Editors comment: This is a backdated entry. At the time, I wasn't quite willing to detail some of the intracies of POS ransoming I was involved in. For now, anyway, I've found other ways to make my ISK, so this will make for a decent read, I hope.
It drives me apeshit sometimes when my victims outright refuse to consider a good offer, even when both parties know for a fact it's a fair deal.
I suppose there's several reasons why someone between a rock and a hard place might throw themselves out the metaphorical window into the metaphorical fiery pit. First, there's probably a fair share who can't afford to pay the ransom. Then there's pride, of course, the stubborn notion that you're too good for a ransom. And perhaps, paranoia; not everyone honors a ransom as my crew does.
BANE alliance, being the naughty pirates we are, must operate 20+ ransoms a day. They range from capsules all the way up to capitals and assets. We've got the policies in place and I understand this pirate alliance I'm a part of has a pretty spectacular track record with honoring ransoms.
Now, one of the deals that have really irked me recently is the case of one Mr. Smit. Mr. Smit was recently ransomed concerning a Large Domination Control Tower he had in our neighborhood. We sent out a mail, and soon enough Mr. Smit contacted me. He told me my price was steep, that his wallet wasn't so thick and he'd need to get input from his directors.
With a smirk on my face, I replied. I gave him three days. I'd talk to my people, he'd talk to his. What I don't think he realized was that he could be read like a book.
For reference, my offer was half the cost of this Large Faction control tower, plus 100m a month. Now, that's pretty generous in my book. But it seems to me, Mr Smit was struck by something between greed and pride.
When I offer to ransom a ship, I do it because there's profit in it for me, and profit is good. What most of my clients don't realize, however, is that I'm actually providing a service. By accepting my ransom, the client is allowed to keep his current fit, his current cargo, and the current implants in his head. He isn't going to be troubled to go back to a market hub and have to rebuy all the kit. He wont have to refit it. The client is effectively buying about a half hour of stress in addition to the structural integrity of his ship.
With Mr. Smit, it was a bit different, but not much. When I say he could be read like a book, believe me, I meant it.
The night following my ransom, I happened to fly a cloak ship over the control tower in question. Sure enough, there he was unanchoring the tower to evacuate.
I contacted a corp mate from Final and we set out to prepare the perfect ambush.
Large faction control towers take just under one hour to unanchor. That is, if an owner decides he wants it to not-be-in-space-no-more, then he must hit the "unanchor" button and wait for about 50 minutes. In that time, we began to position our ships.
✖ One Falcon alt :: positioned conveniently above the target tower, giving us second-to-second updates. Not to mention cover our asses in the eventuality that everything were to go tits up.
✖ One Covert Hauler alt :: Ready to scoop the hardware the moment it became unanchored
✖ One Instalocking Heavy Interdictor :: To insure nothing, not even another covert hauler with warp core stabs, would steal off with what was rightfully ours.
✖ One Battle Myrmidon :: for dealing the hurt. In combination with the HIC and Falcon, it stood to do some serious damage to any small gang that attempted to stop us from achieving our goal.
So our attack plan was perfected, and now we were to wait. We're used to rallying pretty fast, so we ended up with about 40 minutes to kill. This time passed without incident, and with 2 minutes to go, we sprung the trap.
Both the broadsword and Myrmidon warp to zero of the target. Upon landing, I drop drones, and I'm none to surprised when we forced a mammoth to uncloak within 5 kilometers of the tower. We instantly kill the hauler, wait another minute, and scoop One billion ISK worth of Domination control tower for our own.
One might play devil's advocate, claiming he wasn't offered a fair deal. In all honesty however, after he paid that first half-price fee (about 500 million isk) He would have been free to unanchor the tower without worry. But now, it's gone, the tower is being sold in Jita, and I expect a decent payout in the coming days.
Pay the ransom, or else!
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