Down the chain

11th October 2013 – 5.32 pm

Hello, all of our anomalies are gone. I suppose activating them was the petulant last act of the fleet who wilfully chose to ignore all the information—I hesitate to call it 'intelligence'—available to them and let me pod their Noctis carrying all of their loot. Well, the last laugh is on them, because now our home system looks so much tidier. Besides, we already have one anomaly back, plus some rocks, and more will be on their way soon. There's even an extra signature at home, which resolves to be gas. Yep, we have something for everyone, which would include the three hundred million ISK in loot, had I not already taken it out to market to liquidate. All is looking rosy.

What's here for me is our static wormhole, leading me out of our system and to today's neighbouring class 3 w-space system to look for adventure. I don't think I'll find it here, as my directional scanner is clear of activity and occupation, with one planet out of d-scan range. I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system, and the fifteen anomalies and twelve signatures don't look good, and indeed there are no ships and no towers to be seen anywhere. Maybe the system has a static exit to null-sec, deterring would-be occupiers.

What do you say, notes? A visit almost two years ago shows the system holds a U210 exiting to low-sec empire space, and not the null-sec exit I would expect. That's good, in a way, as at least the wormhole won't be weak and a little more time-consuming to resolve. I'd better get to it, and I start throwing my probes around to look for the static connection and whatever other wormholes may be out there.

I resolve three wormholes in total. The first is a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space, which is rather lovely, potentially leading me to a system unaware of the wormhole, as well as to another w-space system beyond this C4. At least, this kind of find used to be lovely. Now, thanks to the rotten discovery scanner, the K162 of this T405 is currently blinking away in C4a, in space and on scanners of any ship in the system, persisting as an alert that a new signature, most likely a wormhole, has appeared in the system. What's the bloody point of sneaking cloaked through new wormholes if space is just going to announce about your entrance anyway?!

I hate the discovery scanner. It does nothing but get in the way, making w-space life safe and secure instead of uncertain and dangerous. K162s are better finds now than outbound wormholes, which is simply ridiculous. As such, I don't care to jump through the T405 with any alacrity, hoping to catch pilots unawares, because the likelihood of that happening reduces with every day that passes where the discovery scanner remains active in w-space. Eventually every capsuleer will wise up to it and roaming will be as good as defunct.

Where was I? Right, the other two wormholes. One is the U210 exit to low-sec, and I poke out to see where it leads, appearing in the Tash-Murkon region. Sagain? I poke out to see where it leads, appearing in the Tash-Murkon region. Ha ha ha! Maybe that won't work in a written log. Back to C3a and across to the third wormhole, which is a rather unexciting K162 coming from high-sec space. Again I jump through out of curiosity, and again I appear in Tash-Murkon. Sagain? Again I appear in Tash-Murkon. Ha ha ha! No, but really, it's nine hops from Sagain, and six to Amarr.

I got fuel recently, I don't think I need to get more right now. Then again, you never know when a good exit will present itself, which probably was why I felt compelled to by two loads of fuel blocks the other day. Maybe if the C4 chain is dull and I have time I'll get some. Let's see. Back to C3a and across to the T405, jumping through to appear in system with a black hole imposingly in the background. I think I can already guess that C4a will be unoccupied.

Sure enough, no towers are to be seen in C4a, and neither do any passing pilots want to take advantage of the sites available, leaving them to build up to thirty-one anomalies and eighteen signatures. With any luck the system will lead somewhere better, and I start sifting through the signatures to find the static wormhole, which keeps me in class 4 w-space but hopefully without a black hole.

Jumping to C4b has no black hole, but still d-scan is clear. I launch probes, blanket the system, and warp to the two distant planets, revealing thirteen anomalies, fifteen signatures, and no ships, no occupation. But my notes indicate the static wormhole leads to class 2 w-space, which could be worth looking for. And scanning resolves two wormholes, the other being a K162 from further class 4 w-space. As I have already suggested, K162s are probably better bets for finding activity these days, so I head straight to C4c.

Ah, occupation. D-scan shows me a tower and ships, with a Raven and Scorpion battleship, Crucifier frigate, and Orca industrial command ship somewhere, but I don't need d-scan to see the Phobos heavy interdictor 180 km from the wormhole I'm sitting on. I can see that well enough myself, right up to the point that it cloaks. Balls to this. I'm not here to be hunted. I jump straight back to C4b, loitering for a bit to see if I'm followed—nope—and ignore the core probes now visible in the system to move on to C2a.

Just out of curiosity, I note that each system I've explored so far today has started with J16–. Will this continue in to C2a? Of course not, not now that I've called attention to it. And although a tower on d-scan makes the system occupied I can see no ships, and so no activity. Still, the five anomalies and four signatures are worth a poke with probes, and I float away with gas and the two static wormholes, one to class 3 w-space, the other out to high-sec.

The high-sec exit leads to Sinq Laison, rather close to Dodixie. C3b looks clear from the K162 but holds occupation out of d-scan range, just no activity. Getting sleepy, and definitely not going for fuel now, I make a last sweep of my probes around a w-space system looking for wormholes, coming up with a U210 at the end of its life and a K162 from null-sec. The low-sec exit takes me to Lonetrek, the K162 to an empty system in Fade, where I can pop a rat to end the night with a whimper.

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Tags: crucifier, eve online, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, phobos, raven, scanning, scorpion, w-space

Sneaking a whale through a system

10th October 2013 – 5.48 pm

I come on-line to see no apparent repercussions from yesterday's late-night entertainment. I'm not really surprised, when the fleet couldn't stay motivated to properly poke one of our customs offices. Even though I have a notification that one of our tower's defences has been tested, all is intact. I feel safe, so forget about yesterday—although still glow from the podding of the salvager holding all the loot from the fleet's evening—and turn to tonight. It's just me and our static wormhole, giving me one direction to go.

Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system sees two towers and a Wolf assault frigate on my directional scanner. I feel a bit wary about the tiny ship, mostly because of my recent encounter with a similar ship in a system holding a similar armour-boosting Wolf Rayet phenomenon. But I'm getting ahead of myself, considering the ship is only on d-scan and not on my overview. It may well be unpiloted at one of the towers. And speaking of towers, consulting my notes sees a visit ten weeks ago, when there were five towers, all around the same planet. Something has clearly changed.

Both of the towers in d-scan range are new, and warping around sees that the other towers are still present and holding more ships. As I check for pilots one of them goes off-line for food, so it seems from his announcement in the local communications channel. He may get told off for doing that. But his message makes me look for wrecks, and a switch of my overview and update of d-scan sees them, a bunch of Sleeper wrecks somewhere in the system. There's no sign of a salvager, though.

At the towers are a piloted Dominix battleship and Heron frigate, and nine other assorted ships empty of capsuleers. No ships are in space, so whence the wrecks? They aren't in an active anomaly, so maybe in a relic site. A data site is a technical possibility, but it seems most w-space pilots ignore the relatively worthless data sites for ones that actually generate ISK.

An update of d-scan, done periodically as a matter of course, now has a Hawk assault frigate somewhere in space. Actually in space too, not at a tower, but I can't tell where. A wormhole, maybe. He's not with the wrecks, which is the main point, and they remain my main interest. A quick hunt for them has my noting the presence of a single Sleeper battleship wreck, which would make the site either a low-value anomaly or an unfinished relic site. There may be little point in scanning for the site without a ship in it. If the anomaly has despawned I won't find it, and if it's unfinished it has probably been abandoned.

The Hawk disappears from d-scan, a bit more waiting sees no change, and eventually an Orca industrial command ship blips on my scanner. Maybe I should be looking for wormholes instead of waiting for a ship to come to the ignored wrecks. As I am about to scan the system anyway, revealing my probes to anyone paying attention, I make my first scan where I think the wrecks are. Would you look at that, a relic site. A quick reconnoitre sees the site unfinished, some Sleepers still idling around, waiting for a capsuleer to shoot. I know the feeling.

I blame the discovery scanner for the abandoned site. I hate it for pinging newly spawned wormholes so obviously to the destination system. Still, scanning resolves three more wormholes, so maybe the locals were taking a risk anyway with running the site, if it was them running it. But I still blame the discovery scanner for shouting out my arrival. It's an ill-conceived system that has ruined the unknown nature of w-space.

Checking the wormholes has my ship first landing next to the static exit to high-sec, which takes me to a busy system in Metropolis, near the trade hub of Rens. I would get fuel if I felt safe. But maybe I do feel safe. All looks quiet in C3a, with almost no movement, and certainly no one apparently interested in finding our K162, just running from it. Okay, I'm getting fuel. I ignore the other two wormholes in C3a, head home, and swap my scanning Loki strategic cruiser for an Orca.

I load the whale with loot and other export materials and take myself out to high-sec, which is unsurprisingly smooth. It's coming back that may be awkward, but I'll worry about that when I come to it. A small diversion has my selling the Sleeper loot, then I hit Rens and sell everything else, filling up my cargo space with fuel blocks for the return journey. I even sell the one unit of morphite that was weirdly in my hangar in Rens, but which after undocking I realise was a placeholder for my inventory.

With the mineral sitting in the hangar, Rens would appear in my galaxy-wide items list, so that when I poke in to empire space I can gauge how close the hub is. I have the same in the other trade hubs, and if it weren't for not being able to sell one of the export items, a particularly useless piece of salvage probably from some low-quality data site, then Rens would have disappeared from this list. I really need to be more careful.

Travelling through high-sec is easy. And, as it turns out, so is travelling across C3a. There is no change to d-scan as I enter, and I warp to our K162, jump home, and warp to our tower without problem. So little problem, and such is my desire to want to keep our fuel stocks healthy, that I consider making a second trip. Don't be predictable, so the advice from a particularly wise capsuleer goes, but maybe whoever's watching won't be expecting this. I take the Orca out for a second run along the same route, quickly, before anyone notices, and maybe even before potential polarisation effects will have expired.

Getting out to high-sec still has no oranges in the system, and I reach Rens at best speed, stuffing the Orca full of bricks a second time. Knowing how reckless I'm being, I keep moving, not stopping to think, and hop stargate-to-stargate, warping to the wormhole to C3a and jumping in. No one on the wormhole, no change to d-scan. I break for our K162, reaching the clear wormhole, jumping home, and warping to our tower again. Well I'll be. I'm safe and sound, and our tower has enough fuel to last for quite a while. I would say not to try this at home, kids, but go for it. I'm sure you'll be safe too.

I have a little time to spare, so board my Loki once more and go back to C3a to reconnoitre the two other wormholes I resolved earlier. The first drops me in to empty space, the wormhole either a signature echo or collapsed, forced or by reaching the end of its life. The second is a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space, critically stable and EOL. Maybe the Orca blip on d-scan earlier helped destabilise this wormhole, or collapse the other one. Either way, I'm glad I ignored them to get fuel, as it seems to have been the best use of my time tonight. Good job, Penny.

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Tags: dominix, eve online, hawk, heron, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space, wolf

What we have here is a failure to think straight

9th October 2013 – 5.05 pm

I come home from another extended w-space constellation to three Raven Navy Issue battleships, a Basilisk logistics ship, and Noctis salvager visible on my directional scanner. And, of course, all the Sleeper wrecks that are made by such a fleet. Here's me scanning wormholes and exploring dozens of systems over the past couple of days, and apparently all I had to do to find activity was wait patiently in the home system.

Had I waited patiently the situation would have been in my favour too. There's a slight chance that the plundering fleet has assumed our static wormhole hasn't been opened, but it seems they are being cautious and have a scout cloaked on the wormhole. I move and cloak my ship, and am greeted in the normally quiet local communications channel. They greet me by name too, so I wasn't merely spotted on d-scan. I can't quietly sneak up on the fleet's salvager and welcome them to our system.

In fact, I can't even find the anomaly the fleet is in, let alone the salvager. I got in to the habit of bookmarking all of our anomalies daily, just in case of situations like this, but that was a lot of busywork for minimal benefit and stopped a long while ago. So I can't find the fleet, but I still think I've gained overall, and not just because my chances of successfully ambushing the salvager are negligible. But I take a minute to bookmark all those we have left, just in case.

Still, the Noctis is not with the fleet and looks to be in empty space, so with a big enough system to hide from the fleet on d-scan, and with only core scanning probes in the visible system—dunno what they're looking for, with the ridiculous discovery scanner doing the job for them—I warp away, launch combat scanning probes, and hide them far above the ecliptic plane. Warping back to the wormhole I take a look for the Noctis using d-scan, but the salvager disappears before I am ready to scan.

Did the Noctis cloak or jump through a wormhole? As I'm not going to be doing much I call my probes in to scan where I last saw him. Nothing. No ship, no site, no wormhole. I hide my probes again, I'm not sure why, and, as I consider what to do next, see the fleet warp to our static wormhole and jump to the class 3 system on the other side. Now, why would they do that?

The fleet doesn't look like it originates from C3a, but this behaviour does look like a panic warp away from my combat probes. But the pilots know I'm here, what are they afraid of? A fleet behind me, perhaps. But you don't send the ships you don't want to lose in to the middle of a fleet coming to get you, you take them home, so I'm still at a loss as to this behaviour. When all the ships jump back moments later I can only suppose that the fleet is planning to collapse of the wormhole, probably to force me out of the system.

Collapsing the wormhole won't get rid of me. I live here. But I test my theory that they aren't afraid of my scanning probes by bringing them back in to the system to resolve their K162. That's simple enough, as it's the only new signature in the system, and I have it within a few scans. Hiding my probes, I warp across to what turns out to be a K162 from class 4 w-space to gauge the next reaction. Will they run again and, if so, which way?

Here they are, on their K162. But are they running away, or running to catch me? I dunno, but they really want me to bugger off, as more local chatter shows. I've also been added as a contact—with terrible standing, naturally—so they can tell if I am on-line or not. And it seems that they've worked out I'm local. The fleet warps away from their K162, but not to our static wormhole or back in to an anomaly. The Ravens and Basilisk visit one of our customs offices and start shooting it.

Whatever, dudes. Go ahead and waste your time blowing it up. You're using that threat on the wrong capsuleer. Besides, if they were serious, they'd go after our tower. This is simply petulant posturing. And they get bored pretty quickly, perhaps realising how much time it would take to accomplish essentially nothing meaningful, and warp away again. Once more to their K162, then to our static wormhole for another jump to push more mass through, and back again to their K162. This is all rather weird.

Our sister system, on hearing of the Navy Ravens, would like to come and cause some explosions. I'd like that too. But they have to finish their current engagement with Sleepers and make the trip over to do so, and I don't think our wormhole will last that long. Another round trip by the fleet destabilises our connection to critical levels, almost proving my point. It looks like they are happy with that, and although some strategic cruisers could still squeeze through the opportunity looks less inviting to my colleagues. That's fine, and such are the vagaries of life in w-space.

The fleet looks to be content with leaving the wormhole in critical condition and they get back to shooting Sleepers. I think I'll poke their system, if only for information. I warp to their K162, jump through, and, hey, it's the dash system. J1226-0, the only w-space system missing a number. That's easy to remember for future reference. And a last check of d-scan before jumping showed the Noctis visible again at home, so it was just cloaked. D-scan in the dash system shows me two towers and no ships, which also makes sense, with all the available pilots engaging Sleepers, salvaging, or scouting.

I sit and wait on the wormhole for a while, during which time two more pilots come on-line, board Navy Ravens, and warp to and jump through the wormhole to join the fleet. Still I wait, with a plan hatching to catch their Noctis on the wormhole as it comes home, hoping to pop it before the Ravens can crack my Loki open. And now I remember the fleet has a Basilisk. Never mind surviving the Ravens' fire, the Basilisk will simply repair any damage the Noctis takes. My plan is doomed to failure, but at least I realise now before I either wait too long or get caught out.

I think it's time to go home and go off-line, finally giving the fleet what they wanted all along. Then again, jumping home and pinging the ships sees the five Ravens and Basilisk as separate from the Noctis. Is this really how you operate with a known hostile pilot in the system? I almost can't believe it, but I see where the Noctis is and warp to him to see the salvager in a despawned and empty site alone. Not for long, as he warps clear. Did he see me? Was he warned? I don't think so. I see where he goes and d-scan tells me it's a site that has Sleeper wrecks in it.

I follow behind the salvager, making a perch as I do, and drop in to the anomaly to see the Noctis still unescorted. The fleet is active elsewhere. This is too good to be true, but the only cloaky ship I've seen so far is a Cheetah covert operations boat, which explains the probes; the fleet composition has remained unchanged, with no boats mysteriously leaving; and the only additions I've seen, whilst watching their wormhole, were more Ravens. I think I'll take a crack at this Noctis, all or nothing.

The salvager is moving between the spread-out wrecks in the cleared anomaly, which means he won't always be aligned to warp and I have time to get the ambush right. And, to get good images of his or my destruction, I think I'll let him move out of that blinding cloud before I warp in to say hello. There he goes, moving to the wrecks high in the z-axis. It's time.

I warp in, getting nice and close, and get a spot of luck as the Noctis turns just as I start my approach. He can't be aligned, now is the time to strike. I decloak, burn towards the ship, and get my sensor booster active. I am acutely aware of the ships in the system, the threats made towards me, and how stupid this could be. But I want to find out who is being more stupid.

I gain a positive lock on the Noctis, disrupt its warp drives, and start shooting. Shoot, update d-scan. Shoot, update d-scan. The fleet's current anomaly is out of d-scan range of this one, so their appearance on d-scan now would give me a heads-up that they are on their way. And it's looking pretty sweet so far. No fleet on d-scan, no ship decloaking two kilometres from mine. The Noctis is going down. I need to take a good picture of this one.

What a splendid explosion. The pilot is perhaps quietly weeping—or confused as to why his two warp core stabilisers apparently did nothing—and my Loki catches his ejected pod. A couple more volleys of autocannon fire, one more than normal, just to chill the capsuleer with some more shield and armour alarms, and a corpse appears in front of my ship, ready to be scooped. Scoop it I do, and I check the wreck of the Noctis for any loot. The fleet's arrived, but I've got time.

I've got time because the fleet warped to the anomaly's cosmic signature, not their ailing salvager, and so are seventy kilometres from my current position. If only that was their smallest mistake of the evening. I snatch all I can carry from the Noctis wreck, leaving behind the bulky cloaking device, and casually warp back to my perch, activating my fitted cloak when able to. The fleet does nothing—can do nothing—but watch.

That was glorious. I have 300 Miskies of loot in my hold. Over 600 Miskies of loot were sadly destroyed in the explosion and so not recovered. Only a little sadly for me, very sadly for the fleet, who have lost a billion ISK in potential profit for all their effort so far against the Sleepers tonight, all the threats against me, all the attempts to get me to leave. I have no sympathy for them. They knew I was here, who I was, what I was piloting, that this is my home, and that I was on-line. And still they let their Noctis, slowly accumulating wads of loot, salvage unescorted.

The fleet takes one more shot at the same customs office as before, the poor sods punching a brick wall to vent some of their frustration, upset at their own miserable failure. And when they inevitably give up on that, after only a couple of minutes, I watch as they give up completely, heading home without another word, threat, or indication to return. The Ravens jump through the wormhole with the Basilisk, the Cheetah shortly afterwards signalling their defeat, and even an Anathema cov-ops after that.

I spy a Proteus strategic cruiser jump in to our system after a short while, as I linger expecting to see the wormhole collapsed, and when it cloaks I wonder if they will start again, this time with protection. But I don't care. It's really late, I've destroyed a billion-ISK Noctis, and thoroughly thumbed my nose at an impertinent pilot. I dump the loot and corpse at our tower, and hide in a corner of our system to go off-line, knowing that I will sleep well tonight.

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Tags: anathema, basilisk, cheetah, eve online, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, raven, w-space

Not quite so many wormholes

8th October 2013 – 5.46 pm

I'm looking for some middle ground today, wormholes and activity, and not just an expansive constellation that takes so long to scan that I end up doing nothing else. Not that there was much else to do yesterday but scan, I suppose, but it's not like I was able to stop and enjoy the smell of newly exploded planet goo. With this in mind, I delete the forty-one wormhole bookmarks from last night's excursion and start again. It's a straightforward beginning, with just our static wormhole giving me a direction to go.

Jumping in to the class 3 w-space system, it doesn't look like I have any neighbours to poke. Not from the K162, at least, as my directional scanner is showing me nothing. My notes from ten months ago suggest that one of the two planets out of range holds a tower, so I launch probes, blanket the system, and warp in that direction. Sure enough, there's the tower, and equally sure enough, there are no pilots to be seen. No ships, either, so my combat probes only show me the anomalies and signatures in the system. Ten and five of each, respectively.

I scan, looking for the static exit to low-sec and any other wormholes that connect to this system. I resolve two, plus some gas and a data site, and after poking out to the Tash-Murkon region and back I warp to a neat T405 wormhole. I don't suppose I'll be surprising anyone still, but the class 4 system beyond will link to more w-space, so I have another arm of the constellation to uncover and explore. I hope it doesn't keep me too busy.

C4a looks clear from the K162 and is a fairly big system, but my notes say it is unoccupied and has a static connection to class 5 w-space. That will continue the constellation, but H900 wormholes are weak buggers. Thankfully there are only six anomalies and five signatures to sift through, and as there remains no occupation and today has no activity I start looking for the wormhole. And there it is, amongst the gas, the only other wormhole in the system. In to class 5 w-space I go.

Holy crap. C5a is pretty big. One planet is in range of the K162, the next is 85 AU away, and then it's out to 132 AU in one direction and 150 AU the other. This may take a couple of blanket scans to get right. My probes pick up a total of seventeen anomalies, five signatures, and what appears to be two ships at the next-nearest planet. Okay, warp drive, let's do this.

Bah, all that time crossing the system for an empty Orca industrial command ship and Moros dreadnought inside a tower's force field. At least scanning resolves three wormholes, with a K162 from class 4 w-space, the static connection to another C5, and a dying K162 from null-sec. The w-space K162 is my best bet for jumping someone unexpectedly, sadly, and not the outbound wormhole, so I head to C4b to see if anyone is still awake.

No one is noticeably within d-scan range of the wormhole in the class 4 system, letting me launch probes and perform a blanket scan. The system is messy, holding twenty-three anomalies and twelve signatures, and that's because it's unoccupied. I sweep my probes over the chubby signatures—class 4 w-space is notorious for not having random outbound connections, and K162 signatures are strong—and resolve a wormhole, but the K162 from class 5 w-space is both at the end of its life and in a critically unstable condition. Touching that would be like trying to stroke a growling cat rolled on its back. I head back to C5a.

In to C5a and straight through to C5b. Well, hello clear d-scan result. I've not seen enough of you tonight, apparently. And this time it's a true reflection of the system. Opening the map has my appearing near the first planet of the system, which also happens to be the only planet of the system. Even the star sits a lonely 45 AU away. On top of the lack of places for sites to spawn and the dearth of planet goo, there is a black hole phenomenon to make the system completely undesirable. Maybe that's where the rest of the planets went, and any corporations based here with them.

I wonder if the static wormhole connects to deadly class 6 w-space too? A quick scan, that's rather simpler than usual, says no, as I resolve an H296 linking to more class 5 w-space. There's also a second wormhole, but the K162 from class 2 w-space would be more attractive if it weren't EOL. Still, that's not going to stop me taking a quick look. In to C2a and d-scan at last shows me ships with a tower, but the Prophecy battlecruiser and Broadsword heavy interdictor don't look Penny-friendly. There are no wrecks visible in the system either, so I assume both ships are empty or otherwise inactive, and jump back through the dying wormhole.

From C5b to C5d in one jump, where I return to having nothing to see on d-scan. Blanketing the system with probes and exploring reveals nine anomalies, seven signatures, and one ship, the ship being an unpiloted Archon carrier floating inside a tower's force field. It's pretty dull, and I consider giving up, except my notes point towards this system having a static connection to class 3 w-space. That may well be the end of the constellation, and I am encouraged to continue. So, of course, I resolve three wormholes, dammit.

The K162 from class 5 w-space and K162 from null-sec are both destabilised to half mass, which is coincidental, but the static connection to C3b looks fine. That's tugged at my curiosity. I jump to C5e to see what's been moved back-and-forth, but punching d-scan with a jazz groove only spies a couple of towers and a Loki strategic cruiser as I warp the 57 AU across the system. Pausing on the way back sees the Loki piloted, but at a tower and not looking to be concerned with hitting null-sec with any particularly massive ships.

I think it's time to end this. I return to C5d and jump to C3b, where d-scan shows me a tower different from ten months ago and the lack of ships I am growing accustomed to seeing. The discovery scanner can bite me. But I keep going, sifting through the nine anomalies and five signatures to resolve the static exit to null-sec, and a second wormhole only turns out to be a K162 from low-sec. I'm at the end of tonight's constellation, still a bit too big, still no activity to speak of. At least tonight I only have thirty wormhole bookmarks I'll be deleting tomorrow.

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Tags: archon, broadsword, eve online, mmorpg, moros, orca, penny ibramovic, prophecy, scanning, w-space

Too many wormholes

7th October 2013 – 5.28 pm

Last night was a bust. I hope there's more happening today. Or, at least, there are more wormholes to find. There was a dearth of connections yesterday, ending exploration rather abruptly. I start as always in the home system, where the last gas clouds have floated away, but there are still three extra signatures. More gas was almost an inevitability, but the second wormhole gives me a nice choice of direction. It's a K162 from deadly class 6 w-space too, how lovely. Let's see who's going to try to kill me today.

A Bestower doesn't look particularly deadly, the hauler visible on my directional scanner along with a tower. Curiously, the tower isn't around the planet in the system with over twenty moons, or even at the planet with six moons, but at one with just the single moon. That saves me a whole bunch of time in finding out that the Bestower is empty, even if it's an odd decision by the locals. There's still one planet out of d-scan range, though, and warping across sees two more towers and a handful of capital ships. None of the carriers or dreadnoughts are piloted, of course, so I launch probes and settle down to scan.

Two anomalies and three signatures barely register before I've resolved a data site and a wormhole, the K162 coming in from class 5 w-space. Back I go to C5a, the system remaining unoccupied since my previous visit a year ago. I don't suppose there's much clamouring for class 5 systems with static wormholes to class 6 w-space. How many unfortunate systems connect here today? The fifteen anomalies and thirteen signatures give me wormholes all over the place, with four of them in total scattered here and there. A K162 from class 5 w-space is at the end of its life, as is a K162 from null-sec, but two more C5 K162s are healthy. I'm sticking with class 5 systems.

In to C5c and I see six towers and some ships on d-scan, a pod highly suggestive of at least one capsuleer being present. A lack of a previous visit has my opening the system map to look for the towers, and quickly closing it when I realise that, with only six moons around its eight planets, the system is saturated. Now I just need to bounce around to check for piloted ships, which I kinda find. One pilot is indeed active, but apparently only in moving ships from one tower to another. I could stay and watch for more, but with a poor-looking wormhole chain heading out of here, and no way to covertly launch probes and scan for other potential wormholes, I doubt I'll get up to much mischief. I have more to explore, so I'll check the other systems instead.

Back to C5a and in to C5d, which has seven anomalies, eight signatures, and no ships, a single tower floating around a far planet. Scanning only finds gas and data sites, marking this end of the constellation as mapped as I care to make it. I've come as far back as I can in this direction and there isn't enough happening to warrant loitering. I head homewards and through our static wormhole to the class 3 system beyond, where ECM drones appear on d-scan but nothing else. A blanket scan reveals five anomalies and seven signatures, and a lack of ships or occupation. My notes indicating a static exit to null-sec may explain that.

My probes poke a chubby wormhole, which could be good. Warping that way sees an N968 outbound connection to class 3 w-space, which is good. It would be better if the frustrating discovery scanner weren't already alerting anyone in the C3 beyond of this new wormhole connecting the two systems. Where once outbound wormholes were exciting, offering opportunities to surprise unwary pilots, and K162s were the untrusted stepchild of wormholes, now the situation is reversed. Outbound connections are shining beacons of imminent intrusion, alerting pilots even barely paying attention of the need to hide, and it's only carelessly opened K162s that are likely to provide opportunity. Die, discovery scanner. Die!

Hey, there's another wormhole. Not so chubby to be a K162, not so weak to be the K346. Indeed, it's another outbound connection, an I182 to class 2 w-space. Excuse me if I don't get too excited, though, and instead finish scanning, resolving the exit to null-sec and determining a lack of further wormholes. Well, I may as well pick one of the connections, so I choose the I182 and jump to C2a to surprise no one at all.

D-scan is clear from the K162, and a blanket scan reveals two anomalies, four signatures, and four ships. A territorial control unit points me to one tower, where a pair of rookie frigates float empty, and exploring finds two more towers, with an empty Iteron hauler and piloted Buzzard covert operations boat. I'll ignore the cov-ops and look for the static connections to class 3 w-space and high-sec that my notes indicate are here. And I resolve them, along with a bonus K162 from class 4 w-space. The exit leads to Devoid, far from anywhere, but what about that K162? A tower, no ships, and the two other signatures are only gas. Okay, I've finished here too.

Back to C2a and in to C3c, through a wormhole that's now EOL. I'm confident it wasn't when I found it, so I have a few hours before my way home will be gone. That should be enough to scan the two anomalies and five signatures, given that there is occupation but no activity again. Scan I do, resolving gas and three wormholes. Damn, I need to be careful what I wish for. I have more wormholes than I can manage, none of them leading to any worthwhile activity, and even the supposed dead ends keep forking. Just to prove it, the static exit to low-sec and K162 from low-sec are joined by my second N968 of the night.

Checking the two exits sends me to Black Rise first, Kor-Azor second, and my quest to find the limits of the constellation push me in to C3d. A tower and no ships appear on d-scan. What a surprise. I can't resist scanning the ten anomalies and six signatures, so it's my own fault that I resolve two wormholes. The static exit to low-sec, leading to Derelik, is one wormhole, the other an EOL K162 from a system in Great Wildlands null-sec space. At last, a termination. But I still have more w-space to explore.

C3d, to C3c, to C2a, to C3a. Checking the exit allows me a brief pause in Syndicate, before heading back to w-space and in to C3b, where I see a tower and no ships on d-scan. Naturally. Four anomalies, nine signatures. Okay, I'll scan you, I may as well finish. So of course there is more than one wormhole. Not only is there the static exit to high-sec, but a K162 from null-sec and a K162 from class 4 w-space. I poke my prow in to C4b, where two towers are on scan without any ships, and I appear over five kilometres from the wormhole. Good. I declare this system explored.

I head back to C3b and check the exits. The high-sec wormhole takes me to Khanid, the null-sec K162 to Outer Ring. And that's tonight's constellation mapped, all with barely seeing another pilot, and without scanning a single system outside of w-space. Next time I ask for more wormholes I'm going to be more specific. Still, it kept me off the streets of Luminaire for a while. Not any longer, though. I need to find me a Gallente to cut badly so I can work out my frustrations.

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Tags: bestower, buzzard, eve online, iteron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Rejected by w-space

6th October 2013 – 3.52 pm

Aii's here, but is Aii really here? I have no idea, as he's not responding to me. That makes him similar to almost every capsuleer in and out of New Eden, so I won't hold it against him, and merely assume that's he's distracted. It happens. I also think it's safe to scan the home system, as I can't see his ship either on my directional scanner or under my combat scanning probes, and the corporate bookmarks are yet to be refreshed.

Scanning finds some new gas to replace the sites that have since dissipated, which should please Aii's industrial nature when I can get his attention. Or, indeed, him back to w-space, if he's gone out again. Otherwise, it's just me and our static wormhole, giving me one direction to head to look for activity and excitement.

Jumping to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system has a Russian canister on d-scan but nothing else, with two planets sitting out of range. My notes say there is a static exit to null-sec in the system and not much else, but that was two years ago, so I launch probes, blanket the system, and explore. Four anomalies, seven signatures; no ships, no occupation. You win again, notes. It's just me and space.

Sifting through the signatures doesn't give me much more than space either, with some pockets of gas, a data site, and the static wormhole to keep my attention. So with that, I'm leaving. I jump to null-sec and get plonked in to Fountain, alone in the system. I'll rat and scan, I suppose. Two extra signatures give me a combat site and a wormhole, which would be neater if the wormhole didn't connect to low-sec empire space.

Whatever, it's a wormhole, which makes it preferable to a stargate. I leave null-sec the easy way to find myself in Metropolis, with three pilots in the local system with me and two more signatures to resolve. A combat site and a data site. How dreary. You know, I think I'm taking a shine to stargates after all.

I pop back to null-sec and hop to an adjacent system to look for more wormholes. I find a system with pilots and a station, and the one signature is just another combat site. Moving on again has one pilot, three signatures: one combat, site two data sites. I'm not giving up, not with a few more systems in this little ring of null-sec, so I hop another stargate.

At least I'm alone in this system, giving me another opportunity to gain a little more security status. I pop a rat whilst resolving the three signatures—be lucky, you bastards—and get only a combat site, some gas, and a relic site. Where are all the wormholes? Not in the next and final system, where there aren't even any signatures, that's for sure. I pop a rat, head back to C3a, and jump home to quietly mope after having been rejected by w-space.

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

Sneaking up on a scout

5th October 2013 – 3.38 pm

New signatures in the home system just give me gas, which is a little disappointing. Heading to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system offers little better, with a tower visible on my directional scanner but no ships. Opening the system map has my considering launching probes on the wormhole, given that nowhere is out of d-scan range, but checking the tower's direction and the range to the farthest planet in the opposite direction makes it look like the occupants have carelessly given themselves a blind spot. I'll warp over to make use of it.

Nope, the planet sits almost at d-scan's maximum range, but it is still in range of the tower. I'll forgive the locals in that case, and just get on with scanning. I launch probes and look for the static exit to low-sec amongst the ten anomalies and six signatures, hopefully collecting another wormhole or two in the process. And I find one too, although the K162 from null-sec isn't much use, being at the end of its life. I poke through to be in the Deklein region briefly, before turning around to head to low-sec.

But wait, there are core scanning probes in C3a now, which could be interesting. I loiter on the low-sec wormhole, presuming the pilot came from this direction and will come back this way sooner rather than later. Or later, given his scanning speed. Dude, you don't need to resolve and bookmark every signature. Eventually the probes disappear and a Proteus appears on d-scan. That's not really a ship I want to engage in my Loki, his cloaky strategic cruiser probably being able to get the better of mine. But he does come my way, and what surprises me is that he seems to be local to C3a.

Surely he would know about all the sites in his home system, and it really doesn't take long to confirm each one. Or maybe they're new and I'm being unfair to him, as he probably should resolve and bookmark them all. Either way, I find myself not doing anything, not least because the pilot is suitably cautious about polarisation and doesn't offer me a free engagement against him. He waits the few minutes in low-sec before returning to w-space, and I watch as he cloaks and, presumably, warps clear.

Now what to do? Hit low-sec, I suppose. So I do, where an extra signature beckons me to scan it, and a lack of pilots has my heading to a rock field looking for rats. I resolve the signature, it's a wormhole, and warping to it finds a K162 from class 3 w-space. I know these quite intimately, so in I go. I really do know these, and this one in particular. I've just jumped back to C3a. Maybe I should resolve the other signature in low-sec. I go out to try again.

I'm stupider than I thought. The other signature is a wormhole and I just managed to warp to the wrong bookmark. There is no need to scan the other one again. Or there wouldn't be, had I not deleted the bookmark as being incorrectly made. So I scan the wormhole a second time and make sure that I warp to the right bookmark this time. I drop out of warp next to a K162 from class 5 w-space, so I am quietly confident that I'm not about to return embarrassed to C3a a second time as I jump through.

Scanning probes are on d-scan in C5a, making me concerned that a carrier is about to land on me to kill the wormhole again, but that's just paranoia talking. I warp out, launch probes, and blanket the system, revealing four anomalies, thirteen signatures, and no ships. Exploring finds no occupation and now I can see two sets of probes on d-scan, the others not being mine, which are hidden outside of d-scan range. I think I'm in the middle of a scanning race.

I resolve an obvious wormhole that sits far from any planet, a K162 from class 5 w-space, along with a Z142 outbound link to null-sec and the system's static wormhole to another C5. That'll do for me, and I notice that the other probes have gone when I recall my own. A Helios covert operations boat blips on d-scan, and although I try to find him using d-scan in the system map he's nowhere to be seen. I think that's because he's on my overview instead, jumping through the H296 to C5c.

I let the Helios go and, as I consider heading backwards to his home C5, the wormhole crackles as he comes back almost immediately. I won't catch him and don't feel like trying, but as I see which planet he warps to I can't stop myself following behind. Sadly, the Helios cloaks in warp, and I land in empty space. Empty for just a moment, as the Helios decloaks and launches probes, almost directly on top of me. That was a pretty predictable warp, Mr Helios, let me see if I can make you pay for it.

My sensor booster is activated, as is my micro warp drive, and I try to catch the cov-ops now burning away from the surprise Loki he decloaked. He's pretty fast too, certainly using his own MWD to get away, and my relatively sluggish strategic cruiser can only just get a positive target lock on his tiny ship just as it gets clear of my warp scrambler range. I can't disengage his MWD or stop him warping, neither can I accelerate hard enough to pull him back in to range. I can do little but watch as the Helios, now out of my guns' effective range, aligns and warps clear.

That was some unexpected excitement. I didn't really want it either, as now the colleagues of the Helios will be warned of the roaming Loki. As such, seeing the two Gila faction cruisers appear in the system makes me think they're looking for me, but when I can't pin them on a wormhole and Sleeper wrecks start appearing I change my mind. I think they're clearing gas sites of Sleepers, as surely they can't feasibly be clearing class 5 w-space anomalies, certainly as they appear to be working separately. That means I'll have to resolve the gas sites to find them, giving them time and opportunity to spot my probes, and that's only if I think I could successfully engage a Gila. Which I don't.

I could perhaps aim for a salvager that comes in behind the Gilas, or the gas harvesters themselves, if that's their plan, but a bit of waiting sees neither enter the system, only a Tengu strategic cruiser. With little else to do I poke their home C5 system, wondering if I could catch something on the wormhole, but on seeing thirty-eight towers and plenty of threatening ships on d-scan I decide I don't want to be here. There's not really much I can do, it seems, so I check the null-sec wormhole in C5a—it leads to Scalding Pass.

There's no one in the null-sec system, so I find a rat to pop and launch probes to resolve the one extra signature. It's a wormhole, an outbound connection to more class 5 w-space, which looks tiresome right about now. But I scanned it, I'll check it. C5d is occupied, has a piloted Loki and empty Moros dreadnought inside one tower's force field, and the last time we were here Aii and I popped a Noctis salvager that was under the watchful eyes of an Archon carrier, Absolution command ship, and surprise Rapier recon ship. Great times. But not today. It's quiet, and it's late. I turn around and head home. There were systems to explore, ships to see, but sadly little I could shoot.

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Tags: eve online, gila, helios, loki, mmorpg, moros, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, tengu, w-space

Leaving for home

4th October 2013 – 5.39 pm

My way home is gone. Well, part of it. Not the important part, I suppose, which would be the wormhole actually leading to the home system, or one directly connecting our constellation. I've merely been isolated from the k-space exit. That this exit is in null-sec doesn't really help, as my way back to it could be fraught with peril. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I need to scan my way out of this class 5 w-space system first.

Actually, I'll give the locals a few minutes to get cosy, perhaps comfortable in thinking their system is secure, in case they were collapsing all their connections as a precursor to other activities. This plan would work better if they hadn't seen me, though. My last-ditch but aborted attempt to flee back to null-sec had my dropping my Loki's cloak, showing the strategic cruiser to anyone who was watching, which, apparently, was at least one of the locals. And they want me out of their system.

Maybe you should have thought about that before collapsing the wormhole I used to get here, dude. Maybe, and I'm spitballing here, if you really wanted me out of your system you could have mentioned the imminent collapse of the wormhole and given a non-binding promise to let me leave safely before finishing the task. Having trapped me here, I feel I have no obligation to the abide by your wishes. I actually think I quite like it here. I may even stay.

Naw, I'm going to leave. But I'll see what the locals do first. They scan their new static connection—dunno if it could possibly be 'for me' as they suggest, considering that they never proffer a fleet invitation or some other way to guide me there—and promptly kill that too. Do they want their system open or isolated? I think they want it closed and free from visitors. Like I say, you should have thought about that before getting rid of my way home. I wait a little longer.

Their replacement static wormhole collapsed, the ships return to the tower and the pilots go off-line, all but one in a Loki. That's disappointing in a way, but it makes my leaving a simpler decision to make and probably safer. It's time to go, and being in a class 5 w-space system, looking for a way back to a specific null-sec system, I could have a long evening of scanning ahead of me. I'd better get to it.

The new replacement wormhole is simple to pluck out of the otherwise unchanging clutch of signatures, and it's nice and chubby for quick scanning. Unfortunately, the chubby signature resolves to be an H296 wormhole, leading to more class 5 w-space. On the one hand, this could lead to a near-perpetual chain of tedium. On the other hand, class 5 systems are prone to occasional random connections from null-sec space. This may actually work in my favour. I jump through to find out.

A tower and Anathema covert operations boat appear on my directional scanner in C5b, which I ignore to launch probes. A blanket scan reveals four anomalies and twelve signatures, and my notes have a happy mention of a static wormhole leading to class 3 w-space. That's handy! I just have to scan this system and the next and I'm guaranteed to be spat out of w-space. Where it spits me is another matter, but at least I have a clear end in sight already.

Better still, amongst the many gas sites are two K162s from null-sec. How lucky can I be? The first takes me to a system in the Malpais region, twenty-three hops from the entrance to C3a in Cobalt Edge. That seems like a bit of a trek through null-sec space, so let me check the other wormhole. In to C5b, out to Vale of the Silent, twenty hops to Cobalt Edge. That's better, but still not great. Then again, it could be much worse.

I have another system to check for wormholes, through C5b's static wormhole to C3b, which could also have null-sec connections. It's worth the time to consider my options. The class 3 system is clear from the C5b's K162, one of the two planets out of d-scan range holding a tower and empty Orca industrial command ship. Five anomalies and thirteen signatures give me three more wormholes, one dead-on-arrival—probably a scanner echo, given its proximity to an active wormhole—the second an unhelpful K162 from class 4 w-space, and the static connection exiting to low-sec.

Despite class 4 systems never connecting to k-space I can't help but poke my nose through to see what's happening. I see a tower, Dominix battleship, and Proteus strategic cruiser on d-scan, but no wrecks. That's good enough for me, so I head back to C3a and out to low-sec and the Everyshore region, over fifty hops to Cobalt Edge. Okay, twenty hops starting in Vale of the Silent it is.

I go back to C5b and pick the right null-sec wormhole to give me the shortest trip home, and start my journey. The systems are empty on the few hops it takes me to reach Tribute, and Goon territory, where being in a new region I scan as I travel for my new project. I find an outbound connection to class 5 w-space that suits me just fine, and I jump through to C5c. I just want a look at the wormhole, but standard operating procedure has my updating d-scan, at which point I see a ship hangar and no active force field. Well, I can hardly stop there, can I?

Exploring the rest of the system finds no further signs of occupation or activity, which lets me work out some of my frustrations on the hangar. I would say it pops, but it doesn't really. On its destruction, all of whatever ships were stowed in the hangar are packaged in to an undersized container that promptly implodes, leaving me nothing else to shoot and none the wiser as to how much ISK damage I just inflicted. I suppose it doesn't really matter, as I couldn't really have taken any of the ships home with me. Moving on.

Back to null-sec and following the route my autopilot has chosen for me. From Tribute to Venal, across to Tenal, and in to Cobalt Edge, avoiding a Claw interceptor landing on the stargate as I enter the system. I had hoped it would jump, but seeing it loiter had my safety relying on getting my Loki cloaked in time. It seems to work, and I warp to the next stargate in my route, only to find the Claw's friends. The small fleet is having a tussle with some hapless pilot on the stargate, and as I warped directly to the stargate, shedding my cloak as I land, I have little option but to keep going.

I don't go unnoticed, and I drag some of the hostile pilots through to the next system. That's okay, as I'm already cloaked and legging it, not letting my curiosity be my downfall. The ships follow still, but when I get clear at the next stargate they give up the chase. That's probably wise. A couple more uneventful hops get me to C3a's exit system, and I warp to the reassuring sight of a still-present wormhole. I jump through to the unchanged class 3 system and warp my Loki back to our K162, jumping home safe and sound after an interesting evening of alternative survival.

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Tags: anathema, claw, dominix, eve online, loki, mmorpg, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, w-space

Slow, slow, fast

3rd October 2013 – 5.13 pm

Some gas has drifted away, some new clouds have appeared. That's all the excitement in the home w-space system accounted for, is it any better next door? Not obviously, with my directional scanner clear from the K162 in the neighbouring class 3 system, although the black hole sits imposingly in the background. A single planet out of d-scan range doesn't provide any local occupation either, leaving me an empty and inactive system to scan.

My last visit nine months ago shows the same lack of occupation and activity. Unsurprisingly, the static exit is noted to lead to null-sec. Black hole systems aren't much liked, and neither are those with null-sec connections. It's no wonder this C3 remains unoccupied. I don't really mind looking for the null-sec wormhole either, except for its weak strength, as it will hopefully help me progress my current project. I launch probes and sift through the twenty-three anomalies and ten signatures.

Half the signatures are gas, all ignored after one general scan. It's good to be skilled in scanning. The rest will be weak wormholes, and relic and data sites, requiring a bit more effort to identify. My first choice is the null-sec exit—probably. Do I keep going, looking for a second weak wormhole, a definite outbound connection, or assume the other signatures are simply relics and data? I keep going. It's what I do. Data, relics, data. Oh yeah, I'm going to null-sec!

Exit C3a lands me in a system in Cobalt Edge, alone and ready to rat and scan. One extra signature, one drone battleship. I pop one, resolve the other; but which way around? Either way, the signature is a wormhole, an N432 outbound link to class 5 w-space. That's pretty neat, and is potentially the start of a decent chain of w-space. I jump in, curious to see what I can find, and see a tower, some big ships, some small ships, and a full set of scanning probes. I'm not sure I like this.

The increasingly frustrating discovery scanner makes new wormholes painfully obvious to anyone not asleep at their controls, and an active scout with probes launched can almost resolve the K162 as quickly as it is opened from the other side. This terrible iteration to w-space, coupled with the availability of a Dominix and Scorpion battleship, Orca industrial command ship, Thanatos carrier, and Moros dreadnought makes me think the local pilots could be aggressively isolating their system. I hope I'm wrong.

I loiter on the K162. I am wary of moving from it, in case the scout has resolved the wormhole and massive ships are already heading my way to collapse my connection homewards. Opening the system map and sweeping d-scan sees the tower is straightforward to find, anchored to the single moon of a planet, and curiosity gets the better of me. I warp to the tower to check how many pilots are available and see just how founded my fears are.

The Thanatos and Moros are at the tower, piloted, the Cheetah and Scorpion missing. The covert operations boat returns moments later, the Thanatos warping away afterwards. The Cheetah pilot swaps to the Orca and follows behind the carrier. They aren't heading towards the wormhole I came through. I should be safe for now. Both ships drop from d-scan, the pair so unlikely a coupling that they must be collapsing an unwanted wormhole. Mine must be next.

I wait at the tower for the massive ships to return, but they are gone a suspicious amount of time. My first thought is that they are lurking by the wormhole they are collapsing, waiting for polarisation to end before finishing it off, but that's a rather risky move and not one I'd credit to pilots that appear capable. Moreover, it wouldn't take many passes from the Thanatos to kill a wormhole. They must be up to something else.

Well, of course they are up to something else. The ships aren't returning to the tower because why would they? They have warped from one collapsed wormhole directly to the next one to be killed. It's how we do it, it's surely how others do it. I can't believe it took me so long to deduce. Now I need to rush, or I'll be isolated from the way home. I turn my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser around and warp at best speed to the wormhole back to null-sec.

I still cautiously drop short, because I don't know if the wormhole is still there, or if I'll bump in to a ship. All looks clear, although the wormhole is resonating with the pulse of a stressed connection. It's not long for this system. I decloak and burn towards the half-mass wormhole, hoping to squeak through, but abort the manoeuvre almost as it begins, jinking and cloaking. The wormhole may look like it's still there, it's just that I've been in this position before. It didn't end well.

The situation clarifies in an instant. The wormhole is below half mass, the Thanatos is not in this system, and it has no need to stay out of the system for long. Within a few seconds the Thanatos will return, a carrier jumping through a wormhole in this state will surely cause it to implode, and a wormhole's collapse can take a few seconds to propagate across the two systems. This all gets processed in the moments it takes to decloak and pulse my micro warp drive, hence my almost-immediate jink and re-cloaking.

Sure enough, a couple of seconds later the wormhole crackles, returning the Thanatos to class 5 w-space. And, sure enough, the wormhole dies with the carrier's reappearance. Although I wasn't quite close enough to try, I would bet iskies that the wormhole had already disappeared from null-sec and wouldn't have let me through. I am isolated. But at least I am not isolated and heading pell-mell in to the hull of a Thanatos carrier.

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Tags: cheetah, dominix, eve online, loki, mmorpg, moros, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, scorpion, thanatos, w-space

Waiting for a shot at a hauler

2nd October 2013 – 5.29 pm

Another new signature has popped up in the home system during sammich time. Resolving and warping to the signature shows it to be a K162 from class 2 w-space, giving me a different direction to go, and maybe some fresh activity to find. But maybe not immediately, not with a complete lack of ships visible on my directional scanner. There are two towers and lots of drones somewhere, but, with nothing out of range, that's it. I'll be launching probes to look for more wormholes.

A blanket scan reveals six anomalies, seven signatures, and... a ship? Switching back to d-scan sees the Iteron now in the system, but where is the hauler? And did he see my probes or Loki strategic cruiser? I hope not. Luckily, the towers are easy to find, with both being around a planet with two moons. I warp directly to one to see no Iteron, and bounce to the other where the ship is. I think.

I don't see the Iteron immediately, but it catches my eye when I see movement two hundred kilometres above the tower. I have no idea why he's up there, and don't have long to consider it before the hauler drops back in to the safety of the tower's force field. A handful of seconds pass and the Iteron's moving again, aiming to warp back above the tower, by the looks of it, although a hangar is impeding progress. A dozen bumps off the structure convinces the Iteron pilot to navigate laterally out of the tower, and then he warps up and away, presumably to a wormhole.

As I watch d-scan for the Iteron's inevitable transition I spy a Purifier stealth bomber in the system too. He could be at the other tower, I don't know, and I don't care too much. He's more of a target than a threat and I want to find where the Iteron went. I saw the hauler's vector on exit, making it simple to resolve the wormhole. Two scan cycles later and I warp to what turns out to be an exit to high-sec, one that has been used a fair bit already, given that it has been stressed to be below half mass.

The question now is whether the Iteron will return to w-space quickly enough to be polarised. I've seen it happen before, so I'm willing to wait and see. And, apparently, I'm willing to wait even longer, on the off chance that I can catch and destroy the hauler anyway. I don't fancy my odds, as the ship could simply return to high-sec, where it will be protected by Concord. But surprise can work wonders.

So I hold on the wormhole and wait. And wait a bit longer. And wait long enough that it will be me who is surprised. But, eventually, the wormhole crackles. I don't spring in to action, just get my attention focussed on the space around me again. I may have been better off decloaking ready for the salvager the other day, but I can't have this pilot the least bit prepared. I need him to show his ship before I make a move, so that he has initiated warp and is comfortable. The extra step of needing to cancel warp before being able to jump back through the wormhole may just be the time I need.

I hold my module cloak, as the other ship holds its session change cloak. He waits a suspiciously long time before doing anything, and I have no idea why. It makes less sense when the pilot eventually does show himself, sending his shuttle in to warp towards one of the local towers. He can't have been polarised, the shuttle is almost impossible to catch, and he was on a high-sec wormhole in his local system. Whatever, it's not the pilot I'm interested in.

Or was it the pilot I'm interested in, and he's taken the Iteron out and brought a shuttle back? Dammit, I really need to start paying attention to names. Watching d-scan, still not wanting to abandon the wormhole, I see the shuttle get swapped for an Anathema covert operations boat and disappear, making it seem that I may well be waiting for nothing. It won't be the first time, but I think now is the time to poke out to high-sec to see who and what is there, and how far away a market hub is.

The wormhole takes me to Khanid, and a system only three hops to Amarr. That seems like an awfully short distance for a basic hauler to cover considering the time he's been gone. Maybe he's not coming back. There are no oranges in the local channel. At least, not to start with. But as I ruminate over my options an orange pilot appears. Is that the Iteron?

I ping d-scan, watching for ships coming this way, but see none. I hold on the wormhole for as long as I dare. I want to jump late enough to only need to use my session cloak back in C2a, so that there is no recalibration delay, but if I jump too late the Iteron will see my transit and be alerted to my presence. I don't even know if it's him, so rather than risk being seen by another party I jump. I wait on the wormhole, holding my session cloak, listening for the tell-tale crackle of a ship coming my way. But nothing. The cloak drops, and I am forced to activate my ship's cloak.

Still I wait. Yes, I'm stubborn. The wormhole crackles not a minute later. It's the Iteron. Here I go. I decloak and, because of the circumstances, ignore activating my sensor booster immediately. Instead, I opt for the micro warp drive, surging my Loki towards the returned Iteron, hoping to drive it away from the wormhole by slamming my ship in to his. Now for the sebo, and I gain a positive target lock as I ram the Iteron and knock it away from the wormhole. I hope it's enough.

My autocannons chatter, I slow my boat down, needing to back away before I can get enough momentum for another bump, and, crap, lose my target lock. No, the Iteron hasn't exploded, he's jumping back to high-sec. My bump wasn't quite enough, pushing the hauler only almost out of jump range. I think the pause was the pilot working out that he had to cancel his warp command before giving one to jump through the wormhole. I would like to think it was close, but it's hard to tell. I'm pretty sure that's the last I'll see of the Iteron, though. And, after all the waiting, it's late. I'm going home.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Waiting for a shot at a hauler
Tags: anathema, eve online, iteron, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, purifier, pvp, scanning, w-space