A strategic purchase

An empty home system makes the static wormhole easy to find. My Buzzard covert operations boat is pushed through the connection to the class 4 w-space system on the other side, where a clear scan lets me launch probes in relative safety. I bookmark the wormhole's location and, whilst organising my probes in a standard pattern, warp to the centre of the system to check for signs of life. The ship's directional scanner reveals a tower and modules but no ships, although locating the tower shows my glance of the d-scan result to be a little lacking. I check the result again, now floating nearby the first tower and able to discern objects that aren't local, and see a second tower. But there is only one force field on d-scan, which I now look for specifically, and I am sitting outside it, so the other tower must be abandoned.

My scanning finds a gravimetric site first, which I bookmark in case of later opportunities for piracy, before then resolving a wormhole. I have found the static connection, a wormhole leading to a class 1 system. I jump through to the C1 and take the same precautions as always. I check d-scan for signs of life, bookmark the wormhole back, move away from the wormhole to cloak safely, and call up the system map to see if any planets are out of scan range. I find one tower near the wormhole and two more in the inner system with a few silos, but there are no ships in the system. Scanning locates a second wormhole almost on top of the first, an incoming wormhole that is reaching the end of its life, and then a gravimetric site. But there is only one more signature left to resolve, which gets me to an exit to high-sec empire space.

I check the destination system of the wormhole leading to high-sec, exiting to Caldari space where it almost feels like home. The system is only six hops from Jita, the market hub of New Eden, making it time to spend some ISK. I head back in to w-space and to our corporation tower where I swap my Buzzard for a simple shuttle, knowing that I will be leaving it behind in high-sec. I drop the bookmarks to the wormholes in our shared can, in case a colleague turns up whilst I am gone, then head back to known space. Whilst in k-space I turn off my bookmark pane, not needing it for navigating through the stargates clearly visible on the overview from anywhere in the system, and the directional scanner is de-activated too. It feels odd to have an uncluttered view.

The journey to Jita is straightforward and I dock in the busiest station I have ever known, around the fourth moon of the fourth planet. I call up the market interface and start buying my ship in pieces. For once, I have researched recommended fittings, received advice from colleagues, and created simulated fittings to see how the ship will fare. I am still not entirely certain I am ready to pilot such a ship but by this point I know exactly what I am buying. There is only one fitting slot that is fitted ambiguously, needing a certain module to compensate for my slightly lacking skills. I also buy the module that will replace the hack once my skills have caught up.

I assemble the ship and transfer to it from my shuttle. The fittings slot in to place easily and without over-stressing the CPU or power grid. The capacitor is shown to be stable by the fitting service, which is what I expect to see. A detail that I often lack for a new ship is a name, but not this time. I've had one ready for a while. I even remember to buy ammunition for the launchers, so that I am not defenceless when flying back through w-space. I sell the shuttle, taking a lower price than normal, but since the XP-38 came out they're just not in demand. Then I launch my new ship, taking Pengu out on her maiden voyage.

I pilot the Tengu strategic cruiser through high-sec back towards the wormhole I found earlier. The ship has clear Sleeper influences, which isn't surprising considering it was built using technology recovered from w-space, and it is beguiling to watch warping through space. I reach the wormhole, jump back to w-space, and navigate to the corporation tower without any trouble. I imagine the Tengu feels more at home out here than in empire space, just as I do. I park Pengu for now and adjust my skill training queue. Now I need to take a break and have a lie down, after spending half-a-billion ISK.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: buzzard, eve online, jita, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space