Analysing hacking

Look at all of these pilots! Recruitment must be going well, thanks to George. And some rocks have floated in to the system to join the party. 'Yeah, sitting here staring at them', says my glorious leader. Shouldn't you be shooting them, or whatever it is that's done with rocks? But Fin's mostly startled that the rocks have returned, as she's floating cloaked in her Loki strategic cruiser and not in an exhumer wondering which button fires the mining lasers.

Aii is rather more unfazed and knows just what to do. Some Sleepers turn up to look menacing, but Aii simply boards his own strategic cruiser and pops them like gnats. Fin and I watch, although I've been active and checked the system for connections. It's just our static wormhole for now, and I keep it that way whilst Aii crushes the Sleepers. Once done, I let him know I'm heading to our neighbouring class 3 system, but that I'll shout if it looks like something mean will come the other way to stop his mining. I'm sure his Hulk will be fine.

Four salvage drones aren't going to be much of a threat, although even they can probably scan without too much effort these days. The lack of ships and wrecks suggests these fellows have been abandoned, and exploring C3a finds occupation but no pilots on the edge of the system. All looks quiet, so I scan. The six anomalies and six signatures hold two wormholes, one skinny and one chubby, which probably means a static exit to high-sec and a K162 from elsewhere. Fin and I head in different directions to find out.

Well, it's technically an exit to high-sec, I suppose, but I still don't appreciate being dumped in Aridia. Fin's choice of direction to a K162 from null-sec, even one at the end of its life, seems better. But there are plenty of anomalies and signatures in this high-sec system, and although sifting through them identifies only combat, data, and relic sites, no wormholes, I realise I've not had a go at analysing the containers in such sites yet. Maybe I should.

I've already stowed a data and relic analyser each in my Loki's hold for just such circumstances. It takes a small diversion to a station to change my ship's fitting, swapping out the scrambler for an analyser, and I'm back in space warping to a relic site with Fin behind me. We're in high-sec too, so there won't be any ganking whilst I try to determine what I'm supposed to be doing. 'Unless it's Concord', says Fin. 'I hear they can do a number on your ship.' Yeah, don't remind me. My first action on entering this system was to check my safety switch. It's yellow.

Okay, first site, first can. Click. Click. Clickity click. Done. Grab some of the jetsam, end up with crap. That... wasn't much fun. Next can, click a bit more, grab a bit more crap. Third can, and I'm just clicking on every node as fast as I can. No method, no reason. I honestly don't know what I'm doing, but it seems to be working.

Granted, I'm in a strategic cruiser with a locus analyser subsystem, fitted with a Tech II analyser module, have both appropriate skills trained to level V, and I'm hacking cans in a high-sec site. I don't expect it to be difficult. But I also don't see how this is any kind of improvement on activating the module and looting a can. This is busywork, making me feel active without actually being so. A bit of off-line reading later reveals potential stumbling blocks and 'strategies', so maybe I need to find a proper site in null-sec. W-space won't do, not solo, as we still have Sleepers protecting the cans.

So the relic site is a bit of a disappointment. I dock, swap analysers, and try one of the data sites instead. Cracking open the cans again comes down to clicking everything everywhere as fast as possible and have Fin and I try to catch what gets ejected. But I am pleased that I don't try to shoot the Anathema who has also found the site, almost as much as bagging some decryptors, which are actually worth something.

Buoyed by our success, however limited, I swap modules again to see if the second relic site will give us any good loot. Maybe if we cracked open the Probe, but again I remember I'm in high-sec and satisfy myself with rapid mouse-clicking. Not rapid enough, as the Probe is opening the third of four cans, leaving us with just the one to loot. It's not really worth it, either. I'll have to find some null-sec sites to try again. But not tonight. My new-found lack of appreciation for analysing has us heading home with a measly few million ISK in loot for our efforts.

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

Bypassing deadly space only works for so long

Do we have anything at home today? A few anomalies, just the static wormhole as a connection to another system. It's all looking a bit bleak. Maybe it's better next door, in our neighbouring system, so I resolve the wormhole and jump through to find out. And actually it looks a bit worse, with only an off-line tower cluttering up my directional scanner in the class 3 w-space system. Launching probes and blanketing the system reveals no ships on the one planet out of range, and heading that way sees no new tower, so it's just me and more space.

It's no surprise to see that my notes have the static exit in C3a to leading to null-sec. That may not be such a bad prospect today, given my recent losses in security standing, as I could pop a rat or two to mitigate those losses a tiny bit. At least, once I resolve the wormhole. Gas, gas, gas—boring—gas, relics, gas, gas—still boring—wormhole, gas gas. Yep, definitely boring. It seems I'm going to null-sec.

I exit w-space to appear in a system in Etherium Reach, where a lack of pilots and some extra signatures gives me some hope for activity. Mostly mine, as I launch probes to scan the signatures and warp to a rock field to rat. Two frigate escorts are popped quickly enough, letting me pick on the bigger of the two rat battleships, as my probes resolve, well, wormholes. How nice. The first is an N432 outbound connection to class 5 w-space that would be more enticing if it weren't at the end of its life. The second is a second EOL N432, which makes me check that I haven't somehow warped in a circle, and I haven't. A third wormhole is an X702 connection to class 3 w-space, but also EOL, so it is with some relief that the final wormhole is a stable N432.

Back to w-space, back to a clear d-scan result. Still, it's a big system, 100 AU across, and only one planet sits in range of the K162, so there is much more to look at. It may just be empty space, but I can look at it. And my combat scanning probes show me one anomaly, eight signatures and no ships, and exploring finds no occupation. Yep, it's empty space, and I'm only now trying to work out how I can look at nothing. I didn't think this through.

Scanning the signatures picks up two wormholes immediately, a C3 K162 and the static connection to more class 5 w-space, followed by gas, gas, gas, and a K162 from deadly class 6 w-space. Hey, that C3 wormhole's looking pretty good, let's see what it's like on the other side. Well, there's occupation, at least, but still no ships, even after I warp away to launch probes and bump in to a second tower. Not literally, thankfully, and with no one watching I launch probes anyway.

One of the five signatures looks like it could be a K162, given its chubby size, and I even get a little excited when my probes identify it as a wormhole. Then I remember that w-space systems have static wormholes, I entered this system through a random connection, and I've probably just resolved the exit to low-sec. And that is what I've done, as there are no other connections in to or out of the system. Well, I'll poke out anyway, appearing in a system in Domain where a bunch of stinking criminals are hiding from Concord. I may as well scan. What's the worst that could happen?

Three extra signatures are in this low-sec system, and one extra scout, no doubt both of us finding the combat site, wormhole, and data site. I'm ignoring two of them, particularly as I've resolved an R943 connection to class 2 w-space, and I jump straight through the wormhole to see a tower and Iteron hauler on d-scan. Ooh, I'd like to find that. My notes from over three years ago aren't helping, stupid notes, but it's straightforward to pick the right planet, find the right moon, and warp to the tower. And the hauler is empty. That's a shame.

Exploring C2a finds two more towers, one with a piloted but inactive Heron frigate inside its force field, leaving me two anomalies and seven signatures to sift through. Three wormholes crop up, the static exit to high-sec being EOL, but the two outbound connections to class 3 and class 6 w-space being nice and healthy. The C3 system will be a dead end and probably worth exploring first, which proves true when I enter it to find an occupied but inactive system with an exit to null-sec that I don't care to find.

Back to C2a and in to C6a. I don't see what the fuss is about class 6 w-space, so I'm not sure why I didn't check the K162 back in C3a. I'm just a scaredy cat, really. But C6b has three towers and a distinct lack of ships, and my notes point to a static connection to class 4 w-space, and that will just lead to more w-space itself. I think I've scanned enough empty systems this evening for me not to go deeper. Back to C2a, out to low-sec, in to C3c, C5c, and returning to null-sec, where I pause to pop another rat. Then it's in to w-space again and back home, after forgetting where C6a linked to, even though I drew myself a map. Oh well, I bet no one was there anyway.

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

Tripping over transports

The system's completely bare! I don't know what's happened, maybe a glitch in the matrix, but there's almost nothing to see in our little corner of w-space. At least the static wormhole remains, which hopefully will lead to somewhere more populated. Jumping to the neighbouring class 3 system sees occupation, with three towers and an Anathema covert operations boat on my directional scanner, but despite the eleven anomalies there is still only one signature. This is most peculiar.

Oh hi, easy-to-find towers. The system has only three moons orbiting its eight planets, which makes it convenient to locate the three towers. It's also easy to warp to the tower holding the Anathema, so I can see pretty quickly that it is piloted. But as the system is small and d-scan is not showing me any probes I feel safe to assume that the capsuleer is not active. The local pilot's idling is probably for the best, with nowhere to hide from him, so I launch probes without worrying about being seen.

Scanning doesn't get much simpler than resolving a single signature, and I am soon leaving w-space for low-sec empire space and looking for better opportunities. The low-sec system is in Domain and holds one extra signature, and although my luck is in and I drop out of warp next to a K162 from more class 3 w-space I don't return to w-space just yet. I realise that my clone could use some updating, and being in a one-system low-sec island makes reaching medical facilities in high-sec pretty easy.

Clone updated, I return to the wormhole I found in low-sec, and this time jump through. D-scan shows me towers and no ships, which is about normal for class 3 w-space. I check my notes and see that my last visit was three years ago, so I'm getting no help there in locating the towers. Launching probes and blanketing the system sees ten anomalies, sixteen signatures, and a lack of ships, but that's a lack of visible ships, highlighted by a Helios cov-ops jumping past me to low-sec.

I let the Helios go, as I'm in the generous mood of not wanting to waste my time chasing it. But I take a couple of minutes to explore C3b, tagging the towers, determining that the pilot isn't local. He is a w-space denizen, though, judging by his corporation information, and so maybe there are more wormholes to find. I start looking for them, seeing data, gas, and something else I don't quite get to identify as the wormhole's crackling gets my attention away from the probes.

A Prowler transport enters w-space through the wormhole I'm sitting on. Well, it would be rude not to say hello, but before I can give him a big hug the ship has disappeared. Not cloaked, I think, but jumped back to low-sec. That takes me a little too long to work out, so I stay and continue scanning instead of making a feeble attempt at chasing it. That may have been the right choice too, as the wormhole crackles a second time, this time bringing a Bustard transport in to C3b.

Again, I'm slow to react to the appearance of a ship, but luckily Bustards are slower still than that. I decloak, get a positive lock, and start shooting the transport. Knowing it can jump back to low-sec I burn towards my target in a bid to bump it away from the wormhole, but it's already gone. Ah, what the hell, I'm going for my second security status hit in two days.

I exit to low-sec and, sure enough, the polarised Bustard is trying as hard as it can to align and accelerate away from danger. That's not going to work, I'm afraid. I regain my positive lock, disrupt his warp engines, and continue shooting. This may take a little while, though, as deep space transports can take a fair bit of abuse, what with them normally being flown by bored pilots who've stopped caring about niceties such as steering. I tag the pilot's corporation and check the other pilots in the system. There's one match, and I recognise him as being the pilot of the Prowler. I think I'm safe for the moment.

It's a bit odd that the blockade running Prowler didn't simply cloak and warp away from me on the wormhole, and only a little less odd that the Bustard continued my way after presumably being told of my presence. I suppose he thought his extra warp core strength would let him evade me. Nope, not this time. And, I suppose, not any other time. At least, not with this particular Bustard. I chew through the shields, armour, and rake through the hull to destroy his expensive hauler, letting his pod warp free from the wreckage.

I reload my guns and loot the wreck, feeling a little sad that none of the two hundred thousand units of hydrogen isotopes survived the blast. I probably wouldn't have collected them anyway. Now's it back to scanning C3b, and the signature I had started to focus on turns out to be a wormhole, a K162 from class 4 w-space. Does it lead to the home of the transports? Maybe, but maybe not, as a dozen more signatures give two more wormholes. One is dead-on-arrival, but the other is K162 from class 5 w-space, and possibly new.

An Anathema cov-ops appears on d-scan as I arrive at the C5 K162, and joins me on the wormhole within moments. He clearly has come from this way, as the Anathema jumps as I am still approaching. But, again, I let the agile ship pass without trouble. Maybe he'll bring his own hauler out this way, given that I've not tagged his corporation, so isn't a colleague of the transports. I give him a moment before following to C5a, a moment in which a second Anathema blips on d-scan, keeping me cloaked a minute longer.

The second cov-ops jumps to C5a, another minute later followed by my Loki strategic cruiser, where I see one tower and plenty of ships on d-scan. I locate the tower to see what's piloted, which brings a second tower but no more ships in to d-scan's range, and see eight capsuleers in a variety of ships. But a bunch of piloted ships become much less interesting when they are all idling in a force field. I loiter for the few minutes I have spare, and although at one point a hauler turns to point towards a customs office he moves no further. Nothing's happening, making it time to go home.

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

Halting a hurtling Helios

The miners have left this w-space system in their pods, and we've tidied up their wrecks for them. We drag the ore and recovered modules through the wormhole to our tower, at which point Aii returns to sucking on some home-system gas and I take my Loki strategic cruiser back to the neighbouring class 3 system. Reconnoitring the first of the two towers, having already bounced off the second earlier, confirms that the miners weren't local, but I'd already guessed that. Either they came through the opened static connection to high-sec, or a K162 from high-sec is waiting to be found. I'll scan and see.

My probes show me fifteen anomalies and four signatures. One is our K162, another the mining site where we caught the two ships, the third is the static wormhole and obvious from its signature strength, and the fourth is, well, I suppose I'll have to resolve it to find out. But what's this? A fifth signature crops up on a subsequent scan. I think I'll aim for that one first, as it looks inherently more interesting. And, sure enough, the signature resolves to be a wormhole.

I hide my probes out of the system as I warp to the wormhole, a newly opened connection coming in from low-sec, and although I don't get there in time to see any jump a Helios appears within a few seconds. The covert operations boat moves and cloaks, leaving me wondering if I got my probes clear in time or if my presence has been implied. I can't tell. Instead, on the assumption that the scout will want to launch probes away from the wormhole, I warp across to the planet he looked to be pointing towards, to see if I can catch him decloaked.

He's not out here. A blanket scan from my probes sees nothing either, which is more than my directional scanner shows me from the edge of the system. I think my best bet is to loiter on the K162 from low-sec for now. Good call, Penny. I get back to the wormhole in time to see the Helios decloak about eighty kilometres away and approach the way back to low-sec. It seems like a curious distance for the cov-ops to reveal himself, at least until I see just how fast the ship's moving.

The Helios is pegging it back to the wormhole, clearly fit with a micro warp drive. I am moving to intercept, my Loki remaining cloaked, but he'll be in range in moments. I decloak, get my sensor booster active, and try to get a positive lock. I think I catch him, but I don't really. The Helios is moving so fast that the wormhole panics and seems to let him jump from twenty kilometres away. Still, a ship that relies on a micro warp drive can be efficiently restrained by a warp scrambler, much like the one I have fitted. The tricky bit will be getting hold of him first.

I follow the Helios to low-sec and decloak as soon as I can, once more getting my sensor booster active. My target's there and fleeing already, which isn't much of a surprise. What is surprising is getting a positive lock, and on top of that being in warp scrambler range. Now the Helios is going nowhere. Polarised and crippled, it can only crawl away from my ship, moving only slightly faster than my Loki can manage under normal speeds. Even so, only slightly faster is still faster, and he is almost at the limit of scrambler range.

Luckily, my micro warp drive works just fine, thank you. A single pulse and some manoeuvring gets me comfortably close to the Helios, nicely in the optimal range of my autocannons, and I settle down to crack the cov-ops open. I am aware of being in low-sec and not w-space, but am being cautious. My safety is set to orange, which should keep my ship intact if I do anything stupid, and checking the few other pilots in local sees that the Helios has no colleagues about to come and help. But that doesn't mean he won't try to help himself.

The Helios returns my lock and aggresses me. I don't see any weapons fire, and I don't expect it to make any difference, given the gross difference in hull types, but the cov-ops is employing some electronic warfare in a bid to escape. My targeting systems are being damped, their maximum range drastically reduced. It's a nice try, but as I need to stay close for both my warp scrambler and autocannons, and the strategic cruiser has a decent locking range as standard, the tactic ultimately doesn't work.

I rip through the shields, armour, and structure of the Helios, and watch it explode. Well, pop. Actually, not even that. What's less than a pop? The cov-ops crumples in to a wreck, ejecting the pod inside. I don't try to stop the pilot, not in low-sec, and simply loot the wreck for some more booty. And, apart from reloading my guns, that's it. I don't shoot the wreck, not caring to tidy up if doing so will drop my security status, and just loiter for a couple of minutes on the wormhole to ease myself back down to normal activity levels. It's a minor kill, really, but it's still a kill.

Now back to C3a, reconnecting with the probes I willingly left behind, to save launching them again, and finally identifying that one remaining signature. It's a gas site. But I don't think the system is safe to harvest gas in, not with three ship kills in the past hour, according to my data. 'And two of them were our kills', says Aii. Oh, right. My data is rubbish. I apparently already forgot I caught the Helios in low-sec and not in C3a, as if it hadn't occurred only a few minutes ago. But that's okay, because it's been a good evening. It's time to go home and relax.

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

Shooting a whale in a rock field

How sweet. Aii's left me a bookmark to our static wormhole, as well as sucking up most of the gas pockets in the system. One signature has popped up since his activity, though. What could it be? A second wormhole you say? Well, space, you're drunk, as warping to the resolved signature plonks me in to emptiness. Dead-on-arrival, or an echo? It doesn't really matter, because either way the wormhole's not here. Maybe Aii detected it too. I'll ask him when he returns. For now, I head to our static wormhole, which is actually there, and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

The system number of C3a feels familiar, and maybe it should be, given that this is my sixth visit. The last was ten weeks ago when nothing happened, so I don't think the neat-sounding J-number is triggering any memories. And with a tower lacking ships is all that appears on my directional scanner, and the system holding a static exit to high-sec, probably the same nothing will happen today. Still, you have to check, so I warp out to launch probes, bumping in to a second tower on the edge of the system as I do.

Not just a second tower. There's a Skiff exhumer on d-scan now, and although I initially consider it to be floating unpiloted inside the tower's force field, locating the tower doesn't locate the Skiff. He's in space. He's a target. I warp back towards the no-ship tower to launch probes and hide them, before returning to the edge of the system to start poking space with d-scan to look for the Skiff, when Aii turns up in another of his turns of great timing.

I almost ask Aii about the signature echo in the home system, but realise I no longer care with a miner to hunt. He simply comes to join me in C3a so that we can catch the Skiff together. And the Orca, apparently. An industrial command ship is now on d-scan with the Skiff, which is great news for us, not so much for them. The Orca is a massive target for my combat scanning probes, so I won't need to be anywhere near as accurate with my placement, and we now have two ships for two targets. If only I could actually narrow down their position reliably.

I'm swinging d-scan around almost wildly, increasing its angular range almost as often as I'm decreasing it. But, finally, I get a decent bearing on the two ships, thankfully both still apparently oblivious to us. Gauging the range doesn't get much more convenient for probe positioning, as the miners are almost exactly 4 AU away. And, like I say, I don't need to be too precise when aiming for the Orca. I'm ready, is Aii? 'Ready.' Okay, scanning.

I couldn't really miss, although I gave it a good shot. But had it been just the Skiff I would have been a mite more careful, and I kinda rushed a bit because of the beautiful sight of an Orca in w-space in the wild. We are in warp as I recall my probes, bookmarking the Orca's position as the only position I can bookmark, given the results, and give the Orca to Aii. I know I have a sensor booster fitted, which may be useful in catching the Skiff, and I imagine Aii's missiles will be better against the more massive ship than my guns.

We drop out of warp with the Orca and Skiff still mining away. What a lovely sight. We ruin their relaxing evening by decloaking our pair of strategic cruisers kilometres from their hulls, Aii's Tengu tackling the Orca and my Loki locking on to the Skiff. Aii webs the whale, holding its speed down, and we both take turns giving it shoulder barges to knock it out of whatever kind of alignment it may be aiming for, as our weapons systems spew damage in both directions.

And Aii's missiles really are hurting the Orca. I thought it would take a while to bring it down, but the ship's shields are already gone. I've barely scratched the Skiff, which is a little embarrassing. I switch targets to the Orca, to get some damage on the kill report for posterity at least, and our combined fire rakes through the target's armour with ease. The pilot rues his decision to bring the Orca in to... what? The rock field, the system? W-space? I don't think to ask, but I suspect he's not from w-space. Still, he has the nous to eject early to save his pod.

I don't catch the pod before it flees, neither do we catch ourselves before the Orca explodes. Maybe we could have dragged it home with its 3% remaining hull, but we both really like explosions, and this one is a doozy. That was totally worth it. Maybe the fires were fuelled by the Iteron hauler and second Skiff the Orca was carrying in its hangar. I think the pilot heard that I like shooting industrial ships, yo.

Now for the Skiff. It's a simple matter to take down the exhumer, even if I again miss catching the early-ejecting pod, and the second explosion isn't quite as gratifying as the first. It's almost as if ship size contributes to the explosion size. But seeing the space dust of two warp core stabilisers that used to be fitted to the Skiff more than makes up for the lack of flames.

The Skiff is looted and, as is my habit, I shoot the wreck. That leaves the Orca hull floating nearby, with a whole load of bistot ore stuffed inside. A whole load for a Bustard transport ship even. I re-activate my cloak and lurk near the wreck as Aii heads home to get the transport, as we can always use more ore. Unsurprisingly, the pilots don't return to w-space, presumably day-tripping from high-sec, and Aii not only transfers the ore to the Bustard safely but uses the transport to salvage the wreck of the Orca. The site is clear, leaving no trace of the ambush. What an excellent start to the evening.

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Tags: bustard, eve online, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, skiff, tengu, w-space

Not much of anything

I'm hoping to be lucky tonight. Some poor timing had my ship just crossing paths with a couple of potential targets yesterday, so perhaps I can be more decisive tonight. 'Perhaps', right. With that kind of decisiveness I think I know how the evening's going to pan out. The home system's clear, anyway, so to find any action I have to head through our static wormhole to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

A bubble, some canisters, and an off-line tower is not a great result on my directional scanner. One planet sits out of range of our K162, but there's no current occupation there either. What else can I do in an inactive system but scan? I launch probes, blanket the system, and start picking through the seven anomalies and sixteen signatures.

My first hit is a wormhole, which is handy. But are there more? Yes, a second wormhole pops up almost directly above our K162. If I find any ships there I doubt one will be the Reliant, not with this three-dimensional positioning, so I am probably safe from genetically modified super-humans. A third wormhole marks the last of the interesting signatures, the others being rocks, gas, data sites, so I recall my probes and reconnoitre the connections.

C3a's static exit leads to a low-sec system involved in faction warfare in the Black Rise region, making it remarkably dull. But heading back to C3a and checking the other two wormholes only finds an outbound link to class 1 w-space that would be pretty nifty if it weren't at the end of its life, and a K162 from the other end of the spectrum, with the connection to class 6 w-space also being EOL. It doesn't take a genius to work out a scout passed from C6a to C3a and opened the C1 connection many hours ago. Still, someone had to point it out to me.

What the hell, I'm going to look in C1a. The C6 wormhole persists, so the C1 wormhole probably has enough life left in it for me to poke through. And the view with d-scan looks promising from the K162, with a Mammoth and Iteron hauler, Brutix battlecruiser, Nemesis stealth bomber, and Imicus frigate all visible, along with four towers, although being spat in to the system over seven kilometres from the wormhole gives an indication to the contrary.

Looking for the haulers finds the Iteron at one tower, along with all the other ships but the Mammoth, which is at a second tower. There are precisely zero pilots, though, which somewhat reduces my hopes of catching one of the ships, and enough to send me back through the dying K162 to C3a and ponder my options once more. I suppose I'm going to low-sec to scan. I'll leave the C6 system alone. It's probably just as bustling as the C1, and I don't trust that wormhole to hang around for me.

Four signatures in low-sec look promising. That is, until I resolve them. Data, relics, relics, relics. Yeah, get bent, low-sec. So, what now? Collapse the wormhole, says Fin, which does seem the best course of action, and one we regularly do. But my ship doesn't seem terribly responsive at the moment. I'd feel happier taking it in for maintenance before continuing with our five-year mission. And as it's a Minmatar design, tightening every bolt and gaffer taping every weld could take a while.

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Tags: brutix, eve online, imicus, iteron, mammoth, mmorpg, nemesis, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Missing by miles and minutes

Home is looking bare. Visitors stole our sites, our own industrialists have harvested the resources. That's according to my dwindling bookmarks, though, as my probes show that the Sleepers and resources are already returning. Everything looks normal. All I need now is a hauler floating idle inside a tower in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to watch for a couple of hours.

Jumping to C3a has nothing visible on my directional scanner, and although the presence of fourteen anomalies makes me wonder if the system is unoccupied my notes suggest otherwise. Whilst out of range of anything I launch scanning probes, then warp off to see if either of the two towers listed from three months ago remain. The first does, empty of ships, and the blanket scan has three ships light up my combat probes along with six signatures, all of which are at the also-remaining second tower.

The Iteron hauler and Viator transport are idling on a technicality, being pilotless, but the Heron has a capsuleer inside it doing nothing. I can scan. There aren't many signatures and, as it turns out, the few present are all out of range of the Heron, so I can scan covertly. Not that doing so results in much, just some rocks, gas, and the static exit to low-sec. The Heron refuses to move, forcing me to head through the wormhole to low-sec, appearing in Metropolis. Dullopolis, more like. Have I used that one before? Never mind, I'll scan for more wormholes.

Five extra signatures don't start out promising, with two Rogue Trial Yards, some rocks, and a crappy dying K162 from class 3 w-space. But the last signature is weak, and a wormhole. Could it be the fabled outbound link to class 5 w-space? My probes give me a solid hit on the signature, I warp to it, and drop next to a wormhole of type N432. Back of the net.

Entering C5a doesn't look particularly positive, with a couple of capital ships on d-scan obviously floating unpiloted in either of the two towers in the system, but at least I have more w-space to look for. I launch probes and scan, except that's not me scanning. It's a Cheetah covert operations boat. I get confused sometimes. But where did he come from? Low-sec, behind me? A new wormhole? I doubt he's local, as the cov-ops looks to be at the star, which seems like an awfully careless place to launch probes in a system where you should have a chunk of safe spots available.

I warp to the star to see if I can catch the Cheetah, but he's not here. Not here, but close. I have combat scanning probes launched so set them on a minimum-range scan pattern and call them in to hunt the cov-ops. 99.6% isn't quite good enough to warp to the tiny ship, and wiggling my probes around and trying a couple more times doesn't seem to help. But the Cheetah looks to be at the first planet, so rather than waste more time I warp in that direction and hope I get lucky. Almost. The Cheetah's right next to me, but only on a cosmological scale.

The Cheetah sits a hundred kilometres away, unmoving, uncloaked. I bounce off a planet in a bid to get closer, but utilising a sixth sense the pilot enters warp just as my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser returns to be within ten kilometres of the cov-ops. He warps in the direction of one of the towers too, making him local. Being tagged as orange kinda gave that away, Penny. Pay more attention.

I follow behind the cov-ops, not yet having broken my cloak, only to have the Cheetah warp back to the first planet. I follow again, aiming to drop short to where the Cheetah was the first time. But this time he cloaks, and I have no idea where he is. Not only that, but I also have no idea why I'm even looking for him any more. Still, I find him, when he decloaks less than five kilometres from me, but I don't follow suit. He's aligning to warp, and I don't stand a chance of stopping him.

Okay, sod it. I'm scanning. I have no idea what the Cheetah is doing, particularly as I can't even see probes that may belong to him, so I'm moving on. I ignore gas, rocks, radar sites to get to the static wormhole on the final signature, and jump to class 4 w-space. Class 4 w-space with a Noctis salvager and single Sleeper wreck visible on d-scan from the K162. I think I played with the Cheetah for too long.

There are no anomalies in C4a, not that finding them would find the Noctis, and warping away to launch probes only bumps in to tower with plenty of ships. I don't really mind, as a single wreck won't take the Noctis long to salvage. I've missed him already. Instead, I locate the tower, note the piloted ships, and start watching for further movement. The piloted Badger hauler interests me, as does the Heron scanning frigate sitting over two hundred kilometres above the tower.

The Noctis returns to the tower and swaps tantalisingly to a Bestower, but not for any real purpose. Not much is happening, and I am left wondering if I should aim for the Heron. I'd need scanning probes to lock on to his ship to reach him quickly, as sub-warp speeds would bore me to tears before I even got close. I return to the now-empty inner system, launch probes, and hide them as I warp back to the tower. My only concern now is how long I'll have to ambush the Heron before the tower locks on to me. Or, I suppose, his colleagues in strategic cruisers come to save him.

Wondering whether the Heron is being used specifically as bait, or if it's protected by the tower, are answered as I am interrogating my databanks to calculate the range of the tower's warp disruption batteries. The frigate cloaks. Okay, I think I've determined that my timing is off tonight, and that I'm only going to get more frustrated. Rather than continue forwards I head back, passing through empty systems to get home for the night.

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Tags: badger, bestower, cheetah, eve online, heron, iteron, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, viator, w-space

Almost flying in to a fleet

Where did all the anomalies go? I'm sure we had more than this yesterday. Damned blues, passing through and stealing our loot when we're out. There's not even a wormhole to trace their route backwards, leaving me with just our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to visit. And, of course, there's a tower with no one home in C3a, although it's under different occupation than four months ago. But locating the new tower gives me some early thrills, as I drop out of warp under three kilometres from its force field. Emergency manoeuvres, ensign! Reverse thrust, full impulse power! Or whatever engines we use out of warp! I dunno, push that button or something!

My cloak holds and I back away from the tower's force field smoothly enough. And as the tower belongs to a four-pilot corporation I doubt anyone will coincidentally come on-line just because I've turned up, leaving me four anomalies and seven signatures to scan for wormholes. Gas, wormhole, gas, wormhole, gas wormhole—going in circles is making me dizzy, but they are each discrete signatures. I ignore the static exit to low-sec empire space in favour of the more interesting wormholes, which are K162s from class 5 and class 2 w-space, the latter stressed to below half mass.

A mass-stressed wormhole is indicative of activity, and my first choice of direction to explore. Sadly, all that my directional scanner cares to show me in C2a are three towers and a pair of drones copulating in the depths of space. There's not even any space in the system out of range of d-scan, so what I see is what I get. Given that it's such a small system with so few moons, I get curious and point d-scan at each of the planets. Unsurprisingly, each moon either has an active tower on it or a small tower anchored to militate against staging towers for hostile takeovers.

I may as well poke the system with probes, and the three anomalies and five signatures don't take long to distill down to rocks, gas, and two more wormholes. The second static connection leads to high-sec and is immediately tagged as distinctly uninteresting, but the other, weaker wormhole must be outbound and leading to more w-space. I still follow a safety procedure before pushing on, though, and pop out to high-sec to get a way home, through the Kador region today.

Actually, the high-sec exit is not as uninteresting as I first suspected. I'm only four hops from an academy system selling skill books I'm keen to buy. I can't ignore this felicitous connection, so spend a few minutes using stargates in high-sec instead of wormholes to collect some new skills to inject. I feel productive. Now back to C2a and on and through the other wormhole, which takes me to class 4 w-space, where a tower and Buzzard appear on d-scan from the K162.

The covert operations boat is in the tower and looking decidedly inactive, without any probes in the system. Rather than stare at a ship that I can't catch even if it left the tower I warp away, launch probes, and take a look around. One of the fourteen signatures mixed with the three anomalies looks distinctly wormholey, and for good reason. The signature resolves to be the system's static connection to class 3 w-space, which is a good enough result for me. Onwards.

Hot damn, C3b is 180 AU across. No wonder the occupation from my previous visit six months ago has since moved out, as it takes a couple of blanket scans just to see what is roughly in the system. At least those scans point to new occupation, thanks to a ship left floating inside the tower's force field, but I don't care for an empty Badger as much as I don't care to scan this hideously vast system. I still have that C5 K162 back in C3a to explore through, whereas this C3 has perhaps only an exit to high-sec.

Back to C4a, across C2a where the Buzzard still sits idle, and in to C3a, where a pod appears on d-scan. Warping to the tower doesn't see the pod, and it disappears from d-scan before I can trace it. On a whim, I reconnoitre the exit to low-sec, reaching the wormhole as it flares. A Thorax enters from low-sec and warps to the C5 K162 before I can even get within range to decide not to engage it for being a cowardly coward. Still, I follow it, like the bravity brave scout I am, to see the once-healthy K162 now also sitting at half-mass. It looks like my choice of way to go was poor today.

I'm not sure whether to poke inside C5a or wait on the wormhole and update d-scan, waiting for more ships to pass to and from low-sec. I decide discretion is the better part of not exploding when a Rapier recon ship blips on d-scan, more so when it doesn't jump past me to C5a. There's something happening here that I'm clearly not privy to, and I really ought to observe more before jumping in. Then again, when a Cheetah cov-ops appears at the local tower maybe the jig is already up.

Whoever is moving ships around must also see the local pilot, and either adapt their logistics to account for a possible ambush attempt, or bring more ships to attempt their own ambush. Sure enough, the C5 wormhole brings a Loki in to C3a, the strategic cruiser cloaking once moved away from the K162. And with the Cheetah now spewing probes in to the system I doubt I can be much of a surprise to anyone, unlike the Tengu strategic cruiser that also comes from C5a. I have to say, though, the surprise is more the dozen ships that appear as one behind it.

The single wormhole flare hid the numbers of the fleet, probably all appearing at the same time because of a squad command, and I skitter away from the wormhole thanking my luck that the earlier activity I missed I am now continuing to miss. None of the cruiser hulls are spat from the wormhole close enough to me to decloak my ship, letting me watch instead of becoming involved in some improvised interpretive dance.

That could have ended badly, given the firepower and logistic support available, as well as their apparent cohesion. And it doesn't matter that an Omen cruiser straggles behind the main fleet by a minute or so, passing through the wormhole to join them in heading to low-sec. I magnanimously let him pass too. Whether they are wormhole residents going to low-sec for a roam, or low-sec tourists heading home after a scrap, I don't know, but best of luck to them either way.

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Tags: badger, buzzard, cheetah, eve online, loki, mmorpg, omen, penny ibramovic, rapier, scanning, tengu, thorax, w-space

No surprises

I can't see what the C2 pilots are up to any more, so I've taken a bit of a gamble. Their class 2 w-space system connects directly to the same class 3 system our static wormhole leads us to, and I've been watching them swap ships back and forth for some minutes now. Some combat ships looked ready to head to C3a, with Fin in our home system preparing a suitable ship for us to ambush them, but they were swapped for Venture mining frigates. That's when I realised I ought to get back to C3a and launch probes covertly in the tiny system before they leave their tower.

I've got probes launched, but I also notice that the null-sec Buzzard's probes are still in C3a. Presumably the Magnate frigate scout from C2a came this way minutes earlier to check the system for activity, after I saw him scanning the system when I first entered C3a, and surely he can't have missed seeing the probes. So why would they send gassers in under these conditions? The answer is they wouldn't, although I have a different form of the question when the wormhole flares behind me and the Legion and pair of Drakes enter from C2a.

The strategic cruiser and battlecruisers aren't much of a surprise. The small fleet is what Fin and I were first preparing for, but it's still curious to see them appear and warp away from the wormhole towards a local anomaly, still whilst the Buzzard's probes are visible. This is most rum, but it looks like we've got our targets. Fin prepares our own Legion and warps it to our static wormhole, holding as I create and position myself in a perch overlooking the anomaly with the fleet.

The null-sec Buzzard blips on scan a couple of times, but he seems less like a scout for a fleet than a lone explorer. I'll ignore him. The Legion is naturally our primary target and in a good position to be engaged. He's concentrated on destroying the Argos guns in the anomaly whilst the Drakes shoot the Sleeper battleship. Getting close to the guns means the Legion's got close to the structure holding the guns. That's a structure my warp drives can lock on to, letting me close the range between us.

I warp closer to the Legion, the Drakes staying further away, and the situation looks good. The Legion doesn't look to be moving much, Fin's ready, and I can get close enough to snare our target. I call for Fin to jump in to the system as I approach to warp scrambler range, and for her to warp to me as I decloak. I activate my sensor booster, defences, and aim for a positive target lock. And fail. The Legion warps clear before my sensors even have time to recalibrate from being cloaked. Damn, that was fast.

One of the Drakes left with the Legion, leaving just the second behind. He's far too far away for me to stop him leaving, but, forgetting about trying to catch the fleeing ships on the wormhole, he's the only target I can see. I engage my micro warp drive and burn hard towards the battlecruiser, getting close enough to start plinking away at its shields, but the ship warps clear before I get within range of my scrambler. Now it's just us and the Sleepers in the site, and before long it's just the Sleepers.

The fleet obviously weren't being as negligent or cavalier about the activity in this system as I thought. They knew of the activity and possible threat in C3a, either from my probes or the Buzzard's, and perhaps even saw my transit in to or out of their system. Even so, sending in ships to shoot Sleepers seems a somewhat short-sighted move, given that they weren't acting as bait, as surely they must have realised they were almost certainly going to be leaving loot behind. They didn't in this case, only because I sprang the ambush quickly, but it still leaves us wondering what will happen next. And what we should do next.

I loiter on the C2 K162 to see if the pilots will collapse their wormhole, but instead they send one of the Drakes back in. Now this will be bait. 'You tell me never to go back', says Fin, and for good reason. We could engage, see what they throw through the wormhole, and disengage or rough it out, but it's smarter to learn from previous experiences than experience them all over again. I watch on d-scan as the Drake takes its time popping a Sleeper battleship and one of the cruisers from the second wave before it forlornly returns to the K162 and jumps home. He doesn't come back.

That's it, I suppose. We won't find out what surprises were in store for us had we engaged again, and we don't get a kill or suffer a loss. But, in this case, I think not taking the bait was the right choice. And, curiously, the Drake didn't take the time to loot the wrecks of the two Sleepers he popped. That's a bit of an oversight, and I'm happy to go back in this case to correct it for him. No one else has come through the wormhole, so I doubt anyone is watching any more. I warp to the anomaly, pluck the pair of wrecks of their loot, and head back home a whopping ten million ISK richer. Well, it's something to show for the evening.

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Tags: buzzard, drake, eve online, legion, magnate, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, w-space

Preparing for an ambush

I'm back in w-space for more abuse. I won't find any in the new pocket of gas at home, except for self-abuse, so I resolve our static wormhole and jump through to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. Core probes appear on my directional scanner in C3a, but that's it. No tower, no ships, no nothing. I hold on the K162 for a minute, checking my notes whilst waiting to see if the owner of the probes comes my way. It's my fourth visit, the last being fifteen months ago when it was unoccupied and held a static exit to null-sec. This system is sounding tedious already.

Hullo, the probes have disappeared. They are replaced on d-scan by a Magnate, but the frigate doesn't warp to our K162. He must have gone somewhere, as the ship drops off d-scan some seconds later, not to make a reappearance. He's left the system, so if I want to do more than float in space I'd better launch my own probes to scan. I open the system map to pick a suitable planet to warp to so that I can be out of the way to launch probes, but see that the system is actually pretty small and there's nowhere to hide. There's no new occupation either, in that case.

I spew probes from my launcher at the K162, which seems as good a place as any, and blanket the system. Four anomalies isn't much, but the twenty-four signatures may have hidden our K162's appearance, it being little more than noise to the Magnate. With any luck, the scout will bring back a fleet to sweep through the few anomalies, but I'm not sure if I can just sit here to wait and see. I scan. There's lots of rocks and gas floating around, but I eventually get around to resolving a chubby wormhole. I bet it comes from k-space.

A second chubby wormhole is present almost directly above our own K162, giving me some hope of more w-space, and a third wormhole appears under a ship blipping on my combat probes. That's probably given the game away. But I suppose there's little point in being coy about having probes out now, so I finish scanning, ignoring everything but what must be the static exit to null-sec. And indeed the fourth wormhole is. The others are a a K162 from class 2 w-space—neat, and not the k-space connection I was expecting—a K162 from class 3 w-space that's at the end of its life, and the Buzzard covert operations boat came through a K162 from null-sec.

I'll ignore the Buzzard and head to C2a, where presumably the Magnate came from. Given that the frigate left without visiting our wormhole, and that the Buzzard possibly entered through its own newly spawned wormhole, the Magnate scout may think C3a only holds a dying K162 and the static wormhole. Will he think it safe enough to send a fleet it? Maybe. Entering C2a and updating d-scan sees two towers, along with a Heron frigate, Armageddon battleship, and Apocalypse battleship, with no wrecks in the system. Are there pilots?

Locating the towers sees all three ships at one of them, empty. But by the time I've found the towers a Purifier comes on-line at the second of them, the stealth bomber obviously piloted. A second Purifier appears too, perhaps the ship of choice to sleep in, as the pair switch to Drake battlecruisers soon enough. Drakes are suitable for class 3 w-space anomalies, and as a Magnate warps to the tower there may be action ahead of me. Well, us, as in a display of good timing my glorious leader comes on-line.

I update Fin as a Legion strategic cruiser comes on-line at the tower I'm watching, maybe showing that the C2 locals are getting serious. Fin gets one of our Legions out in turn, a couple of systems away, as we think about getting serious too. The Magnate warps away, towards the wormhole to C3a, but I stick to the tower to watch the combat ships. And, a minute later, the Magnate returns. Phew, slow down, C2 pilots, I can't keep up with this whirlwind of activity.

A new contact appears and boards a Venture mining frigate, and is joined by one of the Drakes swapping to a second Venture. Damn. The C3 system is too small to hide to launch probes, and I ignored all of the resource sites in it for being uninteresting. I'll be unable to hunt the Ventures if they are after gas or rocks instead of Sleepers. But it's not yet too late. I surge my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser back towards the wormhole, jump to C3a, and launch probes in to the system, getting them high above the ecliptic plane as soon as I can. Now I'm ready for them. ...if they're coming this way.

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Tags: apocalypse, armageddon, buzzard, drake, eve online, heron, legion, loki, magnate, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, purifier, scanning, venture, w-space