Moa and Manticore

Back in w-space and looking to see what I can find, I don't even have to wander outside the home system today. Two Moa cruisers, a few drones, and a jet-can are all visible on my directional scanner, once I move from my hiding spot to be closer to the centre of the system. Thar be signs of gas harvesting. Luckily, this is in the home system, so scanning probes are not needed to locate the already-bookmarked ladar site, and I simply warp in to reconnoitre the ships. It all looks simple enough. Two cruisers harvesting gas, a shared jet-can, and drones presumably used to disperse Sleepers, or, perhaps, to decloak particularly inexperienced pilots warping directly to the cosmic signature.

I bookmark the jet-can, retreat to a suitable monitoring point, and warp in to welcome the Moas to our system with all weapon bays open. I believe that's a sign of respect in some cultures, even if it leads to extended and crippling wars. I'll settle for one popped cruiser, to be honest. I lock on to both ships, disrupt the warp drives of one, and start shooting. And I keep shooting until both cruisers warp off, the bastards having fit warp core stabilisers to their ships. Never mind, I can harvest some of the gas myself. And by 'harvest', I mean 'collect what they left behind in this canister'.

I swing past our tower, jump in to a Crane transport ship, and collect the gas after making sure the coast is clear. All looks quiet, but it may not stay that way. I dump the gas in our hangar, get back in to my Tengu and, oop, reconnect to the probes I accidentally abandoned in deep space. That's okay, it saves me having to launch them a second time, and I intend to scan for wormholes now anyway. We have the ladar site, a magnetometric site, our static wormhole, and a K162 wormhole with an Impel transport ship sitting on it as my probes converge on the signature. Sorry, chum, I nabbed your gas.

I swap my obviously insufficient Tengu for a stealth bomber, taking a moment to try to squeeze on more points of warp disruption before realising that my already tightly fit Manticore can't manage it. Okay, so my new choice will also be insufficient to stop stabilised ships from evading me, but it will also hit harder and be cheaper to replace, so I give up reconfiguring it and swing through the ladar site on the way to the K162. The Impel is not to be seen, and the K162 comes from class 5 w-space. Now I wonder what to do. The C5ers are certainly aware of my presence, so I am unlikely to catch them being stupid, which makes me think I should just get back in to my covert scanning Tengu strategic cruiser and head to our neighbouring class 3 system. I'll grab a drink and have a think.

Damn it. I step out of my pod for a minute—yes, we can do that—and I hear the K162 my Manticore's sitting on flare a couple of times. I have no idea what ships came or left the system, which puts me at a disadvantage. I return to my pod to see nothing on d-scan, making my best guess that the C5ers are collapsing their wormhole. I suppose it's worth hanging around here for a few more minutes to see if that's the case. And the K162 flares again, but it doesn't bring a ship massive enough to help destabilise a wormhole. Instead, a Moa returns to the system. Now, I can't quite believe that the capsuleers will think about harvesting gas again, at least not without an escort, so this doesn't smell right. Having the Moa align very slowly away from the wormhole, as if tempting a certain someone to take a shot, is also a rather obvious sign of being bait. You wish, sir!

Still, having admitted that the Moa is obvious bait I am still tempted to take a shot at the cruiser. My notoriously unreliable short-term memory has not quite made my forget about the recent undetermined jumps through the K162, but were they guards or scouts? Either way, it would be close to suicide to engage again in my Tengu, even without its recalibration delay, as I have already seen that I cannot stop the warp-stabilised Moa. But I'm in my Manticore, armed with a much more devastating bomb launcher, torpedoes, and instant target acquisition after decloaking, and I think I have a chance of causing a bit more disruption. I watch as the Moa gets to thirty kilometres from the wormhole before warping back to the ladar site.

I follow behind the Moa, although to my monitoring point a few hundred kilometres distant from the cruiser. It looks like there's not much I can do to start with, as the Moa is nestled in the gas cloud, which decloaks all, and he's probably expecting me. But almost as soon as I think I'm wasting my time the cloud disperses, the final traces pulled in to the Moa's hold. Now I can warp to where the cloud was, having been thoughtful enough to have bookmarked its position, without threat of decloaking. I warp in close to the Moa and watch its next move, which is to manoeuvre enticingly slowly towards the second cloud, tens of kilometres away.

Yes, okay, this is clearly bait. After all, there were two Moas, which easily evaded my Tengu, and now there's only one. But a bomb launch in an agile ship could get a lucky kill, and I'll just warp away if there looks to be trouble I can't handle. I may as well give it a go, particularly as the pilots are probably expecting my Tengu. And so I wait and watch as the Moa continues towards the second gas cloud, until he is a good bombing distance away from me. I align my Manticore, decloak, and launch. I gain a positive target lock on the Moa as the bomb is in flight, so that I can activate my target painter for a bigger bomb blast and prepare torpedoes, and watch as the detonation shreds the Moa's shields, as well as those of a nearby, recently decloaked Manticore.

A stealth bomber is a more suitable target for me to shoot, as I've had good success pitting my own Manticore against them in the past, so I switch focus from the bait Moa. If only I was alert enough to switch my weapon systems too. I point and paint the Manticore, but somehow forget to disengage my torpedoes from the Moa until my new target has hit me with his own bomb. His torpedoes start slamming in to my fragile hull long before I am thinking straight, and with the bomb almost evaporating my shields it doesn't take much encouragement for my Manticore to disintegrate. Oops, I've exploded. I blame my recently reconstructed overview for this, as it is wrongly showing a tackling Helios covert operations boat with a bright red background. It is quite distracting.

Finding myself sitting in my pod rarely fails to enliven me and I warp clear, as a Myrmidon battlecruiser warps in to the ladar site. The Myrmidon is followed by a Sabre interdictor, two Drake battlecruisers, and an Armageddon battleship, all seen on d-scan as I bounce back to our tower, and all presumably champing at the bit to get involved with a Tengu kill. Ha ha, the joke's on them, it was just some idiot in a Manticore! In unrelated news, I think I need to get a new stealth bomber, as mine's gone missing.

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Tags: armageddon, crane, drake, eve online, helios, impel, manticore, mmorpg, moa, myrmidon, penny ibramovic, pvp, sabre, scanning, tengu, w-space

Simple scanning and scaring the neighbours

I'm not feeling up to much this evening, but I can at least take a look around. There's nothing to see at home, and not much more in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. A tower is visible on my directional scanner but no ships, and as there's nowhere out of range of d-scan I suppose there's nowhere to explore. There's also nowhere to launch probes covertly, so I'll just do it at the wormhole, like an animal.

A blanket scan of this C3 reveals one anomaly and thirteen signatures, and I know from three months ago that I'll find a static connection to low-sec empire space amongst those thirteen. Sure enough, I resolve the static wormhole and, and, yes! There's a second wormhole, a nifty K162 from more class 3 w-space. Maybe more is happening there than here. I jump in to see that nothing could be further from the truth, as again there is a tower and no sign of ships in a system holding a static exit to low-sec. I'm back to looking for more wormholes.

Scanning is simpler in C3b, with only seven signatures to resolve. My first choice turns out to be the static connection—a one-in-seven chance, what are the odds of that happening?—but the wormhole is reaching the end of its lifetime. As in C3a, I find a second wormhole here too, but it's only a dull K162 from high-sec empire space. A third wormhole pops up, and even though it is a K162 from null-sec and still terminates the w-space constellation it could give me an opportunity to gain a fragment of my security status back.

I jump to null-sec, where I'm thankfully alone in a system in Curse. I scour the rock fields for a rat battleship and, good show, find one in the first. A quick exchange of fire later and I gain a small bounty and smaller effect on my security status. I could check to see if there are other systems around here where I could rat, but honestly that's pretty tedious and not how I want to spend my time. I just turn around and head back to w-space, across C3b to C3a, where an Occator transport ship has appeared on d-scan.

The increased warp strength of the Occator saddens my single point of disruption. Let me get my scrambler too, I won't be a minute! No, more like three, as I warp across C3a, jump home, warp to the tower, open the fitting bay, grab a warp scrambler, plug it in to my ship, and turn back towards the wormhole to C3a. Well, the Occator is still on d-scan. Let's hope he's slow in waking up and hasn't completed his planet goo rounds yet. Oh, he's disappeared from d-scan. That may be okay, he could have headed to low-sec. I'll head there myself to take a look.

There's no sign of the Occator or the pilot in the low-sec system. And appearing in the Metropolis region puts me many jumps from anywhere interesting, so if the transport came out this way I could be waiting a while for his return. That is, if I'm dumb enough to wait for him. No, I think I'll—hullo, I hear a ship decloaking. A Nemesis stealth bomber has appeared near the wormhole, shortly followed by a Viator transport ship. That's interesting. They both jump in to C3a, and I think I'll join the party.

I decloak and get ready for whichever ship I think I'll be least likely to miss, as both are cloaky and agile, and watch as the Viator jumps directly back to low-sec. The Nemesis is kind enough to pause in w-space long enough for me to launch a couple of volleys at him before he too returns to low-sec, and although I give chase back through the wormhole both ships evade me easily enough. At least my security status remains on its upwards trend for now, even if I don't get a kill.

Cloaking on the wormhole again, now that any targets are themselves cloaked or warped away, I notice that the Nemesis and Viator pilots are from different corporations. It's possible I just ambushed an ambush. That still doesn't explain why the Viator ran away, as the transport should have been able to run rings about both my covert Tengu strategic cruiser and the Nemesis, the bloody fool. He certainly shouldn't need to call on his colleague to help him, which he seems to do.

I return to w-space, heading home to collapse, to see a Drake battlecruiser on d-scan, the Occator pilot called back on-line and repurposed to be an escort for a ship that is designed to run bigger and scarier blockades than two opportunists. But maybe the Drake's appearance is a coincidence, and the Viator pilot turned around because he left something back at a station. It's possible. Either way, nothing else will happen here that I can disrupt. I leave C3a behind me as I jump home and hide, settling down after a relaxing night of simple scanning and scaring the neighbours.

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Tags: drake, eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, nemesis, occator, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, viator, w-space

Vexing a Vargur

My glorious leader is glorious. Fin's scanned an exit for me so I can get home. Or maybe she scanned an entrance. An exit for her, an entrance for me? Am I exiting empire space? Whatever, I can get back to w-space. Well, I can get back to w-space if I can get to the low-sec system safely, which isn't guaranteed. I believe I am more scared of low-sec than w-space, which is a little perverse, but I suppose stargates are generally easier to find for most players than wormholes. To help me get past any possible pirates I refit the Devoter heavy interdictor from its wormhole-collapsing fit to one with warp core and agility stabilisers, to escape casual attention, and quickly.

I undock and, look at that, setting my nav-comp to the destination system has it appear only eight hops away. Not only that, but it is eight hops through high-sec empire space with just the final system being low-sec. That's pretty convenient. I'm getting a warm feeling about getting home safely, although it's possible I peed myself in the excitement. I make the transit across high-sec easily enough, consider scouting my way home first before disregarding that idea as ludicrously sensible, and activate the stargate to fling me in to low-sec. All is clear. I warp away from the empty space around the stargate towards the wormhole Fin scanned for me, and jump back to w-space.

My directional scanner is clear from the class 3 w-space system's static connection to low-sec. Almost empty, in fact, as d-scan shows me just the star and first planet in the system. That's fine for me, as it helps to keep my undetected self safe, and I warp across to our K162, where all d-scan shows me there is the second planet in the system. I get the feeling I'll need to take a proper look around at some point. I jump home and warp to our tower without getting molested, where I refit the Devoter to its initial configuration, swap to my covert scanning Tengu strategic cruiser, and get ready to start my evening proper.

Nothing says 'start the evening' like scanning the home system, particularly as anything could have happened in the few hours since Fin found me the way home. And anything has happened, if by 'anything' I mean 'a K162 from class 3 w-space has opened in to our system'. I'm pretty sure that's what I mean. Rather than head back through our static wormhole to the sparse C3a I take a peek through this K162 to C3b, where a Chimera carrier, Orca industrial command ship, and tower all await me. Not on the wormhole, although that would be a neat trick, but somewhere in the system, as d-scan would have it.

There are also three probes visible on d-scan, and now seven, perhaps indicating that a scout is scanning this wormhole. I'll hold here for now to see what information I can get, information like 'this scout is slow', or perhaps 'there are lots of other signatures here'. Whilst I wait for a scout not to show himself I check my notes, which being fourteen months old are probably out of date except for the system holding a static exit to high-sec. Ah, here we go, the probes disappear. A Cheetah covert operations boat decloaks in front of me, near the wormhole, but doesn't jump. Instead, he warps away, and not towards a planet. Perhaps he's a high-sec tourist and is heading back towards the opened static wormhole he came through. That makes it my turn to scan.

A blanket scan of this C3 shows me five anomalies and twelve signatures. Not a huge burden to scan through but enough to get your teeth in to. I pick a signature roughly in the direction where the Cheetah warped to and, yep, resolve the static wormhole. Continued scanning resolves a second and third wormhole, both K162s, one from class 2 w-space and one from class 4 w-space. I warp to the static wormhole to get the exit system in high-sec, but before I jump I see a Vulture command ship on d-scan. I'm sure he wasn't there a minute ago. He's not at the tower, and a quick search places him coincident with the star. That's a curious place for a ship to sit.

I warp to the system's star to see the Vulture there but moving away under full speed in a bid to keep him relatively safe. And now there's a Vargur marauder on d-scan, probably a colleague of the Vulture's, and probably being boosted by the Vulture's warfare links. It's a simple matter to locate the marauder in one of the anomalies here—hey, it's the Cheetah pilot—where I see him shoot ships and, being a marauder, loot and salvage as he goes. Except he's not looting and salvaging, just shooting. It would be peculiar for a marauder not to take advantage of the efficiency the ship class offers, but I won't sniff at a possible salvager ambush. Ah, there we go. Tractor beams activate and wrecks get pulled to the Vargur after all. It looks like he was simply overwhelmed initially by micro-managing his drones against the Sleepers to get involved with salvaging.

I have no shot in the C3. The Vulture is a tough nut to crack, the marauder more so, and a marauder boosted by a command ship will need more than the equivalent of the withering stare my solo covert Tengu can give it. That doesn't mean I can't be disruptive, though. I continue my plan of poking my nose out to high-sec, making my Tengu a little obvious as I do so, where I appear in a high-sec island in the Devoid region. Despite being high-sec, this is actually a worse exit than the low-sec system in the other direction. Still, I was only curious. I jump back to w-space where, mission accomplished, the Vargur is gone. I guess he saw me. He didn't even stop to collect his drones.

With C3b now empty I can explore the other connected systems. C2a has the Vargur on d-scan, along with some other ships that are both industrial and combative. I find the ships divided between two of the three towers here, with only the Vargur piloted and a disappearing Helios cov-ops probably holding the Vulture pilot. I'll ignore them for now, as there isn't much I can do anyway. I jump back to C3b and then in to C4a, where a single tower and Chimera carrier looks pretty dull. I don't bother scanning, instead heading back to C3b, through our home system, and in to C3a, a couple of hours after I thought I'd be returning here.

My notes put me in this system three previous times, the last seven months ago. Opening the system map shows why I saw so little when passing through earlier, as this C3 is vast. A span of 170 AU holds a mere four planets, although there are plenty of moons. Even so, the corporation living here picks the planet with one moon to anchor their tower to. Admittedly, it's never exactly difficult to find a tower, just sometimes time-consuming, but that doesn't mean you have to make it easy. There is an unpiloted Badger hauler in the tower and nothing else, here or in the system. I don't feel like scanning, so I don't. I simply turn around and jump home, happy to be spending the night in w-space again.

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Tags: badger, cheetah, chimera, devoter, eve online, helios, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, vargur, vulture, w-space

Death to the wormhole

A new day. Nothing's happening in the home system, with the static wormhole being the only changed signature under my probes, which makes a pleasant change. With only one direction to go, I resolve our connection, warp to it, and, um. Oh. The wormhole is groaning like a Fenrir aligning to warp, it already being mass-destabilised, and to a critical degree. How could that be? Mak hasn't jumped her pod through as far as I'm aware. I suppose a passing fleet took exception to the connection and decided to collapse it. And then gave up when it proved too difficult. But if that's the case, where is the fleet? And where is their K162 in to our system?

Nothing's making sense at the moment. It seems plausible that a fleet scouts to empire space, decides they like our system enough to isolate it from the rest of the constellation, and destabilises the wormhole so that no one interrupts them. But interrupts them from what? All of our anomalies seem to be present, or at least enough to suggest no big fleet operation, so it doesn't look like any fleet has blitzed our system. The only explanation that makes sense is that they were interrupted early on, fled homewards, and then both the interlopers and their ambushers collapsed their connections to our system, the interlopers because they wanted a safe system and the ambushers because they didn't want to deal with the critical wormhole in our system.

Whatever's happened, I'm stymied until I can figure out what to do about the critical wormhole myself. I could try to collapse it safely using a heavy interdictor and the curious mass-reducing properties of its warp bubble, but there remains a slight chance of the wormhole collapsing as I jump to the class 3 w-space system, and I have no exit to known space at the moment. I really don't want to scan in a HIC, not having got quite used to dedicated scanning boats, so I think I need to take a scouting boat through first. I'll do that. I'll scout through the C3, resolve the exit wormhole for safety, then collapse our static wormhole with a HIC so that I can have a fresh wormhole and constellation all to myself.

I look in the hangar for a suitably small hull to scout in, but there's not much to choose from. It seems Fin and I are quite settled in our covert Tengu strategic cruisers. There are a couple of Buzzard covert operations boats that would be suitable, both for being low in mass and good at scanning, but neither have rigs fitted. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I'll use my Tengu, and if the wormhole collapses on my outward jump then at least I am in a comfortable ship for the evening. I warp to the wormhole, jump through, and see what happens.

The wormhole is still standing. I also see a Catalyst destroyer, Iteron hauler, and tower on my directional scanner. The tower's in the same location as almost five months ago, when I was last here, but before I drop out of warp there the Catalyst is replaced by a Tengu on d-scan. Unsurprisingly, I find the Tengu piloted at the tower, the hauler sitting empty, and this C3 occupied by reds. We have a grudge with this corporation. Maybe I can score some points with management if this Tengu goes out to shoot Sleepers, and then I shoot his salvager. I don't see that happening, though, not when the Tengu goes off-line shortly after I formulate my devious plan. I'll scan instead.

Scanning my way through seven signatures is hardly a chore, and I resolve rocks, a K162 from class 4 w-space, some gas, the static wormhole to low-sec empire space, and two signatures I've suddenly stopped caring about. I exit to low-sec, appearing in the Placid region and not too close to anywhere. Stupid Gallente regions. Still, there's a good view of the cloud ring and I'm only three hops from high-sec, so it's a pretty good safety net. I jump back to w-space, take an opportunistic look in the C4, then return home when I see a tower and no ships on d-scan. There's no point wasting time scanning here when I could get myself a new system by collapsing our wormhole.

I activate my micro warp drive when jumping home, hoping that little addition of mass will be just enough to kill the connection. But no, I'm going to have to get the HIC out. Fin bought a Devoter and fitted it specifically to collapse critical wormholes, and I have the skills to pilot it. Lots of armour plating, a 100 MN reheat module, and three warp field disruption generators makes it ideal for exiting light and returning heavy. I warp to the wormhole, activate the bubbles, and jump with a ship with its mass reduced to below a kilotonne. Naturally, this is not enough to collapse the wormhole, but keeping the bubbles deflated and activating the oversized reheat on the way back, making the Devoter mass over 70 kt, may do it. Nope. I need another trip.

So far I've pushed my Tengu through the wormhole, once with the MWD engaged and once without, stressing the wormhole for 15 kt and 20 kt respectively. Now I've made a return trip in the Devoter, to stress the wormhole for approximately 70 kt. That's technically more mass than the our wormhole should withstand at critical mass, so I've got a chubby one here. That's not terribly important overall, because two trips with this wormhole-collapsing Devoter should kill our static wormhole when it's critically destabilised, however much mass it has left. And, to prove it, I make one more jump and job's a good 'un! The wormhole is gone.

Sadly, it was just the one more jump that collapses the wormhole, not a round trip. All three warp bubbles were active, the Devoter's mass was below a kilotonne, and even that was enough to kill a wormhole clinging on to life by the barest thread. Bastard. If the wormhole weren't dead, I'd kill it. There's not really much I could have done about that, though, so rather than write an angry letter to the editor of the Space Times I'll just thank myself for scanning—conveniently overlooking the fact that had I not scanned I could have made two return trips with the Devoter and killed the wormhole cleanly—and warp to the exit to low-sec.

I jump to empire space and take a look around. The system that was empty minutes ago is now bustling, a fleet perhaps on a roam through here. They're not on the wormhole and, pointing myself towards the first step to high-sec, they aren't on the stargate I want to use, so I make a run for it. And I run in to the fleet, as they jump to the same system I'm aiming for. I knew it was a possibility and I'll just have to deal with the consequences. I jump past a Raven battleship and Tengu, moments before they jump, and arrive in the next system amidst some other ships. I shed the session change cloak and get the HIC's own cloak active as soon as possible, happy to see the fleet warp off, and not in the direction of my next stargate. I suppose I am a bit scary being unknown and in a HIC in low-sec, or maybe the fleet is already chasing some other pilots.

With no one around to bother me I make it the next two jumps to get to high-sec, where I dock and make myself uncomfortable surrounded by other people. I think about waking Constance up and scanning the new constellation to get me home, but I don't bother. I could probably stand a day out in empire space, and there's little point in getting me home just for the sake of getting me home. Maybe I should have realised that the other day too. I have colleagues and connections. I'll get myself back to the home system tomorrow.

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Tags: buzzard, catalyst, devoter, eve online, iteron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, raven, scanning, tengu, w-space

Shadowing a gassing battleship

We've reaped the profit from the popper Proteus, looting and salvaging the strategic cruiser and the Sleepers it engaged, and now our victim's gone off-line. The w-space constellation may not be entirely quiet, though, as the K162 from the Proteus pilot's class 5 home is not the only wormhole connecting in to our system today. A second K162, this one from a class 4 system, waits to be explored. I take my covert Tengu strategic cruiser in to take a look around.

There is nothing for my directional scanner to show me in this C4 apart from planets and moons. My notes put me in this system eleven months ago, when it was unoccupied, so if there is anyone to find I'll have to go looking. I move away from the wormhole, cloak, and warp away to explore. The wormhole is close to the centre of the system, with two planets out of range of d-scan in different directions, and picking one direction arbitrarily has me warping to a d-scan result that's just as clear. But on the other side of the system a Dominix battleship sits in what otherwise looks like empty space.

There is no tower here that I can see, just the Dominix. No wrecks accompany the ship, which would put him in a safe spot, on a wormhole, or, heaven forfend, harvesting gas. I make a rough approximation of the Dominix's position, putting him between 2 and 3 AU of the planet, then warp out to launch probes. I'm going to scan for him. What I'll do when I find him I have no idea, but maybe Aii can help with whatever madcap nonsense I dream up. It will probably involve throwing expensive hulls at the battleship and hoping for the best.

Before I can launch probes a Jaguar assault ship appears on d-scan on the other side of the system. He lingers for a little while and disappears. Aii remains in the home system and I give him a heads-up. My colleague is cloaked and safe, punching d-scan to confirm the Jagaur headed his way. The assault ship then disappears from our home system to reappear in this C4, and then goes again. It looks like he was making a simple reconnaissance jaunt through the constellation. It also shows that the Dominix pilot probably has some support he can call on, although if they have to make at least one jump it may not be all that timely.

The system's clear again, so I launch probes, throw them out of the system, and return to be near the Dominix. I start refining my estimate on his position, keeping track of my progress with d-scan by using a probe's scanning box for alignment purposes. I have his position on a five degree beam, and already have his range, so start placing my probes for a scan. But the Dominix disappears from d-scan. Actually, that may not a problem, and in fact could help me. I have a datum probe where I believe the Dominix was and I don't need any more adjustments.

I rush to place the rest of the probes and hit 'scan' before the battleship returns. I get a solid hit on the ladar site, sans Dominix, and throw my probes back out of the system. I warp in to the site to see a cloud of gas remaining, and make a suitable monitoring point which Aii joins me in. We could simply wait here, but I have my probes back in a blanket scanning configuration, and I make a quick check of what else is in the system with us. One other ship is here, apparently, so I leave Aii to watch for the Dominix as I see what my probes have detected.

D-scan shows me the Dominix again, now in a different part of the system. He's not moving or jumping, so I'll scan him again. I narrow down my search as before, using d-scan to gauge his direction and range, and position my probes for another scan. This time it's a bit tricky, as the Dominix looks to be directly below a planet, and the stupid system map cannot be manipulated to look directly above or below your current position. Even so, I pretty much know where the Dominix is. I call my probes in for another scan and get another solid hit, 100% on the Dominix. I don't fully resolve the ladar site, but I had to guess where it was rather more haphazardly than I would like, thanks to the inane interface. It's good that battleships are chunky.

This time I recall my probes, as I doubt I'll need them a third time. I warp in to reconnoitre the site again, this one with the Dominix still in it. I make another monitoring position and get Aii with me, and now we wonder what to do. Shoot it, I suppose, but maybe not with two covertly configured Tengus. As with the Proteus earlier, Aii is happy to tackle the battleship as I head home to get something pointier. I'm not quite sure what, though. Aii points out that this may all be in vain, as the Dominix could have warp core stabilisers fitted, which isn't uncommon for gas harvesters. We could still stop him warping clear by deploying a heavy interdictor and its warp bubble, but we then probably wouldn't have the firepower to destroy the battleship.

I secretly wouldn't mind if the Dominix has warp core stabilisers fitted. In my experience, they are pretty hardy ships and, being Gallente, is probably stuffed with drones. In this case, being fitted for gas harvesting probably hasn't affected the ship's ability to fight much. Us engaging and it warping away would probably be a good result. I head home to swap ships anyway, looking for a ship capable of doing lots of damage, and hold on the wormhole to our system for now. The connection is in d-scan range of the Dominix's new position and we probably shouldn't spook it. I'll need to jump to get home and swap boats, though.

The battleship warps out of the second ladar site. It seems like a good time for me to jump home when it drops off d-scan, so I do. I warp to our tower to swap ships as Aii waits to see if the Dominix returns, but it doesn't. It perhaps wasn't making a trip to its own tower to empty its cargohold of gas but got bored instead. It's also possible we were spotted, but I'm not sure when. Taking five minutes to react to seeing probes blip on d-scan is not particularly showing much sense of self-preservation. Even so, Aii spots an Anathema covert operations boat and Hound stealth bomber appear in the C4.

I get out of my pointy ship and board my own stealth bomber, warping the Manticore to the C4 K162 in our home system. I sit and watch the wormhole but see no ships pass through. Nothing happens in the ladar site, no more ships appear in the C4, and still nothing passes me on the wormhole. It looks like the system has gone dead. Whatever the reason, there is nothing else for us to do. That's okay. The Proteus kill earlier is a particular highlight for the two of us, and we got to chase a Dominix around a little, giving me more good practice in hunting with d-scan. Now it's time to get some rest and, hiding in a corner of the system, I go off-line.

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Tags: anathema, dominix, eve online, hound, jaguar, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Picking on a Proteus

All is clear, all is quiet. I launch probes from my hiding spot in the home system, configure them for a blanket scan, and warp cloaked to a safe spot nearer the middle of the system. All was clear and quiet from the edge of the system, but there is actually a Proteus and its drones out and about somewhere. My combat probes show the strategic cruiser to be the only unexpected ship in the system too. I adjust my directional scanner and see some Sleeper wrecks, which I quickly place in one of our two ladar sites. That makes sense, as a solo strategic cruiser would have trouble engaging Sleepers in class 4 w-space anomalies, unless it was fitted with ridiculously expensive modules, although I'm not quite sure why the Proteus would waste its time piddling around with Sleepers in gas harvesting sites.

Whatever the Proteus is up to I don't suppose there's much I can do about it directly. I have the ladar site bookmarked and warp in to create a monitoring point, seeing that the strategic cruiser has now moved on but left the wrecks, and curiously some Sleepers, which is encouraging for perhaps ambushing a salvaging ship. But the Proteus isn't finished yet, as my probes show him to be still in the system, although I have trouble finding him. I think I'm missing a bookmark, or that the other mining site is newly spawned and needs to be resolved, which I don't want to do when it would make my probes obvious on d-scan and I already have a site primed for an ambush. As Aii points out later, the Proteus merely bounced between the one gravimetric and two ladar sites in the home system, popping the Sleepers as he went.

Yes, Aii is here! What fabulous timing from my colleague. I ask if he's hidden and if he's available, and he says yes to both. That is just what I wanted to hear, because now we can assault the strategic cruiser itself. I warp to my monitoring point in the first ladar site, with four Sleeper cruisers remaining, to see the Proteus back and shooting them. I call Aii to warp to my position and, once he's in warp, I head back to our tower, holding outside the force field until I confirm that the ladar site is out of d-scan range. That's lucky for us, not so much for the Proteus.

Aii's happy to act as tackle. He has his covert Tengu strategic cruiser in prime position to warp to the Proteus and snare it, as I get Jeff K's Third Prophecy prepared for combat, the Legion strategic cruiser looking like it will live up to its role as a ship killer. Aii is ready to go. He warps in to the Proteus and decloaks, locking on to the target and disrupting its warp drive. When the Proteus has nowhere to go Aii calls me to warp to his position, which I do. I had my Legion aligned to the site in readiness, so I jump to warp almost instantly. I land a few kilometres from where Aii is holding the Proteus in place. Excellent.

I activate all my offensive systems, pointing, webbing, and neutralising the capacitor of the Proteus. He's already taken significant shield damage and some armour damage from the Sleepers, and now Aii and I are adding significant damage on top of that. The Proteus's armour looks to be holding up, but that only lasts until my neutralisers suck his capacitor dry, at which point the Proteus starts to disintegrate quickly, having no energy left to power his repair modules. I have asked if Aii has a sensor booster fitted to his Tengu, and hearing that he has I confirm that I have point on the Proteus and that Aii can deactivate his warp disruptor so that he can try to catch the pod.

The Proteus explodes, we aim for the pod, but it warps clear. That's okay, we just killed ourselves a Proteus strategic cruiser! Jeff K's Third Prophecy is nicely bloodied. I loot the wreck of all I can carry and warp the pair of us out to safety. I don't think we're in much danger from the lone Sleeper cruiser left in this site, but it may not be good for our health to stay in the pocket. A Manticore stealth bomber blips on d-scan briefly, but only once we're in warp and already safe. And although makes me wonder if we'll see any reprisal for the assault, a stealth bomber isn't much of a threat.

Aii cloaks and I swap the Legion back at the tower for my own covert Tengu. Oh, right, I had probes blanketing the system before. I should probably reconnect to them instead of just letting them decay in deep space. I loiter in the ladar site, near the Proteus wreck, and decide to scan. I think it's safe to say that whatever visitors we have are aware of our presence now. Before I get to arrange my probes I'm interrupted by the Manticore decloaking in the site, taking a pot-shot at the Sleeper cruiser, and warping clear. That was odd. What's more odd is that the stealth bomber isn't cloaking again, and I think I saw which planet he warped to.

Unfortunately, by the time I reach the planet the pilot has again found which button turns on his cloaking device and disappeared. One stealth bomber disappears, another one appears. A Nemesis decloaks near the Proteus wreck before warping out, under threat of Sleeper fire. It looks like they are trying to use their covert ships to loot the wreck of any surviving modules. I think this makes it worth getting closer to the wreck in the ladar site myself. I manoeuvre my Tengu towards the wreck and keep watch for the ships reappearing. And there they are! The Nemesis is about five kilometres from me, almost on top of the wreck, and the Manticore further away. I think they are trying to tag-team the Sleeper.

I decloak and wait the insufferable delay for my sensors to recalibrate before attempting to get a positive lock on the Nemesis. I am not quick enough, however, and can only watch as he warps clear. The Manticore is lingering, though, and so I burn in his direction. I have a positive lock on the stealth bomber and am firing missiles his way, but being over thirty kilometres from me means I cannot disrupt his warp engines and neither are my short-range missiles reaching him. My micro warp drive is getting me a kilometre closer to the Manticore with each second, but it's not enough. The ship turns and warps clear before my warp disruptor can snag the bomber.

The Proteus wreck is now empty, not that there was much left after I looted it. I suppose the other pilots couldn't have realised I'd done that, grabbing most of the modules to be melted down for profit, because by having to leave two modules the wreck wasn't shown by the overview as having the hollow triangle of an empty wreck. The pilots risked their two stealth bombers for maybe a few hundred thousand ISK. Personally, I think it's a shame I wasn't able to snare the Nemesis, as it was piloted by the same capsuleer who lost the Proteus. That would have been a sweet kill.

Now I scan. There are seven signatures at home, including the two ladar sites we know about, a new gravimetric site the Proteus also popped Sleepers in, a radar site, and three wormholes. I bookmark the sites and Aii gets a salvager from our hangar to recover the loot from the Sleeper wrecks, as I reconnoitre the wormholes. Aside from our static connection, we have two K162s. One connection comes from class 4 w-space, the other from class 5 w-space. I assume the Proteus came from the C4, because of the rather cheap fitting of his ship and his knowledge of class 4 ladar sites, so I check the C5 for additional threats first.

I jump in to w-space system J123546, so close to being harmonious, to see nothing on d-scan. Exploring finds a tower with an empty Iteron hauler in it, and it looks like I've unintentionally found the source of the Proteus. Of course, a corporation living in a C5 with a static connection to class 4 w-space will also be familiar with class 4 sites. Silly me. There's no one home now, and just a refinery running. As the pilots were last seen in stealth bombers its possible they are out and about and just cloaked, but I don't think so. After losing the Proteus the only reaction we provoked was for the capsuleers to try to recover surviving modules from the wreck. And with my additional attempted assault on their bombers I think we've seen the last of them.

I relay the information to Aii, telling him that this C5 is clear and that I think the capsuleers are probably gone, and he concurs. He pops the remaining Sleeper cruiser in the ladar site and completes his salvaging, including the Proteus wreck. This has been a splendid start to the evening. Visitors clean up our mining sites, give us a good Proteus kill, and we net all the profit from the Sleepers. It's all rather satisfying.

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Tags: eve online, iteron, legion, manticore, mmorpg, nemesis, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, tengu, w-space

Enemy connection

It's quiet out there. Not too-quiet-I'm-about-to-get-horribly-killed quiet, but Fin's connection is still less stable than an Amarrian ship's capacitor. I'm flying mostly solo for now, so hopefully I don't get too reckless in losing strategic cruisers. And it's not so quiet at home as to deny extra exploration opportunities, there being two wormholes to find once more. The static connection to class 3 w-space is today joined by a K162 from class 2 w-space. I am rarely able to resist jumping through to a C2 system, and today is no exception. Let's see what I can find.

My directional scanner shows me nothing from the wormhole in C2a. I warp out to explore, planning to launch probes at a less obvious position than an already-discovered wormhole, but bump in to a tower first. Not literally, but there's one around this outermost planet. It looks like the tower will be well bubble-trapped too, as there are bubbles and canisters littering d-scan. I locate the tower and warp in to one of the traps, which catches my interdiction-nullified ship by accident, although I miss bumping in to one of the cans scattered inside the bubble. That's good, as a Damnation command ship is piloted inside the tower's force field, one that belongs to a corporation set determinedly red to us.

I manoeuvre out of the bubble easily enough, noting the other bubble traps placed to catch ships warping in from different directions, and get closer to the tower. I can see that the Damnation looks to be running warfare links, which could indicate he is boosting the capabilities of other ships in the system. I bookmark a safe monitoring spot outside this tower and warp away to explore further, but all I find is a second tower around another planet, this one with five ships but no pilots, and the third corner of the system lies empty. That's okay, as this seems like a good spot to launch scanning probes.

My probes pick up five anomalies and six signatures here, and as the Damnation remains the only piloted ship in the system I am probably safe to scan most of the signatures without being detected. But that only holds true if the Damnation remains the only piloted ship in the system. I perform one last blanket scan before moving my probes to start resolving signatures, which I find to be a good check to do, and a new contact appears under my combat probes. The new ship looks to be at the second tower, so I warp across and indeed see a pilot turned up in a Purifier stealth bomber. I wonder where he's been, although as his vector suggests he's warped back from the wormhole to our home system I am more wondering how much he's seen.

Not long after the Purifier appears a Dramiel frigate warps in to this second tower to join him. The two ships don't really do much, but it's not their actions as much as their potential actions that concern me. The Dramiel warps away to the first tower, where a new contact in an Arazu recon ship appears shortly afterwards. None of these are ships for Sleeper combat, and if these enemies of ours already know about our system it's unlikely we'll have a particularly easy evening doing anything, even if it's just scouting. Jumping through wormholes can be a dangerous game sometimes. I think it may be best to go home and wait for the wormhole connecting our two systems to die. Better it than me.

I get home safely enough and spend a little time loitering by the K162. Nothing much happens for a while, until a Helios covert operations boat jumps in to our system. He then jumps right back again, showing a lack of interest that is almost insulting. But there is so little movement between the wormhole that I have just about decided to poke my nose through our static wormhole to C3a when the next ship appears, a Nemesis stealth bomber. He warps across our system, disappears for a couple of minutes, then comes right back again and returns to his C2. I suppose that means there's little happening in the C3 either. I'll go off-line for the night and look forward to a more Penny-friendly constellation tomorrow.

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Tags: arazu, damnation, dramiel, eve online, helios, mmorpg, nemesis, penny ibramovic, purifier, scanning, w-space

Missing a miner by moments

I'm in the home system, in my covert Tengu, and full of bacon. I'm not sure the evening can get much better, but I'll scan anyway. There's nothing out of the ordinary here, almost as if yesterday hadn't happened, leaving me only the static wormhole to resolve. Exploring in to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system has a clear result on my directional scanner, so I launch probes, configure them for a blanket scan of the system, and explore.

D-dscan may be clear of ships and towers, but there is one positive sign of occupancy, as only a single customs office is owned by Interbus. The others are capsuleer-owned. My blanket scan also picks up a ship on the outskirts of the system, where I'm headed now, along with a mere four signatures. There aren't even any anomalies here. In my experience, a system as clean as this almost guarantees the signatures are more wormholes. I find the tower easily enough, which has a piloted Cheetah covert operations boat inside its force field, and it looks to be the same tower that was here five months ago. I was a bit wrapped up in making other deductions to check my notes until now.

I see no probes on d-scan, either from the wormhole or at the tower, and as the four signatures are concentrated around those areas I think it's safe to assume the Cheetah is inactive. I may as well scan whilst he's dozing, particularly as I can complete most of it with my probes out of d-scan range of the tower. As expected, I find wormhole, wormhole, and a lovely ladar site. I don't normally get excited by gas, but the last time I was here I popped an Osprey in a ladar site, so that there's one here this time gives me hope for some kind of ambush. I reconnoitre the site, bookmarking a good monitoring position, then see what wormholes I've uncovered.

One wormhole in this C3 is the static exit to low-sec empire space that I knew I'd find, the other being a dreary K162 from high-sec that is reaching the end of its natural lifetime. So much for more exploring. But I can make the most of stable wormhole, jumping to low-sec to see what I can find there. I appear in empire space in the Derelik region, and as I'm one hop from high-sec and two from null-sec the system will see traffic. I can't rat here, but I can scan. I make a safe spot, launch probes, and see some anomalies that I'll have to ignore and nine signatures. That's quite a few.

Resolving the signatures in low-sec gives me a radar site, wormhole, rocks, rocks, gas, another radar site, a hidden Sansha site, some crappy drones, and more rocks. That's not the best result from nine signatures but I have another wormhole to investigate. As it's an outbound connection to more class 3 w-space, and stable enough that I may have just opened it, this wormhole's certainly got potential. Jumping in sees a core probe on d-scan along with a tower, but no ships. I warp to one edge of the system to launch my own probes, seeing another core probe on d-scan out here, and wonder if maybe someone is monitoring the system to look for new connections opening.

Having my blanket scan pick up a single ship on the other side of the system makes me think that perhaps someone is indeed monitoring the system for new wormholes. I warp across to see what's out here, expecting some medium-sized hull fitted with a probe launcher engaging Sleepers, and instead bumping in to a Retriever mining barge and accompanying jet-can. Time to hunt. The planets are far enough distant that I must be around the one closest to the Retriever, so I start narrowing down his position using d-scan. I get a rough idea of the barge's direction first, switching to check his range so that I can better gauge parallax errors, before refining his position.

The Retriever is just under 2 AU above this planet. I start arranging my probes to scan his position, opting for a tight configuration this time as I am confident about my use of d-scan, particularly over this short range. I falter slightly, but thankfully so, when I remember that a probe's range is its radius and not diameter, correcting this error and repositioning the probes so that I'll actually be scanning for the mining barge and not 2 AU beyond it. Now I'm ready. One final check with d-scan shows the Retriever is still there but, this is unexpected, a Viator transport ship has joined the barge in the site. Maybe I need to be quick.

I call the probes in for a scan and get a solid hit. The Retriever, Viator, and gravimetric site are all picked up by my probes at 100%. I warp to the Retriever's position as I recall my probes, bookmarking it in warp for reference, in case I need to warp out and return, but I warp in to only a rather uninteresting field of rocks. It looks like I dilly-dallied a little too long, either wasting time watching the Cheetah, reconning the ladar site, or fluffing the probes' scanning range here. Or it was just bad luck. The Retriever finished mining, a transport collected the ore, and the operation is over.

I warp back to the inner system and locate the tower, but only in time to see the refinery running. The Retreiver and Viator were on d-scan but have gone off-line, and a Helios cov-ops, either scouting incidentally or watching for new connections, appears and goes off-line too. Ah well, an exciting opportunity ends without an engagement. It's not so bad, as at least I got another chance to practice my scanning skills, and they seem pretty honed still. Now I can be more pedestrian in my scanning, as I launch probes again and take a more thorough look around this C3.

Scanning finds one more gravimetric site, along with four ladar sites and two wormholes. The system's static wormhole leads out to null-sec k-space and, as drearily as C3a, the second wormhole is an EOL K162 also from null-sec. I think I'll treat this as the end of the constellation. I bounce of the tower here to see it still empty, the refinery rumbling along, and head back to low-sec and in to C3a. The Cheetah is still in the tower here and still doing nothing, despite my silently urging it to harvest some gas. What a bore. I'm not waiting for nothing to happen. I jump home and go off-line.

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

Claiming the victory

I don't think I thought through my suicide run thoroughly enough. Oh sure, I was confident I had a good chance of evading the waiting fleet, I knew there was a connection to high-sec empire space available if I got in to trouble, and I specifically checked that our wallet could easily afford a replacement ship. That's all true. What I forgot about was the actual hassle involved with having to buy a replacement ship. There are no stations with market facilities in w-space and although I could go out to high-sec to buy one now, I would rather not be caught by the same fleet when bringing the replacement Tengu home. Losing one strategic cruiser to a camp is unfortunate. To lose two would be careless.

But looking in our hangar makes me realise I kinda do really want my covert scanning Tengu back. I don't appear to have a Buzzard covert operations boat of my own in the hangar any more, and I'm not sure I want to go back to scanning in one anyway. I really should make use of the connection to high-sec whilst we've got it, but that relies on the hostile fleet abandoning their hunt. They have my Tengu, so they're probably content, but I don't want to give them another target. So despite preferring to scout in a stealth bomber, and as I don't have my own Buzzard here, I borrow a cov-ops from Fin. Jumping in to a stealth bomber and warping out of the tower would probably send the wrong vibes to the hostile fleet.

I know where the fleet was and where it came from, so I take Fin's Buzzard and monitor their movements. My poor, poor Tengu has already been claimed as their own, but most of the fleet remains clustered around where it was, maybe ten kilometres from our static wormhole. Not for long, though. The ships turn and warp away, heading back to their class 5 w-space system, which has a wormhole connecting in to our home system today. I sit and watch the wormhole for a while, keeping my directional scanner active too, and there is minimal activity now. I think I'll go to high-sec and get my new Tengu.

I dump the Buzzard at our tower and ponder what I should travel in. I could take a simple frigate, or a shuttle, but in the end I plump for my pod. I don't think there's much point in wrapping myself up in a ship. If my pod can't get clear there's no point losing a ship to find out. Besides, if I thought I couldn't get my pod to high-sec safely I wouldn't be making this trip in the first place. Even so, there is a sliver of doubt in my mind. I haven't seen much activity, and there weren't any warp bubbles deployed, so I suppose I'm just a little on edge. I warp to the wormhole and jump to the class 3 w-space system with a touch of trepidation, happy to see it clear on the other side. I warp across the C3 and exit to high-sec without issue.

Getting myself to Jita is straightforward, if dull. There are a few large systems to cross, which takes its time, but there is no danger here. Once in the Forge I start buying my replacement ship, based on the saved fitting of the one I just lost. The faction micro warp drive is available and offered at a reasonable price, which is handy, but I had forgotten just how expensive my covert Tengu is. The corporation wallet doesn't dip too low but it's still a loss I perhaps should have avoided. Then again, ISK is there to be spent, and I certainly got a chunk of excitement out of losing my ship. My only concern now is getting home.

Returning to the high-sec system with the K162 from C3a is as straightforward as travelling to Jita. Getting home from here could be awkward. There are no hostile pilots in the system, as evidenced by the transparent local communication channel, and I can jump in to C3a without threat, as I can always jump right back out again if I see trouble. But warping to our home K162 and jumping through is a rather more opaque proposition. I could use some eyes in the home system. So it's good that I have Constance to call on.

I wake up Constance from her hiding place and get her to reconnoitre our home system. The corporate bookmarks makes this wonderfully simple. She warps to the K162 from the class 5 system to see it gone, which is good news. No doubt they collapsed their wormhole to look for iskies in another system, which almost certainly means they've left no ships behind. Constance warps across to our static wormhole to see it still there, still in its half-mass state, and clear of ships. That doesn't mean its clear of ships, of course, but with the C5 K162 gone it probably is. I know I can evade a cloaky ambusher anyway. It's nice to see we're not dealing with incessant campers, at least.

Happy to think that all is clear, I jump back to w-space, reconnoitre the wormhole home from a distance, and, seeing it clear, jump through. I thank Constance for her valuable contribution and let her hide again. I have made it home, safely, in a covert scanning Tengu. Even if the corporate wallet would disagree, I think I can call this a victory! I knew I could get past that fleet, one way or another.

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Tags: buzzard, constance sokolov, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, tengu, w-space

Taking the bait and taking a chance

My glorious leader has been scanning again. Thanks, Fin! She's nowhere to be found at the moment, though, so it's just me and space for a while. Even though I have a set of bookmarks for our w-space constellation ready for me I still launch probes and blanket the home system, as w-space is pretty changeable. There are the same number of signatures as the bookmarks indicate but, to prove my point, the wormhole marked as reaching the end of its life has now collapsed. That means one of the signatures is new. I call my probes in to scan and instead of picking up the new signature by itself there are some ships sitting under my combat probes. Switching to my directional scanner sees several Tengu strategic cruisers in the home system. They weren't there a moment ago.

I throw my probes out of the system and keep updating d-scan, but the Tengus disappear as quickly as they appear. I suppose I have answers to two of my questions, as the new signature is surely another wormhole, and the fleet did indeed see my probes as I started to scan. That's bad timing. There are no changes to d-scan now, so I call my probes back in to resolve the signature, shortly finding my covert Tengu sitting near a K162 from class 5 w-space. Is it that time of the week already? It would be amusing if this wormhole comes from the same C5 that has had capsuleers visit me two weeks in a row, as I have ended up profiting from them on both occasions. But as they saw my combat probes pretty quickly I suppose it's probably not them. Then again, the wormhole flares shortly after I get here, and an Iteron hauler appears. That's rum.

I can't quite believe that a fleet would send a hauler through a system they just pulled a Tengu fleet out of after seeing combat scanning probes. Then again, I've seen plenty of bizarre circumstances before, most of them involving pilots who apparently don't communicate with each other, so I'm not going to simply ignore this. I won't, however, engage on this wormhole. I may as well warp to our static connection to class 3 w-space, where I presume the hauler will go, if genuinely hauling. Fin's scanning helps me here, as I haven't had time to scan the system myself, and I will still be able to catch the Iteron between two w-space systems.

I warp across the system to drop short at the wormhole, as the Iteron follows behind me. Right behind me. The hauler drops short of the wormhole too, landing on top of my ship. My suspicions are mounting, but as I have been unwittingly decloaked by the hauler I may as well engage it. As far as I could tell no other ships followed from the C5, so I should be safe for now. Unsurprisingly, given my concerns so far, the Iteron has a hefty tank fitted and is soaking up my missile damage, at least long enough to survive until reinforcements arrive. This ain't no ordinary Iteron, it's bait. A Baiteron. I start to align away from the ship, right about the time that d-scan shows me a fleet appear in the system—a Myrmidon battlecruiser, Hawk assault ship, Talos battlecruiser, and Deimos heavy assault ship.

I'm ready to warp clear when the Iteron jumps through the wormhole to C3a. That's curious, as the ship is holding together well. Oh, what the hell, I'll follow and continue the assault. The other ships aren't on the wormhole yet and I can get a few more shots in before I have to disengage. The Iteron decloaks early on the wormhole, probably to get me visible and distracted, but the wormhole flares before I have time to do much more than activate my launchers. I knew it was coming, so activate my cloak and jink away from the threat. The hostile fleet appears and, knowing I'm nearby, the Deimos and Hawk execute a search pattern to try to bump and decloak my ship. They are unlikely to get close, but there's still a chance. To keep myself definitely safe I warp out, bouncing off a planet to return to the wormhole at range.

That was pretty smart. The pilots saw my probes, probably saw my probes disappear, and decided not to make themselves vulnerable. Instead, they push a soft and tempting target through the wormhole to flush out the scout, following behind with pointy ships to eliminate the threat. Even if I hadn't been decloaked by the Baiteron I probably still would have shot it. I'm weak like that. But at least I wasn't completely oblivious to the threat. I still probably shouldn't have followed the Iteron through the wormhole, though, not when I was free to warp clear. Now the fleet is continuing their smart tactics and is tempting me to jump home, by pushing battleships through our static connection to start its collapse.

A Dominix and Megathron battleship are sharing the duty of stressing the wormhole, which shrinks to its half-mass state. I'm not sure how much further they'll push it, but even if it collapses it won't be the end of the world. There is an exit to high-sec in this C3, already scanned by Fin, and I can easily get back to w-space another day if necessary. Of course, staying in w-space would be preferable. I keep watching the wormhole for changes, now with just the Deimos sitting on the K162. And now with the Deimos gone. He warped away, not jumped back, which makes me think that perhaps he wants the wormhole to look clear. On reflection, he could have been checking the system in high-sec empire space, to see if I was there, but a clear wormhole is rather tempting.

I warp to the wormhole, consider my options, and warp back out to my monitoring position. I would be a bit foolish to jump through right as they are expecting it. Then again, there probably isn't a right time to jump home at the moment. The Deimos returns to the wormhole and continues circling it. I continue to ponder my options. I could feasibly escape the ships they have waiting for me. Jumping home and trying to evade a fleet is far more interesting than sitting here and doing nothing. There's an exit to high-sec that I could use if I get in to trouble. And, the clincher for me, the corporation wallet is fat enough to afford a replacement Tengu.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I warp to the K162, Deimos still circling, approach and jump. There'll be no surprise for the fleet here, only for me. But it doesn't look too bad on the other side of the wormhole. A bunch of ships and a few flights of drones are all waiting for me, but I am over two kilometres from the wormhole and any of the ships, which should give me a chance to cloak immediately. I spot a planet I could warp to that will take me away from the wormhole and make my break. I pulse the micro warp drive, activate my cloak, and hit warp. But maybe not in that order. My cloak doesn't activate, and now a hostile ship has a positive lock on me it won't be able to activate. I'd better get back to the wormhole, as it's now my only chance of escape.

I would get back to the wormhole if I hadn't pulsed my MWD. I have managed to burn a couple of kilometres out of jump range, and now I am scrammed, webbed, and even bumped further away from the wormhole by an enthusiastic ship. Even if the warp scrambler wasn't disrupting my MWD as well as my warp engines, the energy neutralisers have sucked my capacitor so dry I have nothing to feed the MWD anyway. And the web is slowing my normal speed down to nothing, although I don't think I could get through the wall of ships between me and the wormhole anyway. Yep, I'm dead.

I don't think the change to my normal manoeuvre away from a wormhole helped. Rather than move away and cloak, then think about warping, I tried to enter warp more directly, which is now an unfamiliar sequence. Then again, having a competent fleet ready and waiting for me can't have helped either. At least I remember that I can eject and save myself the skill point loss before my Tengu starts taking armour damage. I get my pod out and warp it clear, bouncing off a planet before returning to the safety of our tower's force field, leaving poor, poor MCP behind. Maybe I should have waited a few seconds longer before ejecting, though, as the fleet manages to stop shooting quickly enough to claim my Tengu as their own. To the victor the spoils.

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Tags: deimos, dominix, eve online, hawk, iteron, megathron, mmorpg, myrmidon, penny ibramovic, pvp, talos, tengu, w-space