Cat, Esssence - A Paladin class marauder worth an estimated thirty billion ISK was recently destroyed in a coordinated high-security suicide attack.
Professional salvagers or 'Ninjas' are believed to have stalked their victim for two days and through several systems before springing a carefully calculated ambush on the Vale gate in Cat, Eustron constellation. Despite ultimately succumbing to CONCORD the gang of capsuleers and accomplices from five different corporations managed to escape with booty valued at some eighteen billion ISK.
This latest action raises the bar for violent criminal enterprise in high-security space. The victim, Solarius, CEO of Quantanamo Corporation [QVC], had fitted his ship with rare and highly valuable 'officer' modules from such galactic luminaries as Chelm, Cormack, Gotan and Draclira; each individually valued between two billion for Draclira's Modified Heat Sink and as much as seven billion for Chelm's Modified Cap Recharger. Making this one of the single most expensive losses of a sub-capital vessel to date.
In an interview with the Interstellar Correspondents, the capsuleer credited with the kill, Khirun Lintal of Ex Obscuritas[EXOBS], explained how his group had initially become aware of their prey: "Skilluuhh [EXOBS] called me and told me that this Paladin could be interesting. Basically what we do is scan down mission runners all day long. At some point Skilluuhh found a Paladin in a mission and with a ship scanner he saw that incredible fitting. Unfortunatley the Paladin didn't want to kill him after he stole his loot: would have been more profitable for us!"
A loose confederacy of seven battleships, with capsuleers representing: Honorless Internet Jerks [JERK.], Suddenly Ninjas [YOINK], Alarm Clock Corp [ALRM] and Defner.org [D.ORG] answered a call to arms and assembled to carry out the deed.
Khirun explained the uncertain moments leading up to the attack: "He (Solarius) jumped through systems as if he knew something was coming up. Then he stayed in a system to do a mission, so we positioned our fleet in the next system on the stargate (Vale). We knew that he would have to come back through that gate, so we just waited."
"He suddenly appeared near us. We knew CONCORD would come instantly and so it happened. We popped nearly instantanously. Somehow I survived long enough to launch two final salvos," he said. "I think one battleship less and we maybe wouldn't have killed him!"
Solarius [QVC], issued a brief statement registering his initial surprise:"I'd had that ship fitted like that for some time, no-one ever bothered me until I started runnin' the odd mission in Cat, Vale and Auvergne... ganks like that are normally the preserve of 0.0 choke points!"
When asked about his own plans for the future he remained upbeat: "A drop in the ocean! That fit had netted me plenty of ISK durin' the time I had it, I could refit a Paladin to exactly the same spec if I wanted.. "
Although satisfied with the response time of CONCORD, Solarius believes that "[a] bit of ECM or sensor damping..." may have had a significant bearing on the outcome.
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