Greed is good when you're not caught

The static wormhole is dead! Long live the static wormhole! For sixteen hours, at least. But that still gives us plenty of time to explore what is hopefully a more interesting w-space constellation than the one we just isolated ourselves from. A first look in the replacement neighbouring system doesn't get my hopes up for any action, though. All my directional scanner shows me is empty space, with just a single planet out of range. If there's any occupation here I don't suppose it will be doing much.

Only an off-line tower sits at the far planet, giving us an empty and inactive system to scan in. But even if the eleven signatures don't give us anywhere to go the eleven anomalies offer us the opportunity to profit, as long as we are actually isolated. And right away Fin spots a suspicious signature amongst the clump and it resolves to be a wormhole. I warp in to take a look, finding an N968 connection to more class 3 w-space, which could be better than here. I jump in to see, as Fin continues to scan C3a. Ah-ha, ships! I see a Tengu strategic cruiser and Tempest battleship on d-scan, with only an off-line tower for company. There are no wrecks, though, so I'm not entirely sure what the two ships are up to.

Three, sir! There are now two Tengus with the Tempest, and added core scanning probes on d-scan. A passive scan of the system reveals some anomalies but aiming d-scan at each of them doesn't find the ships, which isn't surprising as there also aren't any wrecks, but it doesn't explain where the ships are. I get a better bearing of the three ships using d-scan, placing them in empty space almost 8 AU away from the K162 I'm sitting on. They could be in a radar or magnetometric site, but I'm guessing they're also sitting on a wormhole, probably the K162 from their home system. And now a Cheetah covert operations boat jumps past my cloaked Tengu in to C3a.

Fin's still scanning in C3a, making her probes immediately visible to the cov-ops. I think that's actually really good, as it gives the idea that a scout has opened the N968 without yet having passed through. Now I'm imagining the Cheetah sitting on the wormhole to spot any ships passing by whilst his colleagues in the combat fleet shoot Sleepers with the illusion of security. But I don't have to imagine it, as Sleeper wrecks are appearing on d-scan, which I soon place in one of the dozen or so anomalies I have already detected. I'm sorry that Fin has to probably sit this one out, but it looks like I could have a good shot at a Noctis salvager here.

I warp in to the first anomaly, making a monitoring point as I do, to see the two Tengus and Tempest popping the Sleepers but not salvaging as they go. They clear the site and move on, with me behind them, as I keep watch on d-scan for a Noctis to appear. There's no salvager yet, though, and by the third site I am expecting the fleet to continue until fed up and to return with a salvager or two after combat stops. That's fine by me. I continue to bounce in and out of sites, using the excellently placed wormhole high above the ecliptic plane to avoid structures in the anomalies, creating monitoring points until five anomalies are complete and the fleet warps to where I presume their wormhole is.

The two Tengus leave the system but the Tempest remains. I don't feel much threat from the battleship, particularly one probably fit only for Sleeper combat, and am more interested to see if an escort will come with the salvager. Here's the Noctis and he looks alone. The salvager warps in to the first site, where I'm waiting, and as I wonder if I should attack now or wait until he's got more loot in his hold a Sabre interdictor appears on d-scan. Okay, I'll shoot now. I've kept Fin updated, and copied all my bookmarks to the corporate folder, so she's sitting on the wormhole waiting. Knowing we have a Sabre potentially protecting the Noctis Fin jumps in as I warp in to ambush the salvager.

The Noctis remains alone as I decloak and gain a positive target lock. I disrupt its warp engines and start shooting, but only get to ablate a quarter of his armour before he shows just how ineffective my warp disruptor is, as he flies clear. It looks like this corporation isn't easily fooled, or takes a sensible belt-and-braces approach to w-space survival. I call the ambush off and Fin and I both hide in one of the anomaly monitoring spots for now. We have chased away the salvager but will the fleet decide to leave its loot behind? I suspect not, now that a Loki strategic cruiser blips on d-scan.

The cloaky Loki could be anywhere but isn't too much of a concern to either of us. The Scorpion battleship that follows in to the system isn't really a concern either, more of an object of frustration, telling us that we won't win any engagement we try to get involved in, not without more help. But before we leave to go home we could snatch some of the loot for ourselves. Fin and I warp to different anomalies and start looting the battleships, grabbing as much profit as we can to deny the fleet what should be theirs, right up until the Loki appears thirty kilometres from me in one of the sites. I cloak easily enough and warp out, as the Loki burns towards my previous position, but it looks like time to leave.

Leaving would be simpler if the Sabre weren't guarding the K162 back to C3a. The interdiction bubble is hardly a threat for our nullified strategic cruisers, but the ship itself could still lock and point us. The odds are slim, I'd say, but we could still get spat out too close to the wormhole to cloak immediately. Even so, we're confident we can make it. We coordinate our movements to try to get to the wormhole at the same time, but a little confusion and enemy ship movements stagger our arrivals. I jump first, pulling the Sabre and Loki behind me, and I indeed appear too close to the wormhole to cloak straight away. I pulse my micro warp drive to try to get clear but before I can cloak the Sabre has locked on to me, preventing me from cloaking, and his warp disruptor is keeping me close. Apparently I'm not as good at evading ships on wormholes as I think.

I pulsed my MWD to get me away from the wormhole more quickly, increasing the separation between my ship and the hostile ships, which makes it more difficult for them to bump me and force my cloak to drop. But the side-effect is that when I don't manage to cloak all I have managed to achieve is to get further away from the wormhole, which becomes my only hope of escape. And so, once again, I find myself over seven kilometres from the wormhole, with a Sabre and Loki disrupting my warp drives and webbing me. I think I'm boned. But I realise that I am being pointed, not scrambled, so my micro warp drive is still operational. And despite being webbed the MWD gives me a big enough boost to my speed that I should make it back to the wormhole. And if that's not enough, C3a holds a black hole, boosting speed further.

I turn around and burn towards the wormhole, hoping to evade my aggressors on the other side. I jump and get clear of the wormhole, but not really according to plan. The staggered arrivals of mine and Fin's means that I return to C3b just as Fin jumps to C3a, in to the path of the Loki and Sabre. They repeat the same dance as with me, and it ends the same way. Fin gets caught but manages to return to the wormhole and comes back to C3b too. We both get clear of the wormhole on this side, Fin with some rather deft manoeuvring, and so we wait for our polarisation to end before trying again.

I create a suitable monitoring point at the wormhole, where I can watch the ships and also warp there at a moment's notice, and see the Scorpion jump back and forth. I think he'll get bored before he completes the sixteen polarisation-interrupted jumps to collapse the wormhole alone, but kudos for giving it a go. Fin, meanwhile, wants to get more loot whilst trapped here, so warps back in to the anomalies to maximise our profit. As she does that the Loki on the wormhole disappears, and I didn't see the wormhole flare to indicate a jump. 'The Loki's warped.'

'Ack, here!' Now the wormhole flares and the Sabre and Scorpion return, warping away immediately upon re-entering the system. I know this doesn't look good for Fin, but the wormhole's clear and I can run for it. I also know that all I could do in the cleared anomaly is either watch Fin die from a distance or get killed with her, particularly with a Scorpion's ECM available to the aggressors. I warp to the wormhole, jump to C3a, and get myself clear. Fin ejects from her Tengu to save her skill points but her pod is still caught in the Sabre's interdiction sphere, so she wakes up in a new clone in empire space. 'Greed killed me.' Maybe so, but greed is good. I go home the conventional way and, as it's late for both of us, will scan the new Fin back to w-space another day.

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Tags: cheetah, eve online, loki, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, sabre, scanning, scorpion, tempest, tengu, w-space

Radar sites in low-sec

Yesterday's exploration took me through many systems but showed me almost nothing. I'm hoping for the opposite today, with a simple constellation and some activity to at least watch voyeuristically. The home system itself holds new rocks and gas but no surprises, pushing me through our static connection to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. There is a tower and plenty of bubbles visible on my directional scanner from the wormhole, but no sign of any ships. I like to think they're hiding in a anomaly on the other side of the system, but all I find is a quiet spot to launch my probes.

Scanning this C3 gives me a simple constellation indeed, which I can tell even from a rudimentary blanket scan. There is only one anomaly and two signatures to find here, and one of the signatures is our K162. The other signature is the system's static connection, which naturally leads to low-sec empire space. Leaving w-space at least sees no other pilots in the low-sec system, which lets me warp around the asteroid fields until I happen upon a hapless rat battleship, which I pop for what little gain in security status it will grant me.

I may have been looking for a simple w-space constellation today but I was hoping for a little more in the way of exploration. With that in mind, rather than turn around and head home I launch probes in low-sec and continue scanning. Four signatures returned by my probes sounds promising, but there are no more wormholes. All I resolve are radar sites, with a single anomaly adding the full stop to exploring without using stargates. That's okay, though, as I am alone in a dead-end system in Domain, and unlikely to be interrupted.

I head home to swap my scouting boat for a Drake battlecruiser fitted with a codebreaker. I can make a few iskies from the radar sites to while away the evening. At least, that's the plan, but the radar sites aren't really cooperating. There are a few rats to give puny bounties, and some of the cans contain a decryptor or some datacores, but mostly I just find spare parts and am shooting frigates. I only really continue because I've started, but apart from pausing between sites to find a new rat in a rock field I don't think I'm making progress with anything.

My glorious leader turns up soon after I hit the sole anomaly in this system for dessert. The basic site at least bags me a battleship in the final wave of ships, but it's all rather disappointing. Showing she's smarter than me, Fin has been collapsing the wormhole since I gave her the sitrep. I finish the anomaly and return home to finish the wormhole off too. I really should remember that I can collapse wormholes to start again if the initial results don't look good, but I suppose I've had enough results from exploring deeper that I like to exhaust my options first. Then again, I think I did that tonight and still preferred to waste time in low-sec radar sites than collapse the wormhole. Silly me.

The wormhole dies on schedule, Fin and I are both on the right side when it collapses, and we return to the tower to start the evening again. Well, once we recover the Orca from outside the tower's force field, the industrial command ship bouncing off the tower and its high inertia carrying it over thirty kilometres away. Fin strips to her pod to bring the Orca back whilst I scan for the new static wormhole.

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Tags: drake, eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

If a ship pops without a pilot, does it go on the killboard?

Running solo, I scan the home system. It's all clear here, just as it looks on the other side of our static connection. My directional scanner shows me nothing of interest in C3a. Well, nothing of direct interest, but I note that the only planet that is in d-scan range is over 6 AU from the wormhole. I've mentioned before how some signatures look wormholey, and this would be one of them, as I don't think signatures for sites appear this far from celestial objects.

Happy to have more information to back up my intuition, I launch probes and scan the system as I check my notes. I've been here three times before, the last being six months ago. The tower is in the same place, which isn't surprising given the Thanatos and Archon carriers the twelve-member corporation have invested in. Neither carrier is piloted at the moment, and nor are the Phobos heavy interdictor and Falcon recon ship, giving me an inactive system to scan. Surprisingly for a system with two captive carriers, there are still eight anomalies to be plundered, but maybe the low membership of the corporation explains that.

I sift through the nine signatures here, finding gas, a wormhole, a really weak wormhole—and I know the static connection here leads to low-sec empire space, so it looks like I have a random outbound connection—a third wormhole almost 6 AU from a planet, some rocks, more gas, and two signatures out in the middle of nowhere that can only be—quelle surprise—two more wormholes. The static exit to low-sec is joined by a K162 from low-sec, a K162 from null-sec, and a dying K162 from null-sec, so thank goodness for the outbound connection to class 5 w-space.

The class 5 system may be more w-space, but it's more inactive w-space. There is a tower here with no ships, and my previous visit lets me know early on that I'm looking for a static connection to another C5. Such is the way of class 5 w-space. I launch probes, blanket the system, and find the tower, getting rather more intimate with it than I appreciate on a first meeting. Thankfully, the tower's pretty bare, which I actually do appreciate on a first meeting, and there's no real consequence to dropping out of warp under ten kilometres from the force field.

I ignore the eleven anomalies here and look for more wormholes in the eight signatures, finding three of them. Along with the static wormhole, I also have an outbound connection to low-sec and what appears to be a standard issue K162 from null-sec. I'm press on to C5b, where one planet with one moon is all that's out of d-scan range from the wormhole, and I soon find that the moon doesn't hold a tower, which puts me back to scanning. The eight anomalies here show that the system must be occasionally visited, but the sixteen signatures are more indicative of the system being unoccupied.

I'm only looking for the first wormhole to get me to more w-space now, which makes the K162 from null-sec a disappointing first find. I keep scanning, down to a really weak second wormhole signature, which I'm guessing leads to class 1 or class 2 w-space. And, given how carefully I hedged my guess, it's no surprise that I drop out of warp in front of a connection to class 1 w-space. That's nifty, and is good enough for me to recall my probes and keep moving forwards. And even though d-scan is again clear from the other side of the wormhole, and there are no anomalies amongst the seven signatures, the two ships that appear on my blanket scan of C1a are interesting! Exploring finds both ships at one of the two towers here, and both unpiloted. This is becoming depressing.

But just as I think I'm scanning to nowhere again, a new contact appears on my probes. It may just be a pod heading out to high-sec, through the wormhole I've resolved and landed on, but it's movement. Then again, the pilot didn't look local, and checking his information makes him seem like a tourist, maybe thinking w-space is safer to explore in a pod than a ship. Either way, I continue scanning, not wanting the constellation to end with a whimper. Thankfully, another really weak signature saves my exploration, and I warp to an L614 outbound connection to class 5 w-space. Isn't this just a lovely little class 1 w-space oasis in the middle of a class 5 w-space chain.

I unintentionally hold on the wormhole for a minute, which lets a Buzzard covert operations boat jump through, and makes me wonder who opened this connection. I've only just got here, and now it looks like the tourist in a pod is actually from the C5 beyond, and there's no way he could have opened the connection from the K162-side. Either way, whoever came this way before me is gone, but maybe I can reap the benefit. I jump in to C5c to see four towers, a Tengu strategic cruiser, and two cov-ops on d-scan, shortly followed by a second Tengu that jumps through the wormhole behind me.

It's easy to find the active tower, as the Tengu coming through the wormhole warps directly towards it. I follow behind and fair near pee myself a little when one of the pilots swaps to a Noctis salvager. I then remember that C1a has no anomalies in it and calm down again. The pilots swap ships here and there before stripping naked and doing absolutely nothing in their three pods. Damn them, damn them all to the hell of infinite w-space scanning. I'm not quite there yet, refusing to scan deeper down this C5 chain, so turn around and head homewards.

With eighteen wormhole bookmarks and none on the k-space side, I don't go straight home but dip in to the many null-sec systems I've found connecting to the w-space constellation. The first is shared with other pilots so I move on to the second, which is more interesting. An Iteron hauler is visible without a tower. I presume its piloted by the capsuleer in the system with me and I start looking for it, but then a Drake battlecruiser appears on d-scan briefly, before it and the pilot disappear from the system. The Iteron's abandoned. It's trivial to scan the ship's position when no one is going to get spooked, letting me find it and wonder what to do. I'm going to shoot it, of course. I don't much care what's inside at this point in the evening, beyond what loot it will drop for me. So shoot the Iteron I do, and recover a few modules and some salvage for my time spent scanning. It'll do, I suppose. Now I can rat a bit.

I could rat, if the Drake apparently didn't have the same idea. There are wrecks galore in each of the rock fields in this null-sec system, which I initially think makes the Drake a little inefficient in popping them all at once. But I notice that I'm in a small ring of systems to navigate and come across the same Drake pilot when I make my way around it, so I imagine he's just doing loops of the ring and creating quite a mess ratting as he goes. I try to do the same but lose interest after one circuit, so head back to w-space and check the next null-sec system along the way home. Or I would if I didn't immediately bump in to a Buzzard sitting on the other side of the wormhole to null-sec.

The Buzzard jumps through to the null-sec system I just left and I flip my ship to follow. I know I'll just get stuck on the null-sec side of the wormhole, having chased a shadow, waiting for a polarisation timer to end, but this is my best shot of the evening at an actual piloted ship, so I'm taking it. And back in null-sec I decloak early and activate my sensor booster, trying to increase my chances as much as I'm hoping for the bit of luck I need. The Buzzard appears, and the Buzzard cloaks and warps clear, giving me the briefest of windows to lock on to his ship. Never mind, even if I had managed to stop him getting clear of the wormhole he would only have had to jump back to leave me unable to give chase.

I cloak and wait for the polarisation effects to dissipate, after which I return to w-space and start heading home again, making diversions through the k-space connections as I go. The K162 from low-sec in C3a takes me to The Citadel, the null-sec connection comes from Curse, and the static exit leads to a low-sec system in Domain. In each case, I'm not alone in the system and don't feel comfortable looking for a rat to shoot, and I jump straight back to w-space. After C3a the only other connection takes me home, where I hide in a corner of the system for the night, where I dream about the amazing time I popped an unpiloted Iteron and chased a Buzzard.

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Tags: archon, buzzard, drake, eve online, falcon, iteron, mmorpg, noctis, null-sec, penny ibramovic, phobos, pvp, scanning, tengu, thanatos, w-space

Nothing but a Pilgrim

There is a K162 from class 3 w-space at home today, so Aii tells me. He found the wormhole and has jumped through to take a look around, finding no one home and lots of signatures. I leave him to it and head towards our static wormhole, there being a second class 3 system behind it that is yet to be explored. Jumping in to C3a, the system getting the prime alphabetic modifier for virtue of it being connected by our static wormhole, finds what feels like a remarkably familiar J-number. It's enough to have me looking at my notes immediately, even before checking my directional scanner, where I see that the system number really should be familiar. I was only here two days ago.

It's funny that I remember the J-number of this system but not what happened here, even when it's all only two days stale. Checking d-scan brings back more memories, as most of the ships I saw then I can also see now. I'm getting images of maybe some planet goo hauling that I miss and some stealth bombers flitting here and there, admittedly the images helped along by flipping through my notebook a little too. At least I know where the tower on d-scan is, and that there is a second further out, and I warp away from the wormhole to look for pilots.

The tower holding most of the ships does so because they are empty, much like a couple of days ago. The second tower also has the same unpiloted Mammoth hauler and Covetor mining barge floating inside its force field, giving me little to care for until an Iteron hauler appears. There was an Iteron here previously too, and he did nothing interesting. The question is whether this pilot with do anything. Actually, the real question is whether this Iteron pilot will anything when I warp out to launch scanning probes.

I wait for a few minutes, watching and hoping for the Iteron to move, but nothing happens. I suppose if he's going to be active when I launch my probes I may as well get it over with. I warp out, launch probes, and blanket the system as I head back to keep tabs on the Iteron. He's still there and in the same attitude as before, so I haven't missed anything. And apart from planet goo collection I don't think I will miss anything, as the system holds a mere four anomalies and two signatures. I can't even catch the hauler heading out of w-space, as the signature that isn't our K162 is a static exit to high-sec empire space.

I resolve the static connection whilst the Iteron's idling, exiting to appear in the Domain region and only a handful of hops to Amarr. But the wormhole reaches old age when I jump back to w-space, making it unlikely to be used for any serious logistics now. I watch the hauler a little longer, still hoping he'll collect planet goo, as our glorious leader comes on-line. I give her a sitrep and a tentative plan of collapsing our static connection, scanning C3b, and potentially engaging Sleepers in that second system, making our second visit here much like our first. And as much as I am tempted to bubble the exit to high-sec in the hopes of catching the Iteron, he goes off-line before I can convince myself it's a good idea. I suppose we're putting the tentative plan in to action.

Our wormhole dies from being smothered by big ships, after which we get back in our scouting boats and head in to C3b to help Aii's scanning. He's been quiet this past time, which probably means he's been distracted by more important matters, so we launch our own scanning probes and check that we don't have a branching constellation behind us. My notes place me in C3b about thirteen months ago, when I pop and pod a Noctis salvager in my Manticore stealth bomber. Ah, good times. The tower is in the same place as it was, and there should be a connection to low-sec somewhere. Our probes reveal one anomaly and ten signatures, which is not quite the bounty I expected, but that's okay.

We resolve the static exit and I decide to take a look, because if the T405 connecting to our system is open then so will be the U210. I exit to Metropolis, appearing in a single-system low-sec island, which would probably explain why there are plenty of pilots present. I scan the system, wondering what else connects here, as Fin confirms no more wormholes in C3b and decides to venture through our new static wormhole to look for opportunity. The low-sec system I'm in looks pretty good to me, as the four signatures give me three more wormholes. One is a K162 from class 5 w-space, the second a K162 from class 1 w-space, and the third an X702 outbound connection to more class 3 w-space. So many options, I almost don't know where to start.

Of course, I do know exactly where I want to look first, and jump in to C1a to look for soft targets. A tower and some drones are visible on d-scan, but no ships and no wrecks. Wondering if some action has passed through here recently to leave those drones I launch probes and poke around, but the six signatures hold no more wormholes and the drones are not in the sole anomaly. It's all a bit quiet, so I head back to low-sec and jump through the outbound connection to C3... um, C3c? Yes, I think so, as the connection to the first C3a is dead and Fin is now in the new C3a. It's all relative, after all.

There's nothing to see from the K162 in C3c, which isn't too disappointing as there are planets out of d-scan range and being here allows me to launch probes without being seen. I was last here eleven months ago when, would you look at that, I pop and pod a Noctis in my Manticore. That was a popular ship choice for me back then. My notes are more informative than the simple ship kill too, as apparently this podding happened 300 km from a tower. I remember this well, as the locals had bubbled their own tower to the point where they needed an intermediate spot to warp to just so they could get back to inside the shields safely. Needless to say, it didn't work too well against a patient stalker.

It took me a while to get in to a position where I could strike the ships bouncing off this distant point, so I made sure to keep it in my bookmark collection instead of deleting it with my other daily bookmarks. Sadly, the tower it was useful for is now gone, as have some others, leaving just the one tower in the system. And no one's home. I perform a blanket scan of the C3 but, with time getting late and another system to explore from low-sec, I don't bother scanning when the odds are I'll only get another connection to low-sec. I recall my probes, return to low-sec, and jump in to C5a.

The class 5 system is empty and unoccupied, much as it was three months ago, and I launch probes knowing that I'm looking for a static connection to more class 5 w-space. It won't take long to find, with ten signatures to sift through, and I would like to see some signs of activity tonight, so I resolve the static wormhole. In fact, I resolve it as a ship appears under my probes, which switching to d-scan shows it to be a Purifier stealth bomber before it disappears. It's gone before I get to the wormhole, of course, but the connection flares as I sit there considering my options, and I watch a shuttle warp towards the connection to low-sec.

I've found movement at last, but nothing I can really do anything about. I don't chase the too-agile shuttle, and I don't know if I saw the Purifier jump in to this C5 or in to C5c (Fin's found a C5 and has claimed the 'b' designation by now). But my curiosity is piqued, so I jump in to C5c to at least take a look at what's there. Nothing, that's what. No occupation, no ships, no activity. Whoever is passing through is coming from another system, and I don't care to scan for it. Besides, maybe I don't need to. I head back out to low-sec and start perusing the local communication channel.

I got the name of the shuttle pilot as he passed by me, which let me identify his corporation. Assuming any other pilots using this connection to low-sec are in the same corporation then I can quickly identify their arrival and prepare to attack their ship. But no one comes, from either direction, and I am getting sleepy. I head back to the K162 from C3b, dropping short just as a pilot from the marked corporation appears in the system. Not too tired to take a look, I flip my ship and warp back to the C5 K162 to land with plenty of time to wonder if this pilot is actually returning himself. I wait long enough that I nearly leave again, before a Pilgrim force recon ship appears and enters w-space, alone. I don't think I'll pit my covert Tengu strategic cruiser against an energy-neutralising drone boat, not by myself. I'm going home. At least I've seen some movement amongst the three C5s, four C3s, and single C1 in the constellation. Aii and Fin have been wandering empty space all evening.

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Tags: covetor, eve online, iteron, mammoth, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pilgrim, purifier, scanning, tengu, w-space

Rats one way, tower fuel the other

It's just me and my Tengu. Or is it? Man, that's genius writing, setting the tension like that. I'm actually curious about the Ghostathema covert operations boat that Fin spied in our home w-space system recently, and whether it remains here and has been active. As a precaution, after collapsing our static wormhole yesterday, prior to shooting some Sleepers, I resolved the replacement wormhole and bookmarked it without visiting it. Today, the wormhole should be in the same place and healthy, but only as long as no one else opened it. It's a simple check, and far from a guarantee, but hopefully it could give us a little peace of mind.

Launching scanning probes finds a wormhole signature exactly where it was yesterday, give or take a few kilometres of drift, which is a good start. A second signature is merely some new gas, and that's all there is to be seen. If the Anathema is still here, and not just passing through, he's not particularly dedicated to scanning his fleet in. I think we're okay for now. I activate the ladar site, then warp to the wormhole to explore in to our neighbouring class 3 system.

In C3a my directional scanner lights up with a tower, Orca industrial command ship, a corpse, some drones, and core scanning probes. That's quite a mix. The tower and Orca appear to be in roughly the same place as the tower that was here fourteen months ago, the last time I came through, but the drones and corpse are elsewhere. A passive scan of the system reveals a substantial twenty-one anomalies, but none that hold a body. It looks like the frozen capsuleer could be orbiting a planet, if d-scan is to be believed. I'll leave him for now, as the probes are more interesting at the moment.

The probes disappear but no ship appears, so I think it's about time I moved away from this K162. Exploring the system finds the tower moved one moon across from where I last saw one here, with the Orca unpiloted, naturally, and the corpse indeed near a planet, floating amongst drones and the wreck of a battlecruiser. Quite what he's doing here, or what he was doing here, I can't say. And as the scout is doing well at not being seen I have little else to do but launch my own probes and scan the system.

Twelve signatures don't take long to sift through, giving me two wormholes amongst the usual suspects of rocks, gas, and radar sites. My glorious leader wakes up and comes in to inspect the corpse more closely as I take a look at the wormholes. I'm expecting to find a static exit to low-sec empire space, so it's only the K162 from high-sec that interests me, and for low values of 'interest'. At least it comes from the Tash-Murkon region, making it convenient should we need to visit high-sec, whereas the low-sec exit leads to the desolate region of Aridia. Actually, that may be good for a bit of ratting, although I remain unconvinced that any ratting can be good.

The connection from high-sec makes me ponder the wreck and corpse more. I wonder if the pilot got scammed a little, by being asked for a duel and then persuaded to fight in w-space instead of high-sec. That let the scammer pop the ship and pod the pilot instead of holding fire at an agreed damage limit, like when hitting armour for a shield-tanked ship, without Concord poking their busybody noses in to the matter. That's speculation, but fun to consider. Fin scoops the corpse for our collection and loots a few missiles from the wreck, before tidying up to make the system look clean once more.

I head to Aridia to bore myself, Fin boards an Orca back home and goes to high-sec to buy and sell. I am by myself in the low-sec and see from my atlas that there is a little circuit of systems I can take a jaunt through to pop rats and increase my security status. Meanwhile, Fin lets me know that the previously empty high-sec system has 'three in local now'. Unfortunately, she tells me this after inadvertently saying it in the local communication channel first. And also after she jumps out of the system with three in local to appear in a system with forty pilots, most of who were only too pleased to make fun of her apparent lack of counting skills.

I make my circuit of low-sec, even finding a rat battleship or two out here, where I was only expecting to find cruisers. The battleships offer greater bounties and greater gains in security status, but these also suck my capacitor dry pretty effectively. It's good that they balance this neutralising by hitting like an industrialist, otherwise my poor strategic cruiser would be in trouble. I pop the rats, get back to the starting system, and return to w-space.

The class 3 system looks just as boring as before, until I realise that without the corpse, wreck, and drones it actually looks even more boring than before. But as boring as it looked, there was a corpse here earlier, so we probably shouldn't do anything too reckless. When Fin gets home with an Orca full of fuel and supplies there's not much left to do but hide in the home system and get some sleep.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Rats one way, tower fuel the other
Tags: anathema, eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Scouting around stealth bombers

Fin thinks we may have a guest. She spotted a covert operations boat briefly on her directional scanner in the home w-space system, after a K162 was collapsed. It's possible the scout didn't get home in time and already left back through the new static wormhole, but we can't discount the possibility that we're being watched. We'll just have to be cautious. All looks pretty clear at the moment, with no ships or spurious signatures at home, leaving just the static wormhole to resolve and explore beyond.

There's lots to see in this class 3 w-space system, but maybe not much happening. A smattering of combat ships and industrial ships appear on d-scan, along with a tower, but there are no cans and no wrecks that would indicate actual activity. I warp out to launch probes, with plenty of space to do so, and a blanket scan of the system shows me eleven anomalies, six signatures, and twelve ships. Twelve? That's two more than d-scan was showing me. Warping back to look for the tower sees a new Iteron hauler on d-scan, which would account for one of the extra ships. He's not at the tower when I find it, but appears a few seconds later. I hope I haven't missed his planet goo rounds.

On top of the Iteron's appearance, a Nemesis and Manticore stealth bomber pair appear outside the tower before cloaking again, which makes me curious as to their affiliation. I also note that a Myrmidon battlecruiser in the tower is piloted, making him the only other pilot I can see. I keep watching d-scan to see the Nemesis and Manticore blip on and off a couple of times, and it is when I see this and note their ship names that I realise they must be local, as all the ships have one character in common somewhere in their name.

I refresh my scanning probe results, getting fourteen ships returned now. That's still too many. I ignore the Iteron, who is probably not going to move again, and warp off to look for a second tower. And there it is, at the edge of the system, holding an unpiloted Covetor mining barge and Mammoth hauler. That's all the ships my probes are showing me accounted for, although the stealth bombers will be coming and going it seems. With the bombers somewhere unknown and the two piloted ships at the tower stationary I think now is a good time to scan those six signatures.

I resolve two magnetometric sites, ignore our K162, and find three more wormholes, which would explain the stealth bombers' jitteriness. Reconnoitring the wormholes shows me a half-mass static connection to high-sec empire space that's reaching the end of its natural lifetime, a K162 from class 4 w-space that's also EOL, and an outbound connection to class 5 w-space that too is EOL. So much for further exploration. I wonder if the stealth bombers are watching the wormholes for ship transits, or are making use of the connection to high-sec. I could maybe find out by jumping through the wormholes and seeing if I'm engaged, but my curiosity doesn't overcome my desire to remain unnoticed.

Returning to the tower to watch the Iteron do nothing sees it doing even less, now that it has no pilot. It's just me and the Myrmidon, and he's probably asleep. There's nothing happening here, and nothing happening at the second tower. It's all a bit dull. And here's my glorious leader. It's all a bit dull, I tell Fin, as she wasn't here a minute earlier to hear it the first time, with the exception of a couple of stealth bombers being mysterious. 'Do you know if they are aware of our wormhole?', she asks, and it's a good question. I don't think so, but it's difficult to prove a negative.

I haven't seen any scouts, either directly or from seeing probes on d-scan. And even if the locals saw my probes when I scanned they could place them as coming from one of the three wormholes already here instead of considering a new connection opened in to the system. Is Fin thinking of collapsing our static wormhole? 'You read me like a trashy novel.' Fin prepares an Orca industrial command ship to start the collapse, and now I'm watching this C3 as a protector. I leave the ships at the tower to d-scan and sit near our K162, just in case the bombers have somehow found our wormhole and pounce on Fin's Orca.

The Orca comes and goes, warping back to our tower without anyone apparently noticing. A second trip is just as uneventful, and a third has me joining in with a Widow black ops ship, just to make sure the wormhole dies on schedule, which it does. Now we are isolated—another scan of the home system ensures this, rather than merely assuming so—and we have plenty of anomalies to burn through. Or maybe smoulder through at a comfortable pace. Our wallet's looking a little light after two recent accidental tower deaths, so it is a good idea to rake in some more Sleeper loot.

We board our Tengu strategic cruisers fit for Sleeper combat and head out to eradicate some of the local population. Combat is smooth and simple enough, and we bounce from one, to two, to three anomalies until we hit my limit for the evening. That doesn't seem like much but class 4 anomalies take longer to clear than class 3s, and the profit's better anyway. Our two Noctis salvagers sweep up the wreckage and bring back about 360 Miskies in loot, giving us a pretty decent haul. We weren't even shot at, which makes this another successful evening.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Scouting around stealth bombers
Tags: covetor, eve online, mammoth, manticore, mmorpg, myrmidon, nemesis, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space, widow

Back to scanning and ratting

My glorious leader has found her way home and is exploring w-space again. So far, Fin's found some new gas in the home system, our static wormhole, and two wormholes in our neighbouring class 3 system. The wormholes are a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space and a static connection to low-sec, which takes us to a one-system low-sec island in Domain. I go to join her exploration, jumping in to the C3 where, as Fin says, nothing exciting is happening. A Covetor mining barge was seen briefly, but as it didn't hang around Fin got down to scanning the system. I point my ship towards the T405 to look beyond this system.

I pause at the wormhole, having spotted a second tower on my directional scanner during my considerable warp across this vast C3. The system is 95 AU across, making it easy to miss ships and occupation, particularly when an active tower is first spotted elsewhere, which Fin did. I double back to scout the inner system, where I see another tower, Iteron hauler, Imicus frigate, and some mining drones somewhere in the system. Maybe Fin's scanning interrupted the Covetor's mining after all. Either way, there's no sign of him now, and neither the hauler nor the frigate are piloted at this second tower. I make a quick scan of the system, resolving the mining drones but no gravimetric site around them, before pointing myself back towards the T405 wormhole.

I was in this class 4 system a mere ten weeks ago, and already there have been some changes. There was only one tower here when I last visited, one that should be out of d-scan range, and now I can see two. I locate the two new towers and warp further out to see the third has been moved one moon across, or more likely replaced with a different tower. No one's home, despite the three towers, so I launch probes and scan. Three signatures will take less time to resolve than the fourteen anomalies will to bookmark, particularly as I already know one of them is the K162 I entered through. The ratio of signatures to anomalies probably indicates industrialist occupation, so I take time to resolve the gravimetric site that accompanies the static connection to class 3 w-space, just in case any local pilots wake up.

Passing through the static connection to C3b doesn't present any new or exciting opportunities. D-scan is clear, as I sit over 4 AU from the nearest planet, and my notes from eight months ago show the system holding occupation and a static exit to high-sec. I launch probes and scan, revealing six signatures, six anomalies, and no ships. I find the tower where I left it and start resolving gas and a pair of magnetometric sites. A K162 from null-sec has me visiting the Insmother region, but in a system populated with another pilot and so not one where I want to risk ratting. I don't see the point in losing my ship when doing an activity I never wanted to do in the first place. I return to C3b only long enough to jump through its exit to high-sec, and I appear in Metropolis, parsecs from anywhere. How dreary.

Fin, meanwhile, has been productive. She's taken an Orca out to Domain, through C3a's static exit, and has sold loot and bought supplies, including fuel pellets for our tower. Now she could use a simple escort to help reassure her that the low-sec system remains clear, and escorts don't get more simple than me. I warp across C3b, C4a, and C3a to exit to low-sec, where a single pilot sits somewhere in the system with me. Fin recognises the name of the pilot as the one who was in the system earlier and deems it safe to bring her Orca home. I warp to the stargate anyway, just to be safe, and see the pilot sitting nearby. He's in a Navitas mining frigate, a few tens of kilometres from the stargate, and being such a tempting target I don't know if I can help my ailing security status.

I check with Fin, who confirms that the stargate was clear in the high-sec system, as I approach the Navitas, taking care not to decloak by bumping in to the stargate. This surely can't be a trap, the frigate bait for a bigger fleet, as they would have pounced on Fin's Orca. But why would a vulnerable frigate sit so far from an easily found stargate otherwise? It's not bait, it's just a temptation I should ignore. Getting opportunistic kills is fine, but sacrificing my security status, and much more time to ratting as a result, is not worth popping a basic frigate that's simply carelessly positioned. I warp out and launch probes to scan this low-sec system instead.

I resolve a wormhole in low-sec, just as the Navitas warps away and leaves the system. That's fine, maybe I'll get a proper kill in w-space. The wormhole is an outbound connection to more class 3 w-space, and I jump in to take a look around. There was a tower here seven months ago, along with an exit to low-sec, although if the structure is still here it is out of range of d-scan from the wormhole. I launch probes whilst I'm in this good position, blanket the system, and warp away to see the tower in the same place. But, yet again, there are no pilots to be found. There are some ECM drones in the system, which indicates some kind of activity, but the kind that is stale and offering no excitement. A quick poke around with my probes finds no other wormholes besides the one I entered and the static connection, so I scoop the ECM drones and head back the way I came.

I take one last look in null-sec, through the K162 in C4a, to see that this system at least remains populated. I'd prefer empty null-sec and active w-space, thanks. But just as I am about to give up on ratting the pilot disappears, leaving me alone. I warp around the rock fields, knowing I can do better than a simple rat cruiser, until I bump in to a rat battleship. I greet the Angel war general and his escort with open launchers, turning back to w-space just as a Scimitar logistics ship enters the system. That was good timing. And I think I've finished for the evening. It all feels a bit quiet of late.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Back to scanning and ratting
Tags: covetor, eve online, imicus, iteron, low-sec, mmorpg, navitas, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, scimitar, w-space

Vanquishing a Viator

I'm up for an opportunistic poke around w-space, although I'm not expecting to hang around for too long tonight. The recurring theme of having two wormholes in the home system is a good start to finding activity, although having our static connection to class 3 w-space today joined by a K162 from a deadly class 6 is not terribly comforting. Like I've done before, I'll head through to C3a to scan an exit to empire space before I risk too much, even if the threat of class 6 w-space can be mostly in the mind.

In our neighbouring class 3 system is a Harbinger battlecruiser and Dramiel frigate, along with a tower, all visible on my directional scanner from the K162. I ought to locate those ships and determine if there are any pilots before I start scanning, and as this is my first visit to the system I have no notes to help me out. I use the old-fashioned method of using d-scan to find the tower, or towers, as I realise I'm looking for two. They are both around the same planet and one of them holds both ships, neither one piloted. I can settle down a little now.

I warp out, launch probes, and start scanning. One anomaly and four signatures makes for a sparse system, and easy scanning. I resolve a ladar site, a battlecruiser, and, um, what? The ship appears on the second signature I choose to scan, which almost certainly makes the signature a wormhole. I resolve it to indeed find a wormhole, then throw my probes out of the system. If my probes picked up the ship then the ship would also have had time to see my probes on d-scan, so rather than impetuously making my spotted probes sparse I thought I may as well see where the ship is coming from first.

The battlecruiser newly appeared in C3a is a Drake, and it warps to the local tower, but not in to the tower's force field. Strangely, the ship lands a fair distance outside of the shields. He's not getting shot and so is probably local, although the pilot belongs to the State War Academy. That's strikes me as odd, but I see that the Dramiel has the same state affiliation, so maybe there's a reason behind it. Either way, the Drake starts crawling towards the tower, just as a Viator abruptly appears inside the force field. I suppose I missed the entrance of the transport ship, which isn't much of a surprise considering that it can warp cloaked.

Maybe the Drake was escorting the Viator from empire space, although that would be a rather waste of resources. Blockade runners are meant to blast past blockades without assistance, much as their name suggests, and dragging a Drake behind you seems to be more of a hindrance than a help. But maybe I've got it backwards and the Viator was scouting for the Drake. That would make some sense, if the wormhole I resolved weren't a K162 from high-sec empire space. I'm not sure how much scouting needs to be done to use a direct connection to high-sec. I'll assume the near-simultaneous appearance of the two pilots to be coincidence.

I have one signature left to resolve and I'm assuming my probes have been spotted. Even if they haven't, the Viator is nestled inside the shields and the Drake's taking his merry time reaching the tower, so I doubt either pilot is watching d-scan closely. I call my probes back in and resolve a second wormhole, the system's static connection to low-sec empire space. Unlike the mass-stressed K162, probably having been used for logistics for a fair part of the evening, the wormhole to low-sec is healthy and stable. I take a look on the other side and appear in a busy system in The Bleak Lands.

Thinking that the only movement I'll see in C3a is between the tower and high-sec, or for the pilots to go off-line, I scan the low-sec system. I may even get lucky, as there are seven signatures dotted under my probes. But all I find is a radar site, some rocks, a magnetometric site, some Blood Raiders, a Mul-Zatath monastery, and another magnetometric site. So much for finding more w-space. At least I can head back and look in the C6 now. I return to w-space and bounce off the tower in C3a just to see what the locals are up to, and arrive in time to see the Viator warp out. Or maybe it was the Drake.

Neither ship is at the tower now, although both remain on d-scan and in the system. And even if the ship warped clear before I could tell which one it was I did manage to get a good view of the direction it warped in. Whichever ship just left, it headed towards a customs office, which is probably why I think it was the Viator. Think, hope, whatever. I press my covert Tengu strategic cruiser in to warp, landing short of the customs office to find not one but both ships there. Maybe the Drake is acting as escort after all, and it could be effective. I doubt I could pop many Drakes in my covert Tengu, certainly none that are even adequately fit, and I don't want to get caught by one configured to catch capsuleer ships. The Viator is a tempting target, but I don't want to die for it.

The Drake poops a jet-can and the Viator scoops it. It could just be walkies time for the Drake, I suppose, but I jest. I'm also watching the Viator's next move, which is to warp away from this customs tower and on to another. Naturally, the agile transport is faster than the Drake and is gone before the battlecruiser looks even to have reacted. If I can catch the Viator alone maybe I have a shot here after all. I follow behind the transport to land near the next customs office, and it's just me and the Viator. I need to decide quickly what to do, and I choose to attack.

I decloak my ship and burn towards the transport, gaining a positive target lock as soon as my recalibration delay ends. I let loose with my launchers, raining missiles on the surprisingly flimsy ship, as I turn to align away from the combat in preparation for the Drake's protection appearing. But the Drake doesn't come, and the Viator is being crushed. It takes only a few volleys for the ship to be consumed by a fireball, at which point the pod flees almost immediately. Still no Drake comes, so I scoop what loot I can carry from the wreck, shooting the planet goo I can't fit in to my hold along with the wreck.

I have more hull-compromising expanded cargoholds for my collection, which explains how I mauled the transport so quickly, as well as a covert operations cloak that doesn't work so well when close to structures like customs offices. And with the ambush complete I activate my own cloak and return to watch the reaction at the tower. The Drake and pod are there, and they are probably going to stay there now. I see no point in waiting here, so I poke my nose through the K162 to high-sec, finding myself in the Domain region but with no motivation for staying there, and return home.

A quick look in the C6 connecting in from the home system sees a Cheetah covert operations boat and a tower on d-scan. The only visible ship in the system is piloted at the only tower present in the system, and as much as I enjoy having cov-ops boats evade me I am not about to waste time watching a ship I can't catch not scouting through systems he's probably already scouted through. I've had some fun and excitement so far, and it doesn't look like there'll be any more for the time being. I'll quit while I'm ahead.

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Tags: cheetah, drake, dramiel, eve online, harbinger, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, viator, w-space

Scan, rat, scan

Fin's lamenting the loss of another Tengu. Her strategic cruiser got tangled in the defences of a tower until the accidental game of pachinko became deadly. Accidents happen, and we can cover the loss. Of course, as I found out recently, the real inconvenience is not to our corporate wallet but in getting to and from empire space to buy the replacement. And now, as I have probes launched and am orientating myself in the home w-space system, I notice that we are also missing an Orca.

Thankfully, the large and expensive industrial command ship hasn't been destroyed, it's just not in the system. In her efforts to replace her scouting Tengu Fin collapsed our static wormhole several times looking for a decent exit to empire space. Instead she got exits to Aridia, Black Rise, and Placid, at which point our wormhole died in suspicious circumstances. This left Fin in an unkempt system with many signatures to sift through and without an optimised scanning boat. Much frustration ensued. Hopefully my scanning tonight will reveal a better exit and get Fin and her ships home.

There are two wormholes in the home system again today. Our static connection to class 3 w-space is joined by a K162 from class 2 w-space, which would look much more attractive if it weren't wobbling like a jelly. I thought it looked fine a minute ago, as I was making the bookmark, so either I wasn't paying close enough attention then or the wormhole has only just entered old age. As I can't reliably determine which case is true I'll leave the K162 alone for now and explore C3a, at least to find an exit.

My notes for the C3 say I am in an empty system that holds a connection to null-sec k-space, which may be good for shooting Sleepers with Fin but not so good for getting my stranded colleague home. My directional scanner tells me about the same story as my notes, with nothing but an off-line tower in range. Assuming nothing has happened in the six weeks since my last visit to this system I launch probes and blanket the system, only to see a ship highlighted by my combat probes, sitting alone amongst the five signatures and seventeen anomalies. That doesn't fit with the system being empty.

I warp off to explore, seeing a Tornado battlecruiser on d-scan along with an active tower. W-space systems don't stay empty for long these days, I suppose. Locating the tower finds the battlecruiser unpiloted, giving me little to do but continue scanning, so I whittle down the handful of signatures until I am left with bookmarks for two gas sites, a magnetometric site, and the static connection to null-sec. Jumping out of w-space lands me in the Fountain region by myself, which doesn't help Fin much with bringing her Orca home but gives me another chance to rat. Oh joy.

I bump in to a couple of rat battleships in the first rock field, which I pop for a gain to my security status and some pocket ISK, and then head back to w-space. I'll be back later to pop another rat or two, but now that I have the exit through the C3 I can chance the ageing K162 to C2a in the home system, if it's still there. And it is. I jump in to the class 2 system to see some Manticore stealth bombers on d-scan, along with three towers. I imagine the Manticores are at the towers, otherwise they are doing a poor job of being stealth bombers, but where the towers are I don't know.

As I consider warping off to launch probes, thinking that if there are only a few signatures here I can scan to maybe find a better exit, as I know this C2 holds a static connection to high-sec empire space, one of the Manticores is replaced by a Tengu. The change of ship grabs my interest, and the launching of a combat scanning probe punches it in the throat. Is he launching the probe because he knows this wormhole is about to die, or is he keeping a watchful eye on the system as he prepares to shoot Sleepers? A passive scan of the system reveals one anomaly, which could be new and his target, but as more probes get launched it becomes clear this Tengu is going to scan.

There is nowhere to hide in this C2, being a small enough system that d-scan covers all of the planets wherever you sit. I can't launch my own probes without being spotted, particularly as the scout is launching combat probes, and I am now getting paranoid that he knows this dying wormhole is about to implode. I may have a route home should I get isolated, but I'm not keen on making my way through null-sec pipes to get there. I leave this C2 through the wobbly wormhole and head back to null-sec. I can scan there to see if there are any further wormholes that could provide a shortcut.

There are other pilots in the null-sec system when I return to it, but that's okay. I'm here to scan, not rat. I warp out, launch probes, and find one extra signature to resolve, as the pilot numbers go down from three, to two, and then just me. Okay, I can rat and scan. Multi-tasking Penny! To be fair, holding a tight orbit around a rat battleship with my launchers active doesn't take much effort, and as the local channel offers immediate notice of pilots entering the system I feel pretty safe ratting on automatic as I scan. The other signature is only a magnetometric site, though, there being no alternative route here. As much as I'd like to get Fin home I don't think I'll manage it tonight.

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Tags: eve online, manticore, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, tornado, w-space

Scouting in my colleague's wake

Scanning when there are only one or two signatures in the system is pretty easy. Scanning when your glorious leader has been here an hour earlier and bookmarked all there is to find is even easier. I'm not going to fall in to the trap of assuming that nothing's changed in the hour since the corporate bookmarks were created, though. W-space can shifty like that, but thankfully not today. Launching probes finds the expected number of signatures, and it seems that the only change to be seen is that the K162 coming in from class 2 w-space is now in its death throes.

I'm assuming the C2 K162 being EOL is a change. I've occasionally caught myself noting that a wormhole is particularly wobbly and soon to collapse, yet failing to incorporate that information in to the bookmark itself. It may not be necessary information to include, but it's helpful. If a wormhole has collapsed, it can be useful to know if it was forced closed or died of old age. And knowing that a wormhole was EOL or not when the bookmark was created gives a better sense of impending doom. In this case, assuming that Fin didn't see a wobbly wormhole, the K162 should last another couple of hours at least. That's enough time to poke my nose through.

Even if the K162 wormhole was EOL earlier I'm not too concerned about getting isolated. Fin's scanning has been through our static connection too and resolved an exit to empire space, so if the K162 collapses I can resolve an exit here and make my way home otherwise unaided. And maybe it is worth the look in this class 2 system, as my directional scanner is showing me ships. An Orca industrial command ship, Drake battlecruiser, and Machariel battleship are all somewhere in the system, as is a corpse.

A corpse is a good sign of activity. Well, more a positive sign of activity than a good one, as it's a pretty reliable indicator that I've missed the action. The ships I see aren't likely to be in empty space either, not with five active towers scattered around, one potentially marked by a territorial control unit for whatever purpose. Even so, scanning probes in the system are a sign that at least one capsuleer is out and about. Assuming, that is, that the probes don't belong to the now-corpse. And with no wrecks on d-scan, more towers than ships, and what ships that are visible being unviable targets by myself, I think I'll have better luck leaving the dying connection behind me to scout in the other direction.

There's almost nothing to see from the wormhole in our neighbouring class 3 system, with only a lone secure container floating somewhere in empty space. I move away from the wormhole and cloak, opening the system map to decide in which direction to explore, when I see a bookmark already exists pointing towards a tower. That's handy. I warp to the bookmarked location but see no hangars or arrays, which is only explained when I look up from d-scan to see that the tower is off-line. There is an active tower nearby, though, and I locate it so I can keep an eye on it should I need to. I don't right now, not with a lack of ships in the system, but maybe someone will wake up.

I haven't quite run out of options yet. I warp to the static wormhole in C3a and jump out to the grey nebula of low-sec Lonetrek, where another scout is busy scanning away. I warp out, launch probes, and join him. It's all a bit dull here, though, with just the one other signature, which turns out to be a radar site that I don't much care for at the moment. The other scout decides the same and leaves the low-sec system, and not through the K162 to C3a, which is where I return. The class 3 system remains unsurprisingly quiet after my five-minute hiatus from it, so I head home.

I check the K162 in our home system and see it still alive, and with little else to do I take a second look through it. The Machariel is now joined by two Tengu strategic cruisers, which could offer a possibility that some Sleeper combat will occur shortly, and maybe give me a salvager to shoot. But performing a passive scan of the system shows it to be bereft of anomalies, giving them nothing to shoot but wayward visitors. I suspect the system is just as empty of other signatures too, being so populated with towers, which discourages me from scanning here. Besides, d-scan places the ships at one of the towers, and I quickly lose interest.

In a last, desperate bid to find something of interest this evening I return to C3a and launch scanning probes. Maybe a new signature has popped up since Fin scanned earlier. I hope so. I discard the nine anomalies from my initial blanket scan so that I can concentrate on the six signatures, two of which I already know about. And, this is exciting, I find a new wormhole! Or it would be exciting if I weren't about to resolve the static exit to low-sec again. There are two signatures I already know about; pay attention, Penny. Instead, all I find are rocks, gas, gas, and a radar site. Nope, nothing here. I think I have to accept that nothing's happening tonight, so head home to go off-line.

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Tags: drake, eve online, machariel, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space