Stand up and deliver!

While fun, the killing of ships can hardly be described as pirating - it's more smashing. As all the ships I've managed to engage so far were cheap T1 ones, I've never bothered with ransom demands - and, as such, was not really a pirate.

That all changed yesterday when I spotted a Hulk mining in a quiet low-sec system. I pinned him down to a belt, warped in, but failed to tackle him as the pilot was wise enough to mine far from the warp-in beacon. The Hulk jumped to the gate and I was left alone with a few wrecks and two jetcans full of luminous Kernite - much too much for my Rifter's small cargo hold. I saw that the Hulk pilot was waiting at the gate, so I decided to try and lull him into security. I bookmarked one of his cargo containers and left the system through another gate.

Nervously, I waited a few minutes, then jumped in and warped directly to the can. Unfortunately, while the pilot was in the system, the belt was empty. Some warping around found him on the scanner - unfortunately, he had already switched to a Mammoth transport vessel, and soon after that he left the system. I followed him and jumped to the high-sec system, then waited on the gate cloaked. A few seconds later, the pilot appeared on the overview and jumped through the gate. I immediately jumped after him and warped to the can again, catching him in the act of moving the ore to his hold. I tackled him and opened conversation with the pilot. He delayed a bit, but a round of EMP proved persuasive enough. I demanded a ransom - a paltry million, but I figured that the industrial and the ore were not worth much over a few million. 30 secs later and after some more EMP nudging, the pilot complied. I disengaged my lock, wished him a safe flight, and left the system - no more a smasher, but a pirate!

Retriever (image courtesy of EVE Online wiki)

It seems the first time is really the hardest - I found a Retriever mining before the downtime today, flown by a less savvy pilot who stayed too close to the warp-in beacon. EMP again proved very persuasive and I left the system 3 million richer. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!