"Jita 4-4 Control this is Polar Storm, ready for transit out of the station." "Roger, Polar Storm.", a traffic controller reports. I feel the tractor beams tugging on the huge mass of the Mammoth I'm currently piloting with a full load of manufacturing items. Then comes the blackness of the transit tunnel. "Why can't they light this damn thing?", I think for the thousandth time.
As I move out of the station I see the traffic pattern is pretty full, but I'm not in danger of colliding with anyone. I tell the navi-comp to align and warp to the Sobieski gate.
I notice that there are small battle going on all around me. Pretty much normal for Jita. Corps at war with each other, duels of honor, corpmates practicing, any number of reasons for people to commit violence against each other. But I go on naively safe in the fact that I've not pissed anyone off, don't have a bounty on my head and am not at war with anyone.
Then alarms start going off. Shields gone, armor gone, hull to 80%. I actually physically felt that strike, bringing me to reality, severing the separation that the pod connections usually give me.
I give the order to abandon ship and move to start the re-docking process. Before I can even send the request to Jita Control the ship disintegrates around me.
I dock my pod up and start taking stock. I find out that all my crew are safe. I was still a little bit in shock. Not from what happened. Even though this was the first time it had happened to me, I've always known the potential for it existed. I was in shock for the sheer speed at which it happened. From when I recongnized I was under attack to when I was in my pod was probably 3 or 4 seconds.
I realize that someone must have targeted me using a passive targeter, scanned my ship to find out what cargo I was carrying and then unleashed the fury of his Tech II lasers on me.
Looking at the market I find that there's a Mammoth on sale at the station. Once I get it bought, assembled, and get the crew on board we head back out to see if maybe (not holding my breath) I still have some cargo I can save.
Nope, already been picked clean, so there's only one thing to do.
I re-dock the new ship. And tell the crew to meet me at the bar, drinks are on me.
<OOC>
No matter how safe you feel, you're not. Never forget that, never become complacent. They ARE out to get you. No, you're not paraoid. LOL
Between the ship, its fittings and my cargo I lost approximately 240 Million ISK. Oh, well, it's the price of doing business. If ships weren't destroyed all the time I couldn't make money by manufacturing.
Fly safe! Safer than me on that trip anyway. LOL
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Excellent observation. Without pirates and gank, etc. You wouldn't have a job. I post about this dilema now and again on my own blog. Http://escoce.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteSounds like Privateers are hard at work. To avoid those situations I try to steer clear of Jita unless I am flying something small enough to get in and get out without being ganked. But then again I do not do any hauling, mostly small factions modules or skillbooks in my Recon/Covert ships. I find them the ONLY way to fly, High Sec, Low Sec, especially when I go home to Null Sec.
ReplyDeleteI'm based pretty close to Jita and the prices are often the best on components when doing T2 production.
ReplyDeleteI now use Transport ships and quick safes when I need to shop at Jita. No guarantee even doing that, but it'll cut down the chance of me getting ganked outside of Jita considerably.