That Drake is far away

Now what do I do? I somehow managed to sneak up, whilst banging and crashing my combat scanning probes around the system, on a Bestower hauler in a gravimetric site, and podded the pilot back to a clone vat. The system, a class 3 w-space system a few hops from home, hence denoted as C3b, has a static exit to low-sec empire space. I'm considering loitering in low-sec for the pilot, to try catching his return, but this doesn't seem wise. I don't know that the pilot will be returning, or what ship he'll choose to fly back, and even if he comes back he will surely see me sitting brazenly in low-sec communications and (probably) figure out what's happening.

Okay, so I won't wait for the podded pilot to come back. However, that second Badger visible on my directional scanner interests me. There was only one of those haulers at the local tower previously, and as an also-seen pod remains on d-scan I think it's safe to assume I have a new contact. As much as I doubt the new pilot will collect planet goo, or something else quite so careless with a known cloaky Loki strategic cruiser on the loose, I didn't think the Bestower would do what he did either. You never can tell.

I warp to the tower and get eyes on the Badger, but he actually does do nothing. That's a bit of a shame, but not the end of the world. Or of my roaming w-space. I found another connected system in the constellation, with a wormhole to deadly class 6 w-space to explore. But before I head back that way I may as well exit to low-sec to get myself a safety route home. Then again, that Impairor frigate on d-scan looks interesting, and not just because it's a new to the system but because it also bears the name of the pilot of the Bestower.

I almost curse myself for not waiting for the new clone to come home, but my reasoning earlier was sound. And even if we may have passed each other in warp, catching the Impairor would have been tricky, with the recalibration delay from decloaking probably being longer than it takes for the frigate to enter warp in a panic. But all is not lost, as the Impairor didn't pass me in warp, not being at the tower. A quick check with d-scan shows a less likely circumstance: the pilot has gone back to the gravimetric site where he was recently killed.

There's no accounting for some pilots, and I'm not going to argue if I get another soft kill. I warp back to the rock field, aiming to drop nearby the kernite rock that was the site of the previous massacre. The Impairor isn't there, though. At least, not at this rock. The frigate is paying close attention to some ombre nearby, but not quite nearby enough to catch him. That same distant veldspar rock comes to my aid a second time, and I bounce off it to warp to the ombre, but sadly not before the Impairor has got bored with rock identification and gone back to the tower. Oh well, I can't get quite so lucky twice.

It may still be worth sticking around. Following the frigate back to the tower sees the Badger pilot now in an Atron frigate, and within a couple of minutes both frigates warp towards the wormhole to low-sec. Being the curious sort, I warp behind them. Getting to the wormhole sees an odd sight, as both ships are loitering near the connection instead of jumping through as I would expect. A Drake decloaking rather catches me by surprise, but mostly because the battlecruiser appears on top of my Loki, making me vulnerable. I suppose that's okay, as there is the wormhole to retreat through if I need it.

As I've been rumbled, I decide to take out the sure kills first, and target the Atron and Impairor to give them a couple of rounds of autocannon fire before concentrating on the Drake. Targeting fails at first, probably because of the recalibration delay, but continues to fail and fail again. Ah, the Drake has appeared beneath me by some distance, and it only looks like we are close enough to interfere with my cloak. I actually remain covert. Perhaps I need a priest to explain perspective to me. And not being decloaked is actually a little disappointing, as the Drake warps away before I realise what's happening. I may have just missed a small fray.

Then again, the Drake's gone, but the frigates remain. At least, one of them certainly does. The Impairor moves towards the wormhole and jumps. The Atron sits motionless. He also appears to be some distance from the wormhole, and certainly too far to jump immediately. Sod it, let's take a shot. I decloak, amble slowly towards the Atron, so that I don't get too far from the wormhole, and wait for my targeting systems to become active.

There they go. I get a positive lock and blow the living crap out of the Atron. It's pretty simple. Autocannons do an awful lot of damage to even small targets. I aim for the ejected pod, but it flees, glitchily, back to the tower. No other ships decloak, or come through the wormhole, so I have no idea quite why these pilots were sitting here so obviously. It doesn't really matter either. I loot and shoot the wreck, and watch as a pod warps back to see what's happening, before running straight back to the tower when he sees my Loki reloading its guns. I can't say I blame him.

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Tags: atron, badger, drake, eve online, impairor, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, w-space

Rudely interrupting a rock survey

No new losses. Today is going to be a good day. Scanning the home system shows that the Sleepers are even moving back in, which is good too, I suppose. And only the one wormhole means that we've had no capsuleer visitors. Let's see if I can be a visitor to others. I jump through the wormhole to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

My directional scanner shows me an Orca industrial command ship, two Basilisk logistic ships, and a tower, and a magnetar phenomenon sits clearly in space. A previous visit, seven months ago, gives me a tower location and information about the static wormhole leading to null-sec k-space. I warp away from the wormhole to check the tower, which is in the same place, and find the three ships empty. I suppose I'll look for the null-sec connection, and hopefully more wormholes to go with it.

Two anomalies and seven signatures give me a weak wormhole, which will lead to null-sec, and a chubbier one, which will be a K162, this one coming from class 5 w-space. That's good enough. Jumping in looks positive, with two towers and a Hoarder on d-scan, but finding the tower with the ship shows the hauler to be unpiloted. I won't be dispirited just yet, though, as maybe there are more wormholes to be found. And amongst the five anomalies and ten signatures there are three. A K162 from class 6 w-space, a K162 from class 3 w-space, and an outbound connection to null-sec. The last wormhole I land near comes from C3b, and I jump that way first.

Ah, my first sign of actual pilots. The Bestower and Badger haulers on d-scan may be empty, although I'm hoping not, but the capsule is almost certain to hold a capsuleer. The tower has moved since my previous visit, also seven months ago, but as it now sits around a planet with only one moon it is straightforward to find. When I reach the tower I see the Badger empty, the Bestower piloted, and the pod full of goo. If only the refinery weren't running I may think I have a chance of catching one of the pilots being careless. Never mind, I can still scan again.

I warp out, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system, revealing not much at all, just three anomalies and three signatures. There are pilots perhaps watching d-scan, but with only two unresolved signatures I can be quick. At least, I thought so, but just as I'm resolving the first signature to be a wormhole the Bestower moves, warping out of the tower seconds later. The hauler doesn't head towards a customs office but empty space, and as the only destination in empty space I currently know about is the newly resolved wormhole I warp in that direction, in an attempt to intercept the hauler.

It doesn't work. I may have found the system's static exit to low-sec, but the Bestower isn't here. He remains somewhere in the system though. Thankfully, with only one other signature left unscanned he should be pretty easy to find, even if my combat scanning probes must be lighting up d-scanners across the system. I shift my probes across to the rough position of the other signature and scan, getting a rough result on the signature but decent hit on the Bestower. Now I take a risk. The scan result for the hauler is good, so I drop my probes' range down by two steps, instead of one, and scan again.

Generally, dropping probe ranges down more than one step will lose sight of the signature. But I got a good result on the Bestower, and I moved my probes to focus on the ship, not the fuzzy red dot of the signature. I need this scan to be successful quickly. I get it too. The second scan resolves the Bestower's location, even with the gravimetric site still a bit uncertain, but I'm here to shoot ships, not rocks. I recall my probes, warp to the Bestower's position, and bookmark the scan result for reference.

Dropping out of warp in the rock field sees the Bestower rather further from me than I imagined it would be. I'm close, but not close enough. The Bestower warps, which I initially take to mean he's seen me and is bugging out, but he disappears upwards and not towards the tower. Somehow, I have not been spotted. But I also don't spot what the Bestower's warped to. I try to get close, warping to a big rock nearby, and see that the Bestower is nuzzling against some kernite, for whatever reason, but again I'm still too far away.

Thankfully, rock fields are big. I spin my ship around, aim towards a friendly chunk of veldspar almost 300 km away, and bounce off it—not literally; I drop short by a few tens of kilometres so that my cloak holds—back to the kernite and the Bestower. He still sits there, motionless, and now I am in range. This is so easy. I decloak, burn towards the Bestower to give it a bump, and gain a positive target lock. I disrupt its warp drives, and start shooting until my guns go 'click'. Or deactivate when the hauler explodes, anyway.

I doubt the pilot was paying much attention to space, hence not spotting my combat probes resolving his position. And hence his pod doesn't escape from the site. I crack open the pod to get to the chewy meat centre, and scoop, loot, and shoot the corpse and wreck. That was fun! It may not be a big kill, but it's a kill all the same.

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Tags: badger, basilisk, bestower, eve online, hoarder, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Scouting behind a Buzzard

'We have visitors.' At home? I update my directional scanner as my glorious leader welcomes me on-line, and see nothing. Then again, I try to hide as far as from everything as possible precisely to stay off d-scan when coming on-line. I launch probes and prepare to perform a blanket scan of the system as Fin continues. 'Okay, it may have been two hours ago, clearing anomalies, sucking gas.' Bastards. 'And maybe mining. And whoring kill mails.' Oh dear. Fin, where are you?

My leader lost both her Loki strategic cruiser and pod to the intruders, in a sucker punch counter-ambush. Fin missed catching them once, pootled around with industrial matters after they went, and then tried to catch another when they cheekily came back. Of course, they were prepared. Never go back. It could be our corporate motto, but we'd still not pay attention to it. Fin's in high-sec, busying herself with missions for an agent, which gives me greater motivation to find a good exit today.

Scanning the home system finds nothing out of order, apart from our missing anomalies, and the second wormhole even remains. I warp across to see that it comes from class 5 w-space, and that the K162 is now critically unstable. I won't say that makes us safe, but it gives an indication to the fleet's intention not to bring any serious fleet back to our home system. I'll ignore them for now and jump through our static wormhole to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

It's my third visit to C3a, the last being almost two years ago apparently not affecting my notes too much. Two towers remain in the same locations, one has moved slightly, and I think it's safe to say the static wormhole exits to high-sec. That's a good omen for a Fin recovery, I would say. A blanket scan of the system reveals five anomalies, six signatures, and no ships, letting me scan in peace. The first wormhole feels high-seccish, a second is chubbier and probably a K162, and after a radar site a third wormhole feels more like high-sec than the first. That just leaves some gas.

The first wormhole is actually a T405 connection to class 4 w-space, which will be good to explore once I've got the high-sec connection. And we have two to choose from, as the chubby wormhole is a K162 from high-sec too. The static exit leads to a system in Essence, many hops from civilised space, and the K162 comes from Domain, which sounds much better. 'They are nearly equidistant from me. Twenty-two and twenty-one jumps.' Oh well. I can't close that distance from here, and Fin isn't feeling perky enough to make the trip. She goes off-line, I go to C4a.

The K162 in C4a is over 4 AU from the nearest planet, and that is the only planet in d-scan range. Launching probes and blanketing the system shows little else, with no occupation, no activity, and four anomalies and eleven signatures to sift through. A conspicuous signature, again over 4 AU from any planet, becomes an obvious wormhole, which shows that if you're a wormhole you shouldn't hide away from planets. Now I scan rocks, gas, a ship—crap, too late to move my probes out of the way too.

I try to get my probes clear anyway, but switching to d-scan sees empty space, so whoever was here is either cloaked or gone. I'll continue scanning. Quelle surprise, a wormhole appears where the ship was. This second wormhole is a weak one, though, and turns out to be the dreaded H900 to class 5 w-space. I'll leave that for now, particularly if the locals suspect a scout will be heading their way. Besides, I have a second class 4 system to explore, through the K162 I resolved first.

C4b has two canisters on d-scan, nothing else. One planet sits out of d-scan range, a planet without a tower, giving me another K162 to resolve. Fourteen anomalies and nine signatures are whittled down, and I resolve the expected wormhole as a Buzzard covert operations boat jumps in to the system from C4a. Being able to see such ship transits as this is why when the system is unoccupied I lurk near a wormhole. On a pretty secure hunch, I warp towards the wormhole I just resolved as the cov-ops cloaks, and land outside another C4 K162 in time to see the Buzzard jump through.

I ignore the remaining, unscanned signatures, recalling my probes, and follow behind the Buzzard, waiting for a minute so that I'm not too obvious in my actions. C4c has a tower, Buzzard, and Orca industrial command ship on d-scan, which are soon located. The Buzzard is the one I followed. It's probably the same ship my probes picked up on the H900 back in C4a, which means that the pilot saw my probes in C4a and in C4b, which will make her unlikely to do anything rash, like warp around in a basic hauler collecting planet goo.

The Buzzard does little indeed. And if my assumption is correct, and I imagine it is, not having spotted another active pilot so far, that the Buzzard came back from C5a and is not aching to return in a more pointy ship, I think it's safe to say there is little to find down that part of the rabbit hole. Even so, it won't hurt to take a look. I leave the inert Buzzard behind, warp across three class 4 w-space systems, and jump to C5a. Sure enough, nothing. Unoccupied, inactive, empty. I doubt it's even worth scanning for the wormhole to the next system. Okay, game over. And I'm not inserting another coin. Not until tomorrow.

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

Worst scout ever

Is there anything happening now? All I could find in the w-space constellation earlier was Aii, sucking up gas in the home system. I'm pretty sure I can't shoot him. Pretty sure. Aii's gone, though, and so has a ladar site. Coincidence? I'll ponder that question as I perform a blanket scan of the system, but forget it when I see no new signatures. I'll be roaming through the couple of connected class 3 systems to look for activity. I hope I find some.

Jumping to C3a and warping to the tower, once my ship turns to point in the right direction under the effects of a black hole, sees the same empty Blackbird recon ship as was here earlier. I don't bother checking through the static wormhole to null-sec k-space. Instead, I warp to the N968 wormhole to C3b and jump through. The tower in C3b is within range of my directional scanner from the K162, unlike in C3a, so I don't have to go anywhere to see the Iteron hauler that probably remains unpiloted. That Mastodon is new, though.

I warp to the tower to see what the transport ship will do. Not much. In fact, I'd go as far as saying the Mastodon does nothing. Thankfully, my glorious leader comes on-line, allowing us to chat as I continue to silently urge the transport to leave the safety of his force field. But he doesn't. Why is the capsuleer even in space, if all he's going to do is idle? Oh, he's flying Minmatar. I suppose the ships need to be turned over occasionally just to keep them running. Leave them for a few days and they probably seize.

Whatever the reason the Mastodon's in space, he isn't long after. But when one pilot goes, another comes, this one in a Tengu strategic cruiser. That's a more interesting target. I alert Fin to the change and ask her to get to the N968 in C3a, whilst I cover C3b's static exit. If the ship moves, hopefully we can catch it. Except there is another K162 in C3b, also coming from null-sec, so we are relying not only on the pilot's curiosity but a specific kind of curiosity that guides him through w-space.

The Tengu warps from the tower but not to a wormhole, only to empty space, where he launches probes, and cloaks. That's a good start. A minute or so later the Tengu appears on d-scan again, and lingers for longer than expected. Whatever he's up to, I want to find out, so warp out, launch combat scanning probes, and go to look for the strategic cruiser. I react a bit slowly, though, and by the time I return to the inner system the Tengu has cloaked again. Or, I suppose, gone off-line.

It takes me a couple of minutes to notice, but I eventually realise there are no probes visible on d-scan, which are kind of a crucial component of scanning. That's when it clicks that the Tengu's appearance on d-scan was his ship going off-line, his cloak deactivating as the ship was powered-down. As far as I can tell, he didn't even resolve a single signature. Worst scout ever.

Oh well, all is quiet once again. Fin and I stand down, and think what to do next. Crash our static wormhole, I suppose, and look for better opportunity through a new one. The plan stalls when we get home and core scanning probes are visible in the system. In case of a new wormhole connecting to us I launch my own probes and perform a blanket scan, warping back to the static wormhole to simultaneously confirm no new signatures and see a Buzzard jump to C3a. The covert operations boat wasn't orange, so isn't from the w-space systems we are currently aware of, but the lack of new signatures at home at least shows that he didn't come from behind us.

To see if the constellation has been extended I jump to C3a to scan again, as Fin throws an Orca industrial command ship through the wormhole to start the collapse. There's nothing new in C3a, suggesting the Buzzard came from null-sec. Whatever, I'm not chasing him out there. I return home and help Fin kill our connection. Or, rather, critically wound it. We could give the wormhole a final push, but rather than risk one of us getting isolated we decide simply to call it a night. We can have more adventure tomorrow.

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Tags: blackbird, buzzard, eve online, iteron, mastodon, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Ignoring null-sec for only so long

It's been a few days since I was last in space. There are a few items of business to take care of before I can strike fear in the depths of w-space. Well, maybe the shallows of w-space, if we've only got our static connection to a class 3 system. We'll need a K162 to dangerous or deadly w-space to go deeper. Where was I? Right, deleting the old bookmarks, transferring the stale bookmarks to now be old, checking the corporate bookmarks, deleting the corporate bookmarks when they look a day stale too, copying the new internal sites that have been resolved, and, finally, updating my skill queue.

Housekeeping complete, I get back to standard operating procedure, launching probes and scanning the home system. Blimey, not only are there several known sites already but two more have cropped up. They are both gas sites—Aii really needs to suck more—which I can ignore in favour of our static wormhole. Looking next door, in C3a, sees a really obvious black hole, dominating space beyond my ship. I'm glad I spotted that, as I generally look in the other direction and completely miss the massive distortion in space-time. And despite many black hole systems being curiously unoccupied, this system has a tower.

The local tower doesn't appear on my directional scanner immediately. I have to look for it. My notes point me in the right direction but are a little off, as the tower sits one moon across since my visit three months ago. That's odd. Maybe I made a mistake when noting the location before, which seems more likely than a corporation stripping down a tower just to shift it a few hundred thousand kilometres. Regardless of their intentions, there's no one home at the moment, leaving me free to scan the five signatures in the system.

That weak wormhole will be the static exit to null-sec, then it's rocks, gas, and a suspiciously chubby wormhole that I don't get to resolve, as my Loki goes off-line. Stupid temperamental Minmatar piece of... A bit of percussive maintenance encourages the strategic cruiser to come back on-line, at which point I reconnect with my patiently waiting probes, and resolve the wormhole. It turns out to be an N968 wormhole to a second class 3 system, which is nice, and I ignore null-sec to explore more w-space.

From black hole to pulsar, the more ship-friendly system even has a tower on d-scan along with an Iteron. My notes from a previous visit twenty months ago guide me directly to the tower, to speed my disappointment in finding the hauler empty inside the tower's force field. I also see that this C3 has a static connection to null-sec, which whilst not exactly thrilling me doesn't actually stop me scanning. One anomaly is one more than in C3a, and eight signatures resolve to two wormholes, one nice and fat.

The K162 disappoints as much as the empty Iteron, being another null-sec connection, merely opened from the other side. I can't ignore null-sec much longer. The time has come to poke through and see what I can find in k-space. But as I approach the K162, my first choice for being closest to it, a Raven appears on d-scan. A piloted ship is interesting, even more so if the battleship intends on engaging Sleepers and making itself a target. But the Raven goes a few seconds later, not jumping past me, and leaving no trace that I can see. Fine, be that way. I'm going to null-sec to play.

The K162 in C3b sends me to the Syndicate region, in a system with enough other pilots to convince me not to bother scanning. Warping across C3b and exiting through its static connection puts me in Catch, again with obvious pilots in the local communications channel being enough to deter me from lingering. I have one more null-sec connection, back in C3a, and heading that way sends me to Tenerifis, with still more pilots. Okay, I'm definitely ignoring null-sec now.

I return to w-space, across C3a, and home, where Aii has woken up. I tell him to suck harder, and he graciously does, boarding a battlecruiser and warping to one of the ladar sites to continue harvesting gas. I can't really bring myself to join in, but that doesn't mean I can't be useful. I stay in my covert Loki, but launch probes and blanket the system. No new signatures appear, which means no new wormholes have connected to us. I sit on our static wormhole, monitoring it for ship transits, occasionally updating my combat scanning probes, doing my bit to keep Aii safe. No one passes me, no wormholes appear. But I can only do this for so long before it's time for a break.

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

Ending in class 2 w-space systems

I come back from evading some low-sec pirates to see Fin is half-way to collapsing our wormhole. Good job. She stays in the Widow black ops ship to finish the operation. I board an Orca industrial command ship, so that when I get isolated I'll be stuck in low-sec with pirates who are already looking for my Loki strategic cruiser, and will be happy to find the unarmed and more expensive Orca to blow up. Well, here goes. I jump out, watch as the wormhole survives, and jump back home. And watch as the wormhole survives. Bastard.

The wormhole lives, but in critical condition. Fin volunteers to send a heavy interdictor through it, going out light and coming back heavy, in a bid to finish the wormhole off, saying that 'you're better at getting me back than if the roles were reversed'. Glorious is my leader. And, thankfully, I don't need to get her back, as Fin returns seconds later, sans wormhole. Job's a good 'un. Curiously, inflating her warp bubble gives her an aggression flag. I was sitting nearby, watching the jumps and caught in the bubble, which makes us think that a HIC could be a good way of determining whether there are nearby cloaked ships. Or could it?

Rather than assume, Fin and I go our separate ways a little, a minuscule distance in the vastness of space, and Fin activates the HIC's warp bubble again. Nope, she still gets an aggression flag just for activating the module. That is, unless our Ghostathema has returned. Or never went away. Whatever it is, we are better informed about how the warp bubble interacts with aggression flags. Now we can start the evening again. I launch probes and scan, resolving the replacement static wormhole, and jumping to our new neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

A tower appears on my directional scanner, but no ships, much like the previous system. My notes put me in this C3 thirteen months ago, when there were two towers and I found a static exit to high-sec. Exploring sees no other towers, so I update my notes, and performing a blanket scan reveals thirteen anomalies and nineteen signatures. The signatures consist mostly of rocks and gas, as usual, and a moderate strength wormhole will probably be the static wormhole. A second, stronger signature that resolves to be a wormhole will be a K162, which could offer opportunity, and after that I'm down in the depths of magnetometric sites.

Warping to the high-sec connection lets me exit and see where I am taken, which is to the Everyshore region, five hops to Dodixie. Fair enough, but not terribly interesting in itself. The K162 appeals more, although returning to w-space and warping to the bookmarked signature drops me in to empty space. Another dead-on-arrival wormhole? I thought we just left this system. Never mind. I wait for my polarisation to end—bad practice to jump back so soon, really, particularly on a high-sec wormhole, but that's how I roll—and return to Everyshore to scan for more wormholes, that hopefully actually exist.

Core scanning probes are in the high-sec system already when I launch my combat probes, but three extra signatures should be enough for the two of us scouts to share. With any luck, he's a miner looking for rocks in the gravimetric site. With even better luck, he's a miner looking for rocks through one of the two wormholes that the other signatures resolve to be. I can dream. The weak wormhole means it will be outbound and so more likely to lead to more w-space, and indeed a wormhole to class 2 w-space is a pretty good find. If only it weren't already so late, having scanned one constellation and collapse our wormhole. Even so, it won't harm to take a look.

D-scan is clear from the K162 in C2a, with a single planet out of range. I launch probes, blanket the system, and explore. My probes reveal twenty-one anomalies, nine signatures, and seven ships, which d-scan tells me, when I get closer to the far planet, are four Orcas, a Noctis salvager, Heron frigate, and Badger hauler. When I get even closer, after locating the tower that inevitably holds them, I find all of the ships are unpiloted. I could scan for the system's static w-space connection, but I'd rather simply check the other wormhole I found in high-sec for a soft target.

Returning to Everyshore and warping to the second wormhole finds another link to class 2 w-space, but one on its last legs. Still, a quick peek probably won't get me trapped, and I jump through the dying connection. In C2b I see the wormhole I'm sitting on has been badly bubbled. Even if all the planets are on the opposite side of the bubbles, it would only take a little manoeuvring to get me outside of warp disruption effect, where I could make a bookmark and warp clear easily enough. But I don't even check, as I see that I've appeared over seven kilometres from the wormhole, which even if it isn't a guarantee of no activity certainly has been a pretty good gauge so far. I'm not risking the wormhole dying just to confirm nothing's happening. I jump straight back to high-sec and take myself home, where I go off-line.

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Tags: badger, eve online, heron, loki, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space, widow

Gaining attention in low-sec

I see a Fin and some corporate bookmarks. What's happening? 'Nothing', my glorious leader says, telling me that she's collected planet goo and is turning her attention to some laboratory operations and tower reconfigurations she's busying herself with. I know industry isn't quite as exciting as roaming, but I wouldn't call it nothing. But I think Fin is just pointing out that she hasn't left the home system yet. Ah, I see, the bookmarks are not current. Let me correct that.

Scanning the home system reveals only the one signature not accounted for by the gas and rock sites, which will be our static wormhole. I resolve the connection, and warp to and jump through it to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where a reinforced timer appears on my display. I poke my directional scanner in to life and see a couple of towers but no ships, which I suppose is no surprise given that the timer has twenty-five hours left to run. I doubt much will happen before the structure becomes vulnerable.

At least the timer makes locating the sieged tower easy to find. Or it would, were there actually a tower under threat. Warping across to the planet sees that instead it is merely a customs office that has been attacked, probably to be replaced by one owned by a different corporation. That's less exciting, but still indicative of activity. Or, I suppose, a lack of activity for the next day. Let's repair the customs office, just to annoy the locals. Fin agrees, and prepares a pair of logistics ships, whilst I scan to see what may ambush us.

A blanket scan of the system picks up two anomalies and eight signatures, and sifting through them resolves a wormhole, gas, rocks, a ship, gas, and a wormhole. And the ship doesn't stay long. It's Fin's Basilisk entering the system, which she warps to the beleaguered customs office, remembers that it's not possible to repair a structure that is in reinforced mode, and warps straight back home again. Okay, so I'm a bit ignorant about some aspects of life in space. But I learn.

I have two wormholes to reconnoitre. Or so I think. The first is the system's static exit to low-sec, which leads to the Kor-Azor region. The second is empty space. The wormhole is dead on arrival. It's a little disappointing but not unprecedented. I am more frustrated that I now have to wait a couple of minutes for polarisation effects to dissipate before I can return to low-sec to scan for more wormholes. It's a minor issue, though.

Back in low-sec, scanning has two extra signatures. One is a Blood Raiders site, the other a weak wormhole. I would be excited by the outbound connection, but it leads from low-sec empire space to more low-sec empire space, which isn't really what I was looking for. I suppose I should have guessed it wasn't a serious wormhole from the JKR signature identifier. Still, the connection to another system is there, I may as well see where it leads.

Hullo. Before I get close enough to jump, an Anathema covert operations boat decloaks and beats me to the wormhole. It's small fry, but the most I've seen so far, so I give chase. I jump from low-sec Kor-Azor to low-sec Everyshore, where the Anathema appears and promptly cloaks, easily avoiding my attentions. Well, that was exciting. I bookmark the wormhole, ponder my next move, and decide not to scan. It's probably more worthwhile collapsing our static connection.

Ah, hello again. The Anathema pilot gives a wave in the local channel before returning through the wormhole to Kor-Azor. I am going back anyway, so I may as well go back with him. And, of course, the cov-ops has signalled for friends and lured me in to a minor ambush. A Vengeance assault ship and Myrmidon battlecruiser are waiting for me on the other side of the wormhole. It's times like this that I wish I'd been paying more attention.

I don't mean that I ought to have anticipated the ambush. I occasionally check information about pilots in the local channel, to see if any are affiliated, and didn't today. That may have given me a hint. I am more thinking that I have no idea when I first jumped through the wormhole, behind the Anathema, and so have no idea if my ship is polarised or not. If it isn't, I could feasibly engage the two ships and see if I could do much damage to the Vengeance, with the wormhole as an escape route. As it is, I should probably just try to evade them.

Appearing less than two kilometres from the wormhole and with an assault ship watching for my appearance is awkward, but a quick pulse of my micro warp drive and quick activation of my cloak gets me safe with surprisingly little fuss. I thought I'd have to start shooting. Now I simply coast away from the wormhole and watch a Scorpion battleship warp in at range, presumably to apply cowardly ECM to an already one-sided encounter, and the Anathema pilot return in a Harbinger battlecruiser.

The extra attention all appears a bit late, though. I don't know what they think I'm going to do. I started on this side of the wormhole after all. My main concern is that the Anathema scanned both wormholes, and that these pilots know of the K162 to C3a, which is my route home. But when I get bored of watching the ships, pretty much at the point when they warp away in different directions, and return to the K162 I see no one waiting for me. There's no one in w-space either. It's a bit of an anticlimax. Still, that should let us collapse our wormhole quietly, and hopefully give us a better constellation to uncover.

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Tags: anathema, eve online, harbinger, low-sec, mmorpg, myrmidon, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, scorpion, vengeance, w-space

After-Venture adventure

The Ventures have fled this class 5 w-space system, but I'm still sitting on the wormhole leading back home. I wasn't able to catch the frigates sucking up gas in a ladar site, not being able to hide from their directional scanners in the small system, but I'm curious to see what happens next. I'm a little surprised that ships weren't brought in to counter my threat. In fact, I'm not sure I should wait on the wormhole, in case the pilots bring back a combat fleet to actively look for me. But before I roam in the opposite direction I'd like to know if I'm being followed.

Nothing comes my way that I can see, and no ships jump through the wormhole. And I am heading back home and through our static wormhole, despite there obviously being a K162 to find in C5a. I see little point in entering a system where the locals will be expecting me. At best, I'll find nothing. At worst, I'll be effectively countered and wake up in a clone vat. So once I am confident that I am not being watched or followed, I leave C5a, and warp across the home system to jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

A Retriever mining barge, Rifter frigate, and tower all appear on d-scan from the wormhole, and narrowing d-scan's beam shows the ships are probably in the tower. I warp away to launch scanning probes out of d-scan range, only to bump in to a second tower on the edge of the system, along with a Cormorant. The destroyer is unpiloted inside the force field of the tower, and as I don't know the status of the other two ships I decide to launch probes out here anyway.

Performing a blanket scan of the system reveals five anomalies, a mere two signatures, and the three ships, whilst I warp back to locate the first tower. And finding the tower shows that my choice to launch probes at the second could have been wise, as the Retriever is piloted. On the other hand, as there are only two signatures in the system—our K162 and the system's static wormhole—there aren't any mining sites where the Retriever can become a target, so I suppose it doesn't matter after all.

I may as well resolve the static wormhole. Warping to the exit and jumping to low-sec puts me in Aridia, naturally, with one pilot in the system. I ignore him and launch probes to scan, and whilst I whittle down the seven extra signatures a new contact appears. Judging by the name of his battleship, it's a colleague of the gassing Ventures. Sure enough, the Rokh drops out of warp on top of the wormhole I'm loitering on, and jumps to C3a.

The Rokh is a tempting target, particularly a few jumps away from home and so probably without support, but I'm not sure my Loki can take on a battleship by itself. I don't think I'll try today. I feel a bit gutless in not even engaging the Rokh, but the feeling will pass, particularly as I have only recently been reminding myself that my strategic cruiser is not the best ship for every fight. If I had support we could easily have engineered an effective ambush for the battleship. As it is, there's no harm in picking and choosing my fights.

Back to scanning. Amongst some low-sec chaff is a wormhole, and thankfully, after resolving six useless signatures, it's a rather nice K162 from class 2 w-space. I jump back to w-space to continue exploring. D-scan is clear from the wormhole, and warping around finds a tower with no ships. Scanning reveals a lack of anomalies but thirteen signatures, which will hold a connection to more w-space. Discarding the inevitable rocks and gas in this combat-orientated system I pluck two wormholes from the noise, both connecting to more class 2 w-space.

One wormhole heads backwards, the other forwards. I choose backwards first, as the K162 is a better indication of activity, and jump in to a system that my notes tell me holds static connections to class 2 w-space and low-sec empire space. I won't be scanning here, not at this late hour, and simply warp around looking for occupation. I spy a tower and two ships on d-scan, and guess that the tower will be around the planet with most moons. It's a good guess, and although it takes a few seconds longer to find the tower the number of moons hardly conceals it.

The Manticore stealth bomber and Badger hauler at the tower, though, are empty, and I lose interest in this C2. I jump back to C2a and head to C2b, through the static wormhole, in the hopes of finding a ship to shoot before going home. A tower, Imicus frigate, and Bestower hauler look good on d-scan, but not so good on my overview. Both ships are again empty. Despite another wormhole to w-space to find I'm not scanning. I'm getting tired and don't want to make mistakes.

Heading back through low-sec to C3a is uneventful, but jumping through the wormhole sees scanning probes on d-scan in w-space. There are only two signatures in the system, both wormholes, so assuming the scout will come my way makes it worth sticking around for another minute or so. That's assuming the scout can scan and will come my way, though, and when an Anathema from beyond C5a, allied with the Ventures and Rokh, blips on d-scan but doesn't jump to low-sec I realise I'm wasting my time. I warp across C3a, jump through the wormhole home uneventfully, and hide in a corner of the system to go off-line.

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Tags: anathema, badger, bestower, cormorant, eve online, imicus, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, retriever, rifter, rokh, scanning, w-space

Dispersing gassers

I'm all alone today. Or am I? I see bookmarks already made to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, and to a class 6 system that connects in to us. The bookmarks are only a couple of hours old too, so they look good. I still launch probes and scan, because anything can happen in the next half-hour w-space in that time, but I don't find any unexpected signatures. I also find the K162 is not quite as deadly as its bookmark suggests, as it only comes from class 5 w-space. That's cool. Let's see what's there.

The wormhole is clear in C5a, and my directional scanner shows me no ships in range. There are eleven towers, though, which is quite a few. Opening the system map shows me that all the planets are in range, all seven of them, and that there are, what a surprise, eleven moons. This class 5 system is saturated. But there's still no one home. Maybe there's a K162 to find that heads further back in to the constellation. Actually, there quite probably is, as a Venture appears on d-scan, and it isn't at one of the towers.

The mining frigate's appearance is enticing, but my question now is whether I can get out of range of wherever it has chosen to chew on rocks. The C5 is small, after all. And although the diameter of the system is more than the range of d-scan, the Venture has, perhaps wisely, perhaps fortuitously, planted itself in a position where I cannot escape its oversight. Well, I say the Venture, but what I mean is both Ventures, as there are now two.

If only I'd been quicker in getting in to the system, or more bold in launching probes, I could have a hunt on my hands. As it is, the four Ventures will probably spot me and run away before I can even hide my probes. I try one last trick, which I don't think has worked yet, and passively scan the system for anomalies. There are quite a few, and some are beyond the outer limits of the most distant planets. Maybe that extra 2 AU will be enough to drop me out of d-scan range of the frigates.

I warp to the anomaly, dropping far short so that I don't bump in to the Sleepers and making a tactical bookmark a few thousand kilometres out of the site, but soon see that it's not enough. Even in the anomaly, as physically far out of the solar system as I can get my ship, the Ventures appear on d-scan. Well, even if I can't be covert, I could still potentially spoil the operation. I drop my cloak, launch combat scanning probes, and reactivate my cloak as I throw the probes out of the system.

Hey, circumstances are actually improving. There are five Ventures now, although I can't quite believe that four active pilots didn't spot a Loki strategic cruiser visibly launching probes. And I'm pretty sure they did indeed spot me, as an Anathema covert operations boat blipping on d-scan suggests. I think the Venture pilots are being canny, not careless, and are aware that I'll need to scan for them before I become a threat. They'll probably watch for my probes appearing a second time and scatter. That still doesn't stop me hunting them.

I get close to the Ventures. That bit's easy. Narrowing down their position in space using d-scan is fairly straightforward too, although I perform the occasional broad scan, aware that the Ventures may not scatter but instead call in some anti-Loki support. But all looks clear. And as the frigates stay in space as I refine my estimate of their position, I even start thinking that maybe I wasn't spotted. Maybe the pilots are amateurs, or relying on herd behaviour to keep them safe. Maybe I need to think about how to pop the maximum number of ships.

Going back for an Onyx wouldn't work, as the wormhole is in range of the mining operation, even if the warp bubble would counter the increased warp strength of the Ventures. But the one Venture that I've previously engaged exploded in a such a vicious fireball after one volley that it didn't leave a wreck. I think I'll target as many as possible, put my warp scrambler on one of them, and spray autocannon rounds amongst the others until its just me and the snared frigate left in the site. Yeah. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself, but I'm ready to scan.

No, ignore that image, I'm not quite ready. I ought to be as quick reaching the site as possible, given that the ships are probably watching out for me, ignoring the fact that a frigate can probably enter warp from stationary quicker than my decloaking recalibration delay wears off. But I may as well think positively. I align my ship in the rough direction of the Ventures and accelerate, which will get me in to warp almost instantly on command. Now I call my probes in, and get a good result. Perfect on the ships, who cares about the site. It's a ladar site too, so the adaptable frigates are sucking up gas and not chomping on rocks, but whatever works. I recall my probes and get my Loki in warp to the Ventures, bookmarking the position of one as reference.

As I drop out of warp on the edge of a gas cloud sporting no ships sucking on its tendrils, it looks like I was right. Thankfully, I was right about the pilots looking for the reappearance of my probes, and not right about them scheming a counter-ambush. The frigates remain on scan, but only for the time it takes them to warp back to whatever wormhole they came from and jump through. One by one, the Ventures leave the system. Never mind. The hunt was never going to be simple in such a small system, and I was probably better being cautious than trying to rush when entering class 5 w-space. I warp back to the wormhole leading home, and stand down my aggressive posture.

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

Sucking at gas

'...getting all explodey in the Widow.' Um, what have I stumbled in to? 'Nothing to see here', says Fin, 'and don't look at our recent losses'. I'll try not to, although curiosity gets the better of me and I see the death of my black ops ship. Poor Neko Ninja, my first battleship. It seems Fin took it out to blow up some ships, got ambushed, escaped, and then pushed her luck. I know that feeling. I've lost a number of ships thinking I would be okay. Still, we have another Widow in our hangar, and I'm sure we can get a replacement too if we need it.

I wondered if the events were current, as my directional scanner is showing me a combat scanning probe in our home system, but my glorious leader is scanning as she was telling Aii about her adventure yesterday. So it seems that we're not under attack, which is good. I launch my own probes and blanket the system. I know Fin's scanning, but I prefer to be active, even if it means a little duplication of effort. One new signature turns out to be a pocket of gas, leaving just the static wormhole to resolve so we can move on. Or not.

Aii would like the wormhole to remain closed for now, so that he can suck up some of the gas build-up in the system. That's a fair request, and I recall my probes and head to our tower to swap ships. I take a look in a hangar at what we have available, wondering what ships I've most often ripped to shreds in ladar sites, to get an idea of what works as a gas harvester, as Aii and Fin warp around clearing the minor Sleepers feebly protecting the gas. But I can't do it.

I have a sensation that it's mostly Gallente ships that have been used for harvesting gas, with the Exequror cruiser or Myrmidon battlecruiser excelling at sucking. I'm uncertain of my Gallente ship skills, although I'm confident they exist now, but I also can't see a ship in the hangar that we have definitely used for gassing. I pick an Exequror that we stole, but that's just some rag-tag collection of modules thrown on to a ship, like bubble-and-squeak. Is that how most Gallente fit their ships?

Luckily, a moment of clarity saves me. I don't need to gas just yet. Sleepers are being popped, so I can sweep up. I slip in to a Cormorant destroyer, an old salvager of mine, and warp to where Fin and Aii have just finished clearing a ladar site. Aii has been looting the wrecks, and now I tractor them to me and salvage. It's not as quick in the destroyer as in a dedicated Noctis salvager, but the wrecks are small and not worth much effort. My Cormorant is fine. I take the meagre loot back to the tower and wait for the next site to be cleared, at which point I warp in and warp right back out again. There were only guns in the site, which don't leave wrecks.

No more salvaging, then, but still no gassing. I would like to contribute, but I really can't by sucking gas. I can still help, though. I return to my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser, launch combat scanning probes, and blanket the system. I confirm no new signatures have appeared, ignore everything in the system, and perform repeated scans occasionally. I also make a perch in the active ladar site, where Aii's Myrmidon and Fin's Ferox battlecruisers are sucking up the gas. If a new signature appears I can warn my colleagues.

Punching the scan button once a minute is not exactly rivetting entertainment, but on reflection it's not much different from scanning my way through an empty w-space constellation. I don't even have the fiddly bits of moving probes around and actually resolving any signatures, or the threat of jumping through wormholes. Not that jumping through an empty w-space constellation is threatening, which I kind of implied. Don't hassle me, I know what I mean.

The first cloud is pulled in to the battlecruisers' holds, not changing in size until the last molecule is harvested. Dumping the gas in the hangar brings the pair of ships back to do the same to the second cloud, and then we all move to a second ladar site. I change pace slightly when I'm told that Sleepers have now appeared in the third gas site, so whilst Aii and Fin harvest more gas I swap my scanning duty for combat duty, boarding a Nighthawk command ship to properly blow the crap out of some Sleepers. This time I even bring the Noctis out to salvage. The drones didn't know what hit them.

The second site has its gas transferred from space to our hangar, and that's about as much as even my industrial colleagues can take. The third site is left for now, maybe to be cleared another day. And with the home system still clear of new signatures, as confirmed when back in my Loki, I warp to our static wormhole to open the connection to our neighbouring class 3 system. Jumping through even has a Venture mining frigate, Skiff mining barge, and Retriever mining barge all on d-scan. Have our neighbours got the same idea as us? Or are the ships all sat empty in the tower I can also see?

The ships are all floating empty inside the tower's force field. That's a shame. And scanning resolves the usual suspects of sites, with only the static wormhole offering a new system to explore, this one in high-sec empire space. I poke my prow through the wormhole to see where it leads, just in case the connection could be useful, even though I am now the only one of us still on-line, and find myself in the Derelik region, five hops from Rens. Aren't we lucky. It's time for bed. Harvesting gas turned out to be a good choice of activity for the evening, and I'm happy to have contributed ever so slightly.

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Tags: cormorant, eve online, exequror, ferox, loki, mmorpg, myrmidon, nighthawk, penny ibramovic, retriever, scanning, skiff, venture, w-space, widow