Two exits to Heimatar

7th August 2014 – 5.53 pm

Scanning the home system sees nothing of immediate interest. One extra signature could herald possible visitors, or it could be another gas cloud wafting through. It's gas. Despite the closed system, our anomalies were stolen yesterday, leaving me little else to do but warp to our static and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system to explore.

One planet is in range of my directional scanner from the K162 in C3a, and no activity or occupation is around that planet or this wormhole. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan of the system, and warp away to explore. My probes detect three anomalies, six signatures, and no ships, and, like fifteen months ago, there is no occupation. I'll be scanning for wormholes.

Signatures clustered around the system's star

All the signatures bar our K162 are clustered around C3a's star, making scanning nice and simple. One data site, four wormholes. A decent result, depending on the number of w-space connections. The static exit to low-sec leads out to Heimatar, the devil-man nebula making that obvious, a T405 leads to some class 4 w-space, one K162 comes in from class 5 w-space, and another from null-sec k-space. It's a good mix. In case I've just opened the T405, I head through that wormhole first.

D-scan is clear again, this time with all but one planet in range. I launch probes to perform a blanket scan, and warp to the planet out of range. Thirteen anomalies, six signatures, and two ships under my probes, the ships being a Tayra hauler and Heretic interdictor, which d-scan shows me, along with a tower, as I approach the far planet. Locating the tower sees both ships empty, and I'm back to scanning.

Two of the signatures are chubby, one the K162 from C3a, the other gas. This being C4 space, that makes it almost certain that the only wormhole I'll find will be the static connection, and after identifying and ignoring a data site a wormhole appears under my probes. That'll be it, so I ignore the other two signatures and move on, through the H900 to class 5 w-space.

D-scan is clear—of course it is—and the system looks untidy. A blanket scan holds the nineteen anomalies and eighteen signatures the silly discovery scanner shows me, and adds nothing else. No ships, no structures. No wonder the system is a mess. A previous visit to this system found a static wormhole to class 6 w-space, and I don't quite fancy scanning deeper and deeper in to w-space for no reason. I'll head back the way I came.

Or I'll stay here for a while. I recall my probes, update d-scan before jumping out, and see probes. I'm pretty sure they're not mine. I loiter for a minute, whilst trying to work out if it's worth loitering for a minute, and when the probes disappear and nothing comes my way I decide it's not worth it. I could scan for K162s, but I've got one behind me in C3a I can poke through, which requires much less effort.

Back to C4a, C3a, and across to and through the C5 K162, where loads can be seen on d-scan! A billion cans, give or take, plus a tower, but no ships. No bubbles either, which makes the presence of the cans a bit peculiar. Whatever, I warp away from d-scan range of the tower, bumping in to another million cans, and launch probes to perform a blanket scan of the system. Four anomalies, eight signatures, still no ships. That's peculiar too, given that warping back to the side of the system with the tower sees two Legion strategic cruisers on d-scan.

Maybe the Legions have only just arrived, rather than my probes being broken. I start to locate the tower and refresh my probes. Yep, two ships now. The ships are new, and not at the tower. Not in the system any more either. Did they go to C3a? I have no idea. I should poke the signatures for wormholes, as they are likely just crossing this system. Scanning finds one or two wormholes, or four or five. There's a few of them, which will make tracking ships easy. A dying null-sec K162, a dying high-sec K162, a stable high-sec K162, a critically destabilised C5 K162, and a low-sec K162.

The Legions could have come from and gone to almost anywhere. Maybe high-sec, maybe trying to give the critical wormhole a final push. Who knows? I find I'm more interested in the low-sec K162, as it comes from Heimatar, as I'm oddly keen to see the stargate-distance between this and the other one in C3a. I poke out to be in the middle-of-nowhere in Heimatar, then back to C5a and across to the stable high-sec K162 just to get a safety net. I exit to a system in Derelik (my balls), six to Rens, but so what. I'm not running logistics with Legions nebulously around.

Back to C5a, and swing past the critical C5 K162. It's still there. How much of an adventure am I after? Not much, apparently, not tonight, not this late in to the evening. Standard adventure only tonight, please. Back to C3a—no Legions here—and I poke the null-sec exit. I'm still looking for Period Basis, but don't find it in Tenal. It's like there's only one region per region. Back to C3a and across to check the Heimatar exit. I pause at the wormhole, as once again I see scanning probes in the system that aren't mine.

I loiter on the low-sec exit in case a scout heads my way, as it seems like a sensible place to wait. The probes disappear, and after a short pause a Helios covert operations boat blips on d-scan. He didn't come this way, but that's no problem, as I'd never catch him anyway. I take myself out to low-sec Heimatar, see that I'm in a system seven hops from the middle-of-nowhere, and don't feel quite as satisfied as I had expected from finding this out. Weird, that.

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