Backwards and forwards through w-space
21st January 2013 – 5.40 pmA short poke around w-space to look for targets starts out positively, with an unexpected wormhole in the home system. Glorious leader Fin has resolved and bookmarked our static connection, leaving it unvisited, which lets me identify the other wormhole with ease. Warping to it sees a K162 from more class 4 w-space, which is as good a place as any to start my exploration, so I jump backwards through the constellation to see what awaits.
One planet sits in range of my directional scanner, and nothing else. Launching probes and performing a blanket scan reveals an awfully sparse system, with only two anomalies, two signatures, and one ship. Getting closer to the ship lets d-scan identify it as a Damnation, and I have a hunch a solo command ship will be sitting in the local tower that's now in range. And that is indeed where I find the ship, although it's curious to see it piloted.
I have a second hunch that the Damnation won't be doing anything by itself. I may as well scan that second—oop, a Paladin marauder warps in to the tower before I can even finish that thought. With any luck, the Paladin won't remain a Paladin for long, maybe getting switched for a hauler to take the capsuleer on a run for planet goo. The marauder moving to a hangar makes me tingle with anticipation, but before a change occurs a Buzzard covert operations boat warps in to the tower, followed by an Apocalypse battleship. It's all go.
I think I'm witnessing a tower meeting. Not much else is happening. I should scan. I could have saved myself ten minutes had I scanned straight away. One signature won't take long to resolve, and it doesn't, giving me another K162, which is no surprise in an otherwise empty system. Another K162 from class 4 w-space too. Chains of C4 w-space can be as monotonous as those of C5 w-space, which I'm beginning to remember from our C4/C4 days.
Ignoring the ships doing nothing, I head to C4b, where exploring finds a tower and empty Bustard transport ship, which is less then inspiring. Scanning has three anomalies and, crap, twenty-six signatures. But coarse scanning bags me a chubby signature, which is, oh hey, a K162 from class 4 w-space. But jumping in to C4c has me turn my hopes down to one, as I appear over seven kilometres from the wormhole and less than two from the deadspace signature. A quick look around finds occupation but no activity, and that's good enough for me.
I return to C4a, through C4b, and note using d-scan another change of ships as I warp past the tower, before jumping back home and warping to our static wormhole. Maybe I can find something of interest ahead of us instead of behind. And I nearly do, as a Helios covert operations boat decloaks and jumps through the K162 as my session change cloak holds in C3a. I think it's safe to assume that the pilot didn't see the wormhole flare on my arrival in to the system, or he'd have held his cloak and waited until mine dropped so that he could identify my ship and me. Either that, or he's a terrible scout.
The Helios is gone, d-scan is clear. I break my session cloak and activate my module cloak, holding on the wormhole in case other ships come this way. Perhaps the movement in C4a is the locals bringing ships back from empire space. I check my notes as I wait, seeing that my last visit to this system, four months ago, had my bringing an Orca industrial command ship home after a wormhole collapse left me isolated. Thanks, Penny. That's great nostalgia. Meanwhile, no ships have come past me, so I think I'd better not waste any more time in exploring the system.
A tower and no ships graces C3a, along with seven anomalies and nine signatures that are revealed by my probes. I scan whilst sitting on our K162, more optimistic that a ship will be brought through than one will come on-line at the tower, but none does. Gas and rocks are discarded, and a wormhole skinnier than I expect for a high-sec connection is resolved. A second wormhole feels more like a static exit to high-sec, and it is a D845, which takes me to a system in the Domain region not too many hops to Amarr. There are no oranges amongst the forty or so pilots in the local comms channel, though, and still no more ship movements.
I return to w-space and warp to the second wormhole, which is a nifty outbound connection to class 5 w-space. Sadly, jumping in to the system puts me almost eight kilometres from the wormhole, which I still don't think is a good sign, despite there being a tower and two drones visible on d-scan. Along with not getting good vibes from the system, Penny is getting hungry. I scanned backwards through a C4 chain earlier, I don't intend to scan forwards through a C5 chain now. I'm going home to get a sammich.
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