Nicking from the neighbours

18th July 2014 – 5.48 pm

Fuel and ISK. ISK and fuel. The two are inter-related somehow, if only I could work out the connection. I need to perform more measurements, but perhaps not today, not when most of our anomalies have been stolen by brigands. I'd better launch probes and see what's out there in space. A bit of a scan sees that it's just gas in our home system, so whatever ne'erdowells came in to our system are long gone, leaving me only our static wormhole to explore through.

Nothing but bubbles greets me in the neighbouring class 3 w-space system, all on my directional scanner, none on the K162. The system was scouted earlier but anything could have happened in the past half-hour. Or six hours. I launch probes and blanket the system, revealing six anomalies, eight signatures, and one very fat ship. I bet it's a carrier. My notes say a tower is at that one planet out of range, where the ship signature is, and I believe them. I warp out to take a look.

The ship is a carrier, the Thanatos floating unpiloted inside the force field. I scan for wormholes, noting the two resolved earlier were at the end of their lives. They are both gone now, leaving me relics, gas, and one wormhole, plus our K162. I think I can assume that wormhole is closed, being the replacement static exit to low-sec, and rather than open it to explore empire space I'll keep it closed to plunder the system. Remember, it's evil when pilots do it to us, but fine when I do it to others.

Three good anomalies are dotted around the system, with a magnetar phenomenon to boost the damage dealt and received. All I need is a ship suitable for shooting Sleepers, preferably one we can afford to lose should a wormhole open up unexpectedly. I head home and dig through our hangar looking for a Tengu strategic cruiser, finding four but none fit for local repairs. They are either covert scout boats or configured for remote repairs, and I don't think I can swap them over easily yet.

No Tengu, then. That leaves the Golem. Well, the sites should be cleared quickly, and we bought it to shoot Sleepers. It's just been a while since we took it through a wormhole. Let's do it! I take the marauder to C3a and make use of the silly discovery scanner to gather free intelligence, seeing no change in signatures. In to the first anomaly, happily in range of the tower so that I can d-scan for ships, and start the explosions.

Golem versus the C3 Sleepers

I seem to be taking a lot of damage. I suppose I'm in a magnetar system, and my shield booster is repairing a lot of damage with each cycle, so it's manageable. I sweep through the Sleepers, even the frigates, pinging d-scan and the discovery scanner for threats, the only new signature being a fourth good anomaly that springs up once I've cleared the first. Why, thank you. I would like more ISK.

I hang around to loot and salvage all of the wrecks with the silly mobile tractor unit, leaving nothing behind, as the Sleepers like to get much closer in this C3 anomaly than the ones at home. I move on to the second anomaly to repeat what I did in the first, with the exception of additionally crapping myself when the MTU launches. Yeah, you launched it, Penny, you should have been prepared for that. Still, it's good to be paranoid about new objects in space and on d-scan.

Apart from the MTU panic, the second site is cleared without fuss. I take the opportunity to head home and drop off the loot I've recovered so far, which also lets me check for new signatures in the home system—without needing to scout, obviously. Hostiles appearing in our system is a secondary threat, after all. All is clear, though, and I head back to clear the third and fourth anomalies.

Magnetar phenomenon in class 3 w-space

The third site is finished without anyone interrupting me, although I finally work out that the increased damage I'm taking is a combination of the magnetar boosting damage and the lack of a pulsar not boosting my shields. I'm pretty smart. I also shake up the target selection in the final wave of Sleepers, popping both battleships before switching to the frigates, saving me some incoming damage and looting time. The battleships loiter at twenty kilometres, so popping them first gives the MTU time to drag the wrecks close, whilst the frigates all close to salvaging range. It's a good change.

The fourth site is much like the second, with the launch of the MTU causing more than mild panic at first, before settling down to watching my scanners. It would be upsetting to be caught in this site, given that I only saw and planned to clear three to start with, and luckily all remains quiet for this one too. I take the Golem out of the cleaner C3 system and back to our tower, where I dump all of the loot for the evening, making us around two hundred million ISK richer. That's some good profit.

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