I was talking with Khalia out of game and announced that it was time for me to get my ninja on. He had been doing his ninja thing in Ammold where I was based at the time, but was frustrated that he wasn't getting any bites. He declared that he would go one system over to see if he could improve his luck. I told him that I would log in and get an expensive kill in the system he thought was mined out for the night. Of course, he didn't believe me.

So I dropped probes. The third hit was a Loki flown by Taildust. For all my stupidly expensive kills, I still had not ever gotten a T3 kill. I warped in to find Taildust doing some sort of Sansha mission, pewing the last rat. I looted, and Taildust shot at me.

Do you remember what happens when you shoot at Ninjas? If you said "bad things" then you may move to the head of the class. Also, see me after we're done. The chalkboard needs cleaning.

He was still there when I arrived, though he was almost out of range and moving away.

I overloaded my afterburner and warp disruptor. A quick note about warp disruptors: If you are flying an expensive ship already, it makes sense to spend the extra money on a faction point. Also, if living out of an Orca it's worth your time to train the Orca pilot to maxed out Skirmish Warfare skills. Fit all three Skirmish Warfare links. Much like the Spanish Inquisition, nobody expects a Tengu to point them at 48km (overloaded) and charge them in excess of a kilometer per second. I've gotten many kills this way that wouldn't have happened in a stock Raven. This was one of them.

I opened a convo with the victim:

Paul Clavet > 500M or your ship dies
taildust > like io got the money
Paul Clavet > How much do you have?
taildust > i give 20 mill
Paul Clavet > not good enough

I steadily burned through his armor.

I figured that he wasn't going for a ransom and I'd have to pop him, but there was one thing left to try.

Paul Clavet > eject
Paul Clavet > you'll get your mods back
Paul Clavet > 15 seconds to comply

A minute passed. Nothing. One more little reminder.

Paul Clavet > you're going to lose SP

Bingo.

Now, here I must share my fail. In an ongoing effort to fly everything in the game so that I can steal anything in the game, I've trained all four racial cruiser skills to V, with Minmatar being the final one completed only days ago. I had all the Minmatar Subsystem skills trained to I, but had forgotten to grab the actual Minmatar Strategic Cruiser Skillbook. Dang it.

I knew I needed to delay Taildust as long as possible while we secured his ship.

Paul Clavet > meet me in station
taildust > i am here
Paul Clavet > OK, it'll be a minute
taildust > ok

I warped in my Orca, but being deadspace the Orca had over 80km to cover at 78m/s. Luckily even after much taunting Khalia had not ceased to be my BFF and brought over his new toy: A cap-stable Orca that goes over 300m/s. I also had fellow Ninja Zavulon Sukkot start the 14-jump trip over just in case the Loki had something in the hold that prevented it from being scooped by the Orca. Fortunately the Loki only had ammo and was scooped by Khalia, who took it to station and contracted it to me. Khalia was paid 100M and Zavulon 50M for their appreciated efforts.

taildust > how come i wasnt hurting u
Paul Clavet > Because you suck and I am awesome
Paul Clavet > by the way, I'm keeping the ship and whatever is on it
Paul Clavet > thanks for ejecting
taildust > i new it

He came back to the mission in a rookie ship to get his mission item. I pewed him again and popped the can containing his mission item. Whoops.

30 minutes later I had Minmatar Strategic Cruiser I and could get into the Loki. It was mostly T2 fit and T1 rigged, but the hull and subsystems still made for a very profitable evening.