Noob question: pirate jumped away, how to refind pirate?

[lecorsobreton]

You can follow their high wake with a scanner. From my experience, there are several possible scenarios:
1. The damage they suffered carry on to the next system. You can finish the job.
2. They are wanted, you can move to interdict them and blast them.
3. In the new system, they will interdict you. Submit and complete your mission.
4. They are not wanted in the new system, you'll get a bounty if you interdict them. It may not be safe to destroy them, even if you have a kill warrant scanner.
5. Worst case scenario, which happened to me several times: you interdict them and win the interdiction, they will sometimes just activate their drive when they should have a 45 second cool-down. That sucks.
6. Leave the system you were given the mission and come back to it, chances are they will respawn, but at 100% hull/shield.

 

[Babellon]

I usually jump out of system and back in if they do not return shortly after jumping to cruise. set a keybind for targeting subsystems and go for their hsd it will stop that from happening so much. No need to drop mission or do the wake scan. I'm considering dropping the interdiction module out all together since mission targets immediately fly to you and refuse to be pursued. I spent 20 minutes yesterday rotating with a target trying to get behind him but the system was determined to put him behind me. I'd like to be the one chasing the targets once in a while but it seems that is a pointless pursuit on most occasions.