Scanning through w-space

25th August 2012 – 3.50 pm

What can I find for my entertainment today? Nothing in the home system except the static wormhole, but maybe there are pilots to find in, um, hmm. I'm pretty sure this K162 to class 2 w-space is not our static wormhole. Never mind, I apparently have managed to miscount the number of signatures in the home system, a whopping six of them, and as I've recalled my probes and would poke through the K162 first anyway I will continue as if nothing happened.

A tower and no ships are visible on my directional scanner in C2a, and the system is pretty bare with only five moons spread around the eight planets. And it's small too. It all looks rather dull. But I would be remiss if I didn't have a look around, so I launch probes and scan the four anomalies and five signatures. One ladar site, one radar site, and two wormholes looks like a positive result, until I see that the static exit to high-sec empire space is joined only by a K162 also from high-sec. That's not exciting.

I get the high-sec exit systems, one in Genesis that is far from anything and the other in Tash-Murkon that's close to Amarr, and return home to find our static connection properly this time. I resolve the wormhole and jump to C3a, which has nothing but celestial objects on d-scan. There was a tower in the system six weeks ago, which should be around a planet out of d-scan range, but seeing that it is the only planet out of range lowers my hopes that anyone will be active. Sure enough, warping across the system a tower appear on d-scan but no ships. I'm not even impressed that the tower has drifted to a different moon.

Blanket scanning C3a reveals four anomalies and five signatures, which resolve to be a ladar site, radar site, and two wormholes. What the hell, w-space? Have I got space dizzy and somehow jumped to C2a a second time by mistake? No, thankfully not, as the wormholes are the static exit to low-sec and a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space. Okay then, let's continue exploring. C4a has a tower, Orca industrial command ship, and Viator transport ship on d-scan from the K162, and another simple system comprising nine moons and eight planets has me soon floating outside a tower holding two empty ships.

More scanning resolves a single wormhole without caring about what the other sites are as I ignore them, and I am jumping through the static connection to more class 4 w-space. Another unpiloted Orca sits in another tower, and the eleven anomalies are accompanied by eight signatures that all look rather weak. There are certainly no K162 connections in the system, and the strength of the signatures makes me worried that I'm about to find the start of a chain of class 5 w-space. But before I give up and turn around without looking, I remember that a weak wormhole in class 4 w-space could also mean a static C2 connection.

Resolving weak signatures takes time, even getting them to 25% signal strength so they can be identified and ignored. But I find the wormhole, resolve it, and am almost giddy to see the lesser-spotted static connection to class 2 w-space. The giddiness doesn't last much beyond jumping in to see a tower with no ships on d-scan, although it's nice to revisit the system where I got my first strategic cruiser kill. But I'm heading back. Scanning has taken its time and empty systems don't offer much stimulation.

I travel back through C4b, C4a, and in to C3a, where I see probes on d-scan. It's activity, but it's too little too late. I can't be bothered to loiter by one of three wormholes to wave my slow-locking targeting systems ineffectively towards a covert operations boat. I fly past the tower in the system to see a Buzzard cov-ops piloted but inert, no doubt scanning, and telepathically tell him to get bent. I make it home as Shev turns up with good timing to relieve me, and after a last poke in to a still-inactive C2a I hide in the home system and go off-line. The w-space constellation is Shev's to roam at his leisure.

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed.