Till The Firing Stops

Just because I'm losing
Doesn't mean I'm lost
Doesn't mean I'll stop
Doesn't mean I will cross
Coldplay - Lost!

"Connection to Probe Lost"

I looked over the system map, it was gone. No signal at all. I traveled to planet five, and it really was gone. Oh well. I put another probe out and began another round of scanning.

"Connection to Probe Lost"

Another one just disappeared. Ok, that's out of the ordinary. I'm willing to blame a malfunction for one, but two in such a short time is unheard of. Most weapons systems won't even lock a probe, so I was left wondering who was doing this and how.

"Hey Mynxee," My corps comms were lively tonight, but I cut through with a question, "You ever had a probe just disappear?".

"No," Came her reply, "You're probably experiencing a glitch,"

"Connection to Probe Lost"

"No, uh, the only probe I have left now is the one I dropped between planets. All of the ones at the planetary orbit points are gone," I was still trying to figure this out.

"I'll load up a ship and come over to take a look," She offered.

"Yeah, that'd be fine. There's a radar site in here, and a combat plex," I paused for a moment, "Maybe someone is smartbombing them,"

"It's possible," I heard her say as I warped to a hit.

_______

I'd narrowed down the combat complex by the time she showed up in system. She'd also enlisted the help of another corpmate of mine, BravoFox. He sat in a well heeled combat ship on the other side of the gate. If we encountered any trouble, he'd be ready.

I knew a Prophecy was wandering around, and while Mynxee laid some probes at the planets, I began to set some up off of the planets. My new probes went untouched but it wasn't long before Mynxee spoke on voice comms.

"He's here, he's approaching the probe. He just smartbombed it," she paused for a moment, "He just left,"

So that's it.

"My systems are glitching out," I lied in local, "My probes are just dissapearing,"

Mynxee and myself began to probe for the radar complex. I imagined it was worth quite alot of money for the trouble this guy was causing to keep others away. She eventually got a hit, while BravoFox chased the Prophecy into a station. I warped to her location and the two of us dropped Sift probes to narrow the location down.

In moments we had it.

The smartbomber must've noticed our activity, because he became irate at this point. He told us he already had the location and he'd alert the Angel Cartel to our presence. Bravo assured us he was still stuck inside the station. I called up the station manager as I got a Caracal from Evati, and it very shortly suffered a communication shutdown. Moments later the Prophecy pilot was hurtling out of the station, but it was too late. I landed on the complex just as the Cartel began to mobilize to move their base.

Cartel bases are pretty mobile, but they couldn't do anything with my missiles raining on them.

As Mynxee watched cloaked, soon nothing was left but us, debris, and the Cartel computer systems.

I slowly extracted everything of value from the site while our new friend pleaded with us to leave it alone. We're pirates, he said, wouldn't it make sense to let others find it and then kill them?

He must've been getting paid well for protection of the base, and I was happy to remove his cashflow. Thirty-Five Million isk later, our little pirate fleet moved back to Evati.

He cursed us the entire way.

Good Day.

I've Done a Lot of Foolish Things

Like a fool I went and stayed too long
Now I'm wondering if your love's still strong
Ooh baby
Here I am, signed, sealed delivered I'm yours
Then that time I went and said good-bye
Now I'm back and not ashamed to cry
Ooh baby
Here I am, signed, sealed delivered
I'm yours
Here I am baby
Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered

My quest probes literally blanketed the system. The same pilot stared back at me in local as he had for the last twenty minutes. He was probably getting a bit impatient, waiting for me to find the site. Every crack was plugged, every gap covered. It was only a matter of time.

A hit. Finally. I warped to the signal and dropped a comb probe. Another hit, this time ten thousand kilometers from the site. I warped again and dropped a sift probe. In a few moments I was warping into the site at a hundred clicks while cloaked. I bookmarked the location and headed back to Evati.

I've got a Drake outfitted for just such a purpose, with code breakers to break into the Angel Cartel computer systems I'd found.

I warped my Drake into the site a few minutes later and began to destroy the Cartel pilots. I kept a three sixty degree scan going for a while as the initial guards exploded. I broke into the first can and took it's contents. Before I could move on to the second one, another wave came in. Once it was destroyed another came. As I fought. I managed to hack into three different sub-systems in the Cartel base.

Then, on my scanner I saw a spook probe. Time to go. I warped out and turned my cloak on. I cursed as my drones didn't make it back to me in time.

I waited for over twenty minutes before going back for my drones, as I knew the spook probe would only last that long.

A few minutes later, after checking the gate, I was out and on my way to Evati.

For a short time I was the hunted, and given my knowledge of hunting, I was able to escape as soon as danger reared it's ugly head.

Despite the fact that I missed out on what could've been nice loot, I had fun.

Good Day.