We meet again, Mr Newfahg
25th June 2013 – 5.18 pmThere's nothing interesting in the home system. Well, except for our tower. And a new anomaly, perhaps. And me. Otherwise, nothing. Next door, though, in the class 3 w-space system through our static wormhole, I see a Nighthawk command ship, Noctis salvager, and Sleeper wrecks. Now that's interesting. A tower is also visible on my directional scanner from the wormhole, although it takes a passive scan of the system to reveal a single anomaly. The anomaly is easily checked to see that, yes, the Nighthawk and Sleeper wrecks are there.
I'm curious to see if the Nighthawk is local, and if the Noctis is a colleague, or if some plundering is occurring. My notes help me with this, as a visit only a week ago points me directly towards the tower, where the Noctis floats piloted and, hopefully, primed to sweep up behind the command ship. The pilot's name is familiar too, and it's simple to look back and see him as being the pilot of the Orca that got away. Maybe I can get him tonight. All I need to do now is confirm that the Nighthawk in the anomaly is a colleague of the Noctis's, which is a bit difficult to do when warping to the anomaly sees no ship.
Is the Nighthawk taking a breather, or was I spotted and the pilot was slow to react? I start to spool up the warp drive of my cloaky Loki to check the tower again when the command ship returns to the anomaly in front of me. I cancel the command to warp and remain instead in my perch, confirming that the second pilot is local and wondering what to do next. I could ambush the Nighthawk directly, particularly if the ship is having trouble against the Sleepers. But I'll probably have to change ships to successfully engage him, and there's no guarantee that the Nighthawk will stay where he is if I jump out of the system. Despite the bigger prize in front of me, I think I'll have to wait for the salvager.
It's not a long wait. The final battleship is destroyed pretty quickly, and in warps the Noctis to join the Nighthawk. The Nighthawk doesn't leave, which is perhaps a little awkward, but I don't think it really matters. I doubt he has a warp disruptor fitted, and if I pop the salvager quickly enough maybe I can take a shot at the command ship too. In a fine display of self-control, I even let the Noctis sweep up over half of the site before I warp in to say hello, hopefully maximising the amount of loot I can steal from its smouldering wreck.
I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but not by much. I warp on top of the Noctis, decloaking when close, and gain a positive lock. Where has the Nighthawk gone? He picked a pretty good time to get clear, although it denies me a potential second target. Never mind, the warp drives of the Noctis are scrambled and that ship is going nowhere. My autocannons rip through the salvager with little effort, helped by the magnetar phenomenon in the system, and my target explodes, sending the pod fleeing back to his tower before I can stop him.
I loot and shoot the wreck, and loot and loot and loot and loot some nearby Sleeper wrecks of value, before warping back to my perch. This gives me a chance to reload my guns and read a new mail, from the pilot of the Noctis, giving me a sob story about his recently returning to space and how I've just removed his only source of income. Yeah, that Orca industrial command ship you were flying the other week is nothing, neither is the Nighthawk your chum has, or the fuelled tower you're running. Either he's lying to provoke guilt, or he's put all his eggs in one basket.
Ignoring the skeezy mail, I warp back to the tower to see the pod and Nighthawk there, and the curious sight of the pod jumping in to a Catalyst. Yeah, they can't be used as salvagers, so clearly he's got no way of earning ISK any more. Maybe I should donate some to him, help him get back on his feet. Actually, I'd ambush this second ship too, if he went back for the other wrecks, but he's not that foolish. I won't waste time waiting for him to move, so I warp out, launch probes, and start to scan.
2 Responses to “We meet again, Mr Newfahg”
My advice .. never donate based on sob story emails. Even if the guy was on his last 10000 isk in a wormhole all he has to do is create an alt and do a weeks worth of mining in highsec to quickly generate some income. Or he can pay a measly $15 and buy a PLEX and convert it for an easy 540 mill in Jita.
I always get these sob story emails and the only thing I give in return is the above advice.
Mos def. It's not up to me to determine how solvent a target you are. If you get blown up, the most you can expect from me is a bill for used ammunition.