Nothing but low-sec
22nd August 2011 – 5.22 pmThere are two wormholes in the home system again today. One is the static connection to class 3 w-space, the other a K162 from a class 2 system. The C2 connection would be more enticing if it weren't reaching the end of its natural lifetime, but if I can scan an exit from the C3 I will be able to explore the C2 and still find my way home should the wormhole collapse. I warp across to our static connection, jump through it, and explore our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.
My directional scanner is clear of all but planets and moons in the C3. Opening the system map to see the C3 is around 110 AU in radius explains why there is little to see within range of d-scan. At least my notes tell me there was a tower here on my last visit two months ago, and warping to its location finds it still there but empty. Launching probes and blanketing the system sees no obvious activity amongst the twenty signatures, one of which will be an exit to low-sec empire space. I start looking for it.
As I am scanning a ship is revealed by my combat probes. I imagine it's on a wormhole and, sure enough, one more scan confirms the presence of a wormhole and that the ship is a Tengu strategic cruiser. I head over to take a look but by the time I have warped the 120 AU the Tengu has gone. The wormhole remains, the static connection to low-sec, and it flares as I bookmark its position. The Tengu, or maybe a different Tengu, appears before disappearing again as it activates its cloak. He doesn't look local.
Further scanning finds two more wormholes, both K162s from low-sec, and neither being an obvious source of the Tengu. Otherwise, all I find is a nice mix of rocks and gas in the system. I jump out of the three connections to low-sec to get their exit systems, hoping at least one will be close to our docked ships, but don't get lucky tonight. One K162 comes from the Sinq Laison region and is close to Jita, if not our ships, the second from Metropolis and far from everything. The static wormhole exits to the Placid region and is as inconvenient as the Metropolis connection. There is also no sign of the Tengu anywhere.
I jump back to the C3, which remains empty as far as I can tell, and head home. Now that I can get home from empire space through the C3 I can explore the C2, which looks promising at first, with an Orca industrial command ship and two Iteron haulers visible on d-scan when I jump in. I find the two towers in the system and see both Iterons piloted, and can even launch probes covertly on the edge of the system, but prospects here look dull.
There are only the three ships in the system, but only two signatures and one anomaly. One signature is the connection to our home system, the other no doubt an exit to k-space, and I can't scan the second wormhole without my probes being spotted. Not that I suppose I want another connection to empire space right now, unless it happens to exit to the system where our ships are docked, because the EOL connection cannot be relied upon. Neither Iteron is moving, or looks like it will, so I leave this system behind me.
There's little activity and not much option for bringing ships in beyond long individual journeys through high-sec, so I head to low-sec and scan for more w-space to roam through. The low-sec system in Sinq Laison has a bunch of signatures to resolve, but only an EOL K162 from class 2 w-space is sitting amongst the one radar and two magnetometric sites, some ruins, and a sronghold. The C2 is completely quiet, unsurprisingly given the emptiness of space recently, and there are too many signatures here for me to want to sift through them looking for the second wormhole, or another K162, particularly as my head's starting to hurt. I think it's time to call it a night, and turn my ship around to go home.
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