Getting ahead of a gooer
13th February 2013 – 5.15 pmSome local gas is gone, and Aii is on-line. Coincidence? I don't know, but it means we're back to only one signature in the home system. I resolve the static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see what I can find to entertain me today. It's pretty standard so far, with a tower and no ships appearing on my directional scanner. The tower is in the same place as my last visit, and I assume the static wormhole will still lead to null-sec, and that it's amongst the three anomalies and fifteen signatures.
I spot core probes on d-scan around a distant planet before launching my own probes, making a scout active in the system, and possibly not local. I'll race him, despite his having a head start. Scanning's a bit of a chore with a K346 to resolve, as they have a similar signal strength to radar and magnetometric sites, and can take a few scans to simply identify. Four of these sites crop up to start with, wearing me down a little. But I continue, hoping to find some rocks and gas instead. Oh, and wormholes too, I suppose.
Yep, I resolve all of that. Rocks, gas, wormholes. A K162 from class 4 w-space joins the static exit, but the other scout is gone and has been for a while. He's either gone to our home system or out to null-sec, as I've been sitting on the C4 K162 since finding it, and no ships have passed me yet. I'm going to loiter for longer, because I know that having probes vanish from d-scan often heralds a ship jumping through a wormhole, and I don't want to be quite so obvious in my behaviour. That gets you spotted at best, killed at worst.
My waiting pays off. The K162 flares as a Helios covert operations boat perhaps gets bored of waiting for me to appear, and jumps home. A minute later the wormhole flares again, this time bringing a pilot from the C4 to C3a, a Proteus strategic cruiser moving from the wormhole and cloaking. Okay, now what do I do? The other corporation know a pilot is around somewhere, and I don't want to waltz in to an ambush I can avoid. I think I'll just sit here for a while and do some paperwork whilst monitoring the wormhole.
Nothing passes me, in or out. I'm not going in yet either. I think I'll exit to null-sec to see what I can find there. I may still be spotted, and potentially ambushed coming back, but at least I'll be doing something. I warp across C3a to the K346, and leave w-space for a null-sec system in the Catch region. I appear in an empty system too, letting me rat and scan. Five extra signatures keeps me active whilst my Loki strategic cruiser chews through a rat, but all I find are three magnetometric sites and a radar site. And one more, of 'unknown' type, that I can't quite resolve.
Launch all probes! Well, it's not a wormhole after all, but a Centus Assembly T.P. Co. site, rated 10/10 by DED. I don't think I'll be warping in to that, even if I could resolve it with eight probes. But it doesn't give me another option either. I return to C3a, am thankfully not greeted by weapons fire on the wormhole, and decide to live a bit more recklessly and actually visit C4a. Warping across the system and jumping through the K162 has all looking clear. There are no ships on the wormhole, and all that d-scan shows me is a territorial control unit and some bubbles. Not even a tower.
My notes help me out. A tower was present seven months ago, and if it's still there it is around a planet out of d-scan range. I warp across to take a look and find the tower remains as it was, with a piloted Brutix battlecruiser floating inside its force field. It's the Helios pilot too, so I don't have a new contact, even if there's no sign of the Proteus. I warp out, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan, revealing five anomalies and two signatures, which is pretty simple. It takes under a minute to scan the second signature, a ladar site, confirming that the constellation is at an end. Now to watch the Brutix.
I don't think the battlecruiser will be sucking up gas any time soon, not with actual guns fitted to the ship. At least I see the return of the Proteus. Hello! That means my route home is safer, but that probably nothing will happen tonight. Indeed not. Both pilots go off-line. And then are replaced by a Cheetah cov-ops and Badger hauler. Will I see some planet goo collection? No. The Cheetah goes off-line, followed by the Badger, replaced by a much less interesting Anathema cov-ops. I doubt he'll be visiting customs offices. The Prorator that appears might, but trying to catch a cloaky transport is what I like to call 'tricky'.
I've little time to consider any kind of plan, as the Prorator turns, aligns to a planet, and enters warp. I've waited for this, so I'd better give chase. I drop out of warp around the customs office at the first planet, just to see the Prorator enter warp towards the sixth planet. I follow, but the agile ship enters and exits warp quicker than my Loki, and I can only watch as the transport leaves for the second planet. I follow again, so that I can see him warp towards the seventh planet. This isn't working.
Screw it. I don't go to the seventh planet, but the tenth. I won't catch him by being in his shadow, so let's see if I can get ahead of the Prorator. I am assuming that he'll be visiting each planet in the system, so have picked a planet not yet on his path. I have also got a little lucky, as the tenth planet is out of range of the tower and all other planets. Being out of d-scan range lets me brazenly shed my cloak. I can ignore the sensor recalibration delay from decloaking, activate my sensor booster for added locking speed, and sit on top of the customs office. On top of that, I won't appear on the Prorator's d-scan until he warps to this customs office, and by that point he won't be able to turn around to avoid me.
Speak of the devil, here he is. I have no idea how many other planets the transport has visited since our paths diverged, but it doesn't matter. We're together again, and I want to show him how much I care. Naturally, the Prorator was warping cloaked, so my first view of the ship is when it bumps in to the customs office. Even so, I have to wait a second or two for the transport to fully exit warp before I can gain a positive target lock. But I do, at which point my warp scrambler holds his ship close, and I burn towards and bump in to the ship as I start shooting, just because I can.
The class 4 w-space system's magnetar phenomenon helps my guns deal their damage, tearing the Prorator's shields, armour, and hull, and shredding the ship apart. The transport explodes, the pod flees. I loot and shoot the wreck, trying to work out what goo I want to squeeze in to my limited hold and believing I have time to make the decision. I get a high-five in the local channel from the shipless pilot, which is nice, as is the planet gooer kill itself.
I can't remember the last one I caught, and a cloaky transport makes this a little special. I feel satisfied with my evening of scanning and stalking, and how my patience paid off again. I can head home to rest for the night.
2 Responses to “Getting ahead of a gooer”
Nice catch, always a rewarding feeling. He'll warp to 20 and slowboat in next time, if he's learned anything.
Probably, for a week or so, and then get bored and go back to taking shortcuts.
That's the problem with best practices: they work, so people don't see the risk in not doing the best practice and slip. That's when I come in to remind them.