Noodling through a network of w-space

14th January 2013 – 5.47 pm

Still all quiet at home. So lonely. One extra signature to keep me warm. Maybe it leads to new friends. Maybe! It resolves to be a wormhole, a K162 from class 3 w-space. And jumping through the wormhole has a Badger light up my directional scanner. There's a tower visible too, of course, as well as a Chimera carrier and territorial control unit, but those aren't as interesting as a potentially piloted planet goo-collecting hauler. My notes get me to the Badger quickly, my last visit being six weeks earlier, so that I can be disappointed that much sooner on finding it being empty of a capsuleer.

The TCU planted near the tower is a little bubbly, I see. And with so many canisters littered around it in such a loose pattern I suspect the decloaking trap to be pretty effective, for those not flying with an interdiction nullifier subsystem. Anyway, there's no planet gooer to chase, so I'll slow down, take my time, chew my food. Exploring the system finds nothing else of interest, and a blanket scan gives me a manageable nine anomalies and seven signatures to sift through. Rocks, gas, and four wormholes is a pleasing scanning result, and one of the wormholes is fresh, as it is spewing core probes everywhere.

Reconnoitring the resolved wormholes is not quite as pleasing than scanning them. The system's static exit to low-sec is at the end of its life, probably opened by scouts from the second wormhole, an EOL K162 from null-sec. A K162 from class 5 w-space is healthy, as is a K162 from class 4 w-space, where I suspect the new scout has come from. I approach the C4 K162, looking to see what's in the system beyond, but am stopped short when an Anathema decloaks and warps away. Where did he go? Why did the covert operations boat decloak to warp? And why can I still not work out which wormhole is which from the system map because of stupid labels obscuring pertinent bookmark information?

If I can't find the Anathema I'll see where he came from. But jumping in to C4a looks a bit dull. A tower and a Helios cov-ops light up d-scan, and finding the Helios piloted doesn't make it more interesting. The inner system looks a bit better, but not for the two more towers, or the two Archon carriers, Naglfar dreadnought, or two Orca industrial command ships. What catches my attention is the lowly Bestower hauler. And what next catches my attention is how lacking a pilot it is. This is all rather disappointing so far. I'm not scanning here, but heading back to see what C5a holds.

Five ships and a tower await in the class 5 w-space system, where apparently my last visit had me chasing a Tengu strategic cruiser with a fleet behind me. I don't remember that at all. Maybe I can look it up. Locating the tower means I can add to my notes that the locals are red, but with no pilots there's not much else to do. Eight anomalies and six signatures is few enough to convince me to poke for K162s, and after launching probes and returning to the tower I see the Helios has a pilot now. Or maybe it did before too. Who cares? I'll scan.

A C2 K162 is a nice find, but the C2 itself isn't. Occupied but inactive, the system holds no obvious K162s, and I'm not scanning for exits to k-space yet. This end of the constellation is explored, and I declare it to be boring. I head home and onwards, through our static connection to more class 3 w-space. D-scan shows me a Viator transport ship and a tower, and although I'm not confident in catching a cloaky transport that it is piloted at least gives me something I can perhaps aim at. But this is one tower of two in my notes, the other being out of d-scan range, and I am curious to see if a more vulnerable ship is waiting for me out there. I probably have time to take a look before the Viator does anything.

The second tower is in the same place as two weeks ago, but is empty, so I head back to watch the Viator for a little longer. Nope, nothing. I'll scan. I launch probes, blanket the system, and start to bring my probes in to sift through the thirteen anomalies and eight signatures just as the Viator moves. I'm glad I keep my probes hidden from d-scan. The Viator is not just moving, but aligning to warp. I note the planet he's heading towards and align my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser in the same direction, which takes longer than it does for the Viator to enter warp. I'd better follow.

I aim for the customs office at the far planet, on the assumption that the Viator is off on his morning constitutional, but arrive to empty space. Well, empty space around the customs office. Yet the Viator is on d-scan. I can't believe my Loki got here before the blockade runner, and it's true. I remember that this planet holds the second tower, so warp across to see if the pilot was merely moving between towers, and, yep, there he is, inside the force field. What a tease. Still, he's now out of d-scan range of most of the signatures, which lets me scan the system covertly.

Of the signatures in C3a, only the static exit to low-sec interests me, and I leave w-space to appear in a faction warfare system in Devoid. Scanning finds two signatures, one of which is a wormhole, and the K162 from class 2 w-space keeps exploration alive, offering as it does its second static connection to more w-space. And there may be more than scanning waiting for me in C2b, as a tower with sixteen ships appears on d-scan from the other side of the wormhole. Combat ships, industrial ships, and a carrier, and they are all empty.

Not only are the all the ships empty, but the system boasts far too many signatures for having so many ships on display. Thirteen anomalies and thirty-five signatures will take quite a while to sort through to find the static connection to class 4 w-space, and I don't think I'm up to the challenge after wading through several systems already. I'll just activate all the anomalies, to tidy up a bit, and head home to get some rest. I may be in well-connected w-space tonight, but a network of wormholes doesn't always lead to activity.

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Return to the shattered planet

13th January 2013 – 3.53 pm

A burst of signature activity occurred overnight. Or, as it turns out, capsuleer activity. Three new signatures combine with the static connection to give a gas site and three wormholes. But even three wormholes doesn't offer much new, not when the static connection to class 3 w-space is always there, and a K162 from class 3 w-space is reaching the end of its life. I suppose I'll be diving through the K162 from class 4 w-space to look for activity.

A Probe frigate, Cheetah covert operations boat, and a tower all appear on my directional scanner in C4a, with no overt signs of actual activity. Locating the tower finds the two ships to be empty, which is no surprise. Scanning, however, gives me a little start. I launch probes and blanket the system, thinking there may be a K162 leading further back, and the seven anomalies are joined by a whopping forty-nine signatures! The messy gets. That's a lot to dig through, but I can narrow down the likely suspects easily enough.

Nom nom nom, fat signatures and good scanning skills eliminate twenty rock and gas sites in one go, and the few other chubby signatures are soon easily discounted too. So there are no K162s here, which takes me back home and on to C3a, where a clear d-scan doesn't mean much when the farthest planet is 93 AU away. Luckily, my notes help me explore passively, as I was last here ten or so weeks ago, when a Mackinaw exhumer pulled me in to an ambush that I narrowly escaped from. The ambushers weren't local, but I have a tower listed. A tower that now sits off-line and stripped, so my notes don't help me at all. Stupid notes.

A new tower has been erected, this one with a Buzzard sitting piloted inside its force field, but the cov-ops is stationary. Oh, and this w-space system holds the shattered planet, which I happen upon when warping around looking for new towers. Of course I remember this system. I should have remembered this nugget of information sooner too, as my notes have 'shattered planet system' written down. The shattered planet offers an almost-unique sight in w-space, and is quite pretty.

Blanketing the system reveals nine anomalies and eleven signatures, with a static exit to high-sec to find. That's not particularly exciting, neither is sifting through radar and ladar sites, although a second wormhole intrigues me. At least, it does until I drop out of warp next to a K162 from null-sec. And the wormhole to high-sec is at the end of its life, and doesn't offer exploration possibilities. So out to null-sec I go, where I appear in a system in the Kalevala Expanse. Is this region droney? A passive scan picking up three drone anomalies suggests it is, and a waste of my time to go ratting. I scan still scan. Maybe another unlucky corporation has connected in to this system.

Six extra signatures in the null-sec system seem lucky, and the first signature being weak and 'unknown' makes me think I'm luckier still and have found an outbound connection. Sadly, the signature resolves to be a Hierarchy site, full of drones. And, after rocks and some more rocks, another unknown type is Hierarchy's ugly brother, Radiance. No wonder there's no one in this system. The final signature is another Hierarchy, which is null-sec's way of flicking me the Vs. I can take the hint.

I return to w-space and C3a, where still nothing's happening, and head home and through to C4a, to see a system remaining devoid of activity. Nothing's happening tonight, and although I could feasibly kill our static wormhole and scan a new constellation the K162s at home deter me from trying. W-space is sleepy tonight, and it's making me sleepy. I'll just hide in a quiet corner of the home system and look forward to a better result tomorrow.

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This is a local channel, for local people

12th January 2013 – 3.32 pm

In another recent discussion about how to decouple intelligence from chat in the local channel, Mabrick muses that 'In Star Trek every ship had its own transponder, but how many times did that fail, be faked, or otherwise masked on the covert mission deep into Romulan space?' It's an interesting question, but that really only happened during wartime or distinctly military operations. And although EVE Online has plenty of combat, and plenty in Concord-protected high-sec, no capsuleer really wants to annoy Concord by pretending to be something they are not. You'd better believe that if a hostile craft spoofed its transponder on approach to Jita 4-4 Concord would shoot the crap out of it.

It may be true that there has never been 'science fiction ... where the communications screen showed every pilot in system whether they wanted to be seen or not', but a ship's transponder has a solid place not just in sci-fi but real life. Traffic control would definitely require a transponder to be active for docking and stargate travel. Relying on visual information in even quiet stations would lead to catastrophic collisions regularly. And each transmission would include identifying information, and as ships are tied to sole capsuleers, pilot information would be included. Any traffic control board could easily display every ship in a system, coupled with pilot and ship details. They would have to in order to be able to control the traffic.

Transponder information couldn't be hidden without eventual Concord involvement, and would be difficult to hide anyway. Want to dock? You need an active transponder. What to use a stargate? You need an active transponder. This is how the list of pilots can be built and maintained in each system. Every ship that undocks is known; every ship that jumps from one system to another is known and tracked. The lack of hardware pushing ships to w-space is also how local doesn't work there. In fact, an interesting change, along with what I propose below, could make local be spoofed by pilots short-cutting through wormholes. Enter through a stargate, leave through a wormhole, and local thinks you are still in the k-space system until you dock/stargate-jump elsewhere, and vice versa.

As for how the information is relayed, maybe this is how local can be successfully transformed. High-sec has active Concord involvement. The traffic control information is relayed publicly, for safety and information, so is free to all. Low-sec could have a delay, maybe updating once every thirty seconds—or maybe having a base delay of thirty seconds that scales upwards as the security status of the system drops—just because the equipment isn't as high a standard as in high-sec. Stargates and stations build up a log of all entries and exits, and ping the log occasionally.

Null-sec could have two layers. Unclaimed null-sec systems work like low-sec. There is the same equipment, and anyone passing through a stargate or docking in a station is logged by traffic control. Sovereign null-sec, however, allows the bill payers to set access rights to the logs. All traffic information is still collected by stargates, but the log could be sent on an IFF channel, or whatever. Set the rights as you desire, whether you want blues, neutrals, or reds to be visible in local or not. Call it a home-field advantage.

Withholding information about the local system from one side and granting it to another may be a little powerful, and may make it more difficult to successfully invade null-sec space. So perhaps we need to add another layer. Assume that stargates gather information about all ships passing through, and that sovereign corporations can configure the hardware that controls local in their own systems. Now add a new function for hacking. Jump a scout in to the system and allow them to hack in to the stargate, using a standard or special codebreaking module, to reconfigure the equipment controlling the local channel. Mask an incoming fleet for a short time, reveal all pilots in the system, or whatever else, perhaps even done without the locals being aware of the hacking attempt. Intelligence and counter-intelligence at work.

As always, w-space won't be affected by these changes, because it seems to work already and I don't see any w-spacer complaining about it. Indeed, many arguments have been made that tip the functioning of the local channel to be more like w-space. But I have to admit that I can only really comment with any authority about w-space itself, as I live there, and my ideas for k-space systems may be unrealistic. One aspect of reading proposed changes that concerns me is how changes are rippled through all space, seemingly without a sense of how, for example, w-space actually works, or how the occupants want it to work. I'm therefore prepared to accept that my own suggestions aren't workable, for whatever reason. I merely present them for consideration.

Edit: the initial discussion and myriad reactions prompted Seismic Stan to make it the subject to become Blog Banter 44: Is There Anybody Out There?, thus provoking further discussion as listed on Stan's site and, as is customary, below.

Most interesting to me are the proposals to populate local, but only with the number of pilots. Who they are is unknown until they speak, or you end up on-grid with them. Then the intelligence is known to you, and your fleet, but not to everyone. A modal system that doesn't compromise too much. I like it.

Points of Origin
Unbreaking Local - An EVE Intel System Proposal by Rhavas @ Interstellar Privateer
Getting Rid of Local & More Local by Poetic Stanziel @ Poetic Discourse

Found on D-Scan

Local Banter

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Waking up a miner

11th January 2013 – 5.12 pm

I collapsed a wormhole to a dull constellation, ended up in the wrong system when doing so, and took a tedious trip after getting Constance to scan a new route home for me. But as Constance also found a couple of K162s from class 4 w-space in our neighbouring C3 I think it's worth taking a few minutes to see what I can find beyond those wormholes. I have time. I take my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser through our stable static wormhole, in to an occupied and inactive class 3 system, pick one of the K162s arbitrarily, and warp to and jump through it.

Two towers, a Ferox battlecruiser, Retriever mining barge, and mining drones. How lovely! Judging from my directional scanner, I've stumbled in to a w-space mining operation, as a quick check shows that the barge and drones are not at the tower. Unfortunately, the operation is occurring in a tiny system, still cramped although holding a mere nine planets and four moons, and warping around has the Retriever in range of all of them. Still, it would be foolish to accept defeat so easily, and rather than turn tail back through the wormhole I pick a point in the system and launch probes as quickly as my launcher can cycle.

Probes are in space, and thrown high out of the system. My Loki is cloaked again. And the drones are still in space, seemingly still with the Retriever. That's a good start. And if the miner missed that on d-scan, he may also miss seeing them when I bring them in to resolve his position. But I've first got to find where to place them, and I'm getting handy at that. I narrow down the barge's position in space to a five-degree beam on d-scan, and place his range at around 3·7 AU, just as a Tengu blips on d-scan. I have no idea if that's a good sign or not, if the Tengu came and went, or if my probes were spotted and a stealthy strategic cruiser is now guarding the miner. There's one way to find out. I call my probes in to scan.

Well, that's not a good result. It's almost as if I completely ballsed-up the range estimation of the barge. Like, say, I pushed the range gate up to 3 AU, saw the Retriever appear, and reduced the gate to get a better estimate, but forgetting that this then reduced the integer part of the estimate. Yes, the barge is probably sitting 2·7 AU from me. I know that now. Actually, I knew it then, too, but I decided to ignore simple mathematics. If only d-scan were graded in AU and not kilometres, mistakes like these wouldn't occur. Or if I could do simple arithmetic. And, of course, I have recalled my probes, arrogantly believing that the first scan would be all I needed.

Now what? The barge still appears to be in space, mining alongside his drones. He didn't see my first launch, or the missed scan. Or maybe he did, and that Tengu is waiting for me. I must say, this does look suspiciously like bait now. If he is, I'll deal with it as the situation warrants. For now, I'll go for a second scan, and this time I'll get it right. And I'll do it quick. I could launch probes and throw them out of the system, but that initial scan would erase the fuzzy result of the Retriever persisting on my system map. I would rather use that as my guide, so as to reduce the likelihood of my cocking up again.

I launch probes and cloak, getting a basic scanning pattern arranged, and shift the lot down to where the Retriever somehow still appears to be. One scan later and I have 100% hit on the Retriever, drones, and gravimetric site, and am recalling my probes with good reason. Believing that I really am pushing my luck this time, with my ship and probes, between them, having been visible for a good thirty seconds or more, I warp in to the Retriever with all due haste, decloaking and burning towards my target as soon as my ship is once again responsive after warp.

I gain a positive lock on the Retriever, disrupt its warp engines, and start shooting. And I keep a watchful eye on d-scan for that Tengu. Nothing yet. Still nothing. Really, nothing? He's not coming, and I really wasn't seen launching probes and scanning twice within d-scan range. I should savour this moment, as the too-casually piloted Retriever explodes.

I don't catch his pod, the shield, armour, and hull alarms perhaps waking the capsuleer up from his stupor, but I have time to loot and shoot the wreck. Now I scoot, fleeing the gravimetric site back to the wormhole and through to C3a.

The wormhole flares behind me, and the Tengu makes its presence known. He's a bit late, but okay. I ignore the ineffective guard, warping across to the other C4 K162, hoping to find another careless miner. I find occupation and ships, but apart from an industrial ship swapped for a covert operations boat it doesn't look like anything's happening. That's fine, as I've had plenty of fun tonight, so I just head home to get some rest for the evening. I didn't expect to stumble in to a miner, and certainly not one that waited oh-so patiently for me to find him, which makes up for getting isolated from home earlier.

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Extending my map of visited systems

10th January 2013 – 5.43 pm

The siege went according to plan. I think. The first of two towers was put in to reinforced mode without much fuss, at which point the owners came on-line, bargained to save their w-space assets, and paid a multi-billion ISK fee to have us walk away. We don't get any ships directly from the small invasion, but the ISK is a decent reward for the effort. The temporary tower is dismantled, and our corporation leaves the class 5 system to head back to its own.

I hear about this second-hand, as I had to leave the operation before it got started in earnest. But it was still good to play my part. Back in my home system, all is quiet. The anomalies are building back up again, even if our sites are all gone, but there's still only exploring to be accomplished. I resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 system to see what's there. Just an off-line tower sits in directional scanner range of the K162, and with eighteen anomalies pulled up by a passive scan I am guessing the system lies unoccupied and holds a static exit to null-sec.

Wrong and wrong. A previous visit to this C3, this being my sixth in total, shows that only two weeks ago a tower was sitting on a planet, now out of d-scan range, and that the static wormhole leads to low-sec empire space. I'll just keep my assumptions to myself and scan. A blanket scan shows seven signatures to sift through, and warping to the tower actually reminds me of the system. The hangar and maintenance array are named 'Loki' and 'Broadsword', probably in an attempt to startle unwary pilots. I remember that, and it's still not working, even if it's a fair idea.

Scanning holds the usual gas, rocks, radar and magnetometric sites, and just the one wormhole. Exiting w-space puts me in a faction warfare system in Black Rise, where scanning finds nothing of interest. It's still early, though, so I'll collapse our connection and start again. Four big ships get thrown through the wormhole and back, and yet it survives the stress. I'll get a heavy interdictor to push it over the edge. And it works, but sadly on the way out. Even with three warp disruption field generators active, reducing the HIC's mass to almost nothing, the wormhole implodes on my exit, isolating me from the home system. What a git.

At least I've already scanned C3a. I point my HIC to the exit to low-sec, jump to the Black Rise region, and see how far I have to go to get safe. I'm prepared for this, having been isolated in similar circumstances before, and have modules in the HIC's hold to make it safer for stargate hopping. All I need to do is find a station where I can make the changes, which won't be in this system. I point my nav-comp towards a high-sec system and start hopping between stargates, the heavy HIC taking its time to align and enter warp after each jump. Thankfully, despite there being pilots in the systems, the stargates remain quiet, and I enter high-sec without trouble. I dock, modify the ship's fitting, and call Constance. I want to get home.

Constance wakes up on the edge of our system, and launches probes to scan. The home system is still bereft of signatures, making the first step simple, although the wormhole's signature identifier of RIP sounds ominous. Jumping to C3a shows her an occupied but inactive system, and one that's pretty big. Her core scanning probes, not quite having the range of the combat probes I use, don't have the range to stretch the 65 AU to the star, let alone 140 AU to the farthest planets. Constance scans systematically, planet-by-planet.

Scanning takes a while with only adequate skills, and the ten-second per-scan time would drive me crazy now. But a wormhole pops up nice and early, which would be better if it didn't turn out to be a K162 from class 4 w-space. Great for exploring, not for getting me home. Again, the signature identifier could have been a hint, with it being DUD. Scanning continues, thankfully without too many signatures to wade through, and a second wormhole appears. It's a second K162, this one also from class 4 w-space. Stupid w-space, giving us a decent constellation when I'm not around. The third wormhole turns out to be the static exit, and it leads to high-sec, which is nice. Thanks, BUD.

The wormhole flares as Constance approaches it, and a Loki strategic cruiser comes in and cloaks. That's good to know. What's better to know is the exit, and after waiting for the Loki to hopefully have moved on, Constance jumps out to appear in a system in Metropolis. That sounds a fair distance from me, and I'd say thirty-one hops is a long journey, but it is all in high-sec and it gets me home. I thank Constance, let her return home safely, and leave dock to start the tedious trip home myself. But at least it's only tedious, not tedious and stupid.

Eighteen jumps out, I see an orange in the local communications channel. He belongs to the same corporation as the Loki Constance saw in C3a, and he looks to be heading the same way as me. The pilot's taking it easy, though, relying on his autopilot instead of warping point-to-point, which is understandable. We have technology for a reason. It makes me wonder if I can get a jump on him when we get back to w-space, but as the wormhole to C3a connects to high-sec, the pilot will be considerably later to the destination than me, and I don't know which other system he came from, I doubt there's much point thinking about it. Being in a wormhole-collapsing HIC, unarmed and lacking in threat, and him being in a Cheetah covert operations boat doesn't help with an ambush either.

Hop, hop, hop. The stargates pass me by, slowly but surely. I pass some ducks three hops out from the C3, making me wonder if they inhabit one of the class 4 systems in our new constellation, but they probably wouldn't be this far from w-space if they were. I ignore them, get to the destination system, and as the system looks clear I jump to C3a. I blast my way home in the HIC, not seeing another ship on my way, and return to our tower without incident. Refitting the HIC for wormhole-collapsing duties, I stow it and get back in to my cloaky Loki. But that extended run in empire space makes me think about how my visited systems map is looking these days. Let's see where I've been recently.

There are a lot more visited systems than the last time I took a look at the map, but that was well over two years ago. Even though I've been in w-space nearly all that time, I've been spat out to k-space all over the place, it seems. And, on occasion, I've had to make a short trip here and there. I still have one or two gaps to fill out before I have visited every system in New Eden.

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Setting up for a siege

9th January 2013 – 5.32 pm

It's so early. Can anyone really be awake in w-space? Apart from me, obviously. Maybe, as another scout has opened a wormhole in to our system, the K162 coming from class 2 w-space. Of course, that could have happened hours ago, even last night, with only the wormhole not yet showing signs of fatigue. I jump through to find out if anyone's home, and immediately have a hunch that they're not. My cloaky Loki strategic cruiser appears in the system over eight kilometres from the wormhole and sitting on the connection's deadspace signature.

I've been wrong before, so warp around to explore, even though my directional scanner is showing me two towers and no ships. My last visit to this system was eleven months ago, although I don't remember popping a Noctis salvager with a Tengu strategic cruiser and Manticore stealth bomber, and looking for the locations of the towers shows that all has changed, as well as a third tower cropping up when I get in range. But nothing is happening, that much is clear. I'll leave scanning for now, only taking a minute to bookmark the seventeen anomalies for reference, and instead head back home and through our static connection.

Well, I pause for coffee and cake at home first, which is only civil, and pushes back my visit to our neighbouring class 3 system a little. I don't think it matters, as a tower, territorial control unit, and lack of ships is all d-scan shows me in C3a. Exploring reveals a second tower, and scanning has the usual suspects of sites, with only a static exit to low-sec and a K162 also from low-sec as connections. One wormhole leads to the Genesis region, the other to Domain, but both give me a journey of twenty hops to get to where I want to be. It seems the corporation is getting ready for an operation, and I may want to be there.

I'll check C2a for a better exit. I ignore the new ships in the towers, as I would only waste ammunition on the Proteus strategic cruiser if it did anything, and the Helios covert operations boat and Nemesis stealth bomber will be tricky to catch. If they did anything. Scanning is easy, with only six signatures to check, and although a C2 K162 is neat I am more after the second static connection. And the exit to high-sec could be good, but as it is stressed to half-mass and at the end of its life I'm not keen to trust its continued existence. C2b may actually offer my best option.

A Covetor mining barge lights up d-scan. So does a tower, and the two are coincident, which is disappointing, more so when locating the tower finds the barge unpiloted. Right, I was scanning for an exit anyway. Twenty-one anomalies can be safely ignored for the manageable six signatures, and although the outbound connection to class 4 w-space is alluring it won't get me to k-space as quickly as the K162 from high-sec will. The Helios that jumps past me when I'm not paying full attention would probably agree. And, again, I have a choice of exit, as the second static connection also leads to high-sec. One of the wormholes must offer a better route than through low-sec.

The static exit in C2b doesn't help. I appear in a system in Metropolis, nineteen hops to my destination. But the K162 is an improvement, starting in Sinq Laison and needing only thirteen hops. 'Only' thirteen. Still, this is the one direction that doesn't take me through Tama, although I appear to have swapped that for Old Man Star. I'm sure I'll be okay. Hop, hop, hop, it's all rather straightforward, and I don't even bump in to pirates in Old Man Star, getting me to my destination without fuss. It's a low-sec system with a wormhole connecting to our sister class 5 w-space system.

Meeting new people is more stressful than travelling through low-sec, I find. But I mostly keep my mouth shut and get on with the task in hand. It seems our C5 has connected to a second with some expensive ships floating unsecure in a pair of towers, and plans are afoot to siege the system, making plenty of profit in the process. I have come here to help, but pretty much only because I can pilot a Revelation dreadnought and, with one spare, this may be my first chance to do so. But first, we need to get the logistics sorted out.

The two towers in the neighbouring C5 are scouted, and appropriate strategic bookmarks made, and they are indeed loaded with expensive ships. Strategic cruisers, industrial command ships, a freighter floating free in one, and six capital ships in another. And the system hosts a magnetar phenomenon too, whose bonus to damage will make the siege proceed more quickly.

Of course, we can't just bring in a bunch of capital ships ourselves and hope to get them home the same way, as the wormhole won't take the stress. Not only that, but if the locals have any sense and have strontium in their towers then the siege will last longer than the wormhole anyway. We can't rely solely on our connection. Instead, we're first bringing and configuring our own tower, as a base of operations and haven, so that we can subsist independently of the home system until a new route back is found. To do this, we need haulers.

I can pilot haulers, as long as they are Caldari. That's unfortunate, as the biggest our sister system has available is a Badger Mark II. It seems the Gallente, knowing their place, have bigger industrial ships, all the better for tedious transferring of materiel. Still, we make do. One pilot uses the phallic Iteron hauler, me the Badger, and we take the tower, fuel, defences, and hangars through the wormhole and get our hostile presence in to the target system. This takes a while, as there is a lot to move and we have to be careful with the wormhole polarisation effects, even with a carrier and other combat ships acting as escort.

Unfortunately, the logistics, although necessary, takes a bit longer than I anticipated, and I realise I need to be elsewhere soon. On top of that, I won't be around for the next day or more, which means I won't be available for the actual siege portion of the siege operation. I make my apologies, tell my colleagues to kick some arse, and take my Loki from our C5 back to low-sec, still without having sat in a Revelation. Maybe I could have tried one for size. I'm more concerned with remembering the route home. Hop, hop, hop, and I think this system holds a wormhole to class 2 w-space. Ah, right, the empty Covetor in the tower. Now I just follow the bookmark breadcrumbs home, where I go off-line, wondering how the siege will work out.

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Scanning the constellation to nowhere

8th January 2013 – 5.30 pm

It's quiet at home, quiet at the neighbours. Scanning my way through our static wormhole puts me in an unoccupied and inactive class 3 w-space system. My notes point me to a tower from eleven months ago, but warping there finds it off-line and stripped of anything useful, which means I'm scanning the sixteen anomalies and nineteen signatures for more connections. The second signature is a wormhole, which is a good start, but unless there are more I'll only be heading to k-space, so I keep going. Rocks, rocks, more rocks, and one more wormhole, finally. But that's it.

The two wormholes aren't much to get excited about either. One is the static exit to low-sec, and although the other is a K162 from class 5 w-space it is reaching the end of its life and, like the Gallente, can't be trusted. To low I go. And exiting through the static wormhole sends me to the Solitude region, which today isn't living up to its name. A dozen other capsuleers are in the system, and my directional scanner is showing me a Mackinaw exhumer and mining drones. That's not as exciting as it sounds, though, as I imagine the also-present Megathron battleship and Zealot battlecruiser are acting as heavies. Or already shooting the Mackinaw.

I don't quite believe that a Mackinaw would mine openly in a low-sec system, and am keen to see what's actually happening, so I warp out to launch probes in case I need them. A blanket scan reveals a lack of anomalies, a surprising seven signatures, and five ships. Three of the ships look to be together, and in a standard rock belt. I may not have to hunt the miner with much effort after all, but it is looking more like he's not flying solo.

Remembering that Mackinaws used to specialise in ice-mining I warp first to the ice field, and only on finding it empty do I consider standard rock belts. I should probably pay more attention to field notes on ship changes, but I tend to look more at vulnerabilities than mining yields. Warping around the asteroid belts finds me the Mackinaw, and his Megathron and Zealot pals, who are either wondering how to dismiss the warnings about shooting the industrialist or are actually flying escort. And I get here just in time to see the exhumer warp away, apparently startled by the Hurricane battlecruiser that is new to d-scan.

In warps the Hurricane, to see only the Zealot remain in the rock field, and then only for a few seconds. There is no engagement, and the miner and escorts don't return. I'm back to scanning. Those signatures look pretty handy too, as a K162 from class 1 w-space is sweet, and a weak-as-anything wormhole resolves to be an N432 connection to class 5 w-space, looking like its been newly opened by yours truly. The other signatures are standardly boring, but I'm happy with my current options of potentially soft targets and a never-ending chain of C5 w-space to waste an evening scanning through.

Soft targets beat tedious scanning, but only if I find them. Otherwise I'm reduced to tedious scanning anyway. D-scan is clear in C1a from the wormhole, and the one planet out of range holds only bubbles. And although a blanket scan revealing a mere five anomalies suggests pilots come this way frequently, they don't bring mining boats, as the twenty-two signatures attest to. Thankfully, K162s are chubby, and a handful of scans bags me, ugh, a wormhole coming from high-sec. I keep scanning, never one to know when to quit, and am rewarded by a second K162, this one from class 4 w-space.

C4a looks mildly interesting. Two towers are on-line, but there are no ships to be seen. The corporation living here even advertises in its description that 'we are currently looking for miners'. You and me both, sir. They may have found some, judging by the distinct lack of signatures in the system, but I have to keep looking. The K162 to more class 4 w-space is a good place to start, and I ignore the only other signature, a ladar site, to continue backwards through the constellation.

A one-capsuleer corporation owning an undefended tower in class 4 w-space is asking for trouble, even without the unpiloted Tengu strategic cruiser floating temptingly inside the force field. A second tower owned by a seven-capsuleer corporation, this one lacking even hardeners, isn't going to deter opportunistic siegers either. I update my notes, but I doubt they'll stay relevant beyond the next month. Scanning the five signatures finds no more K162s, and with no activity it looks like this leg of the constellation has wasted my time. Such is the way of the scanner.

I head back to low-sec and warp to the N432, jumping in to C5b in the hopes of getting luckier in this direction. An unoccupied w-space system won't do it, and a quick poke for wormholes resolves an outbound connection to class 6 w-space. That's better than a C5 chain, right? Let's find out. A tower and no ships. It's no better than a normal C3, although my notes indicate that this is the system where I ran in to a Revelation dreadnought, which is perhaps one of my favourite tales. I didn't get to explore much eighteen months ago, and I'm not even sure if the same corporation lives here now, but there's no one around to reminisce with anyway.

Thirteen anomalies and eight signatures. I pluck a static connection to class 5 w-space from the signatures, thinking it's a K162, and am happy to recall my probes and continue looking for activity. I don't find it. C5c may be occupied, but again there are no ships and no pilots, but eight anomalies and five signatures is manageable enough to scan and poke through to one more system. And it's another C4, taking me down the classes. Sadly, it's another unoccupied C4, and I've already decided this is my last system for the night, so I don't even launch probes. Take me home, James.

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Training in diplomacy

7th January 2013 – 5.26 pm

It's cold in space, and there's a cold in Penny. I'll restrict myself to light-duty w-spacing tonight, nothing too strenuous or stressful. And, just for once, I'd quite like circumstances to go according to plan at least for a few minutes, to make it feel like I have some semblance of control over my destiny. But updating my directional scanner, moments after waking up in the home system, shows me Sleeper wrecks here and there. There's no rest for the wicked.

Two jet-cans also on d-scan suggest that maybe I'll be spared the excitement of the hunt, as if I've already startled a salvager mid-sweep. Then again, warping towards the inner system sees two Tengu strategic cruisers, that I'm pretty sure are not me, along with more wrecks and another canister. But I suppose this hunt will be relatively light duty, as the ships are in a standard anomaly and I will probably be aiming for a basic salvaging ship without an escort.

I activate my ship's on-board scanner, passively resolving all of the active anomalies in the home system, and start looking for the Tengus in order to shadow them. I won't be able to switch to one of our ship killers whilst the targets are in d-scan range of our tower, but I'll be able to make strategic bookmarks that will let me pounce on the salvager when he arrives. Or maybe I'll just bang my head against my console, when warping in to the anomaly shows the Tengus are blues.

I consider trying to kill the blues anyway, but a wave of tolerance sweeps over me and I open a conversation to one of the pilots. I'm not expecting much, not after the last blues were uncommonly rude to supposed allies, and simply point out that it is inconsiderate to clear anomalies in a blue system without permission. And I get a reply. He hadn't scouted our tower and so didn't realise we were blues, and just wanted to make a bit of profit before hitting the sack.

Didn't scout the tower? That's alien behaviour to me. But at least the pilot seems contrite, and isn't spouting bogus excuses one after the other, making this sound more like a genuine misunderstanding. It's still a little frustrating, but it's not really a situation worth getting vexed over. I tell the pilot, as I swap to a salvaging destroyer at our tower, that I'm taking one site's worth of loot, but that it's cool for him to salvage the others he's already completed. I'd rather not lose all the profit in our system, and I don't want him to go home empty handed either.

My patience with blues is wearing a little thin. I'll either have to start ignoring specific alliance-alliance standings, honouring corporation-corporation standings only; demote corporations who are plainly rude; or just shoot anyone who looks like a target and deal with the consequences separately. For now, I speed my Cormorant between the wrecks, sweeping about eighty million ISK of profit in to my hold, before returning to my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser and watching the blue Noctis salvager on d-scan.

Before he leaves, the blue pilot tells me that his class 2 w-space system connects to high-sec, and offers me the route to empire space. That could be handy, and I thank him for the information, almost feeling the warm glow of trying to be diplomatic. But I don't really need a high-sec connection at the moment, and scan the home system to head through our static wormhole to the neighbouring class 3 system. Here we go, back to normality, with a tower and no ships on d-scan from the K162 in C3a. I'm used to this.

One anomaly and five signatures give way to rocks, gas, a static exit to a low-sec system in Derelik, and a T405 wormhole to class 4 w-space. C4a doesn't offer much more, as twenty-seven anomalies on a passive scan has me guess correctly that the system is unoccupied. There's further scanning, though, as a static connection to more class 4 w-space awaits amongst the eighteen signatures. I find it with little fuss and jump onwards, ever onwards.

D-scan remains clear, and opening the system map shows no planets are out of range. Another unoccupied system gives me many more anomalies and signatures to wade through, and once all the chubby signatures are ignored as rocks and gas I have a task ahead of me to find the static wormhole. It is the penultimate signature of twenty-four that resolves to be the H900 connection to class 5 w-space, and with only one more to go I resolve the last signature too. I dunno why, as it's obviously not a wormhole, but maybe I get some satisfaction in knowing I've ignored yet another magnetometric site. Yeah, I don't.

I've scanned it, so I may as well check it. Jumping in to C5a has core probes on d-scan, but nothing else. Five anomalies on a passive scan hint at occupation, but apparently the system is just well-visited, as evidenced by the other active scout. I notice that this system, like the previous C4, holds a black hole. Maybe black hole systems are particularly unpopular with pilots, perhaps because of their effect on missile systems. I dunno. As one scout is active, I launch probes to see what chore awaits. Twelve signatures. That's not bad. I can at least take a look for K162s.

I like how K162s are so easy to spot. I'm not such a fan of how Z142 connections to null-sec look like K162s, though. But the second wormhole-like signature is actually a K162, this one coming from class 6 w-space. This will probably be my last stop, so I jump through hoping to find something happening, and not being in luck. A tower, no ships. No interest. More happened at home with a blue pilot than I've encountered through a handful of external w-space systems. Still, I suppose it hasn't been a strenuous evening, and I should be thankful for that.

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Dullness in scanning

6th January 2013 – 3.57 pm

Fin's here, as is another new signature. The home system today holds a K162 wormhole from class 5 w-space, so I separate from my glorious leader to see what trouble I can find for the pair of us. Not much, at least not from the other side of the wormhole. My directional scanner showing me a tower, Cheetah covert operations boat, and two drones is far from inspirational, but it could be an indication that there is another wormhole to uncover.

I launch probes, blanket the system, and locate the tower to see the Cheetah piloted. Probes are on d-scan now too, and I check to make sure they're not mine. I should maybe take care, but I suppose a scout actively scanning will be a little distracted. As if to prove the point, as I start sifting through the messy system of twenty anomalies and twenty-two signatures, the Cheetah disappears and I have no idea if he went off-line or warped and cloaked. I was ignoring him anyway, I suppose.

Two more wormholes in C5a hit both ends of the spectrum, with a K162 from class 6 w-space joined by a K162 from high-sec. I continue ignoring the lack-of-Cheetah, the probes perhaps belonging to another scout, and continue through w-space to C6a. D-scan is clear in deadly w-space, although it doesn't cover much of the 65 AU diameter system. Exploring finds three towers spread across two planets, holding only a shuttle and Hyperion battleship, although the battleship is piloted. I don't think that matters, really, as it's not moving.

I scan again, in a slightly tidier system of eight anomalies and thirteen signatures, and not as distracted as before. When the Hyperion pilot goes off-line, I see him go off-line. Whatever, Hyperion pilot, I've found a K162 from class 4 w-space. But my enthusiasm wanes as I enter an unoccupied and inactive C4, a passive scan for anomalies turning up as empty as d-scan. I feel I have more scanning to do, and at least there are only five signatures to sift through. Rocks, rocks, rocks, and... rocks? I suppose the connecting wormhole was collapsed after the anomalies were purged—or on finding none to purge.

I'm in a dead end, leaving me little option but to head homewards. Fin's already hopped ahead to our neighbouring C3, where a lack of ships has her scanning. I pass through C6a, C5a, and home without seeing a single change, and leapfrog Fin as she resolves a K162 from class 5 w-space in the C3. A tower and no ships seems about right for tonight in C5b, and although scanning finds one other wormhole in the five anomalies and twelve signatures, it is a crappy K162 from null-sec k-space.

Fin's scanning ends too, with just C3a's static exit to low-sec waiting to be found, so I take the meagre offering of the K162 and jump to null-sec. Scalding Pass. I had one of them made at me once, and, no, I didn't want any coffee, jerk. One red in local deters me from trying to rat, and my desire to scan has been whittled down by a lack of results. Fin's luck is running dry too, finding only sites in low-sec, leaving us to check backwards from home to look for changes in activity. None are found, not in C5b, C3a, home, C5a, or C6a. It's all quiet tonight. Never mind, maybe we'll have better luck tomorrow.

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In it for the explosions

5th January 2013 – 3.08 pm

Decisions, decisions. Which way to turn in the w-space constellation? Behind me is a class 5 w-space system, holding a K162 through which I podded a gasser in class 6 w-space, whose home system beyond that C6 I have yet to find. But ahead of me, in our neighbouring class 3 system, there looked to be a hostile takeover in progress, with one tower, owned by a small corporation, being harassed by an affiliation of three other towers in the system. I think I'd rather go forwards, but my conscience wants me to make sure nothing is happening behind me first.

There's no change in C5a, with a tower holding three frigates being as it was earlier. Well, there's some change, in that the K162 to C6a is now reaching the end of its natural lifetime, making it unsuitable for further exploration. By the same token, the dying wormhole makes excursions coming this way less likely, which is good for my safety, and I'm happy to consider this direction checked and head back homewards and through to C3a to see what's happening there instead.

A Claymore command ship and pod are visible on my directional scanner from our K162 in C3a, which is less interesting when both considering the towers also in range of d-scan and that the Claymore was here earlier. What is interesting is the system's static exit to high-sec, which, although bubbled, leads directly to Dodixie, a rather bustling market hub in Gallente space. And the warp bubble is not actually on the wormhole but being used as a drag bubble, positioned to prevent a quick exit from the beleaguered tower.

The wormhole leading to Dodixie remains, and now has a couple of canisters around its event horizon, perhaps to prevent travellers from cloaking. It seems a bit of a waste of time, considering anyone even vaguely sensible could simply return to high-sec to avoid any aggression, and to prove it a Badger jumps in from Dodixie as I ponder the cans. I don't engage the hauler, knowing he could jump to safety, and merely watch him warp clear. The Badger leaves in the direction of one of the hostile towers, out of d-scan range of our K162, where now a couple of Basilisk logistic ships, two Rokh battleships, and a Raven battleship all sit piloted.

I'm curious to learn the plans of the pilots in the tower. I suppose they could be preparing to engage Sleepers in anomalies, but that seems rather cavalier considering the conditions. A direct connection to a market hub and a tower apparently under threat don't make for benign w-space activities, after all. I watch and wait, rewarded with seeing a Megathron battleship warp in to join the fun, if preparations can be considered fun. A Loki strategic cruiser turns up soon after, followed by two Maelstrom battleships. The locals seem to be taking sitting in a tower quite seriously.

Eventually, the fleet shows movement. Half the battleships all appear to be aligning, and it is obvious from their collective pointing that they will be heading to the targeted tower, which it seems they don't want in this C3. So what am I still doing here? I can't touch a fleet of battleships with external repairs coming from dedicated logistic ships, and certainly not with the threat of tower defences picking on me too. Well, I've told my corporate colleagues about this little shindig, and the too-convenient-you've-got-to-be-joking connection with Dodixie, and they are currently waking pilots up and forming a fleet to counter the one I've been keeping tabs on.

It's not that we particularly want this tower to be protected. We have no affiliation with the corporation that owns it, don't know the pilots in that corporation, and don't really care about who owns the C3. But a bunch of big ships, not expecting any bother, sitting in an obvious and easily found position for an extended period makes for an enticing target. The only spanner thrown in the works is when I finally remember that C3a is a pulsar system, and an armour fleet is not really a suitable prospect. Silly me. I flit between such systems so often that I forget sometimes what effects they can have.

As our fleet reconfigures for the shield-boosting pulsar, the defences of the targeted tower are systematically incapacitated, watched not just by me but also by the owners of the tower. The two pilots seeing their home being destroyed have joined our fleet, invited by our fleet commander, one of which I recognise as the Sabre pilot from earlier. He is apparently still in his interdictor and crawling cloaked around his tower, getting information on the battleships, and feeding it to the fleet, much as I am doing. But as the fleet is still getting ships ready and out to high-sec, there probably isn't much need for me to get less than ten kilometres from the enemy battleships as I accidentally do. Awooga, awooga! Proximity alert!

I back off from the battleships and take a more relaxed view from a few hundred kilometres away, making some strategic bookmarks at the request of our FC, which will help our own fleet movements. But I'm not sure they will help, not now that all of the tower defences are incapacitated and the enemy fleet is warping back to their own, quite healthy tower. That's disappointing, particularly as our fleet is finally forming in Dodixie, around an innocuous planet and not the wormhole. And at the hostile tower, one Basilisk is swapped for a Tornado, the glass-cannon battlecruiser providing a hint that the fleet is merely take a break before returning to attack the tower directly, able to take thinner ships with more firepower now that the defences are disabled. But otherwise there's no movement. We're back to waiting.

It takes a while, as capsuleers pee, smoke, whatever, but there is new movement. As before, several ships align to the target tower, and a Tornado warping in that direction looks to herald the main part of the operation. Other ships follow, including my own, and our response fleet returns to a state of readiness. Circumstances even look better than before. Much better, in fact. Rather than the battleships being sprawled around the force field, trying to get in range of the defences, the tower fleet is clustered neatly in one concentrated spot.

Without the tower fighting back, there is no need for the logistic ships to repair the fleet, so they have been swapped for more battleships. Despite facing a Tornado and ten battleships—four Ravens, three Maelstroms, two Rokhs, and a Megathron—what looked to have the potential for a mighty brawl, fighting a capable fleet on equal terms, now looks to be weighted massively in our favour. We just need to get the details right.

Our friendly Sabre pilot will play his part, as will a newly arrived Aii. Aii prepares a third Basilisk at our tower, for me, before jumping in to a Onyx heavy interdictor, which will be used to keep the hostile fleet in place as our combat fleet mobilises. The plan sounds good. The Sabre will manoeuvre close to the fleet, decloak, and launch an interdiction sphere. As he burns back in to the safety of his own tower's force field, Aii will warp to his position and replace the temporary bubble with the HIC's, at which point our fleet will enter the w-space system and bring the big guns. We have all been briefed and understand our roles. Now to see if it works.

Aii is in C3a and aligned to the tower. The Sabre decloaks, bubbles, and races back in to his tower, Aii warping to take his place. Our fleet is coming, and I am going, returning home to swap my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser for the Basilisk. I am a little sad that I miss our fleet's arrival, but I'm switching ships and back soon enough to witness half of the destruction. The scene looks like I thought it would. Wrecks are scattered around, there's a corpse already floating in space, and there are more ships shooting each other in one spot than I see in a standard week. If only I had some guns, I could contribute.

My Basilisk isn't needed. The two already on the field barely have to supply remote repairs as it is. The hostile fleet is surprised, and a little scattered. The main issue for us seems to be getting the HIC in the right place to stop the battleships warping clear. They are moving in different directions, and the warp disruption field generator of the HIC prevents its moving with any alacrity. But even those ships outside of the bubble aren't really going anywhere, as most of our own fleet's ships are fitted with points, disrupting warp engines individually. The bubble is more to add corpses to wrecks.

I don't mind so much missing out on the combat. I would quite like to add to the devastation, and was initially supposed to pilot the Onyx. But transiting our K162 to swap boats would have made me visible on d-scan. I suppose the hostile fleet may not have reacted, as they don't seem to care about pushing their luck sieging a tower in a w-space system directly connected to Dodixie, but there's no need to take chances. Aii's arrival was quite timely. And floating serenely in my unthreatened Basilisk lets me take in the action as it unfolds. In a way, I made this. I scouted the system earlier, resolved the wormhole and noted its destination, and relayed all the information to my corporation who are always looking for action. My role was small but crucial, and although it is obviously the combat pilots who can take credit for the mayhem before me, I'm happy to have played my part.

Our Navy Apocalypse battleship, Maelstrom, four Tengu stratgic cruisers, Onyx, and three Basilisks crush the hostile fleet. Six battleships are destroyed, and three pods cracked open, for a damage total of close to two billion ISK. We suffer no losses, although the Sabre didn't quite make it back in to his tower in time. Then again, we probably haven't saved the tower from destruction. The defences are still incapacitated and, despite our threats to the opposition openly given in the local comms channel, once we are happy that the hostile fleet is routed our own fleet leaves, with no intention to return. But we knew that coming here. What happens tomorrow is up to the capricious nature of w-space.

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