I liked to people watch, I always did. Something about the “human condition” that fascinated me again and again and I couldn’t shake it. I sat near the corner of the bar, my feet extended onto the table crossed at the ankles as I laid back in the chair plugging away at my data pad examining fittings, tactics and so forth along with answering the occasional message.

I watched the station’s population (or part of them at least) dancing away to the latest Gallente music and trends – well it would come from the Gallente, wouldn’t it? I didn’t hate them exactly, I just thought some of them were demented – well 90% of them I’d guess. That didn’t stop me appreciating the 10% and their art and culture.

As I continued to plug away at my data pad some drunken people spilled onto the comfortable bench seat extending along the wall near me. A moment later I was covered in quafe and god only knows what. Wiping the excess from my eyes and putting my hair back in place I glanced over, tossing my data pad aside. They hadn’t noticed, so I politely tapped the nearest member of their party on the shoulder. His head turned so fast, I thought it might continue all the way around.

“I believe this is yours, isn’t it?” I said holding the semi empty quafe and alcohol container. “Oh yeah, yeah it is” he replied. I exaggerated the movement and wiped some more quafe from my face. “I’m sorry, sorry about that… I didn’t realise”

“Clearly not” I retorted with a smile.

“Holy fuck! It’s you, isn’t it?” he nearly bellowed at the top of his drunken voice. My right hand made a swift and brutal contact with his face “Why don’t you shut the fuck up” I hissed at him “and besides, I don’t know what you’re on about”.

“Hey gu-”

I grabbed his hair, grabbing it tightly with my fingers and yanked his head back slamming in into the wall behind the bench. He slouched, I checked his pulse and then intervened the small party his friends were having “You might want to check on your friend, seems he’s had a little too much tonight” I said grabbing my data pad and heading out.

Enough people watching, it was time to do some more people watching – just of a different nature this time. I undocked my trusty covops ship and went to see what I could find. It was a quiet night but I was sure if I found something that some corp mates could come and deal with it – either that or I’d have to be quick and get into a dps ship and hope it was still there.

As it turned out, a few systems over and via a few “gate watchers” I managed to probe out a Brutix doing a mission.

“We have a fix on the targets position Ma’am” tactical reported

“Ahh, good about time” I replied, since I’d been concentrating on other systems and events I wasn’t giving it 100% attention. “Narrow the probe range to point 5 au and get a confirmed fix”. Seconds later it was re-scanned, confirmed and locked. I closed my eyes and focused as I scanned all the ships systems – we might yet need a quick escape.

With that we warped in and the long distanced ticked down. My senses were heightened, I was ultra alert, aware of my surroundings You often were in these situations. I could have swore I heard something, a noise… maybe, an image. I don’t know. I often saw it in the spatial distortions that the warp drive created as the tunnel slipped passed us, it was something I was used to now but that I’d found initially disturbing. Suddenly we were there, the psirens had vanished, their song muted as the acceleration gate appeared.

“We’re holding at 10km, cloaking field is stable Ma’am”.

“Yes… yes, I know” I replied softly. “Let’s go through” I said as I fired the engines and we headed towards the gate. I set our status to battle ready – which wasn’t that we’re actually in a fight, but we might well be and everyone should be on their toes and ready.

The gates grip released us, and we slowed to a crawl on the other side deep in a dead space pocket and were presented with a wonderful sight. The overview filled with rats, a few frigate wrecks and our target. He was just starting.

Crew members fell and stumbled across the bridge and probably various decks of the ship as I banked hard to port to avoid us being de-cloaked. “Watch the field! Watch the distances” I yelled, but it remained intact – just and just. A few more meters and we’d have been busted.

“Very well, load co-ords into the nav computer” I said as we took a bookmark of our current location “and now get us back home – and don’t spare the whip” I continued as the warp engines kicked in and we left, pronto.

Gates flashed by, jump after jump. Time was of the essence and so was security – we’d not get past these gate “watchers” or the possible locals in system. I decided that we’d instead trying to attack and ransom our target that we’d in fact – blag it.

“I don’t want any dps, I want maximum survivability and the best tackle we can muster” I yelled across my hangar deck! Now MOVE!” I finished as techs and engineers scattered and verified the best set-up we had to hand. I knew which ship it would be, I’d used it before and it had worked well – although not in exactly the same situation

Within a few minutes we were out again, this time in a different ship. A small frigate, with no weapons but with tackling equipment and energy vampires that would drain their capacitor – not for the effect of hurting them but for keeping us alive. A single frigate was hardly worth reporting for our watchers so I figured that we’d continue relatively unimpeded – which we did. Arriving at the destination system I uploaded the co-ordinates that we’d previously taken from our scouting.

The ship aligned and accelerated into warp again and via the gate we were upon the target. “Full power to propulsion” I signalled via the pod/neural interface as I pushed the engines to maximum and the afterburner kicked in – the gap closed quickly, very quickly and before long we were within tackling range and a weapons lock was resolving on the ship. “Lock confirmed!” yelled tactical as I activated our warp scrambler.

Scrambler? Yes! Our target was using mid to long range weapons in the form of railguns, which would be a bitch track us so close and so fast. Thankfully it wasn’t blasters – but I’d noticed that from our initial visit, otherwise I might have revised the tactics. The ships engines burned brightly in the dark sky as we continued to accelerate towards the Brutix, the sun glinting off it’s shiny Gallente armour almost blinding me as it caught me straight on. Disabling the afterburner slightly too late, we almost overshot the target and preferred orbit, but nonetheless his warp drive was disabled for now.

Tracer beams shot out from our ship, fixing upon vulnerable locations on the Brutix and once established and energy vampires got to work and bled power from it across to our ship. This enabled us to continue at our best offensive capabilities. I watched the streams of energy in various forms (microwave, xray and ultraviolet) leached from the Brutix and diverted into our capacitor, helping to sustain us.

This was not the usual ship I’d use for this, nor the usual tactic. It was neither ideal, but seemed the best option given the route and other considerations. It would either work, or fail miserably.

“Comms, open a channel and give the prepared warning” I said. A communications channel with the enemy ship was opened and our pre-arranged hail/greeting was transmitted.

“Stop firing! Your ship is warp scrambled and you are unable to escape. This is a ransom and will be honoured. If you do not comply, reinforcements will be called in to destroy you.” Our standard pre-prepared message was transmitted, upon which I quickly followed up with “You will be released for 20m isk”.

This is the bit I hated. The pilot had to read the incoming message, acknowledge it and comply – or not. It always took a few moments and you had to hold your nerve whilst they evaluate their options, but in doing so also expose yourself to getting ganked by his friends (it pays to check if there are any in system first :p)

There was still no response, and we didn’t have anything to actually fire with or cause any damage for this was a tackling ship pure and simple. It was designed for gang work, and not really for solo, unless you could be ballsy and blag it – which is exactly what I was attempting.

“Your time is running out pay the 20m before I call for backup” I said in the channel as we continued to orbit, disrupting their warp drive and leeching their energy for our own. “I have friendlies holding on the gate, pay now!” I bluffed and kept my nerve despite the long delays. He hadn’t fired on us, although we’d been locked which I assumed might be an auto-lock but there was no signs of hostile intentions – he seemed frozen like a rabbit caught in headlights. The Brutix hung in space, dead still with our small frigate orbiting around it like a fly.

“Last chance 20 million or you get ganked and podded” I transmitted hastily. Finally the reply came, and it was a simple “Ok” and my wallet flashed moments later. Checking the transaction was indeed valid – which it was I aligned to our designated gate. “You’re free to go or finish as you wish” I finally said and closed the channel. Disabling our warp scrambler as we burst into warp I smiled to myself. It wasn’t a bad result for a total blag.

Could it have been genuine? I could have had friendly ships waiting to jump in – yes.

Would you take the risk? Sure, you could lose the ransom paid, plus your ship but that’s not the way I operate – and neither does the corp I belong to – we always honour our ransoms. The long and short of it is that if you’re on the losing end another X isk for the ransom is neither here nor there so it pays to… er… pay really. You don’t know if it’s a bluff, or if it’s not – and usually it isn’t.

I returned to the bar for a night cap, the poor soul that I’d wall-slammed was still there unconscious when I left. So I stuck a sticky-note to this head with “Reserved for Hellcats” on it before leaving chuckling to myself.