Helios coda

I'm pretty sure I'm heading home through unoccupied or otherwise inactive systems. And I pretty much am. I came out this way and the only active ship I saw was an Imicus a hundred kilometres off a K162 in null-sec, right before it warped way and left the system using the conventional stargate method. In to one w-space system, warp across and jump to the next. Return to low-sec, hop a stargate, warp to the wormhole back to w-space. Across our neighbouring system and all I have to do is approach the wormhole, decloak, and jump through to get home. There I go. But, hold on, I'm not piloting a Helios.

That was a different pilot jumping to our system. I stop myself and consider my options. I can assume the Helios will launch probes on the wormhole and get tangled in them so he can't cloak, giving me a chance to engage. But that is an assumption. He may warp clear to launch probes, he may warp clear just to explore initially, and he may jump right back to this class 3 system. I'd rather catch the cov-ops when it is polarised if I don't have to be, so perhaps it's best if I wait here.

Of course, waiting on the wormhole in C3a for the Helios is an assumption too. I am fairly sure the pilot isn't local to this system, but that's not to say a new wormhole hasn't connected to our system and he's heading home and not coming back. I caught the pilot's name, though, so call it up and interrogate his corporation details. Bah, no description about what they get up to, so he could be from w-space. I'm guessing he's a tourist, though, based on various factors such as hand-waving and that it suits me to do so. I reckon he's returning this way.

Of course, even if he's returning this way it may take him a while. There may not be another wormhole in our home system to take him further back, extending his time in w-space, but I know that we have three rather weak signatures to interrogate with probes, and casual scanners have been known to fiddle with probes an awfully long time on that kind of site.

I may be asking too much for the pilot to be experienced with w-space and know that class 4 systems almost never have wandering wormholes appear, that the wormhole he entered through will be the static connection, and so the only other wormholes of interest will be K162s, which are pretty strong signatures. Hit them first, find nothing, ignore the weak sites as irrelevant, and jump back in to my ambush.

I'm even waiting brazenly for the Helios. I'm decloaked, sensor booster active, just waiting for his return. I was heading home to go off-line, and I saw no changes in the systems I passed through. I'm confident no one will sneak up on me. All I need is the Helios to jump back, let me pretend I have a chance of catching him, and we can go our separate ways and get some rest. Is that too much to ask?

Enough prattling, the wormhole finally crackles. My Loki strategic cruiser is poised, ready to pounce and strike at the cov-ops when it appears. And I almost get lucky. The Helios makes a break from the wormhole only a little over two kilometres from my ship. That could have made it awkward to cloak, and he doesn't immediately, but despite being alert and ready for this moment I am still aiming for an agile cov-ops.

My targeting systems try to lock on to the Helios, and it looks like I may just get a positive lock when the target drops. He's cloaking, getting clear and activating the module just in time to save his ship. I burn towards the Helios's last known position but it's too late. He's already jinked away, or is even in warp, and all I'm doing is moving further away from the wormhole.

Feeling a little vulnerable now, almost twenty kilometres from the wormhole, I cloak and turn my Loki around. I can't say for sure if it was worth my time to have a crack at a ship that would almost certainly evade me, but after a night of seeing almost no one I suspect it was. It gave me a little sense of excitement, a small thrill, and the opportunity to navigate my way through options and possibilities. And not catching it isn't so bad, as at least I can slowboat to our wormhole, jump home, and go off-line without waiting for a criminal timer to tick down.

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

Honing a mostly pointless skill

I'm not even supposed to be here today. But I'll try to make the best of it, as long as somebody hasn't jammed chewing gum in to our static wormhole so it won't open. Bunch of savages in w-space. The known sites have faded away, but my probes reveal five signatures. That's a number suspiciously larger than one, do we have potential visitors? Nopers, as three signatures are so weak they are almost certainly data or relic sites, and the only chubster is a pocket of gas. It's not so exciting after all.

Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system doesn't look much better than being at home, although a clear result from directional scanner is probably more a result of being in range of just the one planet. Yeah, I'll keep telling myself that, right until I've launched probes, performed a blanket scan, and explore the system. I can warp directly to the tower that remains from a year ago to see the sole ship in C3a as being an unpiloted Thanatos carrier, and assume that the twenty-one anomalies and twenty-two signatures means that this inactive state is the norm and not the exception.

I start poking signatures. There is plenty of gas, far too many data sites, and, thankfully, not just the one lousy wormhole. I actually resolve two lousy wormholes. The static exit to low-sec is pristine, the K162 from class 4 w-space at the end of its life. Neither really beckons to me, but low-sec is currently the best option. I've also picked up the hobby of trying to identify the destination region by looking at the colours seeping through, dunno where I could have got that from, and I'm guessing from the mix of Verge Vendor and Cloud Ring that I'll end up in Placid. Which I do. If nothing else happens tonight, I can at least be pleased with that.

I'm in low-sec Placid, but I'll scan the one additional signature before making any kind of assessment about the state of the system. It's a combat site. This place sucks. But I have an exit, which gives me the opportunity to poke through the EOL K162 to C4a without the risk of completely isolating myself. And C4a is eerily similar to C3a. The two systems share the same first four digits of their J-numbers, and a tower and Thanatos appear on d-scan. An Orca too, but I doubt the industrial command ship is piloted, particularly when I am spat in to the system well over six kilometres from the wormhole.

Back to C3a, and now what? I'm not collapsing our static wormhole on my day off, but looking at my star map shows the low-sec system to be a dead end, the sole stargate leading to a system that acts as a border between Placid and Syndicate. That makes me feel a little nervous about traffic, but who takes stargates to and from null-sec? People who live there use jump bridges, or whatever, or so I'm led to believe. But I'm also led to believe that roaming gangs out for blood will take the slow, stargate route. Who should I believe? My own sensors, I think. How daring, how brave, I'm gonna do it!

And by 'do it', I mean 'return to low-sec and stargate-hop to another low-sec system. I'm not going to cross the border to null-sec, as I'm not a complete idiot. And so I use the stargate to exit the dead end, see the other side is clear, and launch probes to scan the three signatures in this new system. Wormhole, relics, and a combat site with added Drake. I ignore the battlecruiser to reconnoitre the wormhole, jumping through the K162 to class 5 w-space to return to my natural habitat.

D-scan is clear, my notes are uselessly old, so I launch probes and explore. Seventeen anomalies and thirteen signatures don't look positive for occupation, and neither does a lack of tower anywhere in the system. Arguably that second one more. I poke around for wormholes and find two pretty early, one a Z142 outbound connection to null-sec and the other a K162 from more class 5 w-space. After some gas and data sites I'm back to wormholes, resolving a second Z142 and a K162 from class 2 w-space. That's a pretty good result.

Null-sec first, as I am keen to hone my identification skills and, with any luck, add to my collection of images. The first Z142 looks like Stain on the other side, and it is, but just a bit further away than I expected, as I actually appear in a system in Querious. But more important than where I am is where this Imicus now on my overview is warping to, which sadly turns out to be a hundred kilometres from the wormhole. I hold my cloak, hoping that the frigate will like what it sees and burn my way, but it doesn't. The Imicus turns, warps, and leaves the system.

Never mind. After the Imicus leaves the system so do the two other pilots, leaving me alone, alone to rat and scan. Well, to rat, as there are no other signatures, so I find a battleship, reduce it to a wreck, and return to C5a. Across the system, peer at the other Z142, and wonder why it looks like Placid on the other side. Maybe it's the same mix of Verge Vendor and Cloud ring, and as the wormhole leads to null-sec and not low-sec perhaps I should guess that it leads to Syndicate. I jump through, see that I am indeed in a system in Syndicate, and give myself a pat on the back. Nice reasoning, Penny. But there are still no more signatures to scan, and I don't fancy popping a rat for the sake of popping a rat, so jump straight back to C5a to see what's through the K162 to C5b.

A tower, an Orca, nothing interesting. My notes from five months ago say two towers, nothing interesting. I believe you, notes. Back to C5a once more, and across to C2a, which I've saved for last for a reason. This connection from C2a to C5a probably means the class 2 system's other static connection leads to null-sec, and I'd like to look for that. Of course, if there's a ship to shoot along the way all the better. That there isn't doesn't come as much surprise this evening. Scanning the twenty-six anomalies and thirteen signatures doesn't even resolve any other wormholes, not a single K162, so whoever connected here really didn't want to. But I resolve an exit to null-sec, as expected.

That looks like the Malpais nebula on the other side, but it doesn't have the lightning bolt shape I would expect if the destination region were actually Malpais. Nearby regions Oasa and Perrigen Falls don't match what I'm seeing either, so where does the wormhole lead? I jump through to appear in a system in Outer Passage. Excellent, as that's a new image for my collection, and just what I'd hoped to find. Now I can take a look around, see that I'm in a system lacking pilots but not other signatures, and set about ratting and scanning. Combat site, combat site, combat site. I finish off the rat—pop—and I'm gone.

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Tags: drake, eve online, imicus, mmorpg, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, thanatos, w-space

Trying to join in

No new signatures means no new sites, as well as no surprise wormholes. I simply resolve our static connection and jump to tonight's neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where I'm guessing my directional scanner will show me a tower and no ships. I'm a Buzzard wrong, which is better than my notes, which insist from a previous visit that the system is unnoccupied, but is the covert operations boat piloted? Finding out is easy, considering the system has six planets and three moons, and none of the planets are greedy. I'm soon in warp to the tower, updating my notes as I go.

Yes, the Buzzard is piloted, but I doubt he's active. Not only is the system too small to hide anything out of d-scan range, and the obnoxious discovery scanner must have pinged our K162 to the Buzzard pilot, but the cov-ops is watching his hangar with an uncommon intensity. Why's that, little fella? Personally, I think the pilot's drunk and has faceplanted his ship. Either way, nothing obvious is happening, so I'll scan. This won't take long, with eleven anomalies but only four signatures, and I'm soon ignoring a gas and data site and resolving an exit to low-sec Metropolis.

I only have one way to go, so exit to a faction warfare system that holds the K162 I'm sitting on and a data site. What now? I don't fancy stargate-hopping in perhaps-active low-sec, as these pilots are nutters, and C3a is deader than A-line flares with pockets in the knees. I'll collapse our static wormhole and start again, which is a slow process by myself but straightforward when I know all the ships that have passed through. Unlike almost everything else in New Eden, the wormhole goes without drama.

A replacement wormhole pops up, I resolve it, and jump to the new C3a. The tower visible on d-scan has three ships with it this time, even though my notes are adamant that the system is unoccupied. It's okay, notes, we all have off days. I can't get out of range of the tower, so decide launching probes near the wormhole to be the safest choice, performing a blanket scan as I warp to check for pilots. Eight anomalies, five signatures, and the three ships, all of which are piloted. And, as I land, a battlecruiser is swapped for a stealth bomber, which warps to empty space. That almost looks like activity.

The Manticore returns to the tower a minute later, where it gets back to doing a whole pile of nothing, so I scan the system quickly. Gas, wormhole, relics, wormhole, and nothing in the general direction of where the Manticore went. Weird, but whatever. The static exit to low-sec clearly leads to The Citadel, which I confirm, and the second wormhole is a neat K162 from class 2 w-space. Is anyone from there quashing the activity here? I jump to C2a to take a look.

Two towers, no ships. I warp away from the wormhole to launch probes, bumping in to four more towers at the edge of the system but still no ships. No ships generally means no one's watching, but I prefer to be alone when I'm not cloaked, and I had the presence of mind to create a safe spot mid-distance between the two planets with towers, conveniently out of d-scan range of both. I warp back there, launch probes where no one will see me, and promptly hide my ship and probes.

Two anomalies and five signatures are worth a poke, but as soon as I call my probes back in to the system to start a ship appears on the first set of results. Just my luck. He's gone from d-scan by the time I flick panels, and so, with not much more I can do about it, simply continue scanning. Hey look, there's a wormhole where the ship roughly was. Who would have thought? I also resolve a second wormhole, the system's static exit to high-sec, leading to Lonetrek, and the active wormhole is a K162 from class 5 w-space that doesn't look quite as inviting now as it may have done.

Or does it? I finish my scanning, using my combat probes to locate all six towers—it's quicker than using d-scan and ostensibly there's no one around to see what I'm doing—when the C5 K162 crackles with a transit. What's coming for me? A Helios. A cov-ops is not terribly scary, although I suppose it could be if it's a point ship for a fleet. I won't find out by sitting here, though. But I make a quick couple of sanity checks first. No, the Helios hasn't warped to a tower local to C2a, and there's no sign of him in the high-sec exit system. Okay, it's time to see what's in C5a.

Two towers and a Loki strategic cruiser named Nyarlathotep are visible on d-scan. That's pretty much all I need to convince me to turn around, as I'd prefer to be not dead but dreaming myself. If I need more convincing, my notes tell me that the last time I was in this class 5 system I had to evade a Loki on the wormhole. And, hello, a red Devoter decloaks briefly, right on the wormhole. I should say goodbye to this system.

I jump back to C2a as a Proteus appears on d-scan in C5a. My notes serve me well when it matters. I knew there was a reason I kept them. Okay, Penny, time to go home. But as I reach the wormhole back to C3a the heavy interdictor appears on d-scan in C2a and, wanting nothing more than pictorial evidence that I did see a this ship and didn't simply turn away from nothing, warp back to the C5 K162 to capture an image. Which not only do I not get, the HIC gone by the time I get there, but it apparently lets the Devoter warp past me and jump to C3a.

I know this, because Tyler knows this. But mostly because he's clearly visible on the C2 K162 in C3a, along with the Helios I saw earlier. The HIC's bubble is up, the Helios looks trapped, and I've jumped in to the middle of... something. Well, I'm not polarised, a HIC isn't the end of the world, and cov-ops explode relatively easily. I'm joining in with whatever this is. I shed my session change cloak, get my sensor booster active, and lock on to the Helios, autocannons chattering away as soon they have a target.

The shields of the Helios drop to nothing easily, and chunks are ripped out of its armour, at which point it naturally jumps through the wormhole to C2a. And now I think that maybe I've been suckered in to attacking. I could chase the Helios, but I'd polarise myself and, if caught, have little chance of escape. I could also try to get clear of the Devoter, not fearing its bubble but the focussed warp disruption effect that is now holding me, but if I burn away from the wormhole I am in danger of unseen ships decloaking and scramming and webbing me, and put myself in a position with little chance of escape. My options, it seems, are limited.

It looks like I follow the Helios through the wormhole, but I'm really evading the Devoter. The Helios moves and cloaks, I move and cloak, jinking away from my starting vector just as the Loki and Proteus drop out of warp on to the wormhole, and the Devoter appears from C3a. And it only now occurs to me that whilst the Devoter is red the other ships aren't. This probably is a three-way scrap, but I have no idea who's allied with who. Well, except no one is allied with me, and that's probably the most salient point.

Out of harm's way, I settle for a role of w-space voyeur. Both strategic cruisers evade the Devoter, the Loki by cloaking, the Proteus by pulling range, and there is no real engagement. It's possible the Devoter is flying solo and panicking pilots in to think a fleet must be behind him, or maybe he's dicking around with the pilots who are actually in his fleet but now can't find me. Whatever the situation, only the Devoter remains visible, and with that he warps back to C5a, leaving my path home clear. And, this time, I make it.

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Tags: buzzard, devoter, eve online, helios, loki, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, w-space

For the want of carrier skills

'Hopefully I am not stuck in high-sec.' Holy crap, I'm getting a sitrep. I'm no longer used to this, and I try to follow the best I can but my puny mind cannot process it all at once. Something about bringing in minerals for our industrial projects through a dying wormhole connecting to our neighbouring system, where a Thanatos carrier and shuttle are in one or other tower, and I dunno. Something like that. I need to check for myself, keep my routine going for now.

I launch probes and scan the home system. All looks clear and as my glorious leader left it, unlike the class 3 system she's returning through. A Helios covert operations boat is spewing probes somewhere, not in time to spot or chase Fin's hauler, but it's good intelligence all the same. And as Fin comes home I am leaving, to see what the Helios is up to.

C3a looks as Fin described it. Two towers, Thanatos, shuttle, probes. I sweep my directional scanner around the system looking for the towers Fin forgot the positions of, seeing the shuttle at one, the Thanatos and Orca at the other. And Orca? I think I'd like to find that.

Locating the right moon isn't difficult, and I'm soon floating outside the tower holding the industrial command ship new to the system. The Orca's piloted, naturally. And it's not doing anything, also naturally. A bit of movement gets my hopes up that we'll have a fat ship to shoot to ease Fin back in to w-space life, but the Orca wallows over to the tower and, well, does something. Shove fuel bricks in to its furnace maybe.

I doubt anything more will happen with the Orca, particularly nothing stupid. 'What can I do that's stupid?', says Fin, quickly concocting a plan to bump a frigate in to the tower's force field, claim it's broken, and ask the Orca pilot for the password. It's not even that dumb, as the tower lacks any defences beyond some shield hardeners, and if either of us could pilot the Thanatos I'd tell her to go for it. As we can't, I'm hitting low-sec to look for more wormholes.

The static exit from C3a takes me to a system in Kor-Azor, holding a stinking pirate and a wormhole. Sadly, the wormhole is the K162 I'm sitting on, which leaves me wondering what to do next. Watch the Orca all night? Naw, let's collapse our wormhole and start again. We both head home, swap our boats for massive ships, and throw them both ways through the wormhole until it implodes. But using more maths than I imply, so that we end up on the right side when the wormhole dies.

ISK from anomalies, or look for opportunity through the replacement wormhole? ISK, we think. We have some anomalies, we can always use more ISK, and we don't want our loot being stolen too often. Besides, clearing anomalies in your home system is as good as risk-free, 'thanks' to the discovery scanner. Collapse the wormhole, clear the scanning results, and simply watch for new signatures popping up. No pilot input required. It's not just insulting, it's boring. Where's the threat?

The most discomfort either of us feels in our Sleeper Tengu strategic cruisers is from the bloom of doom in the second anomaly. Maybe I shouldn't fly us in to the cloud, but we kinda need to get in to heavy missile range of the Sleepers. Considering how dark and shadowy space normally feels, this is somewhat of an overcompensation.

Still, we can fly using instruments, and the Sleepers feel our casual indifference towards our cohabitation. We're just after their inherent iskies. Sweeping up behind us in Noctis salvagers gets some too. It's not a great haul, but raking in an easy 175 million ISK from the two sites will keep our wallet heading in the right direction.

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Tags: eve online, helios, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, thanatos, w-space

Being quietly productive

Hello, stranger! It's Fin, my supposed alternative personality. Why I haven't seen her in a while I don't know, maybe the meds were working, but she's back. I fear I've gone feral, though, as I leave Fin to check that our tower is still functioning and how to run our industrial endeavours, and concentrate on ensuring the home w-space system remains secure. Pretty much. Two new signatures are only relics and some gas, making the only connection our static wormhole to class 3 w-space. I'm sure Fin's fine, so I'll see what I can find elsewhere.

This C3 has a tower and ships, how novel. They are just two frigates, an Imicus and lesser-spotted Griffin, and without any probes visible on my directional scanner I am not assuming I'll get even luckier and bump in to a tower, ships, and pilots. To find out, I need to explore a little. The two towers from eight months ago have gone—well, they remain, but are stripped bare—but it's straightforward to find a structure that needs to be anchored in a moon's orbit. And, yep, there are no pilots.

Scanning in this inactive system reveals sixteen anomalies and six signatures, which are whittled down to two pockets of gas and three wormholes. That's a shame, as the anomalies in the system looked good for plundering, but it gives us further exploration opportunities. The static exit to low-sec is at the end of its life and leads to the Solitude region, a healthy K162 from low-sec clearly comes from Domain, and an excellent K162 from null-sec takes me to the the Omist region. Another one for my collection.

I'm alone in the null-sec system too, which makes it ripe for ratting and scanning. Okay, ratting, as there are no other signatures, but still I rat. As I let my strategic cruiser start the process of beatification against an Angel Saint I check my star map of New Eden. Feythabolis is close, astronomically speaking, and I could use an image of a wormhole in that region too. Maybe I should make the trip. I pop the rat battleship, let his friends get in touch with the Blood Pope for the canonisation of the departed, and start hopping through stargates.

It's quiet out here. I count the pilots along my seven hops, passing only two in total. Better than wandering in to a fleet, I suppose. And, now in Feythabolis, I start looking for and resolving signatures again. It's quite straightforward, as it turns out, as I pop another Saint in the first system in the region and scan three signatures, one of which is a wormhole. That'll do. The wormhole's even a K162 from class 1 w-space, so could offer me more than a simple image. Like an Enyo, perhaps.

The assault frigate jumps out to null-sec as I sit cloaked near the K162, pondering my proximity to Omist. I am right on the border of the two regions, which may affect the prominence of any visible nebula, both in the system and, therefore, through the wormhole. I should probably either head deeper in to the region, which I don't really fancy doing right now, or wait for a more serendipitous wormhole to connect me there. But, right, the Enyo. I didn't enjoy my last experience with one in my Loki, so leave it alone, but it's perhaps an opportunity missed.

So engrossed am I in my collection of wormhole images that I forget about wormhole polarisation mechanics. I could have easily engaged the Enyo on the wormhole and chased it if the fight went well, or fled through the wormhole if it went poorly, and forced his polarisation one way or the other. But hindsight is not the best process to use to make these decisions, and I simply wait and watch the frigate jump back to C1a.

The Enyo's gone, the wormhole remains. I think I'll capture an image from the other side anyway, at least as a placeholder, and I wouldn't mind seeing if the pilot thinks all is safe to collect planet goo or something too. Jumping to C1a has a clear d-scan result and the system feels familiar. My notes say this is my third visit, the previous time being nine months earlier, where the system was unoccupied and held an exit to null-sec. That sounds about right. Nothing is out of range, and there are thirty anomalies and ten signatures to poke quickly for K162s.

There's a K162, this one from class 2 w-space, and a weaker wormhole is a pretty neat M609 connection to class 4 w-space. But as K162s trump outbound links, I go to C2a first, where, along with a tower, d-scan shows me a Procurer mining barge, Retriever mining barge, Venture mining frigate, and Executioner frigate. One of these ships is not like the other. One of these ships just doesn't belong. But as there is only one anomaly in range, and despite it being an ore site, that none of the ships are there probably means they are all floating unpiloted inside the tower's force field.

I must be psychic. Locating the towers finds all the ships but no pilots, and the owner corporation doesn't match that of the Enyo. A second tower is elsewhere in the system, but it's bare and still doesn't match the Enyo pilot's corporation. There is obviously more to look for, but the evening's drawing on and I have a short trip through null-sec to make before I can get home. I resist scanning in this system but still poke my prow through the M609 in C1a, where d-scan shows me two towers and no ships. I've seen enough. I head back the way I came, this time seeing no other pilots along my null-sec route, and return home through an unchanged C3a. A quiet night, but quietly productive.

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Tags: enyo, eve online, executioner, griffin, imicus, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, procurer, retriever, scanning, w-space

Bumping in to a Badger

Safe and sound, away from home. The K162 from class 4 w-space, some fifty kilometres away, remains inactive for the past few minutes, the fleet I jumped in to not sending out another search party. I still need to treat the constellation with care, but it poses no immediate or obvious threat, beyond its innate connection. Of course, the strategic cruiser I initially grappled with wasn't obvious either, neither was the fleet sitting on the other side of the wormhole, but those are just details of living in w-space. I'm sure I'll be fine.

For now, I'll check this class 3 system's exit to null-sec. The K346 looks like it may have a mix of the distant Kor-Azor and The Kalevala Expanse nebulae, but jumping through lands me in the Delve region, with Kor-Azor in the background but mixed in with Stain. Still, it bags me another image for my collection, which I'm pleased with, and I continue to learn my wormhole colours. The system itself is empty, at least to start with, and also a minute later when the four pilots simply pass through, so I'll find a rat to pop for a gain in security status and scan the three extra signatures.

I find the Blood Pope, who's actually a bit of a dick, but I don't get to kill him. There's a chance of my salvation yet, all thanks to a pilot entering the system in a Vagabond heavy assault cruiser. He's followed by an orange pilot, which is curious. I'm pretty sure I didn't tag the fleet from the C4, so does this mean the pilot's from C3b? The corporation seems to match, but when the pilot disappears again from the system and he doesn't jump past my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, now back on the K162, I have to wonder what he's up to. Maybe he's found a convenient ratting route, or perhaps there are more wormholes in the system. Oh, right. I was scanning.

Yep, there's a wormhole, amongst the combat sites, and although it's a connection to class 1 w-space it's a pity it's a Z791 outbound wormhole and not a K162. I wouldn't be surprised if the wormhole were already being scanned from the other side. Still, I've found it, I'll take a look. Jumping to C1a and updating my directional scanner sees nothing, so maybe there is no one to see. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and explore the space d-scan doesn't cover. Ten anomalies, four signatures, no ships. A pair of towers sit on-line but empty on the edge of the system, and the signatures hold two gas sites and a static exit to Tash-Murkon, four hops to Amarr. That's good for this system, irrelevant to me. I head back.

Out to null-sec, and in and across C3b to our home system. All looks quiet still, so I keep moving and take my first look through our static wormhole at our neighbouring C3. A tower, no ships, and a black hole. And it's a messy system too, with twenty-one anomalies. If I remember, I'll activate all of those before I leave, just to clean up. Actually, no, I'll only activate the combat sites, leaving the locals a sack of rocks. But, hullo, a Buzzard is now on d-scan, and apparently at the tower. I'd better find it.

The covert operations boat transforms in to a stealth bomber and disappears by the time I reach the tower, but that's cool. I've found the tower and, by doing so, can see how to get out of d-scan range of it. All of the planets are in range, but one rock site, spawned beyond the furthest planet, is just out of d-scan range. What a great place for me to launch probes, so I do just that, re-cloaking before returning to loiter outside the tower, as I scan the seven signatures. My notes even give me a boost by telling me I'm looking for another exit to null-sec, woo!

The K346 is easily found, as it's the only signature weak enough on the results of my blanket scan, so I focus on that one first. Done. What else is there? Gas, naturally, and three more wormholes. Sounds good. But null-sec first. Right, what does this look like? Let me consult the table on approach. Branch, I'm guessing, as the boring background radiation is strong enough to form a ring around the edge of the wormhole from certain angles. Out I go and, oh yeah, welcome to Branch.

It's not an actual welcome to Branch, the six pilots in the system probably rushing back to whatever tower they feel safest in, seeing as there are dozens of rat wrecks littering d-scan and an Ishtar heavy assault cruiser somewhere. I'll leave them to it, and go back to reconnoitre the other wormholes in C3a. One is a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space, another a low-sec K162 obviously from Lonetrek, the third a K162 from null-sec that a Helios cov-ops warps away from as I land. It's good I got here a few seconds too late, as you need to be cautious of those little buggers, I hear.

The second null-sec connection itself looks pretty nondescript, and jumping through has my appearing in Esoteria. No wonder I didn't recognise it. More pilots are in the system, with more ratting, and more holing up in a tower as I scarily appear unannounced in the local channel. No matter, as there are no signatures either. Back I go, and the T405 wormhole should be my next obvious choice of destination, but the Helios at large and the obnoxious discovery scanner makes my chances of finding activity in that direction rather low. I'll check low-sec for wormholes instead.

This is Lonetrek alright, and that's a Badger landing on the wormhole moments after I move away from the wormhole and cloak. This looks like good timing, but I'm actually feeling a little unlucky, as I'm pretty sure I know how this will work out already. The hauler jumps to w-space, I follow behind him, and as I get a positive lock, disrupt the hauler's warp engines, and start shooting, the Badger returns to low-sec where I am unable to follow, having polarised myself. And that's exactly how it goes.

I loiter for a bit, try to deduce where the Badger was going, but can't really work it out with any certainty. It's probably not local to this C3, surely can't be travelling through our home system, and although the chances of it travelling backwards through the T405 are slim it remains a possibility. Wherever it came from, and wherever it is going, the Badger isn't coming back this way any time soon. Or maybe she is.

Just as I make up my mind to look in C4a, the wormhole from Lonetrek crackles and the Badger makes another attempt at getting past my Loki. It's actually pretty easy when I'm not expecting it and have recalibration delay from decloaking to soak up. I watch the Badger warp away from my attentions, and although I am quick in opening the system map to try to locate the right wormhole I don't spin the map enough to find it. Instead, the least likely wormhole is pulled in to view and I warp to our own K162, scratching my head in confusion as I jump home.

Nope, the Badger didn't come this way. At least, I can't believe it did. I return to C3a, and warp across and jump through the T405, the route maybe scouted by the Helios. But despite there being a tower and Bestower on d-scan, the hauler is unpiloted and it and the tower are unaffiliated with the Badger. Back to C3a and to the low-sec K162, where I re-open the system map. A bit more of a tilt brings the wormhole from null-sec in to frame, just above and somewhat beyond our K162. I can let this one slide. I've explored, engaged a Tengu, escaped a fleet, and gathered two more wormhole colours. It's been another full day.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Bumping in to a Badger
Tags: badger, bestower, buzzard, eve online, helios, ishtar, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, vagabond, w-space

Tengu becomes legion

It was a good full night last night. I'm on-line earlier today, and with less time to spare, so let's see what I can get up to. I don't have the best start, seeing that some corporation has stolen all of our Sleeper loot, the fiends. I like to keep it free-range, as we get better salvage that way, but it was still ours. Never mind, maybe I can find a way to replace it. Scanning the home system resolves a second wormhole, and perhaps the K162 from class 3 w-space leads to the home of the perps. I'll check it out. Cover me.

A tower and ships! That's an unusual sight on a directional scanner in a C3 system. My notes from thirty months ago are no help in locating the tower, just giving me information about a static exit to null-sec, and it may not matter anyway. Swinging d-scan around shows the Hound stealth bomber, Iteron V hauler, Noctis salvager, and Venture mining frigate all coincident with the tower, so unless the hauler is about to collect goo or the Noctis is preparing to sweep up after a fleet I doubt much will happen.

Locating the tower finds no pilots to go with the ships, which is a shame but not unexpected. At least the static wormhole may be worth looking for, so I warp out, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system. My probes reveal five anomalies, eight signatures, and more than four ships. A second tower sits on the edge of the system and, like a good scout, I am already warping in that hitherto unexplored direction as the scan completes.

There may be more ships, but there are no more pilots, which keeps the count at zero for anyone else keeping track. In fact, there are three times as many ships inside the force field of this tower than there are pilots in the corporation that owns the tower. A three-capsuleer corporation owns this tower, an eight-capsuleer corporation owns the other. That may be meaningful, I'm not sure. The lack of pilots is meaningful. It means I'm scanning.

Gas, gas, a wormhole that's obvious for being AU from anything, a data site, a weak wormhole that must be the null-sec exit, some relics, and a final gas site. Checking the K162 sees it come from class 4 w-space, and has it crackle with a transit as I land. What's just come through? Whatever it is, the ship holds its cloak, no doubt taking a good look around with d-scan before making any initial movement. But there it is, a Helios covert operations boat, and it launches scanning probes.

What the hell, I'll take the shot. If I'm lucky, the pilot will be busy arranging his probes to notice me immediately, and his Helios whilst surrounded by probes won't be able to cloak to evade me. I shed my own cloak, activate my sensor booster, and surge towards the cov-ops. But it's in vain, as the Helios cloaks before I can get a positive lock, and his probes disappear, no doubt warped to different points around the system.

I'm not giving up yet. I point my Loki strategic cruiser towards the Helios's last known position and burn in that direction, hoping to give him a nudge and decloak the ship. It's not going to work, of course, as the Helios can move full speed under cloak, and is probably warping clear already, but I've shown myself and may as well give it a go. And so it is that the Tengu reveals itself on the same wormhole, and decides that I should become a target.

The other strategic cruiser locks mine, and I reciprocate the lock. I disrupt his warp engines, he disrupts mine. And, look at that, we're both shooting each other. Somewhat unfortunately, the Tengu has a warp scrambler fit and active on my Loki, shutting off the micro warp drive that I used to burn towards the cloaked Helios, which is how I am now over nine kilometres from the wormhole, a good four kilometres from being able to use it as an escape route.

But I'm not webbed, just scrammed, and as it is just his Tengu versus my Loki I'm actually pretty interested to see how this engagement will work out. I realise we're in a system with a wolf rayet phenomenon, which is hard on shields and boosts armour, but I doubt this is an armour Tengu. I simply aim towards the wormhole and keep shooting, easily getting within the jump radius and immediately getting more comfortable. I even start making pew-pew noises as my autocannons fire. I believe it's authentic.

The Tengu's shields are dropping, and although they aren't going down anywhere near as quickly as mine I suspect he's relying on a buffer fit, whereas I have active modules to replenish my own. I pulse one of the ancillary boosters just as the wormhole crackles, bringing in a—well, it really doesn't matter what it's bringing in. It's time to leave. And now is the best moment, when the session change timer will prevent an immediate return for the second ship. I jump through the wormhole to C4a, seeing a Broadsword heavy interdictor decloak in C3b as I do, getting away from the two ships to... jump in to the middle of ten. Balls.

I'm not stopping to count or identify the composition of the fleet I've jumped in to, that won't help me. What I do see, though, is that I am well over two kilometres from the wormhole—which will let me cloak immediately—and in a channel clear of hostile ships. Well, neutral ships, but what makes a capsuleer turn neutral? Lust for ISK? Sovereignty? Or are they just born with a heart full of neutrality? All I know is that I'd better get away from them, and the sooner the better. I don't need more ships swarming around this wormhole.

I pulse my micro warp drive to take me directly away from the wormhole, cloak, and jink whilst taking care to keep my distance from any ship. It works, I'm safe. I'm in the bubble of another Broadsword—how many do they need—but I'm safe. The fleet of strategic cruisers and HICs, sprinkled with assault cruisers and frigates, doesn't appear to be looking for me, but they don't really have to. I don't have an exit to k-space, and my only route home is through this wormhole, so the question now is who gets bored first. I'm hoping it's them.

The fleet jumps to C3b, leaving only a HIC and heavy assault cruiser behind, the HAC having hit the HIC's bubble on his way in and so too far to join his colleagues. Either they're waiting for my inevitable attempt to go back the way I came or they're trying to collapse the wormhole, also probably to force my hand. Meh, if it comes to it, I'll get myself trapped here and rely on my colleagues to find a way back to the home system for me. Better that than lose my Loki and have to run another ship-naming competition.

A couple of minutes pass and ships start jumping back, warping away from the wormhole when they do. I first think that's a peculiar concern about polarisation, but it's probably a reasonable precaution, even if it drastically reduces the number of ships waiting for me. Hmm, it occurs to me that perhaps I should have counted how many ships there are, how many jumped out, and how many jumped back. Is it safe to return myself, or are there still half-a-dozen pilots gagging to bag a Loki on the other side of the wormhole?

My polarisation is over, the wormhole looks suspiciously clear, I think I'll make a break for it. I steer around a Proteus strategic cruiser, not really in the way but I don't want any surprises, and am happy to see a couple more ships return and warp away as I do. Decloak, jump. A single Proteus is in C3b, but I suspect not for long. And despite being under two kilometres from the wormhole I reckon I can safely cover the couple of hundred metres in order to cloak. Move, pulse the MWD, cloak.

Job's a good 'un, just as the wormhole crackles, bringing in an Eris interdictor, the second Proteus, and a Broadsword. But I'm clear of them, and by the time the Eris launches an interdiction sphere I am even out of its warp-disruption effect—not that I care for warp bubbles in my Loki, it's just a nice measure. Still, I'd rather not be this close to the ship if I don't need to be, so rather than continue to slowboat I bounce off a distant object, the exit to null-sec seeming suitable, and return at range to monitor the wormhole.

Well, that was close. What looked like an interesting duel quickly turned in to a potentially deadly encounter. I was a bit lucky to be in the clear when jumping in to the fleet, but I kept my wits about me and acted calmly and rationally, bringing me back to where I started in one piece. And now, with no Loki to see and chase, the ships on the wormhole get bored and return to their class 4 system. No more movements come in the next few minutes, so I suspect the wormhole will stay there for now. I doubt I'll go back, but I'd better keep in mind what's behind it.

Posted in Gaming | 4 Comments »
Tags: broadsword, eris, eve online, helios, hound, iteron, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, tengu, venture, w-space

Outbound connections are rubbish

The system lacks pilots. I don't mind too much that the hauler at the tower is empty, seeing as I just recently woke up a sleeping Procurer pilot by sending him back to a clone vat. But there's not much else for me to do here. Even the promise of a static wormhole to class 1 w-space doesn't lure me in to scanning, not when I already have other unexplored wormholes behind me in the constellation. Time's pushing on too, and with some systems scanned and two ships popped so far I am hoping for one more opportunistic kill before hitting the sack.

Back out of the class 2 system and in to high-sec, where I warp to the X702 outbound connection to class 3 w-space and jump through. Yep, this is a class 3 w-space system, I recognise the tower and lack of ships visible on my directional scanner. The tower is in the same position from a previous visit, nothing sits out of d-scan range, and perhaps only a static exit to low-sec to find. That'll do for this system too.

There are more wormholes, but as they are all in our neighbouring class 3 system and connect to empire space it seems I'll be scanning after all. At least, if there are any signatures in the connecting systems. I return to C3a, a short warp across the high-sec system in Metropolis, and warp to the high-sec K162 that obviously connects in from Lonetrek. The system on the other side of the wormhole is seven hops to Jita, but I already have a better route to get there if I wanted to, and I don't. I want more explosions.

The two extra signatures in the Lonetrek system aren't going to help my finding explosions, one being a gas site, the other a K162 from class 3 w-space at the end of its life. I'm happy to leave the dying wormhole alone, and return to C3a once more to poke through the last high-sec connection, this one the system's static exit. Again, the destination region is obvious, and I appear in Domain, the Teshi system to be precise. Maybe I go to a station to pick up some power converters.

Being two hops from Amarr is short enough that I would consider trading explosions for an opportunity to import fuel, but not through a black hole system with four k-space wormholes and two idling pilots. And with nothing to scan I jump straight back to C3a, warp across the system, and exit through the final wormhole, which takes me to a low-sec system in Molden Heath. Damn, I had guessed Metropolis again, half hoping I was actually starting to discern the two regions' colourings through wormhole distortions, and half not wanting to automatically associate low-sec with Molden Heath.

At least there are more signatures to scan, and one of the four is a wormhole. Hey, it's an R943 outbound connection to class 2 w-space, neat! Oh, actually, it's not that neat any more. This should be a really attractive wormhole, a random connection in to a system that probably doesn't know it's there, letting me sneak in and potentially ambush any oblivious active pilots. On top of that, as the wormhole leads to class 2 w-space, it will hold another static connection to w-space, perhaps itself unopened. Yes, finding wormholes like this used to be the most exciting part of exploring w-space.

Not any more. Now I already know that the discovery scanner has pinged every pilot's interface in the C2, as well as highlighting a beacon in space that clearly indicates the presence and rough position of a new signature. Any sense of surprise that was once on my side at finding this new wormhole is entirely negated by the discovery scanner, and any pilot active in the destination system is already stopping what they are doing to investigate the new signature. The sense of the unknown has vanished.

I'm a little deflated by the discover scanner, but I'm still going to see what I can find. Jumping to C2c has a tower and three ships on d-scan, the tower new since my previous visit fourteen weeks ago but easy enough to locate. The Apocalypse battleship, Caracal cruiser, and Venture mining frigate are all piloted but doing nothing. I am not surprised. Seeing the Helios covert operations boat on d-scan that I saw earlier in C3a is a little surprising, but not much. And considering how little he cared about being covert with his scanning previously I wouldn't be surprised if he further quashed any activity here by throwing around probes with abandon. A half-finished anomaly almost confirms my suspicions.

The Venture goes off-line. Discovery scanner or enthusiastic tourist, it doesn't matter. I won't find any action in this system, and probably none through its static wormhole either. That's not so bad, not as I've bagged two kills this evening already. But as both kills came from jumping through K162s and all I found in outbound connections were ships idling in towers, I can't help but feel frustrated with the growing evidence that the discovery scanner is destroying w-space. Unknown wormholes should be surprising capsuleers, not their own K162s.

Posted in Gaming | 9 Comments »
Tags: apocalypse, caracal, eve online, helios, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, venture, w-space

Dead man piloting

The wormhole lives! Unlike that hauler I just popped in the class 2 w-space system. But the K162 that connects that system to our home is at the end of its life, so even if there were going to be repercussions to my successful ambush I'm not sticking around to see what they are. Besides, I still haven't jumped through our static wormhole yet, giving me the entire other end of the constellation to explore. Let's hope it's not a dead end to low-sec, or this will be a short post.

So what's through our static wormhole? Ah, a class 3 w-space system. How quaint. Two warp bubbles are in space somewhere, according to my directional scanner, as is a black hole, but that's about all I can see from the K162. My notes give me more details, a visit from two months ago finding occupation and an exit to high-sec empire space, so I launch probes, blanket the system, and warp away to check on the tower.

The tower has gone, but has been replaced. The two ships revealed along with the five anomalies and nine signatures are both at this new tower, and are both piloted. As such, having a rogue Helios covert operations boat appear on d-scan and spew probes in to the system so visibly, when there are clear places to hide from the tower, would frustrate me considerably, were the two ships inside the force field not both scanning boats themselves, one an Imicus frigate, the other an Anathema cov-ops.

I probably don't have much hope of catching either of the ships at the tower, but now I suppose I also don't have much hope of catching the pilots were they thinking of swapping ships to collect planet goo. Damned newbie Helios pilot. But with nothing hidden I don't suppose there's much reason not to scan alongside the Helios, so I call my probes in to the system and start poking at the signatures. Data site, chubby wormhole, gas, wormhole, weak-ish wormhole that will be the static exit, another data site, another wormhole, and a relic site. That'll do.

The wormholes aren't as good as the results suggests. The first is a K162 from high-sec, obviously the Lonetrek region, the second a K162 from low-sec, probably Molden Heath, the static exit clearly leads out to Domain, and the fourth is another K162 from high-sec, this one, well, it looks like Molden Heath but what are the odds? Maybe it's from Metropolis instead. But what this also tells me is that the Helios pilot didn't come from w-space, and is a pesky tourist. Never mind, let me check the exits.

The wormhole from maybe Metropolis is more confident about its originating system than I was, and scanning the two extra signatures in high-sec gives me two more wormholes. I have time to give the X702 and C2 K162 a poke. I choose the K162 first, because the topsy-turvy galaxy that includes the discovery scanner makes a known wormhole a more likely candidate for finding activity than a newly opened surprise wormhole, and inside d-scan shows me an Iteron V hauler, Procurer mining barge, Probe frigate, shuttle, and tower. That looks promising.

Oop, the shuttle is not just on d-scan, it drops on top of the wormhole as I am about to manoeuvre away. I hold my session change cloak instead and watch the shuttle jump out of w-space. I'm pretty sure he didn't see my entrance in to the system, which is good, as sweeping d-scan around for the tower finds the Procurer apparently in empty space. Right, it's a rock chomper, it may be chomping on rocks, particularly as there is an ore site in that direction.

Ignoring the tower in favour of the ore site, and making a perch on my way in, I drop out of warp to see the Procurer shooting its natural enemy of a bistot rock. It looks too good to be true, and I am reminded of fellow capsuleers talking about how Procurers are good bait ships. But he's out of d-scan range of the tower, no one obviously saw me enter the system, and the only ships I've seen are non-combat in nature. Of course, not being seen is kind of a trait of cloaky ships. I rely on it myself. But I've found a miner mining, I would be remiss if I didn't at least find out if it was a trap.

I bounce off my perch, warp in close to the bistot rock, and start my approach. I get suitably close to the Procurer and drop my cloak, get a positive lock, and start shooting. There's no movement from the mining barge. More importantly, no other ships appear. I keep shooting, and still nothing happens beyond the Procurer's losing shields and armour. Even the alarms from the loss of shields and armour fail to stir the pilot. I think he's asleep.

Let's see if I can make that sleep permanent, relatively speaking. It's a simple matter to let my autocannons break open the Procurer, and I don't wait to see if the pod wants to get away now. I aim for the capsuleer's protective shell, get a positive lock, and crack it open to reveal the inner corpse. Hmm, maybe that was the problem. The Procurer was being piloted by a dead man. That's okay, I like my frozen buddies, more so ones whose heads are worth a lot, and this one has a hundred million ISK of implants to crunch in to.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: anathema, eve online, helios, imicus, iteron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, probe, procurer, pvp, scanning, w-space

At the end of its life

Will there be ships or wormholes for me tonight? Well, I can't see any ships at home, so I'll stick to wormholes for now. And, what luck, there are three of them for me to resolve. I had a hunch one would be our static connection to class 3 w-space, so the other two are the more interesting. They are both K162s, one from class 2 w-space and one from class 3 w-space. Sadly, the C2 connection is wobbling away at the end of its life, so instead of risking isolation from the home system I'll jump through the other K162 to C3b.

On the other side of the wormhole I can see a territorial control unit, tower, and lack of ships, and all of them are in different directions. Well, you know what I mean; my directional scanner shows the tower is not in the same direction as the TCU on my overview, the lack of ships is a generality. A lack of activity has never stopped me before, and it won't stop me today, so I warp away from the wormhole to launch probes and start scanning. Or, at least, that's the plan, hindered somewhat by bumping in to a second tower, this one with ships.

Two Tengu strategic cruisers and a Drake battlecruiser are inside the force field of the second tower, all three ships pilot. There's activity too, if not Sleeper combat that I could interrupt. Both Tengus swap in to Buzzard covert operations boats and warp away, before I've managed to orientate myself and so to a place in space unknown, leaving the poor Drake alone and unloved. No probes are launched, though, so I don't know what's happening. Maybe I should wait a minute before doing anything.

Hmm, what I didn't do before, but do now that I've seen pilots, is check the system for wrecks. Flipping my d-scan settings shows me some, all of Sleepers, but there are no ships with the wrecks and no obvious sign that either combat is continuing or salvaging is about to start. It's possible I was spotted entering the system and combat was halted as a reaction. In fact, considering the reaction I saw with the Tengus, I think that's quite likely.

There is only one site of wrecks visible in the whole system. If the site is an anomaly it has despawned, and if it's a relic site there are not enough wrecks for it to have been cleared. And still the Buzzards remain hidden. So be it. I warp as far across the system as I can, launch combat scanning probes, and perform a blanket scan. Six anomalies and seven signatures are revealed by my probes, and there's not much I can do about anything without having ships to aim for.

Ah, sod it. I'm not wasting my time sitting around waiting for nothing, I'll scan. I start poking around near the wrecks, and near is as close as I can get. I resolve a relic site in the general direction of the Sleeper wrecks but it's clearly not where the wrecks are. The site is obviously a despawned anomaly, and I really can do nothing about it unless a ship re-enters the site. Never mind, I'll scan the rest of the signatures. It's just gas, a data site, and what must be a static exit to high-sec.

The Drake goes off-line, having me kill the system without any explosions. How sad. Checking the high-sec exit sends me to The Citadel, and although it's a mere four hops to Jita and all looks quiet I don't really trust C3b. But it's an exit, which gives me a way home should, say, a certain wormhole collapse behind me. It's time to take a peek in to C2a.

The first test is passed, with the dying wormhole still present in our home system. Let's hope it stays there a little longer. I jump through, update d-scan, and see two towers, two Iteron V haulers. Notes of w-space, don't fail me now. Excellent, I have a previous visit, only four weeks earlier, giving me the location of both towers. Only one Iteron V is there, according to d-scan, so where's the other?

I spy the itinerant Iteron V at a planet, most likely at its customs office, which means there is planet goo being collected! I won't catch him there, of course, but maybe I can get ahead of him. I warp to a customs office hopefully next on the Iteron V's path only to check d-scan to see the hauler back at the tower. Well, no problem, I know where that is, and if I can follow him I have a much better chance of catching him. I send my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser to the tower.

Well, to a tower, as there are two, and I don't know which tower the Iteron Vs are at. Not this one, apparently, and as I turn my ship around I make what I think is a prudent decision to point d-scan at the other tower. The Iteron V is out again. Hilariously, he's gone to the customs office I was just waiting at. Good one, Penny. I rush across but, of course, the hauler has gone by the time I get there, so I head back towards the tower in the hopes that I can catch up with him somewhere.

Wrong tower. Again. I was just here! How can I not remember? But now is not the time to feel stupid. I have plenty of time for that later. I turn around, warp to the right tower, and, finally, see the Iteron V. Actually, I see both of them, as as this is my first time at the right tower and seeing the gooer I have no idea which is active and which is idle. Well, I say 'no idea', but I don't think I'm making too big a deductive leap to say the one actually near a hangar is more likely to be dropping off planet goo. I'll focus on that one.

Sure enough, the hauler that hints at being active is being active. Seconds after I've got my bearings does the Iteron V spin on its axis and start accelerating for another run. I can see its destination too, so align my Loki and, what the hell, enter warp before the hauler. I'm confident I've already caught him. Indeed, I'm at the customs office in plenty of time to see the Iteron V decelerate out of warp, letting me shed my cloak and get my sensor booster active before the hauler even has a chance of fleeing.

I gain a positive lock on the target, disrupt its warp engines, and start shooting. I burn towards the hauler and give it a shunt out of escape alignment, backing off slightly in preparation for a second shunt, but one is enough. The Iteron V explodes in a pretty fireball. I nearly catch the pod, but off he goes, damn him. That leaves me a with a wreck to loot of shield modules and a couple of expanded cargoholds, before I shoot that too to leave no trace of my piracy. I follow the pod back to the tower but the dying wormhole pings my memory. I got a nice and simple kill, I'm out of here.

Posted in Gaming | 8 Comments »
Tags: buzzard, drake, eve online, iteron, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space