Needless slaughter

Bookmarks of the w-space constellation are convenient, bookmarks a few hours old less so. But bookmarks made a few hours ago by another capsuleer become an adventure again. It's like I have a trail of crumbs to follow, with no guarantee that it will lead anywhere or even guide me home again. And although I am happy to throw myself in to the void, prudence won't let me leave the home system without first checking for new connections. As nothing unexpected appears under my combat probes, I recall them and jump in to the explored unknown of our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

Now, what to do? My directional scanner is clear, so I check where the bookmarks point to. The constellation is more than a simple chain from our K162—which I make sure has a bookmark—to the C3's static exit, which looks to lead to high-sec, as there is also an outbound connection to class 4 w-space and a K162 from null-sec k-space. And there's also an Imicus on d-scan now. I turn my covert Loki strategic cruiser back towards our K162 as I monitor the frigate's presence on d-scan, wondering if the scanning boat will be heading my way, but it simply drops off d-scan within a minute.

The Imicus could be doing anything. It could be local and reconnoitring newly scanned wormholes, or a tourist and, well, still reconnoitring newly scanned wormholes. Without knowing where it came from or where it went I think I am best served sitting on our K162 and seeing if it comes to me rather than chasing its exhaust. I open the system map and orientate myself with the known wormholes, so that I can give chase if I need to. Of course, the Imicus could equally have left the system and be scouting elsewhere, or even headed to high-sec empire space to... do whatever capsuleers do there. A few minutes of waiting for nothing convinces me to at least check the local tower to see if the frigate is there.

A bookmark leads me right to the tower, where I don't see the frigate but a pilot's pod. I spot that first on d-scan, and then on my overview, so the two are together. But they aren't quite as connected as I assume, as a proper look at my overview and then space itself shows. The pod isn't inside the tower's force field, but floating some kilometres outside it, curiously next to a wreck. I think I now know what happened to that Imicus. I have a good idea of what's going to happen to the poor pilot too. She's not moving, perhaps not having remembered to note the route out of w-space and relying on the scanning probes she no longer has access to. I can give her a way home. I bookmark the location of the wreck and bounce my Loki off a nearby moon, returning to be almost on top of the pod.

I line up the pod, decloak, and rip the capsuleer out of her goo and in to space to give me a new corpse for my collection and wake her up in a new clone. I cloak again, befuddling the tower's defences, before decloaking to scoop, loot, and shoot. I leave no trace behind, ghost squad style. Now there's nothing more to do. I shall investigate the wormholes. My first choice is the T405 connection to class 4 w-space, keeping me in familiar territory, and jumping in shows that I am back to exploring. The bookmark trail ends here, giving me the beginnings of a fresh constellation to scout. I know this!

I have no notes on this system, nothing on d-scan, and three planets out of range. Launching probes and scanning has a fairly average result of thirteen anomalies and seven signatures, and curiously no occupation in this C4. I sift through obvious signatures to dig down to a really weak wormhole, filling me with the dread of having found an H900 connection to a chain of class 5 w-space. But, no, it's even better! This wormhole is a U574, leading to a deadly class 6 system, making me no longer surprised that this C4 is unoccupied. No blinking now—onwards!

D-scan in C6a shows me combat scanning probes and nothing else. The probes aren't close to the wormhole, so I warp away to explore, although with one planet out of range there really isn't much to see. A tower with three carriers and one dreadnought is anchored to a distant moon, but there are no pilots. All I have to keep me company are the scanning probes. I warp back to the wormhole as the probes disappear but no ship comes to replace them. I jump back to C4a, wondering the scout has already moved on, but no ship is launching probes overtly on the other side of the wormhole either. I consider returning to C6a to scan the system, but if I do that I'll be polarised, so I wait a minute. And in that minute the wormhole flares.

My session change cloak remains handily active, so I can pounce without any recalibration delay, but I have no idea what has just jumped in to the system. I watch and wait, and finally a Proteus strategic cruiser appears. After my recent run in with a Proteus, I decide discretion is the better part of exploding, and let the other ship cloak. My session change cloak drops, so I activate my fitted cloak and manoeuvre away from my current position. I suppose there are no secrets now. The Proteus drops its cloak, launches a single probe, and cloaks again, reappearing a minute later some distance from the wormhole, where it launches a complement of scanning probes.

I doubt I can attack the Proteus and win in my covert Loki. It really isn't built for such an engagement. Being of Mattari construction, it really isn't built for being in space either. But if the Proteus is scanning it may well continue in to C3a, and I have more able ships back at our hangar. One should be able to handle a covert Proteus solo, but only as long as it remains solo, and we've been on the pointy end of a fleet's scout before. I deliberate as I head back across C4a, through C3a, and home, wondering what ship to risk and whether I am going to take that risk in the first place. I wonder if the Curse recon ship has the firepower to break a Proteus, preferring to avoid the costly Legion strategic cruiser, only to have the Legion crash as I try to compare the two ships' systems.

I return to w-space apparently already in the Legion, and as it has taken a couple of minutes to reboot the ship, and the Proteus has a fat K162 to find, I decide that if I am going to engage the scout I have to leave now. Well, I actually realise I should have left a minute ago, but now is about as close as I can get to that. I jump to C3a and punch d-scan, where I see a bunch of combat scanning probes in the system. I knew I needed to be quick, and these repeated crashes are more than getting on my nerves, as they are spoiling opportunities too. There's not much left to do but return home, where I wait on our static wormhole, hoping the Proteus will continue to come this way. And also kinda hoping he doesn't. I'm not entirely comfortable with this plan.

Wait, wait, wait. The Proteus isn't coming. Okay, that's it for now. That's it for now. No? No, that's not working, and not even faking warping out makes the wormhole flare. That really is it for now. I'm not waiting to die. On top of missing a proper engagement, I get a pang of guilt for podding that poor Imicus pilot earlier. I didn't pop the ship, so there was no real hunt, and being podded didn't really teach the pilot anything about w-space expect that capsuleers are nasty, opportunistic gits. I could instead have opened a conversation and offered to guide her back to high-sec, which has the higher likelihood of the pilot returning to w-space at a later date, more confident and more of a target. I'd rather have the uncertainty of stalking a Proteus than the banality of corpsifying a stationary pod. Guilty Penny, is this a turning point?

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

Stumbling in to a scout in null-sec

I appear to be late, as Fin has already found Aridia and scanned beyond it. There's nothing out there, though, just inactive class 3 w-space systems and low-sec empire space, so should we collapse the wormhole and start again, or keep going? I said, should we collapse, or keep... Oh, I don't get an answer because my ship has locked up within a couple of minutes of use. Thanks, ship. I return to see Fin also returned, back in the home system and preparing an Orca to collapse our wormhole. 'Worst case' she says, 'there is still nothing'. I board a second industrial command ship and we throw the pair of them through our static connection, halving the connection's mass allowance in one swift action.

Back to the tower, Fin stays in the Orca and I swap to a Widow black ops ship. This pairing should be enough to finish the collapse of the wormhole in one more return trip without overly risking isolating one of us owing to a skinny connection. Or it would, if I didn't suffer another ship failure after jumping. It takes a couple of minutes for me to recover and reappear in the class 3 system, which thankfully remains quiet as Fin's Orca sits near the wormhole waiting for me to jump home first. But I get back, jump home, and Fin follows, dragging the wormhole with her. Now we can resolve the replacement static connection, and maybe blast through a couple of newly spawned anomalies. 'Or kill someone.' Sure, I'm easy.

We ignore the anomalies and head to our new neighbouring C3 immediately, but with no obvious ships appearing on our directional scanners when we get there. All we see is a tower, a lonely drone, and some bubbles. My notes for this system are interesting, as this is where we encountered the nomadic Orca—and I still have the bookmark to its found safe spot—although with occupation now moved in I suppose the Orca has moved on. With no one home, we scan. The inactive C3 holds the usual suspects of signatures, with only the single wormhole to be found—which I know to be an exit to null-sec k-space—leaving us again wondering what to do.

We could collapse our wormhole again, which takes time, or we could shoot Sleepers, which is profitable but far from engaging. Our best option is probably to exit to null-sec and scan for more connections. We can quickly see if there is more w-space to find, and then decide what we want to do from there. Fin agrees, and we temporarily abandon w-space to look for adventure. Appearing in the Immensea region we find ourselves not alone but also not in bustling system, so we can scan and maybe rat, depending on who else hangs around. No one now, as the two pilots drop to one and then none, but a ship is still showing on my combat probes. That is only odd because there aren't any towers in the system.

I don't need to resolve the ship's position, because warping to a far planet finds the Kestrel dumped in orbit. Someone's kindly left me a frigate for target practice, how thoughtful. As I know the system is safe, I decloak, approach the frigate, and decide to eschew my guns and accelerate to ramming speed when I get close. But I may hit it a bit too hard, as the wreck is empty after my Loki strategic cruiser blasts through Kestrel, although the dust and debris suggests I only destroyed a cynosural generator. I imagine this ship was considered already lost when it was bought.

Scanning the null-sec system finds little of interest. A wormhole turns out to be an outbound connection to class 5 w-space wobbling precariously at the end of its life, which Fin dares to enter. She is my glorious leader, after all. But there's nothing to see and Fin returns soon enough to null-sec. Browsing my New Eden atlas shows us to be on the edge of a good ratting constellation, with a bunch of interconnected systems to wander through, which could offer some distraction along with further chances to scan. I hop one system across to see what opportunity awaits, only to appear in a system with nine other capsuleers. That doesn't make me feel comfortable. I try another system, still connected by stargate to the exit system, so I'm not straying far, and end up being surrounded by bubbles.

My Loki laughs at bubbles, particularly those left unmonitored. I'm alone in this system and warp out looking for a rat to pop, finding one in the first rock field. I launch probes as I close with the battleship, and scan as I slowly orbit and chew through his defences. Two signatures resolve to be a radar site and drones, and still no more w-space to explore, so once the rat explodes I head back to the exit system ready to call it a night. Fin returns home and I look for another rat, but stall as a pilot enters the system. I activate my cloak and wait for the pilot to leave, but when I see she's in an Impairor basic frigate I decide she's no threat and start shooting another rat battleship.

The Impairor leaves and returns, apparently warping across the system, but remaining in the frigate. It's possible I could engage her, my Loki probably popping the frigate pretty quickly, but when she next returns to the system the rat battleship still has half its hull left. A couple of shots later and I'm warping to the stargate the Impairor has come through, but I am a few seconds too late, landing to see the frigate enter warp towards another gate. I follow, activating my cloak only so my intentions aren't quite so obvious, as her brother appears in the system, with d-scan telling me he's in a Drake battlecruiser.

Thankfully, I drop short of the Drake when I catch up with the Impairor, so simply sit and watch for now. I am tempted to pop the frigate and evade the Drake, but I have no idea how stargates work in null-sec, when compared to the prissy traffic control systems of empire space, and if there are more ships nearby I could easily lose my second Loki stupidly. The Impairor warps away and back; the Drake warps away, the Impairor joins it. As best as I can tell, the pair are not exactly welcome in this region of space and the Impairor is scouting ahead of the Drake to make sure the route is safe. But they've gone now, so I'll go too. I missed my chance of an easy kill, but it would only have bagged me another disposable ship.

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Tags: drake, eve online, impairor, kestrel, loki, mmorpg, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, w-space, widow

Exploration finds an exploration ship

New day, new constellation, and Fin's been mapping it. My glorious leader reports on a dead K162 coming from class 6 w-space in to our home system, as well as a still existent C4 K162. She's in the class 4 system now, looking for occupation and further wormholes, and asks me to 'find those Hulks' through our static connection to class 3 w-space. I don't feel that lucky, but you never know what you'll find on the other side of a wormhole until you look. I warp to our static connection and jump through.

Two warp bubbles appearing on my directional scanner aren't quite as exciting as exhumers, and that's all I see. A clear result lets me launch probes, get them out of the system, and cloak without anyone seeing me, though. I warp across the system as I arrange my probes, and it's d-scan that shows me the ships first. Three legion strategic cruisers, a Prophecy cruiser, Armageddon battleship, Cormorant destroyer, Noctis salvager, and a Bustard transport accompany the rare sight of a Skiff exhumer. As can only be expected with such a diverse selection of hulls and roles, there are no wrecks on d-scan, but there is a tower. I suspect I'll not find any pilots.

I neglected my notes for this system initially, as a span of eighteen months is a mighty long time in w-space, but it appears that the tower is in the same place now as it was then. Good job, chaps! It really just makes me find the lack of pilots more efficiently, and I start scanning through the thirteen signatures that are dotted around the seven anomalies. Resolving mostly gas with a light sprinkling of wormholes, I find that the static exit to low-sec empire space has a friend in a K162 from class 5 w-space, and I'd like to make its acquaintance. Jumping in to the C5 has a tower, Zephyr exploration ship, and Bestower hauler on d-scan. This could be the start of a wonderful relationship.

My notes from twenty-one months ago aren't as useful in this C5 as they were in the C3, with the tower having moved on. I can't say I'm surprised, but I would like to find that Bestower. Thankfully, the tower is around a planet with only two moons, making locating it pretty quick, and warping to it sees the two ships piloted. And the Bestower is even awake, but only long enough to be brushing his teeth, as the capsuleer swaps from the hauler to an Impairor and goes off-line. The piloted Zephyr hangs around, but he's hardly going to be doing much. I don't care to scan this C5 for potential K162s, instead heading out to low-sec to see what I can find there.

Hello, Aridia! This must be my most visited region in New Eden, or maybe it's just confirmation bias creeping in to my exploration. Either way, the system is empty, letting me rat and scan. One anomaly and three signatures looks about normal for empire space, and I locate a puny rat battleship in a rock field I can chew through whilst I resolve what turn out to be two ladar sites. It's not terribly exciting in this direction. At least Fin has found a K162 in the C4 system behind us, also coming from class 5 w-space, and there are ships. She asks me to come back to help look for them, and I am only too happy to oblige.

By the time I've passed through C3a, the home system, and C4a, Fin has located one of the towers, along with the Scorpion Navy Issue battleship and Huginn recon ship unpiloted inside its force field. That still leaves a second tower, Nightmare battleship, Chimera carrier, and whole host of ECM drones to locate. Fin points me towards the right planet for the second tower, and I find the right moon, but warp right past it to approach from an uncommon vector. We suspect the drones are scattered in a warp bubble to make a decloaking trap around this second tower, and I would rather not fly right in to it.

As it turns out, there is no bubble trap around the second tower, just empty space beyond the force field and defences. Both of the other two ships are here too, also unpiloted, but where are the drones? I perform a passive scan of the system to highlight all of the anomalies and start sweeping d-scan around them, but no drones show up. At least, not in anomalies, but I find a couple of drones here, a few there, and all of them in empty space. How they got there and why I can't say, and I don't care to take the time to scan all of their positions to find out or recover them.

Not much is happening again. This C5 is inactive, the C4 is empty, the C3 is inactive. The only other pilot we've seen has been in the C5 connecting in from C3a, and he was in a Zephyr. Still, he is the only other pilot we've seen, which at least indicates the potential for there to be an active system. Before I give up on tonight I take myself back to that class 5 system, where I turn around immediately when d-scan shows me the same Zephyr and nothing more. Now I'm giving up. Or am I? Yes, I am. The wormhole Fin doggedly finds in the other C5 is not more w-space but an outbound connection to null-sec. I'm going to bed.

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Tags: armageddon, bestower, bustard, chimera, cormorant, eve online, huginn, impairor, mmorpg, nightmare, noctis, penny ibramovic, prophecy, scanning, scorpion, skiff, w-space, zephyr

Diverting to high-sec

There's a Loki launching probes, and it's not mine. Pausing at the wormhole out of this class 2 w-space system to take one last glance at my directional scanner shows me the strategic cruiser new to the system, and that it's launching probes probably makes it covertly configured and not so tough a nut to crack. I was heading home, but I think I can wait and see if the Loki heads this way, particularly as my glorious leader is preparing a ship to greet it with force in the next system. Of course, an ambush would depend on the scout heading in this direction, and as I haven't scanned the current system I'm in I have no idea how many wormholes there are here, or even how many signatures there are that would keep the pilot busy.

There are definitely two wormholes in this w-space system, and not just because I'm in a C2. I'm sitting on one of the static wormholes already, which leads to the C3 that neighbours our home system, and I scanned the second static wormhole when a Cheetah sat on it in plain view for longer than can be considered healthy. Naturally, I didn't catch the covert operations boat, and not just because the wormhole it was on leads to high-sec empire space. The Cheetah disappeared—cloaked or jumped, I can't say—before I even got my probes launched. I just know it was on the wormhole because I scanned that general location anyway.

I mention the Cheetah, as we wait for the Loki, because he's back. I need to sit on the C2's static connection to class 3 w-space to watch for the Loki, but that doesn't stop me swinging d-scan around to check the exit to high-sec from where I am to see if the cov-ops is there again. And I think he is. I use a thirty degree d-scan beam to check, because I'm not opening the system map with the chance of a Loki decloaking near me, and the wormhole is in enough empty space that I only need to be rough. And given the blasé attitude the Cheetah showed the last time it sat on the wormhole, it may be worth warping over there and saying hello to him with my guns.

The Cheetah eventually disappeared the last time, so I ought to be quick. I tell Fin what I'm doing and warp over to the wormhole to high-sec. Sure enough, the Cheetah is sitting near the wormhole, not cloaked and not moving. Maybe he's not paying attention and I can pop him without fuss, or maybe he knows exactly what he's doing and will jump to high-sec at the first sign of trouble. It's kinda hard to tell. I want to try to bump the cov-ops away from the wormhole, to prevent a quick exit, but I don't want to decloak too far away from the ship and give the pilot time to react. I'm probably making this more difficult than it is, though.

I manoeuvre towards the Cheetah and, when close enough, decloak and activate my micro warp drive, hurtling my strategic cruiser towards the tiny boat. I give him a bit of a shunt as I gain a positive target lock, then wait for him to slow down so that my guns can hit him. I have a lot to learn about guns still. But once I have the Cheetah firmly in my sights the autocannons make short work of him, ripping apart the small hull. The Cheetah doesn't escape to high-sec and, despite the reduced session change timer, neither does the pod. My Loki locks on pretty quickly, and the guns are brutal against pods.

Scoop, loot, and shoot. One covert operations cloak goes in to my hold, the other doesn't fit and so is destroyed with the wreck. I have no idea why there are two to recover, and I'm not about to ask questions to a corpse. But it looks like an expensive kill. The Cheetah, its modules, and the implants in the capsuleer's head are estimated at a hundred million ISK, which makes this no disposable scanner for a change. Having left no trace of my ambush I cloak and warp back to the other wormhole, to wait once more for the Loki, wondering how much the other scout saw of the assault as it was happening.

Probes are still in the system as I return to the wormhole, and Fin has our ship-killer Legion strategic cruiser sitting on the other side of the connection. We are ready to hook a bigger fish. The probes disappear, and we wait, and we wait, and we wait. Fin jumps in to the C2 and reveals herself, hoping to provoke a reaction, but none comes. She warps to the connection to high-sec, jumps out of w-space and returns, coming back to the wormhole I'm waiting on, but still nothing. It's a bit disappointing.

That's probably all we're going to see tonight. There was a scout in C3a earlier, along with a stealth bomber, but we've seen nothing of them since we set up our meagre ambush. On a more positive note, checking the exit from the class 3 system shows it to be three hops from Amarr, and Fin has some gas to sell. She takes an Orca out to make us some iskies, and then spends it and more bringing back the industrial command ship full of fuel pellets. We have surplus in our hangar already, but it's wise to make use of good connections when we have them.

I hang around to scout for Fin, taking advantage of her time in high-sec to take a look around C2a, in case more pilots have turned up. The same Retriever mining barge and Prowler transport sit unpiloted in a couple of towers, the third tower remains empty, but I find a fourth tower on the far edge of the system that I hadn't discovered earlier, and it's bristling with ships. Ships, but no pilots. This fourth tower looks to be the home of the Cheetah too, which may explain the casual nature of the pilot in this system. But nothing's happening here and I'm needed in C3a, because Fin's coming home. The Orca returns without seeing any threats, and we get ourselves safely back to the home system for the night.

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Tags: cheetah, eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, prowler, pvp, retriever, w-space

Crashing, collapsing, and crashing some more

Yesterday's tough target was a little too much for me, and tonight I'm hoping for something softer than a salvager escorted among Sleepers. But what's this? My scanning probes are showing me that all our profitable anomalies are gone, and I didn't even get to shoot anyone! Some honeypots they turned out to be. At least Fin and I managed to extract a nice chunk of ISK out of some of them whilst we could. The new signature in the home system isn't even the wormhole of our recent visitors, and just some rocks, so all I can do is press forwards through our static wormhole to look for someone to shoot.

The neighbouring class 3 w-space system looks like any other, with a tower on my directional scanner but no ships in sight. My last visit was only five days ago—that's five days real time, two days Tiger Ears time—so I can reasonably expect the two towers in my notes to be in the same positions. As I check my notes an Impairor appears on d-scan, but by the time I am able to check the nearest tower the frigate has gone. I warp across to the second tower, out of d-scan range, but the Impairor isn't there either. It's definitely time to scan.

This is a huge system. You'd think I'd remember this fact, but I think Aii did all the scanning last time and I just piggy-backed on his work to skip past in to more interesting systems. The 135 AU radius forces me to perform two blanket scans to cover all the space, which today I consider preferable to splitting my probe coverage, and there are only five signatures and a sole anomaly to find. No ships is disappointing, but I'm expecting the Impairor to have passed through, indirectly guiding me to an active system.

I resolve gas, rocks, a wormhole, and what the hell happened to the other signature? Never mind, it is well-established that I can't count, so I'll ignore it, particularly as repeated blanket scans confirm there is nothing more to see here. The one wormhole, which I know leads to high-sec empire space, is disappointing too. I exit w-space anyway, appearing in Devoid and seven hops from Amarr, but I can't think of any reason to go shopping at the moment, and scanning finds just the one weak signature that turns out to be rocks. That was totally worth resolving.

It's been a while since I've resorted to this, but my best option is once again to collapse our static wormhole. I grab an Orca from our tower and throw the industrial command ship this way and that through the connection, hard enough to crash the ship on its return. The only consolation from having to restart the Orca's systems is that by the time I recover and am back on-line my polarisation has dissipated and I can make the second jump. Even better, my glorious leader arrives after the return trip, letting us coordinate one last jump. Fin boards the Orca, I get in to a Widow black ops ship, and we warp out to kill the wormhole.

Collapsing the connection would work better if I could decloak, but my Widow isn't responding. Actually, it is, as my weapons and offensive modules will activate and prepare for target lock, and my reheat refuses to engage because of the active cloak, but at least it is responding. My cloak, however, is stuck on. This is stupid and not helping my mood, but I reboot the ship and try again. Now I can decloak, activate my reheat, and make a final trip through this damnable wormhole. Fin follows me home and the connection implodes, leaving us isolated again.

If only we had some anomalies to burn through, we could get richer, but we're back to exploring. The new wormhole is resolved, and the C3 it leads to has a tower, Hurricane battlecruiser, and Anathema covert operations boat on d-scan. That's better than the previous one. My notes from five weeks ago indicate two towers being here, but they should both be in d-scan range so at least one is gone. Checking the other finds that gone too, so it's all change. Locating the new tower finds the Hurricane piloted, the Anathema disappeared.

I launch probes and perform a blanket scan to see a pretty bare system, holding only three signatures and one anomaly that wasn't here a minute ago. I resolve a wormhole, which I suspect is the static exit to high-sec, and when I go to check it I think the Hurricane is warping out of the tower. Nope, that's me, you idiot, our relative speeds caused by my warping away from the tower. But the wormhole is the static connection, and it's joined by a second wormhole, a rather nifty K162 from class 2 w-space.

I would normally be straight through that C2 K162 and looking for soft targets, but today I take a different route, crashing my ship instead. I find it spices up the normal w-space routine by dropping your cloak and making your otherwise covert scouting blindingly obvious to anyone within d-scan range. But I only do this once, or the novelty wears off, and I return briefly to C3a to see core probes in the system before I jump successfully to C2a. And it's all change in this system too. A single tower from a month ago has become three. Two towers are in range of the wormhole, a third when investigating the first two.

A Retriever mining barge floats unpiloted at one tower, a Prowler transport unpiloted at a second, and no ships at the third means I don't even look for its location, not with a Cheetah on d-scan in empty space. The ship spurns its covert operations designation and declines to cloak, giving me enough time to get an approximate bearing and range, and to decide to launch probes and see if I can catch it. But by the time my probes are ready, after having warped out of range so as not to be quite so obvious, the Cheetah is gone. Cloaked, presumably, as his position seems too far from a celestial object to be anything but a safe spot.

I scan where the Cheetah was anyway, being that stubborn, and pick up a signature. Okay, so the ship was sitting on a wormhole. Finding the connection does me no good now, and not just because it's another exit to high-sec. Engaging on a wormhole to high-sec gives a rather basic escape route to pretty much any ship, so I doubt even a surprised cov-ops boat would have fallen to my Loki. Plus, we have another route to high-sec. 'Feast or famine', says Fin, highlighting the number of convenient routes we've had recently. We've made the most of them, though, which is crucial for w-space living. But with no active pilots in the constellation, too many crashes already, and my exploration itch scratched, I'm calling it a night.

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Tags: anathema, cheetah, eve online, hurricane, impairor, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, prowler, retriever, scanning, w-space, widow

Showing my shadow

I've been absent for a few days, and now I'm back to see what's changed. There are no obvious visitors in the home system, letting me get on-line and settled without any stress, and my probes pick up three signatures plus one for our static wormhole. With three sites resolved and bookmarked by my colleagues I'm having an easy start to the day. Ah, but looking for the wormhole shows one of the sites has disappeared, so I have one signature unaccounted for, which turns out to be a second wormhole. And my scanning Loki decides to stop working.

I turn my strategic cruiser off and back on again, only to have it crash a second time. So much for a smooth start, and now I'm wondering if I should even leave the home system. I suppose I can try, and rather than take the easy route through our static wormhole to class 3 w-space I opt to explore behind the K162 from class 5 w-space. If I'm to explode because of a systems failure, I may as well do so in more dangerous circumstances. I spy a Tengu and Helios in the C5, along with four towers, and the way my ship's holding together so far I imagine both the strategic cruiser and covert operations boat are a serious threat to me.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The ships in this C5 are only a threat if they are piloted, and hopefully if they are I can be a threat to them first. Three towers without ships are anchored to moons around the twelfth planet in the system, so I warp towards the ninth planet and the one tower holding both the ships. Both the Tengu and Helios are piloted, which is good to know, but the Tengu won't be doing much by itself in class 5 w-space, and the cov-ops will be a slippery bugger as always. I watch the two ships for a minute or two but, with nothing happening, head back the way I came. I can always return later.

I return home, warp across the system, and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system where, holy crap, my directional scanner is full of ships. Battlecruisers, strategic cruisers, battleships, a salvager, four Guardian logistic ships, and a heavy interdictor are somewhere in the system, plus core scanning probes, plus combat scanning probes, and a single tower. There are no wrecks, but there are drones. Maybe the tower itself is being attacked, which would make sense for all these ships being here. Let me investigate.

The tower is in the same place from nine days ago, and free from direct harm. It seems most of the ships are inside its force field—with a Tempest and Scorpion battleship piloted—but some are not. And now I see a couple of wrecks. I count thirteen ships at the tower, twelve elsewhere, and now the wrecks are gone. They can only be created and salvaged so quickly if the Noctis is in the site during combat. Is the salvager tagging along with the fleet, being repaired by the Guardians from any unwanted Sleeper attention? That would be a clever use of plentiful capsuleer resources.

A passive scan of the system reveals a healthy twenty-nine anomalies, which makes locating the fleet a little fiddly, and I suspect a pointless task, but I find them and warp in to see what they're up to. They're leaving, that's what. But the Noctis leaves last, which is interesting. The other ships were out of the site with a long enough lag for the salvager to leave to make it possible to tag him, but not so long to make the timing easy. I think it's worth following the fleet for a little while, at least. I saw which way the ships left, and quickly orientate myself in the system map to find the next anomaly and become their shadow.

With this number of ships in a class 3 anomaly the site is cleared quickly, but the fleet doesn't move on immediately. Two or three ships leave, which I'm not really paying attention to with my focus on the salvager, but the rest of the ships mill around. There are no more Sleepers and no more wrecks, but there is also no impetus to continue. I warp to track the Noctis more closely, only to have it cloak, which is interesting. And within a minute the other ships return, the fleet aligns and starts warping out. The salvager decloaks and I prepare to engage, but the Guardian stays with the salvager and they warp out as one.

I have no chance of popping a Noctis that's being repaired by a Guardian, and probably not much chance of popping the Guardian before help can return either. I think it's the Noctis alone or nothing for me tonight, and maybe the next site will give me my opportunity. I follow behind the ships again and watch them clear the next site. I warp in close to the Noctis as before, as I can't be delayed in engaging with such a short window as the fleet enters warp, but am wary of a Zealot heavy assault ship that's zipping around. The HAC doesn't decloak me but gets close enough to encourage me to keep my distance from the Noctis.

The fleet's moving on again. As before, the command is given and the ships align and warp out as befits their class. The strategic cruisers and battlecruisers disappear, followed by the more massive battleships. The Guardian and Noctis are the last to leave as before, perhaps because they aren't needed in the next site immediately, and it looks like the logistics ship will beat the salvager in to warp. This is my chance. I have to make sure the Guardian can't cancel his warp command, and once I'm sure he can't I decloak, burn towards the Noctis, and re-activate my cloak.

I was barely visible by the time the Noctis entered warp and disappeared towards the next anomaly. But I was visible all the same. I haven't had much experience in catching ships entering warp, particularly when trying to pick off the slower and weaker members of the fleet, and it looks like I need more practice. Not tonight, though. It's not that I can't afford to lose a second Loki in a week, more that I don't want to lose it stupidly quite so soon after the first. I'll make this my first and only attempt to ambush this fleet's salvager.

Checking d-scan has it look like the fleet has bugged out of this C3 after my failed ambush attempt, giving me a moment of confused victory. The Noctis was safe, the fleet is capable—as well as probably not local, so keeping two battleships at bay in the system too—so why would they run? I would think they'd just make sure I could be caught if I tried again, particularly as I saw one of the ships warp scramble a Sleeper frigate. But I remember there being a planet out of d-scan range, with a few anomalies around it, and, out of curiosity, warp out there to see the fleet continuing as if I were nothing more than a mosquito buzzing around. I head home, happy with a short and exciting evening over a long and dreary one.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Showing my shadow
Tags: eve online, guardian, helios, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, scorpion, tempest, tengu, w-space, zealot

Multiplying ships

I remember now. Aii mentioned finding a second K162 wormhole in our neighbouring system, but left it unvisited as he had to disappear for a while. I have been busy getting ammunition for an exploded Loki through a high-sec connection near Rens, and then a replacement Loki that can use the ammunition through a different high-sec connection near Amarr. Now that I have my strategic cruiser delivered, assembled, and fitted I can continue exploring, with a new system to explore. Let's hope I don't lose Minor Threat as quickly as PewPewlitzer, or I will be naming the next one Lusitania.

Warping to the unscouted K162 shows it to be a connection to more class 3 w-space, and jumping through has only off-line towers visible on my directional scanner. One planet is out of range, though, and warping across the system has ships and a tower appearing. As the Hulk exhumer, Impel transport, and Drake battlecruiser are all clumped around this planet it seems likely that none of them are piloted, which is sadly confirmed when I locate the tower. A refinery is operating, which shows signs of activity, but not particularly recent activity with only twelve minutes left on its clock.

Maybe the refinery will be restarted by a vigilant capsuleer, who will then be tempted once in space to take the Hulk out to collect more ore. If that's the case, I have a short window in which to scan the system looking for rocks. It's a slim hope, but a hope all the same, and I launch my probes. Six anomalies and six signatures won't take time to analyse, and I soon have gas, a wormhole, a magnetometric site, thankfully some rocks, and a radar site bookmarked, all before the refinery finishes processing. Maybe only just, but thirty seconds is thirty seconds and no one's come back to check on it yet.

I'm not really expecting a capsuleer to come and restart the refinery, and definitely not to do anything else if he does come. I wait and watch for a minute or so, but the static wormhole is a more interesting prospect, even if it is only an exit to low-sec empire space. I jump to low-sec to be in a system in Placid that is equidistant, jump-wise, from both high-sec exit systems. That's fairly useless information, but a vaguely interesting pattern. The system looks to be involved in some faction warfare, which would explain the number of pilots here, but I'll just ignore them and scan.

Seven signatures in the low-sec system is a good start. It's even better when three resolve to the 'unknown' type and have similar return strengths, with one of them being the K162 of the C3c I just exited. And just as quickly as my hopes are built, they are dashed. I resolve some dumb Serpentis site, and a dirty site, whatever the hell that is. The other signatures are a radar site, more Serpentis, some drones, and, ah, a wormhole. Thank goodness. And it's a K162 from even more class 3 w-space. It's good we have enough letters of the alphabet to identify up to four systems of the same class.

Entering C3d has a tower on d-scan, and a tower listed in my notes for this system. But the listed tower should be out of d-scan range, so there has been some churn in the past eight months. I locate the tower and note its position, getting bored with its lack of ships to see if the other tower remains. It doesn't, but a new one has popped up a couple of moons across, and this one has ships. Piloted ships. A Tengu strategic cruiser and Catalyst destroyer are paired at the tower, although there aren't any wrecks I can see that suggests the two of them have been busy. But they are awake, or at least the Catalyst is, as he warps off to empty space.

The empty space becomes emptier when the Catalyst drops off d-scan, but I'm not so easily fooled. Even though the planet nearest where he went is within d-scan range, I know sites can spawn beyond there. I warp to get closer and find the Catalyst still in the system but somewhere I can't get to without scanning probes, so I warp away, launch probes, and return. And the Catalyst is back at the tower. Whatever he was doing, it was quick. And now there are more ships on d-scan, if not at the same tower.

A Ferox battlecruiser at the other tower is a nice addition to the small fleet, making me think that perhaps the destroyer just salvaged Sleepers from a ladar site and the Ferox is going to suck up some gas. That would give us a target. I alert Fin, who has appeared, and Aii, who has come back, and they prepare suitable ambushing ships as I continue to scout. More ships appear in the waking system. Now an Oracle battlecruiser is in the first tower, as is a Naga battlecruiser, Bestower hauler, and Iteron hauler, as well as scanning probes being in the system. As quickly as we thought we had a target, it looks like we're not quite prepared for what's here.

The battlecruisers could engage Sleepers in an anomaly, giving us either them or a salvager as a target. The haulers could collect planet goo or make a trip to low-sec. There are possibilities, if only the ships would leave the tower. And one does, the Tengu swapping for a Manticore and the stealth bomber warping away, but a cloaked ship warping to a different bit of empty space to the Catalyst is no help for the hunt. All the other ships just sit in the tower's force field. At least one of them is active, as the probes disappear. I check the wormhole, to see if the scout was looking for it, only to have my ship lock up. I thought we'd fixed this.

I power-cycle my scanning Loki and get my systems back on-line, but knowing that my supposedly covert strategic cruiser would have been painfully visible on d-scan for the minute or two it took to recover. I doubt I'll be catching anyone unawares now—I should just get a Rifter frigate to roam w-space for all the good my covert ships do—so I scan. I learn that the Catalyst went to a gravimetric site, perhaps to clean up some Sleeper wrecks, and the Manticore to a T405 wormhole to class 4 w-space. And if these sites are already known, I am left to wonder why the newly arrived Probe frigate at the tower is scanning them all again.

In a bid to find targets, either in a different system or getting the Manticore to reveal itself, I jump through the outbound connection to C4a. Neither circumstance happens. The Manticore stays hidden, and the C4 with a static wormhole to class 3 w-space remains unoccupied. It was not occupied a year ago either, which seems rum for a well-situated system. Still, the evening's drawn on, what with buying new ships, watching pilots do nothing, and rebooting systems. It's later than I think, and I could be sleeping.

I return to C3d, bounce off the tower, and sit for a bit longer as a new contact in an Iteron appears, followed by a couple of pods. But, naturally, none of the new pilots do anything. I have to wonder why they even come on-line. I leave them and pass back through low-sec, in to C3c—where the refinery has indeed been restarted—and across C3a to get home. At least I have some good news, in that my new Loki has survived its first evening in w-space.

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Tags: bestower, catalyst, drake, eve online, ferox, hulk, impel, iteron, loki, manticore, mmorpg, naga, oracle, penny ibramovic, probe, scanning, tengu, w-space

Asset redistribution therapy

I never learn. I'm sitting in my interceptor on a wormhole, waiting for a covert operations boat to head my way. The only difference this time is that I'm in the same system as my Anathema target, because he's using core scanning probes. The probes won't detect my Malediction, and once they get recalled I can jump through the wormhole to be a more effective ambush. That's assuming the Anathema will come my way, of course. Even without the uncertainty of the ship's appearance I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing here. I came on-line with Aii already in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system and scanning, so I hopped across to give him a hand in resolving its static exit to high-sec empire space.

Aii finds a wormhole, just not the exit he was expecting. I jump ahead through the N968 to more class 3 w-space, to look for opportunity. I don't quite find it, only an occupied but inactive system, so I scan. Thirteen signatures get reduced to a single wormhole, a second exit to high-sec, at which point I see this Anathema on my directional scanner, launching scanning probes. I ignore it to start with, because there's little chance of catching it, and exit w-space to see where I appear. The wormhole takes me to Heimatar, and a mere two hops from the Rens market hub.

I could pick up some ammunition. Granted, it would be ammunition for the Loki strategic cruiser that no longer exists, but the temptation to get some is strong. I make the two stargate jumps, dock in Rens, and remember that I'm in my scanning Tengu and not the Crane. My strategic cruiser doesn't have the carrying capacity of a transport ship, somewhat shockingly, and I am forced to leave most of the rounds behind to be picked up another day, whenever we next happen to get an exit close to Rens. And returning to w-space, seeing the core scanning probes whizzing around, is when I get the foolish idea to wait for the Anathema.

I've been waiting a while, continually checking d-scan to watch for the probes' disappearance, or the Anathema's appearance, and not much has been changing. I'm not sure why scanning takes so long, unless capsuleers think they need to resolve each signature to 100% instead of ignoring what is essentially irrelevant to their exploration once its type can be determined. Aii has found the exit in C3a, along with a second K162 he doesn't visit, and says that it leads to Domain, five hops from Amarr. That offers more and better shopping opportunities.

As I think about doing my second foolish act of the evening, the Anathema's probes start converging on the wormhole I'm sitting on. That's encouraging, and maybe I'll wait a little—and they're gone again. Sod it, I'm going home. I ditch the Malediction and board my Crane, load it with loot, salvage, and some spare modules from our hangar, and head out. My first stop is Rens again, where I sensibly pick up the rest of the ammunition whilst it is convenient, and then I'm back to C3b, through C3a, and jumping through an—erk—wobbly wormhole to Domain. The dying wormhole encourages me not to dally.

Because I never learn, which I think I've mentioned, I load the fitting for my dead Loki in to the market quickbar, and start buying. I already have most of the utility modules in my Crane, as spares from out tower's hangar, so I really just need the ship and guns. Besides, I have the ammunition I need, I may as well get the ship to go with it. Buying from the quickbar is, well, quick, and I have completed my purchases whilst still two hops from Amarr. I can relax a bit for the rest of the way, or perhaps chew nervously on my fingernails as I realise I've just bought another overly expensive Loki that I don't know how to fly, without changing the fitting because I didn't know what was wrong with it in the first place. I'm sure this one will work out fine. I have different ammunition.

I dock in Amarr, sell our loot, and stow the Loki and its subsystems in my hold. We made some good profit from Sleepers recently, so I am not actually draining the wallet, although I do feel like I am taking more than my fair share of the proceeds. But I'm just being harsh on myself, as we all contribute to the wallet and all buy what we need from it. As long as I don't die quite so quickly in this Loki then the ISK it cost will be recovered soon enough. And talking about not dying, I'm happy to see the wormhole back to C3a is still there on my return.

I dock and drop off the Loki and its modules in the exit system, and take the Crane home. I note that the other high-sec exit system, close to Rens, is not too far to travel to should this wormhole collapse, but it's still further than the one w-space system. I ditch the Crane, take my pod out to Domain, and put my second Loki together. The pains of taking random spares from the hangar hit me, as I have to repair some seriously overheated modules before I can undock, which is frustrating. But I get my new Loki undocked, and I take Minor Threat in to w-space for the first time. May she last longer than PewPewlitzer.

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Tags: anathema, crane, eve online, loki, malediction, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Sleepers and scanning

I'm back in the Tengu. I'm only upset about this because I couldn't work out how to fly the Loki, despite them both being strategic cruisers, in the same roles, and my having sufficient training in both. Well, skill training, I suppose, not actual flight time. I was kinda hoping to have the Loki a bit longer than a few days to get used to it, maybe use some industrialists for target practice, so returning to the comfort of the Tengu is disappointing in that I am not extending myself. But at least I know what I'm doing.

Scanning the home w-space system shows all is quiet, with just some new gas floating in, much like Fin does now. I resolve our static wormhole and keep it unvisited. We poked Sleepers in some anomalies yesterday but there are plenty more to pop for profit, and I think that having a ship costing over half-a-billion ISK explode around me, although exhilarating, probably warrants recovering a bit more of that loss. We board our Sleeper Tengus, scan the anomalies, and warp off to start pulling in the profit. Once we get used to the bloom of doom.

One benefit to flying the Loki is that losing a chunk of skill points from Minmatar subsystems doesn't gimp my effectiveness in the Sleeper Tengu. And, I suppose, vice versa. There are positive aspects to piloting different strategic cruiser hulls, it seems. And I may be about to convince myself to buy a replacement Loki. Concentrate on the Sleepers! Particularly these two, as the battleships in the final wave are awfully close together. They normally drift apart, but this pair are within a few kilometres of each other. Maybe they're gossiping, but Fin suggests it is 'Love in the Time of Talocan', right before we pop the two of them.

Salvaging pulls in another decent haul of loot, netting us a little under two hundred million ISK. Together with yesterday's profits we've pretty much paid for my Loki. The Loki that's already dead. But what are iskies for if not to spend? And now we get to roaming through the w-space constellation, looking for new ways to throw ISK down the drain. Jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system doesn't look foreboding, though, with a tower and no ships visible on my directional scanner. Even four more planets out of range don't hold any obvious activity, so we are left launching probes and scanning.

Phew, what a mess! Twenty-seven anomalies and eighteen signatures creates a blur of green triangles and red dots under my probes. Sifting through the signatures reveals plenty of rocks and gas, as well as a magnetometric site and two radar sites, leaving the system's static wormhole to be found last. It will quite obviously lead to null-sec, given the strength of its signature, and it's the only wormhole in the system apart from our own K162. If we hadn't just tackled Sleepers at home this C3 would be an ideal opportunity to make ISK, not lose it.

But we have made ISK this evening, and not even breaking out my Golem marauder can persuade me to make some more. The only way is forward, even if it's to null-sec k-space, and I exit C3a through the wormhole. I appear in a system in Catch, which is neither empty nor quiet. There are rat wrecks aplenty, and two Apocalypse battleships on d-scan, one Navy Issue. A passive scan of the system locates the anomaly with the wrecks, but unsurprisingly not the battleships. I imagine they scuttled back to the safety of a tower's force field as soon as my strange face appeared in the local channel.

I look to see if I can launch probes covertly, although I'm not sure why. The capsuleers won't come back out to play until I've left the system, so what do I care if they see I'm in a Tengu? I don't suppose I do, and it's just perpetuating a w-space habit, but I'm okay with that. It doesn't look like I can get out of range of the tower with the Apocalypses, until I see that a stargate sitting far away by itself isn't in d-scan range. I warp across, plant myself off-grid, and launch probes without the battleships being any the wiser.

A blanket scan reveals two additional signatures in the null-sec system, so I eschew any pretence of staying hidden and whiz my probes around resolving them. I don't find any more wormholes, though, just a radar site and some rocks. I think that's it for tonight, in that case. It's been slightly less interesting than podding a battlecruiser and exploding in a rusty fireball, but I'll take profit and no death tonight. An occasional change of pace is good. I head home and hide for the night, Fin joining me after activating all of the sites in the C3. That'll tidy the place up a bit.

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Tags: apocalypse, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Showing no mercy

I need different ammunition for my Loki, which means another trip to empire space. One strategic cruiser will have to wait for another, though, as it's all quiet at home, Fin's here, and the system is bustling with Sleepers. We could probably do with making some ISK, at least to keep the wallet ticking upwards when we can, so we board our Sleeper Tengus and get going. One anomaly is cleared, then two, and three, which I thought would be my limit and a suitable time to stop, but all is going so smoothly that we push in to a fourth. Four anomalies cleared of Sleepers, four anomalies looted and salvaged, all without interruption. We drag back to the tower over four hundred million ISK in profit to give us a positive start to the evening.

Now to open our static wormhole and see what lies on the other side. I jump my Loki through to the class 3 w-space system and see on my directional scanner two towers, a Myrmidon battlecruiser, some drones, and a canister. The drones are interesting, but a lack of wrecks makes me think they are abandoned somewhere. The Myrmidon's probably empty at one tower, the drones discarded in a despawned site, and we'll be left scanning for wormholes. At least I'll be able to buy the ammunition I'm after. My notes guide me to both towers, with my last visit here being six weeks earlier, where I chased a hauler collecting planet goo. I think I remember that one, and I suspected the Iteron of having warp core stabilisers fitted.

I check both towers in this C3, which gives an interesting result. The drones are out of d-scan range, and so is the Myrmidon. Has he gone off-line, left the system, or is he simply out of range? And is he actually with the drones and active? I need to find out. I confirm a lack of ships and pilots at the two towers and warp back to the inner system, where the Myrmidon once again appears on d-scan. And he's off d-scan. I return to the towers, which is the only place I can really check for the battlecruiser, and see him sitting inside the force field of one. He has some kind of tank active, and has mixed-sized guns fitted to the ship. 'I like ships with mixed guns', says Fin. 'They die.'

The Myrmidon will only die if he leaves the tower again. But I don't know if he was in an anomaly, and salvaging as he goes, or clearing a mining site of Sleepers. Anomalies can be found easily, the mining site will need to be scanned. Rather than waiting to see what happens next, I ought to take the opportunity of the resting Myrmidon to launch scanning probes. The system is quite small, leaving little room to decloak and not be seen. I know that I can get out of d-scan range of the tower, but only as long as the Myrmidon continues to relax, so I'll need to be quick. I warp out, launch probes and throw them out of the system, and re-activate my cloak. But I warp back to the tower only to see the Myrmidon gone.

The battlecruiser's not really gone, just gone from the tower, as my combat scanning probes blanketing the system show. There is a ship in the system, and the only one I've seen so far is the Myrmidon. It looks like I only just managed to get my probes in to space before the ship became active again, which was close. Now I can hunt him. The Myrmidon isn't in an anomaly, and neither is the ship fit with gas harvesters, so maybe he is fighting in a tougher radar or magnetometric site, which will it harder to scan him in one hit. But I'm always willing to give it a go. A single wreck appearing on d-scan confirms he's shooting Sleepers, and that it is just one wreck makes me think he's salvaging as he goes.

I use d-scan to get a bearing on the Myrmidon and the site he's in, and then determine the range to the site. He's over 5 AU distant, and as most sites are within 4 AU of a planet there is probably somewhere closer I can sit to improve the accuracy of my probe positioning. I keep my probes where I've gauged the Myrmidon to be, warp to the closer planet, and check their positions again. No adjustments seem necessary, which is a decent result, I'd say. Fin's been waiting in the home system as I've been locating the Myrmidon, and has got a Legion strategic cruiser prepared. She warps to the wormhole as I warp to the other side of it, so that I can send us both to the Myrmidon once I scan.

'Jump and hold cloak', and with Fin confirming the order I call my probes in to scan for our target. It's a perfect result in one scan. I recall the probes and send my Loki and Fin's Legion directly to the Myrmidon, whose position I bookmark for reference once in warp. We won't need the bookmark, though, as we drop on top of the battlecruiser, who appears to be having trouble with the Sleepers. Half his structure is gone, although the capsuleer has taken take to fully repair his armour, presumably during his short break back at the tower. This should be straightforward.

The pilot urges us to stop, first in Russian and then in English in the local communication channel. Fin gets to work trying to negotiate a ransom, but neither of us will feel a pang of guilt if we destroy the ship first, so we set the ransom high. We've made almost half-a-billion ISK so far tonight, the kill is more interesting than the currency. If we can get the kill, anyway. I think I mentioned needing different ammunition for my Loki. Well, we've not quite made it to empire space yet, so I am stuck with the rounds that vaguely dented an unimposing null-sec rat battleship. The energy neutralisers on the Legion will help prevent the Myrmidon repairing too much damage, but I can't say I'm doing too much damage yet.

On top of my woeful guns, the Sleepers are still here and joining in the fun. Although my Loki is designed to withstand some incoming fire, it is not supposed to hold together under sustained assault, and once the Sleepers target me my shields drop to dangerous levels. I don't want to lose the Loki stupidly so soon after getting it, so I take the prudent measure of warping away. I choose the closest planet to warp to, wanting my shields to recharge but happy enough just to break the target locks of the Sleepers, Myrmidon, and drones. I bounce back to where Fin holds the battlecruiser in place, but without my web slowing it down the Legion cannot keep pace. I need to be there, but I cannot stay too long.

I bounce out of the assault one more time, before going for broke. I plant my Loki's nose up the Myrmidon's exhaust port, overheat my guns, and hope for the best. The simple tactic appears to be working, as the battlecruiser's armour starts dropping significantly, even if the ransom negotiations aren't working. The pilot is slow to pay, and we don't like stalling, so we keep shooting and obliterate the half of the hull the Sleepers didn't touch. The Myrmidon explodes. I aim for the pod and, as a higher scan resolution is one of the few benefits over the Tengu, lock on and stop it going anywhere. I shoot the pod and... and it disappears.

For a second, I think that the pilot's gone off-line, but then I see his corpse. It looks like guns dispose of pods a bit more quickly than do missiles. And, what do you know, it is the same pilot of the warp-stabilised Iteron I chased a few weeks ago. We got him this time. Fin warps out, the Legion's armour sitting at dangerously low levels after the extended engagement, which leaves me to scoop, loot, and get targeted by a Proteus. Hang on, that doesn't rhyme. What's happening? A new ship has appeared nearby, the strategic cruiser decloaking within ten kilometres of me, and has locked on to my Loki. I turn to run but my micro warp drive is not responding. The Proteus is close enough to scramble its signature. The same module is also preventing my warp drive from activating. This doesn't look good.

I was updating d-scan whilst engaging the Myrmidon, but only occasionally and looking for local support. What I didn't expect was our ambush to be ambushed. We have most likely been scanned whilst fighting, judging by the Proteus's proximity to me at the end of the combat, because the Myrmidon was fleeing out of the site as we engaged. And now I'm dead. Fin's gone, thankfully, and surely can't return before my already heavily damaged Loki bites the rust. I return fire at the Proteus, fully depleting its shields and giving me a moment of hope until I realise it must be armour-tanked. All I can do is align my ship out of the site and hope the Proteus makes a mistake.

There is a slight reprieve from the onslaught, which I first take to be the Proteus reloading its weapons, but it turns out to be the pilot waiting for his colleague in a Sleipnir command ship to come along and give me a swift kick in the prow, spreading the love. Now I die. Bye bye, PewPewlitzer, I barely knew you. I barely knew how to fly you, that's for sure. At least you got a kill before explo—crap, I should have ejected. I forgot about the loss of skill points involved with losing a strategic cruiser. Ah well, it doesn't matter. My skill queue isn't doing much at the moment anyway. I warp my aligned pod away cleanly, bouncing off a planet to get back to our wormhole, where I jump home and return safely to the tower.

I clamber back in my comfortable Tengu and return to the wormhole, but only to monitor and reflect. Maybe if I'd watched d-scan more closely I'd have seen the probes. But I imagine the Myrmidon didn't see mine, which is the point of effective hunting. Maybe if I had noticed the corpse sooner, or hadn't stopped to take a pretty picture of the death, or hadn't needed to warp out a couple of times. But I didn't see the corpse, I always try to take a screen grab when I don't think I'm in danger, and if I hadn't warped out my Loki would have died to Sleepers. We just happened to get ambushed after we ambushed our own target. And you know what? It was freaking awesome! Sure, I lost my new and rather expensive ship, but this is the kind of engagement that defines w-space for me. You never know who's watching.

Posted in Gaming | 10 Comments »
Tags: eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, myrmidon, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, sleepers, sleipnir, tengu, w-space