Isolation and return

Our industrialists are on-line. What's happening? 'Nada. C3 was dead. Low-sec had pirates camping a gate.' My glorious leader Fin indicates that our current options are pretty limited. Shall we collapse our wormhole and clear some anomalies for fun and profit? 'Sounds like a plan.' Let's do it. My glorious leader jumps in to an Orca industrial command ship, I get a Widow black ops ship out of our hangar, and we both make the first jump through the static connection to class 3 w-space and back, halving the mass of the wormhole effectively.

'Wait.' What? 'Aii is still in C3a', and unresponsive, it seems. We should probably wait for his return, rather than cutting him free from the home system. Speak of the devil and Aii shall appear. Our wormhole crackles, bringing Aii back to the fold and letting us complete our second round trip. Sadly, this doesn't complete crashing the wormhole, which resolutely hangs around a little longer, now in its critically unstable state.

Fin swaps ships again, now boarding a heavy interdictor fit to effectively collapse critical wormholes safely. Well, relatively safely, it's not a guarantee, as we find out when the wormhole gets dragged behind the Devoter on Fin's exit. I blame myself. But at least the route to empire space is mapped, and the system now appears to be empty of the piratical types that prevented earlier excursions. Fin gets the Devoter safely to high-sec. Now we just have to get her back to unsafe w-space.

No Sleeper combat for us, it's back to scanning. Our replacement static wormhole is easily resolved, and we're jumping to the new neighbouring class 3 system to find the next exit. My directional scanner is clear, and the one planet sitting out of range with moons doesn't hold a tower. This is good, as scanning should be straightforward and not hold any distractions for me. The primary purpose now is to get our glorious leader home, not to gallivant around after other ships.

Focussing on scanning the six anomalies and seven signatures immediately gives me distractions, not with the two pockets of gas but the four wormholes. A K162 from class 2 w-space is awfully tempting, the N968 much less so for being a crappy outbound connection, the static exit to low-sec is what I was looking for, and the T405 is as bad as the N968. I note two properties of the U210 exit: it looks to lead to the Genesis region, which is generally not convenient; it is at the end of its life, also generally not convenient.

I poke out to low-sec anyway, as the wormhole could have a couple of hours of life left, and inform Fin of the system I appear in. 'Twenty jumps, phew.' Yeah, it's a fair distance to cover, but we have options. The class 3 system beyond the N968 will have its own connection to k-space, the class 2 system will have a second static connection that goes to low-sec, and the T405 should eventually lead out of w-space too, but let's call that Plan D.

I would rather look through the K162, given that it is also the best opportunity to find activity, but I have to focus on the primary goal and C3b may have a high-sec exit. In a radical display of camaraderie, I head through the N968, where I see a red giant, and d-scan shows me a tower and Onyx HIC. I doubt the Onyx is up to much by itself, and can safely be ignored, and my choice of directions looks to be good: my notes say the system does indeed exit to high-sec. All I need to do now is find that wormhole.

A blanket scan of the system reveals six anomalies and thirteen signatures, locating the tower finds the Onyx empty as expected. I scan. Relics, gas, the high-sec wormhole, gas, gas, gas, gas, and a handful more signatures that I stop caring about. None of them are K162s, I don't want to be reminded how rubbish outbound wormholes are, and I have the exit I was looking for. I recall my probes, jump to high-sec, and report the new system to Fin. I'm in Essence, thirteen hops from where Fin is. That's better than twenty, according to maths, and all in high-sec too.

The system in Essence also has three additional signatures, should I want to scan them, but having found a decent route home the K162 in C3a is now calling to me. But, as fate would have it, as I warp across C3a to the wormhole d-scan shows me combat scanner probes in the system. I think about ignoring them—in a way, as I'll keep them in mind—wondering if a scout has come from the class 4 system behind the T405, after the idiot scanner pinged the new wormhole to the occupants. But rather than dive headfirst through a wormhole a wave of sense rolls over me, and I loiter on the C2 K162 and watch what the probes do.

This surge of sense that hits me may have something to do with a Loki strategic cruiser, piloted by a Kill it With Fire capsuleer, jump through the C2 K162 ahead of me. And of course he'll explore the K162s first and not the outbound wormholes, he's not stupid, unlike the dumbscovery scanner. Because he's not stupid, I have to wonder if he is out here on his own or has support a system behind him. There's nothing I can see yet, but that's not a solid indicator that there aren't any ships around. I wait and watch for now, hearing the wormhole's crackle that brings the Loki back to C3a.

The strategic cruiser aligns, cloaks, and, presumably, warps. Where to this time, and how can I tell if he's cloaked? I check our own K162, but he doesn't come this way, seeing that the Loki blips on d-scan but not on my overview this time. Well, there's a Loki on the loose. We should be okay. More importantly, he didn't spend much time in C2a, which probably indicates that it's boring. That's a shame. Ah, the Loki is back on scan, and gone again, still not to our home system. No, hold on, there he is, on the wormhole and jumping.

That could be good. Our home system is nice and dull again, with only the one signature that is the wormhole the Loki's just jumped through. With any luck, he'll jump back whilst polarised and offer me a free attack against his ship. I decloak, get my sensor booster active, and notice the HUD telling me that I am 'Orbiting T405'. Balls, that's not our K162 at all! As the joke goes, wrong hole, wrong hole! And, most likely, this means I've missed my free shot at the other Loki. I'm an idiot. And sleepy. Yeah, that's it: I'm sleepy. It's no excuse but probably good reason to get Fin home, having made the high-sec hops, and call it a night. Not much of a night, admittedly, but we made our own adventure.

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Tags: devoter, eve online, loki, mmorpg, onyx, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space, widow

At last the Drake

It's time for bed. Great story, Penny. See you all tomorrow. But wait: returning through low-sec and in to class 3 w-space has the Drake battlecruiser visible on my directional scanner. I see two towers too, but those two towers are the two towers in the inner system. The Drake has long been idling at the third tower, sitting alone at the edge of the system. If he was still idling I would not be seeing him from this wormhole. I'm sure that means something, if only I could figure it out.

The Drake is out. The Drake is out and shooting Sleepers. Adjusting d-scan sees a few Sleeper wrecks, and sweeping a finer beam across the known anomalies sees the Drake in one of them. I move away from the wormhole and cloak, updating d-scan afterwards for a minute or so to gauge the reaction. The Drake doesn't move, so I think it's safe to say he didn't spot me on his d-scan. That gives us a target.

HR scrambles a ship in our home system, bringing the Legion strategic cruiser to the class 3 system that bridges the constellation between home and this one. He waits in C3a, I am point ship in C3b. Glorious leader Fin and Aii have been hauling minerals between home and empire space, taking advantage of the connection in C3a close to Amarr, and rush home to get their own ships. With four of us, I think we can afford to fly a heavy interdictor to make sure we get the pod, so Fin grabs that. Aii has the difficult decision of wondering what else we could possibly need.

I make a perch in the appropriate anomaly, where I can safely watch the Drake and warp in at a moment's notice. Or could, if the Drake stayed there, but he warps off seconds after I start working out how best to approach him. Hopefully he's having trouble against the Sleepers and not second thoughts about what he's doing. Having made a bookmark of my perch I warp to the distant tower to keep tabs on our battlecruiser target.

With any luck the Drake is simply recharging his shields, which is fine by us as it gives Fin and Aii time to get their ships to the wormhole with HR. Or maybe the pilot's gone away for another extended break. It has taken him a couple of hours to swap ships and start the first anomaly after all. Don't let me down, Mr Drake, people are waiting.

There's a short pause, the Drake moves towards a hangar, and, with what doesn't seem like enough time for a change of fitting, aligns and warps out of the tower. That's more like it. I tell my colleagues to get ready as I warp back to my perch, seeing the Drake resuming his Sleeper combat. Excellent. Now all I need to do is stop him from leaving again. That may not be easy. From this distance is looks like the battlecruiser may be aligned and ready for a rapid exit. I'd better take a closer look.

Nope, all looks good. The Drake is moving, but not to any obvious reference point, so I keep my Loki moving and crawl cloaked to get within warp scrambler range. With a pair of Sleeper battleships and couple of cruisers still in the site, plus the Drake itself, I would normally wait for a more opportune moment to strike, but with a capable small fleet behind me I am feeling much more confident. This should be easy. Here we go. I instruct my colleagues to jump in to the system and hold, and once they are in I shed my cloak and engage the Drake.

I get a positive target lock, disrupt the Drake's warp engines, and start shooting as I call for my colleagues to warp to my position. The Sleepers hate me immediately, the Drake only a second or so afterwards. He'll like me a lot less when our own Drake plus Legion and Onyx all warp in to provide support. And here they are, just as I start to rely on my ancillary booster to keep my Loki a shield-based ship.

Fin inflates the Onyx's warp bubble, HR starts sucking the capacitor juice out of the Drake—if the traditionally passive battlecruiser is even relying on it—and Aii joins all of us in applying as much damage to the Drake as quickly as possible. It's pretty quick. The Drake melts, the explosion ejecting the pod that, as it remains in the warp disruptive effect of the bubble, we easily crack open for the corpse inside. Job's a good 'un.

We loot and shoot the wreck waiting for the Onyx's bubble to come down, and once it does we clear the field. Aii lingers a moment longer, not being able to resist snatching a bit of Sleeper loot for some extra ISK, but we're gone cleanly. It was an awfully long combined wait for the Drake to become active, and it was only really luck that had my coming home in this direction, particularly after avoiding being a victim to another fleet's ambush first. But in the end we get a good kill, even if it was a bit one-sided. I think that just means we did the groundwork well. Now I really am going home to get some sleep, after a particularly thrilling and varied evening.

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

Biting hard in to the bait

Out to low-sec, launch probes, and scan. That Drake battlecruiser in the second class 3 w-space system in our constellation is doing nothing, and as I don't want to join him in that endeavour I'm reverting to Plan B. There are two extra signatures in this low-sec system, which I noted earlier but ignored on the hopes that the Drake would make a target of himself, but now I'm back and hoping for opportunity. Resolving two wormholes looks good. One is a K162 from class 3 w-space, the other a K162 from class 1 w-space. No outbound connections.

C1a looks like a good start. It may be a dead end, and it may hold soft targets. Jumping back to w-space doesn't give a good vibe, though, not when I appear in the system over seven kilometres from the wormhole. I don't think I'm being rash in turning right around when my directional scanner shows me a tower and no ships. Maybe there's more happening in C3c. Out to low-sec, across to the other K162, and in to the class 3 system to see a Prorator on d-scan.

The transport doesn't share d-scan with a tower, so he's in empty space somewhere. It also doesn't land on the wormhole, and as it doesn't come to me I'll have to go to it. I just don't know where that is yet. I could warp around customs offices without much direction, but I don't want to rely on just luck to find the ship. My notes, on the other hand, point to a couple of towers being in the system five months ago. If they are still around it's possible the Prorator will be found in one of them, and I can potentially watch his next movements.

Warping to where the first tower was finds it to still be here, with a piloted Crane transport and Apocalypse battleship, and empty Viator, and the tower shares d-scan with a second, this one new to the system. This new tower has no ships associated with it, though. Checking the other old tower also sees it remain, but still with no other ships and no sight of the Prorator. Was he just passing through, or did he swap ships already? Launching probes and blanketing the system has this consideration easy to check, with thirteen anomalies and two signatures, and the second signature is a pocket of gas, so there's no Ewok entrance.

I head back to the first tower, the only one holding ships and pilots, and lurk with intent. The Crane is swapped for a Proteus strategic cruiser, the Apocalypse for a Purifier stealth bomber. A new contact appears in a Buzzard, the covert operations boat immediately changed for an Epithal, the planet goo hauler that works just as well as bait, with its ridiculous number of low fitting slots. I smell an ambush ahead, almost confirmed when the Purifier warps out of the tower in a direction I am not alert enough to catch.

A single stealth bomber is not much of a deterrent to trying to catch a gooing hauler, but if the Proteus is available then I may well be in trouble. The good news is that the Proteus isn't available. The bad news is that it is swapped for a Falcon, the recon ship now making the flimsy Purifier much more of a threat. If I can't target the stealth bomber to shoot back then it won't matter if I can rake through its defences quickly. But all this only matters if the Epithal is indeed being used to bait me. So it is that I get a bit nervous when the hauler warps out of the tower, apparently towards a customs office.

I follow the Epithal, because why wouldn't I? I can observe without engaging. Well, I'd like to think I can, as I can't help but wonder out loud if I should take a shot anyway. 'Yes, do it', says the devil on my shoulder, the devil today being new recruit HR, sounding suspiciously as bad an influence as Fin. So, naturally, I decloak to engage the Epithal now at the customs office. I can't help but think this will end badly.

I gain a positive lock on the hauler, disrupt its warp engines—or so I think—and start shooting. A pulse of my micro warp drive has my Loki strategic cruiser slamming in to the Epithal, sending it out of alignment, keeping it close and letting my guns slowly work their way through the active shields of the hauler. I know his shields are tough as I saw the tell-tale blue ripples on the ship when I was loitering outside the tower. But they are still only the shields of a basic industrial ship, and it still is just me versus him.

I back my Loki off and surge ahead again to give the Epithal a second nudge. His shields are gone and my guns are ripping chunks of armour off the hauler. If this is bait, it's not going well for them. But two things happen: the Epithal warps clear, and the Purifier decloaks near the customs office. I don't know what he was waiting for, maybe this wasn't bait and the stealth bomber had to warp in as a reaction, but with little other option for me his appearance only changes what I shoot at.

The Purifier is locked, we share warp scrambler effects, and I blow the crap out of him with three volleys from my autocannons, two of them mediocre hits. The Falcon appears between the first and third volley, and submerges again as the pod warps away from the wreck of the Purifier. That's a good idea, I'll disappear too, engaging my cloak and ignoring the unlooted wreck. Had the ambush been better coordinated I'd be dead, but the poor timing and inadequate ships means I get a kill—almost two, as the bait wasn't looking healthy when it warped—and still get to keep my own.

Now, a Tengu strategic cruiser would have been a better choice to keep hold of me had the Falcon worked its ECM annoyance. The one warping in would do, I'm sure, had it been here earlier. I see it first on d-scan, so jink and accelerate away as fast as I can under cloak, but it's not quite enough. The Tengu drops out of warp almost on top of me, shedding my cloak and making me quite visible again. Thankfully, I'm alert to this possibility, see my cloak deactivate, and flick it back on as soon as it will let me.

That was close. A new change of direction will help me now, which I effect, but warping out would help me more. Why am I still here? Just to get a decent image of my kill? That's a bit silly, particularly as the Tengu doesn't give up on trying to find me again and actually manages to give me a second nudge. I'm lucky again, though, as the Tengu is zooming around in looking for me, so zips right past without stopping, letting me once again reactivate my cloaking device. And now I take the hint and warp away, back to the wormhole to low-sec, and away from the pilots intent on flushing me out. It kinda worked, but thanks for the kill anyway.

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Tags: apocalypse, buzzard, crane, drake, epithal, eve online, falcon, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, prorator, proteus, purifier, pvp, scanning, tengu, viator, w-space

Missing the action

'I am hauling.' So says my glorious leader as I come on-line, immediately indicating that our wormhole is open and the constellation scanned, at least to some extent. But the wormholes are ageing, Fin 'being cavalier about the exit, as I know we can get another'. The static exit to high-sec in our neighbouring class 3 system is at the end of its life, Fin thinking it soon to die, and although she's right that we will get a replacement I can't help but remind myself of the high-sec islands in Aridia.

I can no more stop Fin than she me, so I take my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser through our static wormhole to take a look around, potentially prepared to resolve a new entrance for my colleague. What I first find is a weird-looking system. Most of the planets are clustered close to the star, with one lonely, moonless plant orbiting much further out, some 60 AU away. It's quick to check that there's no occupation, my directional scanner being clear within range of all the moons—Fin suspects a recent eviction—and with some good anomalies in the system maybe we can make some ISK once the wormhole dies.

That's assuming, of course, that the static exit is the only wormhole in the system, otherwise making ISK won't be safe. As Fin continues to haul minerals around, I scan. Four gas sites, the static exit, our K162, and, oop, another wormhole before two more pockets of gas. Warping to the second wormhole is a pretty disappointing experience. Not only is the N968 outbound connection to class 3 w-space a poor result because of the frustrating dumbscovery scanner, but it may well have been inactive until I warped to it. Now there's no doubt, and a second system connects to this one.

Still, the second wormhole gives me more w-space to roam. Jumping in to C3b sees the usual d-scan result in class 3 w-space of a tower and no ships, and the tower, when located, is new, owned by a tiny corporation, and is lacking defences. Maybe we can make a diversion in to this system for some Sleeper combat before tidying up in C3a too. Again, the plan revolves around there being no other wormholes connecting to this system, so I'll need to scan here too.

Before I can launch probes I get the feeling that this system isn't as inactive as it first looked. Call it a hunch, or call it the Noctis salvager blipping on d-scan. Either way, I need to scout further. And warping to a distant planet finds a second tower, along with the Noctis, three Iteron V haulers, and a shuttle. The Noctis is piloted, naturally, as is one of the haulers, but the Iteron has clearly been inactive for a while. I'm more curious about what the salvager has been up to.

There's nothing else in the system. No other towers, no other ships, and no sign of any wrecks. Of course, if the Noctis returned from somewhere then there won't be any wrecks to find, if he's not rubbish at his task, but more exploring sees that there was nowhere for a salvaging ship to be that was out of d-scan range of the K162 except this second tower, and the Noctis had no reason to warp past me. Maybe a fleet is active in another system, and the salvager will go out to help them again. I should scan to find out.

A blanket scan of the system reveals five anomalies and three signatures, and I think I can scan the two unknown signatures in the inner system without the pilots at the tower knowing. This is made easier when the Iteron blinks off-line, leaving just the Noctis. I'll be quick, in case he moves. But a subsequent blanket scan has one of the cosmic signatures disappear too. That's a little disconcerting, although I've not seen or detected any massive ships that may have collapsed the wormhole I used to get here. I hope it's okay.

Perhaps the static wormhole was at the end of its life and has been replaced. Two more blanket scans see no more changes, so I scan the one signature I don't yet know about to resolve, what a surprise, the static exit to low-sec. It looks healthy, but not pristine. On top of that, a new signature has now appeared under my probes, back in their blanket configuration. It's all go in this system.

Resolving the new signature finds another wormhole, of course. It's a K162 from class 5 w-space, with no one obviously having come through it yet. I loiter for a minute, and when still no one comes through I decide to check the low-sec exit before poking in to C5a. I warp, jump to a system in Genesis—with two extra signatures if I end up needing them—and return to see what's up with the class 5 system.

What's up is that the wormhole crackles before I get myself sorted enough to jump through. An Orca appears from C5a in to C3b, returning immediately, and the mass of the industrial command ship drops the wormhole's stability to half mass. I get the feeling this wasn't his first trip. Maybe I should wait on this side of the wormhole for now. And so I wait and, after a little longer than polarisation effects last, the wormhole crackles again. It's the Orca a second time, who jumps straight back once more, this time collapsing the wormhole and leaving me floating in empty space.

I'm not entirely sure how the Orca killed the wormhole from its half-mass state with one further jump, but loitering for longer than is necessary sees no panicked pilot, isolated from his C5 w-space home, shedding his session-change cloak and launching probes to take him to empire space. Maybe I can look up the numbers on that wormhole later. With nothing to catch I take one last look at the tower in C3b before moving on. And at the tower I see the Noctis swap in to a Drake battlecruiser, tempting me not to leave but to linger.

What's the pilot planning to get up to in the Drake? Nothing, it seems, and quite a bit of nothing at that. Meanwhile, Fin's repeated hauling through the same wormholes has attracted some attention, a Manticore stealth bomber catching her ship and ripping it apart. Well, that's what we get for being predictable. But maybe we can also look a bit stupid, in case the Manticore hangs around expecting stupidity on the part of an industrial pilot.

I leave the idling Drake to his nothing and return to C3a, warping to the, well, ostensibly to the high-sec wormhole but actually ending up in empty space. The connection was closer to collapse than works for us. Still, maybe the Manticore is still around, from through a new wormhole, and is watching to see if a new hauler is warped to where there now isn't even a wormhole. We don't want to disappoint him.

Fin fits a Badger with some more shields than they generally have and warps it to where the wormhole should be, trying to bait the Manticore in to a second attack. But nothing. She turns around and heads home, carelessly dropping short of our wormhole, but still nothing. It seems the Manticore was from high-sec, now no longer connected to our w-space constellation, almost confirmed when I scan afresh and find only the new high-sec exit and no other wormholes.

I check the exit system for C3a's new static wormhole. It leads to a system in Kor-Azor, five hops to Amarr. That's a pretty decent replacement for a wormhole that was only two hops from Amarr, and can keep Fin's industrial activities running. I doubt anyone's watching this connection just yet. Talking about watching, I head back to C3b to see if the Drake is doing anything yet. He's still there, floating idly in the tower, and although there's a bit of movement, getting my hopes up, it's just the ship re-aligning itself in to its inactive attitude. Why am I still here?

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Tags: badger, drake, eve online, iteron, loki, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Finding the source of a fleet

Fin's on-line as I come on-line. My glorious leader has been here a while, though, as she's already scouted the constellation. I get a sitrep, involving various w-space connections, a few to empire space, and hearing that a bunch of strategic cruisers were spotted at one point—more than we could handle. 'So we have many holes and potentially fatal forces wandering around.' Ah, w-space.

What to do. I'll look in the class 3 w-space system that, for a change, connects in to our system. A system beyond that remains unscanned, and the strategic cruiser fleet was implicitly seen heading this way. What could go wrong? Not much to start with, as jumping through the wormhole sees three towers and Iteron V on my directional scanner. 'Itty is empty', says Fin, cooling my boots immediately.

My notes indicate just the one tower in this system three weeks previously, but had I needed to locate the Iteron quickly amongst the three now present it would have been trivial to do so. Opening the system map sees six planets in the system, only three with moons, and those planets with moons having only one each. I think I can safely guess where the towers are, and warping to the one with the Iteron is simplicity itself. It's still empty.

There's no need to scan C3b, as Fin did it earlier, so I warp my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser to one of the three wormholes. Out of the static exit to low-sec, K162 from class 4 w-space, and outbound connection to class 5 w-space, my choice is clear. Maybe potentially following the fleet earlier wouldn't have been such a good idea, but K162s are where action is to be found, and outbound links are anathema to activity with the dumbscovery scanner still working.

To C4a, where a Chimera and Thanatos carrier are visible, but thankfully only on d-scan with an Orca industrial command ship and tower. It's a nicely bubble-trapped tower too, which I find out by warping there, even if my interdiction-nullified Loki isn't itself caught. And as there is no one home, the three ships floating empty, I start sifting through the thirteen anomalies and fifteen signatures for K162s.

Got one. It's a K162 from class 2 w-space pulsating with the stress of a half-mass wormhole too. A second C2 K162 is in better condition, so I ignore that to throw myself through a wormhole that has had many other ships do the same, as that sounds a more interesting option. I would say so, too, given that d-scan shows me a Loki and Legion strategic cruiser, Scorpion battleship, and Velator frigate, along with a dozen towers in the system. Maybe that's too interesting for me.

I don't really care to take much more than a look around C2a. I'm certainly not going to catalogue all of the towers, and unless I see Sleeper wrecks I doubt I'll do anything but get myself in to trouble if I try anything else. But warping to another side of the system has my wanting to locate one of the extra fifteen towers pulled in to range, as it holds the pod of a pilot familiar to me. I think he needs a few more defences to protect him, though.

Tarunik Redshirt, perpetually red to our corporation only because of a nickname. I think he's sleeping, and rather than poke the hornets' nest I'll leave the system alone. Fin's been busy behind me, stressing both the C3b K162 and our static wormhole to the point of collapse, ready for my return. Isolating ourselves sounds like a good idea, even if starting again doesn't.

I can't resist a peek in to C2b first. There may be a careless pilot or two we could take advantage of. Or there may be three towers, two known from a previous visit and one new, and a complete lack of ships or pilots. That's this system scouted to my satisfaction. Back to C4a and across to C3b, where I get disorientated about what wormhole I'm on, wondering why it's still in good health until I realise I'm still a system away from home. The next wormhole is mass-stressed, and it has a hidden Fin on it, revealed once I jump home. Fin returns, the wormhole collapses, and we're safely isolated once more. With that, I think I'll call it a night.

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Tags: chimera, eve online, iteron, legion, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, scorpion, thanatos, velator, w-space

Three go out, only one can return

I turn around from the K346 to warp back to the tower. The fleet has returned through the null-sec wormhole to their home class 3 w-space system, and we didn't manage to catch any of the three ships. It didn't help that they had the sense to get a scout to look around their system before returning, prompting us to cloak or otherwise hide our numbers lest they simply go off-line and wait for us to leave. Still, their strategy worked, as the fleet was able to dash past our point man whilst his Legion strategic cruiser suffered through the sensor recalibration delay from decloaking.

I am expecting to see, after crossing more than 100 AU of w-space, the Gila faction cruiser, Oneiros logistics ship, and Dominix battleship floating inside the tower's force field, not looking like they will do much more. Instead, my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser drops out of warp at the tower to see three Dominices. The pilots have swapped ships, and in to battleships that can spider-share capacitor and armour repairs pretty effectively, looking like they may want to take on the Legion strategic cruiser that tried to stop them.

The ships are aligned out of the tower towards the centre of the system. We are so far distant from the star that they could be aiming anywhere, but there really is nowhere else to go but back to the K346. I can only imagine the pilots know they aren't facing only one Legion, but even as I report what I'm seeing we need to shift our strategy to match the new ships.

Our glorious leader warps to our tower and swaps for an Armageddon battleship fitted with energy neutralisers, but that puts her far from the approaching conflict, and the Dominices are now all in warp. I am closer to being able to help, as I can easily warp behind the battleships, but my Loki is nowhere near as useful as a different ship could be. What we need to do is engage and hold what we can whilst we get the more effective ships in to position.

Aii decloaks his Legion and gets ready, HR jumps the second Legion in to the system and warps to join Aii. Two of them against three Dominices will not go in their favour, but Fin is warping to our wormhole, and I am doing the same from the other side. Fin jumps in to C3a, I jump out, and we warp in different directions as both Aii and HR are suffering in their strategic cruisers. One Legion warps away as Fin lands, but the Dominices are still there, which is what we wanted.

Me, I need to choose the right ship. I don't much like ECM, but it has its uses. I don't want to take the individual ships out of the fight, as I know how frustrating that can be, but breaking their logistics chain could be vital. That's what I need to do, and ECM is pretty much the only option. On top of that, fighting battleships requires big weapons. The Widow black ops ship will do the job. A quick refit to tailor the ECM system for three Gallente boats, and I'm in warp to join the fray.

It's just Fin and the Dominices as I get back to the K346, and although I was concerned that the departure of the Legions would drop the warp disruption effects they had in place Fin reports that she has the heavily damaged Dominix in place. That makes target selection easy, although I need to target all of the ships for my ECM to be effective. I get an ECM module active on each Dominix and start shooting the one that is looking distinctly unhealthy, at which point all three ships escape, not in warp but through the K346 to null-sec.

We don't follow. I dropped out of warp a relatively safe distance from the wormhole, not needing to be close, and Fin is not going to do much by herself. But now we are almost back to where we started. The pilots we want to engage are in null-sec and we have little means to encourage them to come back, beyond their natural desire to return to their home system. They could simply out-wait us, coming back once we're bored and have gone home ourselves. Will we have to jump through the wormhole to flush them out?

Whatever happens next, Fin and I are in a good position currently, and the pause in the engagement gives Aii and HR time to get their Legions shipshape and Bristol fashion. And, once done, we reconsider our options. Fin remains the closest to the wormhole, so she volunteers to see if the ships are still there and if her appearance will bring them back. She jumps through the K346, says that all three battleships are sitting on the other side, and returns to w-space without engaging. Doing so destabilises the wormhole.

The shrinking of the wormhole is important, because it was already sitting in its half-mass state. Now the wormhole is critically unstable, where it won't actually allow all three Dominices back in to their system before collapsing. That gives the pilots something to ponder, as it does us. We can't engage them on the other side of the wormhole in our current configuration, nor do we want to compromise our fleet just to do so. And they can't all come back, and if one or two of them try they will be caught without full support. It's something of an impasse.

What can we do? Maybe we should simply collapse the wormhole, strand the pilots in null-sec. It seems fair result, given that we forced them out there. Aii heads home to grab an Onyx heavy interdictor, giving us more finesse in our mass moving through the wormhole, to minimise our risk of stranding a ship with the probably now quite hostile Dominix pilots. Out he goes, and it seems the fleet is taking their loss in good spirits, Aii relaying the message from one of the pilots for him to 'do it' because 'high-sec isn't far'. Okay, then.

The wormhole doesn't collapse when Aii returns, so we wait for polarisation to end and try again. Aii's Onyx jumps to null-sec and, again, he relays back another message, this time rather less jovial. 'What an arse. We give you a fight and you have to be a...', well, it's not a flattering term. I'm not quite sure what's changed his mood. They couldn't bring back their ships before, they can't bring them back now. Besides, it's not our fault they ran away from us.

Fin sends the disgruntled capsuleer a mail apologising for our four-versus-three blob, ever the good diplomat. But considering that the fleet probably thought they were facing two strategic cruisers and brought out three Dominix battleships I don't think they can really complain about the result. It's not like they wanted a fair engagement. Anyway, another pass with the Onyx still doesn't collapse the wormhole, despite Aii's best efforts, so I think we'll just leave them with the conundrum of what to do next. We claim the victory, head home, and smoothly collapse our own wormhole to isolate ourselves from their system.

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Tags: armageddon, dominix, eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, w-space, widow

Waiting for a return

I come on-line to a party. Fin's words, not my choice, as huffing gas or burning rocks is not my bag. But our system is closed, we have pilots, let's make some ISK. 'That sounds smart', says Fin. Damn, I think that means she's got the looks. That doesn't matter, though, as we are all pod pilots, including an on-line Aii, and clearing our anomalies should be nice and quick with three Tengu strategic cruisers blasting through them.

Aii salvages the gas site of the puny Sleepers sent to guard it as Fin and I board our Tengus and warp to the first anomaly. Um, may I have some repairs, please? There we go, my shields are replenished nicely. 'At least I was not shooting you. Yet.' That's okay, it's going to happen. I'm at peace with it. And with Aii joining us for the Sleeper combat, here comes HR to salvage all the loot. We really need to get him the skill books to pilot a Tengu.

The first anomaly is swept through, and HR comes in a Noctis salvager to sweep up. We continue through a second, third, fourth, fifth, and even sixth anomaly, exploding Sleeper ships quickly and smoothly, the occasional spot of lag being our only enemy. It's fast and easy with just one added combat pilot, and so much loot is collected we even ignore the other few, less preferred anomalies. Over half-a-billion ISK in loot will suit us well to start an evening.

Now to explore our way through w-space. I swap in to my Loki strategic cruiser, and away I go. The static wormhole is open, I announce, as Aii and Fin are back sucking gas in to specialised ships, and I jump through to see what's out there. Nothing from the wormhole, my directional scanner completely clear. Opening the system map partly explains why, with this vast system having the most distant planet 116 AU away, and that's only from the K162.

Launching probes and blanketing the system shows that less than usual is to be found in so much space, with a mere two anomalies and two signatures, and those two signatures will be our K162 and the static exit from this C3. My combat probes also reveal a ship and a flight of drones, which are around the farthest planet, naturally. I warp out there, and it takes a while to see the Iteron V floating empty in a tower's force field with the maintenance bots scattered in a bubble trap outside the tower. It's rather anticlimactic.

I scan. There is only one signature I don't know about, so resolving the static exit to null-sec is straightforward, and as there is only one way to go I go that one way. You never know, it could be interesting. And, for a start, the K346 has been stressed to its half-mass state. Quite a few ships have been through already. On top of that, an orange drone is on the K162 in null-sec—in the Pure Blind region too, a new pair of wormhole images for my collection—and three orange pilots in the system.

I confirm the pilots belong to the C3a corporation, and update d-scan to see a Gila faction cruiser, Dominix battleship, and Oneiros logistics ship, plus a whole load of rat wrecks. This is interesting indeed. But what can we do about it? The pilots will need to come back this way at some point, but at what point, and how long can I loiter in the system and still have us able to catch them unawares?

I hate to suggest it, but ECM is probably the best option to break any capacitor or repair chains the three ships are inevitably running. But just as we are starting to form a coherent fleet a rogue Imicus enters the same null-sec system and launches probes. This frigate looks to be ruining any idea we had of catching these pilots, as it seems the probes have got them nervous. The fleet splits, two pilots go off-line, and all combat is ceased. So much for catching them coming home.

There seems little point in watching the Gila warp between safe spots, and the pilots are unlikely to do anything if unknown pilots remain in the system. I return to C3a, accepting that we'll have to work blind. Aii plants a cloaky Legion strategic cruiser on the K346, giving us an opportunity to catch anyone that returns, but a Stabber cruiser and core scanning probes are visible on d-scan. That's an odd scanning boat, and forces our hand a little. We don't want to show all our pilots or ship choices just yet, so Fin and HR hide in the home system, and Aii and I stay cloaked in C3a.

The Stabber doesn't seem to do much but resolve our wormhole and disappear. He doesn't visit the K162, and doesn't return to the tower. But he probably reports the system clear of obvious ships, as Aii hears the wormhole crackle and sees it flare with ship transits. 'Oneiros, Dominix', he says, and we tell him to engage what he can, but the alacrity of the fleet's warp and the sensor recalibration delay of disengaging his cloak lets the ships enter warp freely, the Gila also coming through at the same time.

I am warping to the K346 from the tower on hearing the ships are entering, and can do nothing but see them on d-scan as we pass mid-system. It's a big system, remember. That's a shame, as we could have had a bit of a scrap on the wormhole. But fair dos to them: they were alert to a potential threat, got a scout to look around, and made a dash when all looked clear. And it's all been good practice for us too.

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Tags: dominix, eve online, gila, imicus, iteron, legion, mmorpg, noctis, oneiros, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, stabber, w-space

Getting old reactions

I leave one class 2 w-space system for a second, crossing high-sec space to get to the other K162. Except, oh, it's not a K162 but an R943 outbound connection. That's disappointing, as the idiotic discovery scanner will have blinked the signature of this wormhole to any active pilots inside the w-space system, and won't shut up about it. Still, I didn't have much better luck through an actual K162 just now, my entrance seemingly prompting a pretty pointless camp by a fleet on their high-sec exit, and you never know your luck until you try. I jump to C2b.

My directional scanner is clear from the wormhole in w-space. Launching probes and performing a blanket scan of the system reveals eighteen anomalies, six signatures, and no ships, which isn't a good start. Notes made from a previous visit a year ago indicate there was occupation then, and exploring finds one of the towers still around, with a pretty effective mining drone-seeded bubble trap. I only miss it because my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser is interdiction nullified, unaffected by warp bubbles. But that doesn't stop me from warping in to tower defences.

Naturally, no one is home, my probes already showing me this, so I scan. I try to ignore some relics, this being w-space making it much easier, resolve a wormhole, ignore a data site, find a signature so far from a planet that it can't be anything but a second wormhole, and finally ignore another data site. The wormholes are the two static exits, one to class 3 w-space and the other high-sec empire space, quelling my initial excitement at potentially having found a K162 when remembering that I entered through a rubbish outbound link.

Checking the high-sec connection first I look through a wormhole that bares a similarity to that of our neighbouring system's exit, but without the tinge of Lonetrek that the wormhole to Everyshore had. That would make this wormhole lead to Sinq Laison, obviously. And it does. But thinking about region colours, and the two regions our constellation connects to, stirs a memory. Didn't I steal some reactions, by blowing up the silos of an off-line tower, and dump them in a system in Everyshore? Yes, Penny, you did.

Looking at an atlas shows that my plunder, stashed where 'X' marks the spot, is only a few hops from our exit system. That's got to be worth collecting and returning to our tower, for transfer to a better market given a future convenient link. Sod scanning, I'm getting me some booty! I return to C2b, cross to high-sec Everyshore, back in to C3a, and home. Taking a look at what I am picking up it seems I'll need a Bustard transport to haul it all in one go, so that's what I'll take, relying on its increased warp core strength to bring me home safely.

Except I don't quite make it home. I enter C3a and, whilst considering my ship choice, see a Loki new to the system. D-scan places the ship at the tower, and warping across, preferably without hitting a tower defence—not as easy as it sounds—check to see if the strategic cruiser looks active. Not immediately but, given a minute, the Loki warps 150 km from the tower and launches scanning probes. That doesn't bode well for my getting a Bustard out and home safely. But maybe it also doesn't bode well for the expected lifespan of the scanning ship.

There isn't much to scan in C3a, and although our own K162 will be of interest I am sure that the exit to high-sec will be the scanning pilot's priority. Who doesn't like to see where their static wormhole will take them? Hopefully not this pilot and, with any luck, he'll jump right back, polarised and ripe for an ambush. Thinking this, I warp back to the high-sec connection and loiter with intent, watching the probes hit the wormhole and disappear. It takes a minute of wondering if the Loki has returned to the tower to idle, out of d-scan range from here, but the scout does drop on top of the wormhole and jump to high-sec.

So far, so good. I drop my cloak and activate my sensor booster, drawing closer to the wormhole to give myself the best chance of catching the polarised Loki's return to his home system. He doesn't come back immediately, so perhaps he is being cautious with his polarisation. Or maybe he's scanning high-sec, soon to get his own experience with the C2a fleet. Whatever he's up to, the Loki doesn't return within his polarisation period, effectively ending my ambush. Never mind. I back off and re-activate my cloak, waiting a few more minutes out of curiosity. Still no Loki.

I may have lost the chance to collect my reactions. A scout is out and about, and, if he's worth his salt, knows about our wormhole. Or I could just make a run for it. Yeah, that sounds fine. I warp across C3a and jump home, swapping my Loki at our tower for a Bustard, and make it out to high-sec without seeing another ship in w-space, or a sign of the Loki in high-sec. That works for me. A few stargate hops gets me to my destination, I dock and throw all the plunder in to my hold, and turn around to head back to w-space.

Hop, hop, hop, with 290 million ISK in my hold. I am a little disconcerted, in that case, to see two more orange pilots in the high-sec system holding the wormhole to C3a, one more than when I left. So imagine my trepidation when I land on the K162 in my loot-laden Bustard to see one of them there, plus a second ship. The Myrmidon battlecruiser jumps to C3a ahead of me, which can't be good, although the other pilot holds station some kilometres from the wormhole and is actually in a Crane transport ship. That's not as bad as it could be, but it's the Myrmidon now in w-space that worries me.

Is it just the Myrmidon now waiting in C3a? Did they see me leave and have planned for my return? Even if I get clear of this wormhole, if they know of our K162 will they follow me there to trap me on a w-space interconnection where I can't simply jump back to the safety of high-sec? So many questions, and so simply answered by just going for it. What's the worst that could happen?

I jump to C3a to see a clear wormhole and clear d-scan result. That might be good. I spur the Bustard in to warp, knowing that our K162 is out of d-scan range, and rather unprofessionally deciding to slam in to whatever will be there instead of bouncing off an arbitrary object in space to check d-scan first. The Myrmidon decloaks as my ship accelerates but it doesn't seem to engage or follow. And our K162 also looks clear. I jump home. All looks clear here too. I even get in to warp towards our tower, at which point I am almost certain nothing can go wrong. It doesn't. That was surprisingly tense for nothing happening.

I can only assume that I caught the C3 pilots off-guard. Maybe they thought that a Bustard wouldn't fly unescorted through their system, and that their Crane was actually under more threat—despite it being on a high-sec wormhole and able to warp cloaked. I'm also surprised that the Myrmidon didn't at least try to engage me. Surely the worst case for him would be that my escort would force him back to high-sec. But different pilots have different reactions, and, because of the different again reactions I have, I am glad that these pilots were content to let me pass. I dump the recovered reactions in to our hangar and, swapping back to my Loki, go off-line.

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

Finding bored pilots

No more relic sites for me for a while. I would say I've had my fill of them in the past few days. If I must do one, it will be because I've scanned a stupidly expensive blueprint in one of the containers. Then again, knowing me, if I have gone to the trouble of taking a hacking ship to a site and scanned the containers I'll just go ahead and hack them anyway. I suppose that's what I'm hoping to avoid in the first place.

There are no relic sites in the home system, not that w-space relic sites are equivalent to those elsewhere, just a couple of gas clouds and our static wormhole. I resolve the connection and jump through to see what the neighbouring system has to offer me today. A tower and a ship is better than usual, the Drake appearing when I update my directional scanner from our K162. But an adjustment to d-scan sees no wrecks suggestive of the battlecruiser's being active, so I won't get my hopes up just yet.

I have no notes to this system. It's a rarity nowadays to enter a w-space system for the first time, but it still happens occasionally. I regularly have to locate new or moved towers anyway, so a lack of notes is neither frustrating or time-consuming. I sweep d-scan around to find the tower with a planet, then warp to the planet to repeat the process for its moons. With a single moon and the tower visible on the same d-scan result I warp in, where I see the Drake is unpiloted. Okay, it's time to scan.

Eight anomalies and six signatures first give me a weak-ish wormhole that feels like a static exit to high-sec. If that were the only wormhole I'd be sure, but a second, chubbier signature also resolves to be a wormhole. That could be a low-sec exit and the first a random outbound connection. I won't know for sure until I warp to them, and I'll only do that after I finish scanning. Two data sites still have my avoiding relics, and a pocket of gas rounds out the results.

Now I can see what the wormholes are. My first instinct was right, as the second wormhole is a K162 from null-sec, which will make the first an exit to high-sec. I head there first, to get the exit, and on seeing three additional signatures to scan in the system in Everyshore I can't help but see what they are. Three signatures, three wormholes. That's a nice result, giving me two K162s from class 2 w-space and an outbound connection to class 3 w-space. That last one will be Plan C, given that outbound wormholes paradoxically and disappointingly pose the least chance of surprising pilots. When will the discovery scanner disappear from w-space?

I leave high-sec for class 2 w-space, through the first K162. This looks promising, with a tower on d-scan accompanied by two Tengu and two Legion strategic cruisers, a Brutix battlecruiser, Noctis salvager, and Retriever mining barge. I flip to my scanning interface and deflate when all I see are two anomalies of ore, the Retriever in neither of them, and two signatures, both the static wormholes of this system. I doubt anything is happening after all.

I sweep d-scan around to look for the tower, I'm not entirely sure why, only to see a Legion is missing. It appears to be in empty space, but before I can get too excited by that one of the Tengus warps on to the wormhole where I'm loitering and anchors a bubble over me. That's okay, I can take it. Now there are ship changes on d-scan, which really isn't that interesting, given the lack of sites in the system, until most of them start dropping on top of the wormhole as well.

The bubble anchored by the Tengu finally inflates, and the strategic cruiser burns out of its influence. I have moved away too, as a safety measure, so when a Drake battlecruiser warps to the wormhole and launches drones I am nowhere near being decloaked by them. Which, presumably, is why he's come here and done that, otherwise the behaviour is just a little bit weird. Did they see me enter? And, if they did, don't they know that the wormhole leads to high-sec? You'd think they would, given that this is their home system.

I can jump to safety whenever I want, and even with a Vigil frigate, the Brutix, and a Harbinger battlecruiser all joining the fun at the wormhole there really isn't much chance of them collectively stopping me from getting in to jump distance of the wormhole. If they know I'm here, they must know I can cloak, and they simply can't cover enough of the volume around the wormhole to stop me leaving. But that does make me wonder what else they would be doing here.

The fleet doesn't even try to push ships through the wormhole to stress it to collapse. There is no threat forcing me to try to leave, and even if I did I could do so safely. I only stick around because I can't quite believe they are really here looking for me but perhaps hoping to catch someone else expected through the wormhole. But when they send a ship burning away from the wormhole towards the system's star, an effort no doubt to flush out a careless pilot, I have to assume they really are looking for someone already in their system. And I think that can only be me.

Whatever, weirdoes. I may as well leave. There's little point looking for their second static wormhole, just as there is little point in my being subtle in leaving. Why weave through the couple of ships that aren't really in my way when I can bounce off a planet and return to the wormhole at zero distance, straight through the bubble, ready to jump? They can have no response for that. Well, none except to bug out at pretty much the same time I decide to.

I warp to a planet, update d-scan, and see a new lack of drones. A tighter d-scan beam pointed towards the wormhole has most ships gone, only the Drake and Tengu there. Now just the Tengu. Now no one. Weirdness indeed. I decide against leaving immediately, instead warping to the tower to see all the ships and pilots there, curiously having decided to abandon their wait for—presumably—me moments after I warp away from the wormhole. Even so, I'm still doing nothing, as are they now, so I am actually getting out of here. That the wormhole is clear makes no difference.

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Tags: brutix, drake, eve online, harbinger, legion, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, retriever, scanning, tengu, vigil, w-space

Music of 2013, part four

An actually timely and perhaps final set of reviews for the year, for budgetary reasons. And it's a good end to the year, with some decent albums from new and old bands alike. There's still plenty more out there to listen to as well.

It's been a long wait for the debut album from Factory Floor. I only saw them live once, supporting a disappointing Fuck Buttons, but that convinced me to buy their EP and be interested. And normally such a long delay for a full release—holy crap, the gig was three-and-a-half years ago—with nothing else in-between is a poor sign. Thankfully not this time. Even on a first listen, when the opening clicks of the album are joined by a thumping bass drum in a different time signature, I'm excited. The mix of electronica, acoustic drumming, and the occasional guitar and vocals, pulsates with just the right amount of repetition and variation through each of the songs. Factory Floor get the synthesised sounds right, the tempos right, the beats right. This is a fantastic album that manages to live up to my expectations, and has been well worth the wait.

I have admitted before that I may have judged No Age harshly when I reviewed a previous album, expecting a sound much more lo-fi than perhaps I should (because of the amazing Times New Viking). I ended up enjoying the album I dismissed, so when new album An Object turns up to good reviews I am more than willing to expand my No Age library. And again I have an initial period of disappointment with this supposedly really lo-fi band, followed by some acceptance, albeit on a shorter timescale than previously. An Object undeniably has some good songs, is definitely lo-fi in its way, and I will probably continue to enjoy it for a while. But I still can't help but feel it could be much better. The sound levels are just wrong. There are rough drums, lots of fuzzy guitars, and some squealing feedback, but it all sits just beneath the surface when it needs to break through and explode all over the place. Compare it to Bo Ningen's first album (their second suffers similar sound level disparities), or Metz's album. Although An Object feels like it should be rough and raw, it just sounds tame. Good, but with unrealised potential.

Something about the review of Flourish//Perish by Braids interests me, but I can't say I quite expect what I end up listening to. I'm not sure why. Maybe because the album is quite different to most other music I listen to, yet with the endearing qualities of a soft female vocalist and intricate, often-subtle electronic music. I can't really separate any of the songs for particular merit, but that's not because any are bad, more that the album works really well as a whole, with a satisfying level of quality sustained throughout. Like Grimes but without being nuttier than a fruitcake, Flourish//Perish is a brilliant and atmospheric creation.

New band Younghusband get slapped with the psychedelic rock tag, one which I clearly don't know what it means, or has morphed in to something tamer than I expect over a couple of decades. Still, I am interested enough to pick up Dromes and give it a listen. Dromes starts well, with breathy vocals sitting nicely on top of droning guitars for opening track Running Water, and as the album continues I can detect a distinct resemblance to Toy, another band tagged as being psychedelic rock, so that makes some sense. But as I listen for that first song to develop it finishes instead, leading to my main criticism of the album being that some of the songs can be fairly one-dimensional. There are some good songs on Dromes, and plenty of good ideas and concepts, but a few of them follow the same track without expanding on their core. Even so, Younghusband have created a decent debut album, one that is enjoyable to listen to and shows promise for future recordings. I'll keep listening.

Mazzy Star return after over a decade with fourth album Seasons of Your Day. Recording after such a long absence barely seems to go well in my experience, particularly after one of the members goes solo in the meantime, but I can't help but find out how the new album sounds for myself. It's good. Not special, but good, solid. It sounds like a blend of So Tonight That I Might See and Among My Swan, and whilst there doesn't seem like much of a progression from the earlier music it still works well. Seasons of Your Day is either not particularly remarkable because the gap between albums doesn't come with a similar gap in music style, or actually remarkable because they have managed to not lose touch with their style. Whatever it is, this is a nice addition to Mazzy Star's work, even if it doesn't obviously push any boundaries.

Tookah is the fourth album from Emiliana Torrini, released on a more regular schedule than Mazzy Star's fourth album but with a similar feel to previous works. First album Love in the Time of Science had good songs but suffered from a trendy trip-hop soundtrack, which is perhaps a natural mistake for a young songwriter. Second album Fisherman's Woman showed Torrini's talents, as not much can be hidden by mostly acoustic music, and third album Armani and Me brought a maturity to both the songwriting and composition. Tookah brings all the elements together, combining some electronica and acoustic instruments in to more maturely penned songs, everything fitting together nicely. The result is an intriguing mix of contemporary and retro music stylings, all with Torrini's beautiful vocals and often-thoughtful lyrics. Tookah is a good album that both extends and expands on her previous works.

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Tags: braids, cd, emiliana torrini, factory floor, mazzy star, no age, younghusband