Pod Kills Hurt

Was running a mission in low-sec and all my ships are fitted for PvP with a tackling setup as per standard. This time in my incursus with T2 light blasters. I had some exotic dancers in my accomodation, they were on their way to some stag do for some big executive and I was asked to transport them through low-sec space for an obscene amount of money.

I was not going to turn this offer down.

As I entered into the calming depths of space, I checked my scanner and spotted two rifters in a belt. Then there was only one left to be replaced by a capsule. So there was a fight, but in the same communication channel, I discovered that one pilot was suddenly flagged for aggression and there it was: a pirate in action.

I changed my vector and accelerated into the belt, an incursus versus a rifter was not a good choice; the rifter is by far the best T1 frigate. I know, I fly them on a regular basis. However, I was hoping the pirate was chuckling over the kill and picking over the wreckage. He may still be ransoming the unfortunate pilot and would be distracted. Either way, I had an edge.

Landing in the belt, I was 80Km from the rifter and indeed, he had the pod scrambled. I had an afterburner and hit it. 80km is a long distance to travel and most pirates have friends nearby. Also, I know some pirates who frequent this area and I didn't recognise this chap. More fool him but surely he spotted me by now? I was 70km and closing.

60km and nothing. I could not lock him nor him me.

50km and I scanned around me to ensure he did not have friends nearby.

40km and I had a started a lock. I had a dampner on here and with that on him, he would find his locking resolution greatly impaired.

30km and on came the dampner, pulsing away. If he hadn't figured out my intentions by now, well it was pretty clear. My three t2 blasters started their initialisation sequences.

20km and my disruptor came on and he still had not locked me. Surely a trap? Leaving pirate bait was one of many a trap that I was aware of.

10Km and the returned my lock and well, auto canons have a long fall-off and he should be able to hit me. I noticed he had absolutely minimal shield damage as well.

5km and I started my blasters on him, the void ammunition chewing into his shields. The pirate returned fire and my shields flared as it absorbed the blows. This incursus was built to fight up close so I got even closer and was in under 1000m. The rifter scored good hits but I was more experienced a pilot and I could pick out weak points on the rifter and concentrate on them. The rifter was soon into armour and he tried to repair it. My blasters continued to hit, hard. My computer picked up a may-day call from the pirate and I realised that his associates were probably inbound soon.

I had to be quick and blasted the rifter to pieces. I then locked the pod and killed it.

Then I realised my mistake. The pirate was flagged for aggression but he was not an outlaw (yet) and hence, killing his pod resulted in the mandatory Concord security rating reduction.

SHIT.

It had taken me years to get up to 3.5 and then a ill-advised pairing with the notorious pilot 'Flashfresh' resulted in my security rating dropping to 1.7 and now, killing a pirate knocked me down to 0.7 and I thank the stars that it did not go down further. Still, I have a working relationship with Flash and we're friends if not fast-buddies. Yes, my line of work means that I occasionally consort with those deemed to be dangerous and undesirable.

I whipped the ship around and exited the belt just as two more pirate ships came screaming in. It was then I noticed that these were associates of Flashfresh; could the rifter pirate been a new associate?

Ooops.

Anyway, I wonder how long before I could get my security status back up to 4.0?