Escort duty

We were engaged in a mining op a few days ago, which was rather interesting. It was my first time escorting another ship. This was an industrial ship to Mimimor, owned by Telekon, where it could engage in mining, He has since become a new member of Purify, thanks to his enjoyment and success during his Mimimor mining op.

After escorting him to Mimimor, Praetor Sarum took over escort duty while he mined, and I joined a few others on anti-pirate patrolling. NIssith and Gazanz were having some fun with a few pirate battlecruisers, so I joined the fray, adding my railguns and missiles to the projectiles and blasters lighting up the dark space between the asteroids. Gaza had to go for some repairs, so I accompanied Nissith and Evan around various asteroid belts, helping out with the good fight.

Eventually we destroyed all the pirates that were lurking amongst the asteroid belts, and Telekon finished his huge mining op, so everyone headed off to respective docks. Me too, and I had a great sleep, knowing that I'd had a great day of pirate killing.

My first experience with escort duty was quite interesting. I'd go into a system first, check for pirates, and then get Telekon to come in. Then I'd warp to the next gate, jump through into the next system, and check again. No pirates were encountered along the escort, so that was all good.

However, tonight was a very different story, and one which, happily, had a happy ending.

Telekon needed escorting through lowsec space again to transport 100 million ISK worth of goods. Since he had to go through lowsec space, it certainly made sense to get an escort. No one else was near or available, so I met him in Gelfiven and escorted him to his destination.

Illamur was where we almost came unstuck. I jumped in and checked for pirates, and lo and behold, there they were! Two of 'em, one had a sec rating of -9.9 and the other had a rating of -9.1. I told Telekon not to come in, and I headed back the 15km to the jump gate, ready to jump back to him at the first sign of them near the gate. I figured anyone with such an extremely low sec rating would be flying ships that I couldn't even hope to outclass with my Tristan Frigate.

Sitting there at the jump gate, I waited. My plan was to wait until they either left the system, in which case I'd get Telekon to come in and we'd go through to the next gate, or until they appeared and attacked, in which case I would jump back.

To my surprise, I was invited to join a channel that was called 'Ransom' somethng-or-other. I waited, wondering what they wanted to talk about. 'Ransom' seemed obvious enough, but I hadn't been captured yet....

"250k for safe passage," was the message that appeared. I relayed this information to Telekon, and he wasn't interested in paying pirates. Never had, never will. Good, I thought, and I told them, "Thanks for the offer." That's all, and then I jumped back to the system where Telekon was waiting.

I checked the map to find an alternate route, but it seemed that all routes went through Illamur. So I waited 5-10 minutes and then jumped back into Illamur to see if they had gone yet. They had! So Telekon jumped in, and with eyes glued to the local comm channel we quickly made our way to the next jump gate, and eventual safety.

I was so happy that my second escort had also been successful! So was Telekon, as he warped off to his destination and 100 million ISK....

Another great day.

Recruiting is going extremely well. I've recruited around 5 or so people in the past week, and I've received confirmation from someone tonight that they and 3 of their friends will also be joining Purify.

I love being Head of Recruitment!