It all adds up

All assassins had a full-length mirror in their rooms, because it would be a terrible insult to anyone to kill them when you were badly dressed.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Pyramids)

Contact

A Stabber class cruiser appears on my scanner, set to a 360 degree sweep it will pick up anything entering the asteroid clusters, I scan again to make sure the contact is in place and not just passing through. I narrow the arc to 90 degrees and scan the clusters, from my central position it's easy enough, second scan shows him at the V cluster and I initiate warp to the planet. I come out of warp and narrow the arc to 15 degrees. Belt one... Nothing. Belt two... Nothing. Belt three... Contact, confirmed Stabber class cruiser, ratting.

WARP DRIVE ACTIVE

Warp Disruptor is set to overload, it is primed, the prey is still in the belt as I spam the scanner. I burst out of warp and the prey is there, lock resolves and his day goes from bad to worse. He locks back and launches a drone, I won't need mine. Stabber loses shields, then armour and finally his structure gives way to the sustained assault, Republic Fleet EMP rounds overwhelm him. Bits of Stabber rain against Flubber™ even as the lock resolves on the pod, the unfortunate pilot sent home via Clone Vat Express.

It's all about the hunt

Sometimes it's not the fight that makes a hunt, but the hunt itself. Finding the target is the number one skill any Pirate should have, without it, well, you'll starve. It doesn't matter how good your skills are, how awesome your ship is, if you can't find prey it's all for naught. The Stabber pilot started having a bad day the moment he appeared on my scanner. He wasn't very experienced, a young pilot from the quick background check I was able to run but the loot will melt down nicely.

I scoop everything, it's how I make my living. Sure it's nice to get that faction drop worth millions but the small amounts gathered here and there make up millions, millions which fund me nicely.

Yesterdays loss still reverberates in the back of my mind, I needed to clear the cobwebs, focus on what I was good at and that is making the lives of others a little more exciting, if a lot shorter.
With this in mind I took Flubber™ out for a spin even though I have a massive headache, the Stabber made a nice entrée.

I sat at my safespot, reading the local comms chatter when a Jaguar appeared on scan. Time to introduce it to the excitement that is lowsec Piracy. I warped in and landed right on top of him, no bother, I didn't fear the Jaguar, I locked, tackled, shot and destroyed the helpless pilot, his corpse now residing in "The Morgue" A Deimos had warped in too and helped finish him off. A Rupture was about but it bugged out rather rapidly at the sight of a Fleet Stabber and Deimos.
The Deimos was a friend, hunting independently but a welcome sight. Unfortunately the Rupture wouldn't show himself again as he had cloaked somewhere in system, eventually leaving as more local Pirates came to Eifer.

I caught a Rifter ratting while I was waiting out my GCC, my hold now full of loot, time to go home.

Three kills, not very exciting but then not every hunt is. This was bread and butter Piracy, that which we need to keep the blood pumping and the ISK flowing. There's loot everywhere in the hangar, been a decent week even with the loss of my Broadsword.

I sit back and relax, music in the background as I light a cigarette and draw deeply. Piracy has it's ups and downs but I wouldn't want to do anything else, it's what I have become, what I am and it's so damn good.