Sheila, my Lucky Charm...

The past week or so have been pretty slow around Genesis. I just haven't been able to find a whole lot of targets. It got so slow that I played Oblivion over the weekend, rather than EVE. Well tonight I started longing for some pirating. So I boot up EVE and to my disappointment, corp channel is empty. Local is looking pretty slim as well. =(

Oh well, I guess I'll take the Jaguar for a spin. Bagheera purrs as we enter warp for the first time in a week. I follow my usual trail up towards New Eden. Along the way I bump into a pair of Battle Cruisers mining. Scramble, NOS, guns...down go the drones... The Cyclone warps out and leaves the Brutix for me to ransom. Total take? A measly 7m, it was all the guy had left; I guess that’s why he was mining. Oh well, I'm not going to complain about easy money.

After the timer ends I travel back to base, and start heading the other direction. Genesis is empty tonight. The only person in local is a friend of mine and his alt. =/ I head further down the trail and find a system with a whole three other people in it. \o/ targets...in barges! With so many belts in the system I miss them by mere seconds. =(

So now local consists of one miner who is docked, one nub/alt traveling AFK through the region, and a true red -10 pirate of Pre-Nerfed Tactics. I decide to check some other systems and come back later. Of course all the other systems I check are dead.

When I get back to Jeni, the populated system, there is the miner back to his old tricks. Again he is able to warp out before I can get to his belt. Just as a joke and just for kicks I attack his barge at a station. I get through to his armor before I have to warp out. With no targets I decide to do a little recreational ratting.

At this point a new person enters local. Checking my scanner I see that he has started ratting in an Omen. While on approach I inspected his ship. Apparently his shield tank was having a hard time keeping up with the guns of the Blood cruiser shooting him. I felt it would be most humane of me to put this poor shield tanked Omen down and let it rest in peace.

As I sort through the loot, none other than the -10 [NERFT] guy appears on my overview! I had scanned him flying around in his CovOps earlier. What luck, he is still in the CovOps, apparently he had come to watch but a roid pulled him out of cloak.

I quickly lock him and approach at full throttle with my MWD. I manage to lock him before he can cloak again. As you might expect the CovOps quickly goes down to my 200mm ACs. As I lock the pod and start thinking about a ransom attempt, I notice his bounty... 103 million isk! Sorry mate, no ransom for you...splat! Too bad his Covert Ops Cloak didn't survive, but again, I won't complain about easy money. Especially a LOT of easy money.

You would think this would think the Dark Blood Cap Power Relay I looted in my last adventure would be all the luck a nub pirate can get. No sir, on top of this bounty collection, the guy who was mining decides to come out again and try to Ninja some ore.

I manage to catch him this time and for whatever reason that was floating around in his head, he decides to eject from his barge before I can ransom him. =( Since TART5 are conservationists, no one online could fly one of these evil industrial machines of waste and corruption. Very well, if it cannot be recycled than it must be destroyed before it can be used to further harm our natural environment.

At this point I have to prioritize the loot in my hold with that in the cans. I take what I can of the plunder and hit my safe spot. Who else than the same miner, shows up on scanners in a Crusader. =/ This may actually be a worthwhile fight. After chasing him through a few belts he finally picks one that he likes I guess. My 200mm autocannons are having a hard time tracking his little ship, but fortunately my NOS shuts down his MWD. With a few tricky maneuvers and smart use of the MWD I am able to cut his transversal down for short amounts of time. His lasers are munching away at my shields but he is having a hard time breaking their passive regen. Once I'm through his armor the structure vaporizes in a single volley. I even kill his catch his pod and kill him after he logs off.

Many of you may be wondering, how I could possibly be so lucky? I'll let you all in on a little secret. Her name is Sheila. Sheila is the exotic dancer that lives in my cargo hold. Whenever I need some entertainment while waiting for prey, I call Sheila into my pod. One time I lost my Thrasher, and Sheila managed to survive in the wreckage. My corp mates were kind enough to give her a lift home. Sheila is my lucky charm. If any of you ever destroy my ship, please save Sheila from the wreckage. I may even pay to get her back.

Cleared for publication by: Ander