It's not personal. It's just business

Something's going on in my temporary home system. I spot a Sacrelige jump through a c3 and warp to a c2 exit. I follow to find I have just missed some action.

Damn it. My guess is a rolling battleship just has been caught. I would have loved to "help" the gankes, but I was watching the wrong wormhole. I have spotted few cloaking ships before, but I assume they were just scouting and certainly did not expect a violence happening with me active in the same system. 

After killing two Tengus and have been taking vacation in a system for around a week I decided to do some scouting and find a new home. I settle in in a c3 class wormhole with a high-sec exit. My attention was caught by an activity at the tower.

There was a guy in a Tengu with velocity up. Besides Tengu, there were some nice ships unpiloted, like two Rattlesnakes. I started watching them. With little luck I will soon find them at the anomaly doing sites. With only few sites present, l assume locals like to keep the place tidy.

When you are watching other people, you always try to figure out what they are doing and what their next step will be. Sometimes things are straightforward and sometimes you just can't make any sense of their actions. I see the Tengu finally warp off, but not to any known signature. I narrow him down in the middle of space, quite far from the tower.

I am puzzled. Why would he warp to some safespot, drop mobile depot and warp back to the tower? If he needs to refit, there are floating hangers inside the pos. He repeats this activity for a second time and so I decide to warp out of range, drop combat probes and try to narrow down his position for a quick scan. I manage to pinpoint precise safespot location on his third try, but I never get a chance to scan him out as he warps back to pos and does not do his weird errand run anymore.

Soon I see his friend or an alt log in. Then I watch them both swap ships between Rattlesnakes, Tengu, Rattlesnakes again, Orca and so on. They put few ships inside the orca and reapproach with the others. I really have no idea what is going on. Are they moving out? There is a high-sec static afterall, so there would not be much I could do to stop them. The only thing I can do now is to see what's going to happen next.

Finally, after approximately of 40 minutes. I see them both sit in the Rattlesnakes and warp out to the nearest anomaly. Oh boy. I follow and make a perch.

I don't like that mobile depot. Why is it there? Is it some sort of security against the gank to refit to warpcore stabilizers? If that's the case then I have a problem. My dpsless Proteus can't reinforce it and Dominixes will take time to arrive, lock and put secondary scrams. I count for worst case scenario that if Rattlesnake refits full lows into wcs, I need points and scrams from all my ships to keep it in place. To account for warp time, I land my Proteus at 10, warp Domi fleet and once I see them on d-scan, wait a couple of seconds, decloak and grab both Rattlesnakes. I just hope they will be in shock to quickly refit to wcs.

Once Rattlesnakes' pilots realize what's going on, they lock me and I get neuted. What the hell. My cap runs out and I do my best to cycle disruptor and scrambler to keep at least one of them in place. Good news is that my bump probably kicked primary Rattlesnake out of refitting range of mobile depot. Once my Dominixes arrive and I have secondary points, I relax a little.

The gank goes well and both Rattlesnakes die in fire. I don't know what they have been refitting to, but it was not warpcore stabilizers. I scoop the loot worth scooping, shoot the wrecks and get back to safe. I stay in the system to evaluate my options. Locals don't waste time and I see a pod land on the high-sec wormhole and jump in. It's 4 jumps away from Amarr, so I have a good idea where he's going. Sure enough, soon I see a second Rattlesnake sitting at the tower. They sit around and do nothing for a while. I have EVE client on my left screen and keep an eye for any movement while playing a game of Dota.

While I'm getting owned, I spot Rattlesnake warp out. He warps to a gas site, but only this time there's a Falcon who also follows the Rattlesnake. I guess they still fear I might be in the system and they would be right. Only I have no intention of making my move with the Falcon on the field. I patiently wait it out and let the Rattlesnake to finish his site. Once they are back, they float in their pos for awhile. Then I see the faction battleship warp to an anomaly. I double check that his partner is accounted for and not sitting in a cloaky Falcon and prepare to make my move. Execution is exactly the same as it was before. I prewarp my Domis and decloak the Proteus once they are midway.

Another Rattlesnake goes down. Gank went flawlessly. I am very happy with myself that I was in no rush to get him earlier with a Falcon on the field. Patience always pays off! Feeling as I won't get any more easy kills here, it was time to talk business.

I try an opportunity based business model. I offer to leave the system for a 200m isk. Jose was not feeling very confrontational today. All he wanted was to relax and do some sleeper ratting.

I do some more convincing and finally see my wallet flash with 200mil deposited to leave the system.

I, of course, keep my word and leave the system. Despite of my shenanigans in high-sec, I always honor my word in wormholes. It's a sacred space protected by Bob. You must understand it and respect it. It's the only way to survive.