Spoiler
Ievos - Fed Navy Comet
Ergan Eto - Corvet/Orca
At approximately 0145 EVE I identified a target. Realizing that the target was outside my ability to take solo, I called for assistance from a pilot I was confident could assist. Ergan acknowledged he could assist.
Moving quickly, to not lose the opportunity, I pressed Ergan to move quickly to Ansalle. With some technical assistance from Gibson Thunderbird, we rapidly engaged the target, withdrew with the loot, and made quick haste out of system and returned to 101.
The mission was an absolute success. Zero losses, extremely isk positve, and a learning opportunity for those on Mumble. Additionally, we validated that there was not a problem with Local.
Extended Cut
While making some rounds through Low Sec and the loop around Amy, I noted a discrepancy in Ansalle; more ships on D-Scan than people in Local. My immediate concern was that local was not functioning correctly, but I needed to validate this; if Local was not working correctly, War Targets may very well be able to sneak in unnoticed, leaving miners and mission runners in danger.
To satisfy my curiosity, I decided to check the Cruiser and the Orca on D-Scan, to see who was flying it. Had a discrepancy been found, I planned to also check the station.
The cruiser (Thorax, if I recall correctly) seemed to be running a site; normal enough, but a bit harder to validate who was flying without looking like I was trying to steal a site. The Orca also seemed to be in an odd spot. Orca it is.
I D-Scanned the Orca down with little difficulty, but noted it wasn’t near an Athanor, mining belt/site, or even the station. Odd.
I warped in and noted an even more unusual situation. The ship didn’t have the pilot’s name in it, as one normally sees. I had seen this before, but I mean, that was normally on corvettes, sitting abandoned. A couple of moments later, it was confirmed; the Orca had to have been abandoned. It appears they cozied it up to a Control Tower, but chose one poorly, as it wasn’t tethered/shielded/etc.
At that point, I quickly discussed with both Ergan and Gibson; yes, this was most certainly abandoned.
Ergan hopped into a corvette, headed to Ansalle, and we were pleasantly surprised that he was able to take control of the Orca. Making good speed, we returned to 101.
After a bit more time celebrating than we should have, Ergan raced back to grab his Corvette. Likely a poor choice to add insult to injury to the pilot that left their Orca floating in space.
The Results:
Orca: https://evepraisal.com/a/o4p2k 681,759,139
Cargo: https://evepraisal.com/a/o4p8s 81,042,152
Ship’s Maint. Bay:
https://evepraisal.com/a/o4pcv 8,524,793
https://evepraisal.com/a/o4pcz 21,102,325
Stats
ISK Destroyed: 00.00
ISK Lost: 00.00
ISK Delta: 00.00
Loot: 728,887,883
Efficiency: Infinite
Overall evaluation
✔ Found an abandoned Orca.
✔ Zero losses.
✔ Opportunity to discuss abandoned ships, and how to not leave yours in space.
✘ We should have moved more quickly to retrieve the corvette, to prevent them identifying who took it, to reduce the chances of retaliation.
✘ Even better would have been for Ergan to just go to Ansalle in a pod. Next time I find an Orca in space, these lessons will be applied.