Day 42: Bonfire of the vanities

A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come
- William Shakespeare

I went into evening with a green killboard. Three kills and no losses (to players). Sadly all that was about to change. Busyness and being in a different time zone have really restricted my ability to get online for several weeks, but for the last couple of days I have managed a few hours in and around wormholes. I successfully tracked an explorer into a hole the previous night but he managed to warp off before my target lock completed.

Day 42 I hit the camp. To be fair, it was a Saturday evening. Prime Eve time. There were only four wormholes within a jump of Jita. Two were Triglavian, the second of these had no ships out so I only found out as I warped in to 100km. The third wormhole was expiring. The fourth was a candidate. As soon as I went through I spotted the trap. Five ships. Even if I hadn't lagged out I wouldn't have stood a chance. My connection dropped after my ship was one-shotted. I logged back in to find myself in Jita.

It was somewhat gutting to lose my three-killmark Nagrindr, but there is not much else to say. Eve is all about risk/reward. Saturday night prime time there should have been easier pickings, but that means more hunters. Some you win and some you lose. I lost. Claim the insurance cheque, refit and move on.

I woke early so logged in again. It was much quieter. I found a candidate hole and hung out. There was one red in local - but he wasn't within d-scan range of my chosen wormhole. I'd seen him several times and his history was lots of kills in WHs. Several people scanned the wormhole, but no-one came in. After about forty minutes a Heron apeared on d-scan just after some Sister's probes had disappeared. I went through on the off chance. About 90 second later a Loki came through the hole. As I was hovering on the lock/engage cycle I actually fired on him before I made a sharp exit. But it was here that I made my mistake. I broke my own rule and went back to the wormhole. Normally a Loki would have been enough to make me move on, but I really want that next KM.

Shortly after, another set of probes and another Heron. I went in, and sure enough the Heron came through. I messed up the targetting but did get it tackled eventually, and I got the drones out just as the Loki dropped on me. I failed to get back to the hole. At least this time I got my pod out. As I reviewed the lossmail I realised it was the very red I had seen in my local. Remember - if it's red, it's for a reason! I opened a conversation with him and asked if he was also the Heron. Of course he was. He had baited me through the wormhole. We had a bit of a chat and he gifted me 1M ISK, which was very decent of him.

So on Day 42, I go from 100% dangerous, to 73% snuggly. I'm not sure I'm cut out to be a pirate!

Afernote: Especially gutting that after I logged off, he got two more Herons inside half an hour. I sat on that WH for longer with nothing. Fishing can be so frustrating!

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