Catching a cov-ops off-guard

All is quiet on the w-space front. Will the one unexpected signature lead anywhere? Yes, it resolves to a second wormhole, a K162 from class 5 w-space, but let me check through our static connection first. I should be prudent in finding an exit and route back to w-space should I end up caught being stupid, which is quite likely. Jumping to C3a sees two towers and a Helios covert operations boat on my directional scanner, and as opening the system map shows there to be nowhere to hide I suppose I may as well launch probes and get scanning.

My last visit to this system was four months ago, when there was only a single tower on-line. The old tower remains, and it is the second tower nearby that holds the unpiloted Helios. An empty ship means no one is watching, so I sift through the lone anomaly and five signatures, resolving rocks, a wormhole, more rocks, and a new contact in a Buzzard cov-ops, which warps before I can clear my probes out of the system. I hope he wasn't paying much attention. And whatever he was doing, he's back pretty soon. Maybe he was checking the state of the static connection, and finding it gone, as the Buzzard warps out again and this time launches probes before returning to the tower.

If the Buzzard is scanning then he's probably not watching d-scan, and I've only got one more signature to resolve. I bring my probes back to find a second wormhole. The first is the static connection to low-sec empire space, and the second is a K162 also from low-sec that doesn't give me many options. I loiter by the tower and see what the Buzzard wants to do before making my own mind up. I consider planting an interceptor on our wormhole, as it has been a while since I've wasted time doing that, but I don't know yet if this is a scout who looks at wormholes from afar or jumps through them, so abandon that idea. And although waiting to see which way the Buzzard warps could be beneficial, both wormholes are almost in a line from the tower, and I doubt I could distinguish which way the Buzzard warps.

I'll just check low-sec for opportunity. It's not like I'll catch a cov-ops anyway. Exiting through C3a's static connection puts me in a Gallente faction warfare system, which makes me feel about as dirty as it's possible to be in one system without it also being in Aridia. But I scan anyway. One extra signature is just some damned drones—so typically Gallente—so I jump back to C3a, warp across to the K162, and almost puke when I exit to another Gallente faction warfare system. It's in the Black Rise region instead of Placid, but I don't see how that makes it better. Resolving a wormhole from the four extra signatures is an improvement, but the K162 from class 1 w-space is reaching the end of its life, and I only peek through to see a tower lacking ships on d-scan before returning to low-sec.

All remains quiet. Let's see what the Buzzard is up to in C3a. Nothing. Or, rather, it's not in C3a any more. At least I can explore C5a, beyond our home system, now that I have a route back, however stinky, for a possible future clone. I jump home to see no Buzzard and no probes, and press on to C5a to see nothing on d-scan but some probes, so hold on the wormhole to see what comes my way. It's the Buzzard from C3a. I didn't expect that. I suppose I was in low-sec longer than I thought, head spinning in confusion and disorientation. And as the Buzzard jumps right past me back home I imply that there are no more K162s to be found in this direction, so I give the cov-ops a minute to get home and follow behind.

I get back to C3a hoping to see the Buzzard pilot get busy only to see him gone again. Maybe he's gone to low-sec. I hold at the tower and wait, seeing a new contact appear in a shuttle after a short while. She doesn't do anything, though, so I continue to wait for the Buzzard to return. And here he is. Now I'll see some excitement. Huh, maybe I need to adjustment my levels of sarcasm, as I may actually see some excitement, with the Buzzard swapped for a Talos battlecruiser, which then... ejects a Cheetah? Oh, I see. The shuttle pilot swaps to the new cov-ops, and the pair of ships align and warp to presumably the static wormhole. I align my ship and follow, interested to see what they'll get up to.

It looked like both ships were warping, but my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser leaves the Talos behind in the tower. At least I guessed that the Cheetah's destination was the static wormhole, where it now sits stationary. Maybe the Talos is still expected to come, maybe for some low-sec exploration, so I hold for a minute. But nothing happens. Maybe I can shoot the Cheetah and catch it off-guard, but even with the slightest attention being paid it can jump to low-sec to escape. Maybe maybe maybe. Just do it!

I line up the Cheetah and approach under cloak. When I am close enough to jump through the wormhole myself I drop the cloak and burn towards the cov-ops. I doubt I could bump her away from the wormhole but I'm going to try. I also may not actually startle her just yet, because if she's expecting the Talos to join her my appearance on the overview won't be suspicious. Not until I target her, anyway, which I do once the recalibration delay wears off. And if that doesn't get her attention my autocannons will. The first volley destroys the Cheetah's shields and a chunk of armour, the second the rest of the armour and some hull. The third has my target explode.

That was quick and brutal, as is catching the pod and corpsifying it. I scoop, loot, and shoot, and this time there is actually some loot beyond expanded cargoholds. A Sisters probe launcher is nice, as are some artefacts from exploration sites, but sadly the X-large Ancillary Shield Booster blueprint doesn't survive the explosion. Neither does the Talos, who has disappeared from d-scan and not come my way. That's okay, I have my new buddy in corpse form, so I take her back with the loot to our tower, add her to the tea party table, and go for a proper look in the C5. Don't worry, corpse lady, I'll do introductions later. There's not much to see in C5a anyway, just an empty tower, and as I assume there are no more wormholes I don't even scan. I just go home and sit down for a cucumber sammich.

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Tags: buzzard, cheetah, eve online, helios, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, talos, w-space

Legions are like sharks

Hi Fin. Those bookmarks are yesterday's, right? 'Yes. I'm just getting started.' Okay, good. They're deleted. I launch my probes in to the home w-space system to join those of my glorious leader, and what I take to be a new gravimetric site actually resolves to be a second wormhole. Our static connection to class 3 w-space is joined today by a K162 from class 5 w-space. As I determine this, Fin jumps ahead to C3a that was being sieged the last time we were there. The sieged tower is unsurprisingly gone, and the invader tower remains, although it is owned by a two-member corporation. Maybe they hired mercenaries to oust the previous occupants, but who cares. I jump backwards to C5a.

Two towers are visible on my directional scanner, with just capital ships visible. I'm not expecting the Revelation dreadnought, Archon carrier, or Chimera carrier to be up to much by themselves, so I take my time exploring, finding the towers, noting the corporations. A single planet out of d-scan range beckons me, but not before a Loki warps in to the tower I'm currently reconnoitring. That planet can wait. The strategic cruiser doesn't pause inside the tower either, warping to a point about two hundred kilometres directly above it to launch a single scanning probe, and disappearing as it cloaks. I ask Fin if we can catch it, and naturally my glorious leader would like to try.

I'm not sure what the Loki will do, and because launching a single probe makes it look like the pilot is only checking for new signatures I turn my own Loki back towards the wormhole to our home system to wait. I'm not there long before the local pilot appears and jumps through to our class 4 system. It's good I didn't loiter outside the tower waiting for it to reappear. I stay on the C5-side of the wormhole for a moment, hoping to catch the Loki tangled in its own probes rather than scare it in to cloaking immediately, but my timing is awry. I jump behind the Loki only to see it cloak and evade me in the simplest manner.

There's not much Fin and I can do for now but pick a wormhole each and watch for the Loki's movement. As Fin's coming through our static connection and I'm on the C5 K162 we are pretty much set, but the Loki just plays it cool, warping away to a distant point to launch scanning probes. He's in no rush. He's waiting for polarisation effects to end, or maybe for friends to arrive. Or, suggests Fin, he fled from me without bookmarking the K162, given that I see the probes clustered around my position, Fin sees nothing on d-scan, and the Loki reappears on the K162 a minute later.

I call Fin over to my position as I give chase, reacting immediately this time, but even though I start to gain a lock on the Loki back in its home system I am not quite quick enough, and am staring at empty space again. 'A bit too slow', he says in the local channel, and I give a particularly unwitty reply, which I would be happy to share had my ship not taken that opportunity to crash, hard, and force me to reboot its systems. I return, a couple of minutes later, to see the Loki circling the wormhole, looking rather bait-ish. I'll take that bait, but there's no point trying just now, as he only needs to cloak to evade me. Instead, I approach and wait until we're close enough to give him a bump. Or I would, if he didn't cloak ten kilometres from me.

We would be back to waiting now, if it weren't for the Legion now on d-scan in C5a. I first take the ship as the Loki having swapped to a less covert strategic cruiser, but the pilot warps to the wormhole to reveal himself as a new contact, and jumps to our home system, where he cloaks. So they have a ship on either side of the wormhole. What they don't know, yet, is that so do we. Either we back off now, or one side or the other is losing a strategic cruiser or two. And, if my flaky systems are any guide, it will be us, as my Loki crashes again. I'd better reboot the stupid ship.

I get my Loki up and running again to have Fin tell me that the Legion in our home system decloaked as soon as I forced my ship off-line, and either cloaked again or jumped through the wormhole. Of course he did. I also see a new ship appear on d-scan, a new contact confirmed when the Retribution assault frigate warps to the wormhole. Tackle. That will make it more awkward to return home, as well as skewing the numbers slightly in their favour. As I can't rely on my ship staying on-line I am happy to find a couch to slouch on, just as long as I can get home. The Retribution starting to make angry orbits around the wormhole isn't helping.

I warp out, make a strategic bookmark for the wormhole, and return to that monitoring position to see a somewhat positive sign. The assault frigate is burning away from the wormhole. That doesn't take him out of the fight, though, as he will get to a position like mine, that will let him warp to the wormhole at a moment's notice. But that moment is all I'll need to jump without him on my back, so I make a break for the wormhole and take myself home. Naturally, the Legion on the other side has decloaked again, waiting for me, being in contact with his colleagues. He decloaked the first time because my reboot looked like I was about to jump.

This time I actually jump, and not only is the Legion ready for my appearance but the wormhole shows its disdain for me, keeping me within two kilometres so that I can't cloak immediately upon moving. Or maybe the wormhole loves me and is giving me a hug. A death hug. Still, I've got to try, so I move away, activate my, uh, well, not even the micro warp drive will activate, as the Legion is fast. I am targeted, scrammed, and being shot at. What now, Penny?

Now I shoot back. I would be a fool to jump back to C5a, polarised and with the Retribution ready to catch me, and I have Fin on this side of the wormhole ready to come to my aid. I turn my ship around, return the Legion's lock, and start shooting. For each blast the Legion's lasers send my way, my autocannons hit him back, and harder. Admittedly, we have home ground advantage with our pulsar helping my shields, and I have to work through the Legion's puny shields to get to its sturdier armour, but I am barely being scratched. And the fight is won when Fin decloaks behind the Legion.

The appearance of a second attacker obviously unnerves the Legion, as he disengages almost immediately, jumping back through the wormhole almost before his colleague in the Loki comes through our way, looking to join the fight. With no Legion to shoot, and no target lock on my ship, I activate my cloak to get safe. The hostile Loki cloaks immediately, no doubt warned to do so by the Legion, and Fin warps clear to leave seemingly empty space around the K162.

I back off from the wormhole to a safe distance and wait for any aggression timer to end. The time ticks away, and as I am ready to hide and go off-line the hostile Loki finally reappears and returns to his home C5. He either had the same idea as me, or was hoping I'd go off-line with aggression so that I could be caught unawares. Either way, he's gone, and I'm going. But whilst waiting I checked my combat log to see just how long the engagement lasted. I have to say, that was a damned thrilling thirty seconds of combat.

Fin saved my bacon just by being there, and in a way it's a bit of a shame we didn't have a proper scrap. But I genuinely enjoyed the feeling of turning around on my aggressor and punching him in the nose. That's how to get rid of sharks, by the way.

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Tags: archon, chimera, eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, retribution, revelation, scanning, w-space

Stalking strategic cruisers

Glorious leader Fin saw some industrial ships in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system earlier. I interrupted her stalking by bringing her to a class 5 system connected to our home in the hopes that my ambush of a planet-gooing hauler would provoke a response. It didn't, and we wasted time watching ships being swapped. Now we're heading back to C3a in the hopes of finding actual activity, and not the fake kind we got duped in to monitoring. We jump through our static connection and warp to the tower, Fin nearly getting caught in a decent warp bubble, and although bubbles aren't a care for me I have my own problem in nearly ramming a tower defence.

Our ships remain unnoticed, mostly because the two pilots who were here earlier are now gone. That's a pity, but there still may be other pilots to find. I launch probes and scan, man. I scan. The fifteen signatures surrounding the two anomalies are nearly all gas, with three wormholes sprinkled in the mix. Fin scouts as I continue to scan, the three weakest signatures only resolving to be rocks, and reconnoitres the static exit to low-sec, a K162 from low-sec that's at the end of its life, and an N968 outbound connection to more class 3 w-space. She exits through the static wormhole to appear in Domain, and returns after bookmarking the K162 to head to C3b. Finished scanning, I follow behind.

I was only in C3b ten days ago, when nothing of interest happened, so I know where a tower should be and that the static wormhole will lead to low-sec. We launch probes and blanket the system, revealing three anomalies and six signatures, as I warp off to check the tower. Or I would, if only I would warp to the right planet. My confusion in landing in empty space is cleared when I warp across the system to see the tower remain, and settle down to scan. More wormholes are found, with a K162 from class 2 w-space and a second from class 5 w-space accompanying the static connection. Fin goes C5wards, and I jump to C2a.

Three Tengu strategic cruisers appear on a first check of my directional scanner, along with a tower. A quick adjustment gets me excited, as I see a bunch of Sleeper wrecks in the system, and I punch my passive scanner to quickly find all the anomalies nearby, alerting Fin to the active pilots as I do. Another update to d-scan sees a Noctis salvager appear, a narrow beam putting him at the easily found tower. It seems these pilots are local and shooting Sleepers in their home system. I locate the anomaly the Tengus are in as Fin heads home to get a ship-killing Legion strategic cruiser.

I have a couple of minutes to kill before turning to the ships, so explore the system. I engaged a Mammoth hauler on a high-sec wormhole the last time I was here, mostly to cause disruption, and although I have three towers listed for then there is only one now. Oh, that's right, they were moving out, hence the hauler trips to high-sec. Satisfied that there are no obvious surprises waiting for us I warp to the tower, where the Noctis no longer sits. He's with the Tengus, and as I have the anomaly noted I warp in to see the four ships together, the strategic cruisers running remote-repair systems and keeping the Noctis safe. That's okay, as Fin is keen to catch a Tengu or two in preference to the salvager.

Three Tengus each repairing the others could be tricky to disrupt, but with some strategic use of capacitor neutralisers and perhaps some panicky flight by our targets we should manage it. Running remote repairs is heavy on capacitor usage, so even a moderate drain should have the ships run in to trouble. First we have to get in to position and tackle them. The first anomaly is cleared of Sleeper wrecks by the salvager before I even reach it, but I get to see the four ships. The Three Tengus warp off as one, letting me follow, leaving the Noctis as it cloaks in the cleared anomaly.

Entering the second anomaly sees the strategic cruisers huddled around the cosmic anomaly again, which greatly simplifies our ambush attempt. Fin is warping to the C2's K162 now, and I explain the situation. I am in a monitoring point and ready to warp in to the cluster of ships. The targets are sitting in the heart of the anomaly, and that's her focus. I hand command over to her now, as Fin is in the killer ship and will be calling the shots. She enters the system, moves from the wormhole and cloaks, and pauses to gauge the reaction. 'No movement here.'

All looks good. I'm unsure, but ready to pounce. Fin's warping to the anomaly, saying she'll decloak when she gets close, to absorb the recalibration delay. And as Fin's on her way, I push my own ship forwards, warping to be close to our targets but without forcing my cloak to drop. My warp engines decelerate and I hold my cloak, waiting for Fin's Legion to appear in front of me, so that I neither startle the pilots nor take excessive damage early. But I don't see Fin, and even though my ship is slowing the Tengus continue to move. I watch as the three ships warp past me, still with no sign of Fin's Legion, the silence broken by strained despair from my partner.

Fin warped to the wrong point, moving to where I was positioned, some two hundred kilometres outside of the anomaly, instead of to the cosmic anomaly. Her decision to decloak early was sound, but didn't help when she appeared so obviously far from our targets. Mistakes happen, and although we miss the chance of a neat kill this isn't a particularly bad mistake to make. Besides, I managed to get close enough to the Tengus to tackle one of them, if only I'd been bold enough to do so, or had known sooner that Fin was behind me. But her ship doesn't appear on my overview, to avoid blue-on-blue aggression, and I was concentrating on the ships in front of me, so I didn't realise what was happening. It doesn't matter. The hunt was exciting all the same.

One Tengu back at the tower gets swapped for a Hound stealth bomber. A second is renamed as the system's star, and goes off-line with the third. The Noctis becomes a Prowler transport, and warps away, not to be seen again. The Hound doesn't move. We've scared the constellation in to inaction, which I suppose is an accomplishment, and although I wonder if the C5ers I poked earlier are waiting to ambush our return we get home without passing another ship. It's an anticlimactic ending to the evening, but we had a hunt and know what we did wrong. We can do better next time.

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Tags: eve online, hound, legion, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, prowler, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space

Hitting another hauler

I wonder if my glorious leader has forgotten about my egregious bookmark deletions yesterday. 'Please don't strand me!' Maybe not. Then again, maybe she's just referring to the wormhole collapsing she's mid-way through. 'I put an Orca and Widow through. C3a is a null static system.' I'm sure we can find better than that. Warping to the wormhole sees that the trips by the industrial command ship and black ops ship have not destabilised the wormhole yet, which is good. Two more fat Orcas will kill the connection safely. We grab one each, each make a return trip, and watch the wormhole die. It couldn't be easier.

We should be starting again, but are both a bit distracted by conversations happening around us. Even so, I notice a Nemesis stealth bomber pop up on my directional scanner in the home system, which shouldn't be here, and I determine to find out where it came from. Launching probes and scanning unsurprisingly finds an unexpected signature, above our two mining sites and replacement static wormhole, and it resolves to be a K162 from class 5 w-space. I loiter by the K162 to see who else will appear, as Fin monitors our static connection, a wormhole the Nemesis and C5 locals probably don't know about yet, seeing as we just killed the previous one.

No one comes from C5a, no one leaves our home system. Shall I get myself killed? 'Sure. I will check C3a.' Good. Splitting up is always a good plan, as it halves the pain. Jumping in to C5a and punching d-scan gives the impression of lots of ships floating around, but a second check shows that it's actually lots of hangars and only nine ships. Still, that's nine ships amongst three towers, which is worth investigating, considering one ship has already been seen as active. A check of my notes shows that Fin and I podded a Cheetah covert operations boat in this system about a year ago, when there was one tower present, so it's all change.

The towers are new, but not hard to find. Despite there being several planets with multiple moons, each of the three towers is sitting around a planet with a single moon. That makes them trivial to locate, as well as reconnoitre from a distance. I can see one tower has no ships, a second has most of the ships, and a third has two ships. I warp to the more populated tower, given that there is an industrial ship there, and see two Helios cov-ops ships and an Iteron hauler piloted, and an Orca empty. But before I move on to check the third tower a Mammoth warps in to this tower. It may be worth watching this one.

The hauler looks like he's just come back from a customs office, which is either good or bad. Good, because he could be going out again, and bad because he may be finished. It's good. I am not watching for long when the Mammoth flips on its axis and accelerates back the way it came, aligning to a nearby customs office. I align my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser in preparation, wondering if the active pilots here may be ready to offer an escort to their industrial colleague, but leave those thoughts outside the tower as I enter warp a second after the Mammoth.

Haulers aren't so agile. I drop out of warp at the customs office to see the Mammoth there, and decloak, absorb the recalibration delay, and burn towards my target before it has decelerated out of warp speed. I get a positive lock, disrupt the engines, and start shooting the Mammoth as I give it more than a gentle nudge out of any alignment it hasn't had time to achieve. A few shots later and the hauler explodes, and although I aim for the pod it gets clear, leaving me to collect a couple more expanded cargoholds for my collection.

I shoot the wreck, because I can, and return to lurk outside the second tower again. The pod moves to a hangar, boards a Hound, and then does nothing with the stealth bomber. I think it's a comfort ship. Even so, I call Fin back from watching stationary industrial ships in C3a in case we have a bit of cat-and-mouse to play with the C5 locals. As she makes her way across two systems I check the third tower, seeing another empty Orca floating near a piloted Armageddon battleship and Loki. But the second tower still holds more interest, so I warp back there to see what's happening.

The Iteron moves, and I am excited to think it will be bait for a piddly stealth bomber to cover. I could handle that alone, and with Fin's aid we could easily get a couple more kills. Instead, the Iteron goes to one of the many hangars and swaps to a different Iteron. I can't say why. Meanwhile, a new contact in a Rifter warps in to the tower, slamming in to a Helios, before swapping to its own Helios and warping out. Fin loiters outside the third tower, where the Armageddon pilot swaps to a Magnate frigate, then an Apocalypse battleship, down to a pod, and in to a Ferox battlecruiser. An unfitted Ferox battlecruiser.

More ship changes happen at the second tower, and I note them down for a while. But, really, they are just ship changes, with the occasional cloaky ship warping away but not to the wormhole, and I lose interest pretty quickly in the details. I don't think they are even trying to confuse us, just doing busywork, the w-space equivalent of ship spinning. Essentially, ships come, are swapped, and ships go. And we're going too. Fin's bored of watching an unfitted Ferox do nothing, and I'm bored of watching so much nothing happening. I dunno, you blow up one hauler and capsuleers get all defensive.

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Tags: apocalypse, armageddon, eve online, ferox, helios, hound, iteron, loki, magnate, mammoth, mmorpg, nemesis, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, rifter, scanning, w-space, widow

Scanning for targets

Fin's here. What else? Some stale bookmarks, by the looks of it. I transfer my old bookmarks to the appropriate folder, sweep the corporate bookmarks clean, then get a sitrep from my glorious leader. 'Multiple wormholes in C3a, and two probers.' Oh. If Fin's in our neighbouring w-space system then the those corporate bookmarks must have been fresh, and only bore a passing resemblance to my stale ones. Please tell me you have local copies of everything I just deleted. 'Nope.' I'll be scanning, then.

In the vain hope that my stupidity may actually have been good, an unexpected signature pops up in the home system. It's a K162 from class 4 w-space, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't in the slew of bookmarks I deleted. Maybe Fin can scout through the new connection whilst I redo her scouting in the class 3 system, hopefully making up for my incompetence. That's the plan, at least, but the K162 flares as Fin approaches, ejecting a Cheetah in to our system. The covert operations boat warps across to our static connection, which I am now sitting on, and jumps to C3a. That's interesting.

Fin tags the corporation and sits on the wormhole waiting for more transits, whilst I give the Cheetah time to get clear on the other side of our static connection. It may be beneficial for us to make the scouts think we're not home. When the cov-ops has had time to get away, I jump through and see where I am. My directional scanner is clear, with no sign of scanning probes even, and Fin lets me know that the system is unoccupied, followed by intelligence on C4a. A Tengu strategic cruiser is somewhere in the system, whilst a Retriever mining barge sits in a tower's force field. I'll scan C3a until I'm needed.

Gas, gas, gas, rocks, and three wormholes. A static exit to low-sec, a K162 from class 4 w-space, and a K162 from class 2 w-space. Whatever wormhole Fin resolved that was at the end of its life is now dead. I exit w-space to appear in a system in Genesis, bookmark the K162, and return to C3a. I think I'm mostly back to where Fin got to. I warp across the system to explore C2a, where d-scan is clear and only has one planet in range. A passive scan shows me nine anomalies just as the wormhole behind me flares. The Cheetah that left our home system appears and warps immediately away.

My session change cloak was active, and as the Cheetah warped clear I doubt he was following me. He also went to empty space, which suggests he warped to a wormhole, and certainly not a tower. I move away from the wormhole and cloak in time for a second Cheetah to follow behind the first, although he cloaks and I can't tell if he loiters or also warps. His orangeness makes me think he followed the first cov-ops, but I can't be sure. Either way, I warp out, launch probes, and blanket the system. My probes show me seven signatures to go with the anomalies, and my notes tell me I'm looking for an exit to high-sec as the second static connection. They also point me towards a tower, on the far side of the system.

No one's home, and my probes still don't register any ships, so I may as well scan. I resolve the exit to high-sec with my first choice of signature, having seen where the Cheetah warped, and a quick check shows no other wormholes are present. The B274 is EOL, though, and I see no benefit in getting the exit and making myself known to anyone who may be waiting there. But I will wait, as perhaps a squishy ship will be brought back, which I can chase to the wormhole linking to C3a. But I wait, and wait a bit more, and all that happens is a Hawk appears on d-scan.

The assault ship is at the tower. I give up on waiting for the high-sec wormhole to bring a ship to me, and instead watch the Hawk like a, well, inattentive creature, really. The Hawk warps out of the tower whilst I'm distracted, but I glance up in time to see him maybe, possibly heading towards the customs office. That would be weird, so I'm not surprised to see him not there when I check, but warping out of the safety of the tower is weird in itself. I bounce around looking for the Hawk, and when I can't find him at all I check his distance from the tower. It's not far, I should be able to scan him in one hit.

Warping out of d-scan range of the tower lets me launch combat scanning probes without the Hawk seeing me. I return to the tower to confirm the assault ship is still in empty space, cluster my probes at their minimum range around the planet, and scan. 50% strength is not quite good enough to warp to, and a bit of fiddling doesn't improve much on that figure. I launch two more probes, hitting my maximum, and go for a denser arrangement, but even then I can't get more than a 72% return on the Hawk's position. I think he's teasing me. But that's alright, because Fin watches the Retriever warp from the tower in C4a.

I leave the irritating Hawk to remain companionless in space, jumping back to C3a, warping to the home system, and crossing that to jump in to C4a. Fin's already told me that there is nowhere to hide, with the tower out of range from one planet but the Retriever still being visible there, so launching probes will be tricky. I perform a passive scan to look for anomalies that may take me the extra AU needed, but come up empty. This is a clean system. I'll just have to be lucky. I decloak, launch probes, and cloak as I throw them out of the system.

I appear to be lucky. The Retriever doesn't return to the tower, where the Tengu remains piloted but inert, and sits in a pocket of space that likely holds a field of rocks. Now I just have to find it. I get close, narrow down the barge's position using d-scan, and estimate its range just as the Retriever disappears from my five-degree beam. He warps to the tower, but hopefully just because he's full and intends to go back for more rocks. We will him to do it, and wait for his ship to turn around, but the capsuleer chooses sleep instead and goes off-line.

Out of curiosity, I call my probes in for a scan and get a 100% hit on the gravimetric site, which lets me recall them immediately. I warp in to reconnoitre the site, noting that whatever arkanor was present has been chewed up, but it looks like it was in vain. The pilot doesn't return, and the Tengu goes off-line shortly afterwards. If only I hadn't wasted that extra minute on the Hawk, maybe Fin and I could have popped a mining barge. I need to remember that timing is important. But tonight it's game over. There's another class 4 system left unexplored in the constellation, but I would be happy with some rest more than extra scanning.

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Tags: cheetah, eve online, hawk, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, retriever, scanning, tengu, w-space

Sleepers and scanning

All looks quiet as I come on-line, which is good. A check of the home system shows the static wormhole being the only signature present, which gives me time to fiddle with the medal interface. I don't think we make much use of the ISK-sink, but the brief morale boost a medal can offer is worth a few million ISK here and there. I create the Slippery Eel award, after acknowledging that there's no reason why there should be an option for an eel-shaped medal, or that it needs to be eel-shaped in the first place, and award it to TGL3 for his managing to slip out of the clutches of a hostile fleet. I think saving your ship from certain doom is worth some kind of recognition.

Now to daily exploration. There remains the single signature at home, so I resolve it and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see what I can find, or will find me. Not much. My directional scanner is clear from the K162, and although there is a planet with moons 40 AU away, and a moonless planet 50 AU beyond that, there is no occupation and no activity to be discovered. The system seems to be well-visited enough to keep the Sleepers in check, though, as a blanket scan reveals only eight anomalies and ten signatures. And, from a previous visit, I know I'm looking for a static exit to null-sec.

The first signature looks nullish, but it resolves to be a magnetometric site. The second looks nullish too, but this one's just a radar site. This is why I don't much like class 3 w-space systems with static connections to null-sec. Gas gets ignored for a bit, which at least doesn't take as many scans to identify, my glorious leader appears, and I'm back to radar sites and, finally, the static wormhole. Okay, that was fun, let's make some ISK.

We keep C3a's static wormhole unvisited and board our Sleeper ships back in the home system, Fin in her Tengu strategic cruiser and me in the Golem marauder. Maybe I should have bookmarked the magnetometric site after all, but five sweet anomalies should keep us busy and profitable enough. And Fin doesn't mind skipping the magnetometric site either, laughing that she hates 'trying to sell that expensive crap off'. It already takes a while to dump our stored loot on the market without having to worry about more miscellany with nebulous prices, so I see her point.

One, two, three, four anomalies are swept clean simply enough, with no interruptions. It's too easy for Fin, who decides to take her ship off-line at the start of the fifth anomaly, leaving me with the Sleepers to myself. It's all good, though, as she has her fun and returns before I'm swamped with webbing frigates my torpedoes would have little hope of hitting. Five anomalies are cleared, my Golem looting and salvaging as we go, and we get home safely with over a quarter of a billion ISK in loot in my hold. Now we can crash the wormhole and look for a better constellation.

The Golem and Tengu return trip almost counts as a Widow black ops ship, so the collapse of the wormhole starts with Fin jumping back and forth in an Orca. The industrial command ship doesn't drop enough mass through the connection to destabilise it, which makes the calculations easy. Two more fat Orcas will kill it, safely and quickly. I do my trip, Fin does her second trip, and I tell her that the wormhole should go critical on the outwards jump and collapse on her return. 'Should', she says. Okay, will. And it does. I think I'm getting the hang of this.

The wormhole dies on schedule, with both of us at home, and we start exploring afresh. I have an issue with my Loki strategic cruiser's modules locking up, so that I can't deactivate my cloaking device without taking it off-line, and the same for the micro warp drive, which is far from ideal, but as I am able to get probes launched I resolve the new static connection before dealing with crappy Minmatar hardware. I reboot the ship, by stashing it back in the hangar and re-boarding it, perform a systems check, then head to see where the new wormhole leads us.

C3a now is much like C3a before. D-scan is clear, one planet with moons is out of range, as is one planet without moons. I find a tower this time, though, but still with no one home, and a blanket scan reveals five anomalies and five signatures, and one ship. The ship is not on d-scan and disappears from my scanning probes, but a couple of minutes later it is back, and at the far, moonless planet. I warp out there in time to see scanning probes launched, but not in time to see the ship. I relay this information to Fin, who has just had to perform her own ship reboot, and feel a bit stupid when she says, 'yes, that was me'. Right. I am an elite scanner, but I can't put two and two together sometimes.

Phantom ship explained, we get to scanning. The signatures become the U210 static exit to low-sec empire space, a radar site, ladar site, and gravimetric site. Tag-team scanning is quick and easy. The exit leads to Aridia, naturally, where I rat and scan, revealing five more signatures. The first is a K162 from class 1 w-space, which is nice. The second is a wormhole that dies before I reach it. The third is an X702 outbound connection to class 3 w-space, but the fourth is a crappy ladar site that I don't care about. The final signature is skinny, and resolves to be an N432 outbound connection to class 5 w-space. We have plenty to explore.

Fin hits C1a—'seems empty'—and starts scanning as I jump to C3b. Opening the system map gives me a surprise, as I see bookmarks scattered around the system. Are they from yesterday? No, from today. This is C3a. What the hell, w-space, why are you messing with my mind! Nope, it's not w-space, it's me being an idiot. I warped to the wrong wormhole in low-sec. Really, I am good at scanning. Just not at scouting. I return to low-sec, warp to the right wormhole, and actually jump to C3b this time. I needn't have bothered though, as the system is occupied but inactive, and has five signatures that hold just the one wormhole, which is a static exit to low-sec that leads to Aridia, ten hops from the other exit.

I turn around and return through C3b to the first low-sec exit, heading towards the N432. It's late, though, so I doubt I'll be going too far down the chain. Maybe I won't need to. Entering C5a has a tower and ships on d-scan, the Osprey cruiser, two Covetor exhumers, and Bestower hauler looking like lovely targets all, with an Ibis frigate and Anathema covert operations boat joining them. But finding the tower reveals two snippets of intelligence. First, only the Anathema is piloted, which is disappointing. Second, that the position of the tower is peculiar. Around any other planet in the system, the tower would have full d-scan coverage. Around this furthest planet, the planet on the other side of the system is out of d-scan range.

Perhaps the locals, on first moving to w-space, thought that being able to hide from d-scan was important. But hiding in other systems is important. In the home system, you want to be as central as possible, so that you can see as much as possible all the time. It should be taken for granted that if hostiles are around they will have a scout planted outside your tower. Anything you do there will be monitored. Maybe they have their own reasons for putting the tower there, and I don't see them. And I'm just speculating because I don't feel like scanning any more this evening, particularly not after launching my probes covertly at the far planet to see a messy seventeen anomalies and sixteen signatures. I'm going home to sleep.

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Tags: anathema, bestower, covetor, eve online, golem, ibis, loki, mmorpg, orca, osprey, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space, widow

Stealing in to a stash

I'm launching probes in a system I've already scanned. It's possible there is a new wormhole in the system, but I'm specifically looking for a pod that is somewhere unknown. If he's sitting on a new K162, all the better, as I will get a lock more quickly, even if it gives him an escape route. But it looks like I don't need to be too precise in scanning, as the pod has persisted on my directional scanner at the same time as core scanning probes have been whizzing around the system. Then again, core probes won't even notice a pod. My combat scanning probes will, however.

The core probes belong to an Imicus frigate, which is sitting in the tower local to this class 2 w-space system. I don't think he'll prove much of a threat, even without him looking for the pod, because Fin and I just recently turned his destroyer-flying colleague in to a corpse on a K162 wormhole he was scouting. So I ignore the Imicus, warp out to launch probes, and return to look for that persistent pod. As I say, I'm not using any finesse here, just plonking the probes within 8 AU of the pod and refining his position as if he were just another signature. It almost works.

I get the pod resolved to what looks to be one scan away from bookmarking his position, only for it to disappear on that final scan. Maybe the pod was watching d-scan after all, and was cunning enough to time his movements to thwart my scanning. But that's projecting far too much competence on to my target, and it's just as likely he warped clear for another reason. Indeed, I locate him again, and much quicker this time, as he's warped to one of the two static wormholes in C2a. I go to join him on the B274 to high-sec empire space, where as well as the pod I see an Orca.

The industrial command ship appears on d-scan before my overview, but the two are together at the wormhole. There's no point engaging the delicious target on a high-sec connection, as it will simply jump to Concord-protected safety. But I can watch them warp away, to what looks like empty space. I already know there are no new wormholes, so I bring my probes in again and look for the Orca, which is together with the pod in what must be a safe spot. This time, the fat Orca gives me a solid hit within a couple of scans, and I'm warping towards them immediately.

I drop out of warp almost on top of both the Orca and the pod, and, knowing the agility of the pod and lack thereof of the Orca, I aim for the whale. I get a positive lock, disrupt its warp drive, and call for Fin to warp to my position. My glorious leader has been monitoring one of the other wormholes in the system, but won't want to miss this target. As she warps in the pod warps out, evading my late attempt at locking it, as it seemed to be dallying a bit too much. But also as Fin warps in the Orca blinks out of existence. Well, shit.

It seems that I was seconds too late to stop the Orca from disappearing. I presume the ship pulled the power plugs to go off-line before I could gain a positive target lock, which may have resulted in an aggression timer and given the two of us plenty of time to pop the big ship. Instead, we had a minute to engage, which was barely enough time for Fin to warp to my position. That's unfortunate, and makes me think I should have aimed for the pod first, knowing that the Orca couldn't physically have left before I could have podded the pilot and switched targets. But, realistically, I had no chance of catching the pod so I think I made the right initial decision.

The pod's clear and the Orca is gone. All is not lost, though. I did indeed find the ship in a safe spot, and one that has been used as a stash. A few containers are anchored in this pocket of space, and they are standard containers, not locked. I approach one, open it, and am greeted by a small collection of ammunition and modules. Not much, admittedly, but more than nothing, and we can take what we can carry and destroy what we can't. I fill up my strategic cruiser, and Fin fills hers, although the Tengu can carry a whole can whilst I have to make do with scraps. But we deny the other pilots of what was theirs and get to keep what we can take. This is why you use combat scanning probes in w-space, Mr Imicus.

Job's a good 'un. But there is more space to explore. The C2 has connections going out to a class 1 w-space system and a K162 from more class 2 w-space. There is even a second class 3 system connected from our neighbouring C3, which is one jump backwards from this C2. Naturally, C1a is my first destination, and even though some squishy ships appear on d-scan with a tower, locating them shows they are pilotless and uninteresting. C2b looks better, with a tower and Hulk on d-scan, and even though the exhumer is inside the tower's force field, it's piloted.

There's nowhere to launch probes in C2b, but it doesn't look like the Hulk is paying much attention to anything. Whilst it stays in that state I get probes in and out of the system quickly, returning to loiter outside the tower to see where the Hulk warps. Except it doesn't warp, and stays in a state of not paying much attention to anything, and I get tired or waiting, and tired in general, before long. I recall my probes, jump back to C2a, return to the neighbouring C3a, and take a look in to C3b, where a tower and loads of ships light up d-scan. That looks very interesting.

The ships on d-scan in C3b look much less interesting in person, as they are all inside the tower's force field and unpiloted. I would suppose they are all floating around like that to project a sense of threat, but it doesn't really work on me. And it's late now, so I'm heading home for sleep. I divert in C3a a couple of times, looking beyond the two K162s from null-sec that I resolved earlier to rat, but I find only drones in a system in Etherium Reach through one K162. The system in The Kalevala Expanse has a cloaked pilot that is enough of a credible threat against the minuscule gain ratting affords for me not to bother here either. Still, a podding, hunt, and pillaging of a stash has been fine entertainment indeed.

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Tags: eve online, hulk, imicus, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space

Catching up with a Catalyst

Let's see what I can find today. Not much, it seems. Our neighbouring class 3 w-space system is unoccupied and inactive, with just the skeleton of a tower around a distant planet, and only has the exit to low-sec empire space to go with drifting rocks and gas. Low-sec today is a system in the Genesis region, bustling with pilots and no more wormholes. As I reach the end of the constellation early it seems like a good time to collapse our static connection and try again. That, or snuggle up on the sofa and watch a film, so I'm hoping I'm not wasting my time getting in to the Orca.

After the round trip with the industrial command ship I push a Widow through the wormhole, the black ops ship not destabilising the connection as it returns home. Which, again, is excellent, as it means two fat Orcas is enough to crash the wormhole as I return home, with as little risk as there can be with killing a connection. Scanning for the replacement wormhole and jumping to the new C3a has a tower on my directional scanner with ships! Still, I doubt the mix of a Megathron battleship, Phobos heavy interdictor, and Thanatos carrier are up to much, particularly with no obvious wrecks in the system.

A seventh visit to this C3 perhaps makes it my most visited w-space system, through different wormholes, and my notes take me to the tower to see all three ships unpiloted as expected. I warp out, launch probes, and start scanning the six anomalies and nine signatures. Rocks, a wormhole, a wormhole that feels like an outie, a second chubbier wormhole, a radar site, another probable outie wormhole, a fourth wormhole, and finally gas. I leave the outbound wormholes untouched for now, not wanting to open them until I have to, and hit the chubbier connections. The first is the static exit to low-sec, which leads me to bookmark a K162 in the Kador region. The other two chubby wormholes are both K162s from null-sec k-space, which I don't care to visit at the moment.

The wormholes I took to be outbound connections indeed are, one leading to class 2 w-space and one to class 3 w-space, which are both good options. I choose the C2 first, for also offering a second w-space connection that the C3 won't guarantee. All is clear on d-scan on entering C2a, with just the one planet out of range. A blanket scan reveals one anomaly, seven signatures, and two ships, which turn out to be an Imicus frigate and Catalyst destroyer, both piloted, at a tower around that distant planet. This is looking good, particularly as my notes indicate this C2 having static connections to class 1 w-space and high-sec, as the pilots could easily become active in the home system or abroad in the C1. Even better, all of the signatures are in the inner system, far enough away from the tower that I can resolve them without my probes being seen. I get to work, keeping watch for any movement.

One radar site, two rock sites, three wormholes. The two static connections are joined by a K162 from more class 2 w-space, making me feel very optimistic about this constellation. And reconnoitring the connections shows me scanning probes in the system, cores, thankfully, so that I probably remain unknown, and either from the Imicus or a scout active from the second C2. Even better, the Catalyst is out of the tower. But where? I wish I could tell. Sure, some dumb ship has some useless vanes re-attached, but repeated messages and bug reports about system map labels preventing bookmark interaction continue to be ignored, a real problem that makes w-space navigation and interception more than frustrating.

D-scan is showing me the Catalyst sitting on an 'unstable wormhole' in the system map, but which wormhole? There are five of them, and I can't access the information purposely stored in my bookmark data because of labels that cannot be disabled. The best I can do is guess at one, align my ship, and see which way it points. So very futuristic. At least my first guess is lucky, and I'm aligned in the right direction, so I warp towards the wormhole to C1a in the hopes of seeing the Catalyst sitting vulnerable. I see the Catalyst, but not exactly vulnerable.

The destroyer appears but, not seeing the wormhole flare and not knowing if he has a cloak fitted, I don't engage. Unsurprisingly, he warps back to the tower within a few seconds, and undoubtedly before I could have got a positive lock. If I had to guess, I'd say he was cloaked and aligning himself, taking care scouting w-space in a ship that doesn't lend itself to w-space scouting. With any luck, he is getting ready to be active in C1a, where I can catch him more easily. And Fin can help too, turning up and bringing her ship my way, after giving her a quick sitrep.

I take my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser back to the tower, to lurk outside the force field, waiting for the ships to make another move. But I am drawn away when Fin enters the system and sees a pod on d-scan. She checks the wormholes and finds nothing, so I return to the inner system to help look for the pod, which probably doesn't care that core probes are whizzing around, at which point the Catalyst reappears on d-scan. He's out of the tower again, and probably reconnoitring another wormhole. Guessing he'll be on another of the K162s, still scouting the connections the I'm supposing the Imicus is scanning, I warp to the K162 from C2a, as does Fin.

I warn Fin not to engage, as I know how tempting it is to pounce, saying that he could be cloaked and aligned, making his escape easy. But as I land I see the wormhole flare, which changes the situation. The Catalyst landed here, jumped out, and has jumped back. That makes him polarised, and very vulnerable indeed. Before the wormhole settles I have my Loki decloaked and my sensor booster active, telling Fin to engage, as I watch for the Catalyst's appearance. There he is, perhaps realising that the session change cloak won't do anything for him now, and I claw at him with my targeting systems.

A positive lock. My guns activate at the same time as the warp disruptor, and the destroyer's shields, armour, and hull disintegrate with little resistance. The Catalyst explodes to give me a new target. In my haste to capture the pod I lock on to the wormhole by mistake, a split-second before the pod. But I see this and react. The wormhole has a much fatter signature than the pod, so is locked more quickly. I hold off getting my weapons hot as I correct my mistake, dropping the positive lock on the wormhole as soon as it is made, then getting my guns and point hot as my targeting systems bear down on the pod. Got him. He's going nowhere but to a clone vat somewhere in empire space.

I scoop, loot, and shoot, ending up with a corpse that Fin notes was worth five times more than a ship. That was a nice little kill, even if I wonder if maybe we could have caught him in something bigger. Still, it feels like I've been through a dry spell recently, and you take what you can get. And that pod is persisting on d-scan, despite all that's been going on around it.

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Tags: catalyst, eve online, imicus, loki, megathron, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, phobos, pvp, scanning, thanatos, w-space, widow

Scanning, crashing, ratting

Haii, Aii! 'Haii, Penny. Static unopened, shooting grav Sleepers.' Jargon gets a lot of information across quickly but can be meaningless to outsiders. And Aii is happy to stop clearing the spawned Sleepers in a gravimetric site in the home system to instead look for targets to hunt through our as-yet unvisited static connection. That sounds good to me, so as he finishes popping the frigates I warp to the wormhole and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

There's a just an Orca industrial command ship and tower visible on my directional scanner from the K162. This is my fifth visit to the system, and the fourth from six months ago gives me a possible location for the tower, as well as informing me that the static exit leads to low-sec empire space. I could guess that and be right more than half the time, though. Warping to the tower finds it to be in the same place, and the Orca unsurprisingly unpiloted. 'Roll?' More jargon, suggesting in his efficient way that we collapse our wormhole. But I would like to look for other connections first. There still may be someone to find.

Out of eight anomalies and five signatures there is only rocks and gas to find along with the static wormhole, and exiting to low-sec gives me a great view of the Cloud Ring but no other signatures. I head home as Aii starts pushing our own Orca through the wormhole to over-stress it. I help by adding a Widow black ops ship for the second round trip, which although the two passages combined should add up to half the mass the wormhole will allow through, the wormhole doesn't destabilise. That's actually a perfect indicator, and means two more Orca trips can not only safely be made but will collapse the connection on the final return jump.

It's done. The wormhole's gone and we're starting again. Aii scans and I follow behind him to the new C3a. 'One tower, null static. No ships.' The replacement wormhole doesn't appear to lead us to a more interesting system, unfortunately, but we can scan again and maybe get lucky. My notes have me last here eight months ago, and I don't think the locals have been on-line in the intervening time. Forty anomalies and fifteen signatures is quite the mess, and I think I'll be activating all of those sites to help tidy the system up a bit. But I'll do that after scanning, as I don't want forty labels getting in the way.

Ah, I see. The tower is owned by blues, which I somehow find out by warping to it instead of reading the clear note I have written down from my previous visit. If only I'd known that before I activated all of their anomalies in a few minutes. And the damned static connection to null-sec is a weak signature, and has me resolving all the radar and magnetometric sites looking for it. And the wormhole is the last signature I scan, and it's a mere 3 AU from our K162. I'd be upset it if weren't for the K162 from class 5 w-space I've also found.

Jumping to C5a to look for activity still comes up short, as a tower on d-scan has no ships to accompany it. The system is also quite messy, with twenty-nine anomalies and eleven signatures, and a poke around for K162s only finds the one. It's a connection from null-sec too, which ends the w-space constellation fairly abruptly again. We can only work with what we've got, though, and although Aii asks if we should crash our connection again I'm not keen to be disappointed a third time. Instead, I exit through the K162 to null-sec, appearing in a system in the Wicked Creek region with three other pilots.

The pilots in the null-sec system passively discourage me from ratting, and as I'm sitting on an outbound connection already I feel no need to scan for others. I return to C5a, cross to C3a, and head out through the other connection to null-sec. Now in the Tenal region I find myself alone in the system, which lets me rat and scan. Two extra signatures resolve to be a ladar and magnetometric site, neither being terribly exciting to me, but at least I find a rat battleship, which I shoot to keep my security status heading in a positive direction. Pop! Time for bed, said Zebedee.

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

Missing messing with miners

I appear in the home w-space later than usual, but still with no one around. And although the anomalies are building up there remains just the static connection to resolve. Jumping through puts me in to a neighbouring class 3 system that looks clear according to my directional scanner, with one planet out of range. That planet has just one moon, and there is no tower anchored to it, which makes the twenty-seven anomalies in the system an unsurprising discovery from a blanket scan. I ignore them for now, and start sifting through the ten signatures.

A second wormhole to go with the static exit to low-sec empire space would be more interesting if it weren't a K162 from null-sec, and at the end of its life, so I simply exit to low-sec to see where I'm taken. The system in the Metropolis region is involved in faction warfare, and offers me two additional signatures to resolve, both of which turning out to be wormholes. The outbound connection to class 5 w-space is neat, and will give more w-space to find, but the K162 from class 3 w-space offers more immediate potential for activity and I head that way first.

All C3b has to offer is a tower with no ships or pilots on show, and scanning the few signatures only finds a K162 coming from more low-sec space. Preferring to stick to w-space, I return the way I came and jump to C5a, prepared to see how deep this rabbit hole goes. D-scan is clear from the K162, and a blanket scan shows a mere three anomalies and four signatures, which strongly suggests occupation somewhere in the system. I locate the tower, not in any great hurry as my combat probes didn't show any ships, and resolve the signatures.

A C140 connection to low-sec won't be the static wormhole, nor will a ladar site, so my vast experience of w-space is telling me. Which just leaves, would you look at that, a wormhole to deadly class 6 w-space. But experience has also told me that C6 systems are generally more afraid of you than you are of them, so I bookmark this side, jump through, and see what d-scan will show me. Nothing. And a passive scan picks up a whopping forty-two anomalies, so I'm guessing no one lives in the system.

A quick warp around confirms a lack of occupation, but thankfully a janitor must come in occasionally to sweep up the mining sites, as there are only sixteen signatures, and not the dozens I was expecting. A wormhole to more class 5 w-space appears soon enough, and I continue through the constellation to another empty system. This time, there are few anomalies and more than a handful of signatures, and I'm starting to get tired. I get my scanning chops working, plucking an EOL K162 from class 5 w-space out from the mess, followed by an H296 that continues the C5 chain. That'll do, donkey.

Down deeper I go, where a Moros dreadnought, Rapier recon ship, and two Mammoth haulers appear on d-scan along with a tower. That could be interesting, as does my notes indicating the system holds a static connection to class 4 w-space, but warping to a tower apparently unmoved in two years shows that the ships are piloted in precisely the opposite way I was hoping. The Moros is piloted, as is the Rapier-turned-Helios covert operations boat, and the haulers are empty. That's a shame, and as the piloted ships aren't moving I warp out, launch probes, and scan.

Seven anomalies and six signatures don't take long to sift through, and ignoring an EOL K162 from null-sec, a radar site, and some gas, I resolve the static connection. I scanned it, I may as well use it. Hello! A Navy Raven battleship, Tengu strategic cruiser, Nightmare battleship, and two Scimitar logistics ship must be up to something. There's no tower in d-scan range and there are Sleeper wrecks, although the ships are in neither of the two anomalies a passive scan picks up.

Expecting the fleet to be in a combat site that needs to be scanned for, I warp to the only planet out of range, partly in a bid to launch probes covertly, and partly to see if there is a tower with more active pilots. There is a tower, with more pilots potentially watching d-scan, and it isn't out of d-scan range of the fleet. If that weren't frustrating enough, my ship decides that the best time to stop responding to my commands is when I'm sat cloaked outside the tower as the Navy Raven returns. Thanks, ship. I reboot it with a hammer, knowing full well that my cloaking device will deactivate as I do. But I don't really have a choice.

I return to space in a mostly working Loki strategic cruiser to an odd sight. Rather than the locals abandoning their operation, because of a known hostile pilot in the system, I see two Hulk exhumers warp out of the tower towards empty space. I don't quite believe that they would be entirely oblivious to my presence, and would start mining, after clearing Sleepers from a rock site. And I'm justified in this lack of belief. I launch probes quickly, somehow forgetting that I can't get out of range of the site and that I must be completely visible for half-a-minute, and start hunting the exhumers only to see that a Scimitar is staying in the site with the Hulks.

A Noctis salvager and Buzzard cov-ops also remain in the site, for reasons I can't really guess at, but I imagine the Scimitar is there to keep the exhumers alive long enough for me to get ripped to shreds by whatever response the locals clearly already have planned. So even though I arrange my probes neatly around the Hulks in space, my intent is mostly to see if I can spook them. That is, until a pilot at the tower swaps to a Buzzard, warps two hundred kilometres out of the tower, and launches a deep space scanning probe. Maybe I can shoot him instead.

Scanning for a ship on-grid is pretty easy. Arrange probes in a tight, minimum-range configuration, place them on top of your position, and scan. I get a hit on the Buzzard immediately, and, because he's far enough away, I warp to his position, dropping a little short out of caution. I am hoping the cov-ops will recall the deep space probe and start throwing core or combat probes in to space, which will make cloaking awkward for him, at which point I can throw him a surprise party. But he instead warps back to the tower, just to annoy me. Okay, game over, man. Game over. I head home through dead systems, and go off-line. I suppose I never really had a shot at these miners, with nowhere to hide, and at least it got my blood flowing a bit.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, helios, hulk, mammoth, mmorpg, moros, nightmare, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, rapier, raven, scanning, scimitar, tengu, w-space