Afternoon scanning

Maybe today I can aim higher than a Heron. Popping frigates is a fun distraction, but that's all it really is. More new signatures at home could offer different directions to head, to look for opportunity, but it's just gas, gas, gas. And a bit more gas. I have no idea what to do with that. Our static wormhole, on the other hand, I know what to do with. I jump through to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

A tower and no ships is a pretty unremarkable sight on my directional scanner from our K162, although having it sit in the same location as two years ago is mildly interesting. That's commitment, but given that the corporation lists itself as RPers it's less of a surprise. Even so, there's no one home, so I sift through the nine anomalies and twelve signatures, ignoring data and relic sites, what seems like lots of gas, and still resolve six wormholes.

The N968 to class 3 w-space is good, the K162 from class 1 w-space enticing, the U210 static exit to low-sec expected, a second N968 also good, a C5 K162 interesting, and the K162 from null-sec a last-ditch option to rat if I find no pilots in any of these w-space systems. I'll check the class 1 system first. Updating d-scan after the jump sees a tower and no ships, and opening the system map has nothing out of range. Okay, I'm calling this system explored for now. Maybe there's someone to find in that C5 instead.

Three towers appear on d-scan in C5a, along with an Ibis frigate and Bustard transport. Flicking d-scan across the planets sees that both ships are at one tower, which will make lurking initially easier, and locating the tower sees the two ships are piloted. I think it's worth watching the Bustard for a minute or so. No, I'll scout the rest of the system first, in case there are more ships and pilots. Nope, just these two. Okay, I'll watch and wait.

Watch and Wait, wait and watch. He's boring. You're boring, Bustard pilot. I'm off to see what's in those class 3 systems. C3b seems like a good next destination, at least alphabetically, as d-scan shows me nothing from the K162. I launch probes, blanket the system, and explore, finding a tower with, naturally, no ships, and revealing eleven anomalies and five signatures. And a Prowler on d-scan! But where? Who knows, the transport is gone before I can even hope to trace him. As he didn't come from or go to the tower, I'll look for K162s.

I resolve the system's static exit to low-sec, followed by a dying K162 from class 2 w-space, and a K162 from class 4 w-space that is more likely to lead to the Prowler's home system. Jumping to C4a sees a tower on d-scan, plus an Orca industrial command ship that maybe has the same insignia as the Prowler. I think. Locating the tower sees the Orca empty, so I warp back to the wormhole to loiter as I scan, having nothing pass me as I whittle down the signatures to resolve a K162 from class 5 w-space. That'll do.

C5b is the Prowler's home, as the insignia on the two Helios covert operations boats and Daredevil frigate definitely matches that of the transport. This time I'm sure. And even though all three ships are piloted at the tower, I have no idea if one of the capsuleers is the Prowler pilot returned and re-shipped. As there is nothing of much interest to watch at the tower and nothing to shoot in space I'll head back the way I came. Maybe I'll bump in to the Prowler. Given that thought, I jump to C4a, across to C3a, and out to low-sec, as the transport more likely came this way than through the dying wormhole to C2a.

There's an orange in the system. It could be the Prowler pilot, as the capsuleer's corporation matches that occupants of C5b. Now what do I do? I could try to engage on this wormhole, but I will be following the Prowler back to w-space, polarising myself and giving the transport an easy route to escape back to low-sec. I think my best bet is to return to C3a now, warp to the C4 K162, and wait for him there. That is, assuming it is the Prowler pilot, he intends to come back, and he hasn't just seen my cloaking Loki jump to low-sec and back to w-space.

The more I wait on this K162 the more I'm convinced a Prowler isn't coming my way. It doesn't matter the reason, as either way it just leaves me floating in space doing nothing, so instead of waiting even longer I head back to C3a and press on to the as-yet unexplored C3c. A tower, Helios, and Bestower hauler light up d-scan, and although I was last here only a few days ago my notes are a little garbled. The location of the tower doesn't exist, there not being enough moons around the listed planet. But it's a simple transcription error, easily corrected, and I am in warp to the tower soon enough.

The Helios is piloted, the Bestower empty. That's the wrong way around, dammit. And I'm getting hungry. I've done plenty of scanning and seen some idling pilots, and the only active ship I've witnessed I probably missed chasing owing to some bad timing. Still, I've mapped a decent-sized constellation so far, which I can roam and even delve in to empire space to look for more wormholes if necessary. But that's for later. Right now, I head home to grab a sammich.

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Tags: bestower, bustard, daredevil, eve online, helios, ibis, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, prowler, scanning, w-space

Chasing a cheap pod

New signatures in the home system give me a second wormhole plus a couple of sites. The K162 from class 4 w-space could be interesting, so I head backwards to start the evening, jumping in to the system to see a Cheetah covert operations boat on my directional scanner. Still on d-scan, still on d-scan, and gone. Why no cloak, Mr Cheetah? I shall explore to see if I can uncover a clue. Or not. Opening the system map sees that all is in range of d-scan, so there isn't anywhere to explore. Instead, I shall scan.

A blanket scan of C4a reveals a whopping thirty-five anomalies, which is about right for an unoccupied system, but only twelve signatures. I sift through the signatures for the inevitable K162 but don't find one. So who opened the wormhole? The Cheetah, I suppose, perhaps living a nomadic existence. Maybe he has a cousin in a bigger ship carrying other ships and supplies. I'd like to meet him. But with no sign of activity I'm not staying here watching empty space.

I jump back home and head in to the neighbouring C3, where d-scan is clear, not a cov-ops in sight. That's how it should be. A blanket scan reveals eleven anomalies and six signatures, and my notes remind me that Fin and I tried to catch a name-changing Stabber cruiser about six weeks ago. Two towers present then are gone now, replaced, or perhaps consolidated, by a single one in a different location. Scanning resolves a couple of signatures, one a K162 from null-sec k-space, the other the static exit to low-sec empire space.

Checking the low-sec exit puts me in Aridia, naturally, with one other pilot in the system. But not for long, as two new pilots enter, at least one through the crackling wormhole I'm sitting on. It's the Cheetah from C4a, and it jumps straight back to C3a. Do I give chase to the polarised cov-ops? Sure, why not. But my deliberation gives the pilot plenty of time to warp away from the wormhole, my only sighting of it being a blip on d-scan as it no doubt returns the way it came, through our K162.

Polarised myself, I cloak. And the wormhole crackles again. This time a Buzzard cov-ops comes in from low-sec, and aligns and warps to the null-sec K162. I don't bother trying to catch this one, because de-activating my cloaking device would trigger seconds of recalibration delay before I could even attempt to gain a positive lock. All I would do is give away my position, so I take the sensible option of staying hidden. I think that's probably my share of excitement for tonight over, so I may as well hit low-sec and scan.

Five extra signatures, spread over the system, take a short while to reduce to two wormholes and two sites, and apparently long enough for a chatty local fellow to offer me lessons in English. Or maybe irony. Who can say? Ignoring the local pilot I look to return to w-space, but not through the dying C5 K162. The healthy K162 from class 3 w-space should provide some shelter, though, but perhaps not for the Heron visible on d-scan on entering the system.

I start looking for the scanning frigate when, thanks very much, she drops out of warp near the wormhole. And only near the wormhole, not on top of it, but certainly close enough for me to reach out and touch her with my autocannons. The session change cloak of transiting systems has no associated recalibration delay, so I surge towards the Heron and activate my guns, getting a positive lock as I burn to get within warp scrambling range. Ensuring I get closer doesn't matter, though, as the Heron explodes with no more encouragement than loosing a couple of rounds of fire.

The frigate may have exploded almost before the pilot could react, but she's not too disorientated by my surprise appearance. The pod flees before I can stop it, although I do see which way it goes. The capsuleer is seeking to take refuge around a planet, and hasn't headed to the apparent empty space that would signify a wormhole. I disregard the wreck of the Heron as unimportant, and instead of looting and shooting it I warp towards the pod, wondering if the fled pilot now has an unwarranted sense of safety.

Nope, she's gone. Gone from the planet, but not from space, as d-scan shows she's still in the system. I was going to launch probes to scan anyway and my presence is no longer a surprise, so I get my combat probes out and working, looking for the pod. I find it a couple of times, but the pilot is bouncing around the system. Except now she seems to have stopped. I bookmark the location and repeat the scan, once, twice, and the pod remains. I may as well see if she's stopped paying attention.

I warp to the pod, knowing that it can easily warp away with plenty of time before I can lock it, but not wanting to give up just because. Decloaking early, I drop on top of the capsuleer's egg and start targeting, but the pod warps clear as expected. Upwards this time, though, which is taking it back to the wormhole to low-sec. And an Atron is on d-scan now. That's neat, as frigates are easy, even with an added Griffin that appears whilst I'm in warp. I just have more targets now.

Dropping out of warp on the wormhole see the three ships, the two frigates and pod, and I want to join the party. I aim for both the Atron and Griffin, but they jump out to low-sec pretty quickly, leaving just me and the pod. And the pod is sitting away from the wormhole, roughly where I popped her Heron. Well, this is why I chased her, so I go for a lock, get it, and get my autocannons active again. One more shot and the pod is a corpse.

I'm not sure why the two frigates came in, and if I didn't have some weird fetish about collecting corpses then maybe I could have caught one or the other polarised on the wormhole in low-sec. But I grab the corpse, hoping that I at least gave her a lesson in why you don't bookmark the wormhole signature from the scanning interface, and cloak again as the Atron returns from low-sec. That's weird.

The frigate warps away from the wormhole, perhaps expecting me to give chase, but I'm not interested. Come in number 21, your time is up. I've scanned, hunted, and chased already. It's been a good evening, and I simply head home, through a low-sec system now populated with a few of the Heron's presumed colleagues, and an inactive C3a. Even when I can't resist a last look in C4a, the presence of scanning probes isn't enough to keep me around longer. I hide in the home system and go off-line.

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Tags: atron, buzzard, cheetah, eve online, griffin, heron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Too late for tourists

Is anyone out there? Hello? I'll check next door. Two canisters labelled as containing ammunition appear on a check of my directional scanner in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, and nothing else. That's fine, as it lets me launch scanning probes at the wormhole to blanket the system and see if anyone's around. There may not be, given that my last visit nine months ago had the system unoccupied, and my blanket scan reveals no ships along with the fourteen anomalies and six signatures.

A bit of exploring C3a finds no occupation, same as before, so I scan for wormholes. A chubby wormhole could be the system's static exit to low-sec empire space, then I see gas and a couple of data sites, followed by a skinny wormhole. That's good, as it means the first wormhole will indeed lead to low-sec, and the second is an outbound connection to more w-space. I get luckier still, as the w-space connection leads to a class 2 w-space system. Good for possible targets, good for having another w-space link.

Again d-scan is clear from a K162, letting me launch probes in C2a, and as only a single moon-less planet is in range there has to be more to see. My probes reveal four anomalies, four signatures, and a single ship with four drones in space. I warp in that direction full of expectation, only to be disappointed to find a Magnate frigate floating empty inside a tower's force field, the drones abandoned in space elsewhere. Oh well, back to scanning.

Wormhole, wormhole, wormhole. I'm in the shallowest w-space, it seems. The two static wormholes lead to class 1 w-space and high-sec empire space, and the third wormhole being a K162 from high-sec doesn't help with my w-space exploration. Still, a C1 could give me a soft target, and I won't complain about that. And jumping to C1a sees a potential soft target, but not one I am likely to catch. Whether the Helios covert operations boat is the owner of the probes also visible on d-scan is uncertain, but that someone is actively scanning is not a good sign for my entrance.

If I won't catch any pilots here I may as well scan and move on, and I can even race the local scout. Seven anomalies are easily bookmarked and three signatures mean I barely wave my probes around the system before recalling them, having resolved a couple more wormholes. I don't know if I won the scanning race, as the probes have disappeared from d-scan when I finish, but no ship has come past me. The Helios did appear to be the active ship, though, as it too disappears from d-scan on a subsequent update.

The Helios returns to d-scan, and apparently the tower. I locate the tower and loiter for a minute, and this time it really is a minute. The scout isn't doing anything, and I'm not about to watch a cov-ops do nothing. I reconnoitre the wormholes instead, finding one to be another exit to high-sec, the other a K162 from class 2 w-space. That'll do, and jumping in looks good. An Impairor frigate, Hurricane battlecruiser, and Gnosis battlecruiser are all on d-scan, as is a tower, but with Sleeper wrecks in space I'm thinking the ships are active. The only problem is that I can't see the ships in any of the five anomalies. I may have to hunt them.

My first hunt since the changes to the scanning interface! How almost exciting. I hope I can still do it. At least I can warp out of range of the ships, whether they be in a relic or data site or sucking up gas, although the edge of the system has a lone Sleeper wreck in empty space. Actually, that's interesting. I launch probes and resolve the sole signature near this distant planet whilst no one is around, in case the pilots come back to salvage the wreck, before flinging my probes high above the ecliptic plane to hide them.

Now back to the inner system to hunt the, uh, the... oh. I won't have a hunt tonight, as the ships have gone. I may have been spotted on d-scan moving from the wormhole, or am too late in reaching this system. Either way, it's bad luck and probably game over. With no one around to see my probes I have a quick poke for K162s, first resolving a static exit to high-sec, then a K162 from high-sec. It looks like I nearly found some day trippers. Not very nearly, though. Warping to the relic site I resolved finds it intact, the single Sleeper wreck obviously abandoned elsewhere. And if that's it for wormholes, that's it for me for tonight. At least I can appreciate the harmonic progression of heading through C1, C2, and C3 space to our C4 home.

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Tags: eve online, gnosis, helios, hurricane, impairor, magnate, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

More ratting in null-sec

A new day, a new adventure. I scan, resolve our static wormhole, and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. All looks quiet, with my directional scanner showing me nothing, so it's not much of an adventure yet. My notes say C3a was unoccupied a year ago, and as opening the system map sees no planets with moons out of d-scan range I suppose the system is effectively unchanged since my last visit. I also know there is a static wormhole to null-sec to be found, so perhaps I'm just ratting again tonight.

Twelve anomalies and seventeen signatures is plenty, but not too onerous a scanning task for an unoccupied system. The only problem is having to delve down to the weakest signatures to resolve the static wormhole, which means ignoring a lot of gas. I suppose that makes sense, now that rocks have lost their special status and are now mere anomalies. I eventually find the wormhole I'm after, as well as a second weak connection, which is a good sign. I also somehow manage to miss a chubby signature a K162 on coarser scans until the end.

I take the K162 to be a sign of opportunity, but it only is in a roundabout way. The wormhole comes from null-sec, so it's more opportunity for ratting, not w-space exploration. The other weak connection could be good, though, being an outbound link to class 5 w-space. And jumping to C5a to see what I can find has a Prowler transport, Phobos heavy interdictor, and bare tower on d-scan. I move from the wormhole and cloak, wondering if the transport is piloted and a potential target, then sidle back towards the wormhole as a second update of d-scan now sees a Moros dreadnought.

Have the locals already spotted the new connection in to their system and are planning to collapse it? That damned discovery scanner will be the death of me, instead of the unfortunate deaths of other capsuleers. An Orca industrial command ship appears on d-scan too, as well as core scanning probes. As I'm not moving from the wormhole I check my notes, seeing that I was in this system seven weeks ago when it was unoccupied, and although there is a static wormhole to more class 5 w-space I may be forced backwards before I can find that.

Oh, I remember this system. Opening the system map shows that there are only two planets, one with moons. I doubt I'll be catching that Prowler collecting planet goo. But it makes for a relatively compact system, even if the other planet and star sit out of d-scan range of all the moons. I risk warping away from the wormhole to check for activity and, nope, find nothing else, so even take a minute to locate the tower. I find it, and see that the Moros, Phobos, and newly appeared Buzzard covert operations boat are piloted.

The probes have dropped off d-scan. So what now, Mr Buzzard? I dunno about him, but a Pilgrim recon ship passes me back on the wormhole, where I feel a bit safer. He's not local, and could be the source of the probes, and I just watch him go. I don't think my Loki liked its previous fight with a Pilgrim. And he doesn't come back. Neither does the Buzzard make an appearance in this direction. I suppose I should scan forwards or head backwards.

I scan forwards. There are eight anomalies and thirteen signatures clustered nicely around the two celestial objects, and it takes little time before I confirm eleven gas sites, C3a's K162, and the H296 wormhole. Moving on, I jump to C5b, where a tower and no ships, with nothing out of range, means I'm scanning again. Seven anomalies, five signatures, holding a static connection to class 3 w-space. I resolve the static wormhole, as well as a K162 from class 5 w-space, which may be the home of the Pilgrim. I jump through to find out.

C5c has the Buzzard from C5a on d-scan, but I can't tell where he is or why he's not cloaking. He disappears for a minute before returning, perhaps through a K162, considering my notes have this system being unoccupied from six weeks ago. Back on scan, and off again. Maybe he's coming back. Yep, there he is, on the wormhole jumping to C5b. I consider giving chase, but the odds of my catching him are so slight I simply don't have it in me tonight. Instead, I warp around C5c, confirm it remains empty, and head back to C5b without scanning. Whatever the Buzzard found, it didn't seem interesting.

I press on from C5b through its static wormhole to C3b, which looks empty on entry but exploring finds a tower with no one home. Scanning puts this system at the end of the constellation, once again null-terminated, so with exploration over it's time to rat. Where better to start than through C3b's static exit, which takes me a system in Deklein where a Stiletto is the only other ship in the system. The interceptor doesn't stay, though, so I find a rat in a rock field, engage it, and lightly panic as a battlecruiser fleet with support enters the system.

I warp away from the rock field and cloak near the wormhole, hoping the fleet is just passing by, and they are. Returning to the rocks has the rat waiting for me, and I manage to drop his battleship deep in to armour before the fleet returns from wherever they went. I can't be bothered with warping to and fro, so simply align back to the wormhole and hope a cloaky scout isn't already watching, and I wait for the rat to explode before warping at best speed out of the asteroid belt. I have no idea what the fleet is up to, but I wouldn't be surprised if they brake for ratting strategic cruisers.

Mild excitement over, I return to w-space and through C3b, C5b, and C5a to C3a. The K162 from null-sec leads to a system in Impass with a bunch of pilots, probably not passing through, so I ignore them to try C3a's static wormhole instead. I pause briefly when d-scan shows me an Anathema cov-ops and Viator transport in C3a, but I can't place them and don't care to chase cloaky ships at this late hour. I just jump to a system in Outer Ring, see that I'm alone, and look for a good rat to shoot. Is a Serpentis Grand Admiral good enough?

The battleship isn't so grand as a wreck. And I'm spent. I return to C3a, ignore the scanning Anathema, and jump home. Unsurprisingly, a new signature has popped up, no doubt the source of the new ships, and I resolve it to be a K162 from class 4 w-space. I can't resist a quick nose through the wormhole, but all I find is an unoccupied and empty system, 70 AU across, holding a black hole. I suppose that gives us a little buffer zone, and someone else a chance to scan. I'm too sleepy.

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Tags: anathema, buzzard, eve online, loki, mmorpg, moros, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, phobos, pilgrim, prowler, scanning, stiletto, viator, w-space

Scanning, hacking, refuelling

I'm heading home in my heavy interdictor. Heavy with corpses, that is. I drop off the four ex-miners in to our hangar, swap back to my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, and head back down the chain to where I dropped on them in my Onyx. Passing through our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to reach the class 2 scene of the crime has nothing appear on my directional scanner, which is quite a change from the seven Retrievers I saw the first time I entered the system this evening. You could say I killed the mining operation.

The wormhole in to C2a is one of the system's two static connections. The other I know to lead to high-sec empire space, which I can't say I'm interested in, so instead I'll see what's through the K162 from null-sec in C3a. Null-sec space, that's what. But null-sec space in the Tenal region empty of other capsuleers, which gives me an opportunity to rat to regain some security status. I've been hoping to do this for a few days.

I scan as I rat, finding a ship to pop in a rock field whilst the only other signature in the system resolves to be a combat site of no interest. Not wanting to stop just as I start, I hop through a stargate to a second system and, seeing I'm still alone, continue to rat and scan. I pop a rat, find a combat and relic site each, and move on. Hop and pop, two combat sites. A couple of capsuleers enter the system whilst I'm in the rock field, but I bug out and they leave the system without our paths crossing.

Another stargate hop, another clear system, this time with three signatures. And, thankfully, as I pop another rat, and the first rat battleship I've managed to find so far, I also resolve one of the signatures to be a wormhole. As much as ratting helps my security status, w-space is where I like to be. I warp to the wormhole, identify it as a K162 from class 2 w-space, and jump through, where my directional scanner shows me a tower and no ships. That's okay, as I can resolve the second static wormhole for more w-space exploration.

Phew, I'm glad anomalies don't need to be scanned, as thirty-nine of them would take some time to sift through. Eleven signatures isn't bad, and as it's almost all gas the chubby signatures are quickly ignored to leave me with a couple of wormholes. Another K162 from class 2 w-space would be good if it weren't at the end of its life, and the second static connection, leading to class 5 w-space—the natural pairing for the null-sec connection—has been destabilised and is on the verge of collapse. That's a shame.

I ignore both sickly wormholes in C2b and head back to null-sec, where I have one more system left in the circuit. Hop, pop a rat, no signatures to scan. Okay, time to go home. But only temporarily. The relic site I resolved in null-sec interests me. The hacking mechanic seemed pretty tedious when done in a simple site in high-sec space, and without much reward, so I'm keen to see how it differs in null-sec. Back at our tower, I fit a relic analyser to my Loki and head back to the null-sec system, at which point I see a Buzzard covert operations in C3a, warping from the tower to launch probes. Duly noted, but I don't care right now. I jump to null-sec, hop through a stargate or two, and warp in to take a look at the relics.

Rather than arbitrarily clicking on every node as quickly as I can, I try to see what's actually happening. Not much, I think. Not that I can really tell, even though I skimmed through a guide to hacking recently. The first can spews loot everywhere, and I grab some salvage parts as the pair of pilots I saw earlier make a return to the same system as me. I move away from the can and cloak, waiting for the two pilots to move on again. I think they want catch me, though, as they don't simply pass through this time. That's okay. I can wait. I know how to wait.

Eventually the pilots move on, and I'm left in the relic site in null-sec by myself. I attempt to hack in to the second can, and manage to fail. A second failed attempt has the can self-destruct too, which would be more disappointing if I'd ever seen good loot in one of them. Instead I move on to the next can, and exercise a little more caution in clicking on every node, doing so just a bit more slowly now. The other cans are hacked without trouble, and I get maybe a hundred million ISK in salvage parts for my troubles. I suppose that's not so bad, but I can't say I'm hooked on the process. In fact, I'd be hard pushed to say anything particularly positive about hacking or the grab for the loot. It just is. Ratting is more engaging, hacking makes more ISK.

Null-sec hacking experience, I'm going back home. The Buzzard that was in C3a has gone, and I wonder if he hit high-sec through C2a. And if he did, will he come back? It's maybe worth a look, so after dropping off my loot I return to a still-quiet C2a to scan. Four anomalies and four signatures take no time to resolve, giving me gas, gas, and the second static connection. The wormhole to high-sec is super-stable too, so it looks like I've only just opened it. I wonder if the miners thought their other wormhole was closed? Either way, I jump through to the get the exit system for safety, appearing in the Domain region six hops from Amarr, and return to C2a.

What now? Ah, I remember that the static low-sec exit in C3a was EOL when I resolved it earlier. Maybe it has now died and been replaced, which was what the Buzzard was looking for. That would give me more to explore, but flying past it sees the wobbly wormhole still very much there. Perhaps I won't ignore that high-sec connection after all. I have some time and an Orca industrial command ship at my disposal, I could buy and sell some goods.

I get home, swap my Loki for the Orca, load it up with all the booty I've stolen and honest loot we've recovered from Sleepers, and head to high-sec. The Buzzard is back in C3a as I pass through, and I can only hope that he doesn't spot me, but C2a remains empty. I get to high-sec, start on the six-hop journey, and luckily manage to cancel it before entering warp to the first stargate. I change my autopilot settings to prefer high-sec, and head off in a different direction for a safer eight-hop journey that doesn't take me straight to low-sec in an expensive industrial ship.

Getting to Amarr, selling and reprocessing loot, and buying fuel blocks is straightforward, as is heading back to the wormhole. But will anyone be waiting for me when I get back to w-space? The high-sec system holding the wormhole holds no capsuleer of note, and jumping to C2a has the wormhole and d-scan clear. I warp to the next wormhole and jump to C3a, where the wormhole is clear, d-scan is clear. One more to go, and I cross C3a to get to our K162, jumping home to see the wormhole is clear, d-scan is clear. I enter warp and return to the tower safely, after a thankfully uneventful trip. I store the fuel blocks, stow the Orca, and go off-line in my Loki. It's been a rather full evening in space.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, loki, mmorpg, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Miner massacre

I'm on-line a little earlier today, hoping this time to catch someone actually awake. Aii has sucked up the home system gas nice and efficiently, leaving a data site and our static wormhole as the only two signatures present. I resolve the new connection and jump through to see what's in store for me next door. Not much, it seems, with only an off-line tower visible on my directional scanner, but there is more to see of our neighbouring class 3 w-space system outside of d-scan range. I warp away from the K162 to explore.

A bare tower sits empty of ships and pilots elsewhere in C3a, leaving me to wade through the twenty-one anomalies and ten signatures. Actually, that tower is really rather bare indeed. It has no defences, not even any hardeners, and is a small tower. I'm tempted to take a punt at its shields, to see just how weak it is, but I scan first just in case there are K162s that could potentially bring ships in to interrupt my fun. And it's good that I do scan, as the dying static exit to low-sec is joined by two more wormholes.

The K162 from null-sec could be problematic for staying safe whilst sitting in an obvious position shooting a tower, but the K162 from class 2 w-space looks more like an opportunity than a threat. I stick with w-space and poke through to C2a, where opportunity greets me with open arms. At least, it does according to d-scan, which shows me seven Retriever mining barges, as well as a couple of towers. But all seven can't be floating inactive, right?

The J-number of this class 2 system looks awfully familiar too, and so it should. I was only here yesterday. I still have the bookmarks I made, and although the connections will have died by now I know exactly where the towers are, as well as the ore sites. Sadly, pointing d-scan at the sites sees no mining barges, in much the same way that pointing it towards one of the towers finds them all. Even so, I warp in that direction, as I don't remember these ships being parked yesterday, and see that all of the ships are piloted. Piloted and stationary.

Actually, one of the mining barges starts moving. It's only to a hangar, where the ship is swapped for an Orca industrial command ship, which seems to be some beautiful misdirection. As I wonder what the Orca will do my overview shows changes in ship velocities. Five of the six Retrievers accelerate and enter warp, all heading in the same direction, mere moments after my arrival. If I think that's a beautiful sight, I may not be prepared for what comes next. Warping to the rock field behind the Retrievers sees all five huddled around the same arkonor rock, promptly joined by the sixth. I think I'm tearing up.

Now I face a dilemma I've not had for months, maybe years. Do I pounce now and almost certainly get one ship kill, and maybe the pod, or do I head home to swap ships and try to get them all? Home is relatively close, just two systems away, but the wormhole to leave this system is in range of the miners. With six pairs of eyes potentially monitoring d-scan my ship may well be spotted as it decloaks to jump, which would end the ambush before it begins. And in the time I am out of the system I lose all intelligence on the operation.

What the hell. Opportunities like this come up so rarely that I would rather miss all six then bag merely one. I bookmark the arkonor rock, turn my Loki strategic cruiser around, and warp home, best speed. I jump to C3a as smoothly as I can, then forget my standard procedure and warp point-to-point. Getting home has me dusting off the Onyx heavy interdictor in our hangar, and I pause briefly to modify its fit. I strip some power cores from the low slots, not entirely sure what they're doing there, and slap on some ballistic control systems. The cloak comes out of a high slot, as does a second warp disruption field generator, in favour of two more launchers. I load up on missiles, and warp back towards C2a.

I enter and cross C3a as quickly as I can, and jump to C2a, holding on the wormhole just to get my bearings. Where are the miners? D-scan puts them in the same rock field, which means that they are most likely still around the same rock. Without further thought I thrust my Onyx in to warp, aiming to drop on top of that rock. Now comes the further thought. I have a niggling sensation that this must be a trap, that I was spotted first entering the system by a scout, but I think that's just paranoia brought on by so rarely seeing a mining operation in w-space these days.

All is still not quite certain yet. My Onyx will be plainly visible on d-scan for the entire time I am in warp, so it is possible the miners will see me and bug out in time. So it is a pleasant sight to drop out of warp with only two of the Retrievers entering warp, the other four milling around and perhaps asking what is an Onyx? I show them, inflating the heavy interdictor's warp bubble as I land, stopping the four remaining Retrievers in their tracks.

A bit of caution is needed. The two escapees may well return in combat ships, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Right now, my missiles are needed. I lock on to all four Retrievers and start shooting fish in a barrel. Pew pew! One Retriever explodes, ejecting a poor, still-trapped pod in to space. I'll ignore the pod for now, and crack open the other ships. Pew pew! A second Retriever explodes, it's really not taking much time in my Onyx. I'm glad I took a moment to change its fitting for more firepower.

Pew pew! The third Retriever puts up just as little resistance as the first two, and now I see that one of the capsuleers is getting a little cheeky. He's trying to take his pod to the edge of the warp bubble, hoping to escape. We can't have that. He's not too far away at the moment, so it's a simple matter to lock on, web him to a crawl, and shoot the crap out of his pod to get me my first corpse of the day. And as I've started shooting pods I may as well continue.

Pop! Pop! The other two pods are cracked open, exposing two more capsuleers to the harsh vacuum of space. Now for the final Retriever, and after that maybe the, uh, Tornado? It seems I have company, the battlecruiser perhaps trying to prevent me killing the last of the trapped miners. Should I be worried? I align my Onyx to the wormhole just in case, even though the Tornado has my warp drives disrupted, but now some sense kicks in. No, I shouldn't be worried. I'm in a tank of a spaceship, and although I don't have significant firepower I am far from defenceless. The Tornado may have a lot of bang for its size, but not relative to my shields, and I think all I'm seeing here is another target.

The Tornado either has second thoughts, seeing his mighty mighty weapons merely scratching my shields, or decides that there is little point in trying to save a Retriever that's already a wreck. By the time I've cracked open the fourth pod, deactivated the bubble, and loaded the infi-point script for further reach, the battlecruiser has warped clear. That's a shame. But it does let me prance around happily in my lovely Onyx collecting corpses and shooting wrecks. I care not for the mining modules and ore inside, just the dead bodies.

Four wrecked Retrievers and four capsuleer corpses. Oh yeah, the decision to get the Onyx paid off this time. Totting up the kills puts the cost to the miners at a little under half-a-billion ISK, which is much more than my little Loki could have done to this operation. And I did it all myself. It's been so long since I've wreaked such mayhem that I feel young again. Look at me, I'm tingling!

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Tags: eve online, loki, mmorpg, onyx, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, retriever, scanning, tornado, w-space

Poking some w-space systems

I have time for a quick poke around our w-space constellation, see if I can get in to trouble. I'm helped on my way too, as our home system has been scanned a couple of hours previously, although it looks like whoever did that only did so for reference. Our sites are resolved and bookmarked, as is the static wormhole, but no further. That works for me and, seeing that there are no new signatures, I warp to the wormhole and jump through.

The neighbouring class 3 system looks clear from the K162, although there is just the one planet in range of my directional scanner. Launching probes and blanketing the system sees seven anomalies, eight signatures, and one ship. Notes from a year ago, almost to the day, give me the location of a tower, but not where my combat probes indicate where the ship is. I would rather find the ship than the tower, so warp towards the ship's shadow under my probes.

I find the ship and the tower together. The Bestower hauler looks good on d-scan but not on my overview, where it goes from being potentially piloted to definitely empty, leaving me to scan. Data, data, gas, gas, wormhole, wormhole—I'm in Noah's system—and a last pocket of gas. The static exit to low-sec empire space is joined by, bah, a K162 from low-sec. I suppose I'm going to low-sec.

Through C3a's static wormhole first, I appear in a system in The Forge, not close to Jita, and relatively stuffed with pilots. I see why too, as the system bridges high-sec, and is a couple of hops to null-sec space, so I imagine the pilots are piratical types stalking the stargates. I can ignore them easily enough, and launch probes to scan the four extra signatures. Three gas clouds waste my time in getting to the other wormhole, a K162 from class 3 w-space. But I find it, and I want to explore beyond it.

Jumping to C3b sees a Purifier and tower on d-scan, and a black hole lurks obviously beneath my ship. Good spot, though, Penny! I nearly always miss noticing the system phenomena. I've thought about adding this information to my notes, but I'd probably overlook that too. Still, my notes from sixteen months ago look relevant still, with the tower in the same place, but there aren't actually many moons for any occupying corporation to choose to anchor a tower to.

Warping to the tower sees the stealth bomber empty, but that may not be so bad. The system is tiny, leaving me nowhere to hide, so having no one to hide from is almost convenient. Scanning the eight anomalies and four signatures for K162s finds one, along with two data sites. This time it doesn't also connect to empire space, and I jump through the wormhole to class 2 w-space. All I see in C2a is a tower lacking ships, and although warping away to launch probes bumps in to a second tower, there are still no ships.

Scanning C2a for its second static wormhole finds it, as well as three more wormholes amongst the five signatures. The static connection leads to high-sec, as does the first K162, and the second. One has the grey colours of Caldari space seeping through, the other the bronze of Amarr space. And, thankfully, the third wormhole leads to more w-space, being a nifty outbound connection to a class 1 system. Maybe someone's actually awake in there.

Ooh, a tower with a Ferox battlecruiser and Badger hauler are on d-scan in C1a. A gassing Ferox or gooing Badger would both be good, and the mere three anomalies and three signatures suggest the locals are active. But are they active now? Nope, both ships are floating empty inside the tower's force field, damn them. Okay, I may as well scan the other two signatures. Gas and the static exit to low-sec gives me another empire system to possibly scan, but this session is now in danger of turning in to an extended poke through the constellation. As no one is coming out to play, I'm taking my toys and going home.

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Tags: badger, bestower, eve online, ferox, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, purifier, scanning, w-space

Spotting the signs of hauling

Tonight I shall focus, and not be as careless as I was yesterday. That's the plan anyway, and my plans always go so well. At least they generally start well, and my focus in the home system is exemplary, the sole signature of our static wormhole not giving my mind an option to wander about what I'd like to snack on. Maybe some Angel Delight. Butterscotch, naturally. Right, focus. In to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system with me.

My directional scanner is clear from our K162 but, blimey, so many anomalies litter C3a. My notes from fifteen months ago suggest a couple of towers are around, but I dunno, not with so many sites left dormant. My notes are half-right, I suppose, as one tower remains, with bloody idle owners. I'll be activating these thirty-four wasted anomalies soon, and it will be soon with only five signatures to resolve.

Gas, wormhole, data, gas. That wormhole will be the static exit to low-sec, and my best current option for more exploration, so out I go, appearing in a system in the Sinq-Laison region. A couple of pilots share the system with me, one from a wormhole corporation, and there are scanning probes visible on d-scan. I take a look at the three extra signatures too, resolving two more wormholes. The K162 from class 2 w-space could be good for finding activity, and the X702 outbound connection to class 3 w-space may help me surprise someone. I'll try C2a first.

D-scan shows me a tower and some ships, mostly industrial ships too. Notes from three months ago give me a location for the tower, but the base isn't on Dantooine any more. I find the tower moved a few moons across. Or, at least, I think I do, until I realise I've warped to entirely the wrong planet. I could blame a lack of focus for my wayward warping, but I did actually locate the tower. And I see that an Iteron hauler, Venture mining frigate, and Buzzard covert operations boat are all piloted. Piloted, but inactive.

With no movement at the tower I explore the system and launch probes quickly. What a messy, messy system. Sixteen anomalies and twenty-eight signatures, now reminding me that I didn't activate the mess in C3a. Shall I scan or not? Not, I think, as the Buzzard moves and its pilot swaps to a Fleet Issue Hurricane battlecruiser, warping out of the tower to the low-sec wormhole as a Viator transport warps in to the tower from the same direction.

The wormhole tag-team seems to do nothing. The Viator comes to a floating halt, and the Hurricane loiters on the exit, as far as d-scan tells me. So I won't scan, but instead see what the battlecruiser is up to and then check out C3b from low-sec. I warp to the wormhole to see I've missed the Hurricane's departure and, pausing in C2a only to activate all of the anomalies before I leave, he's gone from the other side of the wormhole too. The pilot remains in the low-sec system, though, but I can ignore that. I warp to the X702 and jump through.

D-scan is clear and, hullo, my notes say the system is unoccupied and holds an exit to null-sec. How lovely! I probably shouldn't get excited about a chance to do some tedious ratting, but it's still an opportunity, I suppose. Now, if only that wormhole is the only one in the system. Which, of course, it isn't. The first wormhole from the eight anomalies and seven signatures is not a bad find, being a dying, half-mass K162 from high-sec, and easy to disregard. The second is weak enough to be and is the static exit to null-sec. But from there I get a rather enticing K162 from class 2 w-space, and also a half-mass K162 from class 4 w-space. W-space calls me.

The mass-stressed C4 K162 tempts me. That the wormhole has had plenty of mass passed through it suggests activity, and although it could have been from hours ago there is a possibility that the hauling is current. Whether I'll find it is another matter. I jump through to see two towers on d-scan and a complete lack of ships, which isn't a positive start. This may be a bridging system, though. There are anomalies in the system but only one other signature, which suggests the locals are industrialists and harvest their resources efficiently. And as I am pondering all this, the wormhole I'm sitting on crackles.

Please be a hauler, please be a hauler, please be a hauler... Ah, it is. An Iteron decloaks and aligns away from the wormhole, prompting me to reveal my Loki strategic cruiser and get my offensive systems hot. The sluggish industrial ship can't enter warp quite quickly enough, as I get a positive target lock and start shooting, disrupting the hauler's drives. I surge forwards, hoping to give the Iteron a nudge away from the wormhole, but its pilot realises there is little point in trying to escape. If he jumps back he'll be polarised, probably caught anyway, and end up in his pod outside of his home system. Instead, he ejects.

I'm not quick enough to prevent the pod from warping clear, which is hardly a failing, and my guns finish off the Iteron as I wave my targeting systems in the pod's direction. Once the explosion dies down I loot and shoot the wreck, too far this time to consider collecting the surviving minerals, and I pause for a quick chat with the local pilot before heading back the way I came. I got my lucky kill, sticking around will only likely result in making a stupid decision.

C4a holds a second K162, and the class 2 w-space system is familiar if only because of the tower with the Rickrolling defences. It's off-line now, unsurprisingly for having such taunting defence names, and replaced by a more sensible tower. There's no one home, though, and rather than scan further I head back to C4a and, well, not out to null-sec just yet. An Orca industrial command ship, Tempest battleship, and Iteron hauler are all on d-scan now. It's the C4b occupants collapsing their wormhole, which I stick around to watch, for some unknown reason.

Now it's out to null-sec, where I find myself alone in a system in The Spire. Time to rat! I warp to a rock field, pop a rat, and hop to the next system. Pop a rat, hop through a stargate. Pop and hop, pop and hop. Ah, hello other pilots. They're not on the stargate but they are in the system, which is enough to convince me I've done enough ratting for one night, and I hoppity-hop back the way I came. Still, it should recover some of my lost security status. Along with the exploring and destruction of an industrial ship, it's been a good evening.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, hurricane, iteron, loki, mmorpg, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tempest, venture, viator, w-space

Hitting it big with a Heron

Pilots or rats, either works for me. No extra signatures in the home system pushes me through our static wormhole to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where I see ships. Ships on my directional scanner, but ships all the same. A Nemesis stealth bomber is neither here nor there, but a Maelstrom battleship and four Drake battlecruisers must be up to something. Then again, there aren't any wrecks, so maybe not. Let me find the tower.

I locate the tower and warp to it as a Mammoth hauler appears on d-scan, which looks good to me. But dropping out of warp at the tower has me confused. The only ship piloted is the Nemesis, with not even the newly arrived hauler having a capsuleer aboard. A closer look at the sole piloted ship has it sitting on top of a hangar with the Mammoth nearby, so it seems that the ship has simply been ejected. Seeing as the tower is owned by a six-capsuleer corporation, I imagine the pilot of the Nemesis is trying to show some strength. Or maybe indulging in some light treason.

No more ships are ejected, or warped out of the tower suspiciously, so I explore the system and launch probes. And what the bloody hell? Opening the system map sees a corporate bookmark to the static exit to low-sec. The bookmark isn't in our folder, which must make it belong to our splinter group in class 5 w-space. Sure enough, their constellation links to ours, or ours to theirs, by the way of an N770 outbound link from C3a. That would be more interesting if more pilots were on-line, or I could squeeze a dreadnought through the connecting wormholes. For the moment, I'll treat it as another wormhole.

So our C5 colleagues have been this way and scanned. That was a few hours ago, has anything changed since then? Scanning the handful of signatures suggests so, as I find two more wormholes amongst a couple of pockets of gas. The K162 from high-sec could be convenient, and I let the C5 people know about it, and the C2 K162 gives me more w-space to explore. Jumping to C2a has nothing visible on d-scan, but with only two anomalies and two signatures I suspect there is occupation to find.

Combat probes reveal three ships as well as the signatures, directing me towards a tower. The Iteron hauler is empty, the Drake battlecruiser disappears before I reach the tower, and the Heron is, well, the Heron is stuck in one of its own bubbles outside of the tower. And here's me in warp range of it. I get my Loki closer to the bubbled frigate, and approach slowly to bring my warp scrambler in to range. Nervous about the tower's defences, I decloak, pop the Heron without much fuss, and re-activate my cloak.

A second later I'm decloaking again, having shaken any possible attempt by the tower's defences to lock on to my strategic cruiser, and aim for the pod. But the pilot is awake, getting his pod just out of the bubble and warping to a safe spot above the tower, before returning to the safety of the force field and back in to another Heron. Yeah, it's not much of a kill. I don't even care to loot the wreck, not expecting to find much in it, and don't want to worry about the defences again to try shooting it. That is, not until the pilot boards a Noctis.

I can't pop a Noctis before the tower gets a lock on my ship, and I don't need any more embarrassing strategic cruiser losses to tower defences, but watching the salvager crawl slowly this way is too tempting. I take a careful look at the tower defences and realise, huh, there are no warp disruption batteries. Just a handful of small guns and some ECM arrays. Well then, that's nothing. The worst that happens is I warp clear when jammed. Damn, I should have podded the pilot when I got the chance. Maybe I can do it now.

Of course, I'm not that smart sometimes. Not as smart, in fact, as a pilot that gets his Heron stuck in his own corporation's bubble around his own corporation's tower. That's humbling. I wait for the Noctis to get closer, only to watch it come out of the force field and stop. And then the salvager activates its mighty extended tractor beams. Oh, right, Noctes have them. The Heron wreck gets pulled to and is looted and salvaged by the Noctis, which then turns to crawl back in to its force field. At least that's over and I won't kick myself again.

I warp back to a perch above the tower just to get a decent view, and indeed get a good look at the Drake returning, right in to the same bubble that caught the Heron. If I were closer I may put up a fight, but I don't think my autocannons are effective much past two hundred kilometres. The Drake bumbles backwards out of the bubble, and bounces off a safe spot in to the tower. Good job, Penny.

There's one activity I'm good at, and that's scanning. That single other signature in the system is going to get resolved so hard it won't know it's the second static wormhole. Yeah, it's an exit to high-sec, and apparently the route that the locals are using both to fling them in to the bubble around their tower, and to take ships out of w-space. I don't know why. I don't care why. When they return, perhaps polarised, they are in pods and almost impossible to catch.

And the pilots even eventually learn how bubbles work, and start warping directly to a safe spot around the tower instead of getting snared, so my plan to sit in the bubble and catch the next pod fails too. Still, never mind. I got that awesome Heron kill, and no loot to show for it, which is something.

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Tags: drake, eve online, heron, iteron, loki, maelstrom, mammoth, mmorpg, nemesis, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Bringing back the ore

I'm about to turn tail and head home from a disappointing evening when a Retriever warps in to the local tower. Not local to me, but local to the system. I'm in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, with an exit to null-sec that I would have used were it not dying, and a piloted Helios covert operations boat that I would have podded had I not been looking in the wrong direction. But maybe I can put those disappointments behind me if the mining barge decides to start chomping on rocks.

Ah, the Retriever is stowed in favour of a Cheetah cov-ops, which warps out of the tower and disappears. I would say so long and thanks for all the fish, but a second Retriever appears to replace the first. Do they have particularly comfy bunks, encouraging capsuleers to sleep in them, or am I missing something? I dunno, but right now I am definitely seeing this Retriever get swapped for a much more catchable ship. The Iteron hauler doesn't even sit still but starts aligning for warp! The sad news is that he's not aligning towards a customs office but a K162 that connects from high-sec empire space.

I follow the Iteron anyway, stopping short of the wormhole to hold my cloak. He's gone already, but I have a few minutes spare to wait. Maybe the connection is really convenient and will bring the Iteron back whilst still slightly polarised. And, this is exciting, the wormhole even crackles before long, and even though I don't know if it's the Iteron I decloak and get my offensive systems hot. It's not like sitting on a high-sec wormhole puts me in a dangerous position. Not like that hauler. Oh, Iteron V, it is you! It is you!

My sensor boosted-strategic cruiser gets a positive lock on the tubular hauler and my warp scrambler holds him close. But not too close, Chewy. On the off chance that the pilot isn't quite polarised enough from his quick journey, I burn my micro warp drive and give the Iteron a nice nudge away from the wormhole as my autocannons rip through the shields and start taking chunks out of its armour. That seems to do the trick, as the Iteron on the high-sec wormhole explodes.

The pod gets away, just about, leaving me with a wreck to loot and, well, maybe I won't shoot it. There are a lot of minerals surviving the destruction of the ship, almost a full Iteron V's worth. I think it's worth trying to claim that, despite the logistic trickiness involved, as the locals may not be tempted back out of their tower to give it a go.

I head home, dump my Loki in the hangar like a discarded toy, and board a Bustard transport ship. It has the cargo capacity to carry all the ore, decent shields to withstand a little abuse, and extra warp core strength to evade unwanted attention. And back I go to C3a with all due haste, not wanting to give the locals time to get any ideas.

In C3a I warp directly to the wreck, bookmarked for convenience so that I wouldn't have to crawl from the wormhole. I open the wreck, grab all of the minerals in one go, and align away to enter warp, as quickly as a Bustard can. That's not quick, by the way, and it gives a Manticore stealth bomber time to decloak in an almost-threatening manner, but at fifty kilometres distant it's nothing serious. The Hound stealth bomber that appears alongside the Manticore is less of a threat, as I only see him as my Bustard enters warp.

The two stealth bombers may not have been a direct threat at the Iteron's wreck, but I am still being cautious. My rapid transit home and back again has no doubt left me polarised, although I haven't checked the logs to show it, and I don't want to be a sitting duck on the wormhole, so I instead pick a distant planet to warp to. Mind you, I would have done that anyway, as it would deny information as to where I came from. The stealth bombers could catch me up, but not if they think there is an unknown wormhole on the edge of their system.

My ruse seems to work. I bounce off a second planet, checking my logs during warp to determine that my polarisation has worn off, and return to the wormhole to see the Helios and Cheetah back on my directional scanner. Presumably they are the stealth bomber pilots now either considering scanning or given up on recovering their minerals. That suits me, and I jump through the K162 to a clear wormhole, letting me warp back to our tower safely. A hauler kill on a high-sec wormhole and bagging thirty million ISK in minerals for my industrial colleagues has made this a good evening after all.

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Tags: bustard, cheetah, eve online, helios, hound, iteron, loki, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, retriever, w-space