Today around 7 PM EVE time, a Naglfar dreadnought was caught on the Berta gate in the Bekirdod system (Derelik region) and quickly assaulted by an 11-strong Purple Helmeted Warriors [PHEW] capital fleet, aka the infamous REKKINGCREW…

Not world-shaking news, except for the stunning drop from its ship hangar: the Naglfar was carrying not only multiple relatively expensively fit T3 cruisers, but also… an AT XIV prize ship: a Caedes covert ops frigate.

The Caedes is an ultra-rare ship – with only 50 having been awarded to the top 4 teams in AT XIV – and with bonuses to scanning, nosferatus, neuts, webs and small energy turrets, it is worth around 120 billion ISK according to Zkillboard, perhaps slightly less than that in reality. In fact, it seems to be up for sale already (EVE-O Forums) for the handsome sum of 95 billion ISK, although we weren’t able to confirm the veracity of this sale offer.

To compound things, the owner of this AT ship TehEbil1 recently made headlines for being the first major (well, at least the most notorious) victim of the new PvE sites featuring Eosian Inquisitors, a new type of NPCs that did not show up on his overview. CCP reimbursed his Caedes and reinstated its 169 kill marks, according to news reports. But now, it is lost again.

We talked to Tela Port who got the initial tackle on the unlucky Naglfar, to get some more details:

So what happened exactly? Did you plan this, or was it more of a lucky break?

“It was totally unexpected, really. We’d shot this guy trying to cyno into another system, so when he moved into Bekirdod I followed him. He then cyno’d into the system and was tethered on a structure. I warped to zero on his cyno and he must have panicked, because he warped to the highsec gate.”

He warped his dread to a highsec gate by mistake? Even though you can’t jump capitals into highsec?

“Yes, so I warped to the gate when I saw him do that and made sure I got tackle on him when he landed. He instantly offered me a ransom, so I got a couple billion out of him as well… and then my PHEW buddies killed him.”

I can just imagine the surprise when you guys looted that wreck…

“Yeah, some lunch break!”

—

Gracious in his loss, TehEbil1 of Tuskers also took the time to give his take on the events:

“Well, I had been meaning to use another lowsec system – just 2 jumps away – which had an NPC system as the midway, but that had a guy in a Rupture popping cynos. So I got a bit lazy and didn’t properly doublecheck the alternative midway.”

And in that other system – you found someone waiting for you?

“Pretty much, yeah. A well played trap from the Crew’s end. I had noticed an Anathema getting a bit too curious about my Nag for comfort, so I got spooked and made the wrong decision: rather than wait for them to drop the tether rights, I opted to try my luck with a warp. And of course, it is a lowsec pocket… so that was just me being complacent and the Rekkingcrew playing it well.

I thought I might try offering a randsom, 1.5 billion ISK, on the off chance they though this was just a random Naglfar they had caught – given the circumstances that would have been a steal.”

So what went through your mind when you saw that point landing?

“Just acceptance basically, I had already lost the ship once before which probably helped me in accepting the situation. After all, I had just screwed up inside a game and the situation was now outside of my control.”

We all know that feeling, I guess – but maybe not at that scale…

“That Caedes was just a tool in the toolbox for me – a bit of a special tool, but a tool nonetheless. At this point I just hope whoever looted it did not actually repackage it. I would prefer for those kill marks to stay in the game at least. In the end it’s all part of a solo PvPers life, ganks do happen to any ship in the end. I just wish luck for the next owner of the ship – hopefully it won’t go zombie for a third time!”