Loki locking up

Isolated from the home system. Watching Dominix battleships alternate between crashing wormholes and cloaking. Seeing the promising Noctis salvager switch to a Helios covert operations boat. Yep, I'm heading out of here, through the low-sec exit, to make my way back home via the new entrance a colleague has scanned. The only circumstance that could possibly make me loiter for longer would be if the, huh, the Helios does indeed swap back to the Noctis and warp to the wormhole connecting this class 3 w-space system to another. I guess I'm staying.

Well, I'm staying to stalk the ships, not staying in this system, not with the Noctis leaving. I follow behind the salvager, C3b being large enough that I have no idea where his two pals in the Dominices are, to the K162 back in to C3a, and watch him jump through. As his ship leaves the system I decloak, pulse my micro warp drive to surge towards the wormhole, and immediately change my mind. I won't try to catch the Noctis on the wormhole, not while his hold is empty. I'll give him a minute to get clear, then sneak in behind and wait for the Noctis to start sucking up loot that may survive the ship's destruction.

A minute passes, plenty of time for the Noctis to warp away from the other side of the wormhole, and I jump to C3a to evaluate the situation. The wormhole is clear in C3a, my directional scanner shows me nothing. Nothing? Well, the system may not be vast, and is certainly more compact than C3b, but there are a handful of anomalies out of d-scan range. Maybe the ships are in one of them. Then again, I can see fifteen anomalies in the system, and I have fifteen bookmarks that I made earlier of the anomalies. Nothing has happened yet.

So where did the Noctis go? A quick reconnoitre of the system sees nothing and no one. No battleships, no wrecks, no salvager. Did the Noctis jump to this system in a bid to flush me out, reveal that I am still here and lurking, and merely cloaked on the other side of the wormhole? It would be a good plan if that's the case, as well as a little unfortunate for me. I'll keep it in mind but not assume that to be solid information just yet.

I return to the N968, wondering if I'll see the Noctis jump home when his polarisation timer runs out, but instead hear the wormhole crackle with a transit from the other side. It's a Dominix, by himself, who warps to a far planet. That's a bit weird, but perhaps no more so than I've witnessed from the battleship so far this evening. A second wormhole crackle brings the second Dominix, who warps away in a different direction. I'm confused.

I'm also stuck in one of these two systems for now, as I notice that my exit through C3a's static wormhole to low-sec has been collapsed by these battleships since I scanned it. I have probes to find its replacement, but I won't be able to scan that without giving away my presence. Hopefully I won't need it for a little while. And now d-scan tells me the two Dominices are together at last, with added Noctis, making my evening interesting again.

The three ships drop from d-scan, which could mean they've cloaked but I suspect they've instead gone to a distant anomaly. I warp across to check and, yep, the battleships have a flight of drones launched each, d-scan placing all of them in a nearby anomaly. The Noctis will be cloaked, waiting for his moment, but so am I, and all I have to do is bide my time.

I actually admire the diligence and patience of these pilots, taking the time and effort to collapse all the wormholes connecting in to this system and theirs—except the one they needed to use—and try to flush out a potential ambusher. I can only assume that they can't believe I would still be around and alert after all of this waiting. I hope they appreciate my own patience when I blow the crap out of the Noctis.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I locate the anomaly the two battleships are in, now with a few Sleeper wrecks visible on d-scan, and warp in to make my first perch of the evening. Which, let's be honest, is the perfect time for my ship's systems to crash and force a restart. I wasn't just floating in space within d-scan range, where a vigilant pair of pilots would notice my Loki strategic cruiser losing power to its cloaking device, I was warping in to the anomaly when my ship decided to give me a wedgie. I bet my Loki finished its warp, buzzing the Dominces as it made an emergency warp back out again. Stupid ship.

All that time spent stalking, scouting, waiting patiently for the right moment is thrown out of the window—which, let's face it, is a bad place to be thrown when in space—because of a technical issue. Naturally, when I get my ship back on-line and functioning all I see is a few drones on d-scan. No battleships, no salvager. I guess I'm going home after all. Or would be, if I didn't suffer two more cases of my ship's systems freezing when trying to scan for the new wormhole, making me look like a completely unprofessional explorer to anyone updating d-scan. Which, of course, the now-cloaked pilots are.

So incompetent do I currently look that one of the pilots opens a conversation with me, asking if I ever 'get trapped in wormholes'. It's ironic, because I've managed to launch probes and hide them from d-scan with consummate ease, but the ship freezes have made me look like I'm stumbling about without a clue what to do next. But whatever, the pilot isn't mocking me, and is likely just trying to gauge what I'm up to. I answer amiably, because he seems like a nice chap, as I resolve the new wormhole quickly, and exit w-space for low-sec Placid.

The conversation continues as I make the first jump through faction warfare low-sec Placid, right in to the middle of rather more ships than I see in any given month. Thankfully, they are more interested in shooting each other than some arbitrary strategic cruiser that isn't close enough to the brawl to be in immediate danger, and I continue on my way. The third stargate replays this encounter, but on a much smaller scale, and another couple of hops puts me in to high-sec, where the journey gets noticeably smoother.

I'm close to the entrance leading to our home system when I decide to tell my new buddy that I left the C3 they were in. Why not, it's only courteous, particularly as I respect the way they operate. I let him know the signature identifier of the wormhole and exit region, partly as corroborating evidence that I've gone and partly because they'd like to collapse whatever wormhole I opened, even though I know that it's just words. I could still be there. Luckily, as I approach the entrance to a class 2 w-space system that connects to our system, I spy a Heron frigate doing the same.

The Heron jumps to w-space, I try to time my jump to be just after him but close enough in time so that maybe a second crackle doesn't propagate after he appears in the C2. I dunno if it works, but, after a little wait as he presumably orientates himself, I pounce when the Heron decloaks. I activate my sensor booster, get a positive target lock, and start shooting. It looks like the Heron is close enough to jump straight back to the security of high-sec empire space, but he doesn't. I dunno why. It doesn't really matter. Once my autocannons start tracking it only takes a quick volley or two before his Heron pops.

The pilot's pod hasn't really got anywhere to go. The session change timer, short as it is, is still long enough for me to lock on to the pod and crack it open with one more volley from my guns, leaving me to scoop the corpse, and loot and shoot the wreck of the Heron. It's not much of a kill, and the poor young capsuleer with a hundred million ISK of implants in his head probably isn't happy about it, but it will do to end the night. 'Another victory for the discover scanner.' It also gives me a kill report I can link to my orange buddy, giving them firm evidence that I'm elsewhere. And, with that, I warp across C2a to finally make it home again.

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Tags: dominix, eve online, helios, heron, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Home is where we're not

'A couple of Dominices are poking around C3a.' A pair of battleships in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system is interesting enough to get me alert. Maybe a Widow black ops ship and one of our Legion strategic cruisers will be effective against them? HR agrees and swaps in to a cloaky Legion to stalk the battleships whilst I get my bearings. Apparently, not everything is as it seems.

For a start, my glorious leader is on-line, active, but not involved. There may be a bookmark to a K162 from class 5 w-space in our home system, and Fin may be in that C5 system, but the wormhole has been collapsed and Fin is isolated from us. She's now facing strategic cruisers and heavy interdictors waiting for her on the new wormhole out of that system. 'I will get out. Worst case, I will wait them out.' The Dominices, however, are not isolated, as far as we can tell, but we also don't really know where they are from. Or where they are now. HR saw one come to our K162 earlier but didn't think it jumped. Maybe the Widow/Legion idea needs a rethink.

HR suspects the battleships, one of which is now back on his directional scanner in C3a, are crashing a wormhole. But which one, and where? He needs probes to find out, and as his Legion doesn't have them I abandon the Widow, get back in to my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, and head his way to give more appropriate support. Huh, that's odd. Our static wormhole is pulsating with instability as I drop out of warp, which no one has mentioned yet. And as I think time is of the essence I've warped to zero on the wormhole, my cloak deactivating as a result, so jump first and interrogate the wormhole's status when I'm in C3a.

Opening the information panel for the wormhole shows that it's not just destabilised to half mass, our way home is critically unstable and on the verge of collapse. HR, come home! Oh, no; don't bother. I reconsider my advice when the wormhole implodes behind me, just the mass of my Loki being enough to finish it off, apparently. Well, that's three of us outside of the home system now, and not even in boats that could feasibly do much to a pair of Dominix battleships. I suppose I'll be scanning out of necessity, stealth be damned.

We may need to discard any notion that we won't be spotted stalking the system, given that we need to scan a way out, but that doesn't mean we have to give up being covert completely. I warp to a distant planet, launch probes, and blanket the system whilst I check my notes. Blimey, it's my tenth visit to this class 3 system, which could be a record. But there is no occupation and no ships, and although I don't realise quite soon enough that the lack of ships may be because my scanning filter is set to exclude them from the results, d-scan at least is configured correctly and tells me the same.

I bookmark the fifteen anomalies, out of habit, and start scanning the five signatures. The first is the static exit to low-sec, looking like it's going to Placid, and sitting in a half-mass state but not yet critical. Gas, a healthy N968 to more class 3 w-space, a data site, and more gas rounds out the scanning results, which makes me suspect the Dominices are from C3b, and that system may even have a better exit. HR's not waiting around to find out, happy to use the exit to Placid to get his probe-lacking Legion safe. I don't blame him.

Jumping to C3b has d-scan clear and notes from eight months ago, which tell me about another static exit to low-sec and some occupation. Exploring gives me one anomaly, four signatures, and one ship revealed by a blanket scan, along with a couple of flights of drones and long warps across a big system. The tower is not the same as before, but the new one is easy enough to locate, where the ship my combat probes scanned turns out to be a piloted Viator transport. I don't quite understand.

If the Dominices are from this system, it makes no sense to collapse the wormholes in C3a unless they plan to take advantage of the resources in that system. And if they are going to do that, where are they? And if they aren't, why not collapse the N968 instead to isolate your system? It already looks like the battleships bugged out of a site when the ruinous dumbscovery scanner pinged the K162 of the N968 in to C3b, so their actions strike me as a little peculiar. But, whatever, I'll scan this system to see what I can find.

One signature is the expected exit to low-sec, obviously leading to Aridia—'No, impossible!' says Fin, nice and sarcastically, comfortably out of C5a and scanning to empire space herself—and the other signatures aren't worth scanning. The Viator is gone, presumed off-line, so I exit to Aridia to see where it takes me, finding myself unsurprisingly in the middle of nowhere. The Placid exit is only four hops to high-sec, so that is definitely the way to go. And I would be going that way too, if the wormhole weren't to flare whilst I'm cloaked in Aridia.

It's the Dominix, coming out and, yep, going back in. They are killing this wormhole too. But why not the N968? I dunno yet. Maybe they are. Maybe I should get my arse back in to C3a whilst I still can. I give the Dominix a minute to do whatever he wants to do, then return to C3b, where the wormhole is clear, d-scan is clear, and warping to the C3a K162 sees, hmm, a still-healthy wormhole. So do I leave now, or wait to see if the pilots really are going to do something in an isolated system?

There's no one on this K162. There's no one at the C3b tower. The locals are being weird again. I loiter for a while, just because the route to Placid isn't dying before I can use it, and after a few minutes detect the Dominix back on the U210 in their system, the battleship the only visible ship underneath my newly relaunched probes. I warp across to see him loitering with little concern, finally jumping out to Aridia and back before, oh, cloaking. That explains why we kept losing them, and is kind of what I was afraid of. I should probably assume that he saw me at least return from Aridia.

I should just leave, make a start on getting home with my colleagues, particularly now that the second Dominix is making an appearance and helping to crash their U210. But still not the K162 to C3a. Why not? Maybe the new contact in the Noctis salvager now at their tower offers some explanation. Maybe they are going to harvest some sites in C3a after all. Or maybe not. The Noctis pilot swaps to a Helios covert operations boat, making the prospect of waiting for an uncertain chance of perhaps seeing the Dominices shoot Sleepers much less attractive. I'm really leaving now. Just watch me.

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Tags: dominix, eve online, helios, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, scanning, viator, w-space, widow

Looking the wrong way

HR has scanned. What has he found? Not much, apparently. 'It's pretty quiet.' I head out to take a look for myself, jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system that simply terminates through a high-sec wormhole. There's a tower at the edge of the system but it lies empty of ships and offers nothing for us to lazily monitor. But a blanket scan revealing six anomalies and four signatures may be important. How many signatures were there earlier? 'Maybe only three, I don't remember.' I'd say it's worth poking around.

There is a new signature in C3a, it is a new wormhole. The K162 comes from class 5 w-space and offers us a new system to explore, although jumping to C5a to see two towers and a Crusader frigate on my directional scanner isn't exactly inspiring. The most exciting part is that my notes from only two months ago list just the one tower, and even that thought of locating a new, second tower has my almost nodding off.

A third tower, on the edge of the system, splashes a little cold water on my face, given that d-scan also shows an Orca industrial command ship, and an Epithal and Sigil hauler. But finding the tower finds no pilots, leaving me just another system to scan. Then again, that's what I normally do anyway, so it's not so bad. I launch probes, blanket the system, and see eight anomalies and five signatures to sift through as I look for the tower with the Crusader.

Hey, the frigate's piloted, how about that. I don't think it matters, he's definitely idling and not about to do much in class 5 w-space, but it's another pilot. And here's another, warping in to the tower in an Anathema covert operations boat. Before my head stops spinning from the whirlwind of activity a Cheetah cov-ops warps in to join the other two ships. I'm positively dizzy now!

Hopefully the scouts have been out, scanned their constellation, and now quite like the look of the high-sec exit in C3a, preparing even now to take out a whole load of loot in an ill-prepared industrial ship. HR and a newly arrived Aii like to think so too, and are scrambling ships to the connection between C3a and C5a, whilst I sit and watch the tower for movement. More comes, a second Cheetah warping in, bouncing out almost immediately to space that certainly isn't the wormhole to C3a. Maybe there's another one to be found.

The Anathema moves too, but only towards the other tower, and actually dropping off d-scan and my probes not to be seen again. That leaves the sleeping Crusader and one Cheetah. I think I'll scan for that second wormhole. I know roughly where it is, I'll be quick. There, got it. I warp across and wonder why the Cheetah cared to come back to a K162 from null-sec that's at the end of its life. Poking through sees pilots in the null-sec system in Stain, but none orange.

Perhaps the Cheetah is monitoring the wormhole for activity, I dunno. Either way, C5a is pretty dull. Our little camp breaks up, and we go our separate ways. Aii goes to high-sec to liquidate some loot, HR loiters, and I follow Aii to scan the high-sec exit system. Or I would, if the stupid discovery scanner would shut the hell up instead of pinging every signature in every system every time you enter it. I can't help but pause and resolve the new signature in C3a, which doesn't go well for me.

My ship decides it hates the discovery scanner more than me and freezes, requiring a restart before becoming responsive again. Great timing, because when I return, my ostensibly cloaky Loki strategic cruiser having been quite obviously visible in w-space for over a minute, I update d-scan to see a Bestower hauler somewhere in C3a. I think he goes to C5a, but I'm in no position to catch him. Chalk up another kill missed to technical issues. At least it spurs HR in to stalking the C5a K162 again.

I resolve the new wormhole. A K162 from null-sec Querious. How dreary. I ignore it, check C5a for new ships, see that it's back to just the Crusader, and ignore that for the thrills high-sec has to offer. Thrills that include an orange Helios cov-ops on a stargate that Aii passes. Maybe another hauler is coming our way. I scan whilst waiting on the wormhole, the five extra signatures giving me a combat site, data site, crappy weak obviously outbound wormhole, and two other wormholes.

The two good wormholes aren't, being a dying K162 from class 2 w-space and a K162 linking this high-sec system to another in Metropolis, perversely leaving the outbound connection to class 5 w-space as the more promising. I dunno about that, but take a look anyway, as the orange Helios returns to w-space and jumps past HR to C5a. In I go to C5b, where a tower and no ships shows that at least I haven't startled anyone in to inaction, not that it being the natural state of the system is much better. 'Scorpion on the C5 wormhole.' Oh really?

Are the C5a locals collapsing their wormhole? 'I think so.' I'm on my way. It won't be quick enough, with two systems to cross, even warping point-to-point and HR calling that the battleship is 'pointed, in the C5'. I'm not even in C3a yet when the Crusader has turned up to make life awkward for HR in his stealth bomber. More awkward still, the Scorpion gets its ECM working. 'Jammed. It warped.'

And, with that, HR jumps back to C3a to evade the Crusader, which was trying to kill him. Why would he do that? 'No idea. Probably some kind of jerk.' No doubt. By this time I have made it to the C5 K162, but the likelihood of a repeat trip by the Scorpion is slight, and grows slighter as the polarisation minutes end and time keeps ticking without another jump. I admit defeat and warp away, ending another evening of passing acquaintances. At least HR had a little fun.

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Tags: anathema, bestower, cheetah, crusader, epithal, eve online, helios, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, scorpion, sigil, w-space

Sleepers seeing off strangers

I'm heading home, ready to call it a night, but happy to help crash our static wormhole to let Aii chomp on some rocks in relative safety. Hold on, though. The dumbscovery scanner is showing me a new signature in the home system. New sites don't appear with as much regularity as wormholes, so I think I can guess what the signature will be. I tell Aii not to warp the Orca industrial command ship out of our tower just yet. 'Crap.' Well, if you're out, do it. Just be alert.

And alert Aii is. Updating his directional scanner, my colleague sees something I missed. 'Gallente advanced cruiser wreck on d-scan, along with three Sleeper wrecks.' Hah, that'll teach him to mess with our sites. Losing a Proteus strategic cruiser won't be cheap, and I doubt he was able to eject to save his skill points either.

Aii makes the round trip through our static wormhole as I scan and resolve the new one, checking our sites for wrecks before warping to the right one. I'd first like to see if the pilot has come back to loot his wreck, because it may be worth snagging it ourselves. The anomaly is easily found, but warping in sees the Proteus wreck empty, already stripped of surviving modules, as well as some suitably smug-looking Sleepers. Good boys, have a biscuit.

The Sleeper battleships the Proteus managed to destroy before falling victim to the drones aren't looted, though. We can have that. I grab the loot from one, Aii, now back and in his covert Tengu strategic cruiser, grabs the other, netting us what may be a measly ten million ISK but is a measly ten million ISK better off than we were a minute ago. But as I watch Aii loot the second wreck whilst I sit in my perch, I update my directional scanner to see an Onyx heavy interdictor appear in the system.

Is Aii in danger? It seems doubtful, but it's better to be safe than sorry, particularly now that a Dominix battleship is also visible on d-scan. I warp to check the new wormhole—finally—only to land in empty space. Now the pairing of the ships makes sense. The HIC and battleship were finishing off collapsing their connection to our killer system, clearly not liking their time spent in our home. As it should be.

The incoming connection has imploded, now to do the same to our static wormhole. Or should we? There are no ore sites in the home system, so what are we to do? The arrival of our glorious leader condenses our choices. We can kill our wormhole so that we can kill some Sleepers. Where the others failed we shall succeed. We can even salvage the wreck of the Proteus in the process.

First, collapse our wormhole. Done. Nice and smooth. Now we swap to our Sleeper Tengus and warp to the started but unfinished anomaly, which is cleared without any drama. I don't see what the Proteus's problem was. All the pilot needed to do was add two more ships to his fleet and he'd have been fine. I now abandon my colleagues, letting them warp ahead to the next anomaly, to jump in to a Noctis salvager. I don't know when the Proteus was reduced to rubble, but I'd rather its wreck didn't disintegrate before we can rip it apart ourselves.

I sweep up the mess in the first site, bagging some crappy salvage but essentially all the loot that we would have got normally. We lost nothing from the incursion, and gained the impetus to make more ISK. That's a good exchange. Now back in to a Tengu to join my colleagues to clear the two remaining favoured anomalies, before splitting up in a pair of salvagers to clean up. Still the loot gathered is relatively poor, but we end up 200 Miskies better off for our efforts.

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Tags: dominix, eve online, mmorpg, noctis, onyx, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Raking in the relics

It's time to strike out solo, my decision in no way influenced by being alone in the home system with only a static wormhole to keep me company, nopers. Jumping to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system doesn't give me much to look at, my directional scanner giving a clear ping, and launching probes to perform a blanket scan doesn't look like I'll find friends to play with either. Nine anomalies, six signatures, no ships.

My most recent notes are from around six months ago, when the system was unoccupied, but a corporation has moved in since. There are no ships in the tower, which I may have mentioned, so I'll scan for wormholes. The signatures give me a data site, wormhole, gas pocket, wormhole, and another wormhole. Okay, that worked. Now, what are they? The first wormhole is a K162 from null-sec, the second the static exit to low-sec Aridia, and the last an N968 outbound connection to further class 3 w-space. How disappointing, in so many ways.

Outbound connections are rubbish, but the N968 at least leads to w-space, unlike the other two wormholes, so it's my first choice to jump through. And entering C3b has ships visible on d-scan, although they are not inspiring, given a tower is also visible. The Nidhoggur carrier is unlikely to be active by itself, neither is the Orca industrial command ship, and the Buzzard covert operations boat is tiny, hard to catch, and, without any probes that I can see, probably idle.

A visit from five weeks ago points me to the tower, which I ignore to warp in the other direction to launch probes. I hope to find more than the static wormhole to null-sec that was the only point of interest the last time I was here, and I'm using 'interest' in a quite loose sense. Twenty-six anomalies have built up in this system, suggesting that maybe the locals should take their Nidhoggur out more often, even if there are only six signatures. I warp to the tower, see the Buzzard unexpectedly piloted, and scan anyway. He's probably asleep.

Well, the capsuleer is clearly not as asleep as I assumed. Still, he could have made a Matrix reference out of that, or something. He's seen me, he can't unsee me, so I sift through the signatures. This chubby wormhole clearly won't be the static connection, nor will the next two wormholes—no wonder the Buzzard pilot is doing nothing but updating d-scan—or the data site, if I'm going to be pedantic, but the final, skinny wormhole will be. Then again, that's probably the wormhole I'm least interested in. At least, I hope so.

A K162 from class 2 w-space is at the end of its life, a K162 from class 5 w-space is sitting at half mass, and a K162 from class 4 w-space is not only sitting at half mass but has a wreck of a battleship floating nearby. I suppose the wormholes are all interesting in their way, but not in the way I want them to be. I think I'll leave this arm of the constellation alone, ignoring the static exit to null-sec Malpais, to check one of the exits from C3a.

Low-sec or null-sec? Null-sec, I think. No, low-sec, maybe because the null-sec system has a number of pilots and no other signatures in it. So it's out to Aridia with me, where there are more pilots but a couple of extra signatures that I would like to be kind to me. There are also core probes visible in the system, which could bring a ship to me. I'll loiter on the K162 to C3a as I scan, resolving, bleh, a relic site and some gas.

My only hope now is the scanner coming my way, as I'm not really in the right mood for collapsing wormholes. Waiting I can do. I loiter on the wormhole watching d-scan, and see the probes disappear. The scout doesn't come to me, but I see a Sarum Magnate frigate on d-scan whose position I can easily narrow down to the relic site I resolved. I think that's worth taking a look at.

I warp to the relic site to see the Sarum Magnate in front of me, nice and close, but is he really alone? Four more pilots are in the system, and although one of them visible on d-scan is a Reaper frigate this Magnate could be here as bait. Or maybe not, as two pilots leave the system. Still, that leaves a possible cloaked friend available as support, but I think my paranoia is getting the better of me. It's only a frigate.

I'm going to take a shot at the Sarum Magnate, and I'm going to do it relatively sensibly. I manoeuvre my Loki strategic cruiser to get close enough to the Magnate to activate my warp scrambler whilst being aligned to a planet ahead of me. This will either be a quick kill or quick escape. I decloak, activate my sensor booster, and wait for the seemingly interminable recalibration delay to end, the Sarum Magnate now trying to catch the spewed loot from a hacked container. Lock, disrupt his warp drive, and shoot. Pop!

Two volleys are enough to rip apart the Sarum Magnate, and I reactivate my cloak just in case. The pod flees, which is fine by me, seeing that we are in low-sec space, and nothing else looks to happen. My course has me almost close enough to loot the wreck, and I'm curious to see what's inside. Deciding that the ship wasn't bait after all, I decloak again, grab what I can from the wreck, and warp back to the K162 to C3a happy with my hold full of decryptors, datacores, and blueprint copies for data interfaces.

With half as much of what I loot destroyed in the explosion, the pilot of the Sarum Magnate must have been busy this evening. Maybe I should thank him for the sixty million ISK or so I've stolen for the cost of just a few autocannon rounds. Even my security status doesn't drop too much, which is nice, although I shouldn't overlook opportunities to keep it moving positively. But for now, I think it's time to take my plunder home and get some rest.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, loki, low-sec, magnate, mmorpg, nidhoggur, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, reaper, scanning, w-space

Hiding capabilities

'Some minor industrial infractions going on', so says my glorious leader when I come on-line. Aii is around along with Fin, and I can only guess that they're oreing it up. 'Just a bit.' So it's more like some miner industrial activity? Ha ha ha! Thankfully, the evening can only get better from here, particularly as my colleagues say that they are in the midst of tidying up and that I can open our static wormhole. Will do!

Keeping our system looking neat, the static wormhole is our only signature, making it straightforward enough to resolve. I jump through to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where my directional scanner gives a clear result and nothing lies out of range. That's pretty dull, but not unusual. And I can always scan for more wormholes. Launching probes and performing a blanket scan reveals twelve anomalies, four of which are the good type, and six signatures. If there are no K162s amongst those signatures then maybe we can make some ISK in this unoccupied system.

That wormhole will be the static exit to high-sec, its signature strength pretty much giving away its type. And that wormhole, much stronger, will be a K162. A wormhole with a Proteus strategic cruiser sitting on top of it during the resolving scan. That's crappy timing. I throw my probes out of the system and warp across not expecting to see anything, but I actually learn that this is a brand new K162, opened maybe a minute ago.

I know this because the stupid discovery scanner is still blinking the signature at me in space, just in case my time in w-space has made dumb to how scanning works. There really are few surprises now. I can pretty much say that the Proteus is likely the first ship through this K162 from class 4 w-space, and as I still can't see any probes launched then he probably knows of no other way forward or back than through the same wormhole.

I also know that I was far too slow in withdrawing my probes, because there is no way I can scan a ship without that ship being able to see my probes. So I know the Proteus is here, the Proteus knows there is someone watching. I think this means we're in for a night of patient lurking and no explosions. As I consider all this, the wormhole in front of me crackles, taking the Proteus back home. It may have brought an Anathema in to the system at the same time, as I can't think of another reason why the covert operations boat would decloak to warp away.

The Anathema launches probes and starts to scan. This has my colleagues jump in to suitable ships to catch a tiny, agile ship should it venture through our K162. But the Anathema's probes disappear and the cov-ops doesn't come this way or that, leaving us floating in space looking at and watching nothing. Maybe we can prompt movement by sending our own Anathema to C4a. They could be setting up their own ambush, and the Anathema should be a convincing replacement for my Loki strategic cruiser as the owner of the seen probes, as well as a less threatening target.

But nothing. Aii jumps to C4a, is not molested on the wormhole, and is free to explore the system. At least he can confirm that the Proteus and Anathema are from that system, by locating the tower and matching the owner corporation to the pilots. Still, we're getting nowhere. I may as well complete scanning C3a. Hey, there's another wormhole, not a K162. Warping across finds a V301 outbound connection to class 1 w-space, taking me back to regular exploration mode. Even so, the V301 is rubbish, first for the dumbscovery scanner pinging the wormhole to anyone inside, and also for the other Anathema probably coming this way to scout it before me.

A quick check through the high-sec exit plants me in a system in Everyshore lacking orange pilots, so I head back to C3a and onwards in to the class 1 system, expectations suitably lowered. Probes are visible on d-scan, almost certainly from the Anathema, definitely either putting paid to any activity there was or an indication that there was none to start with, so I feel little compulsion to move away from the wormhole. I make a trip to the one planet out of range, which turns out to hold a tower empty of ships, before returning to loiter on the wormhole. We may have a slight chance of catching this cov-ops. It's not much, but it's probably better than nothing.

Fin wants to wait for something bigger. If we let the Anathema scout and get home without seeing any other sign of activity, and our own Anathema is the only ship possibly seen by the other pair of pilots, maybe our targets will gain a false sense of security. Then again, if they've been in w-space for more than a day their paranoia is probably functioning quite normally and they'll do nothing. But let's find out. The probes disappear from C1a, the Anathema jumps past me to return to C3a, and I pass traffic control over to Fin, my glorious leader sitting on the K162 back to their C4 system. Nothing goes past her.

The Anathema blips on d-scan in C3a. It didn't come back my way, it didn't pass Fin, so it either went through our K162 or out to high-sec. Still there's nothing to see. Not until Fin calls 'Magnate—but not from the wormhole'. That's curious. 'Basic frigate. Sounds like bait.' But Aii saw no other ships or pilots in their C4 home, so maybe they are playing the long game and testing the waters, seeing if we'll pop their disposable ship before they send out what they really want to send out.

If this is a long game I think it's working. I've already been floating in space for quite a while, waiting for the right opportunity, and the appearance of the Magnate looks like we'll be waiting for longer. Not much is actually happening, and tonight I think I'd like to have not much happening where I can slouch and not have to pay so much attention. Still, the intrigue has been interesting, even with a negative outcome, and it's also interesting to wonder how slightly different timing may have changed everything.

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Tags: anathema, eve online, magnate, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, w-space

Getting away from the thugs of high-sec

Nothing's happening. Well, nothing to involve me, as far as I can tell. Fin and Aii are on-line but there are no bookmarks currently made, so no exploration has been done so far. That smells like rock chomping or gas huffing to me. Then again, I've been wrong before. 'It seems Aii ran afoul of high-sec—it is dangerous out there!' I take Fin's sitrep as a merry jest, but she's serious. Someone took a dislike to our colleague and podded him in high-sec empire space, and now he'd like to get back to the security of w-space. That sounds like something that could involve me.

We even have two new ore sites waiting for Aii, giving us even more impetus to bring him home, so we start scanning for an entrance. Fin resolves our static wormhole and jumps to the neighbouring class 3 system, reporting 'd-scan clear, three planets out of range', as I pootle around the home system trying to work out which button launches probes. I should get myself in gear and help with scouting or scanning, so warp to the newly bookmarked wormhole to join my glorious leader in C3a.

With nothing in directional scanner range of the K162 I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system. Two anomalies, fifteen signatures, no ships. Fin finds one tower as I start sifting through the signatures, discarding plenty of gas, resolving a wormhole—the static exit to low-sec, could possibly lead to The Citadel, but I'm not sure—and wallowing in the time-wasting mire of identifying relic and data sites.

The system is scanned, we have just the one wormhole, so out I go. Ah, I see The Cloud Ring as I'm pulled through the wormhole, which takes me to a system in Black Rise. I still need improvement in my wormhole colour identification skills. Or I could continue jumping through them to find out where they go. Or just not care if I don't find out. Whatever I decide, the exit doesn't look great, being in faction warfare low-sec and fairly far from Aii. Still, there are two more signatures in the system, they could offer an alternative route.

Scanning the two signatures resolves two wormholes, a K162 from class 1 w-space and an N944 outbound connection to more low-sec. And more low-sec in Black Rise, now that I know what I'm looking at. I poke through, as our primary goal is to get Aii home, to appear nine hops from the other system. 'Nine hops closer to Aii?' Nope, four further away. But, again, extra signatures catch my attention, as Fin dives in to C1a behind me.

Wormhole, wormhole, wormhole, and relics—get with the programme, square. I may still get closer to Aii, but probably not with an S199 outbound link to a null-sec system in Syndicate. The other two are a K162 from class 3 w-space and a K162 from another C1. We're getting good wormholes this evening. Having exhausted our empire space connections I think I can spare a few minutes checking them out.

Jumping to C1b has my being spat in to the system over eight kilometres from the wormhole, which isn't a positive sign. But today I think that just means this connection hasn't been visited in hours, as a Tengu strategic cruiser, visible on d-scan with a tower, is piloted. He's inside the tower's force field and almost probably not got any intention of becoming active any time soon, but sometimes it's just nice to see another pilot.

C1b holding thirty anomalies lowers my optimism a few notches, as the Tengu pilot clearly doesn't get busy with the Sleepers, and I don't care to scan the few signatures for possible further wormholes. I'd rather go back and check C3b. So I do. D-scan is clear from the wormhole, but exploring locates the near-mandatory tower lacking ships elsewhere in the system. A blanket scan reveals nineteen anomalies and seven signatures, and I think I will scan these for wormholes.

Gas, gas, gas, data, gas, and a wormhole. It's about time, but it's also a tiny T405, the outbound connection to class 4 w-space already stressed to critically destabilised levels. You could say that the wormhole is on the verge of collapse. So that's probably it for our current exploration. 'Okay Aii', says Fin, 'you have a long route to Black Rise, or a longer route to Black Rise'. Or, I add, in case null-sec tickles him, an even longer route through Syndicate. But Black Rise it is, and after some uneventful stargate hopping Aii returns home. Mission accomplished.

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

Becoming part of the problem

Me, myself, and I in the home system. That's just one person, though, but there's an extra signature keeping me company. Scanning to find out what the signature is resolves a wormhole, the K162 from class 2 w-space being potentially exciting. I resolve our static connection to class 3 w-space too, but ignore it for now to go exploring backwards through the constellation, hoping to find activity.

C2a may even give me a quick burst of action, with four ships visible on my directional scanner, two of them haulers, as well as a single tower. A previous visit to the system doesn't help me find the tower, my notes being well over three years old, and once I have d-scan pointed in the right direction the Tayra doesn't appear to be at the tower. Sadly, widening d-scan's beam to full coverage once more still has the Tayra missing, but maybe that's good.

Two planets lie out of d-scan range of the wormhole, and if the hauler is out collecting goo then he will be at one of them. I send my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser in to warp to the furthest of the planets, hoping to find the Tayra and catch it by surprise, but instead only bumping in to a second tower, plus a Bestower. The Bestower is at the tower and only visible on d-scan, not near the customs office I land next to, and finding this other hauler sees it empty. Warping back to check the first tower has the three remaining ships lacking pilots too. The Tayra has left the system.

Out of the system or off-line, I can't tell, but with no Tayra and no other pilots I settle down to scan. Two anomalies and five signatures don't take long to sift through, so I get to the disappointing result of a data site, wormhole, and two pockets of gas soon enough. Still, we work with what we're given, so I warp to the high-sec exit, and see that it leads to Domain. But where in Domain? Nowhere special, but the system has anomalies where I can pass the time whilst scanning the six additional signatures.

Wormhole, combat site, combat site, combat site, combat site, combat site. Well, one wormhole is okay. And, in fact, it's a K162, making it quite dandy. That it comes from class 1 w-space is just the cherry on the top. Jumping to C1a sees two towers and no ships on d-scan, but I should perhaps not expect more from this system than it being a bridge, so launch probes to scan the two anomalies and four signatures for K162s. There are two, plus a third tower I find on a distant planet, and both come from class 4 w-space. That should keep me busy a while longer.

I land at the K162 to C4b second, so go to C4b first. D-scan is clear from the other side of the wormhole, and exploring has one planet has a tower with a Navy Scorpion battleship, Miasmos and Epithal haulers. Locating the tower is easy, as is discarding the ships, now I see them floating empty. Back to scanning, it seems the locals are industrialists at heart, the twenty-eight anomalies looking ignored when compared to the mere three signatures that are probably going to get some attention fairly soon. And one of the signatures is one more wormhole leading backwards.

Back to class 2 w-space, and C2b is emptier than C2a, with just one tower on a far planet that lacks even disappearing ships. A visit only three weeks ago convinces me that I don't need to expend any time in locating the tower, and instead I turn around to try my luck in the other class 4 system. C4b, C1a, and in to C4a, where seeing a tower and no ships on d-scan is starting to feel a little tedious. Performing a blanket scan reveals seventeen anomalies and fifteen signatures too, to which I say balls to it.

I'm ready to give up in this direction, but I can't help at least exploring all the planets in C4a, which actually finds me a second tower with a Bestower. A piloted Bestower too. Piloted by a red. It could be worth loitering here for a while, if it means catching this capsuleer, if it weren't for the hauler being perfectly aligned with his hangars. The pilot either has excellent manoeuvring skills or is asleep, and I suspect I know which circumstance is more likely.

I leave the slumbering pilot to check my last resort. I still have one more option, already scanned, and that's to look through our static wormhole. I'll do that, as rubbish as outbound wormholes are, or would, if the dumbscovery scanner didn't make a new signature in the home system immediately obvious on my return. I scan it and resolve, unsurprisingly, a wormhole, the K162 coming from class 5 w-space crackling as I drop out of warp nearby. It's perhaps good that I finished scanning and recalled my probes when I did.

A Proteus strategic cruiser enters our home system from C5a and cloaks. I don't see where it goes, assuming it actually leaves our system. It doesn't look like he went to C3a, and although the high-sec exit in C2a seems like a good reason to go that way I'm really not paying that much attention any more. This evening has got me used to moving probes and ignoring ships. Maybe that's a good sign that I shouldn't do much more tonight. But how much harm could a quick peek in to C5a do?

I take a look. Updating d-scan from the wormhole in C5a shows me plenty: five towers, three dreadnoughts, six carriers, and numerous smaller ships that I don't care to list. I'll just say that there is much that could me some harm in this system. There are twenty-one ships in total, with no wrecks to be seen, and as there's nothing out of range I have to wonder at my decision to warp away from the wormhole. More so, when that Pilgrim recon ship looks new on d-scan, as is that Proteus.

Did the Proteus come back from our home system when I just happened to be foolishly away from the connecting wormhole? Did he see me enter his home system and is concocting a plan with the Pilgrim pilot to catch my little Loki as I try to leave? I'm not entirely comfortable with the thought that I am about to be hunted, so make a bee-line to the wormhole and jump through, warping to a distant corner of the home system to go off-line. I'm sure it's time for sleep by now.

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Tags: bestower, epithal, eve online, miasmos, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pilgrim, proteus, scanning, scorpion, tayra, w-space

Settling for Sleepers

I'm back from a short break. Is anyone around? Maybe the locals from class 5 w-space that connects to our neighbouring class 3 system. I missed catching their Tengu strategic cruiser scout earlier, as well as the same pilot in a Drake battlecruiser, paired with a second, when they were engaging Sleepers in the C3 system. But before I can see if they're around I see a better sight, that of some colleagues being on-line. That immediately gives us more options.

I let the others know about my failure to catch the C5ers, and as it gets little reaction I can only assume even less has happened since. Indeed, the sitrep that comes my way is that nothing is happening at all. That's okay, as it gives me a chance to explore the scanned constellation for activity and changes. If nothing else, the static exit to low-sec from C3a should have died and been replaced by now, giving me a new wormhole to scan and a system beyond potentially full of opportunity.

Or, when I confirm that C5a is entirely inactive, perhaps we could collapse our static wormhole and take advantage of the half-dozen good anomalies once more accumulated in our home system. Whilst Sleeper combat isn't entirely engaging, less so with the dumbscovery scanner keeping us completely safe under these circumstances, it does get quicker the more pilots we throw at the activity, and making ISK quickly and efficiently helps fuel our rather less successful endeavours.

The first problem to overcome is finding a boat for HR to fly. He came to us in w-space without Tengu skills, and even though he currently has the books injected and updating his head he can't jump in to one of our Sleeper ships and join us in flying through explosions. It would be good if HR was instrumental in creating wrecks and not just sweeping them up, so rather than relegate him to salvaging duty again we consider other choices of boats.

A Drake battlecruiser is suggested, and although it may be suitable I'm sure we can do better. The Nighthawk command ship, for example, effectively the Tech II variant of the Drake. Fin grabs one out of a hangar, swaps the fitting around so that it more matches our Tengu doctrine, and offers it to HR. The command ship may also give us another benefit. Can you run warfare links? 'I have all leadership skills, except fleet command, trained to level V.' And yet you can't fly a Tengu. Weird.

Anyway, we're all home, the wormhole is collapsed with everyone still being home, so it looks like we're ready to go. Aii even turns up to add a little more firepower, although a quick break has him return and voluntarily jump in to a Noctis to sweep up behind us. I have to say, there is some allure to being responsible for collecting a few hundred million ISK in loot and salvage.

Tengu, Tengu, and Nighthawk go to meet and greet the local Sleeper delegates. For some reason, I'm reminded of my first flight in a Tengu. After spending so long in a Drake it felt agile, fast, powerful, much more so than I imagined, despite the ISK-tag associated with the strategic cruiser. And I'm reminded because the Nighthawk runs surprisingly sluggishly. It also needs a tweak to its fitting to prevent the Sleepers from draining its capacitor juice at the first opportunity.

The disparate performance of our tiny fleet is no reflection in HR's skills or flying ability. We've just got used to speeding around in fast-firing Tengus. A bit of tweaking our strategy and flying styles keeps us all together and operating as a unit in no time, raking through the Sleepers pretty effectively. It will be good when we can get HR in to another Tengu, all the same.

The anomalies themselves pose no problems, being homogeneous, and we blast through six of them in total with explosions aplenty and the home system remaining isolated. It's far too easy to know that we remain isolated, and although it keeps us safe it's pretty boring. We may as well be in high-sec empire space, except we're earning vastly more ISK, about 650 Miskies in total, for what amounts to straightforward environmental combat. Still, it keeps our wallet healthy, if not my interest. I don't fancy a post-Sleeper roam, so slink away to go off-line in a corner of the system.

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

Testing the defences

I'll see if I can find more than an errant Loki tonight. Even if I could simply keep track of which wormhole is which would be an improvement over losing the strategic cruiser down the wrong one yesterday. At home it's just me, a few anomalies, and a sole signature that will be our static connection. I resolve it and jump to this evening's neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where my directional scanner shows me the normal sight of a tower and lack of ships.

Warp, launch, blanket. My combat probes reveal thirteen anomalies and eleven signatures, still no ships. I'll be scanning, once I've located the tower, which turns out to have moved since my last visit a year ago to the day. Or I would be scanning, if the time taken to locate the tower hasn't given another scout time to launch probes and get to work. I can see core scanning probes on d-scan now, but a subsequent blanket scan of my own, sensibly hidden from d-scan high above the ecliptic plane, sees no new signatures. Where has the scout come from?

The scout ship blips on d-scan, a Tengu strategic cruiser, and it's not to pass through our K162. I find this out by warping there hoping to catch the Tengu coming back polarised, but instead reach our wormhole in time to see the Tengu appear in front of me and jump through as I watch. That was considerate of him. Now maybe he'll come back polarised and in to my waiting Loki strategic cruiser. I decloak and get ready. And I wait.

I wait a little longer. The minutes tick and pass the limit of the polarisation timer, and I can't help but wonder what the pilot is finding so interesting about our system. It only has one signature, one wormhole, the one the jumped through, so what else is there to do? Maybe this time a new wormhole opened in to our system and the Tengu has actually gone home. Rather than head back to see, I may as well loiter on our K162 and scan this C3 first. I call my probes in and ignore gas, resolve two wormholes, ignore a relic site, and finally ignore two more gas sites just as our K162 crackles with a transit.

That's bad timing. I throw my probes out of the system, having completed their task a second after the wormhole spat a ship back in to the system, so it's probably best to assume the Tengu has seen them. But at least I see in which direction the ship warps, and it looks to be towards one of the two wormholes, a K162 from class 5 w-space as it turns out. Well, rather than follow immediately I consider it prudent to get the low-sec exit, which I do even though the U210 is at the end of its life. A dying connection is better than none.

Having a safety net, albeit one fraying at the edges, I return to C3a and jump to C5a. Nothing is on the other side of the wormhole—at least, not for the first couple of seconds it takes for me to reorientate myself. Before I even get to update d-scan a pair of Drake battlecruisers drop on to the connection to C3a, thankfully not having seen my entrance, given that they jump through immediately. Now I check d-scan, see nothing else, and move from the wormhole to shed my session-change cloak and activate my ship cloak.

I would guess the two Drakes have gone to engage Sleepers in C3a. Before I consider what I can do about that, I ought to see what they can do about what I can do to them, and scout this C5 properly. Exploring finds just the one tower and no other ships or pilots, which makes the Drakes look as vulnerable as Drakes can look. But what can I do? Perhaps not much in my Loki, but another ship could break one of the battlecruisers—if I am able to get it.

I have a suspicion that, being out of their home system, aware of another wormhole, and potentially having seen probes, the two pilots will be updating d-scan regularly. The first test is returning to C3a. I warp to the wormhole, jump through, and confirm the two Drakes are in the system and busy turning Sleepers in to wrecks. Now to move away from the wormhole and gauge the reaction. Move, cloak. The Drakes don't warp to their wormhole home, but neither can I now find them in an anomaly.

The wrecks are in an anomaly, so the Drakes aren't taking refuge in the relic site. Indeed, a bit more d-scanning sees one of the battlecruisers at the system's star, which either indicates the pilots are recharging their shields, or warping around the system as an avoidance measure. I'm guessing the latter. To prove me right, as if proof were needed, a few moments later the two ships warp as one to the wormhole back to their C5 system, and jump through.

The pilots must have been alert to potential threats, and detected my Loki breaking away from the wormhole. But that doesn't mean I can't have a crack at them now. I might not win, but at least the wormhole offers an escape route if I need it. I jump back to C5a, shed my cloak and aim for the closest of the two Drakes, and slump back down in my pod as they both warp clear of the wormhole towards their tower.

Either I procrastinated about engaging the Drakes for a second too long, or I forgot or fumbled the activation of my warp scrambler. Either way, I get a language-independent reply for my failed ambush, which is nice. And I suppose this is game over for now. The locals aren't going to do anything that won't involve being prepared for a solo Loki, and I can't trust the low-sec exit to stick around long enough for me to consider exploring beyond it. That's okay. It's been a short and sweet session, and only really missing an explosion.

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