Piracy Continues to Plague Wormhole Explorers
Mannar, Everyshore - While the discovery of wormhole space has opened up opportunities to accumulate great riches, those who seek to exploit their discoveries would be wise to never let down their guard.
With the discovery of so many untapped new systems, many capsuleers have sought to capitalize on these remote locations, travelling ever deeper in search of wealth via massive industrial efforts. However, there are those who seek another means of gaining wealth; piracy.
An example of an organized pirate expedition and its inevitable result would be the Veto. assault on a RAZOR corporation's mining operation deep within a wormhole.
Izo Azlion, a senior member with Veto. Corporation [VETO] reports that while a Veto. gang was spread out over a few systems looking for Wormholes and "individually scouting them to see if we could find anything", one of his gang happened upon a THE X-TRADING COMPANY Corporation [XT] mining operation.
SmurfR, member of Veto., had successfully navigated through five wormhole systems before locating the XT mining operation, which consisted of several mining ships, an industrial ship, an Absolution-class command ship and a Caldari Navy Issue Raven-class battle ship. After notifying the rest of his corporation, he returned back to the Mannar System and waited for reinforcements before heading back in.
Travelling through five wormhole systems, each one potentially closing behind their fleet was not to be taken lightly, remarked Izo, adding that "most if not all of our ships that go through the wormholes are at least equipped with a Core Probe Launcher; we've read the stories of the lost pilots, and we try to avoid that happening to us!"
According to Izo, the Veto gang, which consisted of five force recon ships, a heavy interdictor and an interceptor were, "thanks to our scout, able to land 'spot on' in the middle of them…before they knew what hit them, we had a [heavy interdictor] bubble up from the Broadsword."
Although expecting some trouble from the two combat ships, Izo was surprised to discover that "the combat ships were, for some bizarre reason, fitted with ore harvesting equipment."
After taking out every ship except for the Caldari Navy Issue Raven, Izo reports that they offered the pilot a chance to ransom his ship. Gohlem, an officer with [XT], confirms that an offer to ransom the ship for 600 million ISK was made by Veto., but stated that "we never trade with pirates." Ultimately, no compromise could be agreed on, and both the ship and the pilot's pod were destroyed.
Gohlem concedes that due to four wormholes opening into their home system that day, [XT] did not have all of the entry points covered and so; "we were so much easy fish for that Veto. gang." However, according to Gohlem, this incident has completely changed XT's security protocols.
Izo reports that his corporation did not target [XT] ships in particular, only that "they were unfortunate enough to just be there at the wrong time" adding that upon seeing the mining fleet, his gang felt that they had to "crack them open to see what was inside."
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