Minimal w-space adventure

15th December 2011 – 5.52 pm

I have no overriding plan for today, I'm just going to see what's out there. Then again, I suppose that's pretty much my 'plan' for every day in w-space, as there really isn't much that can be predicted. I never know if I'll run in to a bored miner, be hunted as soon as I jump through a wormhole, or stumble in to some intruders at home without having to launch a scanning probe. Today the home system has just me and my glorious leader, as far as my directional scanner will tell me. Blanketing the system with combat scanning probes gives much the same impression, although an extra signature above the known ladar site and static wormhole is worth investigating.

The new signature is just some rocks. I activate the site to start its inevitable decay and then drag Fin with me to our wormhole, where hopefully we can start an adventure proper. Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 system has an Orca and a tower visible on d-scan, my report of which causing Fin to hold on the other side of the wormhole for now, but I call her in. The industrial command ship floating by itself is a pretty good indication that there are no pilots around, although I caution not to launch probes in full view of the tower, in case we are incredibly lucky and have found a solo capsuleer using the massive ship to collapse an unwanted connection. I doubt it, though.

I warp to a distant planet, ensure no one obvious is watching, and launch scanning probes, throwing them out of the system as soon as they hit vacuum. A blanket scan reveals little of interest. There is the one ship, the Orca we know about; two signatures, which are obviously the K162 home and the static exit to known space; and six anomalies, only one of which is our preferred type. It's not much, but the scan results give us a plan. We'll locate the tower, resolve the static wormhole without visiting it, then clear that one anomaly to make some ISK. There's little point utilising two scanning boats to resolve one signature, and Fin returns home to swap boats as I fulfil the first two points in our plan, easily resolving the wormhole with a stink of null-sec about it as I look for the moon holding the tower.

Hmm, locating the tower hits a snag. There's no problem with finding the tower, but doing so reveals the occupants to be blue, allied to us. Strictly speaking, Fin tells me, we ought to ask permission of the corporation before plundering any of their sites. She's right, of course, and there's no question that we would claim ignorance of the local's alliance and come back to shoot Sleepers whilst there is no one around. It's clearly perfect timing on our part how we both board our Sleeper-fit Tengu strategic cruisers and return to the C3 just as a Cheetah covert operations boat appears in the system, d-scan placing it coincident with the tower, letting Fin open up diplomatic relations with the pilot.

The local pilot knows Fin and we share what we currently know about both our systems, including locations of wormholes, as well as get permission to clear the anomaly we're looking at. The pilot, with no plan for himself either, is happy to stick his cov-ops boat on the exit to null-sec to act as an early warning for any fleet that may want to come and catch our Sleeper operation in progress. What a lovely chap. That's not to say we can rely fully on his warning us, as a new wormhole could open up in this system, or our own, and bring visitors in from a different direction, so we still check d-scan regularly for probes or ships as we shoot Sleepers.

One anomaly in class 3 w-space doesn't take long to clear of Sleepers, and we're finished in a matter of minutes. No one comes to interrupt us. The pair of us return home and Fin volunteers to salvage by jumping in to a Noctis before I can, so I take on the role of protector, boarding a stealthy combat ship to shadow Fin's salvager. There are no problems, though, and we recover around forty million ISK of loot to our hangar safely. And that looks to be it for us for now, running out of steam early. We thank our ally and bid him good night, hitting the sack after a short but relatively profitable evening.

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