Scanning traces of activity
3rd September 2010 – 5.17 pmA bit of Sleeper combat helps to wake me up. The only bookmarks in our shared can are for our home system's static wormhole and that of our neighbouring system's. The latter wormhole hasn't been visited, though, keeping it inactive for now and letting us clear a couple of anomalies of Sleepers in peace. With the resultant wrecks looted and salvaged it is time to explore the rest of today's w-space constellation.
I jump through the static connection in our neighbouring C4 in to a C2, a second scout coming to map the systems too. The directional scanner shows a tower and a couple of ships in the system, which I find. The Drake battlecruiser, Helios covert operations boat, and barely-worth-mentioning Ibis rookie ship are all unpiloted at the tower. There is also a canister labelled 'Set's arkonor' which encourages me to resolve and bookmark gravimetric sites when scanning the system instead of ignoring them, in case this 'Set' fellow comes out later to fill the can some more.
An exit to low-sec empire space is found amongst all the rocks in this C2 w-space system. Diving only two wormholes deep would be a rather boring conclusion to exploration so I keep on scanning, making a note of more mining sites as I do. As is common with most class 2 systems a second wormhole is found, this one leading to another C2. I've run out of signatures to scan in here so I jump through to the next system to begin again.
The second class 2 system is unoccupied and devoid of activity. Scanning finds another exit to low-sec empire space as well as a wormhole to a third class 2 system. The connection to the C2 is a K162, meaning the wormhole originates and was opened from the other side, which is a promising sign of activity. But when I go to jump through the K162 I get a message that the wormhole is stabilising, a sure sign that no one is in the system beyond. I jump through anyway to investigate and explore.
There is a tower in the third C2 but unsurprisingly no ships. And following tonight's theme I quickly find an exit to low-sec space, which couples with the homewards static wormhole to make three class 2 systems with similar connections. My colleague has continued scanning the previous C2 and has resolved a third wormhole, also jumping through a K162 in to yet another C2. For want of targets I am more thorough in scanning this system, my effort rewarding me with two more wormholes.
I resolve two inbound connections, one from a class 4 system and the other from a C2, the latter reaching the end of its life. Either or both systems behind these K162s could hold activity that we're looking for. But my scouting colleague has headed off deeper in a different direction to me, scanning his way through the C2 in to a C3, then C1, and on to a further C3. Despite all these connected systems and K162s opened by earlier activity there are no targets anywhere to be seen.
I jump through the K162 in my current system to the C4 to try to find signs of life but only drop in to an unoccupied system. Both I and my colleague are arm-deep in the colon of w-space and the stink is starting to get to us. We turn around and head back home to our tower. At least with no one around we should be able to pilot our strategic cruisers in to a few more anomalies to shoot Sleepers with little concern of interruption.
4 Responses to “Scanning traces of activity”
"arm-deep in the colon of w-space and the stink is starting to get to us"
lol, so vivid :D
I know exactly what you mean, when you've spent hours scanning your way through god knows how many connecting wormholes and all you have to show for it is a crap ton of bookmarks that will be useless tomorrow.
Would you say that the population in w-space has reduced significantly these past few months? Seems that way to me, and this post of yours indicates the same.
I wonder if you can bottle the smell of w-space colon?
I think you mean 'cologne'.
It's difficult to get a feel of w-space's population. There are days when we scan ten systems and find nobody, and other days when every system we enter has occupied towers and ships flying everywhere. But that has always seemed to be the case.
I can certainly say I haven't seen the same number of active miners out in w-space as I once did, though.
What's fun, Mdih, is when you come home from a fresh scanning expedition and some wag decides to collapse your system's static connection. All the bookmarks from the past hour or two deleted the moment you get home.
It's even better when it's you who decides the wormhole should be collapsed, because there is nothing else to do.