Ship-spinning of w-space

17th June 2013 – 5.46 pm

Reload, repair, restock. The brawl on the wormhole took a minor toll on my strategic cruiser, but ultimately nothing serious. My guns have heat damage but are still functional; my armour is unscratched, thanks to the ancillary shield boosters; and the shield boosters need more charges loaded. I have plenty of nanite paste to repair the heat damage, and enough ammunition to keep me going, but one of the ASBs will stay empty for the moment.

It takes a minute to reload an ASB, and because most w-space engagements tend to last less than that I see little point in carrying more than one reload of the bulky charges. Really, the reload is more for any potential second engagement before getting a chance to restock in our home system, as I'm likely to be victorious or dead before both ASBs are exhausted and another minute of combat has elapsed. I pretty much proved that just now.

But I have a chance to restock. I'm in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, no one from the class 5 system has followed me through the wormhole, and Fin has swept up behind us, leaving no trace. Combat is over and we're close to home. I warp my Loki to the K162, jump through, and head to our tower, where I can can replenish the limited supplies I carry in my hold. Fin does the same, whilst also dropping off the few spoils of victory she looted. We're back to full strength.

Full strength, perhaps, but there is no one left to shoot. Fin takes advantage of the circumstances, which include an exit to high-sec empire space in C3a, to hit the market. That the wormhole is in critical condition doesn't faze her. 'If it collapses, you can scan me the new one.' Sir, yes sir! The Crane transport ship doesn't irritate the wormhole too much, thankfully, leaving it intact hopefully for Fin's return journey. And with a Tengu strategic cruiser new to my directional scanner in C3a, I may be able to keep myself entertained in the meantime.

The Tengu is sitting at the tower in C3a, but with no anomalies in the system I'm not really expecting anything to happen. Even so, with nothing else to do, I watch it for movement. It's an exciting life in w-space. The Tengu does the nothing I'm expecting, as a Drake battlecruiser comes to the tower, swaps to a Heron frigate, and warps towards the exit wormhole to high-sec. It's no strategic cruiser, but the Heron is still a potential target. I follow behind it but drop out of warp near the wormhole not seeing the Heron anywhere.

I don't think the Heron jumped to high-sec, so maybe he cloaked. Or went off-line, as the Tengu is gone and now all that d-scan shows me is a Navy Caracal cruiser. Maybe the Heron is cloaked, as is the Tengu cloaked and out of the tower, and the Caracal will be used as bait to draw me away from the wormhole. I hold on the wormhole to see what nefarious plans the locals have for me. A whole lotta nothing, apparently.

The Heron reappears on d-scan, and the Caracal is gone and the Tengu back. The latter looks like it was a straight ship swap on both occasions, which I missed sitting at the wormhole and not the tower. And as I was on the wormhole, the Heron cannot have been here too, as the frigate can't warp cloaked and I would have seen the ship appear when he started to warp. I think I've been watching more nothing than I first imagined.

A new contact appears, this one in a Nighthawk command ship, which joins the Tengu at the tower and the Heron now back in its Drake. Three combat ships could mean something, right? I leave the unmonitored wormhole unmonitored to see what great plans the locals have been working towards. Ah, I see. Idling. The ship-spinning of w-space. And now Fin is back, having sold loot and bought bargains in low-sec, and with the wormhole still alive to welcome her home. I think it's time to call it a night. There's been no further drama, despite what I made of all the ship changes. Sometimes I think that w-space has made me a little paranoid.

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