The night started out rather slow, as many nights do. No new sigs were to be found, but as luck would have it we had a chain of C2 to high sec, a few jumps out from Jita. Time to sell some loot and goo. But as I prepared to do so, we noticed a Procurer appear on dscan. With only one ore site in system, I hopped into the Proteus and went to go get a nice perch and maybe pounce. Sure enough, the mining barge was there, with the sole high slot obviously filled with a mining laser.
I started to maneuver, and checked who was in system with me to help. I have a Procurer, and you can fit a rather sizeable tank on those. I wanted some back up in case this was a trap. Of course, no one was in system with me. Then the Procurer warped off, and left the system. Time to move cargo I guess.
I had second thoughts about my original plan of taking everything in one expanded hauler, and piled my sleeper goodies into a covops, and dropped it off safe and sound in the HS system. I came back and started prepping the bulkier, lower value items. After some time to let the polarization timer wear off, I started on my way back out. I jumped the C2, and immediately a Proteus, and then a Legion decloaked. I was locked and scrammed in short order. Should have left those stabs in the lows…
I figured this was pretty much done, but I made sure my hardeners were on and burned back to the wormhole. Maybe they would miss the catch on the far side, or just not follow. I jumped, and held cloak. The hole pulsed, and I waited to see what would happen. I probably should have aligned immediately, but for some reason I waited to see if they dropped cloak on the far side of the hole from me. With short points there is a small chance that might have worked.
Alas the Proteus appeared about 5k away or thereabouts. Short or long, that point was going to land. I tried to align and activate my cloak, but I was not fast enough. Not long after, my chips and gas were floating in a wreck. I did get my pod out, though, bouncing a planet and back to the POS.
Moments before death…
We had a fun little chat, and I was sent an action shot of my own demise. They brought by an Occator, I think, to scoop my loot. In a fit of what I can only assume was joy at someone not crying over spilt milk, they left what remained instead of popping the wreck. They claimed to depart. I waited, and about an hour or so later I went back, and sure enough some of my chips and gas were left over. So I kept a decent portion of my loss.
In retrospect, I can take a few things from this. Bait procurer was obvious bait. I did get some practice trying to perch on it though. Splitting shipments is a good idea. Instead of losing 150m in loot, I only lost about 65m. But I should have thought more about that bait Procurer, or more specifically what it implied. Stabs. They may be “cheap”, but it might have saved me another 40m had I left them. I’ll never know, and I’ll take the value of a fitted assault frigate or two over my e-honor in this case. Finally, on the mechanics of the actual conflict, in the future I should align and cloak immediately. I may have been able to get off the WH that way, cloaking before their jump or system load finished. Maybe not, but by waiting in this particular situation I ensured my ship’s fate.
Afterword: Thanks for the pic, Ramaah. Posted as promised, along with my side of the conflict. Good luck finding that afk Tengu you were hoping for.