Catching a cruising cov-ops

I should probably get that replacement Falcon recon ship we need, but scanning calls to me. Our current constellation may seem superficially dull, with just a class 3 w-space system holding four connections to empire space, but those empire systems could hold their own connections to adventure. As much as I realise we ought to have a Falcon, and that I shouldn't leave necessary logistics to others, my exploration itch still needs scratching.

I jump my covert Loki strategic cruiser from one high-sec system, where I just got some nice loot from a Sansha frigate, back to w-space and warp across to exit to one of the two low-sec systems available. Launching probes and scanning reveals a healthy six signatures, which resolve to give me some options. An outbound connection to class 1 w-space is always good to see when flying a strategic cruiser, the K162 from class 3 w-space could hold activity, a radar site can be ignored, and although the outbound connection to class 5 w-space is interesting it has been stressed to half-mass has probably seen all its action already. I choose to visit C1a first.

My directional scanner is clear from the wormhole in C1a, with only one planet in range. I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system, showing five anomalies, five signatures, and two ships. Judging by the position of the ship signatures they are probably both sat in a tower's force field, and a bit of exploring shows this to be the case. But the two Hurricane battlecruisers are piloted, which holds some promise. And they are joined by a Cheetah covert operations boat warping in to the tower. I don't see any probes, though, so either he's just finished scanning or is returning from scouting elsewhere.

A fourth ship appearing on my combat scanning probes is interesting, more so because d-scan doesn't reach to wherever it is, and loitering outside the tower doesn't bring him to me. Another blanket scan confirms the ship is still in the system and still not coming to the tower, so I warp in its general direction to try to identify it. Naturally, the mystery ship disappears before I get close, and the Cheetah has gone too. I'm left with the two Hurricanes at the tower and some curious movements I'm not privy to.

I may as well scan the inner system for wormholes. The Cheetah may be around, as could another cloaked ship, but at least the battlecruisers are too far away to see my probes. One wormhole pops up quickly, as it would with only five signatures to scan, and I warp to see a static exit to low-sec that's reaching the end of its life. I move my probes on, picking up a magnetometric site, as a Cheetah decloaks at the wormhole I just happen to be sitting on. But the cov-ops isn't close to the wormhole, and has decided to close the distance by dropping his cloak and burning towards it. Maybe something other than the wormhole is reaching the end of its life.

It looks like I can approach the Cheetah on a decent intercept course, and even though I realise the cov-ops will only have to cloak to avoid my attention—which my recalibration delay would give adequate time to do—I decide to take a shot at it. I move my Loki towards the Cheetah and wait until we are about thirty kilometres apart, then strike. I decloak, activate my sensor booster and micro warp drive, and burn towards my target. The seconds of recalibration tick down and still the Cheetah remains visible, still gunning for the wormhole, letting me gain a positive lock.

I start shooting the tiny ship but the blows are glancing, because of our almost orthogonal paths. But, before long, I am cruising behind the Cheetah and we are almost aligned, at which point my guns rake through the remaining shields and armour in a single blast, ripping the hull apart a couple of seconds later.

The cov-ops doesn't make it to the wormhole. The ejected pod doesn't escape either, perhaps still hoping that it would take more than the session change timer to lock on and pop him, but autocannons are brutal against pods, and a new corpse is born to space.

I scoop, loot, and shoot, bagging me more than the usual expanded cargoholds of planet gooers, with a covert operations cloak and Sisters expanded probe launcher being nice finds in the wreckage. I cloak my ship again and warp away, only seeing the reaction of one of the Hurricanes warping in far too late under my combat scanning probes. But I get a second reaction, as a minute later my neocom blinks. I've got mail. It's not spam! I think maybe it's some more hate mail, but it turns out the podded pilot knows the score. 'I was careless.'

I can't argue with that. But it's also not the whole story. 'And I got lucky', I reply. A few seconds either way and the Cheetah would have been fine, either because I wasn't there in time, had warped away, or didn't react before the ship could reach the wormhole. Still, we make our own luck to some extent, and I chose to swap the potential of ganging up on Hurricanes for a shot at a cov-ops frigate. I didn't know the ship was worth ninety million ISK, or that the pilot's head was worth twice that. I just wanted a pretty explosion and new corpse for my collection.

Returning to the local tower sees the two battlecruisers back doing nothing, and joined shortly after by a new Cheetah and their own Loki. The Cheetah moves out of the force field, launches probes, and moves back in to the safe embrace of the tower. It seems that my entrance will soon be found and we are now outnumbered. I would say it's time to leave this system behind me, particularly as I have more options to explore.

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Tags: cheetah, eve online, hurricane, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Crimewatch 2: ejection rejection

A devblog detailing Crimewatch 2 has been released, and I applaud its intent in making clearer what actions cause which flags, and what each flag means. This is a necessary change. I don't entirely agree that there are players who possess an 'inability or refusal to understand the rules', in that there are no clear rules to follow. I don't relish the idea of potentially losing ship after ship trying to work out what causes my ship to be flagged with certain conditions, sometimes invisibly, and how long these conditions last. This is sci-fi, and there is no reason why conditions caused by my actions shouldn't be obviously shown to me. Adding the flags to the HUD is the right step to take, as is showing the timer and adding information about the flag.

I do, however, object to one of the consequences, that of not being able to eject from your current ship simply by firing your weapons. Specifically, if you fly a strategic cruiser (T3) then being unable to eject when you know you are in a losing battle forces a loss of skill points (SP) on you. It has been pointed out that avoiding the SP loss was originally by design: 'Ejecting or self-destructing does prevent the penalty, giving players an incentive to abandon ship from time to time'. So why the change?

It has been suggested that preventing ejecting is to prevent an Orca from scooping a T3 after the pilot ejects, which is an issue with gate camps abusing certain game mechanics. But you don't prevent ships from being scooped by preventing pilots from ejecting. You prevent ships from being scooped by preventing ships from being scooped. Preventing pilots from ejecting may solve the problem of ships being scooped, but it does so by creating different problems for pilots who are not abusing the problem that's being fixed. It seems some thinking has gone awry at CCP. Rather than looking at the problem and fixing it directly, they've gone around the houses to make it more complex than it needs to be.

There is even a precedent that makes the problem of ship-scooping apparently simple to solve. Targeted ships cannot cloak. Targeted ships that are empty cannot be boarded. It seems an obvious step to extend it so that targeted ships that are empty cannot be scooped. It is the same game mechanic as is already implemented in similar circumstances, and so it is one that will be familiar to players. Moreover, it possibly simplifies Crimewatch 2 too. The image of actions to consequences shows that the sixty-second weapon flag which prevents ejecting from your current ship has other consequences. You cannot board another ship in space (unless boarding from a capsule), you cannot board another ship from a corp hangar (unless boarding from a capsule), and you cannot store your current ship in a corp hangar. Personally, it seems much simpler to me, and would involve less coding, to take out the exemptions in the parentheses.

Why not remove the consequence 'cannot eject from current ship', and make the other conditions apply even if you are in a pod? You still can't jump through a stargate, or dock in a station, or board another ship—in space or from a hangar—and if a targeted ship cannot be scooped then the problem of Orca abuse in gatecamps is gone. In fact, I would say this solution is preferable. If you eject to a pod you cannot board another ship as long as the flag is active, so you can't jump back in to the fight. And the ship that remains in space becomes more vulnerable, as it no longer has a capsuleer on board to power its defences, or apply the appropriate skills to the shields, armour, and hull. Rather than have the pilot try to last sixty seconds so they can eject, allowing them to eject at any point still has them removed from combat and means their ship will explode sooner.

Ejecting even has another benefit beyond avoiding SP loss. Consider a simple one-on-one engagement. With a properly configured overview, the pilots see each other's ships and little else, if anything. When one ship explodes, the target lock of the victor is automatically dropped, because the target no longer exists, and the ship disappears from the overview. It is replaced by a pod, which can be quickly targeted and held because the victor has anticipated the situation. However, if one pilot sees the fight is going badly and ejects early, the victor may be caught off-guard. The target lock is not broken, the warp disruption module is still active and cycling. The pod has a greater chance of escaping. Regardless of any petty shouts that you should have better reactions, or be more prepared, if a pilot is prevented from ejecting then their pod is at greater risk.

And it is a bogus argument that you should just stop shooting if you want to eject. Smaller PvP engagements often don't last that long, and certainly not much longer, and considering the uncertainty involved in them it is unreasonable to expect any pilot to know what the circumstances will be a minute in to the future. And medium engagements or larger will have T3s popped long before a minute after being targeted. On top of that, if you eject to a pod then you have no weapons to fire, so your weapons flag automatically gets dropped just as if you stop firing in the current ship, which means ejecting will have continue to have similar functionality to that in the proposed change.

It is also bogus to suggest that these are the risks to flying T3s, and that the risks should be accepted. I do accept the risks of flying T3s. When I have lost any of my T3s and failed to eject in time, I have not blamed my attackers for the loss of SP, neither have I blamed CCP; I've blamed myself for a lack of awareness and accepted it. When I have ejected too soon and handed my attackers a free, if dented, T3, I have not blamed my attackers for forcing me out of the ship, neither have I blamed CCP; I've blamed myself for a lack of awareness and accepted it. But if CCP stops me from ejecting when I realise the fight is lost, particularly when the combat changes dramatically after thirty seconds, then I will blame them for the loss of SP.

I accept the risks of flying T3. It is the risks that are being changed, not my acceptance of them. And they are changing as a result of an activity that has nothing to do with me. I am already frustrated enough by blanket restrictions being placed on my activities as a reaction to a problem that has nothing to do with me in the real world. I do not need the same frustrations being extended to my hobbies. If the problem is with scooping actively targeted ships, then prevent the scooping of actively targeted ships. Don't punish me as part of that.

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Tags: comment, eve online, mmorpg, pvp

Getting lucky in high-sec

'What's happening?' Fin sounds just like me, but I can't answer her question as I've only just turned up myself. Some bookmarks remain from earlier, which Fin made, and we should have a few hours left on our static connection and, hopefully, the other wormholes she found. Fin spent a bit of time chasing a hauler back then, resolving what she thought was the wormhole the industrial ship was using only to find a second one after it warped past her in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. Maybe we can catch it going out on another trip.

I make a quick scan of the home system to make sure we'll have no surprises, and on seeing no new signatures we both head to C3a. A tower, static exit to high-sec, and K162 from class 2 w-space are all bookmarked, but only the first two remain applicable. The C2 K162 has imploded, either from age or with help from massive ships, and that probably means we won't see any haulers passing through now. Then again, the locals to this C3 could still wake up and act carelessly, and there could also be new connections to find.

Checking the tower finds no one home, which makes this a good time to scan. I bookmark nine anomalies and sift through the ten signatures, soon resolving two wormholes that are too chubby to be a high-sec exit. They are both K162 connections, and both coming from low-sec empire space. Fin checks the exits, one coming from a faction warfare system in the Placid region, the other a second faction warfare system but in Black Rise, as I continue to scan. A third wormhole has the athletic build of the static wormhole, and a fourth turns out to be a K162 from high-sec. Otherwise it's just gas, gas, and more gas.

The connections are a little disappointing, with none of them continuing the w-space constellation, but at least we have options. Fin jumps through the static exit to appear in Domain, a handful of hops from Amarr, and the high-sec K162 also comes from Domain but is a little further from Amarr. Fin decides that the convenience of this connection and lack of activity makes it a good time to haul out some accumulated loot, as well as bring home some more parts for Project Capital. Personally, I'd rather scan for more wormholes.

One extra signature in the second system in Domain is only a magnetometric site, which I ignore. I cross C3a and exit to the other system in Domain, taking care not to engage the Iteron using the same wormhole for fear of angering my glorious leader piloting it, and scan again. Three additional signatures sounds promising, but they are only a Sansha site, some rocks, and a magnetometric site. Well, I say 'only a Sansha site', but the 3/10 DED rating makes me curious to see if it will let my strategic cruiser in to play. It does, excellent. Now let's see if my cloaky Loki can take the abuse it is about to receive.

There are only frigates to start with, plus a few missile batteries, and my Loki holds up just fine. Activating the second acceleration gate flings me to even more frigates, and now my Loki struggles a little. My guns pop the tiny ships pretty quickly, which takes down the incoming damage soon enough, but it's only when my shields are sitting at 19% strength that equilibrium is reached, and that's with maybe a fifth of the Sansha frigates remaining. But as my shields are holding I don't have to warp out, and I pop pop pop the final frigates to clear the site.

I don't expect to find much amongst the wreckage, but I take a look at the single different ship floating amongst the thirty identical wrecks. And I get quite a surprise. The Centii adaptive nano-plating looks pretty swish, and I get another surprise when I see that it is a meta 13 module! This is quite a find, and worth more than the loot we can gather from one of our best w-space anomalies in the home system. It's also a pretty decent module, so I should probably think about fitting it to one of our ships. It goes to show that sometimes you can get lucky even in high-sec.

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

Killing the help that kills the connection

I arrive to see the tell-tale sign of an unopened wormhole. A single bookmark points to our static connection, and without its paired K162 also bookmarked I feel safe in clustering my scanning probes around the location, where I indeed resolve the wormhole in the same place. Fin comes on-line as I do this, confirming that she didn't visit the wormhole, and as the only other signature in the system is a magnetometric site it looks like a good time to take advantage of our isolation and clear a couple of anomalies in our home w-space system.

We still don't have a Revelation dreadnought, even though plans are progressing nicely, so we jump in to a Tengu strategic cruiser each to tackle the Sleepers. We don't get far, though. Mid-way through the first anomaly a core scanning probe appears on our directional scanners. We notice the probe at the same time, and each send our ships back to the safety of the tower's force field. Whoever is in our system can't be a particularly good scout, as they wouldn't need a scanning probe to find our ships in a basic anomaly, or they failed to explore the system fully before launching probes. Or maybe they saw us and just didn't care, not having the ships or numbers required to engage us, and are probably happy just to interrupt what we were doing.

Fin and I swap our Sleeper strategic cruisers for scanning ones, and warp out to cloak and hide. I disappear to the edge of the system, launch my own scanning probes, and see the new signature that no doubt signals a K162 connecting to our system. As our presence is likely to be known already I don't bother disguising my intentions too much, resolving the signature quickly and recalling my probes. Fin warps to our static wormhole in an attempt to intercept the scout, for reconnaissance only, and I go to the new wormhole, a K162 from class 5 w-space.

Thinking the scout has headed through our static connection already I jump to C5a to see what's there. Nothing on the wormhole, nothing within d-scan range. The J-number looks familiar, and this time it should, as I was only here a couple of days ago—yesterspaceday—when we collapsed the wormhole and I got isolated in C3a. But my notes let me warp directly to the tower, where I see a piloted Megathron battleship doing little. I doubt this is the scout, though. We should probably collapse the wormhole to this system. 'Collapse both of them again?', asks Fin, and I get an irrational spike of anxiety. Yes, I'm sure it will be fine.

I jump back home and warp to the tower, where I see Fin's Orca heading out to the C5 K162. I board the second industrial command ship and point it in the other direction, knowing that I will be polarised to the C5 connection, and we each make a first pair of jumps to collapse the wormholes. We cross paths to make the second pair of jumps, and on her return Fin sees a Helios covert operations enter the home system from C3a. The Helios cannot help but spot her Orca on the wormhole, but I move away from the C5 K162 and cloak before it gets to me. In fact, it takes a couple of minutes for the Helios to make its way to the K162 and return to C5a.

Okay, let's finish the K162 first. The scout is home, the Orca's been spotted, but the wormhole is close to being collapsed. We should isolate ourselves as soon as we can. Fin swaps her Orca for a Widow black ops ship and warps to the K162, where I am counting down the polarisation timer. The plan is the usual one, where the Orca jumps first, the Widow follows and returns, and the Orca comes back last to kill the connection. And, as with most of our plans, it goes a bit wrong after the first step.

I jump in to C5a to see the Megathron now sitting on the wormhole. This could be bad. Even worse, it jumps through the wormhole to our home system. Now, the battleship itself isn't a particular threat, but the extra mass through the wormhole ruins our calculations. Thankfully Fin hasn't jumped the Widow through yet, or we would be in big trouble, and now we have little option but for me to jump back and have the wormhole do what it will. I pulse the reheat, adding mass to the ship, and return home.

The Megathron has its own troubles. Maybe it was coming to try to catch a lone Orca, or its pilot just wanted to screw up our mass calculations. I doubt it expected to jump through the wormhole to see a Widow waiting for it. On top of that, its added mass to the wormhole combined with my jump home was the final push the connection needed. The wormhole collapses, and now the Megathron is not only in combat with a Widow but also has no way home. Mission accomplished, and with little more the Orca can do here but explode, I turn the whale towards our tower and warp out, Fin easily managing to keep the battleship's focus.

Back at the tower I swap the industrial ship for a Legion strategic cruiser, returning to where the K162 used to be and helping Fin bring down the Megathron. The battleship hasn't warped clear, which Fin finds a little surprising, as the Widow isn't equipped with a warp disruptor. It's possible the pilot doesn't realise this and only assumes he is pointed because that's what generally happens. Or it could be that, despite a scout recently scanning through our system, he has nowhere else to go.

I add my Legion's weapons to the brawl, pointing the Megathron in case he realises he's not stopped from leaving after all, and give what little assistance Fin's torpedoes need in shredding the rest of the battleship's armour and hull. The Megathron explodes and the pod warps clear, but he doesn't exit the system. The pilot asked for a ransom before we destroyed his ship, but ransoms are tricky beasts to negotiate. Besides, I'm here for the explosions. Even so, our luckless pilot has a point, because without a wormhole to jump through easily he couldn't really have used a negotiation to buy himself time to count down a polarisation timer.

We could catch the pod if we wanted, but that relies on him actually knowing the way out of the constellation. Trying to scan for a self-destructing pod would accomplish nothing, and if he can exit w-space he would have done so by now. We lose nothing in negotiating in this case. All the pilot wants is a way out of w-space so that he doesn't need to deal with the hassle of a new clone, and we are happy to receive a generous donation to our Revelation fund. I'm not going to ask what the pilot has implanted in his head for it to be worth a 400 Miskie ransom, but if he thinks it's worth it then I am not going to argue.

I'm also not about to dishonour a ransom. Fin confirms that the ISK has been paid in to her account, so I swap back to my cloaky Loki, get myself to C3a, and scan. Fifteen signatures could present a time sink for finding the system's exit to low-sec, but when you're lucky enough to get a Megathron thrown at your Widow, have the wormhole collapse to prevent it fleeing, and then be paid handsomely for the kill, I shouldn't be surprised that the first signature I resolve is the static connection. I invite the pod pilot in to our fleet, Fin guides him to our wormhole, and he warps to me to exit to low-sec. Job's a good 'un.

Now, where were we? Right, collapsing the static connection—which an Orca and wormhole-collapsing heavy interdictor achieve with some measure of precision—and engaging Sleepers. Our little diversion cost us some time, but the first anomaly remains as we left it, wrecks intact. We return in Tengus, pop the final Sleepers, and clean up in a pair of Noctis salvagers. We make about 100 Miskies from the anomaly, but, as always, it's the interruption that is more memorable. At least this time it was an interruption in our favour, and our awareness combined with a fair bit of luck gave us another highly entertaining adventure.

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Tags: eve online, helios, legion, megathron, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space, widow

Collapsing and coming home

No visitors, no colleagues, no bookmarks. There are five new signatures in the home w-space system, though, giving me three wormholes, a spot of gas, and a magnetometric site. And a Cheetah covert operations boat blips under my probes and on my directional scanner as I resolve the final signature. I imagine the scout has come from the healthy K162 from class 5 w-space, and not the K162 from class 4 w-space that's at the end of its life, so rather than poke directly in to C5a and show myself so soon I'll head to our neighbouring class 3 system and see what I can find there first.

Or maybe I won't. Our static connection is also EOL, no doubt opened earlier by the pilots coming from C4a, and I'm not about to risk isolating myself from home. Instead, I loiter by the K162 to C5a and see if anyone comes though, perhaps seeing the EOL wormholes and thinking they're safe to plunder our anomalies. I catch up on my reading for a bit and, when no one else comes by for a while, wonder if the Cheetah was actually making a repeat visit, hoping our static connection had collapsed and returning disappointed when seeing it hadn't. Let me take a look.

Groovy. I drop out of warp in to empty space where our static wormhole used to be, which means a new one has spawned somewhere else. I launch probes and scan, resolving the new connection, and jump through the fresh wormhole to explore the constellation. A tower and two Tengus are visible on d-scan from the K162 in C3a, but there are no wrecks. My notes from four months ago point me to a tower that is no longer there, but locating the current tower isn't difficult in a system where the moons are scattered lightly between the planets. Both strategic cruisers are in the tower's force field, and both are empty of pilots, so I can slow down a bit.

My glorious leader appears, and after I give her a sitrep she confirms that the C4 K162 in the home system is also gone. I suppose they were opened close in time to each other. I scan C3a in the mean time, bookmarking seven anomalies and sifting mostly gas out of the eleven signatures, with a few rocks for texture, to resolve the single wormhole. The static exit to low-sec empire space leads me to the Essence region, where the only other pilot in the system leaves as I arrive to let me rat and scan. One extra signature turns out to be just a Serpentis site, making it quite a dull end to the constellation.

Fin has found a stealth bomber turn in to a shuttle in C5a, which is probably the same pilot from the earlier Cheetah, but we can't be sure. 'Want to close the C5?', she says. We could do, and even though I probably won't feel like doing much afterwards an isolated w-space system is a good w-space system. I return home and ditch my scanning boat for one of the Orca industrial command ships we have. Fin boards the other and we bounce the pair of them between the two wormholes, mass-stressing both efficiently. But tolerances bite us in the arse in both cases. The C5 K162 destabilises critically without collapsing, which we can overcome with a heavy interdictor simply enough, but having our static wormhole collapse early isn't as easy to correct.

This time I am stuck in the Orca in C3a without a wormhole home. At least I have the exit to low-sec resolved already, and don't need to scan in the Orca, so I just have to warp my way to empire space. Even better, the low-sec exit is a single hop from contiguous high-sec, making it trivial to get the Orca relatively safe. Now I just have to figure out where to go. I choose an old manufacturing base that is nearby, where I dock and wonder why my ship floats in the station yet I can walk freely as if under the effects of gravity.

Fin finishes collapsing the C5 K162, scans the home system for the replacement static wormhole, and jumps to the new C3a to find the next exit. It doesn't take long, and we are blessed with a static exit to high-sec, one that is nineteen hops from where I parked but high-sec all the way. I start making my way to the exit system as Fin says she's 'scanning high'. That's okay, I tell her, as I'm piloting the Orca drunk.

My route to the exit system has me pass right through Amarr, which in an Orca seems like an opportunity too good to pass up. I could buy some capital components, but I don't trust myself to get the right items, so instead Fin asks me to buy some fuel pellets. In fact, she links the fuel pellets for me, so that there is even less chance of something going awry. I make a slight detour to a station, stuff the Orca full of fuel, and head back on my way. It's slow going in the whale, but uneventful. I make it to the exit system and finally see a wormhole again.

I jump to w-space, cross the empty class 3 system, and make it home without any drama. I top up the tower with fuel, dump the excess in storage, and swap back to my covert Loki strategic cruiser. The long trip back through high-sec in the Orca has taken its time, and as the new constellation hasn't given us any targets it's time to hide in a quiet corner and go to sleep.

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

Scrapping on a C2 K162

What's this Orca doing in our home system? I've toyed with a Manticore stealth bomber from class 2 w-space connecting in to our system, as well as its pal in a Proteus strategic cruiser, but the industrial command ship is a rather unexpected sight on my directional scanner. I was coming home to ignore everyone and get some rest, but this piques my interest. I can only think that the C2 locals are bringing the Orca back from empire space to their home. They have already been seen returning through the exit to low-sec in our neighbouring class 3 system, for some reason ignoring the two high-sec connections in their own system, so this isn't outlandish. And I suppose having at least one cloaky strategic cruiser around as an escort would keep it safer than being alone. Even so, it's an awfully tempting target.

I alert Aii to the Orca's presence and tell him to hold on the wormhole in C2a, expecting the ship to warp in to our clutches. But it doesn't. I know whales don't warp quickly, but it should have been here by now. I open the system map and interrogate our static wormhole using a tight d-scan beam, but the Orca isn't in line and so isn't in warp between the two points. In fact, the industrial command ship appears to be in what should be empty space. I think I'll scan for it. I warp out, launch probes, and blanket the system, perhaps more out of habit than need. But the blanket scan lets me see what is probably the Proteus out by a distant planet, as well as another ship somewhere, so if this is a trap then it's a confusing one.

I go for a scan. I'm not subtle about it, because if this is bait then visible scanning probes won't spook the Orca, and, besides, such a massive ship is hardly difficult to find. Indeed, I get a positive hit on a second scan without really trying, flustering me a little as to what to do next. Right, I remember: I recall my probes, warp to the target, and bookmark its location for reference. But I don't warp to the Orca with the intention to engage, just reconnoitre, so go alone and have Aii stay on the wormhole. And I'm right to do this. The Orca is not native to the C2 but another class 4 system, and is in the midst of crashing their apparently undesirable connection to us. A Devoter heavy interdictor jumps through the K162 as I drop out of warp, critically destabilising the wormhole shortly before the Orca follows it, imploding the connection.

Mystery solved. I can go to sleep. Or maybe not. Aii stands down and jumps home, only to find himself facing the Proteus that has been chasing me as I've been chasing the Manticore. Aii holds his cloak and says he's going to engage. I flip my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser around from my corner of the system and warp to our tower, swapping for a rather more impressive Widow. I would hope the focussed ECM and hard-hitting torpedoes of the black ops ship will help take down the Proteus, and swing it away from the hangar to warp towards the wormhole. Aii has started a scrap with the Proteus and the two ships are brawling, and with any luck I'll be a bit of a surprise.

I drop out of warp, target the Proteus, and start shooting and attempt jamming. The wormhole to C2a flares, spitting out the Manticore from earlier, which I pretty much ignore for now, but a rather uglier ship appears with it. The Falcon recon ship brings one tool to combat, and very effectively. It starts throwing ECM around like there's no tomorrow, breaking both my and Aii's target locks, and pretty much rendering our ships useless. At least our tanks are holding out, which lets us weather the engagement a bit longer, in case the Falcon drops a jam and I can get one on him, but when a second Proteus appears from C2a and we are on the third or fourth successive jamming cycle I decide it's time to flee.

I escape through the wormhole, moving away and cloaking as soon as I can, and Aii follows a few seconds later. The ships come in behind us but, despite scattering drones everywhere, can't unmask us. We've almost reached an impasse, except they are home and we are not. I have patience, though, and simply wait for any polarisation effects to end and for the ships to have moved away, and I make a break for the wormhole. I jump, move away, and cloak without any fuss, getting home and safe. Aii's been distracted, but that works in our favour, as Fin arrives and brings our own Falcon to the engagement, sitting it at distance from the wormhole to provide some extra protection for Aii's return.

Seeing his opportunity, Aii jumps home, moves, and cloaks. And re-appears, for some reason, which lets the hostile ships who followed get a second chance at catching him, which they easily manage. Fin decloaks her Falcon and tries to jam the Proteuses molesting Aii's Tengu strategic cruiser, but their Falcon gets there first and prevents Fin from projecting her own ECM. I give it a go in the Widow, now nicely distant from the wormhole, but also only end up decloaking to get jammed. But my expensive black ops ship draws a Proteus away from Aii, the strategic cruiser burning hard towards me to try to catch a prize target, which can only help. I hold as the Proteus draws closer, already aligned to our tower, and once he is sufficiently far from Aii and still not too close to me I warp clear.

It seems like we did just enough by presenting extra targets. Aii's Tengu gains a bit of speed when the second Proteus breaks away, and he is able to get back to the wormhole, where he jumps to C2a and is able to cloak safely again, warping away to one of the high-sec exits. But Aii would like to get home tonight and wants to try one last time. Fin takes the Falcon back to the wormhole, and I bounce off a suitably arbitrary safe spot to appear at distance from the wormhole before cloaking and shifting position. Aii warps back to the wormhole, jumps home, and is caught again. At least he is within range of the wormhole to flee immediately, which he does, and manages to evade the attentions of the fleet in the C2 another time. He agrees to spend the night in high-sec.

Unfortunately, the fight isn't over. Fin decloaked to offer protection to Aii and has been caught off-guard by one of the Proteuses, it burning hard towards her as soon as she appeared. I call for her to flee but Fin doesn't notice until it is too late, and the Proteus has disrupted her warp drive. With the Falcon jamming her, one strategic cruiser on top of her, and a second on its way, the death of the Falcon is inevitable. I decloak and try to apply my ECM to the Proteus, in a bid to let Fin warp clear, but the flimsy recon ship explodes before I even lock the first target. And then I'm jammed myself by the hostile Falcon. Never mind, I'm out of here. As the Proteus turns to me, I turn to our tower and warp away.

The loss of the Falcon is little more than an accident, and hardly significant. It's certainly much less expensive than Aii's Tengu, which is now safely in high-sec and merrily hopping between systems, perhaps to come in through the low-sec entrance our neighbouring C3 affords, if time allows. And we had a game of cat-and-mouse with the Manticore earlier, a bit of a brawl on the wormhole, and then some little scraps as Aii came and went. The cost of a Falcon is a small price to pay for all of the thrills we've had tonight. And now I really am going to sleep.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Scrapping on a C2 K162
Tags: devoter, eve online, falcon, loki, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, tengu, w-space, widow

Back and forth with a stealth bomber

Nothing and no one in the home system seems awfully quiet. I think I'll go and poke the neighbours. Ah, but which ones? It seems it's not quite so quiet as I first believed, as the rocks have drifted apart and that second signature is no longer a gravimetric site but a wormhole. Our static connection to class 3 w-space is joined today by a K162 from class 2 w-space. As K162s are a stronger indicator of activity than static wormholes I head backwards once more, and although three towers light up my directional scanner in C2a I see no ships. I locate the three towers nearby, and explore further to see three more around a distant planet, as well as a Naga blipping on to d-scan briefly.

The battlecruiser doesn't loiter in the system for long, and even though I hold off from scanning for a minute it doesn't look like he's coming back any time soon either. I may as well scan, either to find whatever wormhole he used or to locate sites where I may catch him on his return. I bookmark twenty-five anomalies and sift through six signatures, resolving rocks, gas, and two wormholes. I won't be catching the Naga on either wormhole, though, as the static exit and K162 both connect to high-sec empire space. I'm heading home and through our static connection to see what I can find in C3a instead.

A tower and still no ships shows up on d-scan, but at least its just the one tower to find and not six. And as I was here three weeks ago locating the single tower is a trivial matter, although if I take the trouble to make notes I should probably remind myself about the anchored canister that nearly decloaks me outside the tower. I'm sure I did that last time too. With no one home, I launch probes and scan. Seven anomalies and eight signatures are whittled down to a single wormhole soon enough, and the static exit to low-sec is not particularly interesting. However, jumping to appear in Derelik perks me up, as one and then two pilots from C2a are in the system.

I move from the wormhole and cloak, waiting to see what ship the Naga will be escorting back to w-space, wondering how bad the two high-sec connections in their own system have to be for them to prefer low-sec. But I wait, and wait, and no one approaches the wormhole. I warp out to launch probes, to see if the pilots are active elsewhere, but as only two ships appear in the scan results with four pilots in the system I'm not quite sure what's happening. There are no stations present, so they can't be docked, and as an Executioner frigate is in d-scan range one of the C2ers must be cloaked.

My curiosity is sated soon after I warp back to the wormhole to C3a, as a Tengu drops out of warp and, after a moment's pause, jumps to w-space. A minute behind it is a Legion, also piloted by a C2 capsuleer, and the second strategic cruiser also jumps through the wormhole. Where the Naga's gone I can't say. There's not much point following the two ships quite so soon, so as I have probes launched I resolve the two additional signatures in the low-sec system. I find a dirty site and a wormhole, but as the K162 from class 3 w-space is at the end of its life I find I have no interest in either signature. I turn my ship around and head back home.

C3a looks clear, and the home system too. But I've seen ships and movement, so I dive right back to C2a to see what's happening. Not much. The three towers in d-scan range of the wormhole are empty, and although I spot a Manticore on d-scan out by the distant towers it is gone before I can see which tower it is at. Aii comes on-line and I update him to the constellation and movements as I push my Loki strategic cruiser back to the wormhole home, where I sit and watch for lack of anything else to do. My patience looks to be rewarded, as the Manticore appears after a couple of minutes and jumps right towards Aii.

Unfortunately, Aii was jumping the other way through the wormhole at the same time as the Manticore was heading to him. I jump to follow, decloaking in our home system and locking on to the Manticore, but when the stealth bomber jumps back to C2a to evade my clutches I am thwarted by being polarised. A whole one second's worth of polarisation stops me long enough for the Manticore to cloak and move away from the wormhole by the time I can give chase. And Aii got a bit excited and jumped back home to try to catch the Manticore, polarising himself, which he realises as soon as the target flees back.

The fish that got away sends me a touching mail asking why I would want to shoot him, which is precious, moments after a Proteus strategic cruiser jumps past my cloaked Loki in to our home system. It seems like the Manticore will now be bait and lure me in to a waiting ambush. That's fine by me, as long as I know what I'm in for, so when the stealth bomber reappears and jumps through the wormhole I'm game to try again. I follow behind the Manticore, fully expecting to see the Proteus waiting for me, but instead the strategic cruiser is elsewhere in the system, visible on d-scan, and with probes launched.

The Manticore appears and once again I get a positive lock on his ship. I keep punching d-scan to see when the sucker-punch will arrive, but the probes still whiz around the system and the Proteus still sits somewhere other than the wormhole. The Manticore jumps back to C2a to avoid getting shot again, and now I am more cautious. We'll both be polarised, and that makes it dangerous for me to engage, but as the Proteus hasn't yet warped to the wormhole I may have enough time to pop the stealth bomber. I follow back to C2a, and decloak and prepare my weapons systems, only to disrupt the warp engines of and start shooting the wormhole as the Manticore gets clear and cloaks. I'm striking fear in to the hearts of my enemies tonight.

My fumbling paws may have saved me, though, as the Proteus finally makes an appearance through the wormhole. I think it's time to call it an early night. I doubt we'll see the Manticore again, not without full support at least, so all I really want to do is wait for my polarisation to end, jump home, and hide. But before I jump back the stealth bomber makes another trip to our home system. He's a persistent bugger, I'll give him that, but I let him go this time, if only to break his expectations. I hold for a few minutes and watch as the Proteus decloaks and follows behind the Manticore. And the Proteus decloaks me too, as it seems we were wormhole buddies, snuggled within two kilometres of each other for the past couple of minutes. I re-activate my cloak, let the Proteus kick himself, and wait a bit longer before I return home to go off-line.

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Tags: eve online, executioner, legion, loki, manticore, mmorpg, naga, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, w-space

Scanning with a purpose

My glorious leader is collapsing our static wormhole as I come on-line, rubbing sleep from my eyes. 'The neighbouring system has a static connection to null-sec, and is full of towers and probes.' That sounds like a good reason to look for better opportunity through a different static wormhole, and once I'm alert enough I board a Widow black ops ship to help collapse the current connection. But my outward jump shows that the wormhole is a bit light, as it destabilises to critical levels early. The wormhole definitely won't survive Fin's Orca's return, and as the industrial command ship is fit for scanning and my Widow isn't the best option is to continue with the plan. I return home, and the wormhole collapses. Even though it's expected, that's not good. I need to initiate Operation: Rescue Fin!

Operation: Rescue Fin sounds dramatic, but it really just means an evening of scanning for the two of us. Fin has to find her way out of the class 3 system, scanning in an Orca—'it's always an adventure'—and I need to find her a way back in to our home system. Given the vagaries of w-space connections, this probably won't be a smooth process. I start by ditching the Widow back at our tower for the covert Loki strategic cruiser that is currently my scanning boat of choice, and launch probes to looking for the new static wormhole. It's easily resolved, as there are only two signatures and the other is a known gravimetric site, and I take my first step on another odyssey through w-space.

I was last in C3a a month ago, when I podded a Heron frigate using speed instead of a cloaking device to avoid attention, which didn't quite work as planned. The tower is still here, and a static exit to low-sec empire space may be a step up from null-sec, but ideally we're both looking for additional wormholes that will let us avoid as many dangerous stargates as possible. I ignore the piloted Cheetah covert operations boat in the local tower and start sifting through the six anomalies and nine signatures. Rocks, rocks, rocks, gas, a magnetometric site, probes appearing on my directional scanner suggesting a second scout, wormhole, wormhole, wormhole. This looks promising.

The static exit to low-sec is expected, a K162 from class 5 w-space may lead to additional empire connections, and a K162 from low-sec offers another chance at getting Fin home easily, particularly as she's got lucky and found her own low-sec connection. Naturally, Fin's K162 comes from the Aridia region, but we're not so lucky that one of mine does too. The K162 in C3a comes from Heimatar, which isn't good, and the static exit leads to Khanid and is not much better. But as I'm alone in the system in Khanid I take a moment to rat. Rat and scan, in fact, and I check the three additional signatures whilst popping rat cruisers.

Two radar sites are ignored and a wormhole resolved, which turns out to be an N944 link to more low-sec, but it leads to the Metropolis region and is more remote to Fin than the other two systems. I hop back to through the wormhole, in to C3a, and see what is happening in C5a. A Buzzard cov-ops, a tower, and some ECM drones abandoned in an anomaly light up d-scan, and locating the tower sees the Buzzard floating empty. Scanning reveals three anomalies and fourteen signatures, the only one of interest being a chubby wormhole that exits to null-sec.

The connection leads to Esoteria, a region that clearly few capsuleers understand, as I am alone in the system and can rat and scan again. Ratting finds a few cruisers, but even though the system holds a healthy eight signatures I find only rocks, and a suspicious number of magnetometric sites. I suspect hacks, but there's only one radar site. I pop my rats and head back to w-space, through C5a, across C3a, and out the K162 to scan the other low-sec system. My probes perhaps interrupt the ratting Drake battlecruiser and Gila cruiser, but that's their problem. I'm only looking for wormholes anyway, and I find one too.

A K162 from class 2 w-space is pretty neat, although as I'm sitting on its static connection to k-space any luck I'll have will involve heading through its second static wormhole to get closer to Fin. A tower and no ships provides no distraction for my scanning, which is good given the system is a complete mess. Any corporation that lets thirty-five anomalies and twenty-eight signatures accumulate needs their w-space licence revoked, frankly. Still, a couple of early hits on wormholes spurs me on with scanning, and although I ignore the C5 K162 for now the outbound connection to another C2 gives me hope of a better empire link. I recall my probes and jump.

A Rokh battleship, Naga battlecruiser, Manticore stealth bomber, and Apocalypse battleship appear on d-scan along with a tower, which I should probably find before scanning. Locating the tower and ships turns out to be trivial to accomplish, as opening the system map shows me one of the simplest systems I've ever encountered. The star is orbited by two planets, only one of which has a moon, and the whole system is a mere 5 AU in radius. It's no wonder that the tower is in the same place as my previous visit two years ago, because whether it's the same tower or not there simply isn't anywhere else it can be anchored.

A visit to the tower shows the four ships to be unpiloted, and a blanket scan reveals nineteen anomalies and twenty-two signatures. It's a bit messy, but in a system so small the signatures are so closely packed together that identifying their type is almost trivial. The first wormhole I resolve is a static exit to high-sec, which I check immediately, leading me to a system in the Kador region. It's still far from Fin, who has scanned through her own C2 systems to appear in a high-sec system in the Black Rise region, but twenty-two jumps that don't leave high-sec looks pretty good right now. I think that'll do.

The route back from this high-sec entrance is not exactly straightforward, as it involves several w-space and a couple of low-sec systems, but no stargates out of high-sec are involved. That drastically reduces the chances of running directly in to trouble. And as I head home I can confirm that all the wormholes remain healthy and stable, and that the w-space systems lack activity. It will take a bit of time, but it looks like Fin's coming home. I'm home already, and sleepy, so I hide in a corner of the system and go off-line.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Scanning with a purpose
Tags: apocalypse, buzzard, cheetah, drake, eve online, gila, loki, manticore, mmorpg, naga, orca, penny ibramovic, rokh, scanning, w-space, widow

Looking for trouble

I remember now. There's an N968 in this system. I just got a bit distracted by the gas harvesting operation through a K162 to class 5 w-space. But now that I have disrupted the operation, by podding the pilot hauling gas in his Badger, and fleeing from the fairly prompt response, I am free to explore the constellation a little deeper. I jump to the class 3 w-space system to see if I can find any more entertainment. Not directly, with my directional scanner showing me a tower and no ships from the wormhole, but I can always look for more w-space.

The tower I can see survives from almost a year ago, although a second that I have listed from my last visit has been torn down. A system empty of ships lets me scan the fifteen anomalies and eleven signatures, where the first wormhole my probes reveal feels like the static exit to high-sec empire space. A second, chubbier wormhole could be a good find, but the K162 from class 4 w-space is reaching the end of its life and probably not worth peeking through. But that's okay, as the third wormhole actually turns out to be the system's static connection, exiting to low-sec, and the first is a T405 outbound connection to a C4. That'll do.

C4b is less exciting than the C3 I just left. D-scan is clear, and warping around to explore finds no occupation and no activity. I'm back to scanning, and six signatures are reduced quickly to a static connection to more class 4 w-space and a K162 coming from a C5. The K162 is more likely to lead to activity, so I jump in and take a look around, seeing nothing from the wormhole but locating a tower around a distant planet holding a couple of haulers. The pair of Badgers are piloted, making it worth watching them for a bit, but only for a bit, as they blink off-line within a minute or so.

I head back to C4b and jump onwards to C4c, which looks like it could be interesting. Four towers appear on d-scan, along with a Nemesis stealth bomber and Buzzard covert operations boat. One planet holds three towers and the Nemesis, another planet the other tower and the Buzzard. Finding the single tower and Buzzard will be simple and quick, so I warp across to do that, only to have the Nemesis drop off d-scan. Maybe I should have looked for the bomber first. Never mind, the Buzzard is piloted but inactive, and there are no other towers hidden on a far planet, so I launch probes and perform a blanket scan to see what's out there.

Three anomalies and four signatures is a pretty tidy system, and despite the uncertainty of the Nemesis's location I scan. It won't take long. I reveal a radar site, Crow interceptor, a second radar site, and another Buzzard, before resolving the static wormhole to even more class 4 w-space. And with an interceptor buzzing around, a stealth bomber possibly somewhere, and a continuing chain of C4 systems I think I'm heading back the way I came. Besides, my glorious leader has got activity in our neighbouring class 3 system, and it's going to take me a few minutes to get back there.

A Hookbill frigate, Sabre interdictor, Taranis interceptor, and a Hurricane battlecruiser have set up a small camp near C3a's exit to high-sec. It's a curious place to try to catch ships, as they can simply jump back to high-sec to avoid any confrontation, and even more curious considering that the fleet is not sitting close to the wormhole and could be caught themselves. Fin's hoping we can do the catching, too, perhaps popping the Hurricane to rout the others, with the convenient exit available to us in case of trouble. But before I get close to the home system a Talos battlecruiser appears, accidentally bumps Fin's cloaked ship, and forces Fin to warp clear.

Being spotted isn't the end of the world, but the Talos and added Drake battlecruiser add to the numbers and firepower available to the other side. It's already looking like any engagement will merely force us to become isolated in high-sec before the Onyx and Broadsword heavy interdictors turn up. On top of that, as I ponder just leaving the whole situation alone whilst sitting in our home system, the wormhole from the K162 I returned through flares. A red Tengu strategic cruiser, allied to the Badger I podded, and so from the C5 behind us, appears and warps away. Aii is monitoring our static connection and sees the Tengu jump through that wormhole, so at least the Tengu's not here to wreak direct revenge.

A second red Tengu follows the first, and after a bit of waiting a red Viator transport ship comes the other way, tailed by the two Tengus. It seems that red scouts found their way to high-sec through our system and the transport preferred that route, instead of the low-sec exit in the C3 connected directly to their C5. Our neighbours must have noticed and set about trying to trap the Viator on its return, 'and they are probably lucky to be alive', says Fin, as the C3ers may not have known who the Viator belonged to.

We're probably lucky too. Had I been closer to home and got back sooner we could be engaged our neighbours only for the reds to intervene and destroy all of us in one massive fireball. As it is, we just watch ships come in to the home system and then go back out again. And in case we still have doubts as to what could have happened, the Tengus despatched to bring the transport home safely are themselves followed by a Legion crossing our home from C3a to C3b, although at least that looks like their last ship. And as they are leaving our system alone, it feels like a good time to find a place to hide and go off-line.

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Tags: badger, broadsword, buzzard, crow, drake, eve online, hookbill, hurricane, legion, mmorpg, nemesis, onyx, penny ibramovic, sabre, scanning, talos, taranis, tengu, viator, w-space

Bloom and the Badger

Gas has gone, new gas has come. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. My glorious leader is present and scanning, resolving a wormhole as I launch my own probes. As Fin warps to what turns out to be our static connection to class 3 w-space my probes converge on a second wormhole, a K162 also leading to class 3 w-space. In some kind of fashion that probably shouldn't be interpreted too rigidly, Fin goes forwards and I head backwards, each picking the wormhole based on where we have landed.

I appear in a system where my directional scanner shows me nothing. Even launching scanning probes, performing a blanket scan, and looking for towers that were present fifteen months ago doesn't find much. The towers are gone, no one else has moved in, and there are seven anomalies and eight signatures to sift through. I resolve a magnetometric site, an unsurprising two wormholes—the static exit to low-sec and, well, the N968 outbound connection to more class 3 w-space actually is a surprise. I was expecting a K162, leading back to the scout who opened the wormhole to our system, and thankfully rather than leaving me scratching my head I eventually find the K162, hiding in plain sight near the centre of the system.

The K162 comes from class 5 w-space. I jump through to see if anyone is still awake and active. Yes, I'd say so. Not only are there towers and plenty of ships on d-scan, moments after I appear in the C5 a Prorator transport ship warps to the wormhole, pauses perhaps a little longer than it should, and jumps to C3b behind me. I realise the futility of chasing the blockade runner and hold my session change cloak on the wormhole, hoping that by remaining hidden I will have a shot at another ship, only to see a Falcon recon ship follow immediately behind the transport. I can feel my pulse rate rise as I hope my session change cloak continues to hold, and breathe a sigh of relief as the Falcon jumps with me still unseen.

Before any more ships come I pulse my micro warp drive to get clear of the wormhole and activate my covert operations cloak, which will keep me hidden until I decide otherwise. Now I can look at d-scan more closely. Two towers are in range, as is a Tengu strategic cruiser, Prophecy cruiser, three Moa cruisers, three Hurricane battlecruisers, and a Badger hauler. I imagine some of them are active, what with a bunch of Sleeper wrecks appearing when adjusting d-scan's settings, but this doesn't look like a fleet that could survive C5 w-space anomalies. A bit more d-scan detective work shows none of the ships at the tower and the wrecks scattered here and there, which, along with the presence of the Moa cruisers, makes me think some gassing is occurring.

I warp across the system and am happy to see I drop off d-scan of the towers and the ships, although a few Sleeper wrecks remain in range. I launch scanning probes quickly, throw them out of the system to keep them from appearing on d-scan, and re-activate my cloak. I warp back to the wormhole and start looking for the ships, which have now split in to two groups. The Tengu, two Hurricanes, and Prophecy are now in a tower, leaving the Moas, one Hurricane, and a Badger together, along with some ECM drones and a couple of jet-cans. I have some gas harvesters to hunt.

I get a bearing and range on the ships using d-scan, and position my cluster of probes around them. Warping a bit closer, to reduce angular error, I am able to triangulate the gassers' location with a bit more accuracy, and adjust my probes to agree with a second d-scan bearing and range. I'm ready to scan, but maybe not ready to dive head first in to these ships. The Hurricane's presence is a little unsettling, even if it makes an adequate gas harvester, and there are clearly other active pilots in the system who may well be ready to scramble quickly to engage any ambusher. This could be suicide, so even though dropping Fin in an Onyx heavy interdictor on this group sounds like a lot of fun I am going in alone to minimise our losses.

I call my probes in for a scan, and it is good. No, it's freaking awesome. The ships appear dead-centre in my probe cluster and I get solid hits on all of them. I recall my probes and push my cloaky Loki in to warp almost immediately, already having roughly aligned my strategic cruiser to the ladar site, saving a valuable few seconds. I drop out of warp in the middle of a gas cloud and a whole bunch of red pilots, which I'm not sure is a good situation or bad just yet. Let's see how it goes. Although I'm not sure I'll be seeing anything, as the bloom generated by the cloud is almost blinding.

I have to fly using instruments alone, picking out the three Moas and the Badger to target from my overview. The heftier Badger gets locked first, and so I disrupt its warp engines and start shooting. The Moas scatter to the solar wind pretty quickly, not sharp enough to see my probes but clearly not hanging around to see if my Loki is friendly, but the Badger's going nowhere. The hauler explodes, probably in a flash of light but who can tell, and I aim for the pod as the Hurricane aims for me. We both get positive locks, but even the ECM drones buzzing around me don't save the pod from being cracked open to chill another capsuleer to corpse temperature.

With just the Hurricane and me left in the ladar site I turn my attention towards the battlecruiser, wondering if I will be able to best the ship if it is fit for gas harvesting. But when a Tengu appears on my overview, and it's no longer just the Hurricane and me, I remember that I have to be somewhere else quite urgently. But that's okay. I was aware of the extra ships and the potential danger in this ambush, so as soon as I dropped out of warp I aligned my Loki back towards the wormhole out of the system, and the Hurricane doesn't seem to be impeding my drive. The Tengu is barely in the ladar site when I'm flinging my Loki out of it.

I land on the wormhole at zero, not bothering with any finesse for my escape, and jump straight back to C3b and in to empty space. That was pretty thrilling! I have no loot, and no corpse, and only popped a single industrial ship, but it was worth 150 million ISK, thanks to all the high-value gas it was carrying at the time. Of course, it would have been better if the gas had been destroyed in the explosion, or I had been able to see the wreck in the horrific mess of bloom so that I could have shot it, but I podded a pilot in w-space and disrupted an operation pretty effectively. And reds at that. Suck it, reds!

I have to admit that I feel pretty fulfilled right now. I should take some time to calm down. I warp to the static exit to low-sec in this class 3 system and loiter, wondering if the ships I saw leave the C5—who curiously weren't red, which explains my surprise when warping in to the ladar site—will return. I don't see them, but a red Tengu and Buzzard covert operations boat pass by me, coming from low-sec and heading presumably to their C5 home. A few more minutes has no movement, and I duck out to low-sec to appear in a faction warfare system in the Black Rise region. No reds are in the system, and I wait for potential polarisation effects to dissipate before jumping back to C3b. I've had my fun in the C5, so I think I'll see what Fin's found in the other direction.

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Tags: badger, buzzard, eve online, falcon, hurricane, mmorpg, moa, penny ibramovic, prophecy, prorator, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space