Putting the ship together

What's up, space? Nothing here, Penny, space would say. But space is an idiot, because the magnetometric sites in our home w-space system are strangely disappeared, which means that the expected balance of signatures to bookmarks is actually showing me some new signals. One of the signatures is replacement magnetometric site that we can ignore, another is some gas in a ladar site that I activate, and the remaining two signatures are wormholes. One is our static connection, leading to class 3 w-space, the other a K162 from class 4 w-space. I bookmark the K162 for reference then head in to our neighbouring C3 so I can find today's exit to k-space.

An Onyx interdictor is visible on my directional scanner in this class 3 system, along with an active tower. I find the tower easily enough, having only been here two weeks ago, and see the Onyx floating unpiloted in the force field. It's not guarding a connection to high-sec empire space today. I note that the Onyx is tagged blue, indicating that its pilot is allied to our corporation, and checking the information for the tower confirms this. That's good to know, even if I didn't note this on my last visit, and should make travelling through this C3 relatively safe. I warp away, launch probes, and start to scan.

As the tower here is blue I loiter by our K162 when I scan. It doesn't matter that an Orca appears at the tower, the massive industrial command ship lighting up my combat scanning probes, as the pilot is not a target. What I am looking out for are pilots passing through the only wormhole I know about so far, which would include pilots from the C4 behind me. No one comes as I sift through thirteen signatures, and I resolve only the one more wormhole, which is another exit to high-sec. Twice in two days is quite lucky, and this time we should have pretty free passage between the connection and our home system.

The utility of the exit to high-sec depends as much on which region and system it leads to as it does the activity of the system connecting in to our home. I jump through the wormhole to high-sec, appearing in the Sinq Laison region and a mere three hops from Dodixie, making its destination convenient indeed. Now to check on our other neighbours. I head home and continue through the K162 in to the class 4 system, seeing nothing on the wormhole or in d-scan range when I get there. I warp to where I had a tower listed ten months ago and appear in empty space, but with a tower on d-scan. It's around the same planet but not the same moon, and there's no one home. I take a brief look for more wormholes leading backwards but its just gas out here. It all looks pretty quiet.

So there's no one in the C4 and, poking my nose out to high-sec again, no one from the C4 lurking in nearby empire space. Maybe I should use this connection. If only Fin were here, she'd know what to do. Oh, Fin! She bought a new Legion strategic cruiser to replace the one I carelessly lost through buggy software causing my systems to crash, but only in kit form. Some assembly is required, and as we still can't put strategic cruisers together in w-space, because CCP hates us, I need to take all the bits to a station. Luckily, high-sec has plenty of stations, with a few even in this system. All I need to do is find the kit ship.

It's not in the hangar, nor in this Orca. It's not in the other Orca either, or the Bustard. I'm sure Fin brought it back. Ah, here it is, all stuffed in to her Crane transport ship. I see no point in transferring the parts from one ship to another, and Fin won't mind my borrowing her ship, so I simply point the Crane out to empire space. When in high-sec I dock and move the ship, subsystems, and modules to the hangar, where I assemble Jeff K's Third Prophecy, abbreviated a little owing to there not being enough room on the hull to write all that, or some other futuristic reason.

I probably should have brought some ammunition out with me too. If I take the Legion back now it will look dangerous but be pretty ineffective. Luckily, I am close to a market hub and have a Crane. I also had the thought to bring our loot out to sell, which gives me an excuse to fly around a bit. I pop to Dodixie to sell our salvage and datacores, all of it stolen from other pilots, and buy some missiles, then cross a region boundary to find someone paying market price for Sleeper loot, all of that also stolen. I head back and dump the missiles where my Legion waits, but ignore it a little longer as I take the Crane home.

The stealthy ship is a good choice to take home first. I took a little while buying, selling, and assembling, so would like to check to see that w-space looks as unthreatening as I left it. Yep. A Viator transport has appeared in the C3, but d-scan places it at the tower and so is probably the Orca pilot trying on different ships. I get home, stow the Crane, and head back to high-sec, where I board my Legion and undock it for its maiden voyage. And, boy, was that a quick maiden voyage! I forgot the missiles. I dock, pick up the missiles, and launch again, this time completely ready.

The Viator in the C3 has transformed in to a Crow interceptor for my Legion, although it too is coincident with the local tower and probably not a threat. I warp across the C3 and jump home through a still-clear wormhole, getting the Legion to our tower safely. I feel productive. Our wallet's almost half-a-billion ISK plumper and we have a new ship killer for the hangar. Maybe this one will actually get to kill a ship. That would be pretty neat.

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Tags: crane, crow, eve online, legion, mmorpg, onyx, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, viator, w-space

Catching a Crane

I have no idea where that battleship went. I popped his scouting colleague on a wormhole, whose pod then fled across this vast class 3 w-space system, but where they both ended up I don't know. I doubt they went to our home system, as there are no K162 wormholes there, and they are unlikely to have gone to high-sec through the static connection here because of the Onyx heavy interdictor sitting bubbled on the wormhole. Maybe they are local to this system, coming home from wherever and going off-line quickly. I would take a look for new wormholes if there wasn't still the Onyx to think about.

I'm assuming the Onyx is still here, anyway. The wormhole to high-sec is over 100 AU from here, placing it well out of range of my directional scanner. I'll warp across to take a look. The Onyx is a brick of a ship, making it less of a direct target even if it weren't sitting on a wormhole connecting to high-sec empire space. But it had a Drake accompanying it earlier, and even though the battlecruiser is also brick-like it was skirting the edge of the bubble, giving it a distance to run until it could get through the wormhole to high-sec safety.

Not that I can take out either ship by myself, but the connection to high-sec gives us options. Our sister wormhole system has itself a high-sec connection too, and it's possible we could jump in a handful of battleships to surprise the Onyx and Drake. It all depends on where the exit the Onyx is sitting on leads. And the Onyx is still there, although the Drake is gone. That's okay. I'll need to jump past the HIC to reconnoitre the exit system, giving my colleagues a route to follow, which will alert the Onyx to my presence and may have him call the Drake back to help. It's not the most solid of plans, but it seems sound in theory.

My main concern with baiting the Onyx to call on the Drake is our lack of further intelligence about this corporation and their current state. I could jump out, the Onyx call for reinforcements, and we return to see a much bigger fleet than a HIC and battlecruiser. The worst that could reasonably happen is that we'd all jump right back to high-sec, I suppose, so it's not disastrous, but as I know that the two ships come from a K162 from class 5 w-space in this C3 the least I could do is scout that system to look for numbers and capability. I'll do that first.

Jumping in to the C5 sees little, so I go looking for a tower. I find it easily enough, along with the Onyx's pal still in his Drake, floating inside the tower's force field. An update of d-scan around the tower has a Crane transport ship appear, probably returning to the tower, from which direction I can't tell. But this looks like it. We may be able to draw the Drake back to the wormhole and there doesn't look to be much more firepower they can call on. I'll head out to high-sec past the Onyx, see where that leads, and maybe call the fleet in. Actually, I'll follow the Crane, as it's moving.

I doubt I'll catch the transport, as it can warp cloaked and is pretty agile, and I'm also unsure where exactly it's heading. I saw it warp to a planet, but there isn't even a customs office there. I follow anyway, wondering what I'll find. Updating d-scan along the way shows me that my scouting was once again substandard today, as a second tower appears. It must be around the single moon of this planet, and is probably where the Crane has gone. I make a mental note to scout more thoroughly in the future and plan to turn around and head to high-sec once I land, but my plans once again change with new information. The Crane did indeed come to the planet, and not the tower.

There may not be a customs office around this planet currently, but one is being assembled. The Crane is sat next to a customs gantry, which I presume to be the framework for the offices, and making himself an attractive target. I crawl closer, still cloaked, so that any sudden movements of the Crane can be countered by a surge from my ship bumping in to it. Close enough, I decloak, burn, and bump the transport as I count down the recalibration delay, before locking, pointing, and shooting. My missiles chew through the shields, boosted by a local pulsar phenomenon, and then shred the flimsy armour and hull. The Crane sends its pilot's pod in to space explosively, but not enough to disorientate him. The pod flees.

I loot the Crane and completely fill my hull, having to leave a couple of shield modules to be destroyed with the wreck. Covert operations cloaking devices are pretty bulky, and this is the second I've stolen tonight because of the earlier Helios. Two agile and cloaking ships caught by my relatively clumsy Tengu, it must be my lucky day. It looks like those two are the only kills I'll get, though, as I've managed to draw the Onyx away from the connection to high-sec. He drops out of warp on top of the gantry and inflates his warp bubble, but he's neither close enough to find me nor inconveniencing my strategic cruiser with the bubble. I take his picture for my records and warp away.

Whilst the Onyx is dicking around looking for a covert ship that doesn't want to be found, I leave the C5 behind me. Back in C3a I take advantage of the lack of HIC on the static wormhole to jump to high-sec, finding myself in a system in the Forge region. It's a little far for the fleet to have come this way, so our ambush wouldn't have happened anyway, and although this connection could be useful under other circumstances it's security is dubious. That's okay. I got two kills tonight. I'm happy to head home and make myself a celebratory slice of toast.

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Tags: crane, drake, eve online, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, tengu, w-space

Taking point

Right, I've got a long skill in my queue. No more pussy-footing around trying to find a useful skill that takes less than three weeks to train, as this time I've gone for the gusto. I won't have to worry about the next skill for a month. Even after that, I could just dump equally almost-useful skills in to continue along the same vague training plan. I just need to remember to update my clone occasionally. Now I can get down to business. The business of scanning. There's nothing at home, so I simply resolve our static wormhole and jump to the class 3 w-space system beyond.

A tower is visible on my directional scanner in the C3, which is remarkable considering just how vast the system is. The star is maybe only 55 AU distant, but to reach the farthest planet I'd need to warp across 167 AU. I'll have to stretch my scanning probes for this. And as I was only here a month ago I would think I'd remember how big the system is, particularly as I have 'travel' listed in my notes for what I was doing. Then again, that was the day we were chain-collapsing our static wormhole looking for towers lacking fuel pellets, and I only passed through this system after a collapse went wrong and I was stuck in high-sec empire space for half-an-hour or so, isolated from Fin. But that also means there is a high-sec connection to be found here. Somewhere.

I can't quite blanket the system with my probes, so resign myself to performing two scans instead of compromising my standard configuration. There's not much to find, at least, with only two anomalies and four signatures. Easy mode engaged, cap'n! Ah, good-o, there's a wormhole 161 AU away. That's nice and convenient. And here's a heavy interdictor on my combat probes, most likely sitting on another wormhole. Indeed he is, and I suspect it's the exit to high-sec, although I am dubious as to what he think he can catch there. Any ship jumping in will probably jump right back to high-sec before getting in to any real trouble. And maybe that's what a second ship blipping on my probes does, but I don't care to check. I'm resolving a third wormhole.

The third wormhole is a K162 from class 5 w-space and perhaps where the Onyx HIC is from. As I'm bookmarking the wormhole's location the connection flares, signalling a ship's passage. I watch as a Drake battlecruiser decloaks and warps away. I warp to where I scanned the Onyx, dropping short to see the Onyx, bubble-up, indeed sitting on top of the exit to high-sec, now joined by the Drake. The two pilots are in the same corporation, so I fully expect them to be from the class 5 system. But as either ship could jump out to high-sec at the first sign of threat I ignore them.

I warp away, to the farthest reaches of the system, to investigate the first wormhole I resolved. I could take this time to grab a drink and catch up on my reading. And watch a film. Ah, here we are, and the trip could have been worth the time, as I am sitting in front of a K162 from class 2 w-space. In I go! There's not much to see, though, not from here. I've been in this system before, and although it was far too long ago for notes on occupation to be useful I have the second static connection listed as also leading to high-sec. That tickles me, thinking that the Onyx is perhaps guarding a connection to high-sec without realising there is a second one over here, unbubbled and untroubled. Well, once I find it there will be.

The C2 is occupied but empty, with only a Moa cruiser and Scorpion battleship left floating empty in the local tower, although the Moa is only just managing that. I launch probes and scan, resolving rocks and gas, but eventually two more wormholes. I have more to explore. One is the connection to high-sec, in pristine condition, the other a K162 from class 5 w-space that has been stressed to half-mass. I pop out to high-sec, appearing in the Devoid region, to make a trip to buy some Sisters combat scanning probes for my glorious leader, before returning to w-space to investigate the system beyond the stressed wormhole. It's not very interesting. Empty and unoccupied, the most interesting aspect of this system is that it's where Mick and I popped an Armageddon battleship being exported seven months ago.

After our months-ago disruption it looks like the export continued successfully, with both towers removed from this C5. I don't feel like scanning backwards right now, instead fancying a peek inside the other C5 where the active pilots are from. I warp back to the wormhole and jump to C2a just as a Helios covert operations boat decloaks on the wormhole. I would curse my timing, but cov-ops boats are notoriously difficult to catch and so I've probably lost nothing. Even so, I am not so pessimistic as to not give it a shot. I hold on the other side of the wormhole and wait for what I hope is the inevitable flare. And there it is. I decloak, activate my sensor booster and micro warp drive, and pounce at the Helios as it appears.

What my covert Tengu strategic cruiser does towards the agile Helios is more of a lunge than a pounce. Somewhat surprisingly, I nearly get a positive target lock before the ship, not at all surprisingly, cloaks and warps away. That's cool, and at least I tried. I warp across this C2 myself, heading to the wormhole back to C3a, loitering on the wormhole for a minute or so. The Helios must be going somewhere, and he may be under the mistaken impression that he can't outrun a Tengu and so have waited for me to move on before he jumps. My short wait pays off, as the Helios indeed appears, after perhaps a minor diversion or slight pause to see what I'd do, and he jumps to the class 3 system.

I follow behind the Helios, looking to get a second shot and still expecting to fail. Once again I activate my sensor booster and micro warp drive, and watch for his ship to appear. Another lunge and, what's this, a positive lock? My systems are hot and activate immediately, disrupting the warp drives of the Helios and webbing his standard engines. Missiles pound in to the tiny ship and still he burns away from the wormhole. But I keep up and keep shooting until pop goes the Helios.

Despite my best efforts at catching the ejected pod of the Helios it evades my clutches, so I loot the wreck, bagging Fin even more Sisters combat scanning probes from my trip, and shoot the wreck just as the wormhole behind me flares. I remain uncloaked and visible for the moment, punching my cloak active when a Maelstrom battleship appears.

I wonder if the Helios was purposely burning away from the wormhole and making himself a target for me, luring me away from an escape route and buying time for the Maelstrom to arrive. It's possible, I suppose, but it cost him his ship. As the Maelstrom merely warps away it makes me think it more likely that the Helios was simply flying point for the battleship, scouting the systems for him. He didn't do too well at that either, I would say. Whatever just happened, I have a kill and some information on ships being moved. Maybe I can find out where they are going and if they have anything to do with the Onyx in this C3.

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Tags: drake, eve online, helios, maelstrom, mmorpg, moa, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, scorpion, tengu, w-space

Dubious Drakes

A K162 coming in to our home system has provided my glorious leader and I some action already. We caught a Loki strategic cruiser in an anomaly in the class 2 w-space system, going to considerable effort to reduce it to a wreck, and then considerably less effort to reduce that wreck to some salvage. Now we're leaving that system behind us, and I'm going through our static wormhole to see what our neighbouring class 3 system holds in store. Not much, it seems, at least not within range of my directional scanner from the wormhole. Checking my notes has this as my third visit, having last been here ten weeks ago, and that this system has a tower and static exit to null-sec k-space. It's also the system where we left a can bearing our corporate name as a reminder of our assault on the local tower.

The container bearing our name is still here, woo! The tower isn't—well, bits of it are, but nothing that could be called active—making the system now unoccupied. That's not our fault, as we attacked well over a year ago. But I suppose that can will continue to litter the system for months to come, if it's ever found and recovered. Speaking of which, Fin's back to burning towards a container in our home system, using her fast interceptor, and finally manages to track it down. Opening the can finds only some discarded metal scraps, but we get to keep the can too, so at least it no longer messes up our d-scanners. What kind of jerks leave cans in awkward, off-grid locations just to be annoying? Annoying jerks, that's who!

Despite this system being unoccupied it is rather kempt, more so than the scruffy-yet-populated class 2 system behind us. Only three anomalies and ten signatures are present, as shown by a blanket scan of the system, and I resolve rocks, gas, radar and magnetometric sites, and the static wormhole. I may as well poke through to null-sec and take a look around. Or maybe I'll leave this dying wormhole alone. I suppose the wormhole being at the end of its life would explain the tidiness of this system, had other capsuleers passed through this way earlier and taken care of the Sleeper population. But if that is the case, their own wormhole has already collapsed, leaving me little to do here.

I head home and further back, through the K162 to the class 2 w-space system again. I would be amazed if anything was happening here but it's possible the locals are back from lunch and looking to be active, or I could perhaps scan and look for opportunities elsewhere. I see activity soon enough, a shuttle on d-scan as I reconnoitre the local tower, which could simply be the Loki pilot going out to get a new ship, and as I consider launching probes and scanning the twenty signatures quickly—I am awesome, after all—a Drake appears on scan. I'll take a look for the battlecruiser first.

My initial assumption is that the Drake is bait, trying to tempt me and Fin to fall in to a trap as revenge for destroying the Loki. Well, the joke's on them, as Fin's connection troubles continue and she's given up for the night again! That is actually kinda sad, though. Anyway, the Drake is out and about but I can't place him in any of the anomalies here. Oh, except for the cleared anomaly, where we ambushed the Loki. It's rather curious for that anomaly to be the Drake's first stop, as the assault was about an hour ago now. Either the corporation is slow to mount a counter-attack, or their corporate bookmarks are listed in sequence and this fellow has come out to engage Sleepers oblivious to the earlier happenings.

The Drake doesn't stay in the empty site for long, warping away before I even get there myself. He's also joined by a second Drake, and I track the two of them down to a second anomaly. I warp in to take a look. Perhaps this is a trap, or perhaps these capsuleers don't communicate with each other. Either way, they are shooting Sleepers and leaving wrecks, and if they are going to be so convincing in their operations I should maybe swap boats. A stealth bomber pops a Noctis salvager much more quickly than my covert Tengu strategic cruiser, and for a fraction of the cost to replace it should I be countered. I warp home, swap ships, and return to the C2 anomaly to loiter with intent.

What I find when I get back is disappointing, in more than one way. The Drakes are salvaging as they fight, much as the Loki did. This means I won't be able to ambush a salvager, which I'm pretty good at. It also means that this operation is far less likely to be a trap and that the capsuleers really haven't communicated about their half-billion ISK loss not too long ago in the same system. Or maybe they know about it and have ignored the risks. I'd like to teach them an important lesson, but I can't really take a good shot at the Drakes by myself. Hopefully we'll see them again soon. But for now I suppose I'll leave them to their blissful ignorance, and I head home to get some sleep.

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

Strategic cruising in class 2 w-space

Fin's been, scanned, and gone. That'll save me some time! Or it should, if w-space weren't so bally changeable. I launch probes to scan the home system and find two signatures unaccounted for by the current collection of corporate bookmarks. That's still better than resolving the lot, though, and it doesn't take long to activate some new rocks that have drifted in to the system. The second signature is unsurprisingly a wormhole, as the inter-w-space connections are the most common cause of new signatures, and this one is a K162 from a class 2 system. Nifty.

I jump through the wormhole to explore the C2 first, as I am more likely to find activity by heading through a K162 than a static connection, although I see nothing on my directional scanner from the wormhole. That's okay, as opening the system map shows the system to be quite large and holding planets out of range of d-scan. In fact, it's better than okay, as I should be able to launch probes without being spotted. But I won't launch them at the wormhole, just in case anyone comes this way. I warp off to the nearest planet, launch probes, and configure them for a blanket scan.

Using the maximum scanning range of the probes I am able to keep them out of d-scan range of any ship that is potentially in the system whilst still being able to get an overall idea of what is to be found here. I get little resolution on the result of the blanket scan, because of using the maximum scanning range, but I see all without being seen back. In this case, I find some ships even before I have my probes arranged, as I warp off to explore once I am cloaked again and, near the centre of the system, d-scan shows me a Dominix battleship, Abaddon battleship, Buzzard covert operations boat, and two Orca industrial command ships, along with an active tower. My blanket scan may only confirm to me that those five ships are present, but it also shows that there are no others to be found elsewhere.

Adjusting d-scan reveals no wrecks, so I locate the tower to see that the Dominix, Abbadon, and an Orca are piloted, with the other two ships floating empty. A Loki appears on d-scan as I loiter outside the tower, and the strategic cruiser doesn't appear to be local, as all the ships in the tower are named according to a convention. The Loki drops off d-scan soon enough, leaving me looking at three inactive pilots again. I consider scanning the system but the twenty signatures mingling with the fourteen anomalies look a bit messy to me, particularly when I could just head home and jump through our static wormhole to explore more space for now.

I warp away from the tower and towards the wormhole home, performing one last scan as I cross the system. Well, that's interesting. A sixth ship is on my combat scanning probes. It could be the Loki, although he wasn't in range of d-scan at the tower, nor is he in range from the wormhole. Another scan confirms the ship is still in the system and not cloaked, so I turn around to try to find him. There he is, in one of the simple anomalies, happily shooting Sleepers whilst the locals remain oblivious to him. And he remains oblivious to me. This is why I keep my probes hidden.

The Loki is looting and salvaging as he fights, so there is no chance of catching a separate salvager following behind. Even though I don't have the firepower to take on the Loki alone, my glorious leader is returned and more than happy to come and help. She boards a Legion strategic cruiser back at our tower and joins me in the anomaly in the C2, watching our target. I got myself in to a nice position in the site and have just been waiting for my partner in piracy to arrive. Now Fin tells me she's landed a few kilometres from my position, which as we're both cloaked I'll take her word on, making us ready. Now all I need is for that last Sleeper cruiser in this wave to pop and we can strike.

The cruiser pops, leaving a wreck behind. I bookmark the wreck, wait to see the Loki move towards it in order to loot and salvage, and warp both Fin and my ships towards that position. We decloak seconds away from our target, a little early to do anything but soak up the recalibration delay, but we have enough surprise on our side that the Loki doesn't have time to run. We lock on to the strategic cruiser, disrupt his warp engines, and let loose our devastating attack. I slow him down to a crawl and pump volley after volley of missiles in to his shields, whilst Fin sucks his capacitor dry. It may take a while before the Loki can no longer run any shield boosters or hardeners, but once we force them off-line he should be a sitting duck.

I keep a close watch on d-scan, in case more ships are headed our way, but it remains just me, Fin, and the Loki. Our target's shields are dropping slowly but steadily, and he's happily trying to dent Fin's heavy armour. I'm not quite getting away scot-free, as a newly arrived Sleeper battleship is taking pot-shots at me, but the drone's damage is just a tickle compared to what the Loki could be doing. More shooting, more energy neutralising, and we finally drop the Loki's shields. We are expecting the fight to progress more quickly now, but somehow the Loki is soaking up the damage to its armour just as well as it did for its shields. Maybe we're just not that devastating after all.

It's no surprise that we aren't a powerhouse of damage. I am in my not-for-combat covert Tengu strategic cruiser, and Fin's in what is essentially a support ship. Even so, the neutralisers are mighty effective weapons against active defences, and without them I doubt we'd even get this far. And the Loki's armour is dropping. He's not going to recover. Unlike the shields and armour, the Loki's hull is made of tinfoil and is obliterated with only a few volleys, and we watch as the strategic cruiser explodes to our sustained assault. I aim to catch the pod as it is ejected but the pilot warps away a split-second before I can stop it. That's okay, the Loki is an excellent kill, made possible by good scouting, communication, and teamwork.

We loot the wreck, scoop the drones, and clear the pocket. I'm not shooting the wreck this time, as it is a rare occasion that we get some Tech III salvage, and even if we don't get to realise it ourselves I consider it best to think we could and not just destroy the wreck. Fin heads homewards and I bounce off the local tower. All the pilots have gone, leaving just the two empty ships. I'll assume they've gone off-line after being active before I turned up. All looks clear. I recall my probes, jump home, and swap to a salvager.

Returning to the C2 and warping to my monitoring point in the now-despawned site has no threats visible. I warp to the empty wreck and salvage it, pulling three bars of rather exotic looking metal in to my hold. I can drop that off at our tower, swap back to my covert Tengu, and go looking for more activity through our static wormhole.

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Tags: abaddon, buzzard, dominix, eve online, legion, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space

Hunting a hacking Heron

All looks quiet at home, but looks can be deceiving. Our tower has been busy whilst we were sleeping, getting hold of and popping a Raven battleship that was, um, maybe wandering by? I can't really say, although I'd like to know the story behind his fate at the hands of our automated friend. Thanks, tower! Have a fuel pellet. This happened many hours ago, so that there isn't even a wreck left behind to loot and laugh over, and probably not a wormhole either. I'll scan and take a look.

Nope, there's nothing unexpected in the home system. The same signatures that were here yesterday are here today, only with the static wormhole in a different place. Let's see if I can have as much fun as our tower, and I jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to explore the constellation. A Buzzard covert operations boat and Drake battlecruiser are visible on my directional scanner in the C3, along with a tower, but as there are no probes and no wrecks I doubt there's anything actually happening here.

The tower's in the same place as it was nine months ago, when Fin and I shot Sleepers in this system, and both the Buzzard and Drake are here and piloted, but neither are doing anything. It looks like the capsuleers are... brothers? Cousins? Weirdly related in some way, at least. I open the system map to see if I can warp out to launch probes, but find I'm in another tiny system with only five moons dotted around seven planets. Then again, two inactive pilots sitting in a tower are probably not watching d-scan. I'm sure I can launch probes without being noticed.

In fact, I bet I could scan without being noticed, particularly as there are only four signatures here and I already know about our own K162. I whiz my probes around, resolving a gravimetric site, ladar site, and static exit to low-sec empire space. That was easy. I warp in to both sites to make strategic monitoring points, in case the locals wake up, and float past the tower one more time to see nothing changed. I'm not waiting here watching paint dry, so head out to low-sec.

With a signature identifier of STD I am expecting the static wormhole to lead to Aridia. And it does, woo! As I launch probes and scan, the three capsuleers I share the system with dwindle to one, but one is still too many to take advantage of the Blood Raider anomalies here. That's okay, because along with some space rocks I resolve a nifty K162 from class 1 w-space. I jump in to an empty-looking system, with just an off-line tower within d-scan range, but there are two planets at the opposite ends of the system to investigate.

One of the planets doesn't hold a tower, at least, and now that I am away from the wormhole I take a few seconds to launch scanning probes. I arrange my probes in a blanket configuration and interrogate the whole system as I warp across to the other far planet, my probes showing me a single ship somewhere in that direction as I am in warp. D-scan doesn't reveal a tower, though, just a Drake by itself. Well, not entirely by itself, as the battlecruiser is surrounded by Sleeper wrecks. That's exciting.

A Heron frigate joins the Drake in space but I cannot find them easily. The two ships are not in an anomaly and must be in a radar or magnetometric site, which I'll have to scan for to find them. Still, I have probes out and I may be lucky, as the number of wrecks isn't going down. It's possible the two ships are taking a break in what they consider to be a relatively safe position. I think it's worth making the effort to scan the site they're in, at least. I get a good bearing and distance to the ships using d-scan, arrange my probes around where I think they are, and get ready to scan.

It seems I was a bit conservative with the probes' ranges. My initial use of d-scan to get the bearing of the ships and gauging the distance using the probes' virtual spheres was almost perfect. I could easily have knocked the ranges down another notch to get a better result. It doesn't matter, as it turns out, but perhaps only because a passive-fit Drake has a pretty chunky signature radius. I get a poor hit on the radar site itself, a surprisingly better result on the Heron, and a 100% hit on the Drake. I don't need a second scan. I recall my probes, bookmark the Drake's location, and warp in to take a look.

I see now why the Sleeper wrecks were persisting for so long. The Heron hacked all the Sleeper databases to start with, completing that task before moving on to loot and salvage the Sleeper wrecks. He's quite far from the Drake, and thus me, but he is also salvaging the wrecks one at a time and without tractor beams. The Heron isn't really built to be a salvager after all. I have plenty of time to reposition myself, and I spy a decent wreck to wait near. I bookmark the wreck and warp out, bouncing off the nearby planet to get closer.

The Heron continues to salvage as the Drake merely watches on. I sit quietly cloaked, waiting for the right moment. Here he comes, towards the wreck I'm loitering by. When he starts salvaging I'll pounce, as he'll be distracted from looting and too close to the wreck to cloak or escape easily. The Heron gets in range, his salvaging module activates, and I decloak. I burn towards the Heron as my systems recalibrate, then lock on to the frigate and viciously rip the tiny ship apart with my assault missiles. Pop goes the Heron.

I aim for the pilot's pod and get a positive lock on that too. My warp disruptor is ready and latches the pod to local space, where it sits only too briefly before it cracks open to spit a fresh corpse in to space. I scoop the corpse, and loot and shoot the wreck as the Drake warps out of the site. Maybe I could have gone for the bigger target, but I know my covert Tengu strategic cruiser can't chew through a well-fitted Drake and I'd rather have the kill and loot than simply shooing the pilots away. And I get some loot, but not much. A few datacores, some salvage, some basic Sleeper loot. It's worth a few million ISK, though.

It's not worth my time to loot the other wrecks here, so I ponder the questions of where the Drake is and where he came from. He remains in the system for a couple of minutes, long enough for me to launch my probes again, but then he's gone. I could sift through the eleven signatures to look for a K162 but I don't think it's worth the effort to spend too long hunting someone who knows I'm here. I check low-sec to see if the pilot headed out that way but if he did he's moved on again. But I'm out in a low-sec system in Aridia by myself, so I pause to pop a few rats, as I continue to work on my security status.

I take it easy in an anomaly in low-sec until another pilot enters the system, then head back to w-space. I return to C3a to see no change in circumstances, with the Buzzard and Drake still sitting inside their tower. I could wait to see if they'll be active, but as it looks like they've done nothing whilst I scanned low-sec, found another system, hunted a couple of pilots, and got myself a podding, I doubt it's going to happen. I've had a fun evening already, so I think I'll head home for a relatively early night.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Hunting a hacking Heron
Tags: buzzard, drake, eve online, heron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space

So long, and thanks for all the loot!

Okay, so I'm heading home for the night after an evening of exploration, but I'm not going to stop there immediately. There are two K162s connecting in to our home system and it would be irresponsible not to take a quick look through both of them to see if the locals have woken up in the class 2 system, or got their act together and are actually doing anything in the class 5 system. First stop is the C2, where nothing was happening earlier and nothing is happening now. The same ships I found empty at a local tower are the same ships my directional scanner is showing me now, and I am happy enough to assume they're still empty. I jump straight back through the wormhole to the home system and warp across to the C5 K162.

I'm almost surprised to see the C5 K162 is still here. Some big ships were being readied at the tower, with more than a handful of pilots available to pilot them. I was expecting either the locals to be running riot through our home anomalies or for the wormhole to be collapsed so they could find a better system. Neither situation is the case, so I am genuinely curious to see what the capsuleers are up to. Seconds before I get in to range to jump, the wormhole flares. I align towards the C2 K162 in case a hauler wants to make use of a connection to empire space, and the wormhole flares a second time. Now four Tengu strategic cruisers and a Scimitar logistics ship appear, shedding their session change cloaks as one, and warp away from the wormhole as it flares again. A straggling Drake battlecruiser follows behind the main fleet, warping off in the same direction.

I suppose that answers my question of what the fleet is up to, although I hope it really didn't take them at least an hour to get organised enough to clear a few class 4 w-space anomalies. Still, it was really rather good timing on my part. Now I can stalk the fleet and wait for their salvager, which I note is a glaring omission from the fleet. I follow behind the warped ships but I'm not entirely sure where they headed. I don't have any anomalies out by this distant planet, nor any other sites beyond one containing gas clouds. I don't think a fleet of strategic cruisers backed by a logistics ship is quite needed to pop a few ladar-site Sleepers. Ah, right. There were three unaccounted for signatures when I scanned earlier, and although I resolved three wormholes I forgot that I accounted for our static connection. I missed resolving one new site, the one new site that the hostile fleet is now in.

I doubt the fleet will stop their incursion after one site, so although I have to miss all the fun there I will be able to follow them once they move on. There's little point in scanning for them now either, as I don't want to scare them off before they start salvaging, and as I have all the other sites bookmarked it will be trivial to find the second and later sites. And it's not long before they are finished with the first site and now in a basic anomaly, which I find easily. One of my many safe spots made in the home system lets me warp in along a benign vector, and I set myself in a suitable position where I can monitor combat as it continues. There's no sign of a Noctis salvager yet, so it could be a while before I see any action. The fleet clears the Sleepers and moves on, with me following behind. The same happens in a third site, my second, and the fleet moves on with me following behind. Each time I create a suitable monitoring point, where I can warp in to and out of the site quickly whilst being able to watch all the happens.

This fleet could really take a while chewing through our anomalies before they decide to salvage. Even then, they may not leave a salvager unguarded, which I won't know until it comes. This could all be a waste of my time, and the evening is already getting late. But what I also realise is that the anomaly the fleet is in is beyond d-scan range of the first anomaly. Rather than wait for a kill that may not come I could reap some financial reward instead. The fleet only just having started their current anomaly should give me time not just to loot some of the wrecks but salvage them too. And I really like the idea of clearing the site only to have their Noctis warp in to empty space. It could leave the capsuleers scratching their heads. I leave the fleet blissfully ignorant of my presence and intentions, swap my covert Tengu at our tower for a salvaging destroyer, and warp in to the cleared anomaly to start making some profit from the activity of others.

I go for the battleship wrecks first, as they hold the biggest loot, using my monitoring point to let me warp directly to the first cluster. Loot, salvage, and move on. Loot, salvage, and move on. This would be faster if tractor beams worked on yellow wrecks, but the DRM in the modules means they can't be activated on wrecks not owned by your corporation. It's tedious but right now I don't really care, as it's all free ISK that I'm sweeping in to my, uh, in to my... Hmm. I didn't notice that Drake earlier, but a battlecruiser belonging to the fleet appears to be some hundred kilometres from my ninja salvaging operation. It could be worse. At least he's far enough away not to be a direct threat, but not so far that he could become a direct threat by warping to my position. And I suppose my cover's blown by now, even if he's only temporarily absent whilst using the toilet. I'll keep salvaging until circumstances change.

The Drake warps out, I'm left alone for a minute, then the same pilot warps back but in a Gila cruiser instead. I think that's the changed circumstance I was watching for. I decide I've stolen enough from our own anomalies for the moment and warp back to our tower. I dump what I've recovered in to the hangar, about ninety million ISK in loot and salvage, swap back in to my covert Tengu, and warp out to see what reaction I get. I warp in to the site I was salvaging from, but at my distant monitoring point, just as the rest of the fleet warps in to join its cohort in the Gila. Aww, boo hoo, I stole some loot. What are you going to do about it? I know what I'm going to do about it, as the fleet is now out of d-scan range of two more anomalies they've just been clearing of Sleepers.

I don't go back for my salvaging ship, instead preferring the cloak of my Tengu for some guerilla looting. D-scan is clear when I get to my monitoring point in the second anomaly, indicating that the fleet isn't coming back this way. I bounce from my position to land on top of a battleship wreck, loot it and its neighbouring wrecks, and back out to my monitoring point. Lather, rinse, repeat for all three clusters of battleship wrecks and you end up with not much loot for the fleet that actually created the wrecks to recover. Such a shame. Despite my having already been discovered ninja-looting in one site and shooed the fleet stubbornly refuses to believe I might be up to the same tricks in other sites and hasn't sent scouts this way to check up on what should be their wrecks. Goody, that gives me time to visit the third site too.

I use the same tactics as in the second site, bouncing from my vantage point in to the site and out again, looting what I can whilst watching d-scan and cloaking between hauls. This site I almost pick clean, leaving only the three frigate wrecks unlooted, which hold little of value anyway. Certainly not enough to risk discovery. Let me count my iskies. I've got 121 Miskies in loot from these two sites, out of a total of 132 Miskies that each site holds in standard loot. That's gorgeous, as it leaves only 11 Miskies for the fleet to recover for all their effort.

I go back to see what the fleet is up to, finding them salvaging the first site they cleared, the one I didn't have a bookmark for. Well, I say they are salvaging it, but I don't think they really need a Scimitar and three Tengu pilots protecting the Noctis that is actually salvaging the site, although the Enyo is probably useful. I don't mind, as the paranoia I instilled has worked out nice for me again. I watch the wrecks disappear from d-scan as the Noctis—a particularly slow Noctis—sweeps them up, and warp back to the second anomaly so I can see the reaction as the fleet warps in to find almost no loot waiting for them.

It turns out that a reaction is hard to gauge when you only have a cold, hard hull of a spaceship to look at. Still, I imagine some seething to be taking place, as well as a bit of chagrin, but at least they can still salvage the wrecks for a chance of a little bit of profit from their time-consuming combat. And I'm saving the Noctis pilot from the chore of having to loot the wrecks. All he has to do is tractor them close enough and activate his salvaging modules. This is easy mode! He should be thanking me. I follow them to the third anomaly, stripped even cleaner of loot, and then back to the C5 K162. I somehow manage to decloak on my way to the wormhole, which I notice only in time to cloak as the fleet arrives. That was accidental and a bit dangerous, but it probably looked like a bit of a cocky farewell to them. Meh, that works too. So long, and thanks for all the loot!

Addendum: Casually browsing our killboard, I happen to notice that my last kill was about a week earlier, when I popped a Noctis in our home system. The name of the Noctis pilot seemed oddly familiar, though, so imagine my amusement when I check tonight's captured images to see the same pilot in the Drake and then Gila. Yes, it is the same corporation that I disrupted in our home system as last week! No wonder they used the same tactics as the last fleet—with the same result of losing large sums of ISK to me, I might add—as they were the last fleet. It also explains the reappearance of an Enyo to guard the Noctis. I merely thought it was becoming trendy. These guys should really make a note of the systems they visit, as it could save them a lot of grief.

Posted in Gaming | 5 Comments »
Tags: drake, enyo, eve online, gila, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, scimitar, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Scanning leads to a rat

Fin's can-chasing again, but is willing to try shooting Sleepers. That sounds like a plan. I'll take a look around the home system first, though, to see if we have any potential visitors. Eight signatures are here with all the anomalies, giving us three signatures unaccounted for. Shooting Sleepers may not be quite that safe at the moment, and not just because of continuing disconnection problems, as there are three wormholes here today. We have our static connection to class 3 w-space, a K162 from class 5 w-space, and a K162 from class 2 w-space. Maybe we can't play with the Sleepers, but the C2 K162 looks enticing. I jump through to see if I can find some capsuleers to play with instead.

There is a tower and a fair few ships visible on my directional scanner in this class 2 system, but no wrecks to suggest the combat ships and salvager are trying to make some iskies. Locating the tower locates the ships, and shows them all to be unpiloted, which is a bit of a shame. Warping around finds no other towers or ships, giving me an occupied but inactive system to explore. I launch probes and scan, revealing a manageable ten anomalies but rather messy sprawl of twenty-six signatures. I'm not about to sift through so many sites in the vague hope of finding additional wormholes when I have two behind me I already have bookmarked. I recall my probes and warp homewards, to take a look in the class 5 system.

I don't jump home straight away, as I drop out of warp to see a Drake sitting on the wormhole. The battlecruiser aligns and warps away, and not to the local tower. I try to follow but it's gone, probably out of the system to empire space. That's okay, I got the pilot's name and so have a point of reference. Now I head home and in to the C5, where I see on d-scan a tower along with a Raven battleship, Phoenix dreadnought, Chimera carrier, and Drake. The tower's simple enough to locate, which also finds the ships and the source of the Drake I saw in the C2. There are also plenty of bubbles meant to be protecting the tower, which look like they work without hindering the locals, as more ships warp in as I get in to a better monitoring position.

There are more changes than my scribbled notes can keep up with. By the time the pilots have settled down they are in three Tengu strategic cruisers, a Drake, the Chimera, and a Cyclone battlecruiser. But I don't know what they are doing, or what they are planning. Some ships warp out and return but a passive scan of the system finds no anomalies. I wonder if the pilots are warping between this and a second tower and go out to explore, but find no other occupation. I remain in the dark, but that's okay. See, the thing about space is that it's black. And the thing about black holes is—anyway, it doesn't look like these ships are leaving this system any time soon, and there are no ships here I could feasibly surprise by myself, so I head back homewards to take a look through our static connection.

I was last in this class 3 w-space system six months ago, where I noted a tower and static exit to null-sec k-space. The tower has gone with no other corporation to take its place, and the small system leaves nowhere for pilots to hide. It's 10 AU in radius, with five planets and four moons, which would make it awkward to try to launch probes covertly in order to hunt, but also makes it quite straightforward to scan. The twenty anomalies my probes reveal are an ISK mine that we sadly can't realise today, and thankfully there are only nine signatures to sort through. I resolve rocks, rocks, a wormhole that's too chubby to be the static exit to null-sec, rocks, rocks, gas, gas, and the static wormhole.

I take a quick look through the exit to null-sec, which turns in to a lingering look when I find myself alone in a system in the Insmother region. I take a tour of the rock fields here to find a rat battleship to pop for an increase in my security status, finding one with three friends. One will do. Pop. Okay, back to w-space and to the second wormhole in C3a. Oh, how dull, as it is in fact a connection to null-sec after all, but a K162. I take a look through this wormhole too, again finding myself alone in a system, this time in the Kalevala Expanse, and go looking for rats. Stupid low-sec strikes are still sending me ratting instead of exploring.

More disappointing than the second wormhole coming from null-sec is that it has taken me to a drone-populated region. Drones offer no bounties and so no gains in security status, as far as I'm aware, making this a waste of time. But I suppose it also means I can get back to exploring. I launch probes and scan, revealing three additional signatures in the system. Hierarchy, hierarchy, hierarchy. All three are drone sites, which is about as dreary as exploration can get. I get enough of drones in w-space, thank you. And I've been a bit laid-back in my scanning this evening, so time is pressing on. I'm not going to scan the other null-sec system or the C2, but just head home for the night.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Scanning leads to a rat
Tags: chimera, cyclone, drake, eve online, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, phoenix, raven, scanning, tengu, w-space

Plenty to watch, little to shoot

Gah, I'm crippled by skill-queue indecision again! I managed to find a skill that I use daily somehow only trained to level III to fill up my queue a few days ago, but now I have to fill it up once more. There are quite a few skills that I could push to level V but few where I'd really see the benefit. I could aim to pilot a Revelation again, and if someone would like to donate an Amarr Dreadnought skill book I'd be more than happy to inject it. Don't worry about buying the ship, I'll take care of that once I can sit in one. For now, I arbitrarily pick a skill that may give the occasional benefit, and stick my head in the sand for another three days. Whee, now I can explore!

There's nothing new in the home system today. Decay, mining sites, decay. I resolve the static wormhole and jump to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. A tower and three Abaddon battleships greet me on my directional scanner, although there are no Sleeper wrecks to suggest activity. It's my second visit to this system but the last time I was here was just over a year ago, so I'm not expecting my notes to be relevant, particularly as there were four towers in the system then. I locate the tower and the ships, all in the same place, and see that the battleships are piloted. They're not doing anything, though, so I warp out and launch probes to prepare to scan.

Returning to the tower has the Abaddons still stationary. I watch them for a minute but, yawn, they're boring. I bring my probes in from their blanket configuration, pick a signature from the seven here, and start scanning as the locals gaze at their navels. But no sooner do I call my probes in from the Kuiper Belt do the Abaddons start moving, almost as one. They are slow and I'm not sure if the relative movement is theirs or mine to start with, but once I realise my ship is sitting still I throw my probes back out of the system. The battleships warp out of the tower, to what I easily determine to be one of the seven anomalies in the system. There may be an opportunity here to ambush a salvager.

I warp out of d-scan range of the ships, recall my probes, and then make a good monitoring position in the Abaddons' chosen anomaly. They seem to be chugging along rather slowly for three battleships, as there aren't many Sleeper wrecks appearing on d-scan as I warp around to recall my probes and get in to a suitable position. I could be here a while. And if it's just these three pilots maybe I should consider swapping to my Manticore stealth bomber. No, on second thoughts I'll stick with my covert Tengu strategic cruiser. I'll also launch probes again and resume scanning. The battleships aren't being slow in creating wrecks, they are simply being efficient in tidying up, as they are looting and salvaging as they go. That's not playing fair.

I've got no shot here, not by myself. I think the best I can achieve is spooking the battleships in to inaction by scanning. I launch probes again and get back to resolving rocks, gas, and two wormholes, but even with my probes whizzing around the Abaddons continue to shoot Sleepers. More fool them, I say. One day it will be more than a lone Tengu scanning the system and then they'll be sorry. And in new clones. But today I have two wormholes to investigate, and judging by the strengths of them I either have a K162 and static exit to null-sec k-space, or a static exit to low-sec empire space and a random outbound connection. I reckon the latter, as I'm chasing that weaker signature around more than I would for a connection to null-sec.

Warping to the fatter wormhole finds it to be a U210, leading out to low-sec. Yeah, I know my wormhole signatures. Still, I don't quite expect to drop out of warp at the second wormhole to see an A982 designation. The connection leads to deadly class 6 w-space. You know, I think I'll bookmark the wormhole in low-sec first, just in case I need it to get home. I jump to low-sec to be in the Domain region, and by myself in this system. My security status is still on my mind, so after a passive scan reveals five anomalies in this low-sec system I head in to one of them to pop a couple of cruisers, before returning to C3a to see where the A982 wormhole will take me.

D-scan looks promising in C6a. There are two towers, along with a Noctis salvager, Orca industrial command ship, Exequror cruiser, Bestower hauler, and two Coveter mining barges. More excitingly, there are some mining drones and a jet-can labelled with a time somewhere in the system. My distance from the wormhole looks less promising, however, as I am under one kilometre from the locus. I may only need to be two kilometres away in order to cloak but that still leaves me with quite a distance to cover whilst visible to all, even with a micro warp drive on full burn.

I move away from the wormhole as quickly and smoothly as I can, but I think I have been spotted. Ships are swapped for a Falcon recon ship and Occator transport, both suggesting a more defensive arrangement than purely industrial. I'll continue as normal until this is shown to be more than an assumption, and I open the system map to see if it's possible to launch probes covertly. Maybe, maybe not. One tower holds all the ships on one side of the system, with a second tower sitting empty on the other side of the system. I launch my probes near the second tower, hoping no one's watching, but you can never be too sure when cloaked ships are around.

I've definitely been spotted. I warp back to the inner system and start looking for the two Coveters, but although the mining drones remain at large d-scan can only show me the ships being coincident with the tower. The jet-can has even gone, perhaps chomped by a Mammoth hauler also at the first tower. That's a shame, but if the locals spotted my entrance through an unexpected wormhole in to their system then they would most likely have seen my probes, even if I had needed just the one scan to locate them. And now they're looking for me. Well, not me, I suppose, but probably the wormhole I used to get here. I may as well leave before they decide to try to catch me specifically, or collapse the unwanted connection.

I head back to C3a, passing no ships as I do, to see the three Abaddons still out and about shooting Sleepers. I suppose I can scan the low-sec system for more wormholes. Or I could see what this new contact in a Bestower in the C3 is up to. Going off-line as soon as I catch sight of him at the local tower, apparently. My timing isn't working out for me today. Okay, out to low-sec with me, where my probes pick up three extra signatures. I resolve a radar site, a magnetometric site, and some dumb drones loitering with intent. It's going to be another quiet night, albeit with plenty happening in the w-space systems in today's constellation. At least I got the initial thrill of the hunt, if not the hunt itself. I pause to pop another rat in low-sec, then head home to get some rest.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Plenty to watch, little to shoot
Tags: abaddon, bestower, covetor, eve online, exequror, falcon, mammoth, mmorpg, noctis, occator, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Looking for a Loki

There are still problems affecting Fin and my attempts to stay in space. Fin's more than mine now, which isn't any solace, as Fin's activities are limited to her continuing bid to locate a stray jet-can in our home system. That in turn limits me to solo activities, until the connection problems are finally admitted to and fixed. I suppose I can start by trying to find the Loki strategic cruiser that blips on my directional scanner and combat probes as I start to scan. Is he scouting, stalking, or just passing through?

More gas at home is a diversion I can quickly take to activate before investigating the second wormhole here. At least there is a K162 to be found, from class 5 w-space this time, as that makes it more likely the Loki was passing through or scouting and isn't looking to cause trouble with us directly. Maybe just indirectly. I jump in to the C5 to see what waits for me there.

There's little to see on d-scan from the wormhole, with just the one probe on scan. The probe's appearance is a little peculiar, given that the static wormhole is already discovered and opened, but there are explanations for its presence, both involving a K162 also being in this system. Either a new wormhole has opened up here recently and a scout from deeper w-space is scanning, or a wormhole opened up here some time ago, letting in a scout discover this static connection, and it's now the locals' turn to find it. Either way, I warp off to see if I can find a Loki.

I may not have to look hard for the ship, as I was only in this system two months ago and have two towers listed in my notes. I also jotted down 'lots of pilots and big ships, collapse WH shortly after I open it'. Right, I remember this system. I came in through a chain of class 5 w-space, opening a K162 in to this system when the locals were clearing anomalies escalated with carriers and dreadnoughts. They quickly found the wormhole I entered through and collapsed it, with my getting lucky to jump out at just the right time. I wonder how active the locals are today.

A Magnate frigate and shuttle are piloted at one tower in C5a, with an empty Revelation dreadnought floating nearby. The second tower has a neat bubble trap, positioned to catch ships warping between the two towers, along with a Talos battlecruiser, Cynabal cruiser, and Archon carrier all piloted, and a Chimera carrier and Phoenix dreadnought sitting empty. So there are some ships, a few pilots, but no Loki and nothing happening. That's probably for the best, given my previous encounter in this system. I would imagine the Loki came from deeper w-space and the Magnate is currently scanning.

I'll leave C5a alone for now. I don't quite get back to the home system, though, as the wormhole flares as I approach it. I pause to watch a Loki—maybe the Loki—decloak and warp to a local tower. Okay, maybe he is from here after all. I follow the Loki to the tower to see if I can gauge what the plan is now, and see some ship changes and the Magnate warp out to where their static wormhole isn't. Maybe there is another unwanted K162 that they'll collapse shortly. I return to my plan of ignoring them and hope they'll ignore us, and head home and onwards in to our neighbouring C3.

There is a tower but no ships visible on d-scan in the class 3 system, a tower that won't be hard to find in another fairly sparse system. There are eleven planets and only twelve moons in total in the system, with six of the planets bare of satellite bodies. Oh, and the tower is where I have it listed from an earlier visit seven months ago. Still, there were two towers back then, so I didn't have it too easy in finding this one. No one's home, so I scan. My probes pick up seven anomalies and eight signatures, and I have to assume that the Loki has already scouted this system thoroughly, popping easy targets and leaving me with sloppy seconds.

Even if a scout has passed through this system recently, he may not be quite as tenacious as me with looking for targets. Assuming I'll find nothing here, and probably in any connected w-space system, I can always exit through the static connection and look for more wormholes in the system in low-sec empire space. Doing so will be probably my best hope for finding activity too, as the only other wormhole in this C3 is a K162 from more class 5 w-space, but one that is reaching the end of its natural lifetime. I jump through the U210 instead to scan.

I launch probes in the low-sec system in the Domain region, which reveal an uninspiring two signatures. I'm sitting on one of them, the K162 back to C3a, so resolve the other. It's a dirty site. A dirty, dirty site. I'd give it a spanking but there's another pilot in the system. It's not that I mind if anyone watches, or even joins in, but not in a low-sec system. I insist on a bit more protection when indulging in such behaviour. Nothing's happening tonight, unless the C5a pilots are launching an incursion in to our home system with an unguarded salvager. Taking myself home finds no such luck, making tonight a quick and quiet evening of exploration. I hide my ship in a corner of the system and go off-line.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Looking for a Loki
Tags: archon, chimera, cynabal, eve online, loki, low-sec, magnate, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, phoenix, revelation, scanning, talos, w-space