Covert cynos killed the solo piracy star

 Anathema didn't only believe in ley-lines, but in seals, whales, bicycles, rainforests, whole grain in loves, recycled paper, white South Africans out of South Africa, and Americans out of practically everywhere down to and including Long Island.

-- (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens)

A slight miscalculation

You can tell I'm it's been a while, that paranoid edge is gone, and it led to an expensive mistake.

I'm running around the area, getting used to everything again, when I spot a Vargur running a cosmic sig in Auren, having previously probed out the area I went back to station in Gus to grab something a little more suitable to take on the mighty tank of said Vargur. I boarded my Hyperion, undocked and warped to the Auren gate.

 [ 2017.03.26 01:57:30 ] EVE System > Channel changed to Local : Auren

I landed and didn't even pay attention to local in Gus, I jumped through and was followed by a Tengu.
The stargate launches me into Auren I hold cloak for a second but I don't want the Vargur to get away, so I drop gate cloak and initiate warp to the cosmic sig, only for the Tengu to decloak, and tackle me.

Now at this point I'm pretty sure I can take the Tengu, thinking it was associated to the Vargur (perhaps it was but it never came)

But all of a sudden, covert cyno goes up and ships start cynoing in.

 [ 2017.03.26 01:59:07 ] Rengas > happy daylight savings

Things appear to be going south, but I'm pretty confident in my tank, that is, until the neuts rock in.

 [ 2017.03.26 01:59:56 ] Rengas > can you just die already

I could see by the incoming DPS, the fact I was neuted and out of cap, target painted, jammed, scrammed and webbed that I was not going to make it back to the gate, I was not going to be able to micro jump out, consuming a booster was not going to save me, so I prepared to warp my pod out.

Of course, as my Hyperion explodes, my pod's systems froze up and crashed.
I furiously try to get the systems back online, and then...

Pitch black.

Waking up in a fresh clone after all these years, never gets easier, or cheaper. Even if my systems didn't crash, I would not have been able to save my pod, the smartbomb on the Panther made sure of that

[ 2017.03.26 02:00:13 ] EVE System > Channel changed to Local : Gusandall
[ 2017.03.26 02:01:55 ] Kane Rizzel > client crash as i popped and podded
[ 2017.03.26 02:02:21 ] Rengas > nice pod bruh
[ 2017.03.26 02:02:25 ] Kane Rizzel > thanks
[ 2017.03.26 02:02:32 ] Kane Rizzel > not my most expensive luckily
[ 2017.03.26 02:02:36 ] ROSSLINDEN0 > tanked like a beast
[ 2017.03.26 02:02:47 ] Rengas > the other sin pilots have garbage fits
[ 2017.03.26 02:02:54 ] Rengas > you could have tanked them all day
[ 2017.03.26 02:03:02 ] Kane Rizzel > didn't really stand a chance against what you dropped
[ 2017.03.26 02:03:08 ] RX-78GP01 Uraki > that sux
[ 2017.03.26 02:03:18 ] Kane Rizzel > it's all good
[ 2017.03.26 02:03:18 ] Rengas > solo pvp died in 2011
[ 2017.03.26 02:03:24 ] Rengas > embrace the blob
[ 2017.03.26 02:03:28 ] Kane Rizzel > never
[ 2017.03.26 02:03:38 ] Kane Rizzel > good hunting
[ 2017.03.26 02:03:45 ] Rengas > you too o7
[ 2017.03.26 02:03:46 ] Messoroz > i too spend more on implants than the ship 10x



After the fact, as I was getting used to my new clone in station as a few of my pod liberators passed through Gusandall they commented on the kill. One comment struck me. So many times I have been told that solo piracy is dead, but I think most people who say that are the problem it's not thriving, my fate only minutes earlier a good example of why.
If you run around all day waiting for a target to drop your friends on, you are the reason solo is more difficult. This isn't me crying foul, it's just a fact.

Will it stop me running around solo doing what I have always done?
No, it just means I need to be smarter about it, or find folk who align with my ideals.

Being smarter

Coming back after all these years means old gentlemen's agreements have fallen by the way side, and not taking them for granted is a key survival tool. Point in fact, yesterday as I was hunting for an Astero, I warped in on the data site and engaged the Astero, only for a Cyclone to warp in (The pilot was in a corp from many years ago who aligned with my ideals and we generally had an aggrement not to violence each other and even helped each other when needed)
At first I assumed he was going to steal my kill, but as the Astero popped, the Cyclone engaged me, scramming and neuting.
A quick afterburner burst aligning out and I quickly got out of scram range, engaging my cloak as I warped out.

Minutes later a cyno is lit in Eifer, I warp at range to investigate, to see a cyno lit by a Vexor, who's systems seem to have gone offline. I moved closer and still seeing the Cyclone in system I orbited the Vexor at 30km with my MWD burning, launched drones and set them on the Vexor.
The Cyclone wars in, on the top of the Vexor and once again I assume a kill is about to be stolen.
The Vexor explodes and the capsule emergency warps out and the Cyclone appears to not even having engaged. He did of course steal the loot of both kills, c'est la vie.

Feeling a bit putout I needed to make tale out my frustrations, so I headed back to Gus and grabbed a Cheetah to combat probe the pod. Having done so I headed back to Gus and grabbed a combat vessel, headed to Eifer and liberated the capsuleer from his implants.

In conclusion

My return hasn't been spectacular, well only my loss could count as such, but I'm slowly finding my way again. I started watching some videos of a dude called Chance Ravinne and was massively impressed by the wormhole solo PvP he engaged in. I imagine most of y'all have seen his stuff, he was even a CSM member, but after 3 odd years away from the universe, I'm only just starting to catch up.

Who do I speak to about Lowsec and Piracy?