You can fly around for ages and ages and never see a lone Battleship ratting in a belt. Not in Low Security space. While this used to be more common than it is today, that is not saying it was ever a common sight. It is rare. And, for those of us who hunt the space lanes, a huge opportunity. Not only for a potentially awesome kill, but also for potential loot.
And so it was a few days ago. I was out and about in my Astero hunting for potential targets of opportunity. Just a few days before I had managed to catch a Vexor Navy Issue in the same ship and bring her down. I had thought that was a excellent "above your weight class" catch - but I wasn't prepared for what I saw on d-scan. There was only one other person in local - me and the player in the Typhoon. A Typhoon I rapidly realized was in a belt ratting. Again, not to over sell this - but highly unusual, can't remember the last time this happened... and did I mention there was no one else in local?
So I warped cloaked into the belt to see what was going on. Sure enough, about 56k away was the Battleship plunking away at some red dots. Did I hesitate? Nope. I immediately started slow-boating over to get into scram range. This takes time. And patience. It also might need back-up, so I started asking for some help in fleet chat. Just in case I needed it. You never know, he might have a large neut on that thing. That could cause me some problems.
Hunting like this can be nerve wracking. Anything can happen in the space between landing and slowly moving towards the target. Local could spike. The target could finish the red dot thing and warp off. You could bump into something and become de-cloaked. Nerves of steel baby. Think of the glory. Think about those Battleship sized mods and what might be in that cargo.
At this point I have to ask... have you ever played Eve before?
Because today Eve had other ideas. When you de-cloak or become de-cloaked you get a timer that counts down until you can cloak back up again. The cloaking mod even has a dotted line around it that visually represents the countdown. But in this case - about 29k away from the Phoon - my cloak stopped working. My immediate response in these cases is to over-heat my prop mod and burn in. My prop mod didn't work. Wouldn't activate. It was then that I realized there was no countdown on my cloak, no dotted line, nothing. I went to say something in fleet - and couldn't type in chat. My poor Astero was exposed and slowly burning towards a Battleship. And none of my mods were working!
Sigh. At this point I only had one option. I warped away to the local NPC station and docked up. A quick change of session was needed. When I undocked again the Typhoon pilot had already left local.
Sigh.
I don't know what that was, or what caused it. Way back in the 2009-2011 era this kind of thing would happen every so often. I once lost a Daredevil to this when I tackled an Assault Frigate in Mara and then suddenly my ship stopped working. But since that era, it hasn't really been very common. Much like seeing a Battleship ratting. Eve still acts quirky from time to time - but total failure is not something that normally happens.
At least I didn't lose a ship over it this time. Only the potential of a truly awesome fight. Would I have won? Would my little Astero have had a chance against the mighty Phoon?
No idea. And now I'll have to wait ages and ages to find out.