Our corp member Dav Slinker enjoys writing about his exploits and activities in Eve Online. Our corp is primarily NPC null focused but we have members who enjoy low sec incursions and doing low sec activities in concert with null activity. Naturally any activity at all is encouraged:

A harsh introduction to Eve

Pirates in general aren’t particularly nice people. In eve most pirates will simply blow you up for what ever booty can be found in your ships wreck or perhaps ransom your pod, and sometimes even ransom your ship. To a veteran player a pirate suddenly attacking you can get the blood pumping and to a new player it can not only get your blood pumping but also be very confusing.

A good pirate or rather skilled pirate will seek to exploit such an advantage that confusion brings it isn’t a kind thing to do but none of us became pirates because we prefer peace over profit.

The particular patch of lowsec I patrol routinely doesn’t get a whole lot of new players, but it is close enough to some new player systems that occasionally a few wander in seeking to establish themselves and create some great lowsec empire or some such nonsense. I always keep an eye out for these new players because I enjoy giving them their first real taste of Eve, and it really is easy profit. Typically it isn’t much profit maybe a few mil tops but every bit helps at the end of the day.

I was making some rounds in a particular lowsec system that has a lot of belts in an attempt to spawn a faction rat, when I noticed a giant secure container anchored in the belt. Which is really rare now days, that they get destroyed if they are left inactive for too long. So I flew up to it, showed info and saw who dropped it. A new player who had only been playing a couple weeks. He wasn’t around so I left making a mental note that if I saw him in system I’d have to check out that belt for him again.

Fast Forward a couple days later and I’m flying through to do my usual rounds when I notice that the guy in is local, I fly to the planet next to the belt and hit scan and sure enough there is an Osprey on scan. I warp in and he is mining peacefully by his giant secure container and he has even anchored a few more in the belt.

I hit my MWD and charge at him, as he continues to mine unaware of his impending doom. I lock him hit my disrupter and start pounding him away with rockets and he melts, down to half hull in no time. I convo him and it goes something like this.

Me:3 million isk to keep your ship.

Miner:I only have 500,000 isk.

Miner:If you let me mine I give you 50% of my ore I collect.

I can help but smile at this, and part of me is tempted to see if he would actually do such a thing or not. But still it is far more likely that he would just run off and I’d never see him again. Still 50% ore appeals to my inner crime boss, I always wanted to start my own mafia.

Either way though it doesn’t look like there is much profit to be had here for me. Half a mil isn’t much a ransom and if I blow him up I’m not likely to get more than a couple mil worth of loot if that. So I grin to myself and demand the one thing almost no eve Veteran would ever do but a new player might actually think is a good idea.

Me:Eject from your ship you have 15 seconds!

Normally I give a target roughly 30 seconds to comply with my demands, as preassure makes them more likely to pay and less likely to stall or try to play games. But since I want his ship I need to give him even less time to think so I cut my usual time in half.

Me:15

Me:10

Me:5

At about 4 seconds he Ejects and I laugh to myself, he actually did it, I’ve got an osprey just sitting in space waiting to be boarded by anyone.

I tell him to leave in the chat and a bit later I see a hauler on scan and he then leaves the system. As this is happening I’m logging in my industrial character who is only a few jumps away and moving him there.

A couple minutes later my character boards his new though some what damaged osprey and heading to station to repair it. I then fly it back to Highsec actually passing the guy I just hijacked the osprey from in his badger on my way.

Loot Breakdown by isk

1x Osprey 5mil

3x Miner II 3mil

1x Medium Ancillary Shield booster 7mil (at the time)

Various other mods 1mil

Total profit 16mil minus ammo and a 500k repair cost to the osprey

I’m still really pleased with my luck, I was able to change what might of netted me a couple mil most likely or 7mil if the booster had survived but the loot fairies hate me I doubt it. Into a hijacking of a ship and a total profit of roughly 16mil.

So yes us pirates aren’t nice people but it isn’t always because we like to blow other people up. Piracy is about more than explosions and kill mails it is about ISK and taking stuff that doesn’t belong to you.

TL:DR I took a noobs osprey, and sold it + mods for 16mil after he said he didn’t have enough isk to pay the 3mil ransom