Arriving at the right time

It's kinda late by now, but I think I can afford to poke my prow through our static wormhole, just in case a soft target happens to present itself. And although a Navy Megathron and Navy Dominix are hardly soft, that they actually appear to be doing something catches my interest. There is a tower visible on my directional scanner too, and a pod, but the active drones and Sleeper wrecks strongly indicate that the pair of Navy Issue battleships are active. The lack of anomalies makes them difficult to find, though, as I'll be looking for a radar or magnetometric site which will need to be resolved with probes.

Before I look for the battleships I locate the tower. The pod isn't there, oddly, but I can tag the corporation so that finding the battleships will let me know if they are local or not. That may be important. The information would be more important if I thought I could engage the battleships by myself without dying horribly in flames, but if the pair are offering me an opportunity to practice hunting with d-scan I may as well take it. The worst that happens is I scare them off with my probes, I suppose. That is, if I can launch the probes covertly in the first place.

The class 3 w-space is pretty small, and the site the battleships are in seems fairly central. Luckily, one planet sits just out of range of the site, letting me launch my probes without being spotted and also giving me a better idea of the site's position in the system. Probes launched and hidden, I warp back towards the ships and start looking for them with d-scan. I get a good idea of where there are too, and I arrange my probes around their position. And I don't think I'll actually scare the battleships away just yet.

I realise that I've been watching the combat using d-scan, and more and more Sleeper wrecks have been appearing all the time. The ships aren't salvaging as they fly, which means a salvager will be brought in at some point. I think I can wait for that and cause some actual mayhem and destruction, instead of simply spooking some ships. And on the assumption that the ships aren't local, and that I'll have a little time as the battleships leave the system to swap to a salvager, I use a minimal-range cluster for my probes. I'll need their maximum strength to resolve weak signature of the site quickly.

My plans change again. Aii comes on-line at just the right time. I give him a sitrep and ask him to prepare our ship-killer Legion, the strategic cruiser having proved itself before against a Navy Megathron. I think it's worth taking a poke at the ships, as they are unlikely to be fit with warp disruptors when engaging Sleepers, so if it all goes horribly wrong we should be able to escape. Well, maybe not if it goes horribly wrong, which would have the battleships fit with warp disruptors and having active friends nearby. But we should be fine if our ambush goes just a little bit wrong.

With Aii getting the Legion to our static wormhole I adjust my probes a little bit. I adjust their range back up a notch, weakening the return strength but giving a bigger margin for error. Now that I'm scanning for the battleships, and their much fatter signatures, I can afford that margin of error. I warp towards our K162 as Aii is ready on the other side, and I check my probe positions from a second location. The triangulation looks good. Let's do this. Aii, jump and hold.

I see Aii's transition in to the system and, as his session change cloak holds, call my probes in to scan. It's a good result, perfect on everything but the site itself. The pod is easier to scan than a class 3 w-space radar site, apparently. I recall my probes, send our two ships in to warp, and bookmark what I can of the scan results for reference. The Navy Megathron is primary, the Navy Megathron is primary. I know we have a chance against that, whilst the Navy Dominix remains a rather more unknown and dominating presence.

Curiously, we drop out of warp a fair distance from the site, but still on top of the battleships. It looks like they are taking a breather, licking their wounds, as the pod sits ninety kilometres away and closer to the Sleepers, unthreatened. The Navy Megathron is our first target, which I think I mentioned, so all of our offensive systems are aimed its way, and it is well and truly targeted. The pilots aren't absently oblivious either, as the Navy Dominix starts a slow turn away from us, entering warp about as quickly as it can. I'm initially glad that we won't be feeling its damage, just as our distance from the Sleepers prevents their ruining our ambush too, but maybe we should have stopped it running.

I cautiously watch d-scan for any ship change the Navy Dominix pilot makes as we focus on his floundering friend, but he's not coming back to help. It's just us and the Navy Megathron, and it melts. Really, it melts. There was some residual damage from the Sleepers, but the faction battleship should put up much more resistance than it does. The ambush is short and sweet, as the Navy Megathron explodes barely even having time to lock us back, let alone retaliate. I make a snatch for the pod and get a positive lock, my warp scrambler and guns activating immediately to rip out the corpse inside. Job's a good 'un.

We scoop, loot, and shoot, the pod near the Sleepers only now reacting to get clear. I was wondering if I'd be able to get close to it, but didn't really expect to. I warp the pair of us back to our K162 and we jump home, as I marvel at the pitiful loot I recovered from the wreck of the Navy Megathron. Basic Tech I and low-meta modules. The kill report for the ship shows that it was fitted very cheaply indeed. What a waste of a faction battleship. If I had known how the ship was fit I'd have stopped the Navy Dominix from leaving the site too. Then again, if a ship's first reaction is to run away, maybe it would nearly always be a good idea to stop it. I'll know for the next time, not that these opportunities come up often. Still, a Navy Megathron kill ends the evening very nicely indeed.

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Tags: dominix, eve online, legion, loki, megathron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

When high-sec is more interesting than w-space

Empty system, empty Penny. Launching scanning probes to search for civilisation finds a K162 from class 2 w-space, which is a fair start, particularly seeing that if our home system is one of C2a's static wormholes then the other will lead to high-sec. Jumping through the K162 doesn't look immediately positive, though, as I appear in the system over eight kilometres from the wormhole. Still, there is a tower and ships visible on my directional scanner. Maybe they've just not come this way for a while.

I've been to C2a before, four months ago, and the tower location listed in my notes looks good. I warp there as a Badger hauler appears newly in the system, which I see arrive at the tower, perhaps having returned from high-sec. The pilot of the hauler swaps to a Nighthawk command ship and warps right back out to empty space, probably to the same wormhole. As the only other ship piloted inside the force field is a Vagabond heavy assault cruiser, and that is doing nothing, I doubt there is any real activity occurring. I warp out, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system.

Holy crap, forty-three anomalies is a lot. Thankfully there are only eleven signatures, which will make scanning less of a chore. Concentrating my probes in the rough direction the Nighthawk warped resolves a wormhole, but a K162 from high-sec that's at the end of its life. I suppose the command ship came this way if their static wormhole leads somewhere isolated, but I'll keep looking anyway. A second wormhole that leads out to class 5 w-space is curious. Now I see rocks, rocks, a second K162 from high-sec but healthy, rocks, rocks, and what must be the second static exit leading out to null-sec.

C2a's connection to our home system must be anomalous, given the other outbound wormholes to class 5 w-space and null-sec. And opening the system map sees that the second high-sec K162 is on a similar vector to the first, dying one. I imagine the Nighthawk went through the healthy wormhole, so I do too, appearing in a system in The Bleak Lands. Yep, this is certainly high-sec space. This was fun, we should do it again some time. Actually, I could do with moving a few items around, so spend a bit of time doing so, which is necessary if not particularly interesting.

Back to w-space and C2a, and new ships and pilots are in the tower. A Tengu and two Loki strategic cruisers are all piloted, as is a Viator transport ship, but they are indeed all at the tower and not doing anything interesting. Maybe someone needs to explain to them what anomalies are and how you can profit from shooting the Sleepers and looting their wrecks. Well, maybe profit is the wrong word when someone like me is stalking them at the time, but still. The theory is sound.

A couple more ships appear at the tower, either come on-line or returned from high-sec and... nothing. The Vagabond even comes back from, well, wherever he went, and the Sleipnir logistics ship and Cheetah covert operations boat are new. Some activity would be new too, but I don't think I'm going to see it. Watching ships do nothing but occasionally appear from the high-sec wormhole is pretty boring. I'm going home.

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Tags: badger, cheetah, eve online, loki, mmorpg, nighthawk, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleipnir, tengu, vagabond, viator, w-space

Collapsing for a better system

A quick sweep of the home system reveals a new anomaly we can plunder for ISK, but no new signatures. Moving on to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system has nothing visible on d-scan from the wormhole, but I expect that in a system almost 200 AU across. C3a is also fully scanned and mapped from earlier, but still I launch probes. I'd rather do so out here, on the edge of emptiness, than when I get to where I see activity and need to warp away and back again, wasting time. But, as it turns out, there's nothing to see.

The same six unpiloted ships remain unpiloted at the tower, and my probes identify the same signatures as earlier. It looks like I'll be visiting low-sec to scan for more connections. Or, at least, it does until I finally warp to the static wormhole, only to see it in its dying stages. I have run out of options early again, so I suppose I'll be collapsing our static wormhole for a second time today. It can get a little tedious, to be honest.

Some massive ships stress the wormhole until it can take no more, and I end up warping away from empty space in the home system towards our tower. Operation complete, I get back in to my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser and scan once more. Hopefully the third time's the charm. And it very well may be. Updating my directional scanner from the K162 in C3a sees a Mammoth hauler and no tower. A target, how exciting!

The Mammoth disappears on a subsequent update of d-scan, which could mean it's gone through a wormhole, to a different customs office, or back to its tower. I can't warp to an unknown wormhole, and the hauler will be safe inside its tower, so I can only really act on the Mammoth having gone to a customs office. I open the system map, see that three planets are out of d-scan range, and pick the customs office of one of them arbitrarily to warp to.

There's no Mammoth at this customs office, but there's one on d-scan. I don't think I've missed it, as there is also a tower and three more haulers, all Iterons, now on d-scan. I locate the tower at one of the few moons around the planet, but the Mammoth has gone by the time I get there. I would say that's a good sign. I saw the Mammoth out, and it returned to its tower. That it has gone out again is probably a good indicator that the cycle will repeat, the pilot making multiple trips. I just need to be a little patient.

Sure enough, the Mammoth warps back almost before I've tagged the local corporation and bookmarked my position at the tower. I watch carefully and, as expected, the hauler turns back towards the inner system. And, indeed, right back to where it just came from. There she goes again, and I'm following. My Loki makes a tight turn and enters warp responsively, making me confident that I'll catch the Mammoth easily enough. So confident, in fact, that I decloak and get my systems hot at the first sign of the hauler at the customs office.

Minmatar haulers really aren't held together well. I think their cargo provides most of the ship's structural integrity. But they are lubricated with plenty of oil, so it seems, judging by the way they explode. Flames everywhere! I aim for the pod but she's already gone, probably blasted in to warp by the explosion, leaving me a couple of expanded cargoholds to loot. I don't think I have any of them.

I shoot the wreck, launch scanning probes, and reload my guns, performing a blanket scan of the system as I warp towards the tower. All looks cool, as I get a conversation request from Elspeth Askold. Why does that name sound familiar? 'Killed by the Tiger Ears.' Ah, I popped a reader. I like pressing the flesh, as it were, even if hers got away from me.

I find it difficult to ambush a friendly pilot twice, more so when they don't leave their tower again. I'm left scanning nineteen anomalies and eight signatures, resolving only a half-mass static exit to low-sec that's of any interest. But I'm not really interested in even that, but I think that's okay. I've had some exploration and a big explosion that I wasn't in the middle of, which makes for a satisfied Penny. I head home happy, to go off-line.

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

Ignoring a whole system

If that wormhole hasn't died yet, I'm just going to shoot it until it does. That'll work, either in killing it or working out my frustration. Thankfully, and somewhat obviously, being well over half-a-day after the wormhole was seen in its dying stages, the old static connection is gone. Long live the new static connection! I resolve the replacement, warp to it, and jump through the healthy wormhole to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, looking for some action.

A tower is visible on my directional scanner from the K162, but I'm more interested in the Iteron also there. Is the hauler piloted? Preparing to collect planet goo? I want to find out. My notes help me warp directly to the tower, with it being in the same position as three months ago, which lets me quickly see that the Iteron is empty. Okay, I can relax a bit. D-scan from the tower sees nothing additional, so I warp out, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system.

Five anomalies and twelves signatures appear under my probes, and my notes also tell me that the static wormhole leads to null-sec. That's not great, but perhaps preferable to deadly high-sec empire space. I start scanning, identifying gas, gas, gas, gas, gas—you know, I'm sensing a pattern here—rocks, gas, rocks, a weak wormhole, rocks—is that twelve yet?—and more rocks. That's a pretty dull result. I'm glad I was able to share it.

The wormhole to null-sec is in pristine condition, and leads to a system in the Catch region that has a dozen pilots. At least one is ratting, judging by the number of wrecks on d-scan, which makes at least one of them scurrying back to his tower right now, but I have no interest in seeing how many are actively looking for trouble. I should kill our static wormhole and start again.

A couple of passes with an Orca industrial command ship, a couple of passes with a Widow black ops ship, and the wormhole gives up the ghost. That was all a lot of time ultimately for nothing. Even so, now that the wormhole is dead, I can't help but at least look through its replacement, just in case there is a soft target waiting to be ambushed. I get back in to my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, launch probes, and resolve the wormhole that takes me to another class 3 system.

There nothing on d-scan this time, but that turns out to be less of a surprise when opening the system map. One planet is in range, the outermost in the system, and it has no moons. The next-closest planet is nearly 100 AU away, and the distance to the farthest planet is over 172 AU, and that's with only four planets in the system. Scanning may take a couple of passes with my probes. A blanket scan over the planet near the wormhole reveals only the wormhole, and covering the rest of the system has no anomalies, four signatures, and six ships.

My notes list occupation which has moved on since fourteen months ago, and I update my notes with the current occupation, being guided to it by the ships under my probes. They are all empty, the Dominix battleship, Vexor cruiser, Catalyst destroyer, Iteron hauler, Venture mining frigate, and Imicus frigate, and scanning reveals just the one wormhole again. As there aren't many signatures, a Venture is floating at the tower, and the size of the system makes covert operations much easier, I resolve the one rock and two gas sites, hoping for the locals to appear later and be obliviously industrious.

That'll be all I'm up to for now. Collapsing wormholes takes the wind out of my sails, which is a hindrance when flying Minmatar ships. I don't even care to take a look at the static exit to low-sec. I don't want to engage any pilots there, and scanning will only lead to more exploration and, probably, more scanning. No, it's time for a sammich. I can come back later to roam.

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Tags: catalyst, dominix, eve online, imicus, iteron, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, venture, vexor, w-space, widow

Quiet night at home

So tired, so sleepy. That's kinda normal though, and I'm probably only at about 80%, which is good enough for a roam through w-space. Splash some pod goo on my face, crack open a window, and I'm good to go. Or I would be, except for the complete lack of bookmarks for the home system. Launching probes and blanketing the system reveals three anomalies and one signature, which naturally resolves to be the static wormhole. It's so tidy here I feel a need to see if I can make a mess elsewhere.

I don't get far. Dropping out of warp next to our static wormhole sees the connection in its death throes. Or, I suppose, it's dotage. It's hard to tell with wormholes. It could hold on to life like an estranged alcoholic who seems adamant in not bequeathing anything to living relatives, or it could pop its clogs like a goldfish brought home from the fair. Considering there are no signs of a K162 in the home system it's possible the wormhole has only a few breaths left, so I wander away from the keyboard to get a drink and hope for the best.

Nope, the wormhole's still here. That's a couple of polarisation cycles gone to waste, almost enough to have killed it with my bare hands. Still, I've waited this long, it would be the complete opposite of being stubborn and obstinate not to wait longer. Thankfully, to rescue me from myself, Aii turns up. And we have anomalies to plunder. Let's do that.

A pair of Tengu strategic cruisers warp from our tower and in to the first anomaly, after I've assured Aii that we'll be fine. Fin and I do this occasionally and almost never explode as a result. And, naturally, it is fine. The anomalies are as anomalies are, and we rake through the Sleepers without any trouble, and without any interruption from other capsuleers.

Two anomalies are cleared of Sleeper ships, now to clear them of the Sleeper wrecks. Tengus are swapped for Noctis salvagers, and we split up to be more vulnerable. I mean, efficient. To be more efficient. It's smooth sailing on my end. Of course, I don't use one salvager per wreck when I can help it, but, even so, I think not getting a single failed cycle is a good result. The actual loot is pretty average, though.

I swap back to my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser and launch scanning probes, blanketing the system again to see a disappointing lack of change. It's good that there are no new connections coming in to our system, although seeing that we've finished with the Sleepers it probably wouldn't be so bad if any did, but the only signature alongside the now-sole anomaly remains the wobbly static wormhole.

There was plenty of time to collapse the wormhole with massive ships, it seems. We may probably still need to do so if we want it to die and give us exploration opportunities. But I'm happy with having made a nice chunk of iskies from the Sleepers. Besides, I'd rather ignore the wormhole out of spite now. It can glare at me all it wants, but I'm going to lie down on a cosy bed of ISK and get some sleep.

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

Stopping scanning short for Sleepers

I come on-line to see glorious leader Fin, the poppet, and two new bounties placed on our corporation. The bounties are nothing to do with us, but our sister system found some ships, exploded them, and apparently got the tears flowing. I'm not quite sure how throwing ISK away to the bounty system helps with the loss of ISK from destroyed ships, but I don't have a degree in economics. I'm sure it makes sense.

In our system, Fin and poppet are unresponsive, perhaps comatose from their having spent time sucking up some gas clouds, judging by their ships idle at our tower. Bored or drunk, I can't tell, but they aren't answering. A blanket scan of the home system has only the sites and static connection that Fin already scanned before starting to gas, so with an operation perhaps paused and nothing hostile encroaching I can wait a little while to see if the others wake up.

Nope, nothing yet, and my probes are still reporting no new signatures. It's time to open the wormhole. I warp to our static connection, jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system, and update my directional scanner. Five salvage drones, one tower, no wrecks. Either the drones have gained sentience and are really good at cleaning up, or they've been abandoned for a while and nothing's happening. I don't think anyone's lost ISK betting that a w-space system is empty, so I choose that option.

My notes point me towards a tower that remains in the same place from a fortnight ago—owned by a Gallente corporation too, those scum!—and remind me that I'll be looking for a static exit to high-sec empire space. No one's home, so look for it I shall. I concentrate on the ten signatures, particularly as I suspect I ignored the salvage drones on my last visit too, and I don't want to interrupt their orgy now. I find a magnetometric site, the high-sec wormhole, some gas, uh, hmm, maybe this is the high-sec wormhole—well, both signatures are relatively weak, so one will be an outbound connection to more w-space—and a few more sites of less interest.

I warp to the non-empire space wormhole, choosing correctly and decelerating next to a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space. Jumping through finds little of interest, though. My notes from four months ago show that the system was unoccupied, which seems about right, and that the static wormhole leads to class 5 w-space. That could indicate I have a long night of scanning ahead of me, the nine anomalies and twenty-five signatures being a suitably tedious start. Thankfully, Fin wakes from her stupor, so maybe I can forgo scanning to make some ISK in C3a.

An open wormhole is a dangerous wormhole, though, so rather than ignore C4a I probably ought to make sure hordes of rampaging strategic cruisers won't be passing through here soon. A check for K162s in the system, which doesn't take long, given the chubby nature of their signatures, resolves just one, and it's a dying K162 from class 5 w-space that's been destabilised to half mass. I'll classify that as a 'minor threat'. Shall we make some ISK? 'That sounds like a plan.' Uh-oh.

Hoping the constellation is as dead as it looks, I head home, swap to a Tengu strategic cruiser paired with Fin's, and we jump to C3a to start shooting Sleepers. I send us to the first of two magnetometric sites rather than the basic anomalies, reasoning that we'll be harder to find there, and we start shooting Sleepers. Oh, the system has a cataclysmic variable, by the way. I don't think it matters, and we seem to be doing okay, even with the Sleeper battleships trying to drain my capacitor. I've had recent experience, I suppose.

The first site is cleared and we move to the second, which has different Sleepers. We'd only just worked out the patterns of the first, dammit. But combat remains easy enough. Just point and shoot. And with the second site cleared and time running short, we swap ships back at our tower and return to clean up all the ISK we left lying around. I analyse the artefacts, Fin loots and salvages the wrecks. It's not a great haul, but it's hardly poor. A rough total of two hundred million ISK is a fair result for two sites, and we bring it all home successfully.

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

Ship-spinning of w-space

Reload, repair, restock. The brawl on the wormhole took a minor toll on my strategic cruiser, but ultimately nothing serious. My guns have heat damage but are still functional; my armour is unscratched, thanks to the ancillary shield boosters; and the shield boosters need more charges loaded. I have plenty of nanite paste to repair the heat damage, and enough ammunition to keep me going, but one of the ASBs will stay empty for the moment.

It takes a minute to reload an ASB, and because most w-space engagements tend to last less than that I see little point in carrying more than one reload of the bulky charges. Really, the reload is more for any potential second engagement before getting a chance to restock in our home system, as I'm likely to be victorious or dead before both ASBs are exhausted and another minute of combat has elapsed. I pretty much proved that just now.

But I have a chance to restock. I'm in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, no one from the class 5 system has followed me through the wormhole, and Fin has swept up behind us, leaving no trace. Combat is over and we're close to home. I warp my Loki to the K162, jump through, and head to our tower, where I can can replenish the limited supplies I carry in my hold. Fin does the same, whilst also dropping off the few spoils of victory she looted. We're back to full strength.

Full strength, perhaps, but there is no one left to shoot. Fin takes advantage of the circumstances, which include an exit to high-sec empire space in C3a, to hit the market. That the wormhole is in critical condition doesn't faze her. 'If it collapses, you can scan me the new one.' Sir, yes sir! The Crane transport ship doesn't irritate the wormhole too much, thankfully, leaving it intact hopefully for Fin's return journey. And with a Tengu strategic cruiser new to my directional scanner in C3a, I may be able to keep myself entertained in the meantime.

The Tengu is sitting at the tower in C3a, but with no anomalies in the system I'm not really expecting anything to happen. Even so, with nothing else to do, I watch it for movement. It's an exciting life in w-space. The Tengu does the nothing I'm expecting, as a Drake battlecruiser comes to the tower, swaps to a Heron frigate, and warps towards the exit wormhole to high-sec. It's no strategic cruiser, but the Heron is still a potential target. I follow behind it but drop out of warp near the wormhole not seeing the Heron anywhere.

I don't think the Heron jumped to high-sec, so maybe he cloaked. Or went off-line, as the Tengu is gone and now all that d-scan shows me is a Navy Caracal cruiser. Maybe the Heron is cloaked, as is the Tengu cloaked and out of the tower, and the Caracal will be used as bait to draw me away from the wormhole. I hold on the wormhole to see what nefarious plans the locals have for me. A whole lotta nothing, apparently.

The Heron reappears on d-scan, and the Caracal is gone and the Tengu back. The latter looks like it was a straight ship swap on both occasions, which I missed sitting at the wormhole and not the tower. And as I was on the wormhole, the Heron cannot have been here too, as the frigate can't warp cloaked and I would have seen the ship appear when he started to warp. I think I've been watching more nothing than I first imagined.

A new contact appears, this one in a Nighthawk command ship, which joins the Tengu at the tower and the Heron now back in its Drake. Three combat ships could mean something, right? I leave the unmonitored wormhole unmonitored to see what great plans the locals have been working towards. Ah, I see. Idling. The ship-spinning of w-space. And now Fin is back, having sold loot and bought bargains in low-sec, and with the wormhole still alive to welcome her home. I think it's time to call it a night. There's been no further drama, despite what I made of all the ship changes. Sometimes I think that w-space has made me a little paranoid.

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Tags: caracal, crane, drake, eve online, heron, mmorpg, nighthawk, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Scrapping over a Scorpion

That Orca isn't coming back to finish collapsing the wormhole. I can't think why. Surely it has nothing to do with the pilot having seen my cloaky Loki lurking nearby. Just because industrial command ships are natural prey of strategic cruisers doesn't mean anything. But he's not coming back. It's been a while, longer than polarisation effects last, and the wormhole stays untravelled and pulsating for being below its half-mass state.

I tell a lie. One other ship passed through the wormhole after the Orca. A Buzzard covert operations boat, seemingly scanning this class 3 w-space system, went through, to what I can only assume is his home. Apart from our K162, this is the only other K162 in C3a. I am also assuming that the cov-ops pilot saw the Orca, recognises a half-mass wormhole, and has got a small fleet waiting on the other side for the Orca's next trip. Or a big fleet. As a result, I've been a little reluctant to jump to C5a.

But we're doing nothing, my glorious leader and me. Just watching the Orca, watching the wormhole. We can do more than this, and preferably something not involving the static exit to high-sec. I'm going through the K162. And in C5a all looks clear, at least on the wormhole. My directional scanner is showing me ships, a tower, and maybe some activity. An Occator transport ship may be gooing, but it's the Ferox battlecruiser and two Venture mining frigates that interest me. If only for a few seconds.

Spinning d-scan around sees that the Ventures aren't at the tower, but I can't tell where they are until a broader scan has them gone completely. I think there was activity here, gassing in fact, but it stopped pretty quickly after my arrival. Exploring the system reveals a second tower, which I ignore for now but stops my launching probes, and locating the first tower, with the ships, sees the Occator and Ferox empty, and now a Buzzard and Vagabond heavy assault cruiser both piloted. Presumably they are the Venture pilots swapped ships.

Another Buzzard warps in to the tower, giving three contacts. It seems likely that this cov-ops was watching the wormhole for transits, relaying the information to his gassing colleagues. 'Nah, it is what those ships are supposed to do', says Fin. I know what she means, but it happens sometimes that capsuleers are sensible. Only sometimes, though, as the Buzzard shows by burning upwards out of the tower to launch probes instead of warping to a safe spot. I suppose it's a fairly safe method, but if done consistently this way will become predictable.

I can't do anything about the Buzzard, so watch the Vagabond. The HAC warps from the first tower, towards the second, forcing me to locate that one too, where a second Vagabond sits piloted. That's still three pilots total, I think, it's just that ships are being moved and swapped. So Fin and I start talking tactics, such as they can be called tactics. But I don't think the locals are coming out to fight. If they were, they would already be on the wormhole, or twenty kilometres away from it.

'They are hoping we do not engage, I think. But they also think it is just you.' So far, yes. We like to hide our numbers, which is why Fin is staying in C3a still. 'Flare.' Is it a Buzzard? 'Waiting out the session cloak. Buzzard.' Okay. It's the same pilot I saw earlier in C3a, returning for... I have no idea why he'd go back. The cov-ops moves away from the wormhole and cloaks, though. And the first Vagabond warps back to the first tower, where he swaps to a Scorpion. Now, boarding a battleship looks like the locals want to get rid of their wormhole. And, sure enough, the Scorpion aligns and warps towards their static connection.

Killing the wormhole would be bad for us, but I saw the Orca's jump which dropped the wormhole's stability. The transition occurred on the Orca's return, which gives the wormhole plenty of mass for the Scorpion to jump out and back, and for us to do the same. Let him return, Fin, encourage them to think it is still just me until the last moment. I drop out of warp near the wormhole to see the Scorpion jump to C3a. Him, I tell Fin. A few seconds pass. 'Him. Then me.' I hear this, and even before the wormhole flares my Loki is decloaked and primed for combat. The Scorpion is coming back polarised, and I'm going to catch him.

The Scorpion doesn't even pause on the wormhole, but decloaks immediately and tries to run. I get a positive lock and disrupt his warp engines as Fin dismisses any remaining notions that it's just me stalking these pilots. Both of our Lokis' autocannons chatter rounds towards the Scorpion, depleting its shields steadily. Here comes that other Vagabond. I see it on d-scan first, as it warps to the wormhole to join the fray. And apparently I have no capacitor juice, the Scorpion having drained me dry within seconds. That can't be good.

My guns keep shooting, and my capacitor replenishes just a little often enough to keep the warp scrambler active, although Fin has the Scorpion held too. Now the Vagabond looses his drones on me, as does the Scorpion, and I'm getting seriously smothered. Being at the centre of this combat is a little unsettling, but I look up to my glorious leader for a reason. I know the many times she's been under heavy fire and continued fighting, and it is her inspiration that keeps me on this side of the wormhole.

Even when jammed by ECM I stay. I think the Scorpion has me jammed, but it's actually the Vagabond's ECM drones. I stick around, wait for the jam to drop, and regain my target lock on the Scorpion. Its shields are gone and is taking armour damage now. We can win this, even as a Naga battlecruiser appears on d-scan. There will be more incoming damage soon, and my Loki is in a bad state. We just need a little more time. Systems to overload, lieutenant. Throw discretion to the wind. Burn both ancillary shield boosters simultaneously! Overheat the autocannons!

The dual ASBs keep me afloat, but just barely. The Naga has appeared and I remain the primary target for all the ships. But the Scorpion's armour is gone, and we're chewing through its structure. Or chomping through it. My ASBs are out of charges, and my drained capacitor cannot feed those hungry repair modules, but there she goes! The Scorpion explodes. I can't help but hang around to aim for the pod, but it flees pretty quickly. My sensor booster is off-line, thanks to a severe lack of capacitor juice, but I don't think having it active would have helped. And now I must go.

I jump back to C3a, still close enough to the wormhole to do so immediately, perhaps partly because of the webs the Vagabond applied to my ship. Shields almost gone, guns smoking, but in one piece and, remarkably, without even any armour bleed. But you should see the other ship. It's kind of a wreck. How's Fin doing? Just fine. She wasn't shot once in the engagement, and when the Scorpion exploded the Vagabond and Naga disappeared pretty promptly. Fin loots and shoots the wreck of the battleship and tidies up the drones left behind, before returning through the wormhole too.

But what a fight that was! It was pretty challenging, and with plenty to absorb. The ASBs definitely did their job, although using both at once was a little desperate. The situation called for it, though. And with some determination, we got the kill. Curiously, the Scorpion had three warp core stabilisers fitted. I can see how it couldn't escape with both Fin and me stopping it, but when I was jammed it could have fled. I suspect it saw my ailing Loki and, because it had four heavy neutralisers keeping me down and Valkyrie II drones shooting me, as well as hoping for repeated successful ECM cycles, the pilot decided to stay to seal my fate. I'm glad he did.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, ferox, loki, mmorpg, naga, occator, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scorpion, vagabond, venture, w-space

Caught unawares

It's just me in space. No, that can't be right. Let me see if someone's through this wormhole the Sleepers kindly left behind. And, you know, I think there is. My directional scanner shows me a tower, an Orca, and some core scanning probes. I shall assume the industrial command ship isn't the active scout, so rather than warp away to the unsurprising sight of an unpiloted Orca in a tower's force field I shall lurk on the wormhole for a minute. Maybe if the scout has seen our K162 pop he'll come and investigate.

I check my notes whilst idling. This is my fifth visit to the class 3 system, the last being seven months earlier. Two towers were in the system back then, and I resolved a static wormhole that exited to high-sec. There's been some change, though. One of the towers definitely isn't where it was, and although the other tower in my notes is out of d-scan range it may be reasonable to assume that's gone too, considering the presence of a newly positioned tower.

Okay, I've orientated myself and the scout hasn't made himself known yet. Indeed, core scanning probes are still whizzing around the system. And as they are core scanning probes, which detect only sites and not ships, I feel comfortable warping away to decloak and launch my own scanning probes. I use the combat type, naturally, launching them in to space and far above the ecliptic plane in order to perform a blanket scan of the system, and returning to loiter on our K162 once done.

A Buzzard covert operations boat appears on d-scan, disappearing a moment later. The probes remain in the system, so I presume the cov-ops pilot was having finger troubles and hasn't left through a different wormhole. Meanwhile, my probes are reporting a lack of anomalies and six signatures scattered around C3a. Any half-decent scout should have noticed a measly five signatures increasing to six mid-scan, so I think my presence is going to be inferred regardless of my actions. And as my combat probes pick up the Buzzard's finger troubles a second time, I may as well scan for the connection the cov-ops has come through.

Sure enough, the signature nearest the fuzzy impression of the Buzzard is a wormhole, a K162 from class 5 w-space. A subsequent blanket scan pretty much confirms there are no more K162s, with no signatures being strong enough to indicate one. The static exit to high-sec will be a mid-strength signature, and it may be worth scanning for if the Buzzard jumps through and returns quickly, polarising himself. And there it is. Good intuition, Penny. But what the hell is this Orca doing on the wormhole with me?!

I'm lurking on the C5 K162 when the Orca jumps from C3a to the class 5 system beyond, and it rather takes me unawares. I am one scan away from resolving the high-sec connection and clearly not paying that much attention to my surroundings. Like a deer in the headlights I kinda freeze, not following the Orca but performing that one last scan for the wormhole. As it turns out, I don't need to chase it. The wormhole flares a second time, the Orca reappears, having destabilised the connection to its half-mass state, and starts aligning away. The Orca wasn't heading home to C5a. The jump came from inside the system!

This is a golden opportunity. I don't know if my cloaky Loki has enough firepower to pop an Orca solo, but the whale is polarised and fully at my mercy. I'd be an idiot not to try! I try to lock on to the aligning Orca, whilst closing the distance between us, repeatedly wondering why my controls aren't responding. Press more buttons! Pull more levers! Dammit, of course, I'm still cloaked. Deactivate the cloak, cadet! Prepare all offensive systems! Lock. Lock. Dammit, lock!

But, no, my pitiful situational awareness and the recalibration delay from decloaking thwarts me. The Orca warps clear. But, of course, not before getting a good look at the Loki now sitting decloaked on the wormhole it was trying to collapse. How embarrassing. And here's my glorious leader to hear about the one that got away. Hey, Fin, it was this big! I dunno, maybe I should have realised sooner what was happening. Or I could have been smarter and waited for a subsequent jump, so that I could prepare myself a little better.

Still, never mind. I watch as the Buzzard appears on the K162 and jumps to C5a, presumably going home through a wormhole less stable than he left it. Maybe there'll soon be a strategic cruiser fleet on the other side of the K162, waiting for the Orca. Or for me. And even though I doubt the Orca will be making another trip, Fin joins me in C3a just in case it does. My glorious leader finds the local tower, confirms the Orca is still there and piloted—the one time I don't check, it's piloted and active—but not moving. I sit on the C5 K162 and watch as nothing passes me. After a while, we realise we're both staring at the equivalent of empty space. We should do something.

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

Null-sec hub

Nom nom nom, 100 M ISK brains are good eating. Now back in w-space, a few hours after the pair of gooing hauler ambushes, what's new? A load of fuel bricks brought in from Amarr, that's what, thanks to my glorious leader taking advantage of that high-sec connection in the class 2 w-space system connecting to our home. Fin also saw a Tengu strategic cruiser in C2a when passing through, so maybe that's worth watching for a bit.

I pop to C2a, warp to the tower where the Tengu sits, piloted by a new contact, but it turns out not worth watching after all. Well, unless you really appreciate Caldari engineering, in which case having time to examine the Tengu from every angle as it idles inside the tower's force field is time well spent. Me, I think I'd rather be exploring, and it occurs to me that we haven't taken anything more than a cursory look at the class 3 system through our static wormhole.

Jumping to C3a sees a black hole, five salvage drones on my directional scanner, and four anomalies from a passive scan of the system, none of which hold the drones or any wrecks. A lack of occupation is unsurprising, given both the black hole and static exit to null-sec, the wormhole being easily identified from the thirteen signatures thanks to its weak strength, and, I suppose, by virtue of it being the only wormhole in the system. I'll check where it leads.

Exiting w-space sends me to a system in the Outer Ring region, where two ratting pilots scutter back to the safety of a tower's force field before Fin can ask 'how far to an ORE station?' Um, I dunno. Oh, I can search the market for a Retriever blueprint to find out. There's one eight hops away, and the other is thirteen. My search also answers Fin's next question, by letting her know that it probably isn't profitable to buy one of the ORE blueprints ourselves.

The ratting Naga battlecruiser and Tengu can be safely ignored, as they clearly are more scared of me than I am of them, so I launch probes and scan the five additional signatures revealed. I resolve one wormhole from the noise of drones, a magnetometric site, and two radar sites, but the disappointment continues when I drop out of warp next to a K162 from more null-sec space. But I don't have anywhere else to go, so I poke my prow through to a system in The Kalevala Expanse, where I am alone with my thoughts to rat and scan.

One anomaly and eight signatures gives me plenty to sift through as I take on a couple of drone battleships and their frigate entourage. The K162 from class 1 w-space I resolve is at the end of its life, and not terribly appealing. But the two outbound connections to class 3 w-space and three outbound connections to class 5 w-space kinda make up for that one dying wormhole. So much space, so little time. But I can't leave without at least a superficial look through each wormhole.

I land last at the wormhole leading to C3c, so enter there first. A tower and Badger are visible on d-scan, and locating the hauler sees it piloted. But the odds are low that the ship will do something just as I turn up in his sys—oh, there he goes. The Badger aligns out of the tower and warps to a distant planet, with a Penny right behind him. Well, not right behind him, as it turns out, as the Badger merely warped to a second tower and not the customs office I aimed for.

A Drake is on d-scan with the Badger at the second tower, but warping there sees the battlecruiser lacking a capsuleer. Wondering what the Badger will do now has the predictable answer of 'nothing'. I'll leave him to it. I have other systems to explore. I jump back to null-sec and check the other wormhole to class 3 w-space, where five more drones are abandoned in space. ECM drones this time, but still left to fend for themselves, poor little blighters.

The only interesting aspect of this system, occupied but inactive, and with its own static exit to null-sec, is our previous visit. We happened upon a cluster of Drakes tussling with Sleepers in what looked like a training operation, picked the weakest of the herd, and slaughtered him whilst the others scattered. But that was then. Now there is only an empty industrial ship in a tower, which I ignore in favour of the still-more wormholes back in null-sec.

Out of curiosity, I have to chance the dying K162 from class 1 w-space. Popping in sees a tower and Prorator on d-scan, and a lucky warp to a moon locates the tower quickly enough for me to find the transport empty and return to null-sec without the wormhole collapsing. Now for the class 5 systems. C5a is occupied, with a couple of towers and far too many hangars appearing on d-scan, and my notes from four months ago simply stating 'three towers, C4 static'. That's good enough to copy, particularly as the only visible ships are a Manticore stealth bomber and Buzzard covert operations boat. I'm not catching them. Moving on.

Back to null-sec and in to C5b, where just capital ships and a tower appear on d-scan. That is, if you can call two Revelation and two Moros dreadnoughts, a Nidhoggur, Archon, and Thanatos carrier, and an Orca industrial command ship 'just' capital ships. That's a lot of firepower and ISK concentrated in to one tower. It's also probably a lot of unpiloted ISK, and certainly too much ship for me to consider engaging solo. I've finished here too. Back to null-sec and through the last wormhole, to C5c, where d-scan is clear but only showing me, huh, the innermost and outmost planets.

Neat wormhole placement aside, C5c is the simplest to explore, thanks to notes from around a week ago remaining applicable. Fancy that. The tower is where I left it, and although it has a Tengu piloted and moving inside the force field, the ship, named 'DM boost' is looping lazy circles around a hangar. The ship is boosting with warfare links obviously active, but it's not boosting anyone in this class 5 system. I think someone's had a little too much to drink, happily continuing the operation after everyone else has gone off-line. Still, I've got to give him credit, as he's only occasionally bumping in to another structure. That's some good piloting.

Well, that's it for space for tonight. Lots of it, and not much in it. I think that's by definition, so I can't be too disheartened by my explorations. Still, it's a shame that there were too many wormholes to explore in depth, and what was at the surface was uninteresting. But before I head home, I can afford one last look at that semi-active Badger in C3c. Yep, he's still playing some weird game of Pong between the two towers in the system. I watch him warp from one to the other, and see by d-scan that he returns to the first as I head back out of the system through the wormhole. And further back I go, to Outer Ring, C3a, and home.

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Tags: archon, badger, buzzard, drake, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, moros, naga, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, prorator, revelation, scanning, tengu, thanatos, w-space