Losing motivation

16th February 2013 – 3.54 pm

'Beware, I am feeling industrious.' Such is glorious leader Fin's warning as I come on-line in the home system. I'd better scan my way out of here, lest her condition is contagious. The system remains nice and clean, with just our static wormhole to resolve, sending me to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. As is usual, my directional scanner shows me a tower and no ships, and none of the system sits out of range. I suppose what I'm seeing is what I'm getting.

Scanning for wormholes, and more opportunity, has me sift through three anomalies and seven signatures. That doesn't sound like much, but still three wormholes are resolved. The static exit to low-sec is obvious in this typical C3, the N968 to more class 3 w-space keeps the constellation alive, and the K162 from class 2 w-space would be good for a roam were it not at the end of its life.

In keeping with typical class 3 w-space behaviour, the exit to low-sec plants me in the middle of Aridia, the region slowly clawing its way back in to my consciousness. An empty system has a few pilots appear within a few seconds, who all then move on a minute later, no doubt trying to find their way back to a proper region of New Eden. I leave too, jumping back to w-space and warping across C3a to enter C3b. Hey look, a tower with no ships on d-scan! Brilliant.

There is more to scan in C3b, with eight anomalies and seventeen signatures, and less to find. Well, fewer wormholes. There are plenty of rock and gas sites, leaving me the static exit to low-sec to explore beyond. And this time I find myself in Essence, and with no one around. I launch probes to scan and warp around the rock fields to rat, revealing four extra signatures and a rat battleship to engage. Suck it, Aridia.

One signature turns out to be a wormhole, a C3 K162 keeping the theme of tonight as class 3 w-space. And just as the theme continues, so does the motif, as d-scan in C3c shows me a tower and no ships. It's my sixth visit to the system, the last from eight months ago listing occupation as here but not where it would be, so I locate the tower using d-scan. I note its location, and warp out to launch probes, seeing a pod on d-scan as I am in flight. I'll ignore the first sign of life for the moment, as my probes may help me find it.

A blanket scan of the system reveals three anomalies, three signatures, and a lack of a pod. I'm betting one of those signatures is a K162, and it doesn't take long to check. I don't have to scan the wormhole I came through, one signature is a ladar site, and the last is the K162 I'm expecting. The wormhole comes from class 4 w-space, and jumping through sees nothing on d-scan this time. The system has secrets, or at least planets out of d-scan range. A fair distance out of range.

D-scan shows me the first two planets in the system, the third is 42 AU away, the fourth 84 AU, and the most distant 125 AU. That's a lot of space to cover, particularly as the planets are in different directions, but only one of the three holds moons, which makes checking occupation easy, even if looking for activity could be time-consuming. Warping to the planet out of range but with moons indeed finds a tower, with a shuttle, Buzzard covert operations boat, and Viator transport floating in the force field. The Buzzard is piloted, which isn't great, but none of the ships would be a good choice for me to chase.

My prospects of a hunt tonight are looking bleak. The hour is getting late and I've only seen a pod obliquely and an inactive cov-ops. Launching probes in C4a and performing a blanket scan makes up my mind that I'm not looking further. The system is untidy, cluttered with enough anomalies and signatures that I don't even care to count them. I simply recall my probes and decide to go home. I'm not wading through signatures for a K162 that may not be there, or waiting for a Buzzard to do anything. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

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