Null-sec hopping

Maybe I'll find some ships tonight. Probably not, as my time is limited, but I can still enjoy the calming pulse of my scanning probes as I uncover and explore tonight's w-space constellation. It's a fairly usual start of having nothing unusual in the home system, letting me flex my scanning muscles in resolving our static wormhole to begin my trip down the rabbit hole.

A tower and no ships appears on my directional scanner from the K162 in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. How typical. My notes suggest two more towers are present and out of range, but as my last visit, four months ago, had my popping an Osprey cruiser pumping the shields of a tower during an apparent move I imagine there have been changes.

I warp out of d-scan range of occupation, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system as I bounce across the planets. My probes reveal five anomalies and nine signatures, and I find nothing more than the single tower. The tower is in the same location as in my notes, though, so not everything has changed. I can only assume that the static exit to low-sec remains too, but I'd better make sure.

Scanning resolves three wormholes amongst the gas and sole data site, which doesn't look like a bad result at all. And although reconnoitring the connections finds no more w-space connections, the low-sec exit and two K126s from null-sec look pretty good to me. I could always use more null-sec space to explore. I drop close to the second of the K162s, so rather than bounce back to the first I merely approach and jump the one in front of me.

I appear in a null-sec system in the Branch region, alone. Keen to take advantage of this position I warp to a nearby rock field to look for rats, but am disappointed to see no more signatures in the system, so no potential wormholes. Never mind, I find a rat, eventually reduce it to a wreck, when its damned ECM lets me actually shoot it, and head back in to and across C3a to the other null-sec exit. Out I go to a system in Syndicate, again alone, but again without any further signatures.

Pop a rat, head back to C3a. The low-sec exit takes me to a system in Khanid, and although the four extra signatures have me almost throwing scanning probes out of my pod in delight they resolve to be a combat site, a second combat site, and a third, and, just to be different, a data site. Balls to this. A check of my system maps shows me a neat triangle of systems I can stargate-hop around through the wormhole from Syndicate, so I go back that way and use some hardware to make some jumps for a change.

Two pilots are in the next null-sec system across, plus lots of wrecks, but any sign of combat disappears almost as soon as I enter the system. I'm not there for them, though, and turn my attention to the two signatures present. One is a relic site, the other a wormhole, an N432 connection to class 5 w-space. That may be more w-space than I was after, but that's okay, as I don't have to use all of it. In I go.

D-scan is clear from the K162, and blanketing the system reveals a whopping thirty-nine anomalies and twelve signatures, and why is it taking me so long to warp away from the wormhole. Ah, I see the black hole now. I don't quite expect to see a tower in such a messy or agility-sapping system, but there is one. I suppose the owners prefer sucking on gas than making ISK from Sleeper explosions, which is fine, but as the tower is owned by a two-capsuleer corporation I doubt I'll be seeing either of them outside of a massive coincidence. That means I'm back to scanning.

Gas, gas, ship—bugger. I swish my probes rather lackadaisically out of the system, probably pointlessly with the lack of speed it takes me to decide to react, and warp towards the centre of the system to see what I've detected. Two ships now. Are they from the null-sec system I left? Maybe. One ship's a Helios covert operations boat, spewing probes near the K162 I came through, and moving too fast for me to catch even if he didn't cloak a few moments later. The other ship is a Heron frigate, no doubt the source of the other set of probes, but where is he?

I can't find the Heron near an obvious object, but maybe I can scan his location, and then decide if he is bait or not. It takes a few goes, as I'm not trying to be covert with my scanning—I don't think I need to be with two full sets of probes already in the system—but I get a positive location for the Heron. I warp across to where my probes found the ship but he's gone, cloaked or moved, I can't tell. Reconfiguring my probes and scanning again says he's moved, but a subsequent scan has him properly gone. More likely the Heron jumped through a wormhole than cloaked, so I should look for that.

Resolving a wormhole sends me to a Z142 connection to null-sec with scanning probes scattered around it, but I see no sign of the ship that launched them. Instead, the Helios appears as the probes blink away at warp speed, jumping through the wormhole and not returning. My scanning resolves two more wormholes, one with a ship on it that has gone by the time I get to see the half-mass, dying K162 from low-sec. That it comes from Placid is not terribly interesting, unlike the Heron being back in C5a somewhere as I also return. But not for long. The theme for tonight seems to be brief encounters.

Checking the null-sec exit the Helios went through has my entering a system in Curse with over 130 pilots, and ships, probes, and corpses visible on d-scan. I think I've seen enough here, but at least I get images of a wormhole leading to the Curse region. There's some progress I can show. The third wormhole I resolved in C5a is a K162 from high-sec, also mass-stressed and at the end of its life, looking decidedly like it's been opened from The Forge. Not just The Forge, I find when poking my prow through, but two jumps from Jita. No wonder the connection has been stressed.

I can't really use the high-sec connection for anything, and returning to C5a has my noting that I haven't resolved its static wormhole. That's okay, as my time is running out, and I've only been chasing frigates and cov-ops. I head back the way I came, returning to Syndicate and the system holding the wormhole to C3a, via the last of the three systems in the triangle of hops I had planned. There is nothing there, so the diversion to C5a was definitely tonight's adventure to be had. I pop one more rat before returning to w-space, where all remains quiet.

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

Less of an odyssey

Moving a literally unexaggerated thousand bookmarks of wormholes from my active folders to the 'old' folder, I undo in seconds all the effort of yesterday to start today's exploration. It's nice and easy in the home system again, with a known site to ignore and the replacement static connection to resolve, and I'm soon jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see a typical sight on my directional scanner: a tower and no ships. But there will be signatures. There are always signatures.

I launch probes and perform a blanket scan, to look for K162s, or at least get the exit and go from there, to see that the well-known rule 'there are always signatures' is more of a guideline. C3a holds only one anomaly and four signatures, which is hardly worth scanning, less so when all I come up with is a pair of gas sites and an exit to low-sec empire space. But after yesterday's mammoth scanning session I could probably use a change of pace. Maybe I can have an adventure in three paragraphs.

Out I go to low-sec, appearing in a system mostly in Genesis. I'm as close to Aridia as I can get without actually being there, and again I think I should be grateful for small mercies. I see one other pilot in the system who, judging by his quick exit, looks like he is fleeing from Aridia, and I warp to a rock field to find a rat as I launch probes to resolve the one additional signature in the system. It's a wormhole. I can continue.

The K162 from class 3 w-space may be a dead end, but if so it will be a dead end in w-space, where I am most comfortable. But I leave low-sec only to appear eight kilometres from the wormhole in C3b, making the tower and lack of ships visible on d-scan even less surprising than normal. The inactive state of this system implies nothing about other possibly connected systems, though, so I warp away to launch probes and look again for K162s.

I find a second tower before getting probes in to space, and a third, but still no ships. I suppose a change of occupation was inevitable after my previous visit, when we happened on some ships sieging a tower. Now the one tower has been replaced by three and a bunch of silos. Whatever ISK they're making whilst asleep doesn't help me, so I start sifting through the eleven anomalies and five signatures.

Nope, no K162s here. Gas, gas, data, and data. It's too late to think about collapsing our wormhole, and so with little option of where to go I may as well hop a stargate to another low-sec system. And although I have little option of where to go, I'm not heading towards Aridia, so pick a system still in Genesis and take a look around. Six signatures, what a bounty! They resolve to provide three wormholes too, with a K162 from class 3 w-space, one from class 1 w-space, and a wormhole kept unknown as I watch a Helios decloak and jump to C1a. My goodness, another pilot.

No one comes out after the covert operations boat, which could make the pilot local to the C1 and checking his exit. I give him a minute and follow behind, updating d-scan once in w-space to see a Tayra hauler, Ferox battlecruiser, and tower on d-scan. There's no Helios to be seen, and even though they are covert my notes from ten weeks ago point me directly to the tower, where I see that not only are both ships empty but the cov-ops pilot isn't local. To prove my point, the Helios blips on d-scan, either jumping back to low-sec or heading backwards through another wormhole.

I launch probes to find out where the Helios went. Four anomalies and four signatures are whittled down quickly to gas sites and one more wormhole, a K162 from class 5 w-space. Hoping the Helios didn't see me, what with his delay from moving through the C1, I jump through the K162 to explore deeper w-space. No one is waiting for me, but a Drake battlecruiser, Venture mining frigate, and three towers are on d-scan, and a black hole lurks ominously in space.

The Drake appears on the wormhole as I orbit it lazily deciding what to do and jumps to C1a. That's interesting. Will he engage Sleepers in the class 1 system, or, seeing how a Loki strategic cruiser follows him to the wormhole but cloaks instead of jumping, is he waiting to ambush me? If I've been drawn in to a trap I will have to escape it the hard way, as a single signature in the system doesn't give me an alternative route out of here. But the wormhole crackles, the Drake returns, and he warps back to one of the towers.

I dunno what the pilot was up to. His Drake turns in to a second Venture, and although I now wonder if I wasn't spotted and he was clearing a C1 gas pocket of Sleepers I can't help but remind myself of the cloaky Loki somewhere and if this is still bait. It probably isn't, not with the two Ventures floating passively inside a tower's force field. And as much as I tend to watch ships doing nothing, my time is running low and I should probably head back. I leave the Ventures doing nothing, return and cross C1a without seeing the Loki, and exit w-space for low-sec again.

The unknown wormhole I scanned turns out to be empty space. An echo, dying wormhole now dead, or scanner malfunction, I don't know, but it gives me time to poke in to C3c through the other known K162 in the system. D-scan is clear from the wormhole in the class 3 system, and warping around the planets out of range doesn't change that result. Nothing, no one, and no time to scan for further wormholes. At least I saw other pilots, there are capsuleers out here still. But tonight ends with my warping across empty systems to get home.

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Tags: drake, eve online, ferox, helios, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tayra, venture, w-space

Scanning for wormholes leads to wormholes

I doubt I'll see any action tonight without a ship throwing itself in front of me. But I won't even see that if I don't go looking for it, so off I go. I resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see two towers and no suicidal ships visible on my directional scanner. No ships at all, in fact. I'll search for wormholes amongst the eleven anomalies and nine signatures.

Actually, I'll locate the towers first, just in case some industrialist logs on to collect planet goo, and it's probably a better choice to loiter cloaked outside the one that doesn't have a hangar named 'Trash Can'. Okay, now I'll scan. There's a whole load of gas waiting to be sucked, a couple of data sites being perpetually ignored, and three wormholes, giving me a static exit to low-sec in what looks to be the Lonetrek region, an N968 which also looks like it leads to Lonetrek but of course doesn't, and a K162 from class 4 w-space. I'll check the exit first. Yep, I'm in Lonetrek. Now for the wormhole with the most potential of holding activity.

Jumping to C4a is something of a disappointment, as I am spat in to the system over six kilometres from the wormhole. That's rarely a good sign, and locating the tower on d-scan confirms my suspicion that the almost-ubiquitous Orca industrial command ship is empty. They nearly always are anyway. The rest of the system is just as inactive, and scanning the four anomalies and nine signatures for further K162s finds one, this one from class 2 w-space. But continuing my exploration lands me again over six kilometres from the wormhole when jumping to C2a. This constellation smells stale.

Undeterred, I explore the system, reconnoitring the tower visible from the wormhole and bumping in to another elsewhere in the system. Except it's less of a bump and more of a slam, as my strategic cruiser almost rams one of the defences as I drop out of warp. Woop, woop, reverse course! Thankfully, despite my cloak dropping, I turn my Loki around and manage to get clear before anything bad happens, and, naturally, no one is around to see the incident. And trying to get away from this tower sees two more in the inner system. I find both of them too, damn the risks, but still there are no ships, so I scan.

Two anomalies and six signatures result in two more wormholes, one being the static exit to high-sec, leading to Solitude, the other simply a K162 from high-sec, leading in from the particularly distinctive Kor-Azor region. And although I care not for high-sec right now, an extra signature in the system in Kor-Azor compels me to resolve it, and it's a wormhole. The K162 from class 2 w-space is quite attractive too, for being a K162 in the first place, and for the system naturally holding a w-space connection waiting for me. I'm going in.

Damn. Jumping to C2b spits me over seven kilometres from the wormhole. This is getting worse. But there is at least one other wormhole to find, and maybe activity with it, so I launch probes and sift through the puny two anomalies and five signatures, resolving an alluring connection to class 1 w-space. I press on and, despite seeing a tower with no ships on d-scan in C1a, I at least appear under five kilometres from the wormhole. Maybe someone's here. I warp away from the wormhole, launch probes, and blanket the system, revealing ten anomalies, seven signatures, and bugger all else.

The only other connection in C1a is its static exit to high-sec, this one leading to a system in Metropolis, where once again I get sucked in to scanning the extra signatures. I would say I don't know why, but I do. I want to find more inter-region wormholes, and it's going to require tenacity to get images of them all. Just my luck, all four additional signatures are wormholes, two being X702 outbound connections to class 3 w-space, one an A641 connecting high-sec with high-sec, and the last is an R943 wormhole to class 2 w-space. Of course, outbound connections are less interesting than K162s, thanks to the discovery scanner, but I can't resist poking them all, even if I don't have time for it.

Jumping from one high-sec system to another takes me to the Derelik region, and only now do I look at my chart and realise that I'm only really missing null-sec regions and most of my effort is being wasted. Still, there could be null-sec K162s anywhere, so I've got to look. So I look, and the one extra signature in this Derelik system is another R943. I'm just making more work for myself. Maybe I should just poke the systems I've found and hope to find a target, to at least make my evening worthwhile.

In to C2d I go, where d-scan is clear and exploring finds two towers with no ships. The two static wormholes lead to class 4 w-space and high-sec Tash-Murkon, because of course I scan even when I said I wouldn't—in my defence, there were only three signatures. Moving further on and in to C4b has occupation and a shuttle, which is a change to the system being unoccupied a week ago, but even that, and a promise of a static connection to class 2 w-space, won't make me scan again. Not this time. I leave the way I came and keep going backwards.

Out of C2d, leaving Derelik for Metropolis, and choosing the first of the X702 wormholes. C3c is supposedly occupied, but although my notes are right about there being a tower they are wrong about its location. It's a simple matter to correct, which lets me lose interest in the Absolution command ship, Manticore stealth bomber, Prorator transport ship, Buzzard covert operations boat, and shuttle floating empty inside the tower's force field. My waning interest even prevents me scanning, instead taking me back out to Metropolis and in to C3d.

The palindromic nature of this w-space system's J-number is about as interesting as it gets, as all I see is a tower, a lack of ships, and nowhere to hide. Back again, and in to C2c, which turns out to be the system where I popped a tourist's expensive Tengu strategic cruiser a little while back. But where is everybody tonight? Back to high-sec, to C1a, C2b, again to high-sec, C2a, and in to C4a, where at last there is a sign of life. A crappy sign of life though, with a single combat scanning probe on d-scan, so who cares?

I almost care when a Buzzard appears on the wormhole to C3a. This may be as good as it gets, so I decloak to have a crack at a cov-ops. My big moment, the evening building up to my beating up a Buzzard, so naturally my target warps almost as soon as I decide to drop my cloak. The cov-ops warps to empty space too, indicative of there being another wormhole, so maybe it would have been nice had I not revealed my presence so carelessly to a scout. But it's late and I'm tired, and it's done. You would have done the same.

If I'm not scanning for the Buzzard's wormhole I can still look in C3b. Jumping in sees core probes in the system, and although my notes say there was occupation eleven months ago the tower should be in range, and all that sits out of range is a moonless planet. So did the scout currently scanning come in through the wormhole I'm on, or through one elsewhere in the system. And can I bring myself to care at this point? Not really. My head's spinning. I think I need to lie down for a while.

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Tags: absolution, buzzard, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, prorator, scanning, tengu, w-space

Fake-forming up with a fleet

All looks quiet in w-space. So very quiet. I think I need some company. I won't find it in the persisting gas clouds in the home system, so I'd best resolve the other signature and open our static wormhole to the neighbours. Or a lack of neighbours, perhaps. It depends on what else lies beyond the range of my directional scanner from the K162 in this class 3 system.

My notes from three months ago suggest occupation is just out of reach of d-scan, but warping towards what should be a tower finds nothing. Well, planets and moons, but otherwise nothing. There's not even the detritus of an off-line tower, so whoever was here was involved in a clean move, or a thorough eviction. Naturally, the static exit I'll now be scanning for leads out to null-sec.

The first choice plucked from the twenty-seven anomalies and thirteen signatures is a weak wormhole. I hope that's not the highlight of my evening. It's followed by relics, relics, and, ah, another wormhole. That's good. Or not, as warping to the chubbier connection, and so definitely not the exit to null-sec, merely finds a K162 from low-sec. I think I'd prefer the K346. I keep scanning. Relics, data, gas, gas, relics, gas, data, and, finally, a third wormhole. This one's a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space. I'll go there.

D-scan is clear again from the K162, and again so many anomalies light up the system map like moss on a rock. About the best aspect of appearing in this system is noting the wormhole being 5 AU from the nearest planet. I like details like that, but they only entertain me for so long. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan of the system, and explore. Twenty-four anomalies, eleven signatures, and no ships or occupation. Actually, there's a ship on d-scan, just not on my probes.

I register the presence of the Loki strategic cruiser but have no idea where it is. There are no wrecks, so no combat is occurring, and now there's no Loki either. But someone's out there. Do I scan? There is no ship and no probes. Maybe I should. Or I'll give it a minute. Yeah, okay, I'll scan. It's mostly gas this time, which is much quicker to identify than data and relic sites, and I resolve a wormhole without much difficulty, warping to it as a Sleipnir warps away from it.

The command ship stays visible on d-scan in C4a, but is in empty space as far as I can tell. I consider scanning for his location, not that I think I could do much to the Sleipnir, but before I do so the wormhole I'm sitting on crackles and a Stabber Fleet Issue cruiser appears and warps to join the first ship. Either he's super good at scanning or they know each other.

I resolve the position of the now two ships, finding the Sleipnir before the wormhole unfuzzies itself, and warp to join the pair around the system's static connection to class 5 w-space. Well, 'join' is a bit strong. Their colleague in a Vagabond cruiser joins them, I just loiter nearby, cloaked in my Loki. The three ships, together at last, jump to C5a and I suppose they get up to some mischief. That ain't no Sleeper-fightin' fleet.

I'm not going to follow them. That would be foolish. But maybe I can sneak behind them. Nothing could go wrong with that plan. I warp back to the C4 K162 and jump through, to a clear d-scan result with two planets out of range. Exploring reveals four anomalies, seven signatures, one tower, and no ships. Checking the owner corporation of the tower says that this is not the fleet's home system, so did they come from further back or have they just gone home to their C5 system?

The wormhole crackles to answer my question, the small fleet appearing as one and warping away to empty space. They come from further back. Resolving the wormhole is straightforward, having seen their vector of warp, and it's another K162 from class 4 w-space. I think I'll use the excuse of feeling sleepy to ignore jumping in to a possible ambush, and I imagine as the fleet is intact that whatever was occurring in C5a has been successfully quashed. That leaves me with the two exits from C3a to explore through.

Returning through C4a to C3a and exiting via the K346 puts me in a system in Geminate. I'm alone, which is excellent, but there being no other signatures isn't so good. I stick around to pop a rat before jumping back to and crossing C3a to use the K162 from low-sec, which takes me to a system in Molden Heath. The pilots there stop me ratting, but they won't stop me scanning the two extra signatures. But having scanned them I do actually stop, as all I resolve is a relic site and some gas. Unless I'm surprised on my way home, I'd say that's it for tonight.

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

Waiting for a Viator

My loot from the low-sec data sites isn't great, but it isn't terrible. I've merrily passed some time though, which is the main point of the exercise, I suppose. Now it's back to dock, revert my Loki strategic cruiser's fitting, and a return to w-space. I hop back one low-sec system, warp to the wormhole, and jump to our neighbouring class 3 system. I spy a Viator transport on d-scan now, which may be using the replacement static exit, but I'm wrong on both counts. The dying wormhole is still not dead, and the Viator returns to the tower as I get there, coming in on a vector highly suggestive of bringing back some planet goo. Damn him.

But the Viator isn't finished. I'm distracted by a second contact that I realise I don't care about when the Viator turns and warps out of the tower again. I at least see his destination and try to follow behind, which I suppose I do, just not quickly enough. I catch a glimpse of the transport aligning away from the customs office to head to the next, and I bounce between a couple more customs offices seeing only snatches of the transport each time. The agile blockade runner won't be caught this way. I need to be smarter.

The transport looks to be heading towards one of two planets outside of d-scan range, and rather than follow him directly I aim for the other of the two. With any luck I can get there ready to catch him. And I kinda do. That is to say, I get there ahead of the Viator, but the Viator doesn't follow. It looks like I've missed him. Such as it should be with a blockade runner, really. I sit and pout at the customs office for a bit, forlornly updating d-scan in case the Viator decides to come this way after all, but, actually, he does.

The Viator appears on d-scan. His confidence in not being caught has him warping uncloaked, and that gives me loads of time to get ready. I'm at the customs office he has yet to visit, so using the power of logic I deduce he's going to drop out of warp in front of me, so drop my own cloak and activate the sensor booster in preparation. He may have detected me, as the Viator cloaks and disappears briefly. It does him no good to cloak, though. His confidence also has him warping point-to-point, and dropping out of warp on top of the customs office sheds his ship's cloak automatically.

I pounce. I get a positive target lock, preventing his cloaking again, and pulse my micro warp drive to get close enough to the Viator to activate my warp scrambler. I've got him. I snuggle up to the transport as my autocannons start wearing down its shields, the Viator clearly not going anywhere. He aligns away from me as shields and armour are stripped, but that's a precautionary measure to get his pod safe. Sure enough, the transport explodes. Well, it disintegrates more than explodes. Where are my flames?

I aim for the pod, but it is prepared to get clear and does so, leaving me a wreck to loot and shoot. There's a bunch of planet goo sitting in the wreck, too much for me to carry, but I remember someone mentioning to stash any excess back in the customs office for later collection. Thanks, whoever gave that tip, sorry that I forget who. I don't know how customs offices work, never having used one before, but I get the oxygen out of the Viator's wreck, then shoot the wreck.

Hold on. The pod didn't warp back to its tower, but to a nearby moon. It's still on d-scan too. Having seen curious behaviour with previous ambushes I give chase, but thankfully remember that there is a second tower in this system, around this planet, and, specifically, at the moon I am warping towards before I get there, and re-activate my cloak just as I land outside the second tower with the pod in its force field. Okay then, he's safe.

The pod warps back to the first tower and jumps in to another Viator, which really must be too good to be true. So much so that I discount the possibility of a second ambush. I bagged myself one blockade runner kill, that's pretty decent. In fact, considering there may be a second pilot lurking somewhere, and I'm not going to hang around for ages making sure the system is safe this later in the evening, I think I'll just abandon the oxygen too. Maybe if I ever find my way back to this system I can collect it, but probably not. I'll just go home, happy with my kill.

That's what I tell myself, anyway. I can't resist completing the ambush fully and bringing home my plunder. As soon as I jump to the home system I'm warping to our tower and finding the right ship for the task. In this case, the extra warp core strength of the Bustard transport probably outweighs the stealth and agility of the Crane blockade runner. And it does the trick, although I'm not sure anyone actually watches as I return to C3a and bounce off the customs office as I deftly transfer the oxygen to my hold without pausing, warping back to our K162 and getting home again safely. Job's a good 'un.

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

Stopping short for data sites

Taking a look at what's in w-space today resolves just gas and the static wormhole in our home system. That's good, as no one has come our way, but bad because the dick of a discovery scanner is probably alerting whatever neighbours we may have of my imminent arrival. But that's only if anyone's home, and jumping through our wormhole to the class 3 system beyond sees no ships on my directional scanner, just a tower. Maybe I'll only be scanning again tonight.

Trying to warp away from the tower, the position of which looks to be correct in my notes from a previous visit, has my bumping in to a second tower. This one has ships. Big ships, too. A Vargur marauder and Nighthawk command ship are both piloted and nestled safely inside the second tower's force field, which may make me curse the discovery scanner a second time in as many paragraphs of internal monologue, but as there are no wrecks anywhere in the system—and, indeed, no anomalies—that may be a bit churlish. Besides, as I sit and ponder what the ships may get up to an Iteron hauler warps in to the tower to join them.

Where did the Iteron come from? His vector in to the tower brought the ship from empty space, and quite steeply, the direction consistent either with just coming on-line or warping from a wormhole. But more important than where it came from is the question of what the hauler will do now. A bit of nothing, apparently, as the Vargur is swapped for a Buzzard covert operations boat, strongly suggesting that the bastard discovery scanner really has alerted the locals to my implied presence.

But what's this? The Iteron is moving, aligning perhaps, and seemingly towards the nearest customs office. His recent arrival may well have him unaware that a new wormhole has opened in to the system, his colleagues assuming he knows as much as they, and I watch in expectation as the Iteron accelerates. I can't quite believe that I would get so lucky, and for good reason this time. I warp as the Iteron warps, but as I warp towards the customs office the hauler flies slight over and far past the planet. That will be a warp towards a wormhole.

I suppose I'm scanning. I may as well, as the Buzzard is too. I resolve the wormhole the Iteron used first, having seen its direction of travel, and land next to the system's dying static exit to low-sec. I loiter for a bit, and as the Iteron doesn't return before the Buzzard and Nighthawk go off-line I poke all of the other signatures in the system, finding mostly gas but one more wormhole. Still no Iteron has my warping across to the second wormhole, which is a healthy K162 from low-sec, hopefully leading to more wormholes. I'll take a look.

Exiting w-space puts me in a system in Tash-Murkon, but there are no other wormholes because there are no other signatures. What to do, what to do. I could collapse our static wormhole and start again, or hop a stargate and scan in a different system. That second one, I think. It's quicker. And getting thrown by a stargate to an adjacent system gives me three signatures to play with. If only they were wormholes. But, no, I simply resolve three data sites. At least I find a security status-boosting rat in a rock field.

Okay, space, I'll mine tonight. Data mine, that is. I'm not quite so space crazy as to shoot at rocks. I dock in the low-sec station, swap my fitting around, and head out to the first site. I could return home to get my analysing Buzzard, but I'm going to break open all these cans anyway, there seems little point in scanning their contents first. Particularly not if the cans are going to explode. One of them is a bit tough to crack, or I'm a little too cavalier about my skills, and self-destructs after my second attempt. Judging by what I'm looting from the others it's no big loss, and I just move on.

The first site is cleared, and in a fit of sense I check various databases to see what kind of order I should be attempting to collect the jetsam. In data sites, it should be parts, data, then materials, apparently. I'll do that from now on. The second site bags me some decryptors, which may sell for some ISK, and the third site gets me more decryptors as well as some data interfaces. It also shows me how fond the Sansha are of their spikes. They put them everywhere. And I think that's it for me tonight. Scanning, a healthily short amount of stalking, and a diversion in to low-sec. It's been almost relaxing.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, iteron, low-sec, mmorpg, nighthawk, penny ibramovic, scanning, vargur, w-space

New and dying wormholes

I'm back for another look around. What's still here, what's imploded, and what's new? I imagine there will be some changes, as that was an intricate sammich I made and it has kept me away from my controls for few hours. And, indeed, the first change is in the home system, with a new signature for me to resolve. It's a wormhole, how exciting! The K162 comes from class 5 w-space, which is not only a fairly standard feature of living in our class 4 system but seems to be the order of the day today. This is the sixth class 5 system I'll be exploring.

Jumping to C5f doesn't look like it offers much opportunity. My directional scanner only shows me a tower, with no ships to see, so I launch probes to look for more K162s amongst the nine anomalies and thirteen signatures. But belay that scanning, cadet! Locating the tower has a Probe warp in to its force field moments later, giving me a scanning frigate to sit and watch. So I sit and watch the scanning frigate, sitting and watching it do nothing for a bit longer than perhaps I should. Silly me, thinking a pilot would come on-line to do something.

Thinking I can be more productive than doing nothing, a lofty goal some days, I ignore the frigate and call my probes in to the system to scan. One signature in particular looks conspicuous, being many AU from the nearest planet, and resolves rather obviously to be a wormhole. It's another K162 from class 5 w-space. I recall my probes and continue backwards along the new chain in tonight's constellation.

C5g has more to offer than the other systems so far, with nine towers and plenty of ships visible on d-scan. And shortly after I move away from the wormhole and cloak a Buzzard covert operations boat warps to the wormhole and jumps to C5f. I let him go, not being interested in frustrating myself by failing to catch a cov-ops, and certainly not when there are twenty-five other potential targets I would rather not alert.

A Hound appears behind the Buzzard, dropping on the wormhole as I am still getting my bearings. The stealth bomber doesn't follow the cov-ops, though, and instead warps away from the wormhole, in to empty space suggestive of another K162 backwards in this chain. I wonder if the Hound was chasing the Buzzard, or if they are simply splitting their attentions in different directions? I doubt it will be easy to tell, not without locating all of the towers in this C5 and noting each owner corporation. I'm not doing that, it sounds too much like work. But I will at least locate the more vulnerable-looking ships.

I bounce around planets and moons, finding towers and warping to the ones with industrial ships, but seeing capsuleers only in combat ships. Whilst this perhaps suggests that the locals will mobilise to engage some Sleepers soon I don't think I have the patience to potentially catch a salvager at the moment, particularly as the only Noctis I can see is also empty. I think I'll just go. I have more systems to explore in the other direction, which I uncovered earlier. If they're still around, of course. But it will be more straightforward than trying to keep track of a dozen pilots spread across half-as-many towers.

Returning to C5f has the Probe still floating inertly in its tower, and although passing across the home system and jumping to C3a sees probes on d-scan I think I'll ignore them too. I'm not waiting for a scout to maybe show himself briefly. I just point my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser towards the K162 to C5a, and let myself get pulled through.

The system looks clear from the wormhole, but, then, I suppose it would. Bouncing off the tower sees no one home still, and checking the signatures in the system against my bookmarks and notes from earlier has one extra that is begging to be scanned. I oblige, resolving what looks like a K162 from deadly class 6 w-space but is actually empty space. The wormhole just doesn't realise it yet, even if I do.

As I drop out of warp by the K162 a Buzzard persists on d-scan, shortly appearing on my overview. The cov-ops is still hurtling towards the wormhole when the connection crackles with a transit, and I know wormholes don't work that way. Sure enough, although the Buzzard soon leaves the system, the first transit was by bigger ships, a Bhaalgorn faction battleship and Moros dreadnought having come through to destabilise the wormhole to its half-mass state. This wormhole is not long for the universe.

An Orca industrial command ship sheds it session-change cloak too, and all three massive ships jump back to C6a in the requisite order, Moros last, to force the collapse of the wormhole within a minute of my finding it. There is no K162, just Zuul empty space. Still, there's always the rest of the constellation, including two as-yet unexplored class 5 systems connected from this system. Well, kind of. The K162 leading to those systems from here is at the end of its life, and although its often worth a quick poke through EOL wormholes I prefer not to use them for extended exploration.

Finding dying wormholes was always a risk with the length of break I took. Finding newly spawned wormholes is the possible benefit, but only if they aren't a sprawling mess of towers, ships, and idling pilots, or quickly disposed of like an improper browser tab when your boss walks up. And not only have I failed to find anyone to stalk effectively, it looks like someone has found me. Maybe. If they have, it's been a fairly poor session in w-space for me, but the wording of the communication in the local channel is rather ambiguous.

I don't answer, of course. Even if the question is directed at me it would be imprudent to reply, and I don't have the practiced charm required to lure the pilot in to an ambush. I simply lurk near the wormhole back to C3a waiting for another message, any ships appearing on d-scan, or a transit through the wormhole. Nothing comes. I make my own transit back to C3a, where I cloak and loiter again. And again nothing comes. Whoever was in C5a is staying there. A quick check of the two exits in C3a finds deterrents in both directions: null-sec pilots one way, a dying wormhole the other. So what now? An early night, I would say.

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Tags: bhaalgorn, buzzard, eve online, hound, loki, mmorpg, moros, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, probe, w-space

Opening wormholes considered harmful

An early poke around w-space looking for bleary-eyed pilots has the predictable start of my jumping to our neighbouring class 3 system to find nothing of interest. There's a tower, of course, but no ships are to be seen. Three planets initially out of range of my directional scanner hold little more than an opportunity to launch probes covertly, not that I'm hiding from anyone, and I sift through the eight anomalies and seven signatures looking for further wormholes.

Two fat wormholes and one skinny make me think I've resolved two K162s and a K346. Other options are possible, but, of course, I'm right. The K162s come from null-sec and class 5 w-space, and the K346 exits to null-sec as all K346s do. Checking the exits, always helpful in case of emergencies, first takes me through the K162 to a system in Oasa, where being alone I can't help but look for a rat to pop for a gain in security status, and whilst I'm doing that it is almost an involuntary reaction to launch probes and scan. So it is that I resolve an outbound connection to class 3 w-space which I am compelled to jump through.

D-scan is clear from the other side of the wormhole, and I launch probes before warping to the one planet out of range to see a tower with Iteron and Crane come in to view. Sadly, both the hauler and transport are empty of capsuleer, so instead of poking the ships I poke the eighteen anomalies and six signatures scattered around. I find only the static exit to low-sec to be of interest, and even then it's of low interest. I've already diverted across k-space to get this far, which makes me feel further from home than normal. I should go back and explore what I found in C3a.

The second exit in our neighbouring system, through its static wormhole, leads to a system in Deklein where a bunch of pilots just being in the same system deter me from scanning whatever signatures may be around. I return through the wormhole to C3a and warp to the wormhole coming from dangerous w-space. But it's dangerous according to Sleeper infestation, not necessarily capsuleer activity, as I'm reminded when again d-scan is clear from the wormhole. At least this time only one planet is in range, giving me hope for finding someone in the rest of the system. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and warp off to explore.

My probes reveal seven anomalies, ten signatures, and exploring finds the same lack of occupation as a previous visit of mine thirteen months ago. I scan backwards again, hoping for more K162s, plucking one out of the noise close to the wormhole entered through. It's a wormhole coming from more null-sec space, but is that all I will have to find, the trace of a curious null-sec tourist? Thankfully not, as one, two, and even three more wormholes are eventually resolved.

The null-sec K162 leads out to Fountain, a Z142 outbound connection to null-sec takes me to Branch, and the other two wormholes are both K162s from more class 5 w-space. And just as I am about to jump to C5b my hatred for the discovery scanner swells again, growing day-after-day. A new signature appears in space and on my scanner, with no action from myself, with no probes launched or active. It's just there. It's also probably a wormhole. It would have remained a mystery unless I scanned again, unseen by me until I detected a tell-tale trail of a passing ship. Or until I got ambushed by ne'er-do-wells sneaking in to the system behind me. There's just not the sense of the unknown in w-space any more.

I suppose I should scan that over-obvious new signature, because if it is the wormhole I suspect it to be then its appearance will have been caused by capsuleer activity, and I'm looking for capsuleer activity. I ignore the K162 I'm sitting on, launch probes, and plonk them on top of the rough but stupidly obvious location of the new signature. I align my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser towards the new signature in anticipation, and within a few scans am warping towards a newly spawned wormhole. It's another K162 from a class 5 w-space system.

I'm not quite sure what I'm hoping to find beyond this new wormhole. Whoever opened it must be aware that anyone in this system will have seen the new signature appear, and even though I saw it and reacted with little delay, there's no way I got here before a scout could have jumped in to this system and cloaked. But I am drawn through the wormhole anyway. There's no welcoming party, which is something, and an Iteron hauler and tower appear on d-scan.

A visit just a week earlier points me directly to the tower's location, where I hope to see the Iteron piloted inside the force field, but he's not here. That's odd, as he was coincident with the tower when checking with d-scan, and my first thought is that he's gone collecting planet goo. One planet sits out of d-scan range of the tower, so if the Iteron is still in the system he's probably there, but sending my Loki in that direction finds nothing and no one. Well, whilst I'm out here I'll launch probes and get them hidden, just in case.

A blanket scan reveals five anomalies but only two signatures. I quickly scan the other one, and when it resolves to be a second wormhole I'm already pretty sure it will be a K162 from low-sec. A direct route to empire space would have a scout warp to both wormholes, reconnoitring the unknown connection, and abandoning further exploration in favour of using the convenient route out of w-space to haul goods in or out. Sure enough, warping to the wormhole sees the low-sec K162, and it doesn't take a genius to work out that the Iteron came this way. Not when the hauler is sitting on the wormhole.

I'm out of warp scrambler range of the hauler and I have no idea how close it is to entering warp, so I don't ruin a potential ambush in the near-future by showing myself now. I just bookmark the wormhole and watch the Iteron warp back to its tower, following behind it now that I know its route. My hopes of a second journey are realised with little delay, the Iteron turning back towards the wormhole from low-sec. Again I follow, again I don't engage. His first trip was short, hopefully this one will be too. And I'd rather catch him in w-space, where engaging and destroying his ship will go completely unnoticed by any authority, and I can do what I want with the wreck afterwards. Oh, and his pod.

I wait by the wormhole, wondering if the Iteron will come back polarised or if I'll need to chase it back out to low-sec anyway, and I experience the usual time dilation that accompanies staring in to empty space, waiting for a jump that never comes. The polarisation timer has expired, so when the Iteron comes back I may need to chase it. But at least the wormhole connects to low-sec space and I can still legitimately shoot it. When it comes back. And this should be it, the wormhole crackling at last.

I decloak my Loki ahead of the Iteron appearing. He's not polarised, I'm already anticipating a chase, so I see no need to gimp my reaction time with the decloaking recalibration delay suffered by my targeting systems. He holds his session change cloak. I wait for him to appear. And there he is. I gain a positive lock, disrupt his warp engines, and start shooting. He doesn't jump back to low-sec. I don't know why. Maybe he just wants to get his pod back to his tower. Or perhaps it's because the Iteron is empty, the pilot exporting goods and not bringing back anything of value, which I find out after I rip the hauler to shreds.

The pod flees, the wreck is looted of only a few uninteresting modules. But an inexpensive kill is still a kill, and it will do for me for my early expedition. I have explored, disrupted, and can come back later to see what's in the other systems I've found, after a replenishing sammich. There are two more class 5 systems, other wormholes may crop up, or some or all of them will wither and die. Mutability is the w-space way.

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

Hacking a Cheetah

I'm back, with options. The neighbouring occupants could have woken up, a new wormhole could have opened in the constellation, or, most likely, the static exit to high-sec has died and been replaced. Not a bad start is seeing that the K162 from class 4 w-space connecting to our home system has been forced closed, no doubt by the definitely nomadic corporation not liking our system, which will make it much safer for me to kill our own static wormhole. If it comes to that.

In to C3a, where the Iteron hauler from earlier is gone and a Myrmidon battlecruiser has taken its place on my directional scanner. There are no visible wrecks, though, which leaves me checking the towers for the Myrmidon, and that's no easy task. There are seventeen towers in the system and I only know where one of them is. Luckily, that's also where the Myrmidon is, so I warp that way, confirm the ship is piloted, and start loitering.

I stop loitering with it being readily obvious that the battlecruiser's not up to anything, and check the two wormholes I have bookmarked. Both were at the end of their life earlier, and I took quite a break, so it's no surprise to see both the K162 from low-sec and the static exit to high-sec no longer present. That's good, I can scan for the replacement high-sec exit. I warp out of d-scan range of the Myrmidon to launch probes, once again bumping to the two towers on the edge of the system, but this time seeing another ship. It's an Iteron.

I locate both towers, warp to the one holding the hauler, and can't help but watch it for a few minutes, hoping it will collect planet goo with my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser for company. Of course, it doesn't, although the ship flips about its axis as I watch. Apparently that's not a capsuleer-initiated move, and rather indicates prolonged absence of pilot activity, letting me ignore it to scan the obviously new wormhole in the system.

Warping to and jumping through the exit sends me to a system in Derelik. I'm tempted to be hilarious and call it Dullerik, but the three extra signatures in the system hold another wormhole, which, given its weak strength indicates an outbound connection, is actually pretty cool. Well, it used to be, but outbound wormholes are now annoyingly obvious, thanks to the godawful discovery scanner. And I say 'thanks' with huge gobs of sarcasm thrown all over the place. But the X702 wormhole leads back to w-space, a class 3 system, and that's better than high-sec. And you never know, I may get lucky.

D-scan shows me just a few bubbles in C3b. Launching probes and blanketing the system shows me more, with fourteen anomalies, twelve signatures, and five ships dotted around. Warping in the general direction of the ships finds a tower at a far planet, where an Orca industrial command ship, Impairor frigate, shuttle, and Bestower hauler all float sadly empty of any pilots. I start thinking about scanning for wormholes when all those years of maths education starts to pay off. That's only four ships in the tower. My probes are showing me five. One is unaccounted for.

I warp back across the system and see a Drake battlecruiser all by itself, plus some Sleeper wrecks. Now that is interesting. Is the Drake in some trouble, trouble that I can exacerbate? I think he is, given that the ship serendipitously warps to the planet I've happened to land at, no doubt taking a breather from being shot by Sleepers to recharge his shields. And he is actively recharging his shields, so it seems by the frequent blue pulse skittering over the surface of his ship.

A shield-boosted Drake seems like a curious fitting choice, but then it is also a bit weird to use a Drake in wolf rayet system, which this C3 is. Wolf rayet phenomena boost armour and weaken shields, so of course the Drake isn't local. And he's off again, giving me the vector to the anomaly he's in. Or so I think. I warp to the anomaly to find nothing but Sleepers; no Drake, no wrecks. The battlecruiser is elsewhere.

I warp back to our planet of choice and get a bearing on the Drake, who has warped to where the Sleeper wrecks are, only to see the ship disappear from d-scan. He really is having trouble, which really is no surprise. Drakes are shield ships, Sleepers are armour ships—they don't even have shields—so this was never going to go well for him, particularly outside of a standard anomaly. But with the Drake gone I take the opportunity to find his site. Two scans bags it, not bad for resolving a data site, and I bookmark its location and hide my probes again as I see core probes appear in the system. Get bent, discovery scanner.

I make a perch in the data site, just in case the pilots don't realise the significance of the new wormhole opened in to the system, and watch the Drake return. I guess they don't. And he's off again. Clearly the wolf rayet is hurting him, and if only I could tell when he was about to leave I could think about jumping the Drake. Instead, I'm left watching and wondering, and seeing the pilot return in a Raven battleship. It's still a shield-based ship, but now with more shield maybe he can pop the last two ships in the site.

I say the last two ships, but the number of wrecks isn't consistent with an almost-completed data site in class 3 w-space. But it seems that the pilot and his pal in a Cheetah covert operations boat have been here for a while. I realise this when the second of the two Sleeper battleships is popped and another wave doesn't appear, and when a couple of the wrecks in the site disintegrate. It's been two hours since they first warped in to the site. That's bad for them, good for me. I can't believe they'd abandon the loot now.

Indeed they don't leave the site unlooted. Sadly, no Noctis salvager appears to sweep up the wrecks but the Cheetah warps in to hack the data cans, joined shortly afterwards by the combat pilot now re-shipped in to a Buzzard cov-ops. Well, if that's all that's available I'll take what I can get, and if it's a measly cov-ops boat I want it to be destroyed with as much loot in its hold as possible. So I sit and watch for a minute as a couple of data cans are cracked open, then realise I should get in to a better position.

The data cans are near structures, asteroids litter the site, and I need to stay cloaked. I warp cautiously closer, maintaining decent separation from any object that could ruin my surprise, and drop below the main structure so that I can approach the data cans more easily. I let the Buzzard and Cheetah get cosy, crack a couple more cans and grab some loot, before I think about ambushing them. I'll do it now, with two more cans to go. With any luck, they'll be preoccupied with hacking the can to notice my ship immediately, giving me enough time to snag at least one of them.

The ships are close, I'm in range, it's time to reveal myself. But I want to try to be smart again. The Cheetah has been the more successful hacker, so he's the primary target. I'll point my warp scrambler at him, but I'll start shooting the Buzzard first. Hopefully I can catch them sufficiently off-guard and the ships will be flimsy enough that I can pop the Buzzard whilst holding the Cheetah, getting two kills instead of one. It turns out that strategy is a bit fiddly, though, and not ideal when the damned Cheetah cracks the data can just by looking at it.

Both ships are trying to grab loot splatter as I decloak, aware of the space around them, and so clearly spot my Loki decloaking below them. I get a positive lock on the Cheetah and prevent him warping clear, but by the time I get a positive lock on the Buzzard and start shooting he's a second away from warping clear. Never mind, it was a tall order to catch both ships, and I turn my full attention to the Cheetah. Not that popping a cov-ops is particularly difficult, you understand.

A few volleys of autocannon fire has the Cheetah exploding, and the pod doesn't stick around. I loot and shoot the wreck, probably getting the majority of the spoils from the site, and still only coming away with under twenty million ISK in datacores and RAM. No wonder most capsuleers avoid data sites. Still, I get another kill, and despite it being small and inexpensive it was quite nicely worked, even if I do say so myself. It's taken a while, though, which makes it time to go home and get some rest.

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Tags: bestower, buzzard, cheetah, drake, eve online, impairor, iteron, loki, mmorpg, myrmidon, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, raven, scanning, w-space

Nothing but a nomad

Signatures, anomalies, no ships. Our home system looks just like any other w-space system from outside our tower. I resolve the new signatures whilst floating cloaked in a safe spot far from the safety of the force field, wanting to give as little information away as possible should anyone be watching. Two new pockets of gas are resolved, plus a second wormhole to accompany the static connection. Maybe someone is watching.

Combat scanning probes appear on my directional scanner as I recall my own set. They don't warp back this slowly, so someone is in the system with me. I warp to the the K162, seeing as I land that it leads back to class 4 w-space, and then warp to and loiter by our static connection to see if the scout comes this way. The probes disappear from d-scan. A minute later, an Anathema covert operations boat jumps past me to C3a.

Where did the cov-ops come from? The pilot is the director of a five-capsuleer corporation, but that doesn't tell me too much. He could be from C4a, as many small corporations have staked their claim to a tiny share of w-space. He could be a tourist, or even from our neighbouring class 3 system. I think I should explore through the K162 to find out.

Jumping to C4a sees nothing of interest when updating d-scan, which isn't much of a surprise considering just the one planet is in range. A previous visit from two weeks ago gives no occupation, but I've seen ownership of systems change in shorter time periods, and an empty w-space system is easy to populate. Even exploring and confirming a continued lack of occupation isn't much of a surprise; another w-space system could connect to this C4, which is merely bridging between our home and another occupied system. I will find out by scanning.

Only one of the seven signatures in the system is chubby enough to be a K162, which would be the only feasible way another system's pilots could find their way in here to open the connection to our home. It's gas, though, so there are no other wormholes to be found. That's still not unusual, as it is likely that whoever connected to this system didn't like the route, or lack of activity, and so collapsed the wormhole to look for better opportunity through another one. My remaining curiosity concerns the origin of the Anathema.

I head home and through our static wormhole to C3a, where d-scan shows me an Iteron hauler amongst fifteen towers. I forget the Anathema for the moment to look for the Iteron, then am reminded of the Anathema as the cov-ops jumps past me to return to our home system. That's odd. Why did he do that? And did he see me enter this system? But why did he jump back that way? There's nothing to see, nothing to do. I'm now thinking that he actually comes from C4a and is living a nomadic lifestyle, augmented and supplied by a hidden, larger ship. But back to the Iteron.

One planet has eight towers around it, another five. Two planets have one tower each, and the Iteron is not only at one of those towers but at the tower around the planet with just one moon. That's handy. I warp directly to the hauler, without needing to fiddle with pointing d-scan at every moon around a planet, twice, like trying to fit a lead in to USB port, and see that the Iteron is piloted. I'm half hopeful that the hauler will go somewhere, but as my notes point to a static exit to high-sec I'm also half expecting not having a target even if it does move. And it doesn't.

With no movement from the Iteron I make my own, warping out of d-scan range to launch scanning probes. I bump in to two more towers, no more ships, and perform a blanket scan to reveal eleven anomalies and eight signatures that I may as well scan as the Iteron sleeps. Data, data, wormhole, data, data, gas, and a second wormhole. The high-sec wormhole is skinnier than K162s, so it's obvious which wormhole has opened in to this system abnormally, but it's going to have to wait. An Oneiros logistics ship has warped in to the tower with the Iteron.

The Oneiros logistics ship promptly logs out after warping in to the tower with the Iteron. That's okay, as its vector looks like it came from the high-sec wormhole, where any transit would be difficult to catch. And back with an unmoving hauler being the only obvious ship in the system, I warp to the K162 I resolved to see, bah, a K162 from low-sec that's at the end of its life. Poking through shows its EOL state to be far from subduing my explorer spirit, as the originating system in Kador is boring, inactive, empty.

I have another route to explore, back in C3a and through its static connection to high-sec. Or I would, if that wormhole weren't also EOL. The exit system is a bit more interesting, in that it holds loads of DUST bunnies, but only a bit, and I'm not getting isolated out here. I return to C3a and do what I tend to do. I loiter outside the tower and watch the Iteron.

The Iteron idling inside its tower's force field does what Iterons do idling inside its tower's force field: it idles inside its tower's force field. I head home and, out of curiosity, poke through to C4a again. I'm not sure what I'm expecting to see, but an empty and unoccupied system looks about right. It seems like time to go home and off-line. Nothing is happening, and there's nowhere to go.

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Tags: anathema, eve online, iteron, mmorpg, oneiros, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space