Scything through low-sec

I'm looking for someone to shoot. There's no one in the home w-space system but me, and a new signature is just more dumb rocks that I activate and forget about. There being only the one wormhole sends me to our neighbouring class 3 system, which looks initially disappointing. My directional scanner shows me the familiar tower-and-no-ships result that I'm getting used to. But the day is early and an empty system now may hold pilots later, so I scan, looking for extra connections and sites for potential ambushes.

Six anomalies and a dozen signatures hold the normal gas, rocks, and radar sites. What looks like a new signature pops up under my scanning probes, it turning out to be a wormhole getting my hopes up that I'll bump in to activity, but warping to the connection shows it to be a K162 from class 4 w-space that's reaching the end of its natural lifetime. I suppose it isn't a new signature after all, nor is it particularly suitable to explore beyond. Besides the possibility of the wormhole dying and isolating me from the home system, that it is in its death throes suggests that whatever activity opened the wormhole has long since dispersed. I continue scanning.

I resolve two more wormholes, hopefully giving me more options, and I end up with a static exit to low-sec empire space and a second K162 from class 4 w-space, this one stable. I jump to low-sec, bookmarking the exit wormhole in the Placid region for safety, then return to C3a to explore C4b, through the stable wormhole. Except the wormhole I land next to is wobbly, in its EOL stage. In case I've managed to mix up my bookmarks and come to the wrong wormhole I warp to the other C4 K162, finding that EOL too. Okay, both K162s are now on their last legs, so I'm unlikely to find much happening.

It's still worth a look through the newly EOL K162. I have plenty of time to do so, a few hours or so, and there may be an insomniac shooting rocks or collecting planet goo to get himself to sleep. Jumping in sees nothing of interest on d-scan, and although performing a blanket scan of the system reveals four ships they are all empty, the capital ships being too big to stow. The ships are split unevenly across two towers in the system, which I find and note but otherwise ignore, leaving this inactive system behind as I head back to low-sec to scan.

Having six signatures in the low-sec system looks promising. I resolve drones, drones, a Scythe—hullo, what's he up to, I wonder. I don't know much about the ship, interrogating d-scan to find out it's a cruiser, then having my interest piqued when I call up the ship's information panel to see that it has bonuses for mining. It's a rusty Osprey. It's also in an asteroid belt, which makes him really easy to find but also a rather dubious target. A relatively soft target in an obvious location looks like bait to me. But, taking a look around, he has no colleagues in the system, so he's either really good bait or a little oblivious to the risks he's taking.

The Scythe is simply cruising through the belt for now, which isn't suspicious in itself but doesn't make him look particularly vulnerable. Oh, but mining some jaspet does. A Scythe fitted for mining, mining in a low-sec belt. Even if he's bait I may be able to pop him and escape before help comes, or escape myself before I am caught. It's worth a go, at least, and I am out on the prowl. I bookmark the rock the Scythe is cutting through and bounce out of the asteroid belt so I can warp in closer. And on my way out I hit a rock, even if it looks like it is some ten kilometres away at least, and my cloak drops. Maybe that's the end of this ambush.

I warp out of the belt and back in to see the Scythe still mining jaspet, his drones attacking a couple of rat frigates that have turned up. He could still be bait, I suppose, not fleeing as soon as he sees my Tengu strategic cruiser appear ninety kilometres from him, but he continues to mine the rock. I am now twenty kilometres from the Scythe and, thanks again to the rocks, my cloak is dropped. I may as well take my shot. I lock on to the ship, disrupt its warp engines, and start lobbing missiles its way. The Scythe's shields hold up a short while, then the whole boat disintegrates, sending the pod in to space.

I leave the pod alone, not really wanting to take a huge hit to my security status when popping the ship will do, contenting myself with looting what I can from the wreck and shooting that instead. I also pause to pop one of the rat frigates before realising that I am making a target of myself, and decide to warp out. That was short and sweet. And a little sour. My security status has taken a dive! I understand I get penalised for attacking another ship, but it seems a bit harsh to take a second hit for actually destroying it. Is low-sec meant to be like touch football, where pilots operate on the honour system? Shoot but don't kill?

Not only am I punished for destroying a ship I was punished for shooting, Concord have got their knickers in a twist about my shooting the wreck! 'Property damage', they call it. They could at least have warned me, perhaps with an easily ignored and dismissible dialogue box that crops up as I start to shoot the wreck. Low-sec is stupid, I should stick to w-space. Speaking of which, my probes are still somewhere in the system and I have two more signatures to resolve. One is a magnetometric site, the other is a weak wormhole, an outbound connection to class 5 w-space.

I leave low-sec behind me for the C5, finding it empty and inactive. Scanning finds an EOL K162 from class 4 w-space, which is currently the in-vogue wormhole to be seen with, and the static connection to more class 3 w-space. This second C3 is also unoccupied, the known tower from two months ago torn down to leave only a container for bookmarks. I know there's a connection to null-sec k-space to be found but I'm not looking. Maybe I'll come back later to explore further, but for now I am going home for food.

No later exploration for me! Glorious leader Fin is here and we're going to make more iskies. The only change in our neighbouring system is the death of the two EOL K162s, there being still no sign of the locals. We bring out a pair of Tengus to clear a magnetometric site and four anomalies, analysing and salvaging afterwards in a pair of Noctis salvagers, to bring home just shy of three hundred million iskies in profit. That's a pretty good haul for the evening. I wonder if Concord take bribes to fudge security statuses.

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Tags: eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, scythe, sleepers, w-space

Running in to a siege

Three extra signatures seems like a lot. Can they all be Sleepers? Yes, they can, being gas, gas, and our static wormhole, which doesn't really count as a new signature but a replacement for yesterday's. Silly me. I activate the two new ladar sites and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. I see some ships on my directional scanner, the Tengu strategic cruiser, Rokh battleship, Drake battlecruiser, and Noctis salvager potentially out shooting Sleepers, and the Viator transport maybe collecting planet goo. But there are no wrecks in the system and I suspect I'll either find no pilots, or pilots doing nothing. I move away from the wormhole and cloak, and perform a passive scan of the C3 anyway.

My passive scan throws up nine anomalies, which I bookmark whilst checking my notes. This is my third visit to the system but the last was fourteen months ago, and as the C3 was unoccupied back then I suspect I'll need to locate the tower the old-fashioned way, using d-scan. It takes a couple of minutes before I'm floating outside the tower, looking disappointedly at all of the empty ships inside its shields. At least they aren't blue, I suppose. Confirming a lack of activity, it's time to scan. I warp away, launch scanning probes, and blanket the system. I've cleared all the anomalies from the scan results already, leaving me with fourteen signatures to sift through. I'd better get to it if I want to go anywhere tonight.

Ladars, radars, and gravimetric sites, oh my! A single magnetometric site hides away amongst the noise, along with two wormholes. The system's static exit leads to low-sec empire space, which wouldn't be surprising even if I hadn't noted it over a year ago, and the second wormhole is a boring old K162 from high-sec. By Odin's 0·6 system, I jump out to a region that is Devoid, but not of pilots, where I don't even bother scanning, instead heading back across the C3 to its exit to low-sec, where I do scan. I am simply getting back in to the habit of getting exit systems for emergency use. Maybe one day doing so will come in handy, even if I hope otherwise.

Two signatures are in the low-sec system, which turn out to be gas and some drones. How dull dullity dull. I pop some Gurista rats in the sole anomaly here, hardly a strenuous activity, and decide to scan the high-sec system after all. One extra signature is in the high-sec system, causing me to wonder what the odds are that it also is a wormhole. Pretty good, it turns out, as I stumble in to a K162 from class 2 w-space. This is a rather good find, as the C2 system will have a second static connection that leads to more w-space, which should prolong my exploration. I jump in to class 2 w-space with good spirits, only to see on d-scan a whole fleet out and about somewhere. Even better!

Well, 'even better' if the fleet is shooting Sleepers and leaving an unguarded salvager to sweep up behind them, but I rather suspect not. There are no wrecks to be seen on d-scan and I wouldn't imagine a battleship fleet of an Armageddon, Abaddon, Megathron, Typhoon, and three Tempests, plus several flights of drones, would have much difficulty demolishing Sleepers in a C2, even without a pair of Guardian logistics ships to keep them all afloat. Something else is happening here. Maybe manoeuvres, as the ships all appear to be coincident with the local tower, and as drones are out I imagine they are not sitting passively inside the shields.

Ah, how slow I can be sometimes. The fleet is indeed at the tower, but this is no training exercise, the tower itself is being actively engaged. All of the defences have been incapacitated and now the tower is being steadily ripped apart. And with the static exit to high-sec I imagine the fleet will return after the tower enters its reinforced mode and depletes its strontium reserves, or maybe even simply stay here. And as I watch the fleet shooting mechanically at the tower, Guardians supplying extra capacitor juice to the hungry, hungry battleships, a Prorator transport ship appears, this one blue to our corporation.

It looks like the Prorator is supplying ammunition to this operation. That he is allied to our alliance, and none of the other pilots are, is interesting but not so much to try to find out what's happening here. It pretty much stops me interfering, however, if I could actually think of a way to interfere without stupid risk to myself. I don't feel like interrupting, although it would probably take a fair amount of threat to interrupt the tower attack, nor do I want to announce my presence to the fleet because of the sole blue pilot. My explorer spirit has been sated for the evening, so I simply turn my boat around and head home, thankful that I'm not the one shooting a stationary object for the next few hours.

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Tags: abaddon, armageddon, drake, eve online, guardian, megathron, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, prorator, rokh, scanning, tempest, tengu, typhoon, viator, w-space

Oracles for two

Home is empty, without even a glorious leader in sight. A new signature tries to keep me company but I don't want to waste time shooting rocks. Let's see what else is out there in w-space today. A single canister is visible on my directional scanner in our neighbouring class 3 system, with my notes from eight months ago suggesting a tower may be further afield. I launch probes and warp to the tower's listed position, finding it still there and orangified. It would be impressive to face the Drake battlecruiser, Abaddon battleship, Megathron battleship, Rifter frigate, Nemesis stealth bomber, and pair of Imicus frigates, if any of them held pilots, but no one's home.

My notes also tell me this C3 has a static exit to high-sec, which could be useful. We've been lucky recently with some good connections. Then again, with two more wormholes amongst the six anomalies and five signatures here we may not want to risk a logistics run with some vulnerable ships. Along with resolving the exit to high-sec empire space, I find the signature NIL to be a K162 from null-sec k-space, which is so close, w-space overseers, but still wrong, and an N968 outbound connection to more class 3 w-space, sadly reaching the end of its natural lifetime.

I pop out to high-sec, appearing in the cosy-sounding Bleak Lands, looking to be far from anywhere, before returning to C3a and poking my nose through the dying wormhole to C3b. I see an off-line tower and nothing else, so I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system as I warp away to look for occupation manually. I find a tower with an Orca inside its shields, but the industrial command ship, the only ship my combat probes detect in the system, is unpiloted. There's nothing for me here to risk a circuitous trip home, so I jump back to C3 and out through the K162 from null-sec.

There's no one else in this null-sec system in the Querious region, so I launch probes and scan for more connections. Two extra signatures could be promising, but I resolve only two sites called Independence and Radiance, which are suitably cryptic names. I consider hopping across to high-sec to scan there, but my glorious leader has arrived and is planning a trek to Amarr for a new toy or two. I'm game. I head home, ditch my scanning boat, and warp pod-nekkid towards Domain.

The ships we are buying today are the new Oracle battlecruisers, a little late to the party but we're not really that hip anyway. And we're buying Amarr because the Caldari ship uses guns, and we can't use guns. Of course, the Oracle uses lasers, which are guns, but we kind of know how to use them because of tentative plans to fit in to a Revelation dreadnought. And we know a bit about projectile weapons because of equally tentative plans to sit in Loki strategic cruisers. But hybrid guns are a mystery. And so we buy and assemble yet another giant robot head that is typical of Amarrian engineering.

I name my Oracle the Almighty Tallest Purple, which has to be shortened to Tallest Purple because of futuristic naming restrictions on spaceships, and fit it with guns and upgrades according to Fin's wisdom. I know nothing of gunboats, this probably being my first proper one, and we head back home with some relatively cheap, low-mass damage machines. I get to the high-sec system holding the wormhole with Fin three jumps behind, which she thinks is 'situation normal'. I think she plans it, personally, letting me be her canary for danger.

Jumping in to w-space has the C3 remain clear, at least from any obvious signs of ships, which lets me warp to the nearest customs office to give my new boat a test-firing. Yep, the lasers work, that's a good sign. I'm only scratching the customs office, though, despite the quite impressive damage I seem to be inflicting. If we want to wreak any havoc on customs offices we'll need a few more of these ships and plenty of time on our hands. But for a test-fire a barn door is as good as anything, and I am happy to be shooting in a new ship for the first time in ages.

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Tags: abaddon, drake, eve online, imicus, megathron, mmorpg, nemesis, oracle, orca, penny ibramovic, rifter, scanning, w-space

Muddled by the mystery hauler

If there's a match for my patience it's my persistence. Fin and I have spent half the evening watching a Hoarder hauler refuse to move, then tried to ambush a Cheetah covert operations boat that didn't want to explore beyond its home system's normal borders, before giving up when the Hoarder seemed to warp past us whilst remaining at the tower. Now the Cheetah is in the tower piloted by the Hoarder capsuleer, leaving doubt as to how many pilots and ships there may actually be active here.

I returned to the tower to find the Cheetah as my last action of the night, but my persistence won't let me actually leave. Despite the crazy level of coincidence required for the unknown hauler to return from low-sec at just the same time as I take one last look at the wormhole, particularly after having waited both at the tower and the wormhole for a fair amount of time already without bumping in to another ship, I warp back to the low-sec wormhole. But I am not just going to sit on the wormhole this time, I jump to low-sec to see if I can spot a familiar name in the local communication channel.

Well, would you look at that. I jump to low-sec at the same time as the mysterious Hoarder returns to the K162. I suppose that's good, in a way, as I honestly had no idea what name I was looking for in local comms, but it's pretty obvious when the ship is two kilometres from you. However, I now have the problem that the Hoarder is jumping in to w-space whilst I am sitting in low-sec, waiting for the session change timer to expire. On top of that, the pilot must know someone has just jumped out of their system, and he will be warping as quickly as possible after he jumps.

I never thought I'd say this, what with it giving a lower chance of catching ships and pods on wormholes, but I am glad of the reduced session change timer. I don't have a drawn-out wait before I can jump back to the C3, and on my return to w-space I decloak and get my sensor booster active immediately. The Hoarder is still aligning to enter warp, but not for long, as I get a positive lock and disrupt his engines. My missiles vaporise the industrial ship's shields, pound through the armour, and disintegrate the hull. The Hoarder explodes.

The pilot really could have escaped. She knows I jumped out to low and that I followed her back, all she had to do was jump back herself and warp clear in low-sec, realising that my ship would be polarised and unable to follow. But I suppose it's always easier to think clearly after the fact. Besides, the pilot isn't disorientated enough to let me catch her pod, and it warps out, towards the local tower. I loot and shoot the wreck, giving me another soft kill of little value, and still no corpse to scoop.

At least the mystery of the missing Hoarder is resolved. The Cheetah pilot scanned the exit to low-sec, returned to the tower, swapped to a second Hoarder, and went out to empire space herself, leaving her colleague in the tower as he was. Our stalking and reconnaissance simply missed the short periods she was in the tower. I take one last look at the tower, seeing the original pilot still in the Cheetah and the escaped pod now in a Tempest battleship, and, with a sense of closure, head home to sleep.

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Tags: cheetah, eve online, hoarder, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, tempest, w-space

Suffering some slight space madness

Dammit, someone's stolen all our anomalies again. I'm sure we left loads of them scattered around but now there are only a handful left. They really held the system together, did they not? If I didn't get bored quite so quickly shooting Sleepers then I may be slightly irritated by this turn of events. As it is, I simply launch probes and scan, looking for our static wormhole and another opportunity to explore a dynamic w-space constellation. There are no new signatures in the home system either, not even a stressed wormhole to show signs of a fleet's travels, but at least that keeps exploration simple. I resolve our static wormhole and jump to our neighbouring class 3 system.

That's curiously soothing, popping out of the wormhole to be exactly 20 AU from the furthest planet. It's the only planet out of range of my directional scanner too, and all I can see that is in range are two off-line towers. I launch probes and perform a blanket scan as I warp to the outer planet, seeing a Chimera carrier and Rorqual capital industrial ship on d-scan at about the same time as my probes report them as the only two visible ships in this C3. I locate the tower to confirm the ships to be unpiloted, before settling down to the Herculean task of resolving the three signatures here.

Well, two signatures. I know the third is our K162. And as there aren't any anomalies in the C3 I am not in the least surprised that the two unknown signatures resolve to the unknown type that denotes a wormhole. This system is kept spotless, I have to admire that, even whilst wondering what the pilots do as they wait for new sites to appear. Go to empire space, I suppose, as their static wormhole leads to low-sec. The other wormhole is a K162 from null-sec, terminating the w-space constellation early again.

My glorious leader arrives and I update her on our situation, as I exit to low-sec to find myself again in the Genesis region, a popular destination for class 3 w-space system wormholes currently. Today, a single hop will take me to high-sec, and Fin suggests we export the loot we've accumulated recently, which sounds like a good idea when scanning the system finds nothing of interest. I head home, board a Crane transport ship, and take it loaded with loot to market. I sell salvage and Sleeper loot, and melt modules stolen from other capsuleers, plumping up our wallet to healthy levels again.

Back in w-space, I bounce off the tower in the C3 in my Crane, just to see if anything has changed. It has, a Hoarder is now sitting piloted in the shields. I let Fin know and scramble her stealth bomber here, as I take the Crane home and bring my own Manticore back to keep watch on the hauler. Maybe he'll want to collect planet goo, making himself a target, as there definitely isn't much else he could get up to. And there really isn't much to do, for any of us, as we watch and wait, and wait, and wait.

The monotony is broken by a Cheetah covert operations boat appearing on d-scan and launching probes, before disappearing again, presumably cloaking. But that's a bit odd. Our K162, the K162 from null-sec, and the static wormhole are all far out of d-scan range from the tower, so the Cheetah launching probes so close to the tower is perverse. Either he's a local pilot and hiding in a safe spot whilst scanning, a complete idiot, or a new wormhole has opened in to the system and he's a complete idiot. Either way, Fin and I are still watching the Hoarder and waiting for it to move.

The Hoarder refuses to budge, and with a puny three signatures for the Cheetah to resolve it may be worth trying to catch the cov-ops instead, should he investigate beyond our K162. I jump home, get an interceptor on to our side of the wormhole, and rely on Fin's eyes in the C3. Catching a cov-ops without a bubble for help is tricky, but he looks to be a slow scanner, so maybe he's a slow pilot too. Most likely, he doesn't care to explore our system, as Fin reports the Cheetah appearing on d-scan and disappearing again, after the probes themselves disappear. That sounds like a jump.

It's not long before the Cheetah reappears briefly, pretty much confirming that he left the system, and now we wait to see if he investigates the other wormholes. 'If he's blue, I'll cry', says Fin. If he's blue, I'll shoot him. Actually, he's looking more like a local scout, as a Hoarder zips past d-scan before disappearing itself, obviously not visiting a customs office but very probably heading to low-sec and further in to empire space. It looks like we were waiting in the wrong place.

Just to confirm what's been happening, I get back in to my covert Tengu strategic cruiser and perform another blanket scan of the C3, confirming no new signatures present. But reconnoitring the tower again sees the Hoarder and its pilot still there, in the same position, not having moved an inch. I'm not entirely sure what's happening with that Cheetah and ghostly second Hoarder now. I go to sit on the low-sec wormhole for the moment, hoping that the Hoarder at the tower will return from low-sec and give me a target.

Whatever the situation, it has beaten Fin's and my patience for tonight. We're ready to call it a night. Fin heads home and goes off-line, I bounce off the tower one last time to see, oh, the Cheetah, but with the pilot of the Hoarder. That makes even less sense, unless I've been hallucinating. Did I really see the Hoarder in the tower a few minutes ago, or was it the Cheetah? Is it really the same pilot? I don't know any more. I think I need rest. I turn my boat around and think about getting some sleep.

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Tags: cheetah, chimera, crane, eve online, hoarder, mmorpg, rorqual, scanning, tengu, w-space

Leaving combat to meet a hauler

I'm back, what's cooking? A fuel BPO, which is apt for my apparently off-hand comment. Apart from that, I imagine we're sandwiched between two systems of absent pilots. Glorious leader Fin confirms that for our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, but jumping through the K162 in our home system to class 4 w-space shows that there are now no pilots there. My earlier destruction of a planet goo hauler doesn't appear to have caused any ripples. Maybe we can try again in the C3, where a Badger hauler looks poised to make itself vulnerable. Fin and I take a pair of stealth bombers in to our neighbouring system to stalk the industrialist.

Warping to the tower has me doubt the likelihood of any action in this C3. The two pilots at the tower are the same as I saw earlier, albeit now with the Prorator transport swapped for the rather less able Badger, but the Buzzard covert operations boat probably hasn't moved in the past three hours. The odds of them becoming active just as we turn up seem slim. Maybe we can use that to our advantage, though, as there are plenty of Sleepers to shoot here, and all of the sites are out of d-scan range of the tower, clumped in the centre of the system with the tower anchored to a moon around the outermost planet.

Before we get too excited, it's best we collapse the K162 in our home system. Although there's no one home at the moment the circumstance could change at any time, potentially bringing ambushing ships in to our path. We throw a pair of Orca industrial command ships both ways through the wormhole, then follow up with one more Orca trip behind a Widow black ops ship, collapsing the wormhole with no drama. And so isolated, making a quick scan of the home system just to make sure, we board our Sleeper Tengu strategic cruisers and jump back to the C3 to make some profit, starting with the magnetometric site I resolved during earlier exploration.

Clearing the magnetometric site of Sleepers is straightforward enough, even if we trigger a new wave a little early to bring us three battleships at once. It's still only a class 3 w-space site, nothing to panic about. As is our tendency, we salvage and loot the site before moving in to plain anomalies, and we get a better haul than yesterday's magnetometric site, even if we have no deserted Talocan cruiser today. Dumping the loot at our tower, we're back in our Tengus and jumping to the C3 for some simple anomalies, warping to the first of the dozen or so decent ones present.

Sleeper combat itself isn't a particularly taxing task, but it's what goes on around you that you need to be aware of. I'm updating my directional scanner regularly, looking for early warning of any potential ambushers, when, mid-way through the second anomaly, I spot a Bestower hauler somewhere in the system. That's peculiar. I ignore the Sleeper frigates beginning to swarm around me and the two battleships that tickle my shields, sweeping d-scan around to look for the Bestower. I'm assuming he's accidentally come out to collect planet goo without realising a couple of Tengus are stealing his anomalies.

I think I've found the Bestower. I warp myself and Fin towards a customs tower, leaving the Sleepers behind for now, to drop out of warp at a bare customs tower orbiting the planet, no Bestower nearby. Assuming the hauler's moved on, I sweep d-scan around again, even though I know chasing a pilot collecting planet goo can be an exercise in frustration, only for the Bestower to appear in front of us, warping in to the customs office we happen to be sitting on. I may have guessed his previous location incorrectly, but I seem to have been lucky in going to his next destination.

I can only imagine what's going through the Bestower pilot's mind as his ship slows out of warp to see two Tengus waiting for him. Personally, I'm quite happy to see him. Not only is chasing a hauler between customs offices frustrating but doing so in a ship without a warp disruption module seems masochistic. But for the Bestower to drop in our laps like this, landing on top of us, waiting and ready, we have the maximum amount of time to get the kill even if we can't electronically prevent him from warping.

The Bestower's active warp engines prevent us gaining a target lock, but we keep trying until, eventually, the hauler's engines cut out. And, before we know it, it's a flaming ball of blue fire. My covert Tengu makes quick work of haulers, but our Sleeper Tengus, with more launchers and damage upgrades, chomp through the Bestower in a single volley of missiles. We aim for the pod but, neither of us fit with sensor boosters or warp disruptors, it unsurprisingly gets away. We loot and shoot the wreck, and we're back in warp to our wormhole. I imagine Sleeper combat is over until we at least see what the repercussions will be.

We ought to salvage the first anomaly of wrecks first, which will let us realise the profit whilst simultaneously seeing if any pilots will come looking for us. We pilot a Noctis salvager and Manticore stealth bomber, and sweep up all the loot without interruption. I suppose if the locals weren't looking for us before they'll be hard pushed to locate a despawned anomaly. Fin heads homewards, I go to the tower to reconnoitre the response. Well, something's happening. A Manticore of their own is boarded and warps off directly below the tower, probably some misdirection. And the second pilot boards a Drake, which could be bait or their best response. Either way, it looks like we may have a little scrap.

The Drake warps away but, as I know the inner system is all out of d-scan range of the tower, realise he hasn't gone far. And then the Drake launches scanning probes, and my hopes for a confrontation drop a little. There are a few more movements, the Manticore not seen again until it returns to the tower and boards a second Drake. There is some excitement as the scanning Drake moves, bumping off a hangar a few times, but all he does is visit a second hangar, recall his combat scanning probes, and warp out to relaunch core scanning probes. We are in for a bit of a longer wait.

The excitement is all too much for non-scanning Drake, who goes off-line before too long. Still, there is the chance the scanning Drake will reconnoitre our K162, where we could catch him. We just need to be sly. As I'm monitoring the tower Fin creates a point far enough away from the wormhole to be able to warp to it, then plants a Widow cloaked at that point. Should the Drake warp out to our wormhole, Fin should be able to warp to meet it at whatever distance it chooses to drop short, giving it a surprise.

But, sadly, the Drake doesn't leave the safety of the tower, even after the probes are recalled. Or have expired. Maybe the pilot is happy simply to know that we came through another wormhole, without needing to know if that is from w-space or k-space. Whatever his reason, it is too late to go back to shooting Sleepers, and we're not waiting any longer for nothing to happen. It's a rather anticlimactic end to the evening, but we're over a hundred million ISK richer and have another kill chalked up. That's a pretty good result.

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Tags: badger, bestower, buzzard, drake, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space, widow

Persevering for a PI popping

It feels like a while since I've shot another pilot for kicks and giggles. I should remedy that. I've got the disco playing, let's go hunting! Well, exploring first, and there's no guarantee I'll find anyone, but thanks for harshing my buzz, Penny's inner voice. Even so, I have a good start to this afternoon's adventures, as two new signatures in the home system both turn out to be wormholes. One is a K162 from class 4 w-space, the other a K162 from class 2 w-space. Normally, I'd jump in to the C2 to look for soft targets, but that K162 is looking rather wobbly and may not last much longer. I'd better leave it alone for now.

Jumping through the healthy K162 to C4a has a tower visible on my directional scanner, but no ships. The tower wasn't here six months ago, so I can't rely on my notes to warp directly to it and need to locate it the old-fashioned way. But as there's no one here and no guarantee of other K162s to find, I head back the way I came and across the home system to explore through our static wormhole. Our neighbouring class 3 system doesn't look any more active, only a couple of off-line towers visible on d-scan from the wormhole. Launching probes and performing a blanket scan reveals no ships, but it does show seven signatures and a clump of twenty-nine anomalies all in the centre of the system.

I find a tower on the outskirts of the system, with no one home, and start scanning. Picking the signatures in no particular order, I resolve a magnetometric site, some gas, a wormhole, a radar site, a second wormhole, and some more gas. Fascinating. The wormholes are, well, the first one is the system's static exit to low-sec empire space, which I jump through to bookmark the low-sec side before returning home to poke through the dying connection to class 2 w-space. Now that I have a way home I can risk the wormhole collapsing on me. Or I could, if it were still there. It seems the wormhole really was quite wobbly, as it has died in the short time I've been scanning.

Back in the C3 I check the second wormhole I resolved, which drearily turns out to be a K162 from low-sec. Popping out through the K162 puts me, love a duck, in Canard in the Genesis region, where I may as well scan for more connections. Of the four extra signatures, one is a wormhole that dies before I can reach it, the second is also a wormhole, a K162 from class 1 w-space that is nearly dead, and one radar and magnetometric site each. I still have my way home, so I quickly poke my nose in to the C1. I see a Dominix and Armageddon on d-scan, a lack of wrecks probably putting the two battleships unpiloted in the tower. That's good enough reconnaissance for me, and I jump back through the dying wormhole to low-sec.

I pop a few Blood Raider rats in low-sec to pass some time and gain some security status, then return to C3a, warp across the system, and exit through the static connection to resume scanning for wormholes. I don't find any, only another magnetometric and radar site pair, and a trial yard, whatever that is. But heading back to w-space and across C3a now has a Buzzard covert operations boat and Dominix battleship sitting piloted in the tower, and the pilot of the Dominix soon swaps in to a Prorator transport ship. That's mildly interesting, but I don't rate my chances of catching the cloaky transport.

I watch the Prorator for a while, as it engages in the thrilling activity of sitting still, before realising I could be more productive elsewhere. I have paint I could be watching dry. I head home to take a break. Except a pang of persistence hits me and I feel compelled to take a second look in C4a, through the K162 connecting in us. Jumping in has activity in the previously empty system, a Tengu strategic cruiser and core scanning probes visible on d-scan. As I ponder how my own scanning Tengu would cope in combat against another the probes vanish and a Buzzard appears on d-scan. I suppose that's not a covert scanning Tengu after all, so I warp off towards the tower to see what's happening.

What's happening, Penny, is that the Tengu pilot has swapped to a Bestower whilst I was in warp. That is awesome. I keep my eyes on the hauler and, yep, there he goes, warping off to what is most likely a customs office. I follow, hoping I've picked the right office, dropping out of warp to realise that I haven't, as the Bestower is nowhere to be seen, except indirectly on d-scan. I spin d-scan around to try to catch up with the hauler but luck is with me, as the customs office I'm sitting on is next on the Bestower's route. He warps in to me instead.

The only disadvantage to the Bestower warping to me is that we end up on different sides of the customs office. I can easily burn in to range of my warp disruptor, but I won't be able to bump the hauler with the office in the way. I'll just have to do my best from where I am. At least I can decloak and get my systems hot as the Bestower drops out of warp, unable to effect any course change as he does. As a result, it is pretty easy to get a positive lock on my target, and my warp disruptor keeps the ship from fleeing as missiles tear through his hull. I didn't need to bump him after all.

I'm not quite quick enough to snare the pilot's ejected pod, instead watching it warp away and, checking d-scan, getting back in to his Tengu at the tower. I loot the wreck of wondrous spoils that is an expanded cargohold II module and shoot the wreck, cloaking again once done. The Tengu doesn't come out to get revenge but simply floats passively in his tower. That's okay, I got my kill, even if it is a soft target and with no corpse to show for my efforts. I can go home and grab a sammich now.

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Tags: armageddon, bestower, buzzard, dominix, eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, prorator, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space

Miners and Sleepers

Fin's here but not here, floating in her isolation chamber for a few minutes. I'll scan the home system. A new signature is revealed by my probes, today being a second wormhole for a change, a K162 coming from class 4 w-space. Hoping for some activity I jump through the wormhole to the C4, and get a beautiful sight on my directional scanner. Miners! Three Covetor mining barges have fifteen mining drones flitting about, and a Badger hauler is joined by an Iteron hauler, probably collecting the ore that's been mined. The only disappointing aspect of my arrival is that the wormhole is in d-scan range of all of this, as well as a tower. I may be spotted before I can even launch scanning probes.

I move away from the wormhole and cloak. Watching d-scan for a few seconds looks promising, as the drones do not disappear, which would be the first sign of the miners halting their operation. Still there are Covetors and drones on d-scan, so I open the system map and look for somewhere distant where I can perhaps launch probes without being detected. But warping to a far planet only puts in me range of three more towers, at least one of them holding a pair of combat ships. Even more disappointing than not being able to launch probes to hunt the miners, locating one of the towers shows it to be blue and owned by a corporate ally. Bastards.

Fin's back and being updated about the miners and their status. She wonders how blue they are, and if 'maybe we can change that'. I like my glorious leader's approach to diplomacy, although relaying corporation details has her confirm that we really are quite blue to each other and we can't turn a blind eye this time. That's a shame, but not a terrible outcome, particularly as the Covetors are now warping in to another tower, along with their hauler. Whether this is a delayed reaction to someone having spotted my ship or their mining operation is coming to a natural conclusion I can't say. Just in case, Fin sends a quick message to let them know they are safe to continue.

We may still have a miner to shoot, a Retriever mining barge spotted by Fin in the opposite direction, through our static wormhole. The Retriever is sitting inertly in a tower's shields, though, so not much of a target at the moment, and it doesn't look like he's going to move, no matter how much we will him to do so. There are some good anomalies in this class 3 w-space system, and if we can get rid of the miner one way or another we could reap some benefit. I think that launching scanning probes could scare the miner off-line, letting it serve the purpose of getting rid of him whilst allowing us to look for further wormholes. It almost sounds reasonable, so we both launch probes and scan.

There are only nine signatures in this C3. The first one I resolve is a gravimetric mining site, which I activate out of spite, before finding a magnetometric site that could be good for profit. Fin and I discover a wormhole each at the same time, Fin's being the static exit to low-sec empire space, mine a K162 also from low-sec. Nothing else of interest crops up, so we check our exits. The static wormhole leads to the relatively civilised Domain region, a deformed handful of hops from Amarr. The K162 comes from Aridia. We don't bother scanning low-sec, having all we need for tonight in the C3, and we head home to swap in to our Sleeper Tengu strategic cruisers.

I've definitely checked that the magnetometric site in the C3 is out of d-scan range of the tower this time, making it our first destination. We should be able to slip past an inattentive pilot, clear the site, and sweep up the loot without anyone noticing. Ah, we even get a gift of a Talocan cruiser this time, a neat piece of salvage that we haven't seen in a while. And combat is smooth, Sleepers popped without problems. We salvage and analyse the artefacts before moving on, rather than leaving it all until we get spotted and potentially analysing under duress. We get all our loot home safely and head back to the C3 to clear some plain anomalies, making the most of a decent connection.

I punch d-scan as we return to the C3, to check that the situation remains the same. Nope, now there's a Tengu with the Retriever! That could cause problems. At least, it could if it weren't Fin's Tengu, the one flying a few kilometres off my stubby wing. We're such hardened w-spacers, startled by our own boats. But with the confusion out of the way we can get back to shooting Sleepers, although we need to be wary of d-scan now as all the remaining sites are in range of the tower. And it's good we are paying attention, as in the last wave of the first anomaly the Retriever is swapped for a Scorpion battleship. When the Scorpion is replaced by a Machariel battleship Fin decides it's time to run, so we do.

D-scan turns in to a kaleidoscope of ships as we head home, the Machariel swapped to a Broadsword heavy interdictor as we warp, the Broadsword for a Loki strategic cruiser as we jump. The pilot is probably just toying with us. Fin boards a cloaky ship and heads back to scout, as I hold at our tower ready to board a possible counter-ship we may need. There's nothing to see in the C3, though, the pilot disappeared. We confirm that he's gone off-line, Fin decloaking a couple of times in an attempt to provoke a reaction from anyone else there, and then decide to try again with the anomalies.

Back in our Tengus we finally clear the first anomaly, clear the second anomaly, clear the third anomaly—I'm not entirely convinced that the pilot was watching d-scan, and maybe was checking ship fittings purely coincidentally—and clear the fourth anomaly before having our fill of Sleeper combat. With still no sign of any capsuleer presence we take a pair of Noctis salvagers out to sweep up our mess, clearing two anomalies each and bringing back almost 140 Miskies of loot. Combined with maybe 170 Miskies of loot and artefacts from the magnetometric site, we've done pretty well for ourselves this evening.

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Tags: badger, broadsword, covetor, eve online, iteron, loki, machariel, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, retriever, scanning, scorpion, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Restocking the hangar

Glorious leader Fin is ahead of me, sitting outside the tower in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. That makes my scouting easy, as all I have to do is pay attention as Fin tells me about the Devoter heavy interdictor and Dramiel frigate unpiloted in the tower, which itself sits in a system we were in less than a month ago. It's like Siri for my w-space notes. We also know that there is an exit to high-sec empire space to be resolved in the C3, so I go to join Fin to look for it and maybe pick up even more fuel. Good opportunities are occasional, so we need to make the most of each of them and not blithely ignore one under the mistaken impression we'll see another soon.

Ah, I remember this system. Or, rather, the bubbly tower. If I squint a little I can almost see Charlie and his uncle burping away the guilt of defying Willy Wonka amongst all these bubbles. Of course, they'd be dying pretty quickly in the vacuum of space, instead of facing a rather slower but no doubt equally painful death at the dull spinning blades of a ceiling fan, and they couldn't even burp themselves in to warp because this is a different kind of bubble. Hmm, I think I've gone what might be called 'off-message'. So, scanning the C3. Seven anomalies could provide a distraction, but we're looking for the exit wormhole, and twenty-nine signatures looks like we're going to have to work for today's link to empire space.

Fin finds the static wormhole, and pretty quickly too. I wonder if perhaps it's worth squeezing an Orca industrial command ship out and back again, maximising cargo space across one return trip. Fin recalls her probes and heads home to prepare the Orca, after checking that the exit doesn't lead to the perverse clump of high-sec space in Aridia—it doesn't, putting us instead in Genesis—as I continue scanning, hoping not to find any more wormholes today but perhaps a magnetometric site or two we could pillage if we have enough time later.

I find a second wormhole before any magnetometric site, which really wasn't what I was looking for. Any further connections could bring extra pilots through the C3, and to high-sec, who could then ambush our logistics operation. Thankfully, the K162 from class 5 w-space looks as unwanted on the other side as it is here, the connection already critically destabilised to the point of collapse. I don't think we need to worry about a fleet entering. And there are no more wormholes to concern ourselves with, and a single magnetometric site to reward my efforts. Only one, though, the system otherwise full of radar, ladar, and gravimetric sites.

I take my scanning probes out to high-sec to take a look around. The few signatures present in the system look interesting but turn out to be rocks, a Blood Raider Lookout, and more rocks. Stupid high-sec exploration. I consider popping a few Blood Raiders for kicks and giggles but the distance between each pocket of rats is too far for my heavy assault missiles to reach, and I give up without firing a single volley. But it reminds me that we are missing a Drake battlecruiser, and I could make myself useful by buying a replacement. 'Buy two', suggests Fin, which is a good idea if we are going to be throwing them away in the future.

Fin's making her way to Dodixie in a search for cheaper fuel, but I think our finances can afford the perhaps reasonable price of Drakes being sold locally. I dump my scanning boat at our tower and head to the nearest station in high-sec with a couple of Drakes for sale, and start to buy the modules required. I ask Fin if she has a fitting in mind for the Drakes, as I can't remember that of the one we lost. 'Um, archaeology', Fin says. Right, it's coming back to me now. The Drake was hastily refit to analyse artefacts in a magnetometric site, and was blown up by battleships when it got stuck on a Sleeper conduit. I don't suppose I'll be copying that fit for these new ones.

I have a Drake fitting saved, which should be suitable for an all-rounder w-space battlecruiser. I call it up, buy as many modules as are available, am quietly confident that we have the two or three missing modules in our hangar in w-space, and launch the first of the pair as I take Bunny on her maiden voyage. The first Drake is almost fully fitted, a minor detour needed to pick up a rig before returning me home safely. I manage to forget to check our hangar for the extra modules as I strip down to my pod again and go back to assemble, fit, and fly the second Drake, Moose.

Thankfully, I get the half-capable battlecruiser back to w-space to find we have some spare missile launchers to complete the Drake's armament, all without bumping in to any other ship that might wonder why I am being so arrogant to engage with only three launchers firing. Two Drakes bought, fitted, and stored, I board a Falcon recon ship to escort Fin's Orca home through our neighbouring C3, in case of trouble, only to find the massive industrial command ship having sneaked up beside me as I was completing the second Drake's fitting. That's a pretty fast Orca. Even so, scanning, travelling, and buying have taken their toll on the time, and I'd rather lie down than shoot some Sleepers.

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Tags: devoter, drake, dramiel, eve online, falcon, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning

Finding fuel

I'm out for a brief reconnaissance of the w-space constellation, just because I feel like it. That's the way I roll. The home system is clear, which is the way I like it, and the only unexpected signature is a new build-up of gas, which I settle down again before diving through our static wormhole. The neighbouring class 3 system has nothing interesting within range of the K162, according to my directional scanner, so I launch probes and perform a blanket scan. My notes tell me I was here six months ago, when the system was unoccupied, but my probes tell me there are two ships here, both probably nestled inside a newly installed tower's force field. I'll warp across and take a look.

There are two towers in the system now, in fact. One of them holds the Chimera carrier and Orca industrial command ship my probes have detected, unpiloted of course, the other I don't even visit for it being entirely unremarkable without any ships. Otherwise, this C3 is interestingly clean. There are no anomalies and a mere four signatures to resolve, one of which is the K162 home and another the static exit to high-sec empire space, as noted on my earlier visit. Scanning's so simple here I teach my cat to do it, and he resolves a ladar and radar site each, along with the exit to high-sec, before flipping me off for wasting his time and going back to sleep in a cardboard box.

The static wormhole is stable, giving me a decent exit to high-sec. Well, the wormhole is decent, the exit could be a high-sec island situated in-between the most notorious low-sec systems in New Eden. It could be, but it's not, the exit actually appearing in Tash-Murkon, a few hops from Tash-Murkon Prime and a handful to Amarr itself. What luck! I can buy the replacement Legion strategic cruiser we still need, as well as pick up some more fuel. I take myself home, swap in to a Bustard transport ship and load it up with, hmm, it seems we have no loot to export. I hope my glorious leader took it out when I wasn't looking.

I take an empty Bustard out to high-sec, and bring it back in the same condition. To my surprise, the cost of fuel is high enough to cause Tony Harrison levels of outrage, and there aren't any Legions for sale in the region at all! I'm amazed. I'm so amazed that I strip down to my naked pod and determine to travel the dozen or so hops to Jita, if only to show my distaste towards the backwards Amarrian traders. It is only a few hops in to my trip, when I cross a region border and decide to check prices once more, that I realise my error. Tash-Murkon Prime is in Tash-Murkon, Amarr is in Domain. And Domain has a rather healthy market for both fuel and Legions, one not reflected in the lesser-known trade region the exit wormhole appears in. Silly Penny, I really ought to know my regions better than this.

I chastise myself for this mistake—yes, whilst still naked in my pod—and divert Amarrwards. At least I noticed my mistake before I passed Amarr, and certainly long before I reached Jita. I easily buy and assembly a replacement Legion in Amarr, where I even remember to include ammunition, and leave the station in Jeff K's Prophecy II. I don't remember how I felt the first time I flew the Legion, maybe a bit nervous for being in an untested ship, but now I know I am in a ship killer and almost want to meet resistance on my way home. Almost, but not really, because I'd still like to use the convenient route between w-space and high-sec to get some fuel, now I know where to find it.

W-space stays quiet as I take the Legion home, and for the second time today I swap in to a Bustard and head out to high-sec. This time, I know where I'm going. A short few hops to Amarr has me buying so much fuel I can barely stuff it all in to the transport. I kid, of course, I can use a calculator, and the fuel blocks may be stupidly bulky but at least they simplify consumption needs. I'm not entirely sure how many days the blocks I've bought will fuel in our tower—ten days, perhaps, is a rough estimation, which shows how irritating fuel blocks may become, as we don't get a decent exit to high-sec like this once every ten days—but it's as much as I can reasonably carry without risking an Orca. And I get it all home safely, the C3 still not stirring.

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Tags: bustard, chimera, eve online, legion, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space