Sleepers and scanning

13th May 2014 – 5.40 pm

Home looks much the same as it did yesterday, albeit with a new anomaly. I'll clear that for luck, and for ISK. Oh, and the static wormhole I resolved and bookmarked yesterday apparently has been relocated to elsewhere in the system. Maybe we weren't as isolated yesterday as we thought we were when we engaged Sleepers. Or some pilots came through our system shortly after we finished. That second explanation makes us seem more professional, so let's go with that.

Golem versus Sleepers

First, the anomaly. It's straightforward enough. Swap to the Golem marauder in our tower, warp it in to the anomaly, and start shooting Sleepers, dropping in to bastion mode and launching a silly mobile tractor unit to collect loot as I go. The Sleepers are popped, all but the two final wrecks are swept up, and I come back for those in a salvaging destroyer. More loot for us, less for any intruders looking to steal from us.

Now through the wormhole. Our neighbouring class 3 w-space system looks like any other, with a tower visible on my directional scanner but no ships. The discovery scanner shows there to be almost nothing in the system too, with no anomalies and just the three signatures, one of which is our K162. I'll just scan and move on, in that case. Or I would, but a blanket scan with combat probes reveals a ship on the edge of the system.

Not much to see with the discovery scanner

The blanket scan remains a valuable tool. Of course, in this case, where there are no anomalies and perhaps no sites, any ship is unlikely to be active, but it's best to stay covert for as long as possible. Naturally, the lone ship is in a second tower, a little out of d-scan range of the wormhole, and lacks a capsuleer. It's good to check. Now I scan, resolving two wormholes. There really is nothing to do in this system but leave it.

One wormhole in C3a is its static exit to low-sec, the U210 looking very much like it leads to Aridia. I'll find out soon enough, as the second wormhole is a tiny, wobbling K162 from class 2 w-space—at the end of its life and critically destabilised. I don't quite fancy that. Back to the U210 and out to low-sec, which is indeed Aridia. But I'm in a system in Aridia that holds a couple of other signatures. I launch probes to scan them.

One signature is a weak wormhole, the other gas. Just an outbound connection, then. In this case, an X702, so I'm heading straight back to class 3 w-space. Circumstances don't look good from the wormhole, not when I appear 7·5 km from the locus after jumping, that being a general sign of prolonged inactivity. A blanket scan reveals five anomalies, twelves signatures, and an unsurprising lack of ships, and exploring locates a tower on the edge of the system. I hope there's a K162 to find.

Scanning resolves a wormhole, but just the one, and as I came through an outbound connection this wormhole will be the system's static exit. Back to low-sec with me, this time in to a system in Solitude, ruining the one other pilot's enjoyment of it with my appearance. Five extra signatures may mean I'm not here for long, though, and scanning finds two wormholes along with a relics and two combat sites. The K162 from class 1 w-space is nice, and K162 from more low-sec not so nice.

In to C1a and, dammit, I'm 7·8 km from the wormhole's locus. D-scan shows me a tower with no ships, the discovery scanner a mere two signatures. There's no need to beat around the bush, so I launch probes on the wormhole, resolve the other signature—a wormhole, of course—and follow that by scanning the tower's location. No one's around to see me do it, after all. I warp to the tower, tag the owner corporation, and check the wormhole I've resolved. It's a K162 from class 4 w-space. Let's see if it holds more opportunity.

Nope, nothing to see here. Well, a tower, but few w-space systems don't have one of them. Three anomalies, seven signatures, no ships. I should probably just stop here and head home, but I'm a curious devil. I poke the signatures with my probes and resolve one, two, three wormholes. The first is a dying K162 from class 4 w-space, the second a K162 from class 2 w-space, the third a K162 from class 3 w-space. Yeah, considering the late hour, I should have stopped here.

The C3 may well be a dead end, so I pop through that K162 first. D-scan is clear, one planet sits out of range, and a quick warp to and fro confirms a lack of occupation. There's almost certainly a K162 to find, but I'm not looking. Back to C4a and in to C2b, where finally I see more ships. Inactive ships, without doubt, given they are four Orca industrial command ships and a Cormorant destroyer, although perhaps that Astero frigate that appears between d-scan updates could be up to something.

Two towers are in the system along with ships, and warping to find the little ships piloted, the big ships empty, pulls four more Orcas, a Hound stealth bomber, and a third tower in to range. The other ships are all empty, and despite the Astero and Cormorant being piloted by dirty reds, I can't work up too much excitement for pilots idling inside a force field this deep in to the evening. I scrambled my way here perhaps a little too late. Time for sleep. I turn myself around and make the seven anticlimactic jumps home.

W-space constellation schematic

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