Ghost of Victims Past

I meet a lot a people in Eve.

Regardless of the circumstances and/or violent tendencies and/or morally ambiguous nature of our introductions, there are names and faces that stick out to me at times. For instance, when they appear in something newsworthy, or maybe say hello in local, or, in some truly “oh yeah that guy!” instances, on things like the Alliance Tournament or the New Eden Open. GreenYoshi, for example, who’s flown in I believe two ATs, was once a partner in crime in stealing offlined POSs in my early days of Suddenly Ninjas. There was a guy (who’s name escapes me) who lost a particularly wincingly expensive Bhaalgorn flagship in one tournament, who’d previously lost something like 30 billion isk in repeated ganks and infiltration awoxs I’d participated in in earlier times.

I’ve been watching the recent New Eden Open these past two weekends, and today, noticed yet another familiar, and this time quite important face from my checkered past:

Flying for 8 CAT, in one of the Navy Ravens (are we calling them RNIs now? Am I the old out-of-touch dude now for calling them CNRs?), is someone quite important from my past: a reluctant benefactor, an unsung hero; the ill-fated Vic Steeleyes.

Long ago, in the infancy of this blog (can you tell I’ve also been watching Cosmos?) and just starting into my new-found career of pilfering and skullduggery, I had the awesome luck of finding and absconding with an unpiloted Orca, filled to the brim with middle-of-the-road faction loot. Orcas were a new commodity, and as I began to see more and more brainless miners practicing the incredibly daft art of mining in a barge while using their Orca, unpiloted, as a giant containter, I decided the time was ripe for the picking. I trained my first Orca alt, and spent the next few weeks after he was done training scouring belts and dropping probes rather than going after mission runners.

Again, in the infancy of this blog, I documented this here, here and here way back in 2009, but as a quick round-up: I basically scanned down an Orca in a safe spot, un-piloted, in the perfect timing of its owner and pilot having a disconnect issue while sitting outside his Orca. Cackling like an idiot, I brought in the Orca alt, jumped in, and shakingly docked at station. Loot for this early foray into grand theft spaceship for a young Aiden amounted to something like 2.5 billion, which at the time, inflated my ego to unimagined proportions. I advertised my fortune on this blog, and even made a “fire-sale” post on the Eve-O forums, hinting at my awesomeness as I hawked my faction loot booty.

I eventually sold the Orca back to its owner, or rather his alt, who vehemently denied being his alt (to save face I suppose? In any case, I’ve had both of them on my watch list for 5 years now – if two toons log in and off simultaneously for five years straight and they aren’t the same person, then I’m Cribba). That small fortune, however paltry looking to some, or in comparison to my later wealth, took me to the next level at the time, as well as opening my eyes to the magical world of taking shiny expensive spaceships, rather than merely destroying them.

So though I’m sure he’d rather I’d never mentioned it again, I’d like to give a huge thanks to Vic Steeleyes, for his inadvertent generosity and spotty internet connection. Well played in the NEO thus far, sorry about the loss this weekend, and I’m rooting for you in the losers bracket – just maybe stay in your ship this time.

 

-Aiden

~ by Aiden Mourn on March 10, 2014.