It had already been a long day for me working a 12-hour shift with my volunteer ambulance service and then having dinner with my grandparents. When I got home Paul, who is going into his weekend, was up for doing wormholes sites. I had scanned down a C2 while I was waiting for him to finish his dinner, and then we ran all of those anoms.

Back in our C3, we started going through the single anom and radar/magneto sites; we'd been talking on Skype for hours and things were getting silly (Paul's new musical hit coming soon to this blog - stay tuned). We were running with four Drakes and our Thanatos carrier. Then Paul's terse announcement: "Legion coming in!". The Legion pointed the carrier as we tried to decide what to do.

Unfortunately we didn't have many options as directional scanner showed a small fleet - which arrived on scene a few moments later. Three Dominix, a Dominix Navy Issue, an Abbadon, a Typhoon, and a Damnation. We quickly realized their target was the Thanatos as they pointed it and threw all their firepower into it. We were initially hopeful that my flight of 11 fighters and some additional ships could break their tanks... but they had an excellent spider tank setup, and despite best efforts, no amount of fighters and ship DPS we had on hand was going to work for us.

When it was clear that eventually they were going to break the Thanatos tank - it was fit for resists and reps, but against this much DPS it wasn't going to last - we started trying to get ships out from the carrier bay. We ended up losing a Devoter and a Drake, but we got other ships safely out.

The bad guys attempted a ransom - which we obviously weren't going to take - but we tried to stall for time by counter-offering:

[06:03:39] bumnz > 500 mil we let ya go
[06:03:49] bumnz > clock is ticking
[06:03:56] Marius Atilla > moo
[06:03:56] bumnz > tick tock
[06:06:00] Marius Atilla > better hurry mate
[06:06:13] Marius Atilla > u bout to die
[06:06:16] PaIIadium > lol
[06:06:20] PaIIadium > not today
[06:07:30] PaIIadium > busy hole you got here
[06:07:42] Radjax > for a minute
[06:07:50] Markus El'kar > 400
[06:08:01] Marius Atilla > deal
[06:08:01] bumnz > ok 400
[06:08:06] bumnz > send to me
[06:08:09] Paul Clavet > logging on an alt
[06:08:22] PaIIadium > whats going on in here?
[06:08:40] Paul Clavet > to get the money
[06:08:41] PaIIadium > a ransom perhaps?
[06:08:52] Paul Clavet > ya

With the Thanatos going into hull, I started the self-destruct timer. If I was going to lose a carrier, I was going to at least get my base insurance payment out of it. Of course the bad guys didn't like this, leading to some amusing tears:

[06:10:33] Syl Kougai > So you're going to SD instead of take it like a man? That'll be good in your blog.
[06:10:34] PaIIadium > that things taking a beating
[06:11:13] Markus El'kar > Insurance.
[06:11:24] GodfreyOfIbelin > i didn't know wh's had stations
[06:11:32] Markus El'kar > They don't. I still get 262m for it.
[06:11:57] Markus El'kar > I have to say I'm impressed what a group of RR Domis can do; nicely played
[06:12:15] Syl Kougai > Be sure to blog about how you sd'd like a bitch.
[06:12:19] bumnz > for selfdestructing im gona leave my alt in here
[06:12:30] bumnz > put that in ya blog and smoke it
[06:12:31] GodfreyOfIbelin > bunch of pussies
[06:12:38] Paul Clavet > lol pirate tears
[06:12:42] Markus El'kar > Deny you the kill and get money back? Yeah, clearly I'm the dumb one =)

The ship self destructed around the 50% hull mark and we warped away; we lost no pods, which was a small blessing. The insurance payment was indeed worth it, and denying them a killmail and drops was added bonus. I would have done it just for the insurance money in any case.

From: Secure Commerce Commission
Sent: 2011.08.22 06:11
RefID:1003045796452 Your friendly insurance company has transferred 262,052,019.20 ISK into your account for the recent loss of your ship. This payout is the default payout for an uninsured ship. If you are interested in better insurance then please visit a station with an Insurance Service for further details.

The resulting smack talk was amusing, considering that we admit they played a nice trap, and that we had failed to do a good job keeping an eye on what was going on.

[06:12:56] Marius Atilla > well you did get caught
[06:12:58] Marius Atilla > so, yeah
[06:13:00] Marius Atilla > you are
[06:13:03] Paul Clavet > Very well sprung trap though, gents
[06:13:09] Syl Kougai > Well
[06:13:12] Syl Kougai > Was worth the try.
[06:13:44] Paul Clavet > yep, well executed
[06:18:22] bumnz > see ya tomo
[06:21:48] rockpoker > ../
[06:21:55] rockpoker > dont forget to update
[06:25:12] rockpoker > any gf gf peace out
[06:25:21] rockpoker > anyway**
[06:26:24] Khalia Nestune > Oh, we will.

Paul and I spent a good while analyzing our billion-ISK lost. What did we do wrong, what could we have done differently, and what lessons did we learn? Paul will have another post shortly with his own perspective from being in law enforcement.

The primary lesson here was that we got complacent, and in EVE when you get complacent, you die. We should have left the Thanatos just outside the POS and assigned the fighters. I had been doing this most of the time, but for radar and magnetometic sites the additional RR from the carrier and agro onto the carrier was useful. Useful it was, but it left the carrier too vulnerable. Secondly, we did not put sentries on the wormholes in our system; or at least the wormhole from the high security static entrance. We had been doing this recently, but in our rush to get the sites done, we again got complacent and assumed nothing would happen. Tiredness and impatience are a bad combination.

Discussion of what we could have done differently was limited. Really once they had sprung the trap our fate was sealed; there was little we could have done with our on-hand ships against their spider tank setup. Our own set of RR fit battleships, complemented by the carrier RR, might have forced a different outcome, or a draw. Aside from this there was little we could do.

Paul and I have both suffered losses we consider more "dumb", from a "I can't believe I lost that ship" point of view, and this wasn't even the most expensive ship I'd ever lost (a faction-fit Tengu holds that 'honor'), but it was a sharp reminder that to let down your guard is to invite disaster. You can be sure it isn't a lesson we will ignore.