Should have gone to null-sec
27th August 2013 – 5.41 pmI have time to pop a planet gooer. The only problem is that I have to find one first, and I'm not sure I have enough time to do that. But I'll try. Two extra signatures in the home system are just mapped gas sites, so I point my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser to our static wormhole and beyond. Naturally, the neighbouring class 3 w-space system has my directional scanner show me a tower and no ships—and, no, that assembly array named 'Bestower' isn't fooling me—so my planet gooer is in another system.
Locating the tower for reference sees that we don't much care for the locals. They are pre-oranged, which is good to know. And although I don't know why our alliance doesn't like their alliance, I have a personal gripe against the locals. Despite there being nothing out of d-scan range from the wormhole, and the handful of planets nearby, the occupying corporation has managed to plant their tower at the edge of the system, leaving the opposite edge out of range. That's simple carelessness, and I ought to shoot any of the locals to teach them a lesson. But as there aren't any around at the moment I launch probes to scan.
Thirteen anomalies and six signatures hold two wormholes, but the static exit to low-sec is accompanied only by a K162 from null-sec k-space. Never mind, I can check the low-sec system, maybe there are more wormholes there. Or maybe not, not with no extra signatures in the system in The Forge. But there are no other pilots either, which makes me think it will be safe to hop through a stargate to another system and try again. In fact, I'll pop a rat and hop across, trying to maximise my time in low-sec.
The next system across has some pilots, a couple of signatures, and lots of probes. And those signatures bloom to three once I launch probes, which could be promising. Gas is dull, a wormhole is neat, and more gas is as dull as the first gas. And I'm revising my estimation of that wormhole once I drop out of warp next to it. It's another K162 from null-sec. Moving on through the next stargate drops me in to a system with one signature, a wormhole, and would you look at that. It's a K162 from null-sec. The galaxy is trying to tell me something. Something about not finding a planet gooer this evening, I suspect.
One more hop puts me in a low-sec system connecting to high-sec, and naturally containing pirates. There are none on the low-sec stargate, which is fine by me, so I turn around and head back the way I came. Maybe I should check that K162 in C3a after all. Or C3a itself, as an orange is in the local communication channel of C3a's exit system, apparently in a Legion strategic cruiser. He leaves the system, not through the wormhole I'm back sitting on, so let me see if anything's changed in w-space.
A Buzzard covert operations boat floats in C3a's tower, but only for a minute before going off-line, and that's all the change I can see. And although I am tempted to wait for the Legion to return, I didn't see it and so have no idea if it is a passive brick or energy-hungry laser death machine. It would be bad for me if I guessed one and bumped in to the other, and that's if it actually intends to return. I'll stick to my plan and hit null-sec.
I jump through the K162 to appear alone in a system in Impass, where I find a rat battleship flanked by two frigates in a rock field and one signature that resolves to be a wormhole. It's an outbound connection to class 5 w-space too, potentially offering much more than I can reasonably scan in my remaining time. I probably should have come this way in the first place. I'll see what I can do anyway, and start with an occupied but inactive C5a, the Broadsword heavy interdictor and Viator transport floating empty inside a tower's force field.
The class 5 system is messy, stuffed with twenty-three anomalies and fifteen signatures. I think I get lucky by resolving a wormhole with the first signature, even if it's the static connection to deadly class 6 w-space, but a second, third, fourth, and fifth wormhole make me realise I could almost have accelerated an asteroid to near-light speeds in any one direction and had it pass through a wormhole to another system.
I scan, resolve, warp. A K162 from class 2 w-space, outbound wormhole to null-sec, a K162 from more class 5 w-space, a K162 from more class 6 w-space. You know, I think that will do. I recall my probes, some signatures remaining unidentified—I really should have come this way earlier—and point my Loki towards a wormhole. Let's see what I can do with what time I have left. The C2 K162 seems like a good place to start.
C2a has a tower and no ships visible on d-scan from the wormhole, which is a good enough piece of scouting under the circumstances. Back to C5a and on through the K162 to C5b, where only probes are on d-scan. One planet sits out of range, so it seems reasonable to warp across to look for occupation, but as I find none and I have more wormholes already scanned I don't think it's worth my time looking for K162s. Back to C5a and, let's see, what's left? Forwards to a potentially unexplored class 6 w-space system, or backwards to a potentially active and expectant class 6 w-space system. Let's see if someone's waiting for me.
Jumping through the C6 K162 has d-scan clear, with my notes from four months ago indicating the presence of two towers out of range. Checking the locations has the first tower present with a whole bunch of ships floating teasingly empty inside its force field, and the second tower gone but a replacement anchored one moon across, again with ships but no pilots. Okay, this system is scouted and one more remains. In to C5a, across to C6a. I see a tower and ships, all industrial, all but the Obelisk freighter a potential target. But I am thrown in to the system over seven kilometres from the wormhole.
My hunch proves correct again, as locating the tower using d-scan sees the ships coincident with it, and warping there finds them all lacking pilots. Okay, that's game over for tonight, no gooers found. And heading home has a Buzzard in C5a, one stationary enough to make me think it was his probes I saw in C6b, and that not scanning in that direction was probably a good choice. But that's all I see on my way home, making it another quiet night of scanning.
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