Nudging another Noctis
31st October 2011 – 5.35 pmHi, w-space, what's happening? Not much, Penny! That's okay, I'm not going to ask about your TPS reports, I just want a poke around tonight's constellation, see what's out there. There's little left at home apart from anomalies, the static wormhole being the only signature, but jumping in to our neighbouring class 3 system has plenty to see. All visible on my directional scanner are a tower, ships, and Sleeper wrecks. I start a passive scan of the system as I discern what ships d-scan is showing me. I have a Megathron battleship, Apocalypse battleship, Drake battlecruiser, and Basilisk logistics ship as the combat ships, along with a Noctis salvager also present. But without finding either the ships or the tower I won't know how many are active, so it's good that the passive scan has finished.
I open my system map and start flitting a narrow-beamed d-scan across the detected anomalies, putting the combat ships in one and, hullo, the Noctis in another. The salvager hasn't waited for the anomaly to despawn before sweeping the wrecks in to his hold, giving me an opportunity to interrupt him without having to launch scanning probes. I suppose letting a site despawn doesn't matter too much when the rest of the fleet continues to shoot Sleepers, as any ambusher turning up in the system during combat can use a passive scan to find and bookmark the current anomaly's location before it disappears, but it remains a good indicator of whether a cloaked ship has been lying in wait or the anomaly stays empty. I have time to ponder this as I warp in at range to the anomaly the Noctis is currently clearing.
I have to bounce out of the site to get further away from the Noctis, so that my warp drive has the required distance to engage, and although there are still quite a few wrecks remaining they are all gone by the time I am in a suitable position. That's a little disheartening, but at least combat continues elsewhere, almost guaranteeing my getting another shot at ambushing the Noctis. All I need to do is get a good position in the other site and bide my time. Or maybe I can still attack now, in this site. The Noctis is stationary and, even if I don't remember doing so from a minute earlier, I bookmarked the position of a wreck mid-salvage, giving me a point to warp directly to the Noctis. I fire up my warp engines and get ready to introduce myself to the salvager.
My Tengu strategic cruiser remains cloaked as I drop out of warp, holding my position until I am sure the Noctis still isn't moving anywhere, in case it jumps to warp speed at the most inopportune moment. It is stationary. I close the gap and, when closer, decloak and get my systems hot. As I wait for the recalibration delay to release my targeting systems I pulse my micro warp drive and ram the Noctis as a precaution. If it was aimed anywhere in particular for easy exit it isn't now, but I don't suppose it was if it wasn't moving in the first place. It's immaterial now, as I gain a positive target lock and can disrupt its warp engines, and starting raining missiles on the unsuspecting salvager.
The Noctis is going nowhere as I shred its shields and armour. Something, however, comes out of the salvager, a canister jettisoned from the ship. I'm not sure what it is but my proximity to my target brings me close enough to take a look, and I see that the salvager has jettisoned all of the loot it has collected so far from the Sleepers. I'll be having that, thank you. I don't know if the pilot ejected the loot hoping his colleagues would be able to retrieve it after the fight. I rather suspect he's using it as a kind of chaff, trying to distract me from trapping his pod, and as I recover the jetsam in to my hold I keep a keen eye on the Noctis, looking for the pilot to eject. He doesn't, at least not until the ship around him disintegrates and he's got nowhere else to go.
Sadly, the pilot's pod evades my capture, despite my best efforts, and it warps clear. I loot the wreck of the Noctis, bagging me a couple of good salvager modules on top of all the loot the pilot let me have—there's a point, maybe it was a bribe—before shooting it to leave no evidence and let me cloak more readily. I have no reason to stick around now, not wanting to be introduced to the Noctis pilot's colleagues, so clear the pocket and count up my ill-gotten gains. Not only do I have a Noctis kill but also around forty million ISK in loot to take home. That's not bad for my first ten minutes in space tonight. It's going to be a good evening.
4 Responses to “Nudging another Noctis”
see, i wish every time I killed a hauler on a gate it had the sense to drop its stuff for me before it died.
It's just good manners.
Great observation on the kill and stash recovery.
Seemed like a bribe to me somewhat to maybe or a distraction while they were getting blown up. Ejecting cargo couldn't go unmissed after ejected I would think. But who knows. The capauleer had good manners it seems.
Now just thinking to myself, I'f i can't have my cargo while my hull buckle to a pirate then it will surely all get blown up with the ship :)
Guess my manners aren't that good.
It's not a bad idea to eject your cargo or loot and destroy it, to deny any ambusher the spoils. Maybe this pilot was in the habit of doing so, but forgot that a Noctis salvager is entirely unarmed and couldn't finish the job. I don't mind, it was good ISK for doing what I enjoy.