Take a Drake, leave a Drake

Two more wormholes are resolved. The static exit from this class 4 w-space system leads to class 1 w-space, which can't please whatever occupants are in the class 5 w-space system on the other side of the K162. Maybe I should tell them that there's now a route through C3a, our neighbouring system connecting to this C4, out to low-sec. But instead I go to C1a first, hoping to find targets that are a bit squishier than most of what I am likely to encounter in a C5.

No luck, though. C1a has a tower with no ships visible on my directional scanner from the wormhole, and the one planet out of range doesn't offer anything new. I locate the tower, make a note of the owning corporation, and return to C4a to head backwards to C5a. And in the class 5 system are ships. A tower too, and as the Velator frigate and Helios and Anathema covert operations boats are all rather small and puny I expect them all to be inside its force field. And they are.

The Helios is piloted, which is a slight concern given that there's nowhere to hide from her in this small system, but as she's probably thinking less about updating d-scan and more why their early termination to k-space had to pass through a mass-limited C1 wormhole today. I launch probes to scan, not worrying about been spotted, which is lucky, given that seventeen signatures won't be particularly quick to sift through. Scanning is made slower by resolving the wormhole just when I think I'm out of luck. But there it is, on the edge of the system, the K162 I'm looking for. It takes me back to class 4 w-space.

D-scan is clear from the wormhole in C4b, and a passive scan of the system revealing a measly five anomalies suggests occupation. Exploring finds no towers, but launching probes and performing a blanket scan has a ship show up. And gone. Perhaps it was just passing through. It takes a while to catch up with the ship, as it is the last prospective signature of the thirteen in the system that resolves to be the inevitable K162, this one from class 2 w-space.

A C2 K162, though? If this is one of the C2's static wormholes, then the other will connect to high-sec empire space, and whatever ship came through will have been a scout of some kind. I doubt a hauler would pass through so much w-space to get to an exit, as surely even if they were unlucky enough to connect to a high-sec system in Aridia they would simply collapse the wormhole and hope to get luckier. So I jump to C2a not expecting to bump in to an industrialist, but still hoping to see some activity.

Two towers are on d-scan, along with an Orca industrial command ship, Loki strategic cruiser, Proteus strategic cruiser, Magnate frigate, and Imicus frigate. Before I even look for the towers and check for pilots, I alert glorious leader Fin and get her to prepare one of our Legion strategic cruisers, just in case we get lucky. As I do, the Loki is swapped for a Hound, and the stealth bomber disappears. Hoping it comes my way I stay at the wormhole, close enough to jump, and, sure enough, a ship decloaks and goes to C4b. Except it's an Imicus, and not the Hound. That doesn't matter, it's still a target.

I follow behind the frigate, hoping to get lucky, and almost do. The Imicus decloaks in C4b and I'm ready for it. My targeting systems get a positive lock but only for a second, as the Imicus jumps right back to C2a. A polarised ship is a vulnerable ship, which suits me fine right now—or so I think. Fully intending to give chase I try to return to C2a to catch the Imicus properly, but it turns out I have polarised my own ship. I wasn't as long in C2a before the Imicus appeared as I thought.

There's little point in jumping back to C2a as soon as my polarisation effects wear off. I think forty seconds is long enough for the Imicus to get clear. Instead, I wait for Fin to catch up to me, so that if the C2 occupants are ready to escalate the engagement then so are we. In I go, to a clear wormhole, and a couple of changes to the ships visible on d-scan. That's a little disappointing, but perhaps I am being watched now and some ships will come out to play. An obvious crawl away from the wormhole provokes no reaction, so I think I'll have to be happy with returning to standard operating procedures. I cloak and warp to the tower to monitor the pilots.

A Crane is new. The transport ship even moves and warps, but surely not to a customs office, not with a known hostile pilot floating around. No, apparently not. It looked like it, but there's no sign of the Crane when I get to the customs office in the direction it warped, not even at the previously unknown third tower that floats empty out here on the edge of the system. Back to watching the piloted ships, and, having jumped in to be in a better position, Fin reports two new items on d-scan. One is a Drake battlecruiser with a different naming convention to the local ships, the other a Sleeper wreck.

One anomaly is in the system, which my on-board scanner shows me, and the Drake is there. I warp in as it warps out, and more ship-swapping happens at the tower. It's hard to tell quite what's happening at the moment. The Drake returns to the anomaly and warps out again, weirdly, but as he disappears in the direction the Crane went I suspect the high-sec connection lies that way and that the pilot is a tourist. That's also probably why he is apparently oblivious to the overt threat the local ships could feasibly pose. If they ever did anything, that is.

Here comes the Drake again, and he finally creates a new Sleeper wreck, one close enough to the ship for me to get close to him. I warp in, but cautiously. And too cautiously, as it turns out, as I am further from the battlecruiser than I wanted to be, but I'm still not sure if we should engage or not. Luckily, as I approach the Drake, the locals have made up their minds. In they warp, a Drake of their own dropping on top of the tourist, and a Purifier adding its torpedoes until shooed by the Sleepers.

The stealth bomber warps out and a second local Drake and a Loki warp in. Missiles fire, guns chatter, and the tourist Drake explodes. His pod flees, presumably back to high-sec, leaving just the locals in the anomaly with a few Sleepers. Oh, and me and Fin. I've been watching but somewhat reluctant to join in so far, but what now? The Loki is a tempting target, made more so by one of the two Drakes warping back to the tower, and rather less so when the strategic cruiser follows. But one Drake stays behind to loot the wreck they made. What the hell. I'm going in.

I drop my cloak and engage the unsuspecting Drake pilot, Fin following my lead without needing to be invited. I get in to an orbit and start shooting the snared battlecruiser as Fin's Legion gets close and plies on the pain with her energy neutralisers. Let's hope this one's running some active defences. My autocannon damage is good, though, taking small chunks out of the Drake's shields, and the incoming damage is unthreatening. All I'm really worried about is how many of the Drake's friends will return.

One Drake comes back to the anomaly, forty kilometres away, but doesn't even stay long enough to take a couple of pot-shots at that safe distance. I don't think our target's colleagues—I can't really call them friends now—are coming to his aid. I can kinda see why, if they think that first Drake was bait and we're the real ambush. The joke's on them if that's the case, as it's just me and Fin tonight. Even so, I keep a watchful eye on d-scan and see a Scorpion battleship readied, but its ECM modules won't do any good now. We've depleted the Drake's shields and obliterated the armour. Its hull disintegrates and the battlecruiser explodes.

The second pod of the evening successfully warps out of the anomaly, leaving us to loot, shoot, and scoot. And as we warp away from the anomaly I realise that the pilot of the Drake was the same as in the Imicus earlier. It took a while, but I finally got him, I suppose. It's a good kill, too. Patient, careful, but still a little bold. We probably could have been overpowered, and perhaps would have been had their Loki been on the line, but I didn't shy away from that possibility. This time, it paid off. And even though I'm not expecting repercussions it's time to go home. It's late. I fly point-to-point, unusually for me, to save a bit of time, as I need to reload, repair heat damage, and dump loot at our tower. Once done, I hide in the home system and go off-line for the night. Job's a good 'un.

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Tags: anathema, crane, drake, eve online, helios, hound, imicus, legion, loki, magnate, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, purifier, pvp, scanning, scorpion, velator, w-space

Following the ion trail of an Iteron

Aii's here, but is Aii really here? No, he's back in empire space, still shuffling ships around. That gives me another reason to scan, to give him a new entrance, as well as looking to make new friends in w-space. The home system looks clear, and jumping to the neighbouring class 3 system looks just as clear. A tower with no ships appears when I update my directional scanner from the wormhole, but with nowhere to hide in this tiny system I'll take that result.

Launching probes and blanketing the system reveals nine anomalies and eight signatures, which give me, yep, some sites, plus two wormholes. The static exit leads to a low-sec system in Essence, a mutated handful of jumps to Dodixie, and returning to C3a and warping to the suspected outbound connection finds a T405. A wormhole to class 4 w-space is good indeed for further exploration, as it is guaranteed to lead to at least one more w-space system. Let's see where it takes me.

D-scan is clear, one planet sits out of range. I launch probes and perform a blanket scan, giving me eight anomalies, seven signatures, and two ships. The ships must be out by that distant planet, which I am already warping to, and d-scan shows me two towers to go with the ships. I doubt the Thanatos carrier is piloted, but the Iteron hauler might be. But just because it's small doesn't mean it has a pilot. I've noticed a curious tendency for corporations leave a couple of industrial ships free-floating inside their force fields of late.

To find the ships means finding the towers. I narrow d-scan's beam and sweep it across the moons. The Thanatos is at one tower, and the Iteron is, oh, gone. But is it still in the system? Is it collecting planet goo? My probes can answer the first question, but I don't have time to wait for them to complete a scan. I just turn my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser around and warp back to the inner system where I see that, yes, the Iteron is still here and, yes, he probably is gooing.

I warped to an arbitrary customs office, not the first and not the last, but the Iteron isn't here. Pinging the other offices in turn finds the hauler with little delay, and knowing that he's not been out long I think I've got a fair chance of catching up with him. Instead of waiting for him to come to me I warp my Loki towards the Iteron, pinging d-scan every couple of seconds. He's still there, still there, still there... and gone. No matter. I swing d-scan around again and find the Iteron's new destination, by which time my Loki is ready to warp again.

I've been pretty quick in finding and keeping up with the Iteron, and the hauler hasn't shown the speed I associate with capsuleers of heightened anxiety, so when I land at the next customs office to see the Iteron still there I'm pretty sure I've caught him already. The hauler looks motionless but, to be honest, I don't think it matters if he's getting ready to leave. If he's aligning to warp back to his tower I will only get a shot if I decloak and aim for him now. And if he's going to another customs office, I can catch him if he cancels warp to try to flee to his tower, and will almost overtake the clumsy industrial ship in warp if he does get away.

Decloak, lock, shoot. My warp scrambler holds the hauler in place, but I burn towards it and give it a loving bump just in case it has a predilection for fitting warp core stabilisers. It's a straightforward kill, as it turns out. The Iteron is ripped apart, the pod is ejected, and even though it looks like I've stopped the pod in its tracks, my autocannons itching to fire again, the capsuleer uses some wizardry to flee. So it's just me and the wreck, until I loot and shoot it. I reload my guns, cloak, and warp back towards the towers.

That was a nice kill. Uncomplicated and fun, having to catch up behind an active gooing hauler is a bit more involved than following the exhaust trail from a tower. And back at the tower, the pod is thrown in to a Buzzard covert operations boat that warps to empty space shortly afterwards. I don't see any probes being launched though, so I probably won't see him again. Never mind, I have my own probes. I'll scan, if he doesn't want to.

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

Poking and being poked

Just the static wormhole to resolve in the home system gives me an easy start to the evening. And ships and a couple of towers visible on my directional scanner in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system gives me a little hope for finding activity so soon, until I see a lack of wrecks, probes, or any other sign of actual life. Locating the towers is simplicity itself too, because, holy moly, there are eight planets in the system but only two moons. A Wolf assault frigate is at one tower, a Hurricane battlecruiser and Buzzard covert operations boat at the other, all empty of capsuleers.

A lack of pilots means the tiny system offers no disadvantage for not being able to hide out of d-scan range to launch probes. There's no one to hide from. Three anomalies and seven signatures give the usual gas, rocks, static exit to low-sec. And leaving w-space puts me in Khanid. Pout, in fact. I remember this system. My glorious leader didn't take kindly to the name, but I'm not one to, uh... Well, anyway, scanning resolves a magnetometric site and wormhole in the low-sec system, a K162 from another unfortunate class 3 system. Let's see if I can make whoever's in there even more unfortunate.

D-scan is clear from the wormhole in C3b, and exploring finds a tower with a piloted Manticore stealth bomber floating inside its force field. I want to warp away to launch probes covertly but the system is again small, giving nowhere to hide. But wait a minute, wasn't d-scan clear from the wormhole? Yes, Penny, it was. Well spotted. The canny placement of the tower has been negated by devious Sleeper technology creating a decent safe spot. Even so, I can't scan without my probes being obvious, it's just that the Manticore pilot, if he's awake, won't know what is scanning his system.

A wormhole, two rock sites, one gas site. The wormhole leads back to class 4 w-space in an eerie mirror of our half of the constellation. I jump through the connection, keen to see what Evil Penny looks like. A tower with a Rorqual capital industrial ship, Mammoth hauler, and Badger hauler is an uncanny replica of our system, except for the ships, and the lack of a pulsar. Never mind. The ships are all empty, quelling my bloodlust temporarily, and I launch probes to look for further K162s.

I concentrate on the chubby signatures of the sixteen in the system, plucking one wormhole out of the noise fairly early in my search. A Buzzard appears as I keep sifting, presumably cloaks and warps, so on a whim I recall my probes and warp to the one wormhole I found, where I see the Buzzard jump further back along the constellation. I follow, wondering why I'm even bothering to try to catch it, and end up in empty space around a wormhole in a different class 4 w-space system.

Whether the Buzzard saw my jump or warped away beforehand I can't say, but the cov-ops doesn't appear on d-scan alongside the tower, Orca industrial command ship, Dominix battleship, and Dramiel frigate. Maybe he's headed back a system further, or sitting here keeping an eye on me. But no ships come to the wormhole, and when I go to them they are all empty of pilots. Further back, perhaps. I continue scanning for wormholes, resolving two more amongst the ten anomalies in the system. Yet another C4 K162 is a possibility, but I rather prefer the look of the K162 from class 2 w-space.

My instincts are good. And bad. But good. A Venture mining frigate appears alone on d-scan in C2a, but my notes from a previous visit have the system being occupied by reds. Proper reds too, not reds I set as a joke. And just to confirm that I am in a pretty hostile system a Proteus appears on d-scan, dropping out of warp on top of the wormhole I've thankfully moved away from. A Legion is also on d-scan now, although this second strategic cruiser doesn't join the Proteus, who is launching probes near the wormhole. This doesn't stop me hunting the Venture, it just means I will probably die if I do.

Warping out, launching probes, and blanketing the system sees four signatures—at least two of which will be wormholes—and twelve ships. That gives me pause for thought, but dying to a dozen ships isn't much different from dying to two. The Venture blips off d-scan, certainly not making me feel relieved about having to make a decision, and I am definitely pleased when he returns a minute later. I suppose I should hunt him.

Being 7 AU away from the target will make probe placement a little awkward, so I warp to a nearer planet. 3·3 AU is better. I narrow down the frigate's position, cluster my probes around him, and scan. It's a good result, with the Venture chomping on rocks and not sucking gas, explaining the need to empty his hold, and I warp his way. Unfortunately, it seems I was spotted, probably. I end up near a rock of arkanor with no Venture in sight, and I think my slightly poor reaction time with recalling my probes is to blame. At least there isn't a Legion sitting nearby waiting for me.

My glorious leader, however, has found the scanning Proteus on her way from our home system to join up with me. In one of our ship-killer Legions, Fin engaged the Proteus but saw it slip back through a wormhole to evade her. It could be coming home now, and without the Venture to pop I may as well see if I can intercept its return. Our paths converge. The Proteus jumps through the wormhole from C4b, Fin's somewhere in that direction and coming this way, and I'm ready and waiting for the strategic cruiser to appear.

I'm decloaked with systems hot ready to engage, and pounce on the appearing Proteus. He returns my fire, adding drones to his blasters, as a second Proteus decloaks and mimics his colleague. That makes sense. The Proteus wasn't running as much as heading towards support, trying to lure Fin to engage on terms much more favourable to him. We were kind of hoping to do the same, but having two Proteuses and their drones blapping at my collection of girders wrapped in gaffer tape quickly takes its toll. I flee through the wormhole, moving and cloaking as one of the reds takes his time following me.

Still alive, but with no explosions of the good kind either, it's time to head home for the night. We're not going to do anything but die to the red ships, and they've presumably already scared away or destroyed any other targets in the constellation. Even if they haven't, they'll no doubt be watching and waiting for us to make ourselves targets. But it's been a good evening scanning, hunting, and shooting. There'll be more adventure tomorrow.

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Tags: buzzard, dominix, dramiel, eve online, hurricane, legion, loki, mammoth, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, rorqual, scanning, venture, w-space, wolf

Prodding a Purifier

Bye bye, Drakey. I watched the battlecruiser warp away from the radar site in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, too nervous to engage it because of its buddy in the Loki strategic cruiser. That doesn't stop me following it home, though. What stops me is that the wormhole it used resolves to be the static exit to low-sec and not a K162 from more w-space. An exit to low-sec with a Slasher sitting on it. The frigate warps before I land, so I can't do anything but watch where it heads and focus my probes in that direction.

Of course, my probes will be visible on the Slasher pilot's directional scanner, so I don't think I have any element of surprise. It's good, in that case, that I follow a ship still not heading to my w-space but to a K162 from high-sec empire space. A particularly stressed wormhole too, sitting at half mass and at the end of its life. I'm happy to ignore the connection by itself, and happier when a third wormhole crops up, this time actually linking w-space systems. The K162 from class 3 w-space is looking good right now.

Jumping to C3b has w-space returning to normal, d-scan showing me a tower and no ships, and no stinking empire space tourists cluttering up the system. The tower is the same from seven months earlier, and scanning through two anomalies and eleven signatures for wormholes finds a couple more. The static exit to low-sec is expected, taking me to Verge Vendor briefly, but the T405 wormhole is a nice surprise, being better than the K162 I was hoping for. I keep going down the rabbit hole, in to C4a.

D-scan is clear from the other side of the T405, and my notes from around six months ago remain relevant. I find a tower where I left it, with a Nidhoggur carrier inside the force field pre-oranged for my convenience. Seven signatures on top of the anomalies provide me with three wormholes, and none this time will lead to k-space. The static connection to class 4 w-space I know about, an EOL K162 from class 5 w-space doesn't look great, but the K162 from more class 4 w-space could hold activity.

Three towers, a Vagabond cruiser, and Rattlesnake battleship are all visible on d-scan in C4c, although a lack of wrecks makes the expensive ships look like window dressing. Having both ships in the one tower makes checking for pilots simpler, and it seems that the 'snake is piloted, for loose definitions of the word. Sure, it has a pilot on board, but I wouldn't call listing its way out of the force field 'piloting'. It looks more like the pilot is drunk and has slumped over the controls, sending the 'snake in motion in some arbitrary direction. Then again, as the battleship is well within range of the tower's defences, I'm not sure it really matters.

A quick calculation of the Rattlesnake's velocity means it would take well over half-an-hour of this poor piloting before I could fairly safely try to ambush the ship. To be honest, I've occasionally waited that long for ships to clear sites and throw a salvager at me, but at least I had a show to watch in the meantime. Hello, is that a change of direction? It is. I would think maybe the pilot burped or farted, shifting the controls slightly at the bodily convulsion, but now the 'snake seems to be pointing towards the wormhole to C4a. That it warps a minute later would suggest so. I follow behind.

The Rattlesnake has indeed warped to the wormhole, kinda. The ship lands a hundred kilometres short of the connection, so is not transiting systems to try to make ISK from another corporation's anomalies, which is a shame. Even more so, the 'snake returns to the tower, swaps to a Taranis, and instead sends the interceptor in to C4a. I dunno why either. Well, there's nothing left to do here, and the odds that the Taranis is sitting on the other side of the wormhole waiting for me are slim, so I jump back the way I came to see... a stealth bomber? That's a neat trick.

The Purifier is not just sitting on the wormhole, he's positioned himself to be right in the middle of it. Precise manoeuvring is a good indication that the pilot is awake, but I want to hold a mirror under his nose. I decloak, lock on to the bomber, and start shooting. I get a few rounds off before the Purifier, still disappointingly intact, jumps to C4c. I follow, knowing I'll be polarised but not really caring, only to see the Purifier get lucky and appear far enough away from the wormhole to cloak immediately. I suppose I'd better cloak too.

Watching d-scan from the wormhole shows the Purifier appear, no doubt at the tower, where he swaps first to a Machariel battleship and then a Rapier recon ship. The Rapier then disappears, presumed cloaked, and his colleague in the Taranis returns from wherever he went. The interceptor doesn't linger on the wormhole but heads straight for the tower, and an Anathema covert operations boat appears somewhere. Okay, nothing is going to happen in this system now, not with so many cloaky ships trying not to bump in to each other.

I still have another w-space system to explore. Indeed, there is a potential chain of w-space available to me, through the static connection in C4a to C4b. Or it would be, if I hadn't got my rough bookmarks mixed up. Because of the spatial difference between cosmic signatures and wormhole loci, it is standard practice to bookmark the cosmic signature from the scan results, warp to that, and create a new bookmark for the wormhole locus, deleting the rough and now-useless signature bookmark in the process. It seems I made a mistake in which signature was which.

Warping to the cosmic signature bookmark for the static wormhole in C4a lands me instead next to the dying K162 for C5a. I used the wrong signature identifier for this wormhole and so deleted the wrong rough bookmark. Of course, I can resolve the wormhole again, and I still know its identifier, which will make the process swift. But I think this mistake is a good sign to call it a night instead.

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Tags: anathema, eve online, loki, machariel, mmorpg, nidhoggur, penny ibramovic, purifier, pvp, rapier, rattlesnake, scanning, slasher, taranis, vagabond, w-space

Someone's always watching

The reds have gone, isolating their system from ours by collapsing the wormhole connection, and hopefully whatever they didn't find through our static wormhole has changed by now. I would say so. A cursory scan of the home system finds nothing changed, letting me warp directly to and jump through the wormhole I scanned earlier, to see on my directional scanner a Drake, salvage drones, Anathema, and lots of canisters. I smell Sleeper combat.

The Anathema covert operations boat is presumably present to hack databases or analyse artefacts, seeing as there are no probes visible but the boat is, and the canisters must be flotsam from Sleeper wrecks caused by the salvage drones. I've not used them, but they are salvage drones after all, not looting drones. But what this means is that I am not looking for a basic anomaly, and I'll need to launch scanning probes. Easily done. That planet out of d-scan range of the ships will do.

Sure enough, the ships aren't in either of the two anomalies, so I am aiming to resolve one of the ten signatures, preferably in a single scan. I aim d-scan towards their rough direction, note the distance as being around 5 AU, which is a little far but manageable, and start narrowing down their position. It doesn't take long to have the battlecruiser sitting down a five degree beam, along with, it appears, a Loki strategic cruiser. That rather puts a dampener on my ambush before I've even scanned.

I may be a match for the Drake, and for the Loki, but perhaps not both together. Unless, I suppose, that Loki is already ambushing the Drake, in which case we can happily both shoot at it and then turn on each other, Grosse Pointe Blank style. But whatever's happening, I won't know unless I get closer. I call my probes in to scan. No Anathema, 70% on the Loki, and a solid hit on the Drake. As for the site, it's apparently not there, which is news to me, them... everybody.

The site is obviously still there, as there are structures and cans and everything a seasoned capsuleer expects in a site. There's something screwy happening with site signatures disappearing, I tells you. More disappointingly, though, the Loki and Drake are both being friendly to each other. They're just tidying up, the Drake looting the cans his messy drones have left untouched, and the Loki is, um, stopping me ambushing the Drake. That's a shame, really, because if he'd stayed away a minute longer then they could have caught a fool in my Loki.

The Loki cloaks, which makes me consider my options again. Has he gone, will he return, how many more of them are there? I don't know any of that, and as a cloaky strategic cruiser is terribly unlikely to be fitted without a warp disruptor I don't have a warm feeling about engaging the seemingly solo Drake. Of course, that could just be another hull breach in this damn Minmatar rust bucket. Even so, I've got close to the only remaining wreck, which the Drake is approaching and setting his drones on, so I really should make a decision.

No decision is a decision, right? The salvage drones salvage the Sleeper wreck, and I sit passively and watch the Drake align out of the non-existent site and warp away to wherever he came from. Maybe it's for the best. And at least I saw which way he warped, so I should be able to resolve the wormhole they are using and see what they get up to next. That means scanning the system. I'd better launch my probes again.

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

Holding back

Empty ships and Sleeper explosions yesterday. What today? For a start, a second wormhole in the home system crops up in my scanning results, giving me a class 2 w-space system to explore beyond the K162. And jumping through sees a small fleet on my directional scanner. A peculiar fleet, though, as the two Guardian logistic ships, Damnation command ship, Brutix battlecruiser, and Broadsword heavy interdictor seem a little mismatched.

The fleet certainly isn't out shooting Sleepers, and I don't even bother checking for wrecks, but they seem a little skewed away from damage and towards support to be particularly effective against other ships. But what do I know? The most I can tell at the moment is that they aren't at a tower, or this K162. Sweeping d-scan around has a curious result too, as it looks like the ships are at a nearby planet. But warping there finds nothing.

A second d-scan sweep shows the ships to be between the planet and wormhole to our home system, which cannot be coincidence. Now, I could warp backwards and forwards and eventually, if slowly, find the grid the ships occupy, but that seems remarkably tedious considering I would not engage the ships directly even when I find them, not by myself. Instead, I leave them to their whatever it is they're doing, and warp off to look for occupation and launch scanning probes.

Two towers are elsewhere in the system, with no one home. The system is occupied by reds too, which is a little foreboding. My combat scanning probes also detect six anomalies, three signatures, and the ships I've already seen. As the only signature out by the wormhole home is the wormhole home, I warp back there to see if the fleet is now sitting on it, but they are still in space. Empty space, I now know. That's weird.

I resolve the other two signatures discreetly, which turn out to be a radar site and static exit to high-sec empire space, before turning my probes to find the ships. I'm intrigued. It's not hard to complete quickly, and I recall my probes and am soon in and out of warp to see the ships all piloted, all stationary, and all doing nothing. They aren't even performing manoeuvres, which is pretty much what I expected.

The Brutix warped away as I landed, so I turn my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser towards the high-sec wormhole, getting the exit and looking for the battlecruiser at the same time. There's no Brutix on d-scan in range of the towers, and no Brutix or other reds in the system in Solitude either. Back to C2a, and warping past the towers sees a new Proteus strategic cruiser and Heron frigate, but they're doing about as much as the mystery fleet and I don't care to watch static.

An Abaddon battleship appears on d-scan at the second tower, warps to the first, and then to the fleet. I follow behind and see it be just as active as the support ships, which is simply fascinating. I'm going home. But as I drop out of warp near the wormhole the fleet disappears from d-scan. That's fancy timing. I hold for a minute to see if—the wormhole flares, and a Loki comes through, red, from our home system. A second flare and third, and another Loki and a Proteus return too as an Armageddon appears on d-scan. The battleship drops on top of the wormhole and jumps as a Loki launches scanning probes.

Okay, it all makes sense now. The fleet sent cloaky scouts ahead, all in dangerous strategic cruisers, whilst the support fleet held in a (not particularly) safe spot waiting to be called in to action. Evidently, the scouts found nothing and have returned with the intention of collapsing their static connection, hoping for better luck in a different w-space constellation. Two more Armageddons warp to the wormhole to help with its inevitable collapse, so it looks like I really should leave soon.

I wait for the two ships to jump out and back, making them polarised and limiting the number of ships that can actively follow me, before jumping home. The Proteus gives chase ambivalently, giving me plenty of time to move away from the wormhole and cloak safely, and I sit off the wormhole and watch as it is slowly closed.

It takes a little while, needing three trips with a heavy interdictor to collapse the critically destabilised wormhole, but eventually the connection disappears. Bye bye, reds. Better luck with the next wormhole. And, I suppose, it's bye bye from me too for now. If the reds found no targets, neither will I. I may as well take a break, grab a sammich, and hope for change by the time I return.

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Tags: abaddon, armageddon, broadsword, brutix, damnation, eve online, guardian, heron, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, w-space

Hauling haulers

No one's home, but a bookmark has been left for me. It looks to point towards our static wormhole, which ostensibly should save time. I'll still scan, of course, as new signatures could have cropped up, but if I get the expected number of sites it will be trivial to check that the bookmark remains relevant and warp quickly to the wormhole. So, naturally, nothing is as it seems.

There is just the one signature in the system, but it doesn't correspond to the bookmark. Our static wormhole has been opened, collapsed, and replaced, one way or another. But no matter. I have probes out and I was going to resolve the wormhole anyway, so it's not like this is a major chore that will have me rage-quitting. An empty neighbouring system won't either, as that's pretty normal. Plus, the class 3 w-space system only looks empty from the K162. There is more space beyond the range of my directional scanner.

Launching combat scanning probes, blanketing the system, and warping to where a tower should be has my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser ending up still in empty space. How can my notes from seventeen months ago be wrong? It's mind-boggling. Still, along with eleven anomalies and seven signatures are four ships, so I warp across to another distant planet optimistic about finding occupation. And I do, I think. Or not. What? There are three Bestower haulers and an Imicus frigate out here, but I can't see a tower. And not just a lack of force field, or hangars, but switching views sees nothing but planets, moons, and the ships floating freely.

Warping to a particular moon finds the ships, all empty of pilots. I can pilot them all, so there's little point in destroying them just for the fireworks, but it would be prudent to scan for other wormholes before I try to take them home, in case someone else is watching too. The odds are pretty slim, but I'd rather not end up as a humorous tale of coincidence in some other capsuleer's journal. Scan, scan, scan. Gas, gas, wormhole, rocks, gas, gas. Okay, it's just me and the static exit to low-sec, which I'll assume to be closed. Let's grab some new ships.

I could fly to and from our system a few times, or I could be smarter. I have Orca powers, and the industrial command ship can carry ships in its own hangar. Making one trip should be better than four, particularly with polarisation concerns when making multiple jumps through a wormhole. I dump my Loki at our tower, grab the Orca, and head back to C3a to scoop everything in one fell swoop, just as my glorious leader comes on-line. That's good, as she can make up for my embarrassing ignorance.

The Orca's hangar isn't as big as I imagined. Or Bestowers are bigger than I think. I throw one of the haulers in to the Orca and try for a second, but it won't fit. I really should learn my ships at some point. But all is not lost. Fin can help bring the ships home, which will reduce time lost to polarisation delays, and I can still squeeze the Imicus next to the Bestower, reducing the total number of trips by one anyway. It's not quite as smooth as I'd hoped, but we recover some plain industrial ships and a crappy scanning frigate for... some purpose. Explosions may have been better.

Okay, now what? 'Should I put an Orca through the wormhole?' We may as well. Anomalies are starting to build up in the home system again, and the last time we waited a couple of days to clear them ourselves they were stolen before we could. But not the Orca. I should jump a Widow through first, to prove the wormhole's mass. And the return trip by the black ops ship drops the connection to half mass. One more jump by each of us should kill the wormhole, which, after one more delay for polarisation effects, it does. Now for the explosions.

Starting a little later than usual means I am comfortable only clearing a couple of anomalies, but any ISK we can generate helps. All goes smoothly too, Sleepers blowing up all over the place and our two Tengu strategic cruisers barely getting their shields scratched. Salvaging the wrecks brings home rather more than we average too. Three hundred million ISK of loot is a good result for clearing a couple of sites of Sleepers. That should help me feel less guilty about spending so much time looking for other ships to shoot.

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Tags: bestower, eve online, imicus, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space, widow

Forgoing further exploration for fuel

One site and the static wormhole does not equal four signatures. There's something fishy here. Oh, nope. It's just some new gas pockets. That explains the smell. Problem solved, I warp to the wormhole and see what our neighbours are up to. A clear result from my directional scanner suggests nothing much is happening at all, and with a single moon out of d-scan range, and even then only just, I'm not holding out hope for occupation. But, after launching scanning probes and blanketing the system, I end up warping directly to a tower.

That wormhole is in a nifty place in the system, given that there is nowhere else that offers a position to hide from the tower. I should probably save it for later incursions, but given the capricious nature of both w-space connections and capsuleer activity I doubt such a bookmark would offer any real benefit. There's no one home at the moment to take by surprise, for example. Still, I can label the bookmark and see if I remember to store it somewhere it won't get deleted. And now, I scan.

The few signatures in this class 3 w-space system offer a couple of wormholes, a lovely K162 from class 2 w-space giving me a better direction to continue than through the conventional static exit to low-sec. And in C2a d-scan shows me two Badger haulers, a Raven battleship, and two towers. My notes don't let me warp to either tower quickly, in case the haulers are about to collect planet goo, as my previous visit a year ago had just one tower in a different position. I'll just spin d-scan around for a bit, as that normally works.

One tower holds no ships, which makes it easier to decide to warp to the other, where I can see nothing is piloted. Oh well, back to scanning. A lack of anomalies may be why no one local is on-line, but seven signatures give me gas, some other sites I suppose, and two more wormholes. That's a bonus. The first is the second static link, which takes me to a high-sec system in The Citadel that's pretty much close to everything, which is neat, and the second is an outbound connection to more class 2 w-space. Also neat.

Pressing on to C2b has an Orca industrial command ship, Anathema covert operations boat, and tower on d-scan, with just one planet in range. I guess the tower's around that. Locating the tower sees the Anathema piloted, but there's nothing else in the system, not even scanning probes. You know what? It's quiet and we have a good connection to high-sec. I think I'll go to Jita in an Orca.

I abandon exploration to go home, swap my scanning boat for the massive Orca, and try to remember what it is I keep asking Fin or Aii to get me whenever I'm too lazy to hit the market myself. I should probably keep a list of what I need. I'm not sure why I don't already, as I write everything else down. Anyway, we can always use more fuel pellets for the tower, even if trying to check how much we have finds a bunch of blueprints for the blocks. Maybe Fin's making it now. I dunno. I'll buy some more anyway.

Getting to high-sec has a bit of a hitch, as entering C2a sees a Dominix battleship new to d-scan. Typical, really. Still, I'm here in an Orca, I may as well make a break for the high-sec wormhole and hope I go unnoticed. It's the journey back that will be more interesting. And it kind of is. Jita is fine, and I buy enough fuel blocks to fill the Orca, plus a few sundries that I remember. But heading home has my passing the wreck of a Providence freighter off a stargate, so someone is having a bad day.

My actual journey home is fine, though. I reach the high-sec entrance to C2a and jump in to w-space, where no one waits for me. Of course, it would be more prudent to lurk near the wormhole linking w-space systems, so that I can't escape back to the security of empire space when ambushed. But, then, which wormhole would I use? There are links to class 3 and class 2 w-space here, so making the wrong choice could be bad. I suppose that's why we stick cloaky scouts near the entrance and watch the direction of warp.

But no one's here today, not that I notice. I warp across C2a, jump to C3a, and cross that system to reach home and our tower safely enough. I restock the tower with fuel—well, I restock our stockpile, as I topped up the tower before I left for Jita—and swap back in to a slightly more agile ship. But I'm not going anywhere else. A bit of scanning and a trip to high-sec makes me tingle with a feeling of productivity. I think I'll call it a successful evening and go off-line.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Forgoing further exploration for fuel
Tags: anathema, badger, dominix, eve online, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, providence, raven, scanning, w-space

Terror of w-space

Hello, I have an invitation to join a fleet, from party unknown. What the hell, I accept, mysterious stranger. I make sure my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser is pointed in some arbitrary direction and moving at full speed before I do, on the unlikely chance that the fleet is in the home system, the even more unlikely chance that the pilots know me, and that they are about to drop ships on top of my location. Nope, it's a mistake, I'm sure, as the fleet isn't in the system and the other pilots are talking about piratical deeds. It doesn't take long for the Classy Gentlemans Corporation to twig that I'm not meant to be in their fleet, even if I shouldn't have been there in the first place, so once again flying solo it's on to business.

Nothing new at home sends me quickly to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where the typical tower with no visible ships appears on my directional scanner from the other side of the wormhole. My sixth visit to the system, I soon confirm the tower as being in the same spot as three months earlier, and I know I'm looking for a standard exit to low-sec empire space. And I am looking for it, with no one in this system. My scanning probes whiz around the eight anomalies and eleven signatures, picking up gas, more gas, and, well, the important signatures are the two wormholes. One is the pristine static connection to low-sec, and the other is less interesting, somehow, being a K162 from null-sec.

Heading to low-sec puts me in a system in Metropolis. Dullopolis, more like. Scanning finds one extra signature, which is a wormhole, but a sucky wormhole. Some connections suck more than others, and this is a K162 from null-sec leading in to low-sec, so it sucks pretty hard. Still, I guess I'm going to null-sec, so I suck it up and, actually, no. I'm going home, to collapse our static connection. A couple of big ships later and core scanning probes appear on d-scan in C3a, but there's not much I care to do about them at the moment, and I trust our newly unhealthy wormhole to deter intruders at this point. It seems to work, as I Orca the wormhole to death and verb the English language in to submission simultaneously.

Starting afresh, jumping to the new C3a has nothing appear on d-scan, which could be worse than before if it weren't for the two planets sitting out of range. A blanket scan reveals a ship somewhere too, but it turns out to be a Thanatos carrier, unpiloted of course, inside a tower's force field. I keep scanning my way further from the home system, and pluck a wormhole from the four anomalies and twenty signatures present. It's chubby too, so not the expected static exit to high-sec, and warping its way plants me next to an N968 outbound connection to more class 3 w-space. I'm tempted to ignore the rest of the C3a and move onwards, so that's what I do.

C3b is the same deal as C3a. Clear d-scan, two planets out of range. The only change is that lack of a carrier sitting inside the distant tower, and a reduction in the number of signatures to sift through. Three wormholes crop up in the scanning results, one weak enough to be an outbound link again. The static exit to low-sec leads to Domain, I don't care to see where the K162 from high-sec was opened from, and the weak wormhole is a lovely connection to class 2 w-space. I'll go that way.

The class 2 system has a tower and ships visible on d-scan for a change, but all four are logistics ships—a Basilisk, Oneiros, and two Scimitars—so unless the pilots intend to bore Sleepers to death I doubt anything is happening. A blanket scan reveals thirteen anomalies, seventeen signatures, and just those four ships, and as they all turn out to be unsurprisingly empty I'm back to looking for wormholes. I find the standard two for class 2 w-space, with connections to another C2 and a low-sec system giving me an easy choice, even if the exit weren't at the end of its life.

A tower and no ships in C2b feels like a step backwards, but there's a continuous amount of pilots, I suppose. A visit from two months earlier informs me of the location of two towers and the static connections to class 3 w-space and high-sec empire space, but a third tower crops up too. I think maybe I missed it on my last visit, where I spooked a couple of Drake battlecruisers out of a radar site, who then came back and baited me in to an ambush I was thankfully prepared for. There's no one home today, so I launch probes, resolve both wormholes from the seven signatures, and poke my nose in to C3b if only because I've come this far.

Probes and a pod is a weird combination to see on d-scan, particularly with no tower to accompany them. Immediately curious, I launch my combat scanning probes to look for the pod, but he's not staying still. Giving up on chasing such a small target I revert to performing a blanket scan of the system, which reveals too many anomalies and signatures to care about scanning deeper. There are two ships somewhere, though, so expecting to find a tower and the pod I warp across the system instead to see a lack of tower and an Imicus. What's more peculiar is that the frigate is lacking a pilot, and, judging by its name, the same pilot who's currently warping around in his pod.

I'm not shooting an empty ship, despite my growing need for explosions. There doesn't seem much point, for a start. More importantly, the pilot may return to it, which would make the ship a rather more valid target than an empty one, even if still just a frigate. The pod disappears from my probes, perhaps thwarting my intentions, but I give him a minute and he returns.

A minute longer and he appears near the Imicus, but, at 170 km, a little too far to re-board his ship. He's also a little far to engage, until I realise that I still have combat scanning probes available to use and that he certainly is above the 150 km range required for warp engine use. I also know exactly where the pod is, making scanning him a trivial exercise.

I bring my probes in from their blanket scanning configuration, cluster them at minimum range around the planet the pod, the Imicus, and myself are all sitting on, and scan. Sure enough, I resolve the pod's position. A quick warp later and I'm decloaking and brutally executing a capsuleer who maybe just got lost in w-space and didn't know how to get back to his ship.

Maybe he just needed to be told that if he couldn't warp to his ship directly then bookmarking its location and warping to the bookmark works wonders, in the same way as it does for wormholes. But I don't find this out, because so much scanning can addles one's mind, and I shot first and didn't even ask questions later. One of these days I may be amiable and helpful. Just not today.

Of course, much like a god, a corpse has no need for a starship, so I warp back to the Imicus and blow that up too, looting what little can be found in the wreck before also destroying the wreck. I'm a real terror of w-space.

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Tags: basilisk, eve online, imicus, loki, mmorpg, oneiros, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, scimitar, thanatos, w-space

Not getting involved

I'm back and looking for more than a simple scanning frigate. I won't find that at home, but I was planning to roam the current constellation and probe for new connections, so that's okay. Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system sees no change, and a blanket scan reveals anomalies, signatures, pretty much what was here before. The numbers match my earlier counts so I am confident nothing new has appeared, which is really why I make a note of such numbers. This leaves me one direction to go, and I exit through the static wormhole to low-sec empire space.

A pilot tagged in orange is in the local communication channel in the low-sec system, but what shade of orange is that? I can't tell if the corporation lives in the C3 behind me or the C5 starting a new arm of the constellation from low-sec, or deeper. No ships register on my directional scanner from C3a's K162, and warping to the N432 wormhole has no change on d-scan. The pilot may be getting drunk in a station, so I ignore him for now and continue my roam in to C5a.

Hello, Stiletto interceptor on the K162 in C5a. What to do, what to do. Engage or evade? An update of d-scan sees a Scorpion battleship and Hurricane battlecruiser new to the system, but they aren't on the wormhole yet. Okay, I'll evade if I can, and engage if caught. Move, cloak, jink. No reaction from the Stiletto, which is unexpected, but it gets me safe. I'm curious to see what he's doing here, particularly as the pilot isn't tagged as a corporation in the known constellation, so I loiter at a safe distance for a minute.

The wormhole flares and a pod enters C5a from low-sec. The Stiletto stirs but misses stopping Mr Orange from warping clear. So the interceptor is awake, and I stood no chance of catching the pilot returning home. Both are good to know. A Tornado battlecruiser soon warps to the wormhole to join the Stiletto, after which the wormhole flares and a Prowler enters the system. He cloaks, either unfazed by the pilots or, more likely, a colleague of them, and that's the last I see of the transport. I doubt the combat ships are acting as escorts, though, as they stay on the wormhole.

I'm keeping d-scan updated as I sit cloaked near the wormhole, and notice a Hound stealth bomber blip on and off the return. It's not a bombing run that's planned, though, as instead three local battlecruisers—a Drake, Brutix, and Hurricane—warp to the wormhole and engage the ships there. Well, the Drake does, the other two jump immediately to low-sec. Maybe they are watching d-scan more intently than me, perhaps because they don't have eyes directly on the wormhole, and know what's coming.

The Drake is left alone for a second, as the Tornado and Stiletto jump to low-sec, no doubt giving chase to the other ships, but only for a second. Two Talos and one Naga battlecruiser all drop on top of the wormhole and give the Drake a fight, forcing the last of the three locals to jump to low-sec as a third Talos and a Proteus strategic cruiser turn up a little late. It must be quite a scrap out there. And back they come, several of the ships now flagged for criminal activities. Fancy that.

The Drake makes a break for it, his buddies dead or fled in low-sec, and naturally doesn't make it with an interceptor on his case. The Drake pops, the pilot ejecting moments early to help him get his pod clear. You know, as interesting as this is to watch, I'm thinking I need a new constellation. All I need to do is get past that Stiletto. That should be easy, right? Maybe. All but the interceptor warp off in a direction suggestive of a new wormhole, and the Stiletto jumps to low-sec. That's actually good.

I approach the wormhole, hoping the interceptor returns early, as that will make him polarised and allow me to exit without being chased. And the Stiletto does come back early. I get ready to jump, just as I realise I could actually engage the Stiletto now, as I could exit without being followed if it went badly, but it's too late. The Stiletto warps off just as I decloak, joining his colleagues, no doubt happy with the Drake kill and not seeing anything on the other side of the wormhole. That works for me too.

I return to low-sec, move away from the clear wormhole, and warp back homewards. Two oranges are in local and, in a fit of feeling uncharacteristically helpful, update them about the situation in C5a. They probably won't believe me, but that's okay. I've given them the information, what they do with it is up to them. I return to w-space, warp across C3a, and get home, where I start to isolate myself from all these shenanigans by throwing big ships through our static connection.

A few jumps later and our wormhole is gone. A new one pops up like a Weeble, and I warp to it and jump through to look for targets more appropriate for a Penny. D-scan is clear from the K162, and my notes point me in a direction opposite to where ships appear on a blanket scan. The tower from eleven months ago has been replaced by another on the other side of the system, but the ships my combat probes detected are all empty and inside the tower. I sift through the fifteen anomalies and twelve signatures to continue my search, and come up with two wormholes.

The static exit to low-sec is ignored in favour of the N968 to more class 3 w-space, and jumping in to C3b looks like I've found something I could shoot at. A Bestower hauler and Skiff mining barge appear on d-scan, along with a couple of towers. All I need is for them to be piloted. And sweeping d-scan around to locate the towers and seeing both of them and the Skiff but not the Bestower makes me think I actually do have a piloted target, one collecting planet goo. Trying to catch gooing in progress is not that easy, though.

D-scan puts the Bestower at the sixth planet, but if I warp there I'll be too late, so I head to the fifth. No, this isn't the hauler's next destination, and I use d-scan again to find the ship is around the first planet now. I still won't catch the ship from here, so pulse d-scan until the Bestower disappears, and as quickly as possible locate its new destination. Third planet. Initiate warp, best speed. I make good time, arriving at the customs office to see the Bestower there, but with engines flaring as the hauler prepares to enter warp. Now I've got it, as I can see directly where the Bestower goes. Back to the first planet? I'm right behind you.

I have plenty of time now. I decloak, burn towards the Bestower, and get all my offensive systems working. I even get close enough to nudge the hauler a little, not that I, oh. I think I did need to bump the Bestower a little harder. Despite my three-point warp scrambler being active on the hauler, it warps clear with little fuss.

Oh well, if someone takes the precaution to fit so many warp core stabilisers to his ship there's not much I can do. I follow the Bestower back to one of the towers, where the Skiff joins it and both pilots swap to scanning boats, but I'm not staying. They know I'm here, there's nowhere to hide in the system, and I don't fancy scanning or collapsing any more anyway. I'm going home to get some rest, after a pretty interesting evening.

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Tags: bestower, brutix, drake, eve online, hound, hurricane, mmorpg, naga, penny ibramovic, proteus, prowler, pvp, scanning, scorpion, skiff, stiletto, talos, tornado, w-space