Straightforward scanning through w-space

27th June 2012 – 5.38 pm

I'd like a shorter night than last night. Maybe just a simple poke around w-space, to satisfy my exploration itch but without becoming a chore. I still need to get the feel of my new Loki, the Minmatar strategic cruiser unfamiliar to me but hopefully not much different from other strategic cruisers. It's the guns that concern me the most, as they are quite different to missiles and I'm sure I have no idea what I'm doing with them yet. With any luck I'll be able to practice on a ship that won't shoot back, but it's been a while since I've ambushed a simple industrialist.

Five signatures in the home system is looking a little untidy. What will people think? Hopefully they'll think, 'let's steal these rocks and gas' and give me a fat target or two for practice. But as there are no incoming connections to our system that will have to remain my little fantasy. I resolve the static wormhole and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to explore. My directional scanner is clear from the K162, with one planet in range and four not. I launch probes, arrange them to perform a blanket scan, and warp away to take a look around.

D-scan shows me a tower further in to the system, but no ships. My combat scanning probes tell me pretty much the same, as well as revealing seven signatures and eight anomalies. I locate the tower and loiter there, in case anyone wakes up, as I resolve the signatures. Gas, gas, wormhole, wormhole—the second feels nullish in strength—rocks, rocks. And two more signatures? Does that mean the first wormhole is fresh and likely to bring a visitor soon? It's worth taking a look to find out, so I warp across and land near what is indeed a K162, but the connection from class 5 w-space is reaching the end of its life and hardly fresh. I think all the extra signature means is that I can't count. But I knew that.

The other signatures are a pair of magnetometric sites, making this a veritable Noah's ark of a class 3 system. I still only have the exit to null-sec k-space to entertain me, so I suppose I'm heading out that way. I appear in the Querious region, where two other pilots in the system will stop me ratting freely, but not scanning. My probes pick up a fair number of anomalies, three ships, and three additional signatures. One is a Blood Raider Base, and easily ignored for now. The second is a wormhole and interesting, not so much because of it connecting this null-sec system to high-sec, but because the B449 type fills in another cell in my table of wormhole designations.

The third signature in this null-sec system is also a wormhole, and one that interests me for its destination, as the X702 leads to class 3 w-space. I jump in to take a look around, and like the previous C3 I am in range of only one planet from the wormhole. I launch probes and warp away to see what I can find, which again turns out to be a tower and lack of ships. This time, though, the tower is owned by a blue corporation. The only hope of engaging ships in this system is if visitors come trotting through, and that is dependent on more wormholes connecting in to here. I have time to sift through the thirteen signatures looking for K162s.

K162 wormholes are pretty obvious when you know what you're looking for, as they have a fairly strong return signature. Once all of the minor rock and gas sites are ignored, I can safely say there are no wormholes connecting in to this C3. But I keep scanning, as the weaker signatures could be outbound connections. Could be, but aren't. I suppose I got what I wanted, with a simple poke around w-space that hasn't taken much time. And I am quite satisfied with that. I have yet to shoot the Loki's guns, but that time surely can't be too far away. For now, I simply head home through a pair of quiet class 3 systems and get an early night.

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