Dubious Drakes
29th March 2012 – 5.53 pmA K162 coming in to our home system has provided my glorious leader and I some action already. We caught a Loki strategic cruiser in an anomaly in the class 2 w-space system, going to considerable effort to reduce it to a wreck, and then considerably less effort to reduce that wreck to some salvage. Now we're leaving that system behind us, and I'm going through our static wormhole to see what our neighbouring class 3 system holds in store. Not much, it seems, at least not within range of my directional scanner from the wormhole. Checking my notes has this as my third visit, having last been here ten weeks ago, and that this system has a tower and static exit to null-sec k-space. It's also the system where we left a can bearing our corporate name as a reminder of our assault on the local tower.
The container bearing our name is still here, woo! The tower isn't—well, bits of it are, but nothing that could be called active—making the system now unoccupied. That's not our fault, as we attacked well over a year ago. But I suppose that can will continue to litter the system for months to come, if it's ever found and recovered. Speaking of which, Fin's back to burning towards a container in our home system, using her fast interceptor, and finally manages to track it down. Opening the can finds only some discarded metal scraps, but we get to keep the can too, so at least it no longer messes up our d-scanners. What kind of jerks leave cans in awkward, off-grid locations just to be annoying? Annoying jerks, that's who!
Despite this system being unoccupied it is rather kempt, more so than the scruffy-yet-populated class 2 system behind us. Only three anomalies and ten signatures are present, as shown by a blanket scan of the system, and I resolve rocks, gas, radar and magnetometric sites, and the static wormhole. I may as well poke through to null-sec and take a look around. Or maybe I'll leave this dying wormhole alone. I suppose the wormhole being at the end of its life would explain the tidiness of this system, had other capsuleers passed through this way earlier and taken care of the Sleeper population. But if that is the case, their own wormhole has already collapsed, leaving me little to do here.
I head home and further back, through the K162 to the class 2 w-space system again. I would be amazed if anything was happening here but it's possible the locals are back from lunch and looking to be active, or I could perhaps scan and look for opportunities elsewhere. I see activity soon enough, a shuttle on d-scan as I reconnoitre the local tower, which could simply be the Loki pilot going out to get a new ship, and as I consider launching probes and scanning the twenty signatures quickly—I am awesome, after all—a Drake appears on scan. I'll take a look for the battlecruiser first.
My initial assumption is that the Drake is bait, trying to tempt me and Fin to fall in to a trap as revenge for destroying the Loki. Well, the joke's on them, as Fin's connection troubles continue and she's given up for the night again! That is actually kinda sad, though. Anyway, the Drake is out and about but I can't place him in any of the anomalies here. Oh, except for the cleared anomaly, where we ambushed the Loki. It's rather curious for that anomaly to be the Drake's first stop, as the assault was about an hour ago now. Either the corporation is slow to mount a counter-attack, or their corporate bookmarks are listed in sequence and this fellow has come out to engage Sleepers oblivious to the earlier happenings.
The Drake doesn't stay in the empty site for long, warping away before I even get there myself. He's also joined by a second Drake, and I track the two of them down to a second anomaly. I warp in to take a look. Perhaps this is a trap, or perhaps these capsuleers don't communicate with each other. Either way, they are shooting Sleepers and leaving wrecks, and if they are going to be so convincing in their operations I should maybe swap boats. A stealth bomber pops a Noctis salvager much more quickly than my covert Tengu strategic cruiser, and for a fraction of the cost to replace it should I be countered. I warp home, swap ships, and return to the C2 anomaly to loiter with intent.
What I find when I get back is disappointing, in more than one way. The Drakes are salvaging as they fight, much as the Loki did. This means I won't be able to ambush a salvager, which I'm pretty good at. It also means that this operation is far less likely to be a trap and that the capsuleers really haven't communicated about their half-billion ISK loss not too long ago in the same system. Or maybe they know about it and have ignored the risks. I'd like to teach them an important lesson, but I can't really take a good shot at the Drakes by myself. Hopefully we'll see them again soon. But for now I suppose I'll leave them to their blissful ignorance, and I head home to get some sleep.
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