Bad bait

Just sittin' on a wormhole, waitin' for polarisation to end. I'm curious to see if the locals of our neighbouring class 3 w-space system will poke their noses through, see what's happening here. I'm not really expecting anything, given that I disrupted their mining operation—admittedly with almost negligible loss to them—but that I did it solo in an interdictor and our K162 is the only other signature in their system apart from their static wormhole may tug at their curiosity.

Sure enough, just as I am about to give up waiting and head back through, the wormhole crackles. A Purifier stealth bomber enters our system, and jumps straight back to C3a. Okay, whatever. Nice scouting. I'll leave it a few more minutes before going back myself, though, in case the Purifier considers waiting on the other side. I don't think he will, not when he didn't even want to explore our system in a covert ship, but it gives me a chance to answer some correspondence.

Nothing else visits us. I'm going back. I'm expecting only to resolve their static wormhole and continue scanning for connections in high-sec empire space, but it's something to do and safer than collapsing the wormhole to start afresh. My directional scanner shows me no obvious change in the system, just the three towers and a Tengu strategic cruiser in range, but all the activity was out by the edge of the system. I warp to the other towers, making a safe spot for launching probes in deep space on the way, and see what's happening.

Two Retriever mining barges are idling in one tower, the Procurer mining barge in a second, along with a Cheetah covert operations boat. The Procurer's not there for long, though, warping away to empty space. There's no ore site in that direction, not that I think he'd start mining again—not without refitting to be bait—and it takes a moment to realise he's probably gone to high-sec. I should scan for that wormhole, I suppose. Or maybe I should scan for the Kryos hauler near my safe spot.

I launch probes and look for the hauler, but my probes come up blank, not even a signature. He can't have been on a wormhole, I don't see why the hauler would need such a safe spot, so I must have seen it mid-warp. And as the high-sec wormhole is close to the outer planet, and the Kryos was spotted nearer the middle of the system, that would mean it was warping to the inner system. I point my Loki strategic cruiser in that direction as I resolve the wormhole.

The hauler is at a sixth tower, easily found, and he's gone again as I get eyes on it. He's headed towards the wormhole I've resolved, which makes sense. He wasn't at the far towers, so he must have entered the system from high-sec when I first spotted him. And now he's going back. Will he return again, and soon, before polarisation effects end? I think it's worth finding out, even with the design decision to let these haulers fit a full rack of warp core stabilisers without affecting their specialised hauling capacity.

I follow the Kryos and see the ship jump through the system's static wormhole to high-sec. I get close to the wormhole and, within a minute, it crackles a second time. I decloak, activate my sensor booster, and immediate regret having done so. But it wasn't a mistake, Penny, you haven't tipped your hand. If it is the Kryos it can hold its session-change cloak for as long as it can, the ship will still be polarised and unable to jump back to the safety of high-sec. Decloaking early consumes the associated recalibration delay. I knew that, I just for a second didn't remember that I knew.

There he is, it is the Kryos. I get a positive target lock, try my best to disrupt his warp engines, and start shooting, pushing forwards to try to bump the ship. And what's this? A Nemesis decloaks twenty kilometres away and starts shooting me. Whatever, I'm on a high-sec wormhole. And the Kryos is made of tinfoil, it seems. I destroy the ship in seconds, aiming for and catching the pod and ripping that apart too. That's a big enough hint for the Nemesis to leave—that and my barely scratched shields—and the second target disappears before the fight even got started.

I scoop the corpse, and shoot the wreck of the hauler. There's no loot, and not because none survived the explosion. There was no cargo, no modules, just a bare ship. That almost suggests this ship was bait, but if it was it was really bad bait. Who tries to lay bait on a high-sec wormhole? In a polarised, unfitted ship? With one stealth bomber for support? These guys, I suppose. Still, I get my second corpse of the evening, and although the cost of both ship kills and poddings barely adds up to a few million ISK, at least I caught them.

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Tags: cheetah, eve online, kryos, mmorpg, nemesis, penny ibramovic, procurer, purifier, pvp, retriever, scanning, tengu, w-space

Cheap and cheerless

No Sleepers for me today, even though a couple of new sites have spawned in the home system. I'm off exploring. It's just our static wormhole to venture through, so through it I venture to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where I am frustrated by the discovery scanner. Just two signatures are in the system, obvious without any need to scan, or even be in a boat capable of scanning. One is the static wormhole, the other our K162 that becomes a shining beacon of inevitable intrusion to any active pilots. If only it had more signatures to hide in.

I'm kinda hoping there is no one home now, my directional scanner showing me three towers and no ships from our wormhole, and clearly there are no K162s to find. I warp away to explore. In warp, I check my notes. My last visit was four months ago, when there was no occupation. Some corporation has been busy populating the system and cleaning it of sites. Really quite busy, seeing that I bump in to two more towers on the edge of the system, this time with some ships on d-scan too.

Wanting to see if there are any pilots with the ships, I locate the two towers. The first has no ships, at least until I turn and head to the second tower, at which point a Retriever mining barge warps in to the force field. Damn. And at the second tower there are four empty ships, and one piloted Cheetah covert operations boat. The good news is that this leaves a Venture mining frigate, Procurer mining barge, and two Retrievers out in space. The bad news is the discovery scanner.

An ore site sits above the ecliptic plane nearby, matching where the first Retriever warped from. Taking my Loki strategic cruiser to that site finds the miners, mining away, still apparently oblivious to our K162. Sure, but for how long? Well, damn the discovery scanner in w-space, I'm not going in with my Loki. It's the wrong ship for this ambush. I'll either catch them all or none of them. No half-arsed measures for me, and if not being quick enough to beat the discovery scanner means I lose this opportunity, then so be it.

I warp my Loki back to our wormhole, pausing when a new Tengu strategic cruiser appears on d-scan in the inner system, but jumping home anyway because what difference will it make? On my way to our tower I consider my options. My first thought is to drop an Onyx heavy interdictor on the miners, as its bubble should ensure no ships get away and their pods get trapped. But the targets are spread somewhat apart and I have only a rough warp-in point. It's not like I felt I had time to be professional about this.

Maybe the Flycatcher interdictor is the better option. It can launch temporary bubbles, having about the same effect as the Onyx, whilst remaining mobile. The Onyx's bubble severely restricts what the ship can do whilst the bubble is inflated. Then again, I know the Onyx has the firepower to pop the barges pretty quickly and it can take a hell of a beating itself, and I don't think I've flown the Flycatcher in anger before. But I'm not really expecting any return fire, and the Flycatcher is much more agile, so I'll decelerate out of warp more quickly. The interdictor is also much cheaper. I'll take the Flycatcher.

I return to C3a and warp from the wormhole to the rough point in the ore site that I think should be central to the ships. But, of course, I get there to see a different sight than before. The Venture and Procurer remain, the Retrievers are gone. Now my plans are in a little disarray. I should have been in the middle of some ships, now I'm on the edge of them, the Venture 27 km away, the Procurer 22 km.

How big is the interdiction sphere's bubble? I don't actually know, which is an oversight, but, again, I didn't really have time to check. Rather the pop it where I am, I activate my micro warp drive to get comfortably closer to the ships, giving the Procurer the extra second it needs to complete his warp drive activation and leave the site. Great. Okay, it's just me and the Venture, the frigate able to leave any time it wants, given that my single point of warp disruption will do nothing to stop it. Still, I'm confident the Flycatcher's rockets will rip the frigate open with little resistance. And they do.

I pop the interdiction sphere as I pop the frigate, snaring the pod and turning it in to a corpse easily enough. I scoop, loot, and shoot, bagging myself some really crappy modules and an empty-headed cadaver, and align out of the bubble back towards our wormhole. I see a Wolf assault frigate on d-scan, but only on d-scan, and I escape my bubble and warp to our K162 with no resistance, waiting the seventeen seconds of polarisation to jump home safely.

No one is either side of the wormhole. I warp to our tower, dump the pitiful loot, and swap back to my Loki, warping to our static connection to see if anything will happen. But damn the discovery scanner, ruining a potentially destructive ambush and malicious slaughter. Instead, all I manage to catch is the cheapest, crappiest ship and its sleeping pilot. It's a sad state of affairs when w-space mining in an easily found ore site doesn't lead to wrecks and corpses scatted everywhere.

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Tags: cheetah, eve online, flycatcher, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, procurer, pvp, retriever, scanning, tengu, venture, w-space, wolf

Three against the Sleepers

My glorious leader is on-line. What's up, Fin? 'Just trying to clean out some signatures.' So... 'sucking gas, basically.' Well, we have some decent anomalies, which I mentioned to myself in passing a day or so ago, and an ever-present need to make more ISK to fuel our machine. Maybe we should sweep through the Sleeper population with all guns blazing. 'Agreed.' And here's HR to join the party. Excellent.

By 'all guns', I do, of course, mean missile launchers. Who uses guns against Sleepers? So Fin and HR board paired Tengu strategic cruisers, and I stubbornly hop in to the Golem marauder, still fit with short-range torpedoes and a micro jump drive. I'm sure it will be fine, and I won't spend ages trying to get in to a decent position. Right?

In to the first anomaly, Fin leading HR, me doing my own thing, and we warp in different directions. Is this a bad start? 'Nah.' Just normal, then. 'We are immortal, remember?' I think that's a technicality, and doesn't apply to our ships, but we get ourselves orientated properly and in to the same anomaly, where the first wave of Sleepers is cleared smoothly. It better be, it doesn't get much simpler.

The second wave, however, is a minor disaster for the incompetent Golem pilot. Micro-jumping in to completely the wrong position, pressing the wrong button to put the Golem in to bastion mode instead of making a correcting jump, and only getting in to a relatively suitable position once the two Tengus have almost popped the second wave. But 'almost' means I have something to do when I finally move in the right direction, and at least my colleagues aren't relying on me.

My continued failure with the MJD shows how genuinely rubbish I am right now, enough to prompt Fin to ask if it's time for me to switch from torpedoes to the longer-range cruise missiles. 'Naw', says HR, 'they be dying'. I'm probably just rusty anyway, and the second anomaly is my chance to prove this. The first wave is the first wave, and the jumps in to the second wave are better. Some would even say good. Like me. I'd say it was good. The second wave is ripped apart by torpedoes and heavy missiles alike.

Back to mediocrity with the third wave in the second anomaly. It's only angles in three-dimensional space, it shouldn't be this difficult. Still, I keep my spirit up as we push on to the next site, and I think my poor performance so far really is just a lack of recent experience. A little bit of practice means that my jump in to the second wave splits the battleships equally, planting my Golem right in the middle of them. I drop in to the third wave almost perfectly too. Yeah.

I keep up the excellence in the fourth anomaly, or at least suppress the mediocrity, and we clear that and the fifth anomaly smoothly, no hiccups. All in all, the bastion torpedo Golem remains a good performer, if requiring a bit more skill and effort than a long-range platform. I'm happy with it. At least sweeping up in Noctis salvagers is a piece of cake. No one bothers us, and we pull in about half-a-billion ISK in loot and salvage, which we stash away to realise when we have a good connection to empire space. That won't be tonight. I've had my fun, as has HR, and Fin is happy to get back to huffing gas to finish the evening.

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Tags: eve online, golem, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Checking the gas is still on

Back to standard scouting. The Venture mining frigate has disappeared, leaving the gas site moments after simultaneously sucking up the last of the gas and having my probes resolve his position. I need to look elsewhere for adventure, but perhaps after I find the towers in this system. One is easy to find, being around a planet with just one moon, the other I have to look for, and when I do I see that the Tengu strategic cruiser inside the force field is actually piloted.

The present capsuleer is a little surprising, given the Venture was gassing and is no longer in the system. But maybe all it means is that the Venture pilot is local, and has gone off-line now that his task is complete. It also kinda means that when I launched probes earlier, to hunt the Venture, the Tengu pilot was in a position to see me do it via the directional scanner. That assumes he's paying attention, though, and it really looks like he isn't. I'll use that to my benefit, given that I want to re-launch my probes and can't get out of d-scan range of the ship.

Hold on. Before I launch probes I want to check something. On a hunch, I warp to the gas site, the one where it looked like the Venture cleared, the one that my probes still picked up on the scan. Sure enough, the site remains, the clouds are there and not completely harvested. Of course it's still there. The Venture didn't finish harvesting the gas, my warping to empty space was caused by warping to the Venture's scanned position. And that was empty space because the Venture was in warp away from the site as my scan finished.

Did the Tengu see me and warn the Venture? Did the discovery scanner finally update and ping our K162 to the gasser? Or was he so primed to detect probes that he got clear before the scan finished? That would be impressive. But, whatever. I'll scan. Twenty anomalies and eight signatures are distilled down to two chubby wormholes, one skinny wormhole, two data sites, and another gas site, all as the Tengu continues its slumber. The first chubby wormhole is a dying K162 from null-sec, which isn't quite as interesting as the Venture reappearing on d-scan.

The Venture isn't in the gas site, not that I expect him to return there, but in the second tower in the system. He is local after all. That's interesting but now insignificant. I warp to the second chubby wormhole. It's another dying null-sec K162. That just leaves me the skinny wormhole, the system's static exit to null-sec, but at least this one's healthy and offers an option for further exploration.

The K346 looks like it's going to Feythabolis, but the destination region is actually Omist. In my defence, the two regions look awfully similar when viewed through a wormhole. And in the system I see one other pilot, and the discovery scanner scuppers any interest I have by immediately showing me a single signature, the K162 I'm sitting on. It's not really exploring, is it.

I could try gate hopping, but I've lost my mojo for exploration tonight. Circumstances looked good initially, I even got the opportunity to hunt a ship. But ultimately I'm not being drawn to looking for more signatures, more systems to explore, because it can still feel like passively announcing new signatures in w-space suppresses the activity I'm hoping to stumble across. I'm going home.

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

Going for a gasser

A healthy set of anomalies has accumulated in the home system. We ought to sweep through them soon, culling the herd, before some scumbag roaming fleet does it for us. There's also some gas, but that's someone else's problem. I make a note of what's here and what we should do, before resolving our static wormhole and heading to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

Updating my directional scanner from the K162 shows me a Tengu strategic cruiser, Vulture command ship, and a pair of towers. There are no wrecks, so the two ships that go well together probably aren't up to anything. And they don't actually go that well together, not when I realise that the second is actually a Venture mining frigate, and not quite as suitable for engaging Sleepers in w-space whilst boosting the capabilities of its buddy as I first thought. The lack of activity makes more sense.

Referring to my notes shows my last visit from six months ago had a single tower in the system, and that the static exit leads to null-sec. I sweep d-scan around in the system map to check the tower I know, which holds the Tengu, and locating the tower I don't, which, uh, doesn't hold the Venture. Expanding d-scan's beam to full coverage shows the frigate is still in the system, and rather than the Venture indicating a lack of activity it seems the mining frigate could be mining.

I need to be quicker than this, much to my continued and perhaps annoying-to-others frustration, as the discovery scanner could ping our K162 to the Venture pilot at any moment. Why it is difficult to remain covert when entering a newly spawned and undetected wormhole in to another system, and why it was considered undesirable enough to warrant a change in environment, is a constant source of bafflement to me. But I work with what I've got.

I warp across the system. I'm not able to get out of d-scan range of the Tengu but the Venture drops from the results, and on the assumption that the Tengu is unpiloted or simply not paying attention I launch probes. I get the probes in to the blanket-scanning formation, outside d-scan range of any ship in the system, and return to the wormhole to start hunting the Venture. There may be a closer, more convenient place to hunt him from, but I am guaranteed to see the ship from the wormhole.

Back at the wormhole I rush my d-scan hunt, dropping the scanning beam from sixty degrees, to thirty degrees, down to fifteen and finally five. I'm lucky with my refinements and don't have to fiddle too much, and close enough for the angular error not to be too bad. I estimate the Venture as being around 4·7 AU away, letting me position my probes with some feeling of accuracy. I make one last check, all looks good. Finally, I accelerate my ship in the rough direction of the Venture. I am ready to scan.

I call my probes in and get a perfect result. Venture and gas site are both resolved at 100% on the first scan, giving me a target to aim for and bookmark for reference. I recall my probes and initiate warp, speeding away from the wormhole within a second, aiming to drop directly on top of the ship. But I don't. All I see when my Loki strategic cruiser decelerates is empty space. No ship, and, come to that, not even any gas clouds.

I suppose I wasn't quite quick enough. It looks like the Venture finished sucking on the gas clouds and warped away from the empty site just as I resolved its position. My skill was good, but my timing was bad, and the circumstances quite coincidental. But the Venture is no longer on d-scan, and relaunching my probes and performing another blanket scan sees he's out of the system too. Oh well. I should have located the ships sooner, particularly after the initial misidentification. But I so rarely stumble in to any gassing these days, it just didn't occur to me.

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

Crossing with a Crane

Back in my Loki strategic cruiser, mostly ignoring the customs office-bashing fleet in a class 2 w-space system behind me, I head towards our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 system. My directional scanner gives me the all-clear from the K162, so I launch probes, blanket the system, and warp off to explore. The scan reveals six anomalies, ten signatures, and no ships, but exploring finds a tower, different to the one that was here a year ago, and bare as anything. There aren't even any hangars. Maybe the locals got hit recently.

Checking the information of the tower owners has it owned by a tiny Russian corporation, perhaps explaining the off-hand comment made by the C2 fleet after I launched a bomb at them. Oh, and my name, I suppose. Never mind. I go back to ignoring details and call my probes in to scan the system. There's not much to see, just gas, a K162 from low-sec Metropolis being used by a Legion strategic cruiser, a couple of data sites, and a static exit to low-sec Genesis.

That Legion sighting could be interesting. He left C3a for low-sec, but maybe he'll be back, and in greater numbers. I'll give him a few minutes to get organised, and in the meantime check the low-sec exit for opportunity. No pilots in the system in Genesis and four signatures encourages me to rat and scan, and I launch probes and warp to a rock field. Two combat sites and a wormhole are resolved before bouncing around the different rock fields finds a rat I can be bothered to pop, so I give up on that and see where the wormhole takes me.

A K162 from class 3 w-space is good enough, and jumping in sees a tower and pair of ships, plus a large number of ECM drones that can only mean a seeded bubble trap. The Scythe and Ashimmu cruisers are probably not up to much, not with a lack of wrecks in the system, but wouldn't it be neat if it's the same Scythe that repaired the battlecruisers after my bombing run? Actually, probably not, as I'm trying to ignore that fleet. So it's good that neither ship is piloted, or matching the C2 fleet.

Finding the first tower bumps in to a second too, this one with a Typhoon battleship and Coercer frigate floating empty inside its force field. No one's home. I scan quickly, sifting through five anomalies and six signatures to resolve a wormhole that dies before I can reach it, a K162 from null-sec, some gas, a data site, and a second K162 from null-sec. Even the Helios on the second K162 can't make up for the dreary result, with my not being in the mood to try to catch the agile covert operations boat.

I remain uninterested when the Helios launches probes to scan, as that just means I may miss it on a different wormhole and not this one. Instead, I investigate the null-sec systems, but neither has any signatures beyond the wormhole I use. Never mind, backwards I go, to check C3a for activity. Hey, there's some, right on the wormhole as I enter. A Crane transport ship, local to the system, drops out of warp and jumps to Genesis almost as soon as I appear in w-space. That's bad timing.

There's little point chasing the Crane. It can evade me pretty easily under normal circumstances, and as I'd just polarise myself he could return through the wormhole unthreatened if I somehow managed to stop him warping. That's my reasoning, anyway. As he's exited to the Genesis region I can almost guarantee that he won't be back any time soon, leaving little point in waiting too. His presence and blasé attitude to cloaking probably means that Legion hasn't come back from low-sec to plunder any of the sites here.

If the minor activity in C3a wouldn't deter the Legion from doing something, perhaps the way that the K162 from Metropolis is now wobbling away at the end of its life would. Well, it was fine half-an-hour ago, which will make it fine for another couple of hours at least, so I know I could explore through it safely. But, at this point, why bother? The Legion probably got there first, and I'm tired. I think it's time to head home and go off-line.

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Tags: ashimmu, coercer, crane, eve online, helios, legion, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, scythe, typhoon, w-space

Aiding a minor structure bash

Someone needs to suck it. All the gas in our home system, I mean. There's loads of it, and I can't be bothered. But I will scan, because that's what I do. And even more gas has floated in to our system. I dunno, we'll have an atmosphere soon, and then where will we be, with our ships flying through a fluid? It just won't work.

Two more sites, two wormholes. The second wormhole, not our static connection, comes in from class 2 w-space, which seems like a good place to start tonight's exploration. Updating my directional scanner after jumping to C2a even catches my attention, as there are a dozen or so combat ships along with a single tower. Sure, some corporations leave all sorts of ships floating empty, but these look like they have a common purpose.

One combat site is in the system and the ships aren't there, and there are no visible wrecks, so maybe I've stumbled on to a tower bash. But, no, pointing d-scan at the tower sees only the Prophecy battlecruiser there, with the bunch of battlecruisers and drones elsewhere. More curiously, a Helios covert operations boat decloaks a hundred kilometres from the wormhole and launches probes. But back to the errant ships.

Now that I have my head up, I can see that a couple of customs offices in the system have active reinforcement timers. Maybe there is a structure bash in progress, just a different structure to a tower. That could even mean the fleet is local and wanting to transfer ownership of the offices outside the normal diplomatic route.

Pointing d-scan at planets with customs offices finds the fleet easily enough, and I warp in to be close, but not too close, although it's only in warp that I start to wonder how far would actually be not too close. Thankfully, the ships are pretty much hugging the customs office, and my cloak isn't threatened. I can also match this fleet to the Helios pilot, although my assumption that they are local remains an assumption, not having visited the tower yet.

The question now is whether I can do anything to disrupt the fleet. It's possible that none of the ships have any warp disruptors or similar, fit purely for damage, but this many ships being fit purely for damage would not give me much opportunity to shred one of what I'm expecting to be glass cannon battlecruisers. I've only recently experienced a small fleet melting my Loki strategic cruiser in short order, and it wasn't much fun. But I could probably throw a bomb at these ships, see how brittle their tanks really are.

Grabbing a stealth bomber and launching a bomb seems a relatively safe prospect. My main concern is the Helios spotted near the wormhole. He may have seen my Loki enter, and he may well see me go out and return in a new ship, relaying that information to the fleet. I suppose the worst that could happen is that they expect my bombing run, and catch and pop my ship. But bombers are relatively cheap, hence my choice, and the wormhole is healthy and there are no massive ships visible. I doubt my probe-less Manticore would get isolated quite so obliviously.

I jump home, grab the bomber, and go back to C2a, warping back to the customs office to be roughly in bombing range. Not that it matters, given that the fleet has warped away. Clearly I was spotted, but at least I have been a disrupting influence, all without having to throw a bomb. Mission success? Then again, it's interesting to see the fleet isn't on d-scan at the local tower. I also spot a Slasher frigate on the wormhole home, which doesn't really concern me too much, but where are the rest?

As best as I can determine without probes, the fleet is in a safe spot around a nearby moon. Well, most of them are, a Vexor cruiser warps back to the customs office, relaunches his drones, and continues shooting. I may as well take this time to manoeuvre in to a better position, not only getting the distance right but also getting the rough position of the fleet between me and a distant planet, so that I can warp away almost immediately. And here come the battlecruisers: a Tornado, two Talos, and an Oracle.

The third Talos warps in as I am just about as ready as I can be. I align my Manticore towards the fleet, decloak at a range of roughly thirty kilometres, and launch my bomb. I give it a few seconds, just to watch it go, then activate warp to the far planet. I'm clear, and get a damage notification about helping the fleet damage the customs office. Nothing about the ships, though, and there are no wrecks on d-scan. Oh well.

I turn around at the planet and warp back to see if I've even ruffled any feathers, and maybe I have. A Scythe cruiser warps in—so there must be a wormhole over near that moon, as ships aren't conjured from empty space—and starts transferring shield energy to the damaged battlecruisers. That's encouraging, but the time delay between bomb launches isn't. I manoeuvre back in to position, albeit from a different angle this time—don't be predictable, kids—but by the time I can launch again the Scythe has finished.

I could launch a second bomb, but seeing that the first one didn't pop any ships, and the Scythe has almost certainly restored every ship to Bristol fashion, I doubt the outcome would be any different. Still, I tried, and had the Scythe not reacted so quickly, perhaps thanks to their Helios scout spotting me, I could have got a kill or two. But for now I should probably take myself home and think about doing something else.

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Tags: eve online, helios, loki, manticore, mmorpg, oracle, penny ibramovic, prophecy, pvp, scanning, scythe, slasher, talos, tornado, vexor, w-space

Anathema to w-space exploration

I'm starting from scratch. All the old, known sites have disappeared from the home system, new signatures have appeared, and no one is around. What have I got in the system with me? A bit of gas, some relics, and one wormhole. Well, maybe our neighbouring class 3 w-space system has more to offer. But not according to my directional scanner, which shows me nothing from the K162.

A blanket scan of C3a reveals a ship somewhere. The signature is pretty strong, though, so it's probably an Orca industrial command ship floating empty in a tower's force field. Warping towards the signature has d-scan show me an Orca and tower, and getting closer still has my overview say the Orca's empty. Penny. She's so hot right now. Penny.

Scanning the system has just the one wormhole, nothing else of interest, and it looks like I'm heading to null-sec. Or not, not with the bastard K346 at the end of its life. Instead, it looks like I'm heading to class 4 w-space, grabbing some massive ships, and shoving them through a wormhole to collapse it, whilst trying to fill the wasted time in-between jumps caused by polarisation.

Out I go in our own Orca, and back I come. Even the Orca warps to and from our tower faster than the five minutes of polarisation, so I loiter for a while before sending a Widow black ops ship in to C3a and straight back home again. The wormhole drops to its half-mass state, I stay in the Widow. Minutes pass, I make another trip, leaving me just needing one more round trip in the Orca to finish the process.

Hullo, the wormhole crackles, bringing an Anathema covert operations boat to our system. The cov-ops cloaks, but will he scan? More to the point, what can I do about this intruder? My polarisation effects are over, so I could collapse the wormhole and perhaps isolate the scout from his system, but that seems rather pointless. He'll just scan his way out and be a bit frustrated. Better if I could catch him and destroy his ship.

I know that there's nowhere for the Anathema to go but back to his home C3, through the only wormhole in our system, which gives me an obvious place to loiter. Not in a Widow, though. I have to swap ships, which presents two problems. First, what ship do I want? My interceptor springs to mind first, but maybe I could use an interdictor to make the capture easier for me. Okay, that was relatively simple after all. The second problem is more awkward: how do I get to our tower, swap ships, and get back and through the wormhole without the Anathema noticing?

My Widow is cloaked near the wormhole but, weirdly for a black ops ship, cannot warp cloaked. I still can't see probes in the system, so there's no guarantee the Anathema has actually moved too far away. Somewhat more problematic, the wormhole is just out of d-scan range of the wormhole. Even if I keep d-scan updated, there will be time when I won't be able to tell if the Anathema leaves the system. Well, I either try to catch the cov-ops or collapse our wormhole, and one task is intrinsically more appealing than the other.

I align to the tower, decloak, warp. I swap to a Flycatcher and warp back to the wormhole post-haste, jumping to C3a on contact. Now I wait. I didn't see the Anathema blip on d-scan in the home system, I don't see it on d-scan in this system. Of course, the tower in C3a is not within d-scan's range either, which makes it difficult to tell if the scout's come back even if he's now idling in his tower. I could warp closer to check, but that would mean leaving the wormhole, and potentially missing my one opportunity to catch the cov-ops.

Wait, wait, wait. It's quite possible the Anathema saw my Widow, moved back to the wormhole, and left our system already. It's also possible that he spent a few minutes locating our tower before launching probes to scan for K162s, and will come back disappointed. Whilst I've nothing better to do than ponder possibilities, it could be that the pilot saw my Flycatcher jump through the wormhole and is waiting in the hopes that I get so bored I quit waiting for him and jump back home, at which point he can cross-jump safely. The longer I wait, the more I lean towards that likelihood.

Still I wait. I can be quite stubborn sometimes. Really quite stubborn. I could have collapsed the wormhole, explored and scanned another boring class 3 system, and collapsed a second wormhole in the time I've waited. Just be glad I can compress time in text. Still I have no idea where the Anathema is, but at least the discovery scanner shows me that the K346 has died of old age, replaced by a new one. Of course it does, because why shouldn't I know about unknown cosmic signatures without warping to them or scanning them with probes?

I think it's time to give up on waiting, Penny, cut your losses. Okay, Penny, you're probably right. I jump home to a clear-looking wormhole, and a clear-looking d-scan. I hold on the wormhole for a moment, wondering if the Anathema will break for his home system, but nothing happens. I warp to our tower and swap back to my scouting Loki strategic cruiser, wondering what to do next. I could collapse our wormhole and start again, or scan the replacement K346. Maybe that would have been a good idea an hour ago, but there seems little point now. I just grab an Orca, finish off the wormhole, and hide in a corner of the system to go off-line.

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Tags: anathema, eve online, flycatcher, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space, widow

Looking for the home system

It's a different start to my day. I'm in a space station. It's pretty weird. The first order of business is to replace my ship, which is easy logistically, having docked two hops from Jita, but rather difficult when it comes to thinking of a name. I stumble over this all the time, which is why I asked people for suggestions a while back. Thank goodness so many names were suggested, as I've lost a few ships. I pick a runner-up to the competition, adapt it slightly, then send the promised ISK to an unexpecting capsuleer. Now to take Sammich! on its maiden flight.

Now what to do. Fin and HR are around, giving me hope that maybe I have a route home already, but they are busy dealing with a K162 from deadly class 6 w-space in the home system. That's okay, I can wait. In fact, I could probably scan my way back there myself. How hard can it be to find a particular w-space system starting from high-sec empire space?

Okay, it's not that easy to scan my way home in a system with no signatures, but stargates are easy ways to find systems with signatures. I hop one system across and find one, and launching probes to scan it resolves a wormhole. See? Easy. Then again, the wormhole is a dying K162 from class 3 w-space, so that probably won't take me to our class 4 home. But I won't know if I don't look, and a dying wormhole won't faze me today, so in I go.

My directional scanner shows me nothing from the other side of the wormhole, but the local channel has shut the hell up finally, so that's something. I launch probes and don't quite blanket this vast system, but in two attempts I reveal six signatures and three drones, no anomalies, no ships. My notes point me towards a tower that isn't there any more—thanks, notes—and my probes suggest a bunch of structures are 75 AU away. Those structures form an on-line tower, good probes, but without ships in the system there's clearly no one home.

The signatures in this system are mostly gas, but the last one I resolve is a wormhole. It's only a K162 from null-sec, but I'm feeling somewhat aimless this evening so take a look anyway, appearing in a system in Oasa along with one pilot in a pod and no other signatures. Okay, back to high-sec with me, hopping through another stargate to look for more signatures. Here's a couple, resolving to be a data site and a wormhole connecting this high-sec system to another high-sec system. Exploration isn't going so well.

The intra-empire space wormhole takes me to Sinq Laison, where a different signature resolves to be an M555 outbound link to class 5 w-space. It'll do, I suppose, if I somehow pretend the discovery scanner doesn't exist. Not that it matters when jumping in to an unoccupied and inactive system, I suppose. I'll scan. Five anomalies and eleven signatures, but my notes informing me that the static wormhole leads to class 4 w-space. I'm going home!

Resolving the first signature sends me to the E175 static wormhole, and I resolve a second wormhole whilst in warp, an outbound connection to low-sec at the end of its life. Whilst I warp to find that out my probes point to a third wormhole, and once I resolve that I recall my probes rather than continue with this wild goose chase they want to send me on. The third wormhole is only a null-sec K162, after all. And, perhaps more importantly, my colleagues have now scanned their way out of w-space and have a route home for me. I should probably head that way.

Poking out to low-sec takes me to Derelik, twenty hops from the entrance to the home w-space constellation. That's not great, but hardly a chore. I head back to the C5 system and poke through the E175, just in case I got extremely lucky and actually found my way home, but, somehow, I have not. Okay, I'll leave it behind, going back across the C5 and out to high-sec, the system in Sinq Laison fifteen hops from my entrance. Surely I can do better than that.

Back through the wormhole to the system in The Citadel, and my autopilot shows me a nine-hop route all in high-sec space. That'll do, pig. Hop hoppity hop I go through stargates, as Fin and HR call out the plethora of ships that are coming and going through their scanned w-space constellation. It's a bit unnerving, particularly as I'm bringing home a brand new strategic cruiser, but the ships or fleets or whatever they are don't appear to be actually doing much.

I get to the entrance system, warp to the wormhole, and jump. An Augoror is there to greet me on the wormhole in C3a, which would be nice of him if we were allied. But I'm on a high-sec wormhole, there isn't much threat. I am on the cusp of decloaking to engage the cruiser for giggles, when the ship warps away. Maybe it's for the best. Fin and HR are checking the other wormholes now and it all looks clear, and it's not like I'm new at navigating w-space. I get my head in gear and move away from the wormhole, cloak, and warp to our K162. One jump gets me home, and a simple manoeuvre off the wormhole gets me safe. I'm home again.

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

Situational awareness is relative to the situation

Back in to class 2 w-space, and across to the wormhole leading to our neighbouring class 3 system. At least, that was the plan, taking me home after a night of stalking shadows, until I casually update my directional scanner in C2a to see a Procurer in empty space. Of course, the mining barge isn't in actually empty space but in its natural environment, an ore site, surrounded by rocks. The pressing question now is if it is also in its natural role, that of being bait.

Finding the Procurer is straightforward enough, and warping to the rock field sees the barge chomping on some hemorphite, that particular rock really nicely positioned to let a covert Loki strategic cruiser get close without being decloaked accidentally. I should probably be suspicious, particularly in a system with implied activity, and I am. I'm also somewhat inclined to want to believe the pilot is unaware of my presence.

I get closer to the mining barge, as my glorious leader swaps ships back at our tower, choosing a Manticore stealth bomber for being covert, having heavy-hitting weapons, and cheaper to lose than a strategic cruiser. Hopefully the Manticore's torpedoes will do a nice job on the Procurer, even if it is bait. We can find out, as Fin crosses C3a, jumps in to C2a, and warps to my position. 'Ready.'

The Procurer's mining lasers cut off and the ship starts moving. Did the pilot notice Fin entering the system—I did, on d-scan, but I knew she was coming—or is he just dropping off a load of ore? We sit and wait for the warped-off barge's return to the hemorphite, until I get antsy and decide to see what's taking him so long, warping my Loki to the local tower.

I get to the tower as the Procurer leaves it, which is good timing of sorts. I turn around, return to the rock field to see the Procurer chomping on the same rock, and confirm with Fin that we're both still ready. We are. Let's do it. I decloak my Loki, Fin decloaks her Manticore, we get positive target locks on the Procurer, and start shooting.

Our target returns my target lock, which isn't a great sign, but can be simply explained by his launching ECM drones. They catch me, breaking my lock, but Fin keeps hold of the Procurer. Soon enough, the ECM drops and I am shooting the miner again, but perhaps I shouldn't be. When will I learn that all Procurers in w-space are bait? Not soon enough.

Updating d-scan shows ships heading our way, two Talos battlecruisers and the unsporting Falcon recon ship. I tell Fin to flee, which is pretty easy for her Manticore to do, not least because her ship isn't the prize the locals want. Not that I won't try to get away too, but I'm not confident. At least, not until I realise the Procurer is only projecting a warp disruption effect, not scrambling my drives.

My micro warp drive is still functioning, and I'm pretty sure my Loki at full pelt can out-pace a mining barge pretty comfortable. I direct myself away from the Procurer and burn hard, opening up a gap pretty quickly, but only as the combat ships land in the site. But they need to decelerate out of warp, then accelerate towards me, and I am already moving pretty fast. In fact, my situation looks pretty good, particularly as I get out of warp disruption range, the Procurer no longer stopping me from leaving.

Warp drive available again, it's the perfect time to bug out. I aim for my perch and activate my warp drive, not realising until this moment that I initially headed almost directly away from it when escaping the Procurer. I was only trying to increase my separation from the barge as quickly as possible, not giving much thought to direction. And now I am only trying to warp to the most convenient bookmark, not giving much through to direction. This is why my Loki turns around and accelerates back towards the ships that are chasing me. This can't end well.

I imagine my actions look a bit peculiar. That's because, objectively, they are. I really needed to align to my perch with my MWD active to start with, or now spot the planet closest in line with my vector to warp clear. I knew what I wanted to do in both instances, but got them mixed up in the implementation. Naturally, the small fleet catches me, not hard to do when I turn and run back towards them, and the Taloses and new Harbinger battlecruiser start applying their damage. It's pretty heavy.

My Loki has no chance of surviving, even burning both ancillary shield boosters, overheated, whilst trying to blast through the fleet and escape on the other side. I pretty much just throw myself in to their weapons fire. Still, at least I get my pod clear. That's something, right? My poor Loki. I didn't have it long. And I could have saved it. Still, it's a learning experience. What confuses me most is where the ships came from. Fin passed nothing, no one was at the tower. Maybe there's an edge of the system I overlooked. Or haxxx.

I should probably call it a night, but I don't want to be stuck in w-space without a scanning strategic cruiser. I've got used to the little luxuries of w-space life. Besides, this C2 has a static exit to high-sec that we've scanned, it seems churlish not to make use of it. I take my pod through the exit and start heading towards Jita, updating my skill queue as I go. I'll buy a new ship, but I won't come back this way tonight. It's late and I'm tired, and a little deflated. I can return to the home system tomorrow.

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Tags: eve online, falcon, harbinger, loki, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, talos, w-space