Ransoming the Ransomer

I'm not really the piratey-yarr type of pod pilot, but I did earn my first ransom the other day.  It wasn't a lot by pirate terms, but was exciting for me.

A little background up front:  for the last month or so, I've been living out in minmatar low-sec, a poorly traveled constellation there abouts.  I also had deployed a large minmatar dickstar to support my efforts out there.  Well I knew when I put it up that it would be a juicy target considering I can't put up any reasonable defense being the loan member of my corp.  So I wrote it off as lost the minute I anchored it.  This attitude would prove to be helpful towards the end of my stay.

I woke up that morning to aura incessantly beeping at me to tell me I had an urgent notification.  My POS was under attack.  I quickly jumped in my pod and into the closest ship I had with a cloak, a prowler I love flying.  I speed off to my POS to see it indeed being pounded on by a motley crew mostly made of of War Never Changes pod pilots.  They had two carriers and an assortment of support ships, no way I could mount an effective defense.  I was planning on leaving that system as soon as the last bunch of BPO research was done anyway, so a lot of the modules had already been taking to hi-sec.  Luckily the only non-offensive module left was the lab, so all i had to do was cancel the jobs and unanchor it.

While I was doing this I got a convo request from the FC of the enemy gang.  Some of the chat log are posted below.  In summary, they said they'd leave me alone that instant if I transferred 400m ISK to his account.  Not trusting anyone, as is too common in EVE, I declined.  Plus I had already taking the POS's eventual demise into account in my finances.

Then shortly thereafter, social engineering lead to the single greatest coup in my short capsuleer life to date.

Enemy FC: how about working some thing out so we don't have to kill your pos
Enemy FC: what you think
Me: i wont pay if thats what your after
Enemy FC: well the tower is going to cost you 350m to replace
Me: the minute i anchored the tower, i lost it
Me: such is eve
Enemy FC: i am offering you a way to avoide losing it
Enemy FC: ill even scout you to safe space
Me: as a matter of theory, how can i trust you to your word?
Enemy FC: i can get some people that i have ransomed before to vouch for me
Enemy FC:  if they are on
Enemy FC: but it would serve me no good to not houner it
Me: well in all honesty, i cant afford your initial offer or anything remotely near it
Enemy FC: word gets out and i lose my way of making isk
Enemy FC: what can you afford
Me: around 100m, but again i said i wasnt goign to pay
Enemy FC: hmm
Enemy FC: 100 mill and the lab and you have a deal

At this point I was  unanchoring the last lab in the pos with my blockade runner.  I knew I could get out safely without any help from the enemy FC.

Enemy FC: i will escort you out of here
Me: no thanks
Enemy FC: so its worth losing 350 mill over it ?
Me: in short, yes, my time here was worth it
Enemy FC: well then damn
Enemy FC: i reall dont want to shoot a pos
Me: im planning on offlining the jammers for ya

POS bashing is boring as hell.  I wouldn't wish it  on anyone, especially since I had mine configured as the infamous dickstar.

Enemy FC: if you want to be real nice just off line the pos
Enemy FC:  just aline out so they cant shoot you
Me: nah, you've got to work for it atleast a little
Enemy FC: damn it
Enemy FC: ill give you 25mill
Enemy FC:  to turn the poss of
Enemy FC: off

This was the opening I was looking for, now to push it harder.  Him paying me to kill my POS?  Not bad.

Me: 50
Enemy FC: 30
Me: 35
Enemy FC: done
Enemy FC: i just dont want to sit here that long
Me: no prob, nice doing business with you
Me: dont blame you
Me: fly safe o/

Note: Names redacted for privacy.

Making 35m off of a tower I knew I was going to lose wasn't too bad.  The enemy FC was very friendly and honored his deal.  I ended up offlining the tower and getting out of dodge.  All said and done I made 35m off of a tower I knew I was going to lose.  This ransoming thing is turning out to be kind of fun...