Racing a Kryos

I'm going to have another stab at getting the required skill book. It's not exciting, but it's a goal. Maybe my glorious leader can help, particularly as I see that she has created a bookmark in to our system from class 2 w-space. That connecting system will also have a static exit to high-sec, which could get me close to the book I'm after.

Indeed, Fin has already gone through C2a and in to high-sec, buying some fuel for our tower, but has left her cloaky Loki strategic cruiser in Amarr. So what are you piloting, a scanning Orca? A Velator, apparently. It would probably be better to swap the ugly rookie frigate for an industrial command ship. As it turns out, the Velator is being used as a shuttle, to get Fin back to her Loki.

If Fin's going for her Loki, that must mean we are still close to Amarr. 'The exit is okay. It's in Lonetrek, close to both Jita and Amarr.' Sounds good to me. If I can't find what I want here, I don't think the galaxy will hold it. I point my own Loki towards the C2 K162, warp across, and jump through, updating my directional scanner immediately afterwards. Huh, there's a Prophecy battlecruiser in the system. 'Empty, at the tower.' Okay then.

I can't leave the system whilst its status remains in a partially known state. I locate the tower, confirm the Prophecy is still empty, and explore the edges of C2a. There are more towers, quite a few more, and some ships to go with that. Sadly, none of the ships are piloted, not the haulers, not the lone Venture mining frigate. Fair enough, I'll head out to Lonetrek.

Would you look at that. One book—not the one I'm after, admittedly, but a related one that I should also train—is available in this very exit system. How convenient. The other isn't, but Fin's checking the local markets as she passes through them. I'll grab this one and maybe head in the other direction to her.

I dock, grab the book, and head back out to space. My intention was to aim for a specific stargate, but the orange Kryos undocking at the same time as me rather catches my attention. He's off, and not towards a stargate. Sod the skill book, I'm racing this hauler back to the wormhole. But although industrial ships are generally quite slow, I see no trace of the Kryos when I drop out of warp to the entrance to C2a. That's a little peculiar.

I don't jump back to w-space just yet. I didn't see the exit vector of the Kryos, and given my intuition that I should have got here first I don't want to jump through the wormhole and give away my position for nothing. A quick check of the local channel sees an orange pilot is still around, and although I don't recognise the name I'll assume he's in the Kryos. I'll just wait and see.

Here he comes, a good minute later than expected. He must have taken a diversion. Now for the difficult part. This is a high-sec wormhole, giving the pilot an easy escape route—assuming he's polarised, and as I can't determine that I shall assume he isn't. I don't want to follow too soon, because that will alert him to my presence and he can escape. If I follow too late, he will be able to enter warp and flee in w-space. I need to get the timing right.

I watch the Kryos go through the wormhole, pause for what I think is the right amount of time for him to decloak and align for warp, and jump behind him in to C2a. There he is. Decloaked, accelerating. I pounce, shedding the session-change cloak and activating my sensor booster, and aim for a positive target lock. Nope, not this time. The Kryos warps clear.

Maybe I got the timing wrong by a second. Maybe the ship is rigged to enter warp more quickly. Maybe the poor—or awesome, depending on your point-of-view—ship design of the Kryos let the pilot fit a full rack of warp core stabilisers. Either way, he's gone and I'm not doing much good on this wormhole. I warp to the scouted tower around the planet the hauler went to, in time to see the pilot swap to a Buzzard covert operations boat, warp out of the tower, and disappear. Oh well, at least Fin has picked up the skill book I'm after. That's something.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: buzzard, eve online, kryos, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, prophecy, pvp, scanning, velator, venture, w-space