Decay but no death in w-space

What to do, what to do. I have scanned a fair-sized w-space constellation already, so I could roam around it in a stealth bomber, but our neighbouring system has a reinforced tower and customs office that still have a day left on their timers, the class 4 system behind that was quiet earlier, and behind that lies a string of unoccupied systems. I could scan further backwards, looking for the source of the chain of w-space, but with a chance of collapsed wormholes there's no guarantee I'll find it. My third option is to head out to empire space and scan for more w-space from there.

Or I could help with the tower siege my glorious leader's started, spurred on by our recent success in destroying a similar tower. This time there is only a Talos battlecruiser on display, but it's the disruption more than destruction that's on Fin's mind. The small, bare tower is likely the base of operations for the corporation involved with the hostile takeover of the C3, and it just seems funny to poke their own tower with a stick to see what happens. Three of our pilots are already shooting the tower, so I could probably help best by scouting for them. The C4 connecting in to C3a may have been quiet, but if that changes it's best to find out before being ambushed.

I take my Tengu strategic cruiser from the home system to C3a, and then to C4a, where a Purifier stealth bomber appears on my directional scanner. As I scouted this way earlier I know where the tower is, making it straightforward to confirm that the Purifier's there. The piloted ship sits stationary inside the tower's force field, and all looks safe for the continuing siege. I could hang around here and watch the Purifier, in case he decides bombing our trio of ships would be a bit of a laugh, but I'm feeling reckless. Shooting a tower is disruptive, but finding moving targets would be better, and I head back through C3a and out to high-sec space to scan for more wormholes.

One extra signature in the high-sec system in Devoid resolves to a Sansha Watch site, which is dull. Still, stargates are easy in high-sec, so I hop across to the next system and scan again, where four signatures wait to be found. More interestingly, two of the many pilots in the busy system are members of the corporation who own the tower Fin's currently shooting. One of them warps in to a rock field in a Hulk exhumer, so they're clearly not too concerned with what we're doing. Coincidentally, a Falcon recon ship blips on d-scan in C3a, which reminds me that I saw one earlier too, although I never found out where it came from. Exercising caution, Fin halts the tower siege and retreats homewards.

Two of the four signatures in the high-sec system resolve to be wormholes, both outbound connections, one to class 1 w-space and one to class 2 w-space. The other two are weak, and although they could be outbound connections themselves I think I'll stick with what I have for the moment, which is pretty decent already. As I tend to do, I pick the class 1 system to explore first, which ends up not taking long. A Talos and a tower are on d-scan, but there are no wrecks to suggest the battlecruiser is busy with Sleepers. I locate the tower to find the ship empty, so rather than scan for what is probably a connection back to empire space I return the way I came, stressing the wormhole to half-mass as I do. I'm clearly not the first capsuleer to find this connection.

I cross high-sec and enter C2a, where d-scan shows me two towers and a Tengu, but still no wrecks. At least the Tengu is piloted, when I find it at one of the towers, but there is nothing else happening in the system. I warp away to launch probes, returning to watch the Tengu as I perform a blanket scan, which reveals three anomalies and nine signatures. I'll assume a stationary strategic cruiser means a pilot who's not paying attention, and start sifting through the signatures. There's just the standard fare of magnetometric, gravimetric, ladar, and radar sites, and two static wormholes in this C2, where the wormholes lead to more class 2 w-space and exit to low-sec. I'll choose C2b, please.

A tower and no ships looks like a step backwards to being boring, but I find the tower quickly from it being in the same place as a few days ago. There's nothing notable about this system, although I may add 'need to de-clutter' in to my records. The twenty anomalies and fourteen signatures make this supposedly occupied system rather unkempt. Scanning comes easy to me, though, and I throw my probes here and there, ignoring rocks and gas, to resolve four wormholes. Phew, exploring could go on for a while longer! But the wormholes say otherwise. The static connection to class 3 w-space is reaching the end of its life, as is a K162 from class 4 w-space. A K162 from class 5 w-space may not be wobbly but it is shrunk to the size of a walnut, being critically unstable and on the verge of collapse.

The only healthy wormhole in this C2 is the second static connection, which only leads out to high-sec and does me no good. I suppose I'm going home. The Tengu remains motionless at the tower in C2a, and the K162 returning me to high-sec is now EOL, giving me a hint that I have come to this part of the constellation too late to catch any pilots unawares. Stargates stay easy, and C3 is quieter now that the tower's not being assaulted. Curiosity takes me back to C4a, where the same Purifier sits at the tower, and I can't help but want to look further back and actually find some trouble, but jumping in to and warping across C5a finds the wormhole to C5b EOL. I've done lots of scanning today, but it was all a bit too late. I head home with nothing to show for my efforts but an ephemeral set of connections mapped.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: eve online, falcon, hulk, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, purifier, scanning, talos, tengu, w-space