Racking up the ISK from Sleepers
24th February 2012 – 5.31 pmI'm back in w-space after a couple of days of shore leave. Launching scanning probes lets me see what's changed, seeing some anomalies returning to the home system after the latest fleet romped through here, but otherwise everything looks the same. And here's my glorious leader, arriving just as I resolve our static wormhole. Let's explore.
Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system has little appear on my directional scanner, just a large canister. Launching probes and performing a blanket scan reveals no occupation or any activity, leaving a rather friendly mix of twenty anomalies and four signatures. I resolve a ladar and radar site each, and what presumably is a static exit to null-sec k-space, judging by the strength of the signature. I don't visit the wormhole, though, hoping instead to keep it closed so that we can realise some profit from the anomalies. It looks like the perfect opportunity to make some iskies tonight.
Fin and I head home, swap to Sleeper strategic cruisers, and return to the C3 for some simple devastation. I misspoke before about Sleeper combat not being boring. It is boring. There may be a fair amount of activity required to ensure silky smooth clearance of the Sleeper ships—calling targets, keeping in range of each other, maintaining speed, reloading, bookmarking wrecks for later salvaging, noting which sites are clear and which remain—but it is little more than busywork, minor activity to keep the mind from seizing.
The only activity that definitely isn't busywork is watching d-scan for scanning probes or unknown ships in the system. The only reason previous outings haven't been boring is because of interlopers appearing on d-scan, causing the mechanical and routine destruction of the Sleepers to take on a more dynamic element. The lack of boredom when shooting Sleepers is not because shooting Sleepers isn't boring, it's because other pilots coming to shoot you isn't boring. And watching out for those other pilots is boring, particularly when they never come.
But you have to watch for hostile pilots, or the excitement becomes a rather expensive cost. Like many activities, shooting Sleepers is long periods of monotony interrupted by occasional moments of panic. Never the less, I seem to be in the mood for this simple activity tonight, moving through one, two, three, four anomalies without showing signs of fatigue. I can generally manage four anomalies before getting fed up but tonight I spur us in to the fifth and sixth anomalies too.
And, hey, there's a pulsar phenomenon in this C3 too, which boosts our shields. It doesn't really help that much, as our Tengus are never really wanting for shields in C3 anomalies, but it's good to know the pulsar is there. I also remember that Fin mentioned its presence when we first jumped in to the system, but for some reason the pulsar has so far seemed to stay behind me. Spinning my view around sees it at last. It may be the sight I need to push us in to the seventh and eighth anomalies of the evening.
Clearing this number of anomalies is unprecedented for us, as evidenced by my completely running out of missiles. I normally stock plenty for what we intend to use but tonight we've shot many more ships than any other continuous operation. Luckily, Fin has some spare and shares them with me. Restocked and feeling good about the operation, it seems churlish not to clear the ninth and final favoured anomaly, so I send our ships onwards once more.
Nine anomalies are cleared of Sleepers. Now we need to get the loot and salvage home, or the evening will be a waste. We swap Tengus for a pair of Noctis salvagers and divide the sites between us, sweeping wrecks in to our holds on opposite sides of the system. To be honest, I had an ulterior motive for completing so many sites. I didn't consider this to start with, but with Fin getting us about a hundred days of fuel and the wallet still looking quite healthy, my mind is once again thinking about a Golem marauder to replace the one we lost. Perhaps if we make plenty of ISK tonight I can convince Fin we can afford a new one.
Salvaging goes smoothly. We haven't been watched or stalked, and we collect all the loot without a sign of another ship. We aren't lucky with salvage tonight, though, bringing home a haul that feels below average, but the sheer number of sites completed makes up for that. We get home and stuff about half-a-billion ISK of Sleeper loot and salvage in to our hangar. That's pretty decent and it looks like I have a green light to get a Golem! Of course, all I have to do now is find a suitable connection to empire space that will let me bring one in without dying.
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