Simple scanning in w-space

21st October 2011 – 5.22 pm

Yet another evening starts with an empty home system, which is a little saddening. I shall have to look elsewhere for company again, scanning and resolving the static wormhole easily enough as the sole stray signature I don't have a bookmark for. Jumping through the wormhole presents me with a clear result from my directional scanner, but the system's big and could have plenty to hide.

My previous visit to this class 3 w-space system was fourteen months ago, making any information I have on it unreliable, but exploring out to the farthest planet shows the tower still to be where I last saw it. I don't know if this is the same tower as when we popped a Nighthawk command ship and Drake battlecruiser, maybe it's simply an attractive spot to anchor a tower, but my notes stay surprisingly relevant. Even so, there's no one home.

For great justice, the wormhole with the signature 'zig' is quite chubby. And amongst the usual assortment of rocks and gas, radar and magnetometric sites, is a second wormhole, and, hullo, a third. The chubby signature turns out to be the static exit to low-sec empire space, the other two a K162 from null-sec k-space that's reaching the end of its natural lifetime and a K162 from class 4 w-space. Sticking to w-space, I head in to the C4.

Two towers are visible on d-scan, along with a Thanatos carrier, Sleipnir command ship, and Orca industrial command ship. Despite my expectations, the Sleipnir and Thanatos are both piloted, although the Orca is empty. I find out this information nearly at the cost of decloaking in a bubble trap around one of the towers, which I really should have anticipated given the number of containers d-scan is showing me. I also discover a third tower out of d-scan range with an unpiloted Dramiel frigate floating inside its shields.

The Thanatos and and Sleipnir, the only piloted ships I can see, are conveniently in the same tower, letting me watch both of them at the same time. I watch and wait, wondering if either ship will do anything, the Sleipnir answering my question by logging off within a couple of minutes of my arrival. I suppose that's doing something, but it's not quite what I had in mind. And I doubt I can do much to a carrier by myself, so I head back to the C3 and out to low-sec to continue exploring.

The low-sec system I find myself in is part of the Tash-Murkon region, a busy system that forms a triangular low-sec dead end to an arm of a high-sec constellation. Scanning reveals four extra signatures, three of them magnetometric sites and the fourth another wormhole, which collapses even before I reach it, giving me nothing new to explore. It looks like another dreary evening for me. Jumping back to w-space shows the C3 still quiet, and one last look in the C4 has no new ships visible and the Thanatos still in the tower. Home, James, I'm taking an early night.

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