Back to normal

We're not going to beat yesterday's Tengu kill any time soon, so let's get a disappointing evening's lack of adventure out of the way quickly, shall we? The home system looks clear tonight, or clear of ships, at least. Five new signatures have cropped up rather suddenly. Well, three, as one ladar site and our static wormhole are known and expected. The others are all more gas, making me glad to have Aii back home and leaving me just one way to go.

Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system has a tower with no ships appear on my directional scanner, and a black hole puckered beneath me. Yep, it's back to normal all right. Warp out, launch, blanket. Four anomalies, twelve signatures. Looking for the static exit to low-sec empire space has me ignoring the usual sites, although no rocks this time, and has me find only the wormhole exiting w-space. I still have just the one way to go.

The low-sec connection takes me to a faction warfare system in Metropolis, far from a market hub. Scanning again takes its time, as the system is big enough to require multiple scans just to see the two extra signatures, and all to resolve a radar site and a Minor Angel Annex. Never mind, the night's still young, I can go home, crash our wormhole, and start again. Some big ships, polarisation delays, and a bit of maths implodes our static connection without issues, and I get back in to my scanning ship to look for the replacement wormhole.

A new neighbouring system looks clear on d-scan from our K162. That's fine, as it lets me launch scanning probes covertly, and the system may not be unoccupied. Indeed, my notes from four months ago point me towards a tower. A tower with a Badger. A piloted Badger. An active piloted Badger? Not at the moment, but I float outside the force field waiting to see if the hauler is building up the enthusiasm to collect planet goo.

Another look at my notes, as a blanket scan reveals one anomaly, eleven signatures, and the one ship, reminds me that the system holds a static exit to high-sec empire space, and that an extra tower was present during my last visit. That second tower was off-line, with short-lived hangars out of which popped a Rifter frigate and Drake battlecruiser, all whilst a Badger sat in this on-line tower out of d-scan range. Is it the same Badger? I don't know, but he's about as active.

Wait, wait, wait. There's no movement from the Badger, but a new contact appears in an Orca, the industrial command ship warping in to the tower and—kapwing!—bouncing hard off a hangar. The poor pilot goes off-line to hide his shame, or perhaps to avoid the interminably slow manoeuvring of the Orca back towards the hangars. Whatever, he's gone, and there's not even a chuckle or facepalm from the Badger. I'll scan.

The high-sec wormhole is easy enough to identify when resolving it, but a second wormhole catches my attention. I leave the Badger to its night of nothing and warp to what turns out to be a K162 from class 2 w-space. That's pretty neat, although jumping in to the system to see an Orca and two towers doesn't fill me with optimism. The towers are the same as from nine months ago, although a third is now missing; the Orca is, of course, unpiloted; and the static wormholes lead to class 3 w-space and high-sec. I came here through the w-space connection, and I don't care to look for the other.

I think that's it for tonight. A bit of scanning, killing a wormhole, and some waiting for an absent pilot to do something. That's a pretty standard evening, and nothing to be disappointed about. Returning to C3a has the Badger still on d-scan, but gone when I fly past the tower. He's not collecting planet goo, though, but gone off-line. I'll do the same, when home and in a safe spot, with the evening having gone as planned for once.

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

Blowing up billions

Yesterday's gas cloud has dispersed, so it's just me and the wormhole in the home w-space system. Oh, hmm, and that Tengu. The strategic cruiser appears when I first ping my directional scanner, curiously after I check to see if the gas is still around. But there he is, a sole Tengu, apparently not doing much. There are no wrecks, no other ships with him, and he's not in a site. Well, whatever he's up to, I can use my combat scanning probes to find him, once I get out of range to launch them.

Hello, fleet. Seven more Tengus and a Scimitar logistics ship are on the other side of the system, and these ships are creating wrecks. Maybe the other Tengu is taking a snack break, sitting on their K162 or in a safe spot. Either way, the fleet is straightforward to find, as they are in an anomaly, and I probably haven't been spotted as they don't bug out before I find them. The ships are performing a conga around the Sleepers, perhaps using speed to mitigate most of the incoming damage, as they appear to be moving faster than standard propulsion modules would allow.

There's not much I can do about the fleet directly, but I am happy for action to fall in to my lap this evening instead of having to look for it. I make a perch in the active anomaly and watch the ships clear the Sleepers, waiting for the inevitable salvager to arrive. She isn't the salvager but glorious leader Fin arrives, and hides quickly as usual. I update her about the fleet and my intentions, just as a new Tengu warps in to the site, which has one Sleeper ship remaining, and starts to loot and salvage.

A salvaging strategic cruiser puts a dampener on circumstances. Even if we had access to our ship-killer Legion strategic cruiser, which would mean revealing ourselves on d-scan, if not to a scout, to swap ships at the tower, the Tengu would probably take too long to kill. The fleet could return, the Scimitar repair the salvager, and the combat Tengus rip us apart. Still, it's worth a go. As best she can, Fin warps in to the tower, swaps to the Legion, and warps out to cloak again. And the salvaging Tengu flees from the cleared anomaly. That's something, I suppose.

As the fleet know we're here, I may as well scan and find their wormhole. I launch probes out of d-scan range of the ships, and, well, I think I'm resolving their wormhole, as it's where the entire fleet is, but I've only found the next anomaly they are clearing, which I've already bookmarked. The fleet don't warp out either, so either they're not checking d-scan, which I doubt, or they just don't care. I continue scanning anyway, partly hoping to scare them away, partly still looking for their wormhole, and resolve both our static wormhole and their K162 from class 4 w-space. Now what?

We've got the fleet's attention. A Helios covert operations boat, either having been watching our tower or their K162, has decloaked and is launching probes, no doubt looking for a possible new connection. That doesn't help us, but finding out that our visitors belong to a corporation that our class 5 system splinter group recently engaged and pretty much humiliated gets our colleagues agitated. 'They're ratting? Get us there!' We can do that. With any luck, I can scan through our neighbouring class 3 system to k-space, and find a route to get more ships to us. It's a good plan.

Or we can help ourselves to this solo Tengu in C3a instead. Jumping to C3a, fully with the intention to scan for the exit, sees the Tengu on d-scan, along with a tower and Hulk. But the presence of a dozen Sleeper wrecks has me punching my passive scanner to highlight the anomalies, supposing correctly that the Tengu is engaging Sleepers by itself. Even better, Fin's already in our ship killer. I get her to our wormhole as I warp to the located active anomaly, making a perch as I do, and gauging the situation.

It all looks pretty standard. The Tengu is shooting Sleepers, creating wrecks, and although he's moving he isn't going too fast or looking to be aligned out of the anomaly for a speedy exit. I warp in to get close, taking care not to fly through a wreck or get directly in the path of the Tengu, and confirm my suspicions. I think we've got a legitimate target here. What fleet back home?

I call Fin in to the system, and she jumps and moves away from the wormhole, cloaking. The Tengu doesn't flinch. Fin aligns towards my position as I wait for our target to destroy one of the two remaining Sleeper battleships. There's little point making our ambush harder than it needs to be. Pop. Fin, warp to me. I'm going in.

I decloak, gain a positive lock on the Tengu, and disrupt his warp engines as I get myself comfortable. Autocannons rattle projectiles towards the Tengu and I settle in to a decent orbit to mitigate some damage, as Fin's Legion appears a few kilometres from the tussle. I think I'm shooting the Tengu anyway. My guns are cycling, but the strategic cruiser's shields are not taking any damage. I know that we'll almost certainly have to drain his capacitor, neutralising any repair modules, before standing a chance of destroying the ship, but not even scratching his shields is a little troubling. More so because my shields are diving quickly.

The Tengu is damaging me pretty badly, and the Sleepers are taking his side too. My ancillary shield booster is rapidly running out of charges, without even keeping my shield afloat. I make sure Fin has point on the Tengu before warping back to my perch. I need to recharge. Fin's Legion keeps hold of the Tengu, still sucking away at its capacitor, as I reload one ASB and use the second to bring my shield back up to healthy levels. That done, I turn around and warp back to the combat.

Fin's done some damage to the Tengu now. Good. I regain point, get back in to an orbit, and get my guns chewing away at the now-dropping shields of our target. I'm keeping a watch on d-scan as we fight, aware that I've not scanned the system, and see the Hulk turn in to a shuttle. Curiously, the shuttle warps in to the anomaly, but sixty kilometres distant, before warping out again. I don't know what happened there, but an Onyx appearing on d-scan gives me some concern. Fin, align to the perch, just in case.

The heavy interdictor's warp bubble won't stop my Loki strategic cruiser, but it could cause problems for Fin. But not from a range of seventy kilometres, which is how far the Onyx appears from us in the anomaly. I don't know why. Fin returns to snuggle up the Tengu as its armour is now taking some nasty looking damage, and we ignore the ineffective HIC. Finish him! There's nothing the Tengu can do. He's run out of capacitor juice, his shields are gone, his armour is running out, and the hull may as well not be there. Pop!

I aim for the pod, and gain a positive lock on that too. Forgetting that Fin's targeting systems are a bit slower than mine, I crack open the pod pretty much instantly, releasing the inner corpse. We scoop, loot, and shoot, warp and cloak. It looks like leaving the fleet in the home system was a good decision, but it wasn't really. It was a great decision! Examining the kill report reveals our target wasn't just any Tengu, but a really expensive, deadspace-fitted Tengu. Approximately 2·8B ISK of ship and module, in fact. A deadspace shield booster and two deadspace shield boost amplifiers were fitted, along with faction and Tech II modules and rigs. No wonder the Tengu was a tough nut to crack.

The pod was quite a catch too. +5 implants across the board, and a Sansha Modified Gnome implant, which was doing nothing for the Tengu itself, all get destroyed in the hard vacuum of space, adding more than half-a-billion ISK to the total losses. That is beautiful. Only one deadspace module, a shield boost amplifier, survived the explosion, which is a shame, but its value, along with the rest of the loot Fin snagged from the wreck, gives us a gain of around one billion ISK. You know what, I think that's more value than the fleet can make from pillaging all of the few anomalies in our home system.

Fin and I sit for a while and bask in the glory of our most expensive and impressive kill to date, before wondering what to do next. And by 'next', I mean 'after telling everyone about our magnificent kill', which takes a good half-an-hour in itself. I locate the tower in C3a, which is small enough that there's nowhere to hide, making the kill sweeter, and see that the Tengu was unsurprisingly local. I could scan for the exit wormhole, but that seems redundant now. Our scrap lasted quite a while, the fleet at home is probably gone, and our colleague's exit is at the end of its life and not much use.

It's probably time to go home. Probably, because we're assuming the fleet has gone by now. Of course, they could be waiting for us, and we have a fair bit of ISK in loot we'd quite like to keep, not to mention our ships themselves. As Fin carries the loot, and I am in an interdiction nullified Loki, I throw myself through the K162 home first, to see what waits for us. Nothing and no one, and d-scan is clear. That's all Fin needs to know, and she follows behind, getting clear and cloaking without trouble.

We confirm that the hostile fleet has gone home, not bothering to kill their wormhole in the process, and drop loot at the tower, repair and reload, and give each other one last virtual high-five. After popping and podding around 3·4 billion ISK tonight we should probably break out the bubbly, but we simply slink away to separate safe spots and go off-line to celebrate individually.

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Tags: eve online, helios, hulk, legion, loki, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, scimitar, tengu, w-space

Flying as a passenger

Fin has scanned, Aii's on his way home. That's not all my glorious leader has been up to, though. Not only has she sneaked an Orca across our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, the industrial command ship full of useful minerals, but Fin also nearly caught a Mammoth hauler when it was trying to collect planet goo. Sadly, only being in a Buzzard covert operations boat meant that there was time for a Hawk assault frigate to intervene, chasing Fin away before she could pop the industrial ship. We need to get her back in to a scanning strategic cruiser.

I warp to our static wormhole and jump to C3a to join Fin in stalking our neighbours. There are three towers in the system, all around a single planet, and six ships, all currently in the towers. Some drones are scattered around the system, but not as many as earlier. Fin collected a bunch and reprocessed them to put the minerals to better use. Scanning probes are also visible on my directional scanner, which Fin tells me have been in space for at least an hour. Whoever is scanning is taking their sweet time about it.

The probes go, and with them the Imicus. No doubt the frigate was the one scanning, and apparently he's taken an interest in our K162, having jumped through to survey our home system. It won't take long, even for him, as there is only the one ladar site and the static wormhole, and, knowing this, I warp across to our K162 to welcome his return. The wormhole flares within a couple of minutes, so the Imicus will be polarised, and as soon as it does I decloak my Loki strategic cruiser and get all my systems hot and ready.

There he is. The Imicus makes a break for it, and I try to stop him. The speed of my targeting systems are improved by a sensor booster, but they aren't quicker than a frigate aligning to enter warp. A split-second before my warp scrambler can activate, the Imicus surges off, back towards his tower, now fully aware of our presence in his system. Well, that was fun. Now what?

Luckily, Fin's earlier scanning found a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space, and although warping to it finds the wormhole at the end of its life there should be a good hour left in it. I poke through to see what's there. Nothing interesting on d-scan, although warping around to see a tower with a Thanatos carrier and Revelation dreadnought gets mildly more interesting. Both capital ships are unpiloted, naturally, and that's all there is in the system. I won't scan, not with a dying wormhole behind me, so simply turn around and return to C3a.

I'm not in C3a for long, though, as I exit through the static wormhole to low-sec empire space. Specifically, I appear in the Pout system, which had Fin stopping because of the name. 'Pout? Seriously? I looked for a stargate to 'Petulant' but it must have stormed off.' No one is Pouting with me, so I launch probes and warp to a rock field to rat and scan, trying to make the most of the circumstances. A crappy cruiser is crushed and a K162 from null-sec is confirmed. The wormhole takes me to a system in Cobalt Edge, where I perform the neat trick of making ratters disappear back to their tower.

Null-sec ratters are depressing enough that I don't even care to scan the system for the possibility of more wormholes. I return to low-sec, and then to C3a, where Fin and I sit and watch the local pilots, now reduced to the Hawk, Imicus, and Buzzard, do nothing, as we wait for Aii to reach us. Out of curiosity, I re-scan the system, and a new signature crops up in the results. Goody! It's rocks. Not so goody. I would say nothing's happening, but here's Aii. How lovely.

We all take ourselves home safely. Now to crash our wormhole and consider our options. Using the formula of big ships plus maths equals a collapsed wormhole we isolate ourselves, which a subsequent blanket scan of the home system confirms. A new wormhole pops up in the results but I ignore it so that our industrialists can get sucking on the gas we have. I think it's a nice welcome home for Aii, even if it's not my bag, so leave them in their cloud as I go off-line to get some rest.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, hawk, imicus, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, revelation, scanning, thanatos, w-space

Hit and run

Many wormholes died to bring us this cleaner constellation. The K162 in to our home w-space system was killed, murdered, I suppose, but the others have no doubt passed away from natural causes by now. It's not wormhole life I'm looking for, but capsuleer life. Glorious leader Fin comes on-line as I blanket the home system, looking for new connections and finding none, before heading out to see what new shape and activity the constellation has.

There is no change at the tower in our neighbouring class 3 system, and the K162 from class 2 w-space although not dead is at the end of its life. I have no idea how long it will last, so look in another direction. That other direction takes me through the outbound connection to class 4 w-space, in to C4a, where out of four wormholes three were EOL earlier. Those three are gone, which I am assuming without checking, but the K162 from class 2 w-space lives and is healthy. With nothing happening in C4a, I jump to C2d.

The wormhole is alive and well, but the system isn't. There's nothing and no one of interest to keep me here. Thankfully, I realise that of the three wormholes that are now dead in C4a one is the static connection. That gives me a replacement static connection to scan for, which will lead to more class 4 w-space and, if necessary from there, more w-space. I drop back a system, launch probes and scan, and resolve and jump through the wormhole to C4b.

Two towers, no ships. My directional scanner shows me little improvement in circumstances, but I know I have more w-space to move to. Launching probes and blanketing the system reveals three anomalies and seven signatures, out of which the sole wormhole is too weak to lead to another C4, but not so weak as to connect to class 5 w-space. I suspect, but don't voice, a C2 wormhole, and am happy to see just such a static connection when I warp to it, finished with scanning. Well, I am finished, someone else isn't, as core probes are now visible. Whatever, other scanner, I'm moving on.

A tower and no ships appear on d-scan in C2e, so I sit on the wormhole as I scan, because of the probes behind me. Four anomalies and six signatures are reduced to a ladar site, radar site, rocks, and the two static wormholes, as the wormhole flares behind me to bring a Cheetah covert operations boat in to the system. This is why I sat on the wormhole. I let the cov-ops go, not having much chance of catching it, and finish resolving the second static wormhole. The Cheetah finds that one pretty quickly, warping to the exit to high-sec and leaving w-space shortly after I reach the wormhole myself.

The Cheetah's left w-space, but if he comes back he could be in trouble. His ship will be polarised and, knowing this, and having the high-sec wormhole as an escape route myself, I get close, decloak, and prepare as many offensive systems as I have buttons for. Nothing happens immediately, but I can wait another couple of minutes and still catch him polarised. If he comes back. Which he doesn't. Well, that's that, I suppose. Maybe he's gone back to his carebearing ways after a short jaunt exploring w-space. Me, I'll continue exploring, through the second static wormhole, in to C4c.

D-scan is clear. Blanketing the system has four anomalies and four signatures appear, out of which the static wormhole is easily resolved, allowing me to move on to C4d. And activity! Six Tengu strategic cruisers, a Loki strategic cruiser, Navy Scorpion battleship, and Noctis salvager all light up d-scan with no trace of a tower. Passively scanning the system has me bookmarking five anomalies, as the Noctis and Loki disappear, to be replaced by an extra Tengu. But there was a Noctis, which gives me hope that I can ambush the salvager at some point.

The whole system is in range of the wormhole and there's no tower in sight, which may be good, I'm not sure. The fleet isn't in an anomaly, although there are plenty of wrecks around, which probably means I have to launch probes to find them. Thankfully, the ships are on one side of the system, far enough away from one planet to let me launch probes covertly, which I do quickly and quietly, throwing them out of the system once done. Fifteen signatures join the handful of anomalies, and I get a rough bearing on the ships. There's no Noctis, so I'll hunt the ships and not the wrecks, to find them directly, as the battleship will give me a fat target to aim for.

Oh, it looks like the fleet is now in a standard anomaly, and I may not need my probes after all. That's better, as it lets me remain covert. I locate the fleet, warp in, and start shadowing them. They chew through Sleepers pretty quickly, and I follow them to second, third, and fourth anomaly, creating a perch in each that allows me to watch them at a distance, whilst still pinging d-scan in case the Noctis returns. When it's clear the fleet is staying in basic anomalies I warp back out of range, cluster my probes above me, and recall them whilst I remember.

The fleet moves to the fifth anomaly, which is around the planet where I shuffled my probes in and out of my launcher, putting them out of d-scan range of the other sites. I make a perch in that anomaly but return to the first site I know about, definitely not wanting to miss the Noctis. I know where the ships are, and what they are doing, so they're not going to surprise me. I'm almost tempted to loot some of the wrecks, but if I get my timing wrong I'll be spotted, and a looted wreck will give the game away. I'm not here for the ISK, but for the explosions, so suppress my base urge for petty larceny.

Wait, wait, wait. Maybe they don't want the loot, and just want to see the Sleepers burn. Hmm, a Tengu and Orca industrial command ship on d-scan are a curious pair. And there's the Noctis. Now I have a tricky decision to make, fighting against my bloodlust to see how much loot I can wait for the salvager to collect before I strike. My decision is made easier by the Noctis first visiting one, maybe two sites that I came in too late to find, before I finally get my eyes on him, warping to the centre of the cleared anomaly I'm waiting in. Just a little longer, Penny, then you can shoot him.

I continue watching d-scan, and the other Tengus return to clump together... somewhere. D-scan definitely puts them somewhere other than the wormhole I entered through, so I'm supposing they are sitting on their own K162 along with the Orca. And, judging by the movements of the Noctis, it doesn't look like the salvager is dropping off each site's haul at the Orca before moving to the next cleared anomaly. That's good, as it gives him a belly of loot. And I know there are more sites to clear after this one. Yes, watch and learn, see his behaviour, and get it right in the next site with even more loot to steal. I like this idea.

The Orca disappears, the Tengus remain in the system. That concerns me a little. They are not with the Noctis, but they may come to his aid. I may not have time to loot, if I even manage to destroy the Noctis. But I'll get a shot, I'm sure of that. The Noctis isn't doing anything special or different, just moving between the wrecks and looting and salvaging. I'll get him in the next site. This one is cleared, the Noctis warps away, and I move to my next perch. But, again, I practice patience, and let him drag even more loot to him, and salvage more wrecks, before I warp in for the kill.

I'm going in. I get close, decloak, and get my systems hot as I burn even closer to the salvager. I get a positive lock, disrupt the Noctis's warp engines, and start spewing autocannon rounds in to my target. Not wanting to take any chances with my timing, I overheat my guns on their first cycle, wanting this to be over as quickly as possible. This is normally not required against industrial ships that can't shoot back, but this one has friends nearby. Pointy friends. I have no idea how long it will take the Tengus to get here, if they come, but I'd rather get this over with.

Shields die, armour drops, the hull disintegrates. I aim for the pod of the Noctis, if only because I can crack them open with one shot, but he flees. And the Tengus arrive. I'm opening the wreck as my overview starts filling up, and I see ships decelerating from warp dangerously close to me. Thank goodness for the 'loot all' option. Spong! Done. No dragging items across, no ambiguity, just grab everything and run. And run I do. Or, at least, try. The Tengus are well and truly locked on to my Loki and have started to inflict damage, which isn't a good sign.

I aim to get back to my perch as the Tengus plink away at my shields, not caring to pop the wreck of the Noctis, and have deactivated my micro warp drive already in the hopes that my alignment time won't be adversely affected. Of course, that means nothing if my warp engines are disrupted, but they aren't. I turn, accelerate, warp. I get clear of the six angry Tengus, chuckling to myself as I activate my cloak, nice and safe a few hundred kilometres away, looking at the 190 million ISK of loot and salvage now sitting in my hold.

Time to bug out. There's little point basking in the warmth of a successful ambush and escape without actually escaping properly. The fleet may not know about the wormhole I used to get here, but that doesn't mean they won't find it soon. I should get home. But, as it turns out, they do know about that wormhole, as it leads to their home system, which I find out jumping through it and seeing the pod of the ex-Noctis pilot on d-scan. That's rum.

So the fleet stayed in the system to protect the Noctis, but without providing any direct protection. I popped it before they could prevent it, after all. And they weren't sitting on their wormhole either, to detect transitions directly, but somewhere else. Okay, that keeps them safer, but I don't see how it helps. Minimal deterrence, and no warp disruptors so no revenge. I just waltzed away. After stealing the loot too, mind you. Knowing all this makes the kill sweeter.

Anyway, I'm not going to dally now. I warp my way across w-space systems, jumping through wormholes, to make it home, happy that we have a few systems' buffer between us and them. Hi Fin, I'm home. Thanks for getting fuel through one of the high-sec exits. I brought loot. It's ours now. 'It was nice of them to collect it for us. We should send them a thank-you note.' Maybe tomorrow. It was a long wait for the ambush, and worth it, but now I should get some rest.

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Tags: cheetah, eve online, loki, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, scorpion, tengu, w-space

Leaving the back door open

Steal in to a system, pop a bleary-eyed planet-gooer, and come home for crumpets. Good plan, Penny! Let's make it happen. And it looks like this will be easier than I expected, as glorious leader Fin has scanned even earlier than I'm awake, leaving me a bookmark to our as-yet unopened static wormhole. I'll still scan anyway, just to make sure no one's sneaking up on me, and it's good that I do. A new signature has appeared in the home system, which resolves to be a wormhole. And as Fin bookmarked our static wormhole I know for certain which wormhole must be the K162, so warp directly to it to see it come from class 2 w-space.

The C2 system, on account of it connecting to our class 4 home, will have a second static wormhole that exits to high-sec, which could be useful. As the wormhole opened after Fin scanned, it may even have current activity. That makes it a better first choice of system to explore, so I approach the wormhole and jump through to C2a. I'm spat out a disappointing 7·6 km from the wormhole, which I've often taken as a sign of inactivity, but I think the most I can infer is that the connection itself has not been used recently, if that. My directional scanner is showing me a Tengu strategic cruiser, Anathema covert operations boat, and a tower, but no wrecks or probes. Maybe there's no one home.

Locating the tower takes a little longer than looking at my notes, as a previous visit takes me to the right planet but wrong moon. It's a minor hitch, though, and soon I am floating outside a force field looking at a piloted Tengu and empty Anathema. I'm also now in d-scan range of a second tower, but no more ships, and have finally noticed the black hole lurking menacingly below. Not that any of this matters. The system is small enough that I can't get out of range of the Tengu to launch probes, and although the sole piloted ship isn't moving I don't want to announce my presence so obviously and ensure he won't move.

Hello, a second Tengu warps in to the tower, looking like he's come from the wormhole to our home system. Been exploring, have we? With any luck, I passed him with the same amount of notice as he passed me. So what now, scout? ...nothing? Really? Really. That's unfortunate, as it makes me suspect there is nothing of interest through our static wormhole either. But I'll take a look anyway, as nothing is happening here.

All is clear from the K162 in C3a. Exploring finds a tower with some ships big and small, but only a Helios cov-ops piloted. I don't care so much about spooking an inattentive scout as much as a potential target, so launch probes and sift through the four anomalies and eight signatures to ignore the usual rocks and gas, and resolve three wormholes. The static exit to high-sec empire space is obvious, the second is chubby and must be a K162, but the third is weaker than the mid-strength static wormhole. That's an outbound connection if ever I scanned one. But that K162 interests me too, coming from class 2 w-space and hinting at activity having been opened from the other side. In I go.

Six kilometres from the wormhole this time, with two towers and two mining drones visible on d-scan. It's looking quiet, and my notes from twenty months ago give static connections to class 3 w-space and high-sec, which doesn't give me much to find. I could scan for K162s, but that outbound connection in C3a is calling me now. I head back that way, warp to what turns out to be a T405 connection to class 4 w-space, and jump through to see what's on the other side.

D-scan's not so friendly looking at first blush, with some big ships, combat ships, and combat scanning probes in the system. But the carriers are unlikely to be active, the big industrial ships are hardly a threat, and the smaller industrial ships could be the targets I'm looking for. The Falcon recon ship by itself is hardly a threat by itself either. And my notes indicate that I, perhaps as the other scout, am looking for a static connection to more class 4 w-space. How I don't miss the days of our old C4/C4 home system.

Locating the tower sees the ships all lacking capsuleers, making the scout possibly external to C4a. I can't worry about him for the moment, and launch my own probes quickly and, holy crap, reveal twenty-eight anomalies and twenty signatures. The occupants have two carriers, and a capital industrial ship, but what do they use them for? Do they just sit in them and make engine noises? Whatever, I'm scanning. A K162 from class 2 w-space would be more attractive were it not at the end of its life, as proven by resolving an attractive, stable K162 from class 2 w-space. A third wormhole is a C4 K162 that is EOL, making it less enticing than the C2 version. The static wormhole to class 4 w-space finishes my poke for wormholes, but that too is EOL, giving me one way to go.

C2b has a clear result from d-scan, but a messy twenty signatures popping up on a passive scan. This is my sixth visit to the system, the last being around a week ago, where I noted a tower and nothing else of interest. The tower's still there, holds an empty Orca industrial command ship and Archon carrier, and I'm tempted to consider the constellation mapped, as I know the type of the second static wormhole. I suppose it won't do any harm to poke for K162s, so I launch probes and, well, manage to find the exit to high-sec. Still, it's the first exit I actually warp to, so I jump out to see where it leads. Appearing in Domain, five jumps from Amarr, is a nice result, although the DUST bunnies clutter up the system channel a little. And that's lunch.

Back to C2b, across to C4a, ignore the EOL wormholes to return to C3a, where checking the tower sees the Helios pilot now gone, presumably off-line. I have the static exit bookmarked but unvisited, so take a small diversion and jump to a system in Solitude, the middle of nowhere. Being alone in the system I can't resist scanning whilst popping a few rats, but the five extra signatures don't offer new wormholes. But it does remind me that I wanted to clean up some of the systems. I'm not going back to C2d, but C4a is only one hop away, and messier, so jump in to the system and flex my capacitor.

Bookmarks turn to labels, and I turn to the wormhole. In to C3a, across to the home system, and a last look to see what the pilots in C2a are up to. And I don't even need to leave home to find out. They're stealing out loot, that's what they're up to. Four Tengus and a Noctis salvager are on d-scan in our home system, plus a combat scanning probe. I start looking for the ships but can't locate them in any of the anomalies, although one has a handful of wrecks in it. Two Tengus look to be near the Noctis, nowhere near the wrecks, and the other Tengus are elsewhere. Sweeping d-scan around doesn't offer me many clues as to what they are doing apart from perhaps warping between safe spots. Before I can think too hard about it, the ships leave the system.

Perhaps I could have warped to the C2 K162 in the hopes of snaring the Noctis as it passed me, but that so rarely happens that I have not incorporated it as standard operating procedure yet. Maybe I should. Warp to the fleet's exit first, then assess the situation. Still, it seems the fleet was paying attention and were alert enough to potential threats, including any coming through the static wormhole of the system they were in. Even if I had stayed to watch them earlier, I may not have been able to catch their salvager anyway. I would say my time was better spent exploring than waiting.

As if to prove my point, a Helios disappears through the K162 to C2a, briefly revealing their watchful eyes. Good job, chaps. And as if there was any doubt that it's sammich time, the wormhole is promptly crashed by Dominix battleships, leaving me once again in empty space.

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Tags: anathema, archon, dominix, eve online, falcon, helios, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space

Low-sec drones

I'm back and looking to cause more mischief, after the Noctis explosion of improbable opportunity. The wormhole to deadly (for them) class 6 w-space was collapsed shortly after I returned through it, but what else is in the constellation? Maybe my glorious leader knows. Hi Fin, is anything happening? 'No.' Okay then.

The static exit to low-sec empire space in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system was at the end of its life earlier, preventing our using it for anything. That wormhole died of natural causes some time ago, and a new exit has spawned. Fin has scanned for and resolved the new location of the wormhole, and is already in low-sec looking for more connections. She's not having much luck.

Fin's resolved a couple of magnetometric sites so far, with a couple more signatures left to scan. I get as far as checking the tower in C3a—where there's no change—before turning back to the home system instead of heading to low-sec. If there are magnetometric sites in the low-sec system, and no other pilots, maybe I can grab some loot from them whilst Fin completes her mapping.

I drop off my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser at our tower and hop in to a Drake battlecruiser, fitted with an analyser module. I make sure I have a salvager fitted too, because empire space is weird and sometimes magnetometric sites requiring salvaging and not analysing. No, I don't know why. And, suitably equipped, I head back to C3a, this time continuing in to low-sec through the static wormhole.

Low-sec rats are rather unchallenging in standard sites. At least, relatively so. I pop the ones around me, analyse my way in to containers or salvage what's there, and bag a couple of uninteresting Tech II blueprint copies for my efforts. Fin's scanning finds two more sites, no wormholes, so she gets her own Drake to join in the fun. It doesn't get much better, though.

A few pilots come and go through the low-sec system as we pop rats and open cans. We have the local comms channel to help us identify the pilots, and our directional scanners let us consider threats. Capsuleers with positive security status and piloting shuttles can be ignored. Pirates in other ships, well, they need to scan the sites before they can cause trouble, and we mostly ignore the occasional loner too.

That was, at best, a distraction. Maybe a reminder not to do this again. But the final site, drone-occupied, is rated 5/10 by DED, which intrigues us. Maybe there is some decent loot to be recovered. We may need more than Drakes, though, so swap them back at our tower for our Sleeper Tengus, which will probably be overkill, and most certainly over-tanked.

Drones, drones, and more drones. Deadspace pocket follows deadspace pocket, with little of interest in any, although the overseer loot is worth some pocket iskies. The penultimate pocket of deadspace holds an interesting drone structure, although when I point it out to Fin she tests its integrity and finds it wanting, the whole base exploding with one volley of missiles. 'Not much work went in to it.'

The final deadspace pocket has a more impressive structure, which Fin ignores to shoot the myriad drones around us. But I spot something special, the Lesser Strain Mother. It's beautiful, in an Alienesque way. We're still going to kill it, though. Well, if it lets us. We can knock down its shields and armour easily enough, but only for the armour to be repaired in one fell swoop, almost as soon as it is depleted. That's awesome.

Thankfully, our missiles chip away at the structure of the Lesser Strain Mother each time we stress its armour. It's slow, though, much like a tower bash. But we persevere, ignoring the other drones around us because we can. 'At this point, I'm just hoping the reward will pay for our ammunition used', says Fin. How could it not? 'They're drones. It could be holding a copy of Pax Amarria.' But eventually we are rewarded with, actually, a pretty decent explosion, and the 15th tier overseer's personal effects.

The loot isn't great, and we probably could have made twice as much, if not more, from w-space anomalies in the same time. But the threat was much reduced, and the paranoia non-existent. Still, we're finished here. Let's split. We go back to w-space, entering C3a and updating d-scan to see, well, crap, a Mammoth hauler now at the local tower. I make a break for our wormhole, swap back to my Loki, and return to watch the hauler. As I do, my spider-sense is tingling. Something tells me the pilot may be bait.

Bait or not, it seems that we are too late. Whilst we were shooting drones, the Mammoth pilot collected all his goo. Or maybe he came on-line, idled at the tower, and now has gone off-line without having done anything. And I don't know what would have been more worthwhile: shooting drones in low-sec, or watching a hauler do nothing.

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Tags: drake, eve online, loki, low-sec, mammoth, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Escalating to an unlikely ambush

There seem to be enough early risers in w-space, so I'm up early too, hoping to catch one out. Here's one already, my glorious leader sucking on the gas cloud in the home system, a Schrödinger's Target. Fin's testing her maximised Venture frigate and has no problems with my exploring, so I scan and find today's wormhole sitting on yesterday's bookmark. Or, rather, yesterday's wormhole still alive, just.

I can wait for the static connection to die. Or I could jump through and take a look around, if my maths is correct and I have a couple of hours left. The neighbouring class 3 system looks like it did yesterday, with an empty Talos battlecruiser sitting in a tower's force field, but my maths is horribly wrong. Decimal addition doesn't work so well for base-twelve calculations. I jump back home and wait for the wormhole to die, which should happen approximately two hours ago.

Waiting for a wormhole to die is a little like waiting for a hauler to collect planet goo, except at least the wormhole will definitely do something. And there she goes. Now to seek and resolve the replacement wormhole, and jump to a new neighbouring C3. A tower and no ships is visible on my directional scanner from the K162, and I warp directly to the tower using my notes from two weeks ago. Ah, yes, the tower with the canisters placed star-wards, which I conveniently avoid. Good notes, have a biscuit.

Scanning reveals three anomalies and thirteen signatures, and although a wormhole crops up early in the results the K162 from deadly class 6 w-space looks ominous. More so because of the ship that appears under my combat scanning probes as I resolve the wormhole, which must surely have implied my presence. Continued scanning resolves a couple more wormholes, but both the static exit to and a K162 from low-sec are at the end of their lives and mostly useless. So much for heading away from the ship that knows I'm here. There's nothing for it but to run headlong in to him.

Jumping in to C6a looks clear, though. Well, on the wormhole, at least, as d-scan shows differently. A Revelation dreadnought, Archon carrier, Chimera carrier, and four Loki strategic cruisers can't be up to nothing without a tower in sight, and a bunch of wrecks shows that there is indeed Sleeper combat happening. It's a shame that their scout must have seen me, right? The one sitting on the wormhole that they know is open, waiting for the pilot they've detected in the neighbouring system. They are watching for that, I have no doubt.

As I move from the wormhole and cloak, a Buzzard covert operations boat blips on scan, nowhere near the wormhole, and the Chimera disappears from the operation. The other boats stay, though, which is fair enough. There are more of them than me, and clearly have the firepower to destroy class 6 Sleeper battleships. I'm small fry. Even so, I look for the anomaly, finding it from one of several thrown up on a passive scan, warp in to make a perch, then explore the rest of the system.

A tower sits out of d-scan range of the Sleeper operation, where more capital ships, the Buzzard, and a Proteus strategic cruiser float inside its force field. There are plenty of pilots available, and some threatening ships, but without more space to explore I may as well watch the show, particularly as the Moros dreadnought warps away from the tower to initiate another escalation in the anomaly. Fin's optimistic about it all, saying that 'we could take the Revelation, but the Lokis and Archon might be a problem'. I think it'll be okay, as they'll just flee back to the tower. Then again, circumstances are going to look better when you're sucking gas from a cloud and not seeing all the ships on your overview.

There's no point bringing Fin my way, as there'll be nothing to shoot. Not without dying. I'll stick around anyway, even though this may take a while. And it's worth staying, if only to see the short work the fleet makes of the Sleeper battleships, really cutting through them and reducing their numbers to one pretty quickly. Just imagine what they'd do to my cloaky Loki. The fleet knows what it's doing too, with the capital escalations, and by keeping one battleship alive for the site to reset tomorrow. They still need to collect their loot, though, but there are ways.

I imagine a Noctis will be brought in under the protection of the fleet, remote repairs been effected to easily counter whatever the sole Sleeper battleship can do. But the locals take a different tack, one pilot swapping to a Scorpion battleship, no doubt to keep the battleship permanently jammed and prevent it from shooting the Noctis in the first place. That works too. It also means that the rest of the fleet can... leave? All of the Lokis, the Archon, the Revelation? Yep, they all warp out once the Scorpion has the battleship jammed and the Noctis is safely salvaging.

I don't quite believe what I'm seeing, but it looks genuine. More so because when another ship warps in it is still not an escort but a second Noctis. Now, of course, ambushing the salvagers will still be risky, as the Scorpion could simply stop its jams and the Sleeper battleship will take out its ire on whoever it fancies, which could be me. But it could also be one of the Noctes, so that shouldn't be an immediate option. And because protecting the salvagers is the priority, I imagine the Scorpion has its mid rack stuffed with ECM modules, without a slot free for a warp disruptor. I should be able to escape. What the hell. I'm going for it.

I warp in, get close to the two salvagers—both next to each other, for maximum vulnerability—and lock on to both. The unlucky first Noctis gets warp scrambled and autocannon fire from my Loki, as the second aligns away from the site and warps clear. I wasn't going to get both, so I don't really mind that. Hell, I didn't think I'd get one, and if I knew two would be here I'd have brought Fin along for the chuckles. And rather than trying to be even vaguely sensible, the Scorpion doesn't attempt to jam my positive lock but instead warps clear himself. See ya, you weirdo.

The first Noctis is clearly considered a goner. Maybe the Scorpion pilot is hoping the Sleeper battleship will chase me off before I can cut through the Noctis's hull. It's a good thought, but it doesn't work. I shirk off the Sleeper laser fire as I finish off the Noctis, aiming for but missing the ejected pod as the salvager explodes, and I have plenty of shield left to loot not just the Noctis wreck, shooting it afterwards, but also a couple of Sleeper wrecks that are nearby, before the Sleeper battleship's missiles start doing threatening damage. Without any trace of panic—a curious sensation given the class of w-space I'm in, the fleet that was here minutes earlier, and the direct and serious threat my ship should be under right now—I turn my Loki around and warp back to my perch.

The rest of those wrecks look quite tempting from this distance. Each is full of lovely blue loot, and the lone battleship isn't too much of a threat. That Loki that blips on d-scan may be, though, and he could be on the wormhole in C3a waiting for me. Maybe I should cheese it. Warping to the wormhole finds a cheery sight, with a single probe launched nearby, indicating that the Loki is still in this system and looking for new wormholes. Nope, I'm the one whose combat scanning probes were missed by your scout in C3a. I'll show myself out.

I jump to C3a, move away from the clear wormhole and cloak, and sit and watch as the C6ers decide to kill their static connection. It's a shame that, because they connect to class 3 w-space, they can't even use capital ships to crash their wormhole, and they have to use Orca industrial command ships like us normal pilots. It's a little late to be doing this too. I really shouldn't have got the kill, not with my scanning being obvious, or a scout and with enough pilots to escalate the site multiple times being available for one of them to watch a wormhole. That's peculiar behaviour from C6 residents, if you ask me.

It's a good kill all the same, and I'm taking it. I'm not taking much loot home with me, maybe fifty million ISK in total, which is peanuts from a C6 anomaly that was escalated multiple times, but the loot was split across two salvagers, some was destroyed in the wonderful explosion, and I struck soon because I was dumbfounded about actually getting the opportunity. I think it's time for a celebratory sammich!

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Tags: archon, buzzard, chimera, eve online, loki, mmorpg, moros, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, revelation, scanning, scorpion, w-space

Being a good capsuleer

My head's a bit woolly. I suspect I have a cold coming. Hopefully w-space will be kind to me, and give me a simple constellation to scan and map, just to keep me in practice. There's not much to practice on in the home system, but it is straightforward with two signatures. Gas and the static wormhole is just the start I was after. I can do this! Let me go next door.

The view from the K162, offered by my directional scanner in our neighbouring class 3 system, is of a tower and Talos. There are no wrecks in range, but I don't really expect a glass-cannon battlecruiser to be out shooting Sleepers by itself. Locating the tower turns out to be as easy as I'd like. I don't even need to look at my probably out-dated notes, as opening the system map shows one planet in range—the next is 55 AU distant—and that holds one moon. It is simplicity itself to warp to see that the Talos us unpiloted and of little interest.

The battlecruiser is owned by a pilot in a one-man corporation, the tower by an eight-capsuleer corporation. It's a small outfit. Exploring shows no one and nothing else in the system, and a blanket scan gives me seven anomalies and ten signatures to sort through. Gas, rocks, magnetometric and radar sites. The usual. A second wormhole pops up at the end, to keep the constellation interesting, although I am disappointed to see the colours of k-space wobbling through from the other side. But, as it turns out, that's the U210 I'm looking at. Woolly Penny.

Warping to what is actually the second wormhole gives me more class 3 w-space to explore, through an N968 connection. Jumping through and updating d-scan shows me two towers and no ships, so I locate the towers and tag them—Penny wuz ere—and sift through the three anomalies and seven signatures. C3b is much like C3a. Some anomalies, some sites, two wormholes. The static exit to high-sec empire space is jellying away at the end of its life, which makes me unsure whether the K162 from high-sec is a good result or not for the second wormhole.

Whatever it is, I exit C3b through the K162 to find the exit system, turning up in the Gerbil system in Heimatar. It looks boring, and far from anywhere, so I turn around and jump back to w-space. As I cross C3b for C3a, Aii comes on-line. Where are you? 'High-sec.' Gerbil? 'Thirty-three jumps.' Okay, I have the low-sec exit in C3a to check. And exiting through C3a's static wormhole puts me in The Citadel—oh, I know this place. The system's part of a small low-sec island, a couple of hops from an old manufacturing base of mine. I'm pretty sure Fin and I lost a pair of Drakes in this island to incomprehensible low-sec rules when venturing out of w-space some time ago too.

The low-sec system is a shorter route for Aii, which is unsurprising, only thirteen jumps this time. We may see him back in the home system, if he can deal with some distractions he has. Me, I scan. It's what I do. Well, it's what I do when the wormhole behind me doesn't unexpectedly flare. I stop what I'm not yet doing and wait, seeing a Cheetah covert operations boat appear and warp away. The pilot's from a state corporation and leaves the system within a minute, so he's probably not part of a fleet, or coming back. I can ignore him.

Three extra signatures in the low-sec system give me rocks, and a really weak wormhole that turns out to be an outbound connection to class 5 w-space that would be much more interesting if it weren't EOL. And one more signature will have to wait, as a pod warps to the C5 wormhole, perhaps indicating that the connection is still being used. Or not. Or maybe. I dunno, the pod's just sitting there. What the hell, I don't need no stinking security status.

I decloak, lock on to the pod, and don't quite get the shot off as the pod notices what's happening and warps clear in the nick of time. No chewy centre for me today. Okay, the last signature in the system is identified as a radar site, giving me no more w-space to explore without stargate-hopping or collapsing our static connection. As Aii will need our current wormhole to make his way home, I'm calling it a night. I got what I wanted, with a simple constellation to map, and a bit more too. An extra system to scan, a helpless pilot to aim for, and helping a colleague. It's been a good evening.

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

Patience pays in planet goo

Procrastination and caution has cost me a crack at a Venture. But I have more wormholes waiting, w-space systems yet to be explored. The two I've found in this class 2 system, itself connecting to our home system, include the obvious exit to high-sec empire space. I warp to the cosmic signature and land on the wormhole's locus, decloaking my ship and tipping my hand. I exit as if I meant it, and end up in a system in Derelik.

'Any tritanium?', asks my glorious leader, already aware that the system I am in forms a two-system island of high-sec surrounded by low-sec space. I open the market interface and check. Yep, millions, in the adjacent high-sec system. 'Price?' It looks good to me, and Fin agrees. It seems that this tiny pocket of space is a safe haven for a mining operation, and we are at liberty to take advantage of it. 'Loading up the Orca.'

As Fin exports her mined ores in to the industrial command ship, to bring them to be refined in high-sec and to buy the tritanium we need, I return to C2a and warp across to the second wormhole I found. It's a K162 from more class 2 w-space. That'll do, even if jumping through the wormhole shows two towers with no ships on my directional scanner. There could be more to find. I warp out of range of the towers, launch combat scanning probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system.

Eight anomalies and sixteen signatures light up my probes. Are there any K162s amongst them? Yep, there's one, the first signature in fact. This scanning malarky is easy. I drop out of warp next to a K162 from class 4 w-space as my probes resolve a second wormhole, an outbound connection to class 1 w-space. That's pretty neat, and a third wormhole gives more options, it being an outbound connection to even more class 2 w-space.

I'm spoilt for choice. Squishy targets first in C1a, I would say. And a Badger on d-scan in range of the K162 looks good, even if the hauler is probably in the tower also visible. Core probes on d-scan, no doubt working their way over my wormhole entrance, probably scupper my chances of surprising anyone too. Never the less, the Badger is piloted inside the tower's force field, and I watch and wait for a couple of minutes to see if he does anything.

The Badger does as much as me during the time I float inertly outside the tower. The probes have gone too, and there's no sign of the scout. I have to wait until I explore more thoroughly and find more towers on the edge of the system to see him. One tower holds the scout, in a Buzzard covert operations boat, and a piloted Drake battlecruiser. Another has two piloted transport ships, both moving as little as the Badger. Two more towers are empty of ships. All four have as much movement. I warp back to the wormhole, return to C2b, and hope that the K162 doesn't merely suggest activity.

D-scan is clear from the wormhole, and exploring C4c reveals an unoccupied system. My probes sweep across twelve anomalies and fourteen signatures looking for the inevitable K162 and come back without a whiff. Oh, except for that final signature, overlooked for a moment, which becomes a K162 from class 5 w-space. The class of w-space escalates, but the level of activity doesn't. Clear space from the other side of the wormhole, but a tower holding a Heron and two Viators waits further afield. The frigate is piloted, as is one of the transports, but I can only withstand so much watching of inert ships.

I return through C4c to C2b, and continue to C2c. Again d-scan shows me nothing from the wormhole, and again a tower sits far out of range. This one has twelve ships inside its force field, combat and industrial, but only two are piloted, a Tengu strategic cruiser and Mammoth hauler. And as I navigate the warp bubbles, to get close enough to view them properly, a second Mammoth does the same. The hauler warps to a curious point far out of the tower, pauses, and continues inside the force field. That's not usual behaviour, and indicates that the warp bubbles are very badly placed indeed.

Poorly positioned bubbles or not, the new Mammoth is a new contact, and has shown movement outside of a tower. That is worthy of my attention, right up to the point where the pilot goes off-line. A couple more new contacts appear and disappear, including a couple of cov-ops ships. One warps directly out of the tower to some unknown point in space, another uses the same odd manoeuvre as the Mammoth, nudging itself outside of the force field before quietly cloaking. Finally, the first pair, the Tengu and Mammoth, go off-line together, leaving just me and the tower.

Ah, they're back, to idle a little longer inside the tower, no doubt. I am so assured in this evaluation that I nearly miss the Mammoth's quite normal departure. I do miss its destination, if only because, from this distance from the inner system, two or three planets near the star line up almost perfectly. But I pick one of the planets, aim for its customs office, and throw my Loki strategic cruiser in to warp, hopefully right behind the hauler.

I chose wisely. But I was still too slow in reacting to the hauler's exit. I drop out of warp near the customs office to see the Mammoth already turning to his next port of call. I pause, and watch as the hauler heads to a much clearer destination this time, and silently stalk him once more. Now I know I'll be arriving in good time, and decloak as I drop out of warp. I activate my offensive systems, gain a positive lock, and start shooting. The industrial ship puts up no resistance.

The Mammoth is shredded in short order, and the explosion jettisons the pilot's pod in to space. I make a grab for it and stop it in its tracks, and, well, stare at it for a bit. I create a new corpse when I realise that although my warp scrambler is active my guns have not responded, and correct this oversight. I scoop, fiddle with loot, and shoot, before leaving empty space behind my ship, warping to the wormhole I entered the system through. It's a soft kill, of an inexpensive ship, and I carry a corpse lacking any implants. But it was a successful hunt, where plenty of scanning and patience paid off. It'll do.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Patience pays in planet goo
Tags: badger, buzzard, drake, eve online, heron, loki, mammoth, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, viator, w-space

Not listening to myself

My aim is to shoot or be shot tonight. I'm almost getting desperate enough for an explosion that I don't care whose it is. Almost. And some new signatures in the home w-space system look promising, as no new sites have spawned and we have two new wormholes instead. A ship appearing under my combat scanning probes whilst resolving one of the wormholes is unfortunate, switching to my directional scanner to see a Buzzard covert operations boat in the system, as although it almost confirms the wormhole it also pretty much ruins any element of surprise I may have had.

Of course, I suppose the Buzzard could have been heading homewards, and not jumping in to our system, but I have to assume that my probes were spotted on d-scan. How could they not be? They were clustered over the wormhole the ship transited. Still, a second wormhole in the home system lets me look in another direction first, so that I'm not quite as obvious in my movements, and offers another avenue of opportunity where pilots may not be expecting me to turn up. If there are other pilots.

It looks like the Buzzard used, or came from, a K162 from class 2 w-space. The other K162 comes from class 4 w-space, and is where I head first. Jumping in to C4a has nothing show on d-scan, and warping to the only planet out of range doesn't add to the d-scan result. The system is unoccupied and inactive. Performing a blanket scan gives me a little work to do finding K162s, with four anomalies and twenty signatures—I'd prefer those numbers to be reversed—but concentrating on the chubby signatures bags me a C4 K162 without much hassle. In I go.

Three towers and no ships light up d-scan in C4b, which perhaps suggests this isn't the end of the chain of systems. The system is quite sparse too, with seven planets and seven moons, one of the planets hogging five moons to itself, with every planet in d-scan range of every other. A blanket scan result of five anomalies and three signatures is much more manageable than in the previous system, but only one signature looks strong enough to be a K162, and I'm pretty sure that's the X877 wormhole I just came through. Apparently this is the end of the chain, and a dead end at that. Back I go.

I head home and loiter by the C2 K162 as I welcome my glorious leader on-line, update her, and deal with some paperwork on another screen. Anyone waiting for me will have got bored and moved on already, and I'm really not expecting to find anything in the class 2 system, so this pause is more to settle me than anything. And with administration done, I jump to C2a, where a Venture mining frigate appears on d-scan, all alone.

Is the Venture bait, part of a trap? That seems unlikely, but certainly possible. Exploring the rest of the system finds a tower, in which an Orca industrial command ship is piloted, but that's it. It seems that the frigate really is active, probably sucking gas, with the Orca boosting its yield. I don't think there is a fleet of cloaky ships waiting for a sucker. But there is nowhere safe to hide from both the Orca and Venture, and I need to launch probes within range of one of them so that I can scan for the site the Venture's in. Naturally, I choose to launch near the tower, where the Orca may see me, but probably won't.

Probes in space and out of the system, I warp back to get closer to the Venture and start hunting it. Fin boards her interdictor and warps to the K162 in the home system, ready to come and help, if possible. And I start narrowing down the frigate's position in space. I'm a little clumsy to start with, but get closer, closer, and now I've lost it. Ah, that's because it's gone. I warp to the tower to see if it's there, which it is. And seeing it motionless, and knowing that the tower is out of range of whatever site the Venture was in, I start scanning roughly.

The site has gone. At least, there's nothing anywhere near where the Venture was. But as the frigate remains stationary at the tower I broaden my search volume. A couple of signatures pop up, the first a wormhole, the second also a wormhole, just as the pilot in the Orca swaps the big ship for a smaller model, a Crusader interceptor. The Venture goes off-line, followed by the Crusader, and I'm left alone in a system with only wormholes.

A blanket scan confirms I've resolved all the signatures, all three of them, and that what must have been a ladar site has been entirely sucked up by the Venture. I was too late. No, I was too slow. What did I tell myself at the start of the evening? Shoot or be shot. And when I saw a ship, I didn't follow it but went in another direction, then procrastinated when coming back to investigate the ship movements. Caution is necessary, but if I'm specifically trying to force a conflict I should be a little more daring. Silly Penny. I suppose I'm not that desperate for explosions after all.

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Tags: buzzard, crusader, eve online, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, venture, w-space