Stupidity is what kills you

A couple of nights ago, I stepped into a Orca for the first time.  I "borrowed" another corp member's ship; and it was fit for extended cargo and not for defense.

I took some basic precautions; ensured we had a highsec route via a C2A (neighbouring C2), and scouted the route with a 'careless' frigate; that is; a disposable frigate spending far to long sitting on wh entrances, in hopes of finding any hungry hunters.

The orca got to highsec easy enough; dumped it's cargo of high volume PI mats into the nearest highsec station and then returned.  (As an aside, why is it that B274 wormholes never seem to end up in a system with NPC stations?)

On the way back; nothing in local in the highsec system; jump into the C2A (as I have 30 or so times in an iteron); Dscan (clear); warp to the C2A's K162 (my way home); and my heart sinks.  There is a blessed Proteus sitting on the K162.

Spam 'enter wormhole'; get through without any problems.  I know the other side is clear of uncloaked ships because of my cloaked scanning frigate sitting there.

I uncloak my frigate; on the vain hopes that someone will target it rather than my Orca.

This orca had an afterburner rather than MWD; still enough to give a boost for a warp. So I align to my home POS, hit the afterburner and pray.  I hear the wormhole pulse.  Almost there.  I have one warp stabiliser fitted. I hope it's enough.  The after burner is just finishing up. 

And the warp scrambled message pops up.  Sigh.

I am mildly furious; not at the pirate but at myself.  Why the hell didn't I use the T2 cloak as soon as I came through the wormhole?

If it was a traditional lowsec gate camp that I fell into; there would have been no doubt; hit a cloak and change direction (cloak + afterburner does not make an instajump).  This pirate however was on the other side of the wh.  I have plenty of time to realise my mistake;  Orca's are a reasonable damage sink; at least in comparison to the Iteron's that I fly around.

I end up with 4 blessed ships eating away at me.  They have me well and truly stuck.  I get my frigate away; no point in losing two ships.

The Orca finally blows up.  With the exception of POCO bash events; this is longest lasting 'encounter' I have been subject to. 

I also get my pod clear.  I know I was quick to warp out, but did not expect that I would be clear of all 4 raiders.  Some good news at least.

I don't enjoy losing ships; but I especially do not like losing expensive ships to mistakes that I know not to make.

As a distraction from my sorrows at losing a ship; I downloaded FTL .  Good game; very addictive.  And you will lose a lot of ships there too.

Now, back to resetting those PI planets to pay for that Orca.