400 million Isk

400 million is nothing these days, but it represents the value of Mobile Tractor Units destroyed by my Alpha Clone since July. Given MTU’s have a value around 6.5 mill the figure is healthy. There were a couple of surprises like the one “JAK JAH” abandoned for a touch under 50 mill and the Packrat MTU that “Composit” left behind for 34 mill.

I say abandoned / left behind because, up until recently, I wouldn’t attack an MTU if the owner was in system. Not because I didn’t want to lose my ship, but because somewhere deep down some sort of space Bushido thing made me feel that it was the wrong thing to do, however when I found “Interstellarist” in a belt in Eram, with not just one but two MTU’s deployed, I decided to break my long standing non-aggressive stance.

When I landed in the belt he was in a Bestower close to one of the MTU’s. The other was about 25 km from him. I warped out to see if he was going to leave the belt but he didn’t so I warped back in, locked the other MTU, launched drones and started firing. In my mind one of three things was going to happen:

1. He would sprint over (in a Bestower lol) and scoop the MTU.
2. His fleeted corp mates would arrive.
3. He wouldn’t know what to do and warp out.

He chose option 3.

I sent him an evemail, before I logged, letting him know the ore was still in the belt – I am not a totally heartless bastard – or so I tell myself.

The reply was interesting. I am fairly sure he has no idea what happened. Also odd was the fact that he wanted compensation for the MTU, but not the 2.3 million Isk worth of Tritanium destroyed by the loot fairy. If you are going to ask you might as well ask for the lot?
I am still waiting to find out what “nothing good to you” means.

Before I posted the kill I safed up and let the weapons flag run down, as Kenny Rogers once said “never count your money…”
Interstellarist’s alliance name caught my eye because a few days earlier I had relieved his colleague “Lucifersbitch” of an MTU in Aeddin. Due to the amount of Tech II gear I would hazard a guess that he got killed in a mission and his wreck got scooped. Eve is a cruel master.

There are a few pilots who have appeared on-line while I was killing their MTU. “Carmen Thiesant” seemed to have exited a mission (to farm later?) and came back into the system while I was trying to kill the MTU. She was too late.

I have only come across two named MTU’s which is disappointing.

I did come across the blob of Orca’s recently mentioned on “Reddit“. I must admit I was confused when I first saw the scan wondering how a player managed to get hold of Blood Raider Orca’s. Silly me.

So that’s it for this week.
Killing MTU’s is a valid play style for me given I am time poor at the moment. It also means I have managed to push the unfortunate loss of a Ragnarok from the front page of zKillboard.

Scoop your MTU,
Yad