One Less Can Flipper!

Today was a glorious day for my alliance. I know I wrote my first entry just earlier today but the excitement of the day just has me too excited not to goad about it for at least a bit and as this wasn't just any flipper, it makes it that much sweeter.

For the past few weeks, us poor miners have been haunted by the presence of a pirate named Marcus. I won't give his last name out of respect for him as he gave us respect for podding him when all was said and done.

Anyways....as I was saying, this particular pirate has been harrassing us constantly, warping in quickly in his apocalypse to swipe the hard earned oar from our cans before warping out, his warp signature fading quickly behind him. And fast he was! Most times he would be there and gone before you could even put a call out for help. So a few days ago it was discussed amongst the Alliance and a decision was made. Marcus had to die.

For three days we hunted him. We had a rough schedule of his appearances. spies out everywhere to keep a lookout for his movements, and even a cloaked ship that stalked him for a bit, eventually discovering one of the two safespots he used where he would stash his stolen goods until he could return later with a hauler for pickup. This past saturday we made an attempt to catch him in the act, but unfortunately ran into a bump. As a corporation, all is well in catching a thief. But unfortunately Concord, the ruling military presence in all of Eve highsec, does not allow for us to openly attack him as an alliance unless acts of aggression have been made against all of the corporatons within the alliance. Given our task force was a conglomeration of the various corporations, this meant that only a select few would be allowed to fire upon him when he flipped the can, else face the wrath of Concord.

So that day was his day. After snatching the good from the can, we warped in on him but with with only a couple people able to retaliate, he was safe. And he knew it. For quite a bit of time he just circled the can, taunting us, perhaps hoping we would make the deadly mistake of opening fire on him first. But we refrained, instead just trailing behind him, more than willing to let him know we were onto him....that no longer would his actions be tolerated. Eventually of course, he warped out and we called it a night. Our day would come we all knew as we chuckled later over the communications link.

Today was that day.

The bait was set. We set ourselves up at a safespot a short distance away and waited. This time we were prepared. This time we would use the minimal loopholes that existed within the laws of Concord.

Grabbing my hauler, I stood by myself a short distance away at one of the nearby stations, ready to hop in when given the go while the rest of the fleet stood by in a another safespot a short hop out from the belt. Sure enough, Marcus took the bait. Warping in, he swiped the oar from the can and given he was in a ship not capable of carrying all the ore, he dropped his own can, tranferring the remainder from our bait can into his before warping out, possibly to get his own hauler. We fouled though. The fighters jumped in too soon, making him well aware we were present, ready for him to slip. In his usual lightning speed, he was gone but we already knew he was cocky. He knew the laws of Concord and believed himself to have the upperhand like our last encounter. Waiting for the all clear, I warped into the belt with my hauler and quickly moved to take back from his can what he'd stolen from us, but only taking a portion. Quickly I warped back out, knowing it wouldn't be long before he arrived again.

Sure enough, he returned a number of times. Though knowing us to be close by, he kept himself at a safe distance of 100km, giving himself the opportunity to study the situation without actually being close enough for any to warp in and engage. What happened afterwards was a bit of blur with the rush of it all so forgive me if my details get a little skewed.

I remember at some point him warping in about 30km out and actually destroying his own can. It had me a bit on edge hearing the gunfire as I and a couple others were now sitting there stationary in our rifters.

Alas, again, I don't remember the exact details but something was done on his part now to which our main task force now had the redlight. What ended up being his last run, he warped in again at a mere 20km. I'm not sure what he was thinking by now but quickly our fighters turned to engage. Blasts of laser fire streaked across the sky, drones released from both him and our own ships, armor repairers engaged. The fight was on! Given I had no redlight by rules of concord, I could not engage myself but instead did my best to try and bump his large ship with my tiny rifter in hopes of at least slowing any possibilty of him moving to warp out without actually engaging him and bringing concord into the fray.

I'll give him credit. Even with such a powerful force bearing down on him, he stood his ground, tanking the repeated blasts of gunfire. But his fate was sealed...and he eventually knew it. In one last act of defiance, he activated his self destruct sequence. So maybe it was not a pure kill but it was a kill nonetheless and as we watched his ship light up in a glorious ball of fire, the comm channel lit up with the cheers of my alliance mates.

I watched in blissful glee as his pod narrowly escaped the ensuing destruction. He seemed to pause for a short moment, perhaps waving goodbye to his trusty steed before warping off into the unknown.

Granted, I was not able to be a part of the actually killing of this regular nusance but i feel proud to have been a part of this task force and even more so proud to claim this Alliance as my own.

Today was a glorious day indeed.

-ML-