Putting the ship together
1st April 2012 – 3.51 pmWhat's up, space? Nothing here, Penny, space would say. But space is an idiot, because the magnetometric sites in our home w-space system are strangely disappeared, which means that the expected balance of signatures to bookmarks is actually showing me some new signals. One of the signatures is replacement magnetometric site that we can ignore, another is some gas in a ladar site that I activate, and the remaining two signatures are wormholes. One is our static connection, leading to class 3 w-space, the other a K162 from class 4 w-space. I bookmark the K162 for reference then head in to our neighbouring C3 so I can find today's exit to k-space.
An Onyx interdictor is visible on my directional scanner in this class 3 system, along with an active tower. I find the tower easily enough, having only been here two weeks ago, and see the Onyx floating unpiloted in the force field. It's not guarding a connection to high-sec empire space today. I note that the Onyx is tagged blue, indicating that its pilot is allied to our corporation, and checking the information for the tower confirms this. That's good to know, even if I didn't note this on my last visit, and should make travelling through this C3 relatively safe. I warp away, launch probes, and start to scan.
As the tower here is blue I loiter by our K162 when I scan. It doesn't matter that an Orca appears at the tower, the massive industrial command ship lighting up my combat scanning probes, as the pilot is not a target. What I am looking out for are pilots passing through the only wormhole I know about so far, which would include pilots from the C4 behind me. No one comes as I sift through thirteen signatures, and I resolve only the one more wormhole, which is another exit to high-sec. Twice in two days is quite lucky, and this time we should have pretty free passage between the connection and our home system.
The utility of the exit to high-sec depends as much on which region and system it leads to as it does the activity of the system connecting in to our home. I jump through the wormhole to high-sec, appearing in the Sinq Laison region and a mere three hops from Dodixie, making its destination convenient indeed. Now to check on our other neighbours. I head home and continue through the K162 in to the class 4 system, seeing nothing on the wormhole or in d-scan range when I get there. I warp to where I had a tower listed ten months ago and appear in empty space, but with a tower on d-scan. It's around the same planet but not the same moon, and there's no one home. I take a brief look for more wormholes leading backwards but its just gas out here. It all looks pretty quiet.
So there's no one in the C4 and, poking my nose out to high-sec again, no one from the C4 lurking in nearby empire space. Maybe I should use this connection. If only Fin were here, she'd know what to do. Oh, Fin! She bought a new Legion strategic cruiser to replace the one I carelessly lost through buggy software causing my systems to crash, but only in kit form. Some assembly is required, and as we still can't put strategic cruisers together in w-space, because CCP hates us, I need to take all the bits to a station. Luckily, high-sec has plenty of stations, with a few even in this system. All I need to do is find the kit ship.
It's not in the hangar, nor in this Orca. It's not in the other Orca either, or the Bustard. I'm sure Fin brought it back. Ah, here it is, all stuffed in to her Crane transport ship. I see no point in transferring the parts from one ship to another, and Fin won't mind my borrowing her ship, so I simply point the Crane out to empire space. When in high-sec I dock and move the ship, subsystems, and modules to the hangar, where I assemble Jeff K's Third Prophecy, abbreviated a little owing to there not being enough room on the hull to write all that, or some other futuristic reason.
I probably should have brought some ammunition out with me too. If I take the Legion back now it will look dangerous but be pretty ineffective. Luckily, I am close to a market hub and have a Crane. I also had the thought to bring our loot out to sell, which gives me an excuse to fly around a bit. I pop to Dodixie to sell our salvage and datacores, all of it stolen from other pilots, and buy some missiles, then cross a region boundary to find someone paying market price for Sleeper loot, all of that also stolen. I head back and dump the missiles where my Legion waits, but ignore it a little longer as I take the Crane home.
The stealthy ship is a good choice to take home first. I took a little while buying, selling, and assembling, so would like to check to see that w-space looks as unthreatening as I left it. Yep. A Viator transport has appeared in the C3, but d-scan places it at the tower and so is probably the Orca pilot trying on different ships. I get home, stow the Crane, and head back to high-sec, where I board my Legion and undock it for its maiden voyage. And, boy, was that a quick maiden voyage! I forgot the missiles. I dock, pick up the missiles, and launch again, this time completely ready.
The Viator in the C3 has transformed in to a Crow interceptor for my Legion, although it too is coincident with the local tower and probably not a threat. I warp across the C3 and jump home through a still-clear wormhole, getting the Legion to our tower safely. I feel productive. Our wallet's almost half-a-billion ISK plumper and we have a new ship killer for the hangar. Maybe this one will actually get to kill a ship. That would be pretty neat.
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