Scanning my way to skill books

19th November 2012 – 5.45 pm

Me and my glorious leader come on-line at the same time, adding further fuel to the idea that we are the same person. I'm no longer sure myself, but if I am I should probably start updating Our EVE again. Whoever we are, we split up to scan the home system, resolving a K162 from class 5 w-space, a K162 from class 4 w-space that's reaching the end of its life, and our static connection to class 3 w-space. Fin finds the C5 K162, I find our static wormhole, so off we go.

My directional scanner is clear from our K162 in C3a, and exploring finds an old tower remaining from twenty months ago, and a new tower to accompany the old one. No one is home, though, so I launch probes and scan. The seven anomalies are all our favoured type, suggesting the locals don't appreciate their appeal—the optimal profit, lack of warp scrambling, and homogeneity of the first two waves of Sleepers—and eleven signatures resolve to one radar site, rocks and gas, and three wormholes.

The static exit to high-sec empire space is joined by a K162 from high-sec, and a K162 from class 2 w-space—'so another high-sec connection', says Fin. It seems to be the case that class 2 w-space systems with a static wormhole to class 3 w-space also hold an exit to high-sec, so we should be spoilt for access today. Maybe I can pick up some skill books as a result. I exit through C3a's static exit first, appearing in a system in the Kador region that's five hops to an academy, and four to Amarr, which is pretty good. Let me check the other exit. Hello, Kador! Two hops from the first exit, six to an academy, and three to Amarr.

At least if one wormhole to high-sec from C3a gets some capsuleer attention there is the possibility of returning through the other without much of a diversion. But, for now, I have more w-space to explore, so ignore empire space and head to C2a. A bare tower and three Bouncer drones wait for me in the class 2 system, and no anomalies are returned on a passive scan. It doesn't offer much hope for finding activity, but a second d-scan almost does, as a Hound stealth bomber appears from nowhere. There's no mystery as to where the stealth bomber is, as locating the tower locates the Hound, as well as the drones, which are scattered outside the force field.

I don't know why I'm sitting to watch the Hound, as there are no hangars for the pilot to swap ships, and I doubt the stealth bomber will get up to much. But it gives me a minute to look around, at which point I notice all of the defences being incapacitated, which makes sense of the lack of hangars. I would guess that the tower was sieged, or ran out of fuel, and was ransacked for all it was worth. Maybe the locals will get their operation back up and running, but I doubt much will happen as I watch. I launch probes and scan instead.

I detect the RNA of a wormhole amongst the eleven signatures, and two more without natty signature identifiers, resolving to be two K162s from more class 2 w-space systems, one of which being EOL, and the static connection to high-sec. I poke through the static wormhole to appear far from Kador this time, and in Metropolis far from anywhere. But I don't care for high-sec at the moment, not with another w-space system to explore, so I return to C2a and continue in to C2c, where d-scan once more shows me nothing.

Exploring C2c finds a tower and a pod, the pod becoming an Anathema covert operations boat on a second scan, and warping from the tower by the time I locate the right moon. The cov-ops launches probes and, presumably, starts to scan. I'll join him. Two anomalies and five signatures hold a couple of wormholes almost on top of each other, resolving to be an EOL K162 from null-sec and a K162 from class 4 w-space, and a third wormhole elsewhere that's the static exit to low-sec. I keep pushing through w-space, jumping through to C4a, knowing that waiting for the cov-ops would probably be a futile endeavour, but I really would like to find some other ships.

The class 4 system isn't going to give me the ships I seek, not with an empty local tower and nothing else obvious in the system. I'm giving up for the night and will collect some skill books instead. I head back through the constellation, exit w-space through C3a's static connection, and hop across to an academy. I waste a good hundred million ISK of the corporation's ISK on skill books that I'll probably never make use of but look good on a capsuleer's CV, and realise I could pilot a Rorqual capital industrial ship if I only bought the book. I don't, though. If I could pilot one, someone may actually want me to.

Heading back through high-sec to C3a is uneventful, but jumping through the K162 sees a Wolf, and not on d-scan but my overview. Now I find someone, when I have expensive skill books in my hold and am just heading home to sleep. Thankfully, not only does the wormhole connect to high-sec, and we have a second convenient high-sec route to the same system, but the assault ship is buzzing seventy kilometres from the wormhole I'm holding my session change cloak on. We could probably try to catch the Wolf if we wanted, but the likelihood is that he'd warp away before we could get close, so I move, cloak, and ignore him as I head home to hit the sack.

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