It’s not something I usually do, but I’d read about it and I started to form a plan in my mind.  A sly smirk crept across my little Caldari face as I contemplated it.

What was I thinking exactly?

Well I’d been reading that a lot of mission runners were upset that their missions were being looted and salvaged by other people.  Of course, it doesn’t take a genius to work out where my thought process went next…..  Find a mission runner, steal the loot, get the agro and then pop him – or a ransom, they have bulging wallets full of ISK you know :p

I head to a “hot spot” and such a place is located for me.  Great I think, we’re ready to go.  Taking my “usual” ship I activate the gate and drop into the pocket.  The ship slows quickly, as the spatial distortions from the warp drive fade I find myself in a pocket littered with wrecks.

Glancing around I check the readout from the scanner.  No one else is present, only myself, the wrecks and the gate.  “Make for the nearest wreck” I say, as the ships sub-light engines power on and we slowly move towards it.  Looting the wreck, I gleefully wait for someone to come in.  I’m expecting a salvager.

I wait a little while, then ponder my decision.  No one is going to attack in a salvager!  With that, the ships engines spring to life again, their blue afterglow streaking across the dark space as we head towards the gate.  Hopefully there will be someone on the other side.

Not quite knowing what to expect, the jump gate activates as the alignment beams grip the ship like giant tentacles ready to hurl it away into deep space.  With that I’m flung into the next pocket and alarm bells immediatley sound.  Instead of finding a solo mission runner, I find 4.  All of them in battleships!

To make matters worse, the pocket is almost empty – save a few frigates.  I wait a moment – a moment too long as my overview confirms 2 of the 4 have weapons locks on me.  I’m almost certain I can’t tank 4 battleships, let alone do enough damage before they can cut through me. 

“Get us out of here!” I yell across the bridge to the crew.  At once the ship starts to turn, but not before the other 2 locks are resolved and the initial 2 ships start firing.

The topside of the ship is now facing away from the enemy, with the belly exposed to the furious wrath of cruise missile fire.  Two salvo’s of 6 cruise missiles strike the shields, exploding with massive shockwaves which cause the ship to lurch.  I return the weapons lock on the first ship, the closest – and start firing.  I figure I may as well hit back until we can get out of here.

Now you wouldn’t think a PvE group would fit warp scrammers, would you?  No, neither did I and that was almost my downfall.

“Alignment is about 50% Ma’am” one of the crew shouted.  Great, not long until I can get us out of here then I think as I glance at the shield readout.  It’s at 70%.  I know this is my “sweet spot” but I also know as soon as the other two open fire I won’t be able to tank it.

That’s when the warp drive died.  That’s when I knew if I made it out of here I was going to be lucky.  “Come about, full speed” – We needed to get as much distance between the jammer and us as possible.  There was no way I could out damage them, or outlast their damage.  The only option was to get out of warp jamming range.

The enginner smirked as he said to me “I’ve think I’ve bought us some more time Ma’am” – looking over at him, then at his console, he’d disrupted the jammers engines, reducing their speed to a mere crawl.  The jammer was webbed.

Checking his information, I now understand why he had a warp jammer.  He was a 6 week old player in a battleship.

My mind races, I’m torn between two options.  Both could work, one will certainly work.  My dilemma is whether to shoot down the warp jammer, or try and get us out.  I decide to compromise and do both to a lesser extent.

“Cease fire, and re-lock weapons on our friend here”.  “Yes Ma’am” comes the reply barely seconds later as the missile lauchers are re-aligned to the jamming ship.  A salvo of missiles leave my launchers and slam rapidly into the megathron.  The nosferatu also kicks in, and then shortly after stops as I realise we’re making good distance.

Switching the weapons served two purposes.  Firstly, to cause damage to the ship stopping my escape, and secondly to panic the newer player of them all.  A nos is also quite scary if you’ve never seen one before and you’re on the receiving end

As this is going on, the other ship is now also firing.  The initial two still making dents in the shields.  Between them all, they’re ripping chunks out of them.

I’m aligned, I’m ready, I’m at top speed so I can get out as soon as possible.  That moment doesn’t come too soon as 8km passes and I’m clear of the jamming.  The warp engines fire to life, and the ship disappears into the warp tunnel taking a few last hits as it does.  Looking over the readout, I only made it out by the skin of my teeth.

A Caldari ship into armour isn’t good – it’s usually dead.  Luckily, we’d manged to get away just into armour, the shields struggling to regenerate and tank the amout of DPS upon them.

It was no more than several mintues, but it felt like a life time.

The moral of the story.  Never under estimate a group of farmers, especially one with a newer player with them.  And there’s proabably that older one that says “Look before you leap”.

Sometimes you win, others you lose, others you draw.  I was *more* than happy for the draw this time, and whilst it may not seem valiant that I ran away, who said piracy was valiant?  I would rather that outcome than them having possesion of my cold dead body.

He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day…