It’s been a while since I lost a vessel, but today I lost my favorite heavy salvage cruiser. It was a Moa, all rigged up and loaded with Tech II fancies, designed to let me probe out missions in progress, visit them, and then salvage the wrecks under fire, with plenty of speed (to get to the wrecks promptly) and artificially enhanced agility (to STOP when I get there, not overshooting in frustration). Being a cruiser, it had toughness enough to survive a little agro when things go south. All in all, a sweet little ship for a very specialized purpose.
So, today I dropped in on Major Knewbee of Astrodynamic Innovations [ADIN], as he was working a mission pocket in a Drake. It looked like a single pocket mission, mostly small wrecks plus a few mediums, and he was wrapping it up, with just a few cruisers or battlecruisers left to finish. I figured on cherrypicking the few medium wrecks near my drop-in point and moving along, nothing really in the mission worth a heavy salvage effort.
But the thing is, I was careless, and I didn’t take the mission space seriously. First rule of mission salvage: the mission space is dangerous until every last red plus is converted into a yellow triangle. This rule, I failed to heed.
To be honest, I’m not sure exactly what happened. I suspect that Major Knewbee had been avoiding a known mission trigger, which he then triggered at an inopportune (for me) moment. Because the first thing I know is, I’m getting aggro and fire from about ten mission targets that (a) were not present a moment before, and (b) were all right up in my face.
The second thing I see is Major Knewbee warping out. Thank you very much, sigh. But well played, I’ll grant you.
Emergency warp procedures were initiated, but I was on a battleship afterburner going in no useful direction, so warp was slow. And then it got a lot slower, as in, I was warp scrambled. And shortly after that, I went quite thoroughly kaboom.
Fully insured of course, and I recovered most of my fittings from the wreck, but the lost rigs are a pang.
Fortunately, I have a hangar full of supplies to build another one.
Entries (RSS)
April 26th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
To: Marlenus, CEO Iron Fleet
From, Justa Sarariman
Re: insurance Claim
Dear Sir,
In regards to your claim of absolute loss, we regret to inform that you seem not to have purchased a vacuum rider. As you know, our policies cover loss of starship under most circumstances, but exposure to vacuum s covered only if you purchase a separate rider, as clearly stated in Section 23.xxiv.16d. You will appreciate it that spaceship accidents in which exposure to vacuum occurs represent significant expenses, and our company could not afford to serve our clients as well as it does without requiring an extra rider to cover those costs. Your policy does, of course, cover all space-based accidents in which vacuum is not a factor. Feel free to call if you have any questions or wish to review your insurance coverage.
April 26th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
LOL, my friend, that’s funnier than you know. I went back to look at the insurance mail, and instead of the eight million ISK sum on the face of my policy, the insurance company sent me the token amount they pay out for uninsured losses (they seem to do this as a means of communicating to you the merits of purchasing premium insurance). Apparently, my insurance had lapsed without me noticing it…
April 27th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Premiums are worth paying. You might also consider our safe-piloting discounts. We know there are many distractions for today’s busy pilots: missiles, drones, pirates, space hazards, and cellphones are all part of the daily routine, but they take your mind off your piloting, and accidents happen. So we reward safe (premium-paying) piloting. So, for all your needs, think Quasar Insurance. Remember QuasI–as if it never happened.
P.S. Remember insurance scams hurt us all. We all know the temptations — a few extra ISK, a stray alliance or two lulled into a false sense of security — but is a false claim really worth it? If you have an old space ship, do the right thing — leave it to the professional salvagers. They’ll take it off your hands for you, and you won’t have to worry.