Only going out so far

26th January 2014 – 3.58 pm

An early roam has just the static wormhole at home. Jumping next door doesn't see much more, with my directional scanner clear from the K162 in class 3 w-space. My notes from eleven months ago indicate a tower could be somewhere, and that I'll be looking for an exit to null-sec from here. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and warp away to find the tower.

Eight anomalies, four signatures, no ships. There is a tower but it's different from the one I saw before, and as no one is home I'll be scanning. Identifying two data sites and resolving the wormhole isn't as quick as it could be, given the weak strengths of all the signatures, but I am soon jumping out to Malpais, where I find myself alone, which is good, but with no other signatures in the system, which isn't.

Never mind. Pop a rat and move on, hopping a stargate to get to an adjacent system. It seems the better option than crashing our wormhole, particularly as I'm ideally looking for K162s. The stargate flings me through space and in to a mess of bubbles on the next stargate, which is a little daunting. The bubbles are meaningless at the moment, though, partly because of my interdiction nullifier subsystem, partly because there is no one in the system waiting to catch those trapped. I warp out to find a rat but still don't launch probes, given the continued lack of signatures.

Heavily bubbled null-sec stargate

I pop a rat and start to move on, but cancel warp in one direction to head in another. I don't think I've seen an outpost before. If I have, it is long enough ago to have forgotten about it. I swing past it just to see one of these stations, the culmination of a lot of industrialist activity. I'm impressed. Moving on, the next system across keeps me alone in null-sec but with three signatures this time. I can scan whilst I rat.

Outpost in the Malpais region of null-sec

A result of three resolved wormholes looks pretty neat, until I warp to each and find three outbound connections, two to class 5 w-space and one to class 3 w-space. I suppose I won't be surprising anyone tonight. Thanks, discovery scanner. That's sarcasm, by the way. Suck a dick. Still, maybe there is something to find in one of these systems. I don't know what, but I won't know if I don't check. I tackle the question through the wormhole to C3b first.

D-scan shows me a tower with no ships, and my probes resolve three wormholes from the eleven anomalies and ten signatures. I can't resist poking through the exit to low-sec, taking me to the Derelik region, where I then can't resist finding a clone soldier rat to pop for a gain in security status. The second wormhole in C3b is dead-on-arrival, and the third a T405 connection to class 4 w-space. Still no K162s.

Clone solder rat in low-sec

I press ahead, because that's what I do, but my positive attitude is fading, and hits a general low when I appear over six kilometres from the wormhole in C4a. A tower is visible on d-scan but no ships, and although my notes say there is a static wormhole to class 3 to be found I don't think I care for more outbound connections. I've found enough already, and they are simply unlikely to lead to activity I can surprise. What's the point?

I head back to and through C3b to Malpais where I have as much interest in the two C5 wormholes as I do in the subject of 13th century arable farming. Exploring either may be enlightening and lead to adventure, but I could just get some sleep. I warp to a rock field to pop one last rat for the night, recovering some more security status after my recent peccadilloes in low-sec and making back some of the ISK I should never have given to that Imicus pilot yesterday, and head home.

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