It seems that a pattern is developing for Saturdays in Suddenly Ninjas:

  1. Paul Clavet logs in to check his market orders and see what's shaking with the corp.
  2. Multiple ninjas beg Paul to start a salvage op.
  3. Paul states that he isn't even sure he's going to be playing today. He thinks of other things he should be doing, like building shelving for the utility room, cleaning his guns, or changing the oil in his car.
  4. More begging.
  5. Paul relents and forms the fleet.
  6. A 15+ strong NinjaFleet terrorizes Dodixie for eight hours.

Yesterday was no different. We even got some kills. This particular violence started with NinjaFleet warping in on four or five missionbears in various ships, running a fairly efficient group L4 operation. Wrecks were salvaged. Loot was taken. Prayers were offered. Then, success! Several of the missionbears started shooting at several among NinjaFleet.

Now, I've never seen this sort of situation work out well for us in the past. Typically it's the lone missionbear that shoots at a ninja, declares victory as the ninja warps away, resumes missionbearing, then melts as the ninja returns in a gank ship and tears the mission ship a new one. Groups tend to have folks in them who are a little smarter than your average solo mission-grinder, so the best you can usually hope for is for them to align to station, take a couple of pot shots at NinjaFleet, then warp to station and either hole up or play docking games until their aggro runs out.

These missionbears were either dumber or more confident than most. They either stuck around or swapped for combat ships and came back, but I don't remember exactly how it went down as my eyes were already starting to bleed from long hours of ninja work. All I know is that when I warped in my Drake, I saw two flashy Ishkurs on my overview. Michella said she was engaging a Megathron, but I didn't see it so I assumed that it had run off.

Fleetmate Pyth2 grabbed triallum's Ishkur with his Harbinger. I grabbed the Ishkur piloted by Simorgh Dasliva and started pounding on it with oversized HAMs and Warrior II drones, while ninja Zavulon Sukkot kept a point on the enemy even when I was jammed and could not maintain my warp scrambler. Eventually it popped.

ishkur

I relaxed a bit when my target went down, until I heard a combat status report from Michella. I must have my overview settings screwed up, because I couldn't see the Megathron on my overview and had to do a visual sweep in order to find it. The Mega, flown by Maximus Thrax, had aggro on most of us but had only shot at Michella, who had him pinned down in her Drake but, having the wrong kind of missile loaded for his resists, could not break his armor tank. A ninja got a ship scan on the Mega and announced his resists, and another went back to station to get the appropriate ammunition. NinjaFleet's combat ships orbited Max's Mega in case he decided to try and shoot at someone else or one of the Ishkur pilots came back to intervene. All non-combat NinjaFleet ships on the field were ordered to scatter 150 kilometers in random directions to act as tactical warp-in points in case Max's friends returned in sniper boats.

Now, a T2-fit and rigged Megathron isn't cheap, but its destruction is not likely to yield great loot for those popping it. My last attempt at extracting a ransom had not been successful as such, although the faction loot that ended up dropping (we have since made ship scanners standard equipment) gained us far more than the 500M offered for the CNR. In this case, with the fittings of the target known to be relatively low-value T2 equipment, we had the advantage of knowing that the destruction of the ship would be expensive to the missionbear, but not terribly profitable for NinjaFleet. Thus, I decided to attempt to extract a ransom.

Paul Clavet > o/
Maximus Thrax > o
Paul Clavet > I thought you should know that the correct damage missiles are coming to Mich
Paul Clavet > I would order them off you for 100M
(Max closes the chat)

Missiles with the correct damage type arrived and are dropped in a cargo can for Michella to pick up. RR arrives to keep her capacitor charged up in case of surprises. Max's armor tank begins to break as the damage increases to a level higher than his repair units can sustain. I open another convo with him when his armor is at 30%.

Paul Clavet > 125M now
Paul Clavet > to save your rigs etc
Maximus Thrax > 50M
Paul Clavet > this isn't a negotiation
(Max closes the chat again)

"OK Michella," I announce over voice comms, "it looks like he's not going for it. Waste him."
"Yar!" Michella acknowledges.

The Megathron's armor vanishes (it's amazing how important it is to have the correct damage type) and bits of Max's ship start falling off. I figure we're pretty much done, but Khalia Nestune convinces me to try once again for the ransom. Michella holds her fire for the time being, and though the armor immediately starts gaining traction again, we know that she's got Max right where she wants him.

Paul Clavet > last chance, 125M
Maximus Thrax > ok
Paul Clavet > 30 seconds
(20 seconds pass)
Maximus Thrax > get it?
(My wallet blinks. I check it and confirm a donation of 125,000,000 ISK.)
Paul Clavet > yes
Paul Clavet > you're off the hook
Paul Clavet > o/

"Break, break. Disengage. He paid. Disengage."
"What, we're not going to take his money and pew him anyway?" Michella asks.
"No, a T2 Mega on the killboard isn't worth never getting a ransom again."

We swapped back to salvage ships and got back to work. I called it a day shortly afterwards, and Khalia took over for the last couple of hours. The payout was about average: Not nearly as much per hour as a skilled solo ninja can make, but far more than a newbie ninja can. The ransom payment certainly didn't hurt.

We've had a pleasant influx of new recruits recently, and it's been enjoyable in these fleets to watch someone learn the ways of the ninja salvager and begin to extract their own tears.

The battle with the Ishkurs and Megathron, and the resulting kills and ransom, were certainly the highlight of the day. Ransoming works out great: We make about 100M more than would have been expected from loot drops in killing the ship, the Missionbear gets to keep their ship and rigs (which we wouldn't see any benefit from anyway), and everyone wins. Well, except for the Missionbear I guess, who is still 125 million ISK poorer for shooting at NinjaFleet. Still, I have to give Max and his friends props for not whining at us after paying for their mistake. We hope to see you guys again real soon!

TLDR version, as always, is "Don't shoot at ninjas. Bad things happen."