Honour, Humour and Piracy.

Not exactly the Holy Trinity, but it was pleasant the other day after getting jumped while closing an unscheduled Low-Sec hole, (details to follow) to find a set of Pirates with both Yarring skill (see details for a bit of an addenda to that..) a sense of humour, and enough honour to follow through on a ransom.

We lost 2 ships and 1 pod to their gank, which included a Phobos. Fortunately for us, it took them too long to kill Leilani and her pod before moving onto Katt that by the time her Typhoon exploded, the Phobos pilot had run out of capacitor and lost his bubble, so Katt slipped away safely. Fortunately for me, I'd managed to get my cloak on before they jumped through the bubble, and despite some close calls, they didn't manage to close within 2k (<2.6k? Sure, but never less than 2k.. phew).

Tip of Experience: Cap stability is not an optional item on a HIC.

Insurance covered Leilani's loss, but Katt being in the wrong ship cost us a few million, nothing hurtful though.

Normally, this would quite upset us, as would the threat from the pirate gang to further harrange and bother us in Our Slice of Heaven, they were asking for 50M, which isn't a tremendously unpleasant amount of money to pay, which just shows at least they weren't silly. Afterall, we could just hide out in our POS and unless they felt like sieging us while we called the reinforcements, they would have a very boring afternoon.

So, to pay or not to pay? I was working (called away when they warped INTO the wormhole, of all the darned times to get someone at my door), and so Katt held the negotiations. Some of the highlights included the threat of seeing one of the pirates in a Leather Tutu, which surely evoked horror in his compatriots, who fair begged Katt to give them the money and save them from such a fate.

They made Katt laugh, and that was worth 50M to us, so we paid them to go about their business, fully expecting them to stick around and cause trouble.

Well, holy moly! They said their thank-yous and meandered out, assuring us several times of their lack of ill intent. Katt closed the wormhole up boldly, and was unmolested in the process.

So, Pirates, if you're going to ask for a ransom, keep in mind that while you've just had your entertainment and blown someone's ship up, if you're trying to get paid, it helps to get the OTHER party, the gankee if you will, in a good mood! If they'd just threatened us, we'd have kept our money and onlined a few extra defenses at the POS, they'd have spent a very boring day in a wormhole hoping we'd come out, when we'd in actuality cleared the absolute last site in there just hours before their arrival on the scene.

Their sense of humor netted them 50M, and I hope they have similar luck elsewhere.

Well, I also hope the next group they jump on a wormhole is sitting there in a gank-squad and teaches them to leave W-Space holders alone.... But I never said I was consistent.