decloak near me. I quickly scramble the strategic cruiser and keep a point on the transport ship. My partner gets in on the action, but while the Proteus was the primary focus, the Crane is nowhere to be seen. Damn, he escaped. And he also got the tower! That bastard. When almost done with the Proteus now suddenly a Tengu decloaks.

The Proteus dies quickly and we focus on the Tengu, which almost gets away. I get quite surprised to see my web out of range, so I overheat it together with the microwarpdrive and burn at full speed, following with all the fleet behind me. He doesn't last long and it's no mystery why.

I don't know what was he thinking when decloaking near the Proteus with three Dominixes and a Stratios. He didn't save his friend and his 100mn afterburner didn't save him. Talk about locals being lucky. Not getting panicked and grabbing that faction tower right in front of our noses, with hostile fleet on grid and positive tackle. I must admit that's a sign of skill and experience. In the end, everyone comes out a winner. Well, except for the Tengu and the Proteus.