EVE of destruction

In order to make ISK in EVE I have been running level 3 missions with a Myrmidion. I've been saving up for a battleship to tackle the even tougher level 4 missions. My research have concluded that a battleship is the preferred ship when taking on L4 missions. From a typical level 3 mission I can make about 4-7 million ISKs from bounty, loot and salvage.

My base of operations is in a 0.5 system with a 0.4 neighbour. Several missions have taken me to low-sec and I've never actually thought twice about going there for missions.

Yesterday however... I had just bought a bunch of Hammerhead II's to up my DPS a bit. (I fly Gallente and drones are my main weapon). I figured I'd do another mission before picking up the drones. The mission takes me to the low-sec system next door... So I warp and end up in a gate camp.

Heart starts to pound. I am relatively new to EVE pvp so at this point I consider my options to be 1) try to make it back to the gate to warp home, 2) Bet that the camp is just being set up and try to warp to nearest station or 3) attack the bastards and hope my army of drones and myrmidion can chase them off. I went for option 2...

I had just uncloaked and started the aligning process when all targets start to blink. I am being targeted. My warpdrives are jammed. I open up with my guns on the first target and unleash my drones. The jitters I am having must have clouded my senses a bit. After a while I realize that I've targeted the biggest ship of them all.. a Megathron. Curiously I've almost eaten through half its armor. I then discover a frigatte orbiting me at close range... the tackler. I quickly switch target, my drones realigning to target the frig... but at that point my armor has almost melted away and the ship structure is being blasted away in huge chunks. Seconds later my Myrmidion went out in a huge ball of plasma. My little escape pod managed to scurry away and warp to a nearby station.

Fortunately I'd insured my Myrmidion and interestingly enough I was paid more insurance than the cost of a new one. However it did set me back quite alot in terms of ISK. Getting all those modules takes time. I've learned my lesson though.. and for the next shopping spree I'll buy at least 2 sets of modules.

So I am futher away from my battleship goals now... doesn't help that I don't really appriciate mission running either.