Recouping a mineral loss

Two signatures at home surely hold a K162 between them. In fact, they are both K162 wormholes, one coming in from class 4 w-space, the other class 2 w-space. Let's see what's in C2a first. Updating my directional scanner from the other side of the wormhole sees a tower, Tengu strategic cruiser, and Prowler transport somewhere in the system. A subsequent update no longer sees the Prowler.

One planet is out of d-scan range of the wormhole, so I warp my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser to its customs office on the hope of seeing the transport collecting goo, noticing the Tengu drop from d-scan as I accelerate. No ships are out here, and as I'm out of range of anyone I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system. Eleven anomalies—all ore sites—and three signatures are all that's out there, so I locate the tower and determine to resolve the two unknown signatures.

Refreshing my blanket scan as I locate the tower sees two ships in the system, although switching to d-scan only registers the Prowler. The transport goes again. I catch up with it when I locate the tower, the transport now nestled inside the force field and apparently idling. Maybe some movement is occurring between here and high-sec, which is where the second static wormhole will lead. As the Prowler continues to now do nothing I call my probes in and scan.

One wormhole, one gas site. The high-sec connection exits to The Forge, not close to Jita, with two pilots in the system, neither affiliated with the C2 corporation. Four extra signatures have my launching probes to scan them, and I take my Loki in to an anomaly to pop some frigates as I do. The signatures are nothing special—combat site, gas, combat site, relics—and the swarm of frigates embarrasses my strategic cruiser in to warping clear. There's little point wasting booster charges on minor rats.

Back to C2a, where d-scan shows me the Tengu and not the Prowler, which is curious. Neither ship came to high-sec, so I don't know where they are going or what they are doing. But never mind, I jump home and warp across to go through the K162 to C4a. D-scan is clear, a blanket scan reveals anomalies and signatures but no ships, and exploring doesn't find any occupation. The only wormhole amongst the sites is a K162 from more class 2 w-space, so that's the way to go.

D-scan is clear once more, this time from the wormhole in C2b, though there's lots of space it doesn't cover. There's not much in that space—hence the name—with no anomalies and four signatures, but a blanket scan with combat probes also picks up two ships. I don't suppose they can be up to much, though, and locating the tower they are in sees an Iteron V hauler and Ferox battlecruiser both piloted, both doing nothing. I may as well scan.

Wormhole, gas, wormhole. The static exit to high-sec is at the end of its life, also leading to The Forge. The exit is fourteen hops from the one from C2a, and only two hops from Jita. I'm surprised the wormhole isn't also mass-stressed. The second wormhole is a K162 from high-sec, Domain obviously on the other side by the golden colours. It would be amazing if this wormhole were a good connection to Amarr. But before I find out, the wormhole crackles as I approach it.

Full stop. Whoever just came through the wormhole is holding his session change cloak. I can't reveal myself too early, not on a high-sec wormhole, so I wait. When I see the Iteron decloak I wait a little longer, not because I am afraid of the ship but because I have a definite plan. I want to be sure the pilot has issued the command to enter warp. When this is done, it is not possible to escape through a wormhole without countermanding the first command. If the pilot is flustered, he may realise this only too late.

The Iteron's moving is my cue to strike. I decloak, activate my sensor booster, and wait what seems like an age before the recalibration delay from decloaking completes. Now I can lock on to my target and start shooting, overheating my guns for maximum effect and disrupting the Iteron's warp engines. Actually, maybe the disruption could have waited, as now he is not accelerating to warp. It doesn't seem like it matters, as the Iteron is ripped apart pretty quickly, exploding in a shower of flames.

The pilot's pod is ejected clear of the wreck, but is not clear of my Loki. He's suffering from a new session change timer, giving him ten seconds before he can jump to high-sec. He's better off warping clear, because I can target a pod and crack it open in less than ten seconds, which I go on to prove, completing another successful ambush on a high-sec wormhole. Right time, right place.

I scoop the corpse, and loot and, well, don't shoot the wreck. There is a nice chunk of minerals that has survived the explosion, most of them being what Fin was trying to bring home yesterday. How lucky that someone else sacrifices their hauler so that our loss can be mostly recouped. That is, if I can get back here to claim the minerals as my own. It doesn't seem too difficult, because how hard can it be to avoid dying on a high-sec wormhole?

I head home to get a hauler, jumping to class 4 w-space and being confused when I can't warp directly to our tower, mostly because this isn't the home system, that being another system up the chain. No problem, I cross what I now realise to be C4a, jump home, and now realise my dreams of warping to our tower. I look for a Kryos, the silly ships being cheap with plentiful storage and an uncanny ability to fit as many warp core stabilisers as you like. Oh, right, it got destroyed by a couple of low-sec pilots. I suppose I'll take the Bustard transport instead.

Out of home to C4a, and across to C2b. Except, as I accelerate in to warp, the wormhole back to the home system crackles, a Sacrilege heavy assault cruiser appearing. Where did he come from? I ponder that as I warp across the system, jumping to C2b on landing, because going back seems more awkward than pressing forwards. No ship follows me as I warp to the wreck on the high-sec wormhole and loot the minerals—having vastly over-estimated the volume they would take up. But now what?

I could go back the way I came and trust that the Bustard's inherent warp-core stability will save me, but the Sacrilege could have friends, and why risk the transport for the sake of convenience and some crappy minerals? I jump through the K162 to high-sec to ponder my situation in a position of greater relative security. Hey, I'm in high-sec, and this high-sec system connects to the high-sec system that leads in to C2a. If he's waiting for me, the HAC will be doing so between C2b and home. I doubt he'll expect me to cross his home system and jump in behind his position.

Twenty-four hops, though. That's a lot of travelling. Still, what else am I going to do? I set my autopilot to show me the route, and start hopping stargates. It's tedious but somewhat necessary, and probably a long enough journey that whatever ships may have been waiting for me have likely all given up and gone home by now. But I complete my trip, warp to the wormhole leading in to w-space that I found much earlier, and cross C2a and jump home with no interruption. I deposit the minerals at our tower, clamber back in to my Loki, and don't even look to see if anyone was waiting for me. It would be a bit silly to become entangled in an ambush I was trying to avoid. Instead, I simply head off-line after another successful evening in w-space.

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Tags: bustard, eve online, ferox, iteron, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, prowler, pvp, sacrilege, scanning, tengu, w-space

Loitering in low-sec

The local pilots float inside their tower doing nothing. It's not terribly surprising, given I've just successfully ambushed one of their Retriever mining barges, but it does offer us a minor opportunity. I keep watching the pilots as a newly arrived Fin grabs a destroyer from our tower, jumps to this class 3 w-space system, and warps to the site of the ambush. The Prophecy battlecruiser has looted the wrecks of the Sleepers in the ore site, but my glorious leader salvages them.

Fin takes home some simple loot, but it's our loot and it's the principle that matters. There remains no movement at the tower, so I launch probes and scan, ignoring the weird conversation in the local channel. I think the loss of the Retriever has less to do with my being old than him being in a mining barge and me in a strategic cruiser. He's just trying to make me feel guilty, which makes him literally worse than a pirate. At least scanning my way out of here is quick and easy. The discovery scanner has already shown me the minimal signatures in the system, so I disregard our K162 and resolve the static exit to low-sec directly.

I warp to the U210, where the colours of Sinq Laison seep through, and a little light loitering has the wormhole crackle unexpectedly. A Rifter decloaks and warps towards the tower, the frigate's earlier disappearance from my directional scanner now somewhat explained. I don't know what he was doing in low-sec still, but maybe if I go there myself I can work it out. Exiting to low-sec sees no pilots, two extra signatures, and almost nothing of interest. Dodixie is nine hops away, though, which I suppose could have been the destination of the Rifter.

Fin asks about nearby mineral supply. Dodixie has some, of course, but what my glorious leader needs is also available a few systems closer, and as our project is nearing completion Fin decides to take a Kryos hauler out to pick up some materials. As she does that, I'll rat and scan in the low-sec system, finding myself a battleship flanked by three cruisers and resolving two wormholes and a relic site. I don't get to pop the rats, though, as a new pilot appears in the system.

I align towards somewhere safe as I plink away at the rat battleship's armour, but have to decide what to do once my trajectory takes me too far to be doing any damage. I could turn back and close on the battleship, but that would ruin my option of warping clear at a moment's notice. I'll just warp now and leave the rat alone. The minor increase to security status is not worth losing a ship over.

It turns out that this pilot in low-sec saw Fin's exit, and his information suggests he is a denizen of w-space too. He could have come from one of the two wormholes I've resolved—one an X702 outbound connection, the other a K162, both having class 3 w-space on the other side—and I choose to loiter by the most likely culprit to see if he heads back. But no ship jumps through the K162, the pilot remaining quite visible in the local communications channel.

If the pilot is waiting for Fin's return, maybe we can sucker him in to engaging on our terms. Fin can act baity and get the other ship polarised before warping clear in her silly ship, and I can ambush our ambusher with the upper hand. At least, that's the plan and, as always, the plan goes awry before it even starts. Fin comes home with some minerals and is jumped on a previously clear stargate in low-sec by a Loki strategic cruiser and Sacrilege heavy assault cruiser, destroying her hauler.

So much for teasing the potentially waiting pilot, and for our project. But Fin is safe and, ah, right, I remember that empire space has stations that can be used to dock and idle in. I think the pilot in the system is only superficially in the system, and it's perhaps best that I stop waiting for him and explore through the wormholes instead. So I do, jumping through the K162 and updating d-scan to see nothing. A blanket scan with my probes doesn't find much more, and exploring finds the previous occupation moved on.

A quick poke of the eighteen anomalies and eight signatures for wormholes finds a K162. It's only a connection from low-sec, one whose colours make it look suspiciously like Sinq Laison too. But the subtle tones of Lonetrek are missing, making this a wormhole from Everyshore. More specifically, a system in Everyshore with pilots and signatures aplenty, but the evening draws on and I can't be bothered with more low-sec scanning shenanigans.

I return to and through C3c to Sinq Laison, and can't resist a look through the X702 to C3b. D-scan is clear from the K162, and a blanket scan reveals anomalies, signatures, but no ships. No interest for Penny. I recall my probes and head home, getting distracted again by wanting to finish off that battleship I tussled with earlier. I nearly manage it too, except another new pilot enters the low-sec system, and this one really is a dirty pirate, judging by his security status. I take no chances, leaving the rat alone and this time actually heading home to go off-line.

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Tags: eve online, kryos, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, rifter, sacrilege, scanning, w-space

Sleepers and ore

Some good anomalies have floated back in to the home w-space system, along with an extra signature. Is it another wormhole? Nope, the other signature is just a bit more gas, which should give us a closed system. I perhaps ought to turn some of those anomalies in to ISK, but that sounds difficult without help. Maybe I'll explore as usual. Okay, no, I'll attempt to clear at least one of the anomalies, make myself useful.

In to our tower, swapping my scouting boat for the Golem marauder, and check it's ship-shape and Bristol fashion. My glorious leader has adapted the fitting, adding more target painting than looks wise, but apparently it helps the efficiency of the cruise missiles. Let's see. I warp to the first anomaly, plant myself firmly in place with the bastion module, and start shooting.

Yes, this new fitting is pretty good. My missiles are wrecking the Sleepers, even the frigates not hanging around for too long. I make use of the mobile tractor unit in the Golem's hold too, despite doing so making me feel dirty. The wrecks are dragged to my ship, looted, and handed to my stationary marauder to salvage. I can pick up the loot from the MTU at any point too, leaving just about nothing in the site of any worth. The MTU over-simplifies making ISK in w-space, and I am only using it because it is too good to ignore.

The mobile tractor unit may sweep up with zero effort, but it takes a little time to bring each wreck to me one at a time. I'm not hanging around, somewhat vulnerable, waiting for it to finish, but instead scoop the MTU and the remaining loot, warp back to the tower, and return to the anomaly in a Cormorant destroyer to salvage old-school. All done, over ninety million ISK of loot dropped in to our hangar. Now to explore.

I swap back to my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser and warp to the bookmark I made of the scanned static wormhole. I remake the bookmark when I drop out of warp next to the actual locus of the wormhole, approach, and jump through to the class 3 w-space system. Updating my directional scanner on the K162 sees a tower and ships, a Venture mining frigate, Retriever mining barge, Prophecy battlecruiser, Orca industrial command ship, and Rifter frigate, along with a flight of mixed drones. It's not a coherent fleet, but there could be something happening.

A tweak to d-scan and I see that there may very well be something happening, given the small Sleeper wreck in the system. Sweeping d-scan across the ore sites sees the Prophecy and drones in one of them, where the wreck also happens to be. I go in to take a look. The problem, though, is that the discovery scanner is showing only two signatures in the whole system. Our K162 will be pretty obvious once its signature propagates to the local pilots, and I have no idea when that will be.

Actually, a different problem is that the frigates in the ore site will die to the Prophecy before I can warp back to our wormhole, let alone get to our tower to swap ships and return to this site. I'm not convinced my cloaky Loki will prevail over the battlecruiser, and the ECM drones he's using somewhat discourages me from engaging. But if he's clearing Sleepers from the rock field, maybe one of the mining boats will be coming here behind him. I'll find the tower and look for pilots.

The local tower is not where it was three months ago. That, or my notes are wrong. Either way, it slows down finding the occupation, and by the time I do there's no Venture or Rifter any more. That's a little unsettling, as I don't know if they've seen our K162's signature and swapped to ambushey cloaked ships or gone off-line. The Retriever and Orca are piloted and present, though, strongly indicative of mining about to happen. Indeed, the mining barge warps away, so I follow, back to my perch in the ore site, and assess the situation,

I see the Prophecy looting the Sleeper wrecks, the Retriever chomping on rocks. Or not chomping on rocks, but just floating in space near them. Hopefully that's a glitch with my sensors and not a sign of obvious bait. We'll see, as I'm going in, our K162 having been noticed or not. I give the command to warp closer to the mining barge, noting that it is far enough from the Prophecy for the battlecruiser not to be able to get involved immediately, and here comes Fin.

My glorious leader comes on-line as my Loki enters warp, a moment too late to cancel the command and refocus our attention on the Prophecy. I'd prefer to tackle the combat ship than the industrial one, but my warp goes a little awry and lands me on top of a rock. My cloak drops, the jig is up, and I'd better make the most of what I've got. I turn and burn towards the Retriever, getting a positive lock and shooting a few seconds before I can disrupt its warp engines. That's fine, as it takes longer than a few seconds for a mining barge to enter warp.

I watch for ships decloaking as I overheat my guns, but nothing comes. In fact, the Prophecy recalls its drones and warps clear, not wanting to get involved. I don't blame him. The Retriever starts to die, and finishes too. Pop! I aim for the ejected pod but am a second too slow, leaving me a wreck to loot and shoot. A chunk of spodumain is destroyed. Now to reload, re-activate my cloak, and return to the tower to gauge the reaction.

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Tags: cormorant, eve online, golem, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, prophecy, pvp, retriever, rifter, scanning, sleepers, venture, w-space

Finding exits and entrances

Sites have despawned in the home system, yet there are signatures dotted around. What manner of wizardry is this?! I shall investigate. Oh, and I need to bring my glorious leader home too. The signatures are new, or shifted, gas clouds, and a second wormhole. The connection is a K162 from class 2 w-space, which is nifty, because a C2 system with a static wormhole to C4 w-space will have its second static wormhole exit to high-sec. Let's find it.

Jumping to C2a and updating my directional scanner sees a tower but no ships, and although I align away from the wormhole in preparation for warp, opening the system map shows a puny three signatures in a tiny system. Sod it, I launch probes at the wormhole and, because scanning will be quick, scan quickly. The two unknown signatures resolve to be two wormholes, the high-sec exit and a K162 from more class 2 w-space.

System scanned, I locate the tower. This task is even easier than scanning, as the territorial control unit anchored nearby guides me right to the local occupation, my Loki strategic cruiser's interdiction nullifier subsystem preventing me from being pulled in to the almost-inevitable bubble trap surrounding the TCU. Of course, no one's home, I'm just here to tag the corporation. That done, I warp to the high-sec wormhole, exit w-space, and relay the system in Devoid to Fin. Nineteen hops. She's on her way.

Back to w-space and across C2a to jump to C2b, where d-scan is clear and a blanket scan reveals eight anomalies and seven signatures, still no ships. Notes from eleven weeks ago say 'yes' to occupation, but exploring finds none. Silly notes. Someone must have opened the wormhole to C2a, though, so I launch probes and scan for K162s. I resolve one, plus the static exit to low-sec—obviously Aridia, the nebula being quite distinctive. The K162 comes from class 5 w-space.

Out to low-sec first, in case, by some weird circumstance, the route to Fin is more convenient, and I indeed appear in a system in Aridia. There are signatures and pilots, the route is naturally poor, and I ignore them all to go back to see what C5a holds for me. Three towers, an Archon carrier, Venture frigate, and a shuttle. That's a Sleeper escalation fleet if ever I saw one.

There is a single ore site in the system, which I vigorously encourage d-scan to show me a few times, but each time the Venture doesn't appear to be there. Fair enough, and I locate the tower holding the three ships to see they all lack pilots, whilst bringing a fourth tower in to d-scan range. Whatever, there are no other ships and a lack of activity takes me away from finding towers and back to scanning.

Sifting through fourteen signatures could be time-consuming, but ignoring the skinny ones makes the process much quicker, and quite successful. One wormhole, a Z142 connection to null-sec. A second, a C2 K162. Third, another Z142. Fourth, a K162 from null-sec. And the fifth and final chubby signature is also a wormhole, a C142 exit to low-sec. I suppose I should check the exits first.

The C142 takes me to an uninteresting system in Solitude, the first Z142 to Insmother where I look for, find, and pop a rat, but don't scan because I don't want to. That, and there aren't any signatures. The second null-sec connection spits me in to Syndicate, where there are pilots, probes, and an interceptor somewhere. Back to C5a, out to null-sec the third, appearing in Fountain, again with pilots. That'll do, now for more w-space, through the K162—now at the end of its life after that faffing around—and in to C2c.

D-scan is clear, no ships appear on a blanket scan, and it's late. I'll assume a lack of occupation in this C2, partly because I can't see any from where I am, partly because the two static connections lead to class 5 w-space and null-sec. I turn around to head home, through C5a where a Helios covert operations boat appears on d-scan launching probes. His ship name makes him local, so there are no new connections, he's in a hard-to-catch cov-ops, and I'm tired. Back to C2b, C2a, and home, avoiding the weirdly abandoned probes on the wormhole to warp to a quiet corner and go off-line.

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Tags: archon, eve online, helios, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, venture, w-space

'Ceptors are scary

Checking the exit to low-sec takes me to a system in Metropolis, where there is no sign of the Astero frigate or any other members of his corporation. They've definitely moved out of today's neighbouring class 3 w-space system, with a little help from us. There are a couple of other pilots, though, or at least a fairly constant trickle of ships coming and going, which stops my ratting. A few extra signatures in the system is enough to encourage me to scan.

Wormhole, combat site, wormhole. The wormholes are both K162s from class 3 w-space, one healthy and one at the end of its life. I wonder if the C3a corporation just wanted a change of scenery, rather than leaving w-space or shifting classes. Curious to see if I'd bump in to a familiar frigate, I jump to C3b, though the healthy K162, and update my directional scanner. Nothing is within range of my scanner, but I see a Wolf-Rayet phenomenon in the system. That can be an attractive feature, I suppose.

I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of C3b, revealing ten anomalies, five signatures, and no ships. Exploring finds one tower on the edge of the system, where there is obviously no one home and it doesn't belong to the C3a corporation. It would have been more of a surprise if they had moved here, frankly. I'm pretty much just following standard operating procedures for scouting w-space.

I don't so much sift through the signatures as get a perfect result, calling my probes in to a nominal spread and identifying the U210 and four gas sites with a single scan. Of course, I entered the system through the U210, backwards, placing me in a dead end. No activity and no K162s, I return to the U210 and jump back to low-sec.

A quick peek in to C3c has a clear d-scan result and one planet out of range, the dying connection convincing me to rely solely on my combat scanning probes instead of straying from the wormhole. Three anomalies and six signatures, but a whopping twenty-six ships. Then again, twenty-six ships all out of d-scan range, when there is only one planet out of d-scan range. I think it's safe to say they are all empty and floating inside the force field of a tower. But I can't leave it to assumption.

Warping to the far planet sees a force field appear on d-scan, along with all of the ships, mostly industrial. The collection includes Venture mining frigates, and as there is a sole ore site near this planet I point d-scan in a tight beam towards it before looking for the tower. Nothing there. I look for the tower. All the ships are present, none hold pilots. I think I can ignore this system.

Back to low-sec, across to C3a, and home, heading backwards again through a K162 to class 5 w-space where three null-sec connections were found earlier. HR has gone through one of them and is scanning, so I go through another, appearing in a system in Tenerifis holding two dozen other capsuleers along with a Leviathan titan. I've seen one of those before, and the presence of a Crow interceptor is enough to dissuade me from staying long. Nasty little buggers, those.

I head to join HR, who found an N432 outbound connection to more class 5 w-space in the system in Etherium Reach, and is monitoring a scout or two through the wormhole. I loiter on the null-sec side of the wormhole as he identifies a Legion strategic cruiser which he hopes to bait in to engaging him. Just before HR decloaks his own, a Tengu strategic cruiser blips on d-scan, giving us two potential hostiles.

We're both cloaky, they're both cloaky, and there isn't a brick of a Proteus strategic cruiser to deal with. It could be an interesting fight. But they may well have more piloted ships available in reserve, where we are somewhat lacking. We sit on either side of the wormhole in silence for a bit. I realise I could perhaps rat whilst HR continues monitoring the activity in C5b, so I warp to a rock field and start shooting at some drones.

Yep, C5b is too hot for us, a Stiletto interceptor appearing somewhere in the system enough to convince us of this. If nothing else, that gives the other side at least one extra pilot. HR bugs out, back to null-sec and warping past me, as I continue to whittle down the drone's armour, on his way home. I finish off the rat, thankfully not interrupted by a new pilot in the system, and follow behind my colleague.

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Tags: crow, eve online, legion, leviathan, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, stiletto, tengu, venture, w-space

Helping with a move

Another day in w-space. We've got one anomaly back and a new signature. No one is currently stealing from us in the anomaly and I think about clearing it for ourselves, but only once I've scanned to make sure the system is safe. It is not. The new signature is a second wormhole, so I won't go shooting Sleepers just yet, and instead see how far back the K162 from class 5 w-space will take me.

The K162 takes me as far back as C5a, at least. My directional scanner is clear from the wormhole and just one planet sits out of range. Launching probes and blanketing the system reveals six anomalies and eight signatures, no ships. Exploring finds no occupation. There is almost certainly a K162 to find, and resolving the signatures finds two, as well as gas and a data site. Both wormholes are K162s, both from null-sec, so this arm of the constellation ends rather abruptly.

I'll check the null-sec K162s, I suppose. Belay that order, cadet! HR has gone in the other direction, through our static wormhole to the neighbouring class 3 system, and has seen a Bestower hauler blip off d-scan. That sounds suspiciously like some planet gooing that could be interrupted by explosions. I should go and join my colleague instead of faffing around in null-sec with rats and signatures.

Home and in to C3a, where updating d-scan sees a tower and Astero frigate, as per HR's description. My notes tell me where the tower is likely to be, and that I stole a Manticore stealth bomber on my last visit to the system. Warping to the tower sees the Astero piloted but idling, and potentially already aware of our wormhole. Never mind that, I warp to a distant planet, launch probes, and blanket the system. Five anomalies, six signatures, and just the Astero under my combat probes.

Two signatures are potentially the U210, and as one is in the centre of the system, out of d-scan range of the tower, I resolve it as HR watches for movement from the Astero. I find the wormhole, and warp as I reset my probes in to their blanket scanning configuration, hidden out of d-scan range of the system but seeing all within it. A second ship, with a fat signature, is now in the system. It must be the Bestower, and not just because I can see it on d-scan.

It looks like I'm too slow in getting here or scanning, as the Bestower has warped from the wormhole to low-sec by the time I get there. HR reports movement at the tower, though. The Astero warps away, the Bestower warps in. The frigate comes to me, landing a healthy distance from the wormhole before cloaking, which is a weird choice. Maybe not cloaking was an oversight when leaving the tower.

Perhaps missing the Bestower was a blessing in disguise. 'He's scooping the guns', says HR, which explains why the tower looked so bare and suggests that the hauler was likely empty on its return to the system. If the locals are moving out we can probably catch them, now that we have the wormhole bookmarked. But I can't exit the system without the Astero seeing me, and if I don't leave we'll potentially get caught with polarisation issues. 'Or we can catch them at the tower.' Oh, right.

Indeed, if the Bestower is scooping guns he is out of the force field. Or, in fact, if the tower is being unanchored there isn't even a force field, as I find out on warping back to the tower. The Bestower floats in empty space near the unanchoring tower, but as I start my slow, cloaked crawl to the hauler it warps away, disappearing from d-scan. Maybe it went out to low-sec to drop off the guns. If that's the case, I can catch his return and we can scoop the tower ourselves.

I warp to the U210 to get in to position, realising that we'll probably have to wait until the tower unanchors before seeing the Bestower again. How long, HR? 'Six minutes.' So we wait. After a bit of waiting I realise I probably should have timestamped that last message. How long now, HR? 'One minute, thirty seconds.' Okay, time to get primed. 'Bestower on d-scan. Landing.' Ah, clearly he didn't go to low-sec. I'd better get back to the tower.

I aim to drop a little short of the tower, so that I don't decloak prematurely, and it's good that I do. The Bestower landed twenty kilometres away and didn't fancy slowboating his way to scoop the tower, and has warped to bounce off a moon. It's on the hauler's return that we hit it. There's no need to be coy with this, as we don't need or even want him to scoop the tower, just explode. The only question is whether the hauler has more than the Astero protecting him. Probably not, but let's see.

We decloak. The recalibration delay feels like an age this time, but it eventually ends and our targeting systems work again. Autocannons chatter, launchers fire, and I burn towards the Bestower in case it has warp core stabilisers fitted. Of course, it hasn't, not when it needs the cargo capacity for tower defences and a tower, and so the hauler is ripped apart in seconds. The pod is caught and cracked too, but as the corporation is moving out we've probably just saved the capsuleer some time in waking him up in a clone vat somewhere in empire space.

I scoop the corpse, grab the expanded cargoholds from the wreck, and clear the pocket. I'm still a little paranoid. Warping to the low-sec exit sees no movement, either out or in, which looks good for our claiming the remaining loot. The tower didn't survive, but there is a ship maintenance array and a gun to collect, and we've cost the target about a hundred and fifty million ISK. Ah, it looks like we'll get the loot cleanly. The Astero appears, warping to the wormhole and exiting the system.

That's probably the system clear of everyone that's not us. I continue watching the wormhole as HR heads home for our own Bestower, more than capable of hauling the loot and easily disposable. He comes back, loots the wreck, and goes home without trouble. No one passes through the low-sec wormhole. I suppose I'd better take this opportunity to update my notes: no occupation.

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Tags: astero, bestower, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Finding the w-space Phantasm

I leave the hot system behind me. Well, cool system. It was hot earlier, and there is certainly some activity happening, just nothing I can see. Frankly, that's not a great kind of activity to be involved in. So it is that I jump through the wormhole home and head towards our static connection, hoping that our neighbouring class 3 w-space system holds some unmonitored promise.

Updating my directional scanner from our K162 sees a tower and a few ships. The Tengu strategic cruiser and Sabre interdictor are fairly normal sights, but the Phantasm cruiser isn't. Indeed, the rarity of the cruiser in w-space piques my interest enough to check back through my records. Noting that my previous visit to this system was about six months ago lets me find the relevant journal entry. It is the same Phantasm cruiser.

I wonder if the Phantasm gets taken out of the tower, as I warp to where it inevitably is floating unpiloted inside a force field, the tower unsurprisingly in the same place. The other two ships are empty of capsuleers too, and realising that any minor sensation of excitement was only caused by jumping to a system I've visited previously causes my energy to wane. I've been to many systems more than once.

There doesn't seem to be much potential in the w-space constellation. There is a poor high-sec connection behind us, combined with possible threat, and I know that this C3 will exit to low-sec, so replacing Fin's lost Loki strategic cruiser doesn't look likely. Well, not with that attitude. Scanning is easy, I can at least poke for the U210 and check for possible K162s in low-sec. Bridging the k-space gap often stumbles in to activity. I warp away from the tower to launch my probes.

A blanket scan of the system reveals thirteen anomalies and twelve signatures, and sifting through them initially identifies a relic and data site. It's a slow start. A clump of signatures speeds up the process—gasgasgaswormhole—and from there I get in to a decent groove. Second wormhole, two more gas sites, another relic site, and one last gas site, as I land twenty-seven kilometres from the U210 and an Astero frigate.

My combat probes showed me the ship in space as I finished scanning, and now my overview tells me what the ship is. I'm too far to engage the Astero successfully, and crawling cloaked towards the frigate doesn't get me appreciably closer before it jumps to low-sec. That's cool, maybe he'll come back polarised. I make my way to the wormhole and loiter. But he doesn't come back.

Never mind, let's see where the Astero came from. I warp to the second wormhole to see that, ah, I've found a dying K162 from null-sec. The frigate actually could have come from low-sec to start with, and has simply headed back the way he came. I return to the U210 and exit w-space for low-sec, and seeing no sign of the Astero makes me think he really isn't coming back. Fair enough.

Not having a target I appraise my new situation. I'm in a system in Khanid, with a small trickle of pilots coming and going. A couple of extra signatures are visible, but scanning them only resolves a pair of relic sites that I'm not interested in. I think I should take the hint. There's nothing out here for me tonight. I turn my Loki around and head home.

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Tags: astero, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, phantasm, sabre, scanning, tengu, w-space

Not exploring my options

Fin's lost a Loki. My glorious leader hasn't misplaced the strategic cruiser in a hangar, but got it stuck on a structure in an anomaly when reclaiming some Sleeper loot of ours, and the four Golem marauders trying to steal it took offence. So it goes. We should probably buy a stack of Lokis for the number we're going through. For now, Fin's gone off-line and I'm arrived to see what's happening.

The hostile pilots' K162 from class 2 w-space remains in the home system. I'm not entirely sure it's worth poking through that, but as they didn't actively attack us and the kerfuffle happened a couple of hours ago it's probably worth at least seeing if they are still active. I jump to C2a and update my directional scanner, seeing two Golems—and no Sleeper wrecks—two Bestower haulers, one Sigil hauler, and two towers. Looking out the window sees a Wolf-Rayet phenomenon.

One Golem is by itself in one tower, so I whip across to locate the industrial targets. Sadly, they're all empty of pilots, as is the other Golem that's with them. The first Golem turns out to be piloted, but by a capusleer probably snoozing. I ignore him to warp away to the edges of the system to look for other occupation, finding it too. One way has a third tower with two Orca industrial command ships, the other way a fourth tower with an Orca, Epithal hauler, and a Crucifier frigate. The frigate is the only of these ships to be piloted.

Not much is going on, and there's not much to see with probes either. I may as well scan the four signatures, if only because there will be a high-sec exit amongst them, and I resolve that plus another wormhole. Getting the exit lands me in a not-terribly convenient system in Genesis, but one with an additional signature. Scanning that seems like a sensible way to avoid polarisation issues when returning to a potentially hostile system, so I launch probes.

The signature is a wormhole, with a covert operations boat on it. But this is high-sec, Penny. Remember that. I warp across and see the Buzzard sitting next to a K162 from class 1 w-space, and remember to ignore it, just as an orange pilot appears in the local channel. He's from C2a, so I warp back to see if he's perhaps taking a hauler back in to w-space. He's not, he's just poked out from his home system in a Cheetah. It's still high-sec, Penny, so leave this one alone too.

It's easy to ignore cov-ops boats, as catching them is pretty difficult most of the time. The Cheetah returns to C2a, and not long after the Buzzard from the C1 K162 warps to this C2 K162 and burns to the wormhole and jumps. Some high-sec explorer, perhaps. Either way, I ignore him again and wander back to the other wormhole to explore the class 1 system.

Jumping to C1a and punching d-scan sees a tower and no ships, and the discovery scanner shows me seventeen anomalies but only two signatures. I think the odds are good that this system has been inactive for hours and that signature is another wormhole, so rather than trying to hide from the tower I launch probes and scan incautiously. It is a wormhole, but not deeper w-space, only a K162 from high-sec Metropolis.

Back I go to high-sec Genesis, and across to return to C2a. No one obviously waits for me, but I should bear in mind the scout in the Cheetah. Oh, right, there's that other wormhole too. I warp across to my bookmark to see a K162 from class 5 w-space, one that looks peculiarly intimidating. It's not that I fear C5 space as such, more that I don't see any good coming from visiting the system.

The C2a locals have been active and were happy ripping our Loki apart. I would say that either nothing is happening in C5a, or the C2 capsuleers have quelled whatever was happening, or the C5 capsuleers have done the same to C2a. Me and my Loki probably won't have much additional influence. Of course, the C2a locals may have gone to sleep and C5a is taking this opportunity to run planet goo, but probably not with a C2a scout active and a Golem and Crucifier pilot on standby. No, I think I'll uncharacteristically leave this wormhole alone.

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Tags: bestower, buzzard, cheetah, crucifier, epithal, eve online, golem, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, sigil, w-space

Random access

A glorious leader and some bookmarks is a good combination to come on-line to. Fin's now busy hauling between w-space and high-sec, as we have an exit conveniently close to Amarr. I hope she remembers that we're currently at war. 'Always', she says, and points me towards an unexplored class 2 w-space system, connected via a K162 in the home system from a first class 2 system. I'm on my way!

Jumping first to C2a and updating my directional scanner sees three towers and one ship, a Claymore command ship. 'Yes, piloted but very idle.' It's a tiny system, so I can't help but locate the towers and confirm that the Claymore remains both piloted and idle, which is straightforward enough. That done, I head to the wormhole to C2b and, well, pause. The wormhole is at the end of its life.

The wormhole may be EOL but the bookmark doesn't note this fact. That should give me ample time to explore through it. Or it could give me an adventure if I get isolated, but let's hope not. I jump through. Checking d-scan sees a tower, plus an Ishtar heavy assault cruiser, Loki strategic cruiser, and Cheetah covert operations boat. There are no wrecks, so it's a fair assumption that the ships are all at the tower. I just need to check them for pilots.

Locating the tower sees the two cruiser hulls having pilots, the cov-ops empty. They are also curiously orange, given the unexplored nature of this system, explained by Fin having seen them jump this way when in C2a and tagged them appropriately. At least we know their origin system. But the pilots aren't moving and the wormhole is moving a bit too much. I leave C2b alone to look elsewhere for opportunity.

Back to and through C2a to the home system, and through our static wormhole to the class 3 system beyond. D-scan shows me towers and ships, one a Dominix battleship, three of them haulers, and a rookie frigate. 'Is there an Iteron V?' Nope. 'The rest are empty.' Aww. She's not wrong, of course, and it seems the Iteron may have gone back out to high-sec. There's not much I can do about that, but I do see a ghost site amongst the amazing thirty-six anomalies.

Is the ghost site worth the risk, given the occupation and potential activity? 'Yes', says the devil on my shoulder. I can't argue with that. At least we can watch wormholes whilst I haphazardly hack at containers in system without any other obvious pilots. I jump home, refit my Loki, and jump back. It's the second time in consecutive days that I've found a w-space ghost site, and as yesterday's effort worked so well—except for the silly randomness that is hacking—I see no point in changing.

Move from the wormhole and cloak. Align to the ghost site. Warp cloaked to the ghost site. As I decelerate I decloak, and as I stop I lock all four containers and scan their contents in turn. Well, this looks like a potentially good haul to have explode next to my Loki. One Wetu BPC, one Packrat BPC, and one container with both BPCs. I pick that one first.

Hack, hack, hack. Success? I'm almost uncertain what to do next, but I get my wits about myself and open the container, nabbing the two BPCs plus the ghostly goo. I still have time, probably, so head towards the can with other Wetu BPC. Hack, hack, explosion. That's more what I'm used to. It's time to bug out. There's no point getting greedy, not with a pretty good result sitting in my hold. I cloak and warp to our K162.

Getting back to our tower has my restoring my Loki's fitting, but rather than let the two mobile depot BPCs gather dust in our hangar I keep hold of them. We have a good connection to Amarr, we may as well continue to use it. I head through C2a to the high-sec exit, and turn around again when I realise I'm staring at the wrong colours. That's not Domain. I've come the wrong way. At least I see that the Claymore is now a Buzzard cov-ops. 'From mildly boring to more boring.'

Home again, and C3a again, warping to the right high-sec exit, and this time it's myself I have to remind we're at war and to watch out for war targets. Two oranges are in the exit system, Fin recognising both as being local to C3a, and although it is difficult to monitor the over eight-hundred pilots in Amarr I do manage to see that Noel Edmunds is a red. Damn right he is, bastard.

I dock, contract the BPCs for hopefully reasonable prices, and undock, warping to my safe spot directly below the station. I don't think I'm in danger, but now I'm definitely not in danger, cloaked and far from the undock point. I turn my Loki around and make the two stargate-hops that take me back to the wormhole, and return to w-space. And that will do for me for tonight, not that there is much left to do anyway.

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Tags: buzzard, cheetah, claymore, dominix, eve online, ishtar, iteron, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Random access denial

I have a little time to hang around w-space, let's see what I can get up to. I can start by checking out the kill report of the Vindicator, a marauder that was idling on a stargate valued at 1·5 billion ISK. I wonder if the owner corporation still thinks declaring war on us was a good idea. I also see that someone has swept through our system, taking all the Sleeper loot from the anomalies. The joke is on them, though, as they were all rubbish anomalies.

A couple of gas sites remain untouched in the home system, and they will continue to remain untouched. I scan a new pocket of gas, ignoring it with surprising efficiency, and the current static wormhole, which takes me to today's neighbouring class 3 w-space system. Updating my directional scanner on the K162 in C3a sees nothing, and even though only one planet is in range warping away to explore doesn't find much else. The system is unoccupied and inactive.

Unoccupied, inactive, and with a ghost site amongst the seven anomalies. Should I just blast through that quickly, even if 'blast' is perhaps the wrong way to think about clearing a ghost site? I think so. The occupation from a year ago is gone and my blanket scan has only three chubby signatures, which will be our K162, the static exit to low-sec, and probably a gas site. The third signature isn't quite strong enough to suggest another wormhole. The system is probably currently secure.

I head home, warp to our tower, and start refitting my Loki strategic cruiser to be ghost site-compatible. I think I do, anyway. I really should write this kind of information down, as it has been a while since I last went in to a ghost site. I do my best with the refit, as the cargo scanner and relic analyser are obvious choices, and not much else can be fit in the other positions. Refit done, I save the refit as the 'ghost site Loki, experimental'. It'll do until this one explodes.

Back to C3a, where I move away from our K162 and cloak. Align to the ghost site, and warp cloaked. On decelerating in to the ghost site I decloak to soak up the recalibration delay, and lock the four containers to scan their contents. Nothing special, a 'Wetu' mobile depot BPC, nothing special, and a 'Packrat' mobile depot BPC. I have clear options, but I'm not sure which BPC is the better one. I believe the Wetu is the better depot, but the Packrat one is newer. Whatever, I'll go for the Wetu BPO.

Hack, hack, explosion. Silly randomness. Never mind, move across to the container with the Packrat BPC. Hack, hack, explosion. Silly randomness. And half my shields are now gone. There is no worth in the other two containers, certainly nowhere near enough to risk my Loki against the rats that are due to warp in any time soon, so I re-activate my cloak and warp back to our wormhole, empty-handed. Still, I gave the ghost site a shot and get clear with my ship.

Home again, restore my fitting, and once more to C3a to scan the system. I check the chubby signatures and resolve gas and the static wormhole, as expected, and ignore every other signature in the system. They are all too weak to be K162s, and checking them for outbound wormholes is time-consuming with no guaranteed result. I'll hit low-sec instead, through the pristine U210 that, well, if it isn't the nebula of Aridia seeping through the wormhole like a shit-stain.

Exiting w-space does indeed land me in a system in Aridia, where no one cares to come and two signatures lure me to resolve them. I launch probes and warp to a nearby rock field, bumping in to a rat battleship and two escort frigates that I pop for security status and pocket ISK, whilst resolving the two signatures to be a gas site and data site. No more wormholes means no further exploration, but also that no other capsuleers connect to this backwater system. We should be grateful for the little mercies. At least my time has been a little varied, thanks to the ghost site. But my time is now up for today.

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Tags: eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space