Miners and Sleepers

Fin's here but not here, floating in her isolation chamber for a few minutes. I'll scan the home system. A new signature is revealed by my probes, today being a second wormhole for a change, a K162 coming from class 4 w-space. Hoping for some activity I jump through the wormhole to the C4, and get a beautiful sight on my directional scanner. Miners! Three Covetor mining barges have fifteen mining drones flitting about, and a Badger hauler is joined by an Iteron hauler, probably collecting the ore that's been mined. The only disappointing aspect of my arrival is that the wormhole is in d-scan range of all of this, as well as a tower. I may be spotted before I can even launch scanning probes.

I move away from the wormhole and cloak. Watching d-scan for a few seconds looks promising, as the drones do not disappear, which would be the first sign of the miners halting their operation. Still there are Covetors and drones on d-scan, so I open the system map and look for somewhere distant where I can perhaps launch probes without being detected. But warping to a far planet only puts in me range of three more towers, at least one of them holding a pair of combat ships. Even more disappointing than not being able to launch probes to hunt the miners, locating one of the towers shows it to be blue and owned by a corporate ally. Bastards.

Fin's back and being updated about the miners and their status. She wonders how blue they are, and if 'maybe we can change that'. I like my glorious leader's approach to diplomacy, although relaying corporation details has her confirm that we really are quite blue to each other and we can't turn a blind eye this time. That's a shame, but not a terrible outcome, particularly as the Covetors are now warping in to another tower, along with their hauler. Whether this is a delayed reaction to someone having spotted my ship or their mining operation is coming to a natural conclusion I can't say. Just in case, Fin sends a quick message to let them know they are safe to continue.

We may still have a miner to shoot, a Retriever mining barge spotted by Fin in the opposite direction, through our static wormhole. The Retriever is sitting inertly in a tower's shields, though, so not much of a target at the moment, and it doesn't look like he's going to move, no matter how much we will him to do so. There are some good anomalies in this class 3 w-space system, and if we can get rid of the miner one way or another we could reap some benefit. I think that launching scanning probes could scare the miner off-line, letting it serve the purpose of getting rid of him whilst allowing us to look for further wormholes. It almost sounds reasonable, so we both launch probes and scan.

There are only nine signatures in this C3. The first one I resolve is a gravimetric mining site, which I activate out of spite, before finding a magnetometric site that could be good for profit. Fin and I discover a wormhole each at the same time, Fin's being the static exit to low-sec empire space, mine a K162 also from low-sec. Nothing else of interest crops up, so we check our exits. The static wormhole leads to the relatively civilised Domain region, a deformed handful of hops from Amarr. The K162 comes from Aridia. We don't bother scanning low-sec, having all we need for tonight in the C3, and we head home to swap in to our Sleeper Tengu strategic cruisers.

I've definitely checked that the magnetometric site in the C3 is out of d-scan range of the tower this time, making it our first destination. We should be able to slip past an inattentive pilot, clear the site, and sweep up the loot without anyone noticing. Ah, we even get a gift of a Talocan cruiser this time, a neat piece of salvage that we haven't seen in a while. And combat is smooth, Sleepers popped without problems. We salvage and analyse the artefacts before moving on, rather than leaving it all until we get spotted and potentially analysing under duress. We get all our loot home safely and head back to the C3 to clear some plain anomalies, making the most of a decent connection.

I punch d-scan as we return to the C3, to check that the situation remains the same. Nope, now there's a Tengu with the Retriever! That could cause problems. At least, it could if it weren't Fin's Tengu, the one flying a few kilometres off my stubby wing. We're such hardened w-spacers, startled by our own boats. But with the confusion out of the way we can get back to shooting Sleepers, although we need to be wary of d-scan now as all the remaining sites are in range of the tower. And it's good we are paying attention, as in the last wave of the first anomaly the Retriever is swapped for a Scorpion battleship. When the Scorpion is replaced by a Machariel battleship Fin decides it's time to run, so we do.

D-scan turns in to a kaleidoscope of ships as we head home, the Machariel swapped to a Broadsword heavy interdictor as we warp, the Broadsword for a Loki strategic cruiser as we jump. The pilot is probably just toying with us. Fin boards a cloaky ship and heads back to scout, as I hold at our tower ready to board a possible counter-ship we may need. There's nothing to see in the C3, though, the pilot disappeared. We confirm that he's gone off-line, Fin decloaking a couple of times in an attempt to provoke a reaction from anyone else there, and then decide to try again with the anomalies.

Back in our Tengus we finally clear the first anomaly, clear the second anomaly, clear the third anomaly—I'm not entirely convinced that the pilot was watching d-scan, and maybe was checking ship fittings purely coincidentally—and clear the fourth anomaly before having our fill of Sleeper combat. With still no sign of any capsuleer presence we take a pair of Noctis salvagers out to sweep up our mess, clearing two anomalies each and bringing back almost 140 Miskies of loot. Combined with maybe 170 Miskies of loot and artefacts from the magnetometric site, we've done pretty well for ourselves this evening.

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Tags: badger, broadsword, covetor, eve online, iteron, loki, machariel, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, retriever, scanning, scorpion, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Restocking the hangar

Glorious leader Fin is ahead of me, sitting outside the tower in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. That makes my scouting easy, as all I have to do is pay attention as Fin tells me about the Devoter heavy interdictor and Dramiel frigate unpiloted in the tower, which itself sits in a system we were in less than a month ago. It's like Siri for my w-space notes. We also know that there is an exit to high-sec empire space to be resolved in the C3, so I go to join Fin to look for it and maybe pick up even more fuel. Good opportunities are occasional, so we need to make the most of each of them and not blithely ignore one under the mistaken impression we'll see another soon.

Ah, I remember this system. Or, rather, the bubbly tower. If I squint a little I can almost see Charlie and his uncle burping away the guilt of defying Willy Wonka amongst all these bubbles. Of course, they'd be dying pretty quickly in the vacuum of space, instead of facing a rather slower but no doubt equally painful death at the dull spinning blades of a ceiling fan, and they couldn't even burp themselves in to warp because this is a different kind of bubble. Hmm, I think I've gone what might be called 'off-message'. So, scanning the C3. Seven anomalies could provide a distraction, but we're looking for the exit wormhole, and twenty-nine signatures looks like we're going to have to work for today's link to empire space.

Fin finds the static wormhole, and pretty quickly too. I wonder if perhaps it's worth squeezing an Orca industrial command ship out and back again, maximising cargo space across one return trip. Fin recalls her probes and heads home to prepare the Orca, after checking that the exit doesn't lead to the perverse clump of high-sec space in Aridia—it doesn't, putting us instead in Genesis—as I continue scanning, hoping not to find any more wormholes today but perhaps a magnetometric site or two we could pillage if we have enough time later.

I find a second wormhole before any magnetometric site, which really wasn't what I was looking for. Any further connections could bring extra pilots through the C3, and to high-sec, who could then ambush our logistics operation. Thankfully, the K162 from class 5 w-space looks as unwanted on the other side as it is here, the connection already critically destabilised to the point of collapse. I don't think we need to worry about a fleet entering. And there are no more wormholes to concern ourselves with, and a single magnetometric site to reward my efforts. Only one, though, the system otherwise full of radar, ladar, and gravimetric sites.

I take my scanning probes out to high-sec to take a look around. The few signatures present in the system look interesting but turn out to be rocks, a Blood Raider Lookout, and more rocks. Stupid high-sec exploration. I consider popping a few Blood Raiders for kicks and giggles but the distance between each pocket of rats is too far for my heavy assault missiles to reach, and I give up without firing a single volley. But it reminds me that we are missing a Drake battlecruiser, and I could make myself useful by buying a replacement. 'Buy two', suggests Fin, which is a good idea if we are going to be throwing them away in the future.

Fin's making her way to Dodixie in a search for cheaper fuel, but I think our finances can afford the perhaps reasonable price of Drakes being sold locally. I dump my scanning boat at our tower and head to the nearest station in high-sec with a couple of Drakes for sale, and start to buy the modules required. I ask Fin if she has a fitting in mind for the Drakes, as I can't remember that of the one we lost. 'Um, archaeology', Fin says. Right, it's coming back to me now. The Drake was hastily refit to analyse artefacts in a magnetometric site, and was blown up by battleships when it got stuck on a Sleeper conduit. I don't suppose I'll be copying that fit for these new ones.

I have a Drake fitting saved, which should be suitable for an all-rounder w-space battlecruiser. I call it up, buy as many modules as are available, am quietly confident that we have the two or three missing modules in our hangar in w-space, and launch the first of the pair as I take Bunny on her maiden voyage. The first Drake is almost fully fitted, a minor detour needed to pick up a rig before returning me home safely. I manage to forget to check our hangar for the extra modules as I strip down to my pod again and go back to assemble, fit, and fly the second Drake, Moose.

Thankfully, I get the half-capable battlecruiser back to w-space to find we have some spare missile launchers to complete the Drake's armament, all without bumping in to any other ship that might wonder why I am being so arrogant to engage with only three launchers firing. Two Drakes bought, fitted, and stored, I board a Falcon recon ship to escort Fin's Orca home through our neighbouring C3, in case of trouble, only to find the massive industrial command ship having sneaked up beside me as I was completing the second Drake's fitting. That's a pretty fast Orca. Even so, scanning, travelling, and buying have taken their toll on the time, and I'd rather lie down than shoot some Sleepers.

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Tags: devoter, drake, dramiel, eve online, falcon, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning

Finding fuel

I'm out for a brief reconnaissance of the w-space constellation, just because I feel like it. That's the way I roll. The home system is clear, which is the way I like it, and the only unexpected signature is a new build-up of gas, which I settle down again before diving through our static wormhole. The neighbouring class 3 system has nothing interesting within range of the K162, according to my directional scanner, so I launch probes and perform a blanket scan. My notes tell me I was here six months ago, when the system was unoccupied, but my probes tell me there are two ships here, both probably nestled inside a newly installed tower's force field. I'll warp across and take a look.

There are two towers in the system now, in fact. One of them holds the Chimera carrier and Orca industrial command ship my probes have detected, unpiloted of course, the other I don't even visit for it being entirely unremarkable without any ships. Otherwise, this C3 is interestingly clean. There are no anomalies and a mere four signatures to resolve, one of which is the K162 home and another the static exit to high-sec empire space, as noted on my earlier visit. Scanning's so simple here I teach my cat to do it, and he resolves a ladar and radar site each, along with the exit to high-sec, before flipping me off for wasting his time and going back to sleep in a cardboard box.

The static wormhole is stable, giving me a decent exit to high-sec. Well, the wormhole is decent, the exit could be a high-sec island situated in-between the most notorious low-sec systems in New Eden. It could be, but it's not, the exit actually appearing in Tash-Murkon, a few hops from Tash-Murkon Prime and a handful to Amarr itself. What luck! I can buy the replacement Legion strategic cruiser we still need, as well as pick up some more fuel. I take myself home, swap in to a Bustard transport ship and load it up with, hmm, it seems we have no loot to export. I hope my glorious leader took it out when I wasn't looking.

I take an empty Bustard out to high-sec, and bring it back in the same condition. To my surprise, the cost of fuel is high enough to cause Tony Harrison levels of outrage, and there aren't any Legions for sale in the region at all! I'm amazed. I'm so amazed that I strip down to my naked pod and determine to travel the dozen or so hops to Jita, if only to show my distaste towards the backwards Amarrian traders. It is only a few hops in to my trip, when I cross a region border and decide to check prices once more, that I realise my error. Tash-Murkon Prime is in Tash-Murkon, Amarr is in Domain. And Domain has a rather healthy market for both fuel and Legions, one not reflected in the lesser-known trade region the exit wormhole appears in. Silly Penny, I really ought to know my regions better than this.

I chastise myself for this mistake—yes, whilst still naked in my pod—and divert Amarrwards. At least I noticed my mistake before I passed Amarr, and certainly long before I reached Jita. I easily buy and assembly a replacement Legion in Amarr, where I even remember to include ammunition, and leave the station in Jeff K's Prophecy II. I don't remember how I felt the first time I flew the Legion, maybe a bit nervous for being in an untested ship, but now I know I am in a ship killer and almost want to meet resistance on my way home. Almost, but not really, because I'd still like to use the convenient route between w-space and high-sec to get some fuel, now I know where to find it.

W-space stays quiet as I take the Legion home, and for the second time today I swap in to a Bustard and head out to high-sec. This time, I know where I'm going. A short few hops to Amarr has me buying so much fuel I can barely stuff it all in to the transport. I kid, of course, I can use a calculator, and the fuel blocks may be stupidly bulky but at least they simplify consumption needs. I'm not entirely sure how many days the blocks I've bought will fuel in our tower—ten days, perhaps, is a rough estimation, which shows how irritating fuel blocks may become, as we don't get a decent exit to high-sec like this once every ten days—but it's as much as I can reasonably carry without risking an Orca. And I get it all home safely, the C3 still not stirring.

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Tags: bustard, chimera, eve online, legion, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Accidentally finding the fleet

Whee, skill queue updated! One of these days I may even get to use a new skill, maybe some of these new-fangled guns I keep hearing about. They're like missiles, but use capacitor energy, have difficulty tracking fast-moving objects, and have confusing ammunition requirements. I can't wait! For now, I'll settle with exploring tonight's w-space constellation, which starts, as always, in scanning the home system. 'Okay', says Fin, 'tonight I want an SMA with Tech III or at least some Tech II ships in it'. Roger that, boss! Shall I take our tower off-line now, or would a bit later be more convenient for you? 'No, no; someone else's SMA.' Oops. Where's the 'on' button?

Misunderstandings aside, there are new signatures at home to find. One is merely new rocks to be activated and forgotten about, the other two are our static wormhole and a K162 connection coming in from class 4 w-space. It takes a while to find this out, if only because the two wormholes are on opposite sides of the system. I never knew it took so long to warp across our home system, but now I do. It takes quite a while. Science accomplished, I jump in to C4a to look for whatever pilots thought it would be a good idea to connect to our home. And whoever they may be they are not here now, the system small enough for there to be nowhere to hide from the wormhole.

There is also nowhere to hide from the tower, which sadly has an active force field, so I launch probes from the wormhole and perform a blanket scan. My scanning probes confirm that I appear to be alone in this system, as well as showing me there are twenty signatures scattered around, along with eight anomalies. Sod that for a lark, I have a class 3 system to explore for targets in the other direction. I'll only scan for possible K162s here if I find nothing of interest elsewhere. I recall my probes, return home, and warp across and jump through our static wormhole to C3a.

I'm not having much better luck here. There's no one obvious in the system, unless anchored warp bubbles have become sentient, or, I suppose, my directional scanner doesn't cover the whole of the C3. It turns out to be the d-scan one. Then again, notes from my previous visit to this C3, eight months ago, tell me the system was unoccupied then, and because it has a static exit to null-sec k-space its status is unlikely to have changed. The forty-five signatures would suggest no one's moved in, as does the lack of any structures in the system. Those twenty signatures back in the C4 are looking more attractive now.

I start sifting through the signatures, again the larger number not being a great disadvantage as they cluster together in such a way that I can ignore batches of rocks and gas. I'm not too happy to see a new anomaly spawn in the midst of my scanning, those dirty Sleepers, and I hope the indigenous w-spacers can keep it in their pants long enough for me to at least find the static wormhole. I'm getting the feeling that I won't find any K162s here. Well, except for this K162 from class 5 w-space. And this K162 from null-sec. I really should keep my big trap shut sometimes. I finally resolve the static connection, just as Fin finishes killing the extra wormhole in our home system, and consider my scanning complete here. Time to move on.

My first destination is the null-sec system beyond the C3's static connection, for a variety of complex reasons that are difficult to explain to those unfamiliar with w-space, and not simply because my ship decloaks on the wormhole accidentally. Five pilots are in the system with me in the Perigen Falls region, who I ignore entirely to look for more wormholes, and failing, only resolving a 'hierarchy', whatever that is. I locate the ships of the local pilots, the Hulk exhumer, Retriever mining barge, Charon freighter, and Ibis frigate all nervously huddled together in a defenceless tower, startled back from the native habitat of an asteroid field by the appearance of an unknown pilot in the system. The poor little dears won't come out of there now.

I return to w-space and head to the K162 to class 5 w-space, Fin reconnoitring the other null-sec system. I find myself in a relatively small system, but with the wormhole superbly placed for sneaking up on pilots. There is theoretically nowhere to hide in the C5, all planets being with d-scan range of each other, but the wormhole has appeared 4 AU outside the edge of the system, putting two planets out of d-scan range. If only there were more ships than an unpiloted Chimera carrier safely inside a tower it would be an excellent vantage point. With no one to hunt, I launch probes to take a quick look for extra wormholes. Of the eight signatures present only two look likely to be wormholes. One is a gravimetric site, the other indeed being a wormhole, but an outbound connection to low-sec, not a K162. That's okay, all wormholes are nifty.

The low-sec system is in the Tash-Murkon region, which could be convenient, except the system is a dead end and as far from high-sec as we could be here. Scanning has a handful of extra signatures to resolve, one of which, being a good 6·5 AU above the ecliptic plane, has got to be a wormhole. And it is, an outbound connection to more class 5 w-space. That could be interesting, and I jump in as Fin takes a look around low and, being smart and level-headed, decides to buy some fuel for our tower instead of gallivanting around on foolhardy expeditions. All I do is let my glorious leader down again, finding three off-line towers in C5b but without a single hangar containing expensive ships between them. That's quite a difference from my last visit here too, as my notes from eighteen months ago merely state '~250 ships' across four towers. Yes, I probably counted them.

Scanning probes find two anomalies and seventeen signatures, and I set them off on a wormhole check. In reality, it's me performing the check, so I feel fine about taking all the credit for resolving an outbound connection to more null-sec, a K162 from even more null-sec and, when I wonder how I missed it, the static connection to another class 5 w-space system. Scanning takes its time, particularly with a hundred or so signatures to discard, and the hour is drawing late, but I think I can afford a peak in to C5c. Jumping in to the system sees some scanning probes on d-scan, which increase in number then disappear, making me loiter on the wormhole in the hopes of seeing a scout. I give up on that pretty quickly, though, as I won't catch a covert operations frigate, and my notes tell me there could be towers here. I'll look for them instead.

Warping to the position of towers discovered two months ago sees them still in the same places, and a lot of ships. Big ships, too. And Sleeper wrecks appear on d-scan somewhere, sparking the need for passive scan of the system. Only two anomalies appear when my scan finishes, the wrecks coinciding with neither of them, and still more big and, frankly, worrying ships warp back in to the tower from somewhere. The wrecks are probably in a radar or magnetometric site, the locals no doubt pushing capital ships in to provoke escalations from the Sleepers. I'd have to scan to find the site, which surely at least one of the many pilots here would spot, and I'd be amazed if this kind of operation didn't guard its salvager properly. I doubt I can do anything here, I'll be dead if I tried anything. I should head back. That is, if it's safe to jump through the wormhole still.

Returning to the wormhole finds it clear of ships, which is a good sign. Jumping back to C5b, however, has a Tengu strategic cruiser appear, some kilometres away from me. Thankfully, I have appeared around two kilometres away from the wormhole and can cloak almost as soon as I move, although I jink shortly after cloaking just to make my location that bit more difficult to stumble in to. Oh, hello! It's not just the Tengu out here, he's got friends too. Big friends, battleship friends. Seven or eight of them. I am a little startled but I quickly recognise what's happening. The fleet hasn't coming looking specifically for me, they are simply collapsing an unwanted wormhole in to their system. That's a little inconsiderate, I don't know who else would potentially isolate harmless explorers.

It looks like my timing was perfect. Had I been any earlier warping back to the wormhole I could have bumped in to the fleet as it was forming for the outwards jump. Any later, and I would have bumped in to them returning. As it turns out, I jump out as the fleet are holding their session change cloaks. I'm surprised they didn't decloak and make it difficult for me to flee between their big hulls, but I suppose my timing meant they didn't know what was following them. Even so, it was my one ship against a fleet from a C5 that looks like it routinely handles Sleeper escalations in radar or magnetometric sites. Poor show, chaps. And to ram my good timing home, a carrier makes a return-trip through the wormhole from C5c, collapsing the wormhole, a minute after I leave the system.

That was close. Being stuck in C5c wouldn't have been the end of the world, although I doubt I would have been particularly safe trying to scan my way out of there ahead of any scout they wanted to keep ahead of me, at least not tonight, but I wasn't far away from warping in to a fleet of battleships and a carrier only to find my wormhole escape route gone. As it is, I get a little spike of excitement to end my exploration for the night. It's a good reminder that scanning w-space isn't always a simple matter of shuffling probes around. But now I should get some rest. I make a couple of brief diversions, both from C5b, visiting null-sec systems in the Kalevala Expanse and Curse, for red dots of exploration on my star map, before returning home through thankfully unchanged systems. We have fuel, I've had an adventure, it's time for bed.

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Tags: charon, chimera, eve online, hulk, ibis, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, retriever, scanning, tengu, w-space

Making the most of exploration

Glorious leader Fin has scanned our static wormhole but left it unvisited, in case we want to reap the profits of the anomalies once more accumulating in our home system. That sounds like a plan, count me in! I make a cursory check of the system myself, noting the disappearance of one group of rocks and a gas cloud, and that there is a lack of new signatures that look like bringing in unwanted pilots who would like to see our fresh corpses float frozen in space. We have the green light for Sleeper combat. We both board our Sleeper Tengu strategic cruisers, I get data on the anomalies present, and we warp off to the first to start raking in the iskies.

My heart's not really in it tonight. I find I only have enough spirit to clear a mere two anomalies before the routine becomes too routine. We salvage the anomalies, sweeping up one each, with Fin bringing back the bacon again. Combined, we recover about a hundred and eighty million ISK in loot and salvage, which is not a bad result but a significant amount less than we got from three class 3 anomalies yesterday. It all feels a bit quiet, isolated, alone. I should be used to this in w-space, I suppose, but the feeling is amplified tonight. I can't even bring myself to go out exploring, although I'm not sure what I would do otherwise. After a few awkward minutes Fin suggests we see what's down the rabbit hole, and I half-heartedly follow her to the static wormhole.

I let Fin jump ahead, happy for her to take point and report back any excitement. A tower and no ships is not exciting, really, but hearing the system is empty encourages me to jump in and take a look around too anyway. The system number looks lucky to me, although it's my first visit here. I look to warp away to launch scanning probes covertly but determine that there is nowhere to hide from the tower, so just do it near the wormhole. A blanket scan returns a healthy nine anomalies and, damn, thirty-six signatures. These are some untidy w-spacers.

'It makes me tired to think about it', says Fin, not enjoying the prospect of sifting through three-dozen signatures. Curiously enough, I've perked up now. I think I'm in my element. I've already established that the system is relatively small, and my first intuition is that we'll be able to discount handfuls of signatures at a time, as they'll all be clustered together. Sure enough, I move from planet to planet, ignoring rocks and gas within a scan or two and determining a lack of interesting wormholes from what remains. And hitting the inner system with my probes has almost thirty of them all within a standard spread of my probes. Whittling them down doesn't take as long as the number would suggest.

The static exit to low-sec pops out of the results, but the connection is wobbly and soon to collapse of old age. A second wormhole is healthier, a K162 from class 5 w-space looking somewhat inviting for my explorer self. As it looks like there are just the two wormholes I recall my probes and jump in to the C5 to take a look around. I punch d-scan, see a corporate hangar array and ship maintenance array, adjust d-scan's settings and look again for wrecks or anything else interesting, and, well hello! 'Fin, come.' I'm too excited to communicate much else for the moment. We find lots of systems that contain towers without active force fields for the circumstance not to be particularly interesting any more, but almost none that are potentially stocked of ships and other lovely goodies by still having an intact CHA and SMA. It's such a beautiful sight. We should shoot it.

I explain to Fin what I've found and ask her to hold on the wormhole for a moment, as I reposition myself to drop on top of the off-line but unplundered tower. Fin arrives and we hammer away at the ship array, wondering what riches will burst forth when it explodes. Not a great deal, it turns out, but a Hurricane and Ferox battlecruiser, Scorpion battleship, Bestower hauler, and Noctis salvager are all worth recovering. I'm sure we can squeeze a few of the frigates in to an Orca too. Before we think about collecting them we turn our attention to the corporate hangar, popping that too to get a wealth of Tech II and faction laser crystals, a couple of interesting skill books, and some fuel that maybe should have been in the tower.

We return home and stow our Tengus. I head back to the C5 in my pod to claim the Scorpion, Fin in an Orca to carry all she can. I slide myself in to the battleship to see a rather familiar fit. The Scorpion predictably has plenty of ECM but is also fit with armour plates and has all of its weapons systems replaced with remote armour repair modules. It's pretty much what our corporation used when flying battleship fleets against Sleepers. And now we have another one. I hold at the tower for Fin's industrial command ship to turn up and—chomp, chomp, chomp—take in the ships and modules. Having ECM on our side in case someone turns up is handy.

We head home again, and it is only now that I realise we are returning through the C5's static wormhole. Someone must have opened the wormhole from the C5. Maybe the scout passed through much earlier with bad timing and the tower wasn't off-line then, or he scanned without finding the tower or inspecting d-scan. Either way, it's their loss and our gain. A second trip back to the tower brings me and Fin home in the Ferox and Hurricane, both fit for gas harvesting. I was expecting that of the Ferox, but the Hurricane? These people are sick. I make one last trip to recover the Bestower, now that I can pilot one instead of shooting the Amarr hauler in frustration.

My lesson for the night is to always listen to Fin. Her subtle suggestion to explore our neighbouring system was clearly a knowing wink, somehow realising what we had to find out in w-space today. Thanks to my glorious leader, my low mood has been turned right around and I am invigorated again. Oh, maybe it didn't work out for everyone, but we aren't animals. We left a single Ibis frigate behind. Maybe it will come in useful for the corporation whose w-space life we've just potentially ruined.

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Tags: bestower, eve online, ferox, hurricane, ibis, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, scorpion, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Stalked whilst stealing Sleeper sites

A quick scan of the home system reveals no new signatures cropping up since I went to get food. Snacking can be a lengthy affair, so it's best to check. Fin's here and one step ahead of me, in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, reporting all to be quiet. The anomalies are still there, so before we collapse our wormhole to look for better opportunities we may as well make some profit. Fin returns and we both suit up in our Tengu strategic cruisers fit for Sleeper combat, heading out to plunder some anomalies.

I open my system map in the C3 and check the position of the anomalies in relation to the tower. I remember making a bit of potential blunder a little while back when, out of three anomalies, the first site we engaged Sleepers in was in range of a tower and the other two were not, leaving the wrecks visible to any locals turning up, whilst keeping the appearance of the locals opaque to us. That kind of situation would put us at a disadvantage and I am keen not to repeat the mistake. This time, all three anomalies are clustered close together in the inner system, all appearing to be within directional scanner range of the tower. With no obvious drawbacks to fighting in any of them, I pick one at random and warp the both of us there.

Combat is smooth, as it should be after so much practice, and having the tower in d-scan range lets us monitor it for new arrivals, none appearing. But warping to the second site reveals my sloppy scouting again, this and the remaining anomaly actually being out of d-scan range of the tower, exactly the situation I was trying to avoid. 'You can blame me if I get us both killed', I say to Fin, but she shrugs it off. Fin's probably right, we're unlikely to see company, and if we do it is less likely to be because wrecks are visible and we're not, so it shouldn't be an issue. Still, lucky us, the scenario I hoped to avoid becomes a reality when we move to the third anomaly and a pilot announces his presence in the local communication channel.

We can't see him, but he can see our wrecks, and he's not happy. There's not much we can do about that, though. Another fleet must have passed through earlier too, probably opening the N968 that was at the end of its life earlier and gone now, as the local pilot bemoans the loss of most of his anomalies, whereas we have cleared only two and are working on a third. It may work to our advantage if he thinks we're that dedicated. Personally, I'm ready to bug out, particularly as we are out of range of the tower and don't know how many capsuleers are there or what they are piloting, but Fin is fearless as always. She holds fast and, despite being squad leader and having the ability to warp us both clear, I am compelled to stay by her side.

A second pilot makes himself known, a bit stupidly in my opinion, by mocking our use of two Tengus for class 3 anomalies. That nonplusses the two of us, unsure what else we should use when we have powerful and flexible strategic cruisers available to us. Maybe we should break out the Merlins to give us a proper challenge, instead of doing our best to make ISK-generation as simple and efficient as we can. Still, at least we know there are at least two pilots, one of who must be in a cloaked boat within d-scan range of us, or even in the anomaly. The anomaly is nearly cleared, so we align back towards our wormhole, only having planned to clear three of them anyway, and when the final Sleeper battleship explodes we warp clear.

I think we should be quick in returning to salvage, in case the locals take on the task themselves, but, of course, precautions must be taken. Fin will salvage in a Noctis, I will be her escort and protection. I ponder my options on what to fly. I need to keep our salvager safe but would prefer to repel the attack aggressively rather than passively. A Falcon recon ship would probably be a safe choice, breaking target locks and letting Fin escape any attack, but it would not actually deter the attack or be able to launch a counter. A couple of stealth bombers wouldn't even need to lock the Noctis to stand a chance of destroying it. So as anti-bomber protection, I choose my Malediction interceptor again, knowing that it won't repel anything bigger. But I also realise that our Sleeper Tengus were left unmolested, so the neighbours may not have anything much bigger for capsuleer combat themselves.

We go back to the C3 and Fin starts salvaging, as I orbit my Malediction around her Noctis, hoping to look suitably aggressive. The first site, in d-scan range of the tower, lets us see a new Tengu in the system. The second pilot remains unseen. The first site is cleared, so is the second, at which point Fin splits the recovered loot in her hold and we both take half to reduce the risk of lost profit. The third site is swept clean by Fin's Noctis and it is only when we are almost in warp homewards that I finally see scanning probes in the system. I would have thought that would be the first action the locals would take, attempting to find our wormhole. Still, it works to our advantage, and we get home safely having cleared the three anomalies as planned, over two hundred million ISK richer.

Sitting in our tower we ponder our next move, when a Dominix battleship appears on d-scan. We wonder if the pilots are scouting our now-found home system or are trying to collapse the wormhole. Let's take a look, I suggest. 'In Widows', Fin says, 'just to give them a cocktail story'. It sounds good to me, and we both board a black ops ship each and warp to the wormhole. We could possibly engage whatever comes through or perhaps even help destabilise our wormhole, happy to see this connection die, but no more pilots jump through from the C3. Hmm, no more pilots appear, but an Anathema covert operations boat is in the system somewhere, as is a Helios cov-ops, both ships blipping on and off d-scan occasionally.

It's possible the C3 pilots pushed a scout in to our system and warned colleagues of our Widows. But if that's the case I can't work out why the ships would keep blipping on d-scan. The benefit of a cov-ops ship fitted with a cov-ops cloak is that it can stay cloaked. The only times one really needs to decloak is when jumping through a wormhole, and we haven't seen any jumps here. And so it dawns on me: maybe a new connection has opened in to our home system. With permission I leave my station and swap back in to my scouting Tengu, launching probes and confirming a new signature in the system. Resolving the signature finds another wormhole, a K162 from class 2 w-space that is already critically destabilised.

We were looking in the wrong direction. It's true that I checked for new connections before we started shooting Sleepers in the C3, but w-space can change at any time. But not only did the wormhole open to our system it has already been nearly collapsed. The Dominix we saw wasn't from the C3 but this C2, trying to sever the connection between our two systems. And now it looks like the cov-ops are coming and going in a bid to collapse the wormhole, small scanning boats being sent through to deplete the wormhole's mass to oblivion. I interrupt the operation when a Helios decloaks immediately upon entering our system and I attempt to engage him, but I watch as the cov-ops warps away moments after I decloak.

My ill-fated attempt to catch the Helios has an effect, as once the cov-ops returns and jumps home no more ships come through the wormhole. Their static connection will live until it dies of old age, giving them no new class 4 system to explore or exploit, but it also gives me and Fin little else to do. That's a shame, as it means we have no easy target to catch should the collapse leave a ship on the wrong side of the wormhole. But it's also fine, as the hour's late and I've already had plenty of excitement worrying about being jumped when shooting Sleepers in our Tengus. It's time to curl up for the night.

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Tags: anathema, dominix, eve online, helios, malediction, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space, widow

Reminder of a tower operation

I really ought to replace the Legion I lost recently. Without it, we are ill-prepared to assault any juicy ships that may come our way and it would be a shame to miss a kill because I'm too busy hunting to give thought to the availability of hardware. It would be easier if losing a ship meant a ten-minute trip to a station and taking a chunk out of the corporate wallet, but the itinerant nature of w-space life means we need to be aware of convenient exits and take our opportunities when they arise. I'll see if our neighbouring class 3 w-space system has an exit close to market today.

One new site in the home system distracts me for a minute, resolving to a gravimetric site that I activate, before I'm jumping through our static wormhole. In the C3 I see a few warp bubbles and a flight of drones on my directional scanner, but nothing else of interest. There aren't even any wrecks to accompany the drones, making them look quite abandoned. I warp out, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system, finding a tower empty of pilots as I do so. Four anomalies and eight signatures is a tidy-looking system, and I soon forget my mission to market by scanning quite thoroughly, resolving two ladar sites, two radar sites, and one gravimetric site, along with two wormholes.

The C3's static wormhole exits to low-sec empire space, which is pretty standard. The second wormhole is an N968 outbound connection to more class 3 w-space, but reaching the end of its natural lifetime. I won't risk the dying wormhole, which must have been opened at least half-a-day ago, instead jumping out of the stable connection to low-sec. I appear in low-sec in the Heimatar region, sharing the system with plenty of other pilots. I wonder if the cynosural beacon accounts for the other capsuleers present, but don't think so after checking the route to market.

I am only a couple of hops from the relative safety of high-sec space, and a handful of jumps from both Amarr and Rens, either of those two systems probably being a good place to buy a replacement strategic cruiser. But the route to high-sec, short as it is, would take me through Amamake, which even innocent little me knows is a hotspot for pirates. Considering the number of pilots simply in this system, I don't quite fancy piloting any ship through Amamake without a suitable escort.

With nowhere to go and surrounded by stargates I do what I know, launching probes to scan. A couple of extra signatures in the system give me hope that I can continue exploring, perhaps even finding a serendipitous link between low-sec and high-sec space, but I simply resolve a ladar and radar site, no more wormholes to be found. I jump back to C3a and head homewards, thinking about maybe getting some Sleeper combat in later, or collapsing the wormhole to start again. But if I don't want to leave space just yet I suppose I could also take a quick look through the dying wormhole to C3b.

I have the entrance system from low-sec to C3a available, so even if the EOL wormhole collapses I should be able to get home unaided, even if it is by a somewhat tortuous route. And maybe I can surprise some pilots who think no one would risk isolating themselves. There is even a bunch of ships visible on d-scan along with a tower, but another object catches my attention, one that triggers some memory from a while back. Fin and I were here before. But how do you know this, Penny? No, not because of my notes, but because the can is named 'Merry Christmas—WHEN'.

My notes don't even provide the full story, and I have to look back through my archive to find the time that Fin and I happen upon a defenceless tower on Christmas Eve and force it in to reinforced mode. That was a fun present for them. Fin then burns off-grid from our wormhole, drops and anchors the can, and leaves the inhabitants a particularly hard-to-find memento. Surprisingly enough, the tower remains in the same place from a year ago, although I don't suppose many capsuleers would have been roaming w-space for potential tower operations on Christmas Day.

I warp to the tower, where I can see that the ships are all unpiloted. I'm not going to scan for the static null-sec connection, and don't want to risk a simple two-jump return journey for the vague possibility of extra wormholes being present. Finding that memento of our earlier adventure has made me now content with the afternoon's exploration. I turn around and head home for a sammich.

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

Trapping a transport

Fin saw a Crane go out to low-sec and is looking to catch the transport ship on its way back to w-space. I turn up as my glorious leader boards an Onyx heavy interdictor to set up an ambush. That sounds like fun, I think I'll help. The Crane's going to be a tricky ship to catch, and although the Onyx's warp bubble will ensure the Crane doesn't warp clear our target is agile and nimble. We could probably use a ship that could throw out a bit of damage but I imagine I will be more useful in my interceptor, using its speed to counter the target's agility and getting close enough quickly enough to break any attempt to cloak.

I follow behind Fin to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, where she tells me 'the tower is somewhere'. Maybe three towers, which I have listed in my notes from a previous visit only ten weeks ago. Then again, at least one tower is off-line, as sitting on the static exit to low-sec empire space should have the tower within range of my directional scanner, and nothing is showing. The other two towers I noted the last time I was here are both on planets out of d-scan range, but now's not the time to worry about them. Besides, the Crane probably isn't even local to this system. Two K162 wormholes both from class 4 w-space connect in here, and it is likely the Crane came from one of them.

The wormhole to low-sec we're sitting on is throwing a wobbly, reaching the end of its natural lifetime, so we suspect our wait won't be long tonight. We shoot the breeze for a bit and, sure enough, the wormhole flares without too much of a wait. My interceptor sitting on the wormhole probably looks a bit threatening, but Fin's Onyx doesn't. She's cloaked, holding until the Crane reveals itself and tries to warp clear before inflating the HIC's warp bubble. I activate my micro warp drive in preparation for a burst of speed, and there's the Crane, making a break for it. I surge towards the transport ship as Fin decloaks and bubbles the wormhole. We've got him.

We throw a few missiles at the Crane as he is decidedly trapped, unable to warp out of the bubble and reduced to a crawl thanks to my interceptor. It's all going to plan so far. Naturally, the Crane jumps back out of w-space to escape death, but I'm right behind him. Fin holds in the C3, the Onyx's bubble not up to snuff in low-sec, being a banned weapon in empire space. It's okay, I can chase the Crane well enough, and I have him in my sights in the low-sec system. I activate my micro warp drive and, um, it overheats the mid rack without turning on. I try again, but still the module refuses to respond, leaving me with a still-impressive but frankly disappointing turn of speed in this rather crucial moment. The Crane cloaks and, presumably, warps clear as I curse Amarr engineering.

I manage to clear the overheat, but not before my micro warp drive takes a fair amount of damage, the effect apparently having been started back in w-space, and I sit on the K162 in low-sec and take stock. The Crane pilot leaves the system, but I have nowhere else to go and I suspect he doesn't either, so I wait, keeping Fin informed of what's occurring. The Crane returns to the system a minute later but doesn't approach the wormhole, at least not without his cloak active. I'm happy to wait a little longer, although aware of the dying wormhole behind me, as there are no corporate colleagues of the Crane in the system yet. There is a constant churn of pilots coming in and out of this system, though, so I keep my eyes and scanner monitoring the situation.

Still no obvious help comes for the Crane, but the combat probes whizzing around concern me a little. I can still be found and engaged by other fleets from arbitrary corporations, and I think I might just be. Whereas most ships appearing on d-scan disappear again a few seconds later, indicating transit across the system, a Vigilant cruiser, Thorax cruiser, Vagabond heavy assault cruiser, and Cyclone battlecruiser all persist for a little too long on my scanner. As such, I'm not surprised when the Vagabond drops under ten kilometres from my position and targets me. I have already mentioned to Fin that I may tell her to back off quickly, and I give the command as the Vagabond vaporises my shields in one hit.

I jump back to w-space and warp away from the wormhole, seeing Fin burn away herself and cloak. I get clear without problem and Fin's slow-but-steady cloaked crawl gets enough distance between her and the wormhole for the following Vagabond not to be a direct threat. I return home and swap to a Falcon ECM boat, just in case, but the rascals from low-sec don't venture far from the wormhole. The Vagabond is joined by a couple of covert operations scouts, one of who launches probes, but all three ships jump back to low-sec within a couple of minutes. Well, that was exciting.

I return to the wormhole to low-sec in my interceptor and Fin crawls back to the wormhole in her Onyx, resetting our ambush. I am tempted to poke my nose back out to low-sec, to which Fin says, 'Go for it'. It's good to see she's as cavalier with my ships as I am hers. The Crane pilot's still out here somewhere, but the Vagabond has moved on. However, Fin spotted a cov-ops scout in the C3 when I was out in low-sec, so it's possible the Crane pilot has enlisted help in determining if it is safe to return. The scout can see if Fin and I remain on the wormhole and communicate this to his colleague, so I doubt we'll catch the Crane returning to w-space as long as we sit here so obviously. In that case, we shouldn't be so obvious.

I head back home again and drop off my interceptor, swapping it for a Manticore stealth bomber. The Manticore can cloak, lock quickly, and is pretty nippy when it wants to be. It may not be quite as adept at catching a Crane as the interceptor, but loitering cloaked on the wormhole to remain unseen is the important factor now. Fin warps away from the wormhole too, so that whatever scout may be there will see us retreat, and I warp to the wormhole to maintain the ambush. Unfortunately, my Manticore lands almost directly on top of the invisible and yet still-interactable deadspace signature of the wormhole, some seven kilometres from the wormhole itself, and my ship decloaks.

I suppose that's that. The idea of moving our obvious ships away from the wormhole was to give whatever scout may be watching the impression that we've cleared the pocket and given up waiting for the Crane. Showing that we've moved different, cloaked ships in place instead really doesn't help our chances of a second shot at the ambush. I don't even consider waiting any longer, merely turning my Manticore around and heading home, a little disappointed that bugs and the vagaries of space thwarted our good intentions to kill an innocent hauler this evening.

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Tags: crane, cyclone, eve online, falcon, malediction, manticore, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, thorax, vagabond, vigilant, w-space

Strategic cruiser and salvager

Well, look what we have here. A Tengu, Drake, and Noctis, not a tower in sight, and wrecks spread all around. It looks like I was hasty in assuming this class 1 w-space system was uninteresting, after finding six ships all unpiloted inside a tower. Warping to the outer reaches of the system, where my directional scanner couldn't extend to from the K162, has found activity, activity Fin and I can shoot, as long as I can find them. I already have scanning probes launched, a blanket scan revealing these three extra ships even before d-scan showed them to me, so I can see all the local anomalies in virtual space in the system map. Swinging d-scan around in a tight beam shows the Drake battlecruiser in one anomaly, the Tengu strategic cruiser and Noctis salvager in another.

It's a bit of a concern that the Tengu appears to be protecting the Noctis, but I warp in to the cleared site anyway to take a look. I arrive to see the Tengu leave, presumably satisfied that the Noctis is okay here and off to rejoin the Drake for more Sleeper combat. I am too far to engage the Noctis but too near to warp closer. My best option is to bounce off the closest planet and get in to better position, but knowing the efficiency of the Noctis even this probably won't get me in to position in time. Sure enough, I get back to the site to see the Noctis salvage the last of the wrecks, my efforts to use little tricks to warp on top of him failing, and the salvager warps out of the site to stay safe, looking to end up in empty space.

I have the second site the combat ships have moved to and I follow them. It's good to know the Noctis warps in, probably using the Tengu as a beacon, before the site despawns, letting me create a suitably distant point where I can patiently keep watch of the combat, although I am reminded that a cloaked ship no longer keeps a site alive. And whilst I watch the Tengu and Drake shoot the Sleepers I am communicating with Fin. I am a few systems down the rabbit hole from Fin now, having scanned out of our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, across two class 2 systems, and in to this C1, whereas Fin went backwards through a K162 in C3a to a class 4 w-space system. Her targets aren't up to much, though.

I was happy to take a shot at the Noctis by myself, should the opportunity present itself, but now that the fleet is continuing we have time to think about tackling the Tengu. It is a tougher target, the Drake may stick around to help fight back, and I'm limited to using my covert Tengu, as I won't have time to get a ship killer that I lost in a foolishly optimistic ambush of null-seccers anyway. We'll definitely need energy neutralisers to suck the Tengu's defence capabilities dry, which limits Fin's choices too. She swaps out of her covert Tengu in to our second ship killer and starts heading my way.

Despite initial reservations, I would say we have an excellent chance in this fight. The Tengu and Drake are making a meal of the Sleeper frigates in this C1 anomaly. Not only that, but I have a plan that may net us two ships at once. Fin doesn't reach me by the time the second anomaly is clear, and I note that, again, the Drake warps off to the next anomaly—which I find easily enough as I see which direction he leaves the site—whilst the Tengu guides the Noctis in to start salvaging. All the while, the Tengu doesn't move. I think if we time it right, which looks straightforward, all we have to do is wait for the ships to clear the third anomaly and we should be able to drop on top of the Tengu shortly after the Noctis enters warp. We hold the Tengu as we pop the Noctis, then take the Tengu down. If the Drake reappears as well then we simply get a third kill.

I follow in to the third anomaly, ignoring the Noctis salvaging in the second, eyes now on the bigger prize. I have plenty of time to get to a suitable position that keeps the ships in warp range and lets me watch combat. I note which wrecks are close to the stationary Tengu and keep Fin updated as to what's happening, my glorious leader now waiting patiently on the wormhole leading in to the C1. This third site is in d-scan range of the K162 and we don't want to spook the fleet should Fin's entrance be spotted, otherwise I'd call Fin in to join me, all the better to strike at the right moment. It's not long before the Sleepers are purged from this site too. Get ready.

This isn't right. The Tengu's moving and the Drake isn't. I don't want to call Fin in yet because I don't know if the Noctis is coming, which should be heralded by the Drake's moving in to the next site. I think we need to strike now, this change of behaviour is too odd to ignore. I call Fin in and to warp to the site as I close the distance to the Tengu myself, having to use one of the wrecks he's moving away from as a reference. The Drake is turning at last and leaves the site. I try to get close enough to the Tengu to guarantee a hard burn will let me bump it and hopefully keep it in the site until I can lock and disrupt its engines, and as I do the Noctis swoops in above my cloaked Tengu. It's now or never.

Fin has arrived and is aiming for the now-turning Tengu, the ship manoeuvring to point in the same direction the Drake left the site. But the Tengu's drifting, intentional or otherwise, has taken it too far from the core of the wrecks for Fin to activate her warp disruptor. I try to react and get a positive lock, but the Tengu warps out whilst my sensors recalibrate after decloaking. Well, that just leaves my Tengu, Fin's Legion, and your Noctis here, Mr Noctis. It's not as great a target as the Tengu but the Noctis will do, and we make quick work in shredding its armour and hull, although the pilot is prepared for the explosion and warps his pod cleanly away.

I loot the wreck, or try to, bumbling with the loot strewn all over the place and too many metal scraps to fit in to my cargo hole, as the Drake warps in to see what the fuss is all about. He warps right back out again, too, and I miss my chance to pick a decent fight with another ship as I continue to struggle with metal scraps, locking the Drake but not having my warp disruptor active quite quickly enough. I shoot the empty wreck of the Noctis by accident, launchers loosing a volley that was meant for the Drake, but I'll pretend I was just venting my frustration at the bulky scraps.

The loot is poor, which is only to be expected from class 1 anomalies, and I count around twenty million ISK in loot and salvage in my hold. But, hullo, analysing the wreckage shows that there was plenty of really good salvage destroyed, none of it dropped off between sites. It looks like we just denied the fleet over a hundred million ISK in invested time. We may not have got the Tengu, nor the profit, but the Noctis turned out to be a good kill, and even better still when we realise it had a warp core stabiliser fitted. Had I struck earlier I may have had the salvager slip between my single-point-of-disruption fingers, and it was Fin's extra point that made all the difference.

It's obvious now the fleet were not local. A new ship appears on my combat scanning probes, still in space and still in their blanket scanning configuration. It would be fun to drop on top of an operation to collapse a wormhole, and I rearrange my probes to scan close to where I saw the Noctis disappear out of the first anomaly. Yep, there's a wormhole, and it's a K162 from more class 2 w-space. Fin and I loiter on the wormhole, close enough to follow whatever ship may be pushed through next, comfortable that the connection isn't yet stressed to any destabilising effect. And we wait.

No one's coming through. Whatever ship I saw on my scanning probes was probably just reconnoitring the system, seeing if we were still around, which is tricky to achieve with cloaky boats. That doesn't stop me from entering the C2 and taking a look around what could be their home system, though. And jumping in sees only one planet within d-scan range. A bit of exploring finds their tower, with all three pilots inside its force field, the ex-Noctis pilot in a pod, the Tengu pilot in the Tengu, the Drake pilot now in a Scorpion battleship. But they do nothing, and although there are core scanning probes in the system and my own probes only reveal two signatures to scan it seems about time to head home and get some sleep. No Tengu kill tonight, but it's been a good evening's hunting.

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Tags: drake, eve online, legion, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scorpion, tengu, w-space

Shoot first, think later

There are four signatures to scan at home, and they all look a bit different to what I'm expecting. No matter, four is not a big number, which I'm pretty sure about even with my shown deficiencies with counting, and resolving them all is short work. I bookmark a magnetometric site, two radar sites, and one each of the rock and gas mining sites, both of which I activate. Along with the static wormhole, that makes six signatures. I honestly don't know how I've survived this long in w-space some days. I suspect it has something to do with clones. I warp to the wormhole, bookmark it, and jump through with my glorious leader to explore today's w-space constellation.

This class 3 system is much-visited, relatively. It's my fourth time here, the last only two months ago and already the occupants have moved out. There are no traces of their tower so it probably was by choice, but it leaves us an empty system, one with a mere three anomalies that we could plunder. First we scan, sifting through the seventeen signatures to look for other opportunities, and the several wormholes revealed suggest there may be adventures to be had. After ignoring the usual rocks and gas we resolve between us a static exit to low-sec, two K162 connections coming from class 4 w-space, and a neat outbound connection to class 2 w-space. I'll be looking there first, whilst Fin chooses the first of the C4s to reconnoitre.

Another system I've visited before, all looks a bit plain in this C2. There is a tower visible on my directional scanner, along with a Noctis salvager, which is probably empty and left floating inside the tower's force field. I know where the tower is likely to be, if it hasn't been moved in the four months since I was last here, so rather than trying to find it I start to warp away in order to launch scanning probes. But a refresh of d-scan now shows no Noctis but an Orca. I'm sure I saw a Noctis first, the industrial command ship either having taken its place or giving me a sign I've been struck by space madness.

Fin confirms that I said Noctis, but that proves nothing. However, warping out has the Orca appear on d-scan without the tower, so it's moving! I sweep d-scan around but the ship isn't sitting at the customs tower where I am, and I assume it is heading towards a wormhole. But the Orca persists on d-scan, floating somewhere with little apparent regard for its safety. I need to launch probes! I warp to the other side of the system, lob probes from my launcher as fast as they come out, and throw them out of the system. Turning around, I head to a different planet, hoping to get a better approximation of the Orca's location. During warp, I configure my probes for a blanket scan and confirm that one ship remains visible in the system. I should be in good position to find it.

I'm in a better position than I think. I checked the outer planet's customs office for the Orca but I didn't realise I was in range of a second planet too, and a quick check with a tight d-scan beam suggests that's exactly where the industrial command ship is. By now I've called Fin across from the C4, both of us excited for such an expensive kill, and she jumps in to the C2 as I warp to the customs office. I've found the Orca, I call Fin to my position, and then I realise that my finding is a little more curious than simply an incautious pilot. The Orca is empty.

The Orca has no pilot. Now I'm confused. I swear that I saw a Noctis, and only a Noctis, when I entered the system, which changed to the Orca, which must have happened at the tower. Now I've found the ship but it has been abandoned. It could be bait, for a cloaked fleet sitting nearby, but that would be rather elaborate. We should be safe to do what we want with the Orca. I think we should steal it, but am told that an Orca won't fit through wormholes connecting in to class 2 w-space. That's a shame, as it would fetch a pretty iskie on the market, probably even pay for the Legion I carelessly lost recently. Neither of us think the Orca should be left here, unmolested and free for the owner to recover despite abandoning it, so we decloak and start shooting.

It may be surprising to learn just how easy it is to pop an industrial ship without a pilot. Pretty easy, particularly considering the pilot's main job is not to fight back but provide greater structural integrity, so we tear through the hull in a way I couldn't do against previously targeted Orcas that had pilots. We loot the wreck and then wonder what to do with it. We could salvage it, but we're unlikely to recover enough to compensate for jumping two systems, bringing a salvager, then switching ships again. We could shoot it, but we've both just reloaded our launchers and re-activated our cloaks. Instead, we just leave the wrecked Orca outside the customs office as a gift to its previous owner.

Of course, we are told later that Orcas can fit through connections to class 2 w-space, that an acquaintance has made just such a trip this evening, and that we effectively destroyed half-a-billion ISK worth of ship instead of hijacking it and taking it out to sell. That's probably just lies and propaganda spread by bitter industrialists. Fair enough, maybe I didn't see any ship-building infrastructure in the C2, but that doesn't mean anything. Maybe we didn't want the Orca. Anyway, the threat of the unpiloted ship has been removed from the C2, I can take a better look around.

The tower is indeed in the same place as before, letting me loiter there as I look for the known wormholes to further class 2 w-space and an exit to high-sec empire space. I discard plenty of the nineteen signatures as rocks and gas, resolving the only two obvious wormholes, and jump in to C2b to continue my exploration. As I am greeted by another clear d-scan return, Fin has headed back to check C4b and has come across a second unpiloted ship outside a customs office, popping the Bestower hauler for having the temerity of not holding a pod. I have a single ship appear on my blanket scan of C2b, which turns out to be a Prorator transport ship sitting inside a tower's shields, this one piloted. How novel.

Two anomalies are easy enough to bookmark, even if I don't think the transport ship will visit them, and the thirteen signatures tempt me to scan them as the Prorator refuses to move. I think I will scan them, decision helped by the tower sitting on the outermost planet and far enough from the signatures that my probes won't register on the Prorator's d-scan. I resolve both static wormholes in the system, the only ones here, noting the exit to high-sec reaching the end of its natural lifetime and jumping through the connection to class 1 w-space.

This looks interesting, six ships on d-scan. There may be a tower too, but the mix of ships means any pilot here could become a valid target, whether the haulers collect planet goo or the Ferox battlecruisers or Exequror cruiser head out to harvest gas. The Drake battlecruiser may even look to engage Sleepers, it being more than equipped to do so in a class 1 w-space system. Locating the tower remains easy tonight, as I'm returning here from a visit six weeks ago, but sadly the ships are all inside the tower and empty. And it looked so promising a couple of minutes ago. Never the less, there is still the outer reaches of the system to explore, maybe I'll find something out there.

Posted in Gaming | 10 Comments »
Tags: bestower, drake, eve online, exequror, ferox, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, prorator, scanning, w-space