Two-pronged ambush

'I just jumped', says my glorious leader as I arrive. I wonder aloud if I startled her, then laugh at my own joke, before launching scanning probes so I can find our static wormhole and join Fin in an occupied but empty class 3 w-space system. It's my third visit to this system, as always counting separate visits as being through distinct wormholes, the last time only a couple of weeks ago. Nothing notable happened then, although it lets me find the tower easily enough, snuggled in a bunch of bubbles. A blanket scan of the C3 reveals ten anomalies and seven signatures, and we start sifting through them to look for targets or iskies.

There are certainly iskies in them thar anomalies, but we should make sure there are no more wormholes connecting in to the system before making ourselves vulnerable. And by scanning we can also look for magnetometric sites, offering considerably more potential profit than the bare anomalies. Wormholes could lead us to targets too, although perhaps not through either of the two K162 connections coming in from null-sec k-space, or the system's static exit to low-sec empire space. The wormholes may only lead to k-space, which isolates us from deeper w-space, but the K162s are a concern, having been opened by curious k-space pilots. A sole magnetometric site is resolved but if we want to pillage it we should make a rudimentary check of the external systems for other pilots.

The low-sec exit leads out to the Genesis region and is bereft of both pilots and signatures. Fin heads out to one of the null-sec systems and reports it as also being empty, but stuffed with anomalies. After yesterday's jaunt in to null-sec anomalies I am happy to give them ago again today, for a continued change of pace and healthy gains in security status. We head home, swap in to our Sleeper Tengu strategic cruisers, and leave w-space for the Feythabolis region in New Eden. Our directional scanners can be mostly ignored for now, both of us admiring a populated local channel keeping us informed, and we warp in to the first anomaly.

My hybrid Drake battlecruiser coped well enough with this type of anomaly yesterday, it should be no surprise that our Tengus are barely being scratched. It's as if we're not being fired at, the active repair systems almost repairing the damage before it even registers. But we don't complete the first anomaly and aim for one that may contain an officer's ship before a new contact appears in the local channel. We align our ships out of the easily found anomaly and, when a Loki strategic cruiser blips on my d-scan, I warp us back to the wormhole.

We sit on the wormhole whilst working out our options. We may not be safe on here, as the connection was opened from this system and it may be known to the pilot, but we are definitely safer than sitting in the anomaly. The Loki appears again and launches combat scanning probes, which is our cue to leave null-sec behind us for now. We warp across the C3, jump home, and nestle in our tower, intending to swap ships to start collapsing our static wormhole and start the evening afresh. 'What if', I say, 'we get an Onyx and Legion and wait for the Loki?' The heavy interdictor will stop the Loki warping and the strategic cruiser could neutralise its defences, perhaps giving a scout looking for a pair of ratting Tengus a bit of a surprise.

The idea sounds a bit stupid to me, but that's because it's my idea. The Loki could be nullified against interdiction, letting it warp through the HIC's bubble, and it's bound to be faster than my Legion, being Minmatar-built. But it won't be faster when cloaked, which it will have to do to avoid us, and at least we'd be out there and taking a shot against another combat ship. Fin agrees with my plan and hops in to the Onyx, offering me the Legion because she says I have 'better combat sense'. Shh, don't anyone tell her it's all bluster!

We return to the C3 and sit on the K162 from null-sec, and wait. There's no point jumping in to null-sec for now, only to appear in the local channel, better to wait for the Loki to come for us. And the wormhole flares, this will be him! We wait a little longer, the Loki holding his session change cloak, but he appears, our warp bubble inflates, and he moves away to cloak. I burn towards to the cloaked Loki's position in my Legion, but realise I haven't got close enough when I am near the edge of the bubble. Fin brings the bubble back down and we get ready to return home, happy to have tried, when a Vagabond cruiser appears from nowhere.

The Vagabond's a target, so in lieu of having a Loki to shoot at I lock on and start firing at the cruiser instead. I don't realise immediately that he is disrupting my warp engines, but I imagine he must have when a Falcon recon ship also decloaks and starts trying to jam me. My lock on the Vagabond drops at about the same time the Loki returns from wherever he warped to, joined by a Tengu also shedding its cloak. I think I missed the wormhole flaring during my pursuit of the Loki, or they all came through together at once. Either way, with the Loki falling in to our trap along with the rest of his fleet, I'm in trouble.

Fin's got clear, warping across the system in the rather underprized Onyx compared to my Legion, but I have little choice. I jump out to null-sec in a bid to escape my fate, only to find the fleet I face isn't stupid, having left a rearguard to deny my retreat. I try to warp clear but the Sabre interdictor, which I think it is on my rushed recognition, easily stops me. As the other ships jump out to join the fun I have one final option. I return to w-space, now polarised, and desperately hope I am pointing in a good direction. And I kind of am, having being spat out of the wormhole pointing almost directly towards a planet. I select one of the moons at random and hit the warp button, hoping I can get up to three-quarters speed before the ship left this side of the wormhole can identify me and lock on. Our lady of fast acceleration, don't fail me now!

My blue bar of warp speed is a sliver away from the three-quarter mark, and I almost think I am in warp, when I get a message that my engines are being disrupted. So close and yet so far. I am going nowhere, outnumbered and outgunned once again, the successful ECM cycles preventing me even returning any target locks. I take a breath, satisfy myself of the situation I am in, and make sure I am aligned to the moon still. And then I eject, armour barely depleted but not wanting to get in to any more trouble by getting caught in a warp bubble. I get my pod out of the pocket, bouncing off the moon before returning to the wormhole home, and join Fin back at the tower. I suppose we'll need to buy a new Legion.

There's not much else we can do now. I would imagine the null-seccers won't be scanning any deeper in to w-space, so we could collapse our wormhole and start again, but doing so without checking the ships have left would still be a risk. We wait a little while and Fin volunteers to take a look in the C3. Jumping through our wormhole has everything look clear, no ships waiting for her, and returning to the K162 only has a few drones floating around. That's odd, I could swear I left a very expensive strategic cruiser there. Oh well, at least the threat is gone. I suppose the lesson here is that individual scouts are more likely in w-space than null-sec, and what we saw was the spearhead of a fleet keeping its forces one jump behind to hide its numbers. I'll remember that. It's too late now to accomplish much else this evening, so we chalk up another loss and bed down for the night.

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Tags: drake, eve online, falcon, legion, loki, mmorpg, null-sec, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, sabre, scanning, tengu, vagabond, w-space

Isolated for Sleeper combat

'We have incoming.' Ooh, that could be interesting. A K162 appearing in to our system could bring visitors to shoot, or be a link to a system full of miners unwittingly opening a random wormhole to our home. 'From blues', glorious leader Fin adds. Oh well. Not only that, but our allied friends collapsed their own wormhole, although as they were two jumps behind us that still leaves a stranded class 4 system connecting to us, uninhabited as it may be. I presume Fin has checked the system recently, having been in some kind of contact with the blue corporation, if only visual, and head instead the other way, through the static wormhole to our neighbouring class 3 system.

All is quiet still. No pilots have turned up since my earlier reconnaissance. I launch probes and scan, looking for new signatures and finding none. Heading out to low-sec in a bid to search for anything of interest has Fin finding fans, which is pretty neat. I bet if I'd have fans too, if I weren't a bitter twisted shell of a capsuleer who shoots everyone in sight. The dying wormhole that was in this low-sec system earlier is now dead, scanning probes teasingly presenting a new signature to take its place that only resolves to be a hiding place for Sansha rats. We can do better than shoot rats in low-sec, but first we need to make sure we aren't rudely interrupted.

I perform a cursory scan of the C4 behind us, astonished to find that the two towers I recorded being there nineteen months ago are gone. Probes show me one anomaly and six signatures, none of them interesting. The anomaly isn't our favoured type, and the signatures are gas, rocks, and a radar and magnetometric site. That's okay, we can make some profit at home, and we even have time to collapse the wormholes. Thankfully, collapsing two wormholes takes little more time than collapsing one, when done sensibly.

We warp two Orca industrial command ships across to our static wormhole and jump them both out, returning to warp across the home system to the K162 and do the same there. By the time we return the polarisation effect from the first pair of jumps is nearly dissipated, allowing us to continue with barely a pause, which gives a much better sense of progress than sitting cloaked or at our tower for several minutes. The situation is slightly awkward today, as we don't know for sure what the blues pushed through either wormhole, but both connections seem to destabilise according to Fin's projections. She's pretty smart.

Even though neither destabilises critically on Fin's exit, one more Orca return trip through the wormholes is enough to kill them both, giving us a smooth and safe collapse. The lone Orca leaves me free to fly escort, adding a degree of protection should anyone be watching, but we are left alone to isolate ourselves. Our system is almost bereft of anomalies now, after what must have been a dedicated fleet passing through our system, but we have two good anomalies to plunder.

Our twin Tengu strategic cruisers have no trouble reducing the Sleepers to wrecks, and we each take a Noctis salvager out to turn the wrecks in to profit with the same ease. A simple evening ends with us dropping a combined haul of around 180 million ISK of Sleeper loot in to our hangar. It's not the best result we've had recently, but it's decent and will keep us going in tower fuel for a while. In fact, the corporation wallet is beginning to look quite healthy again.

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

Incidental null-sec ratting

Early exploration finds the home system clear, but not recently. Most of our anomalies are missing, no doubt purged by a passing fleet. Still, even if we don't get the profit from the indigenous Sleepers the system looks much tidier this way, leaving me with only a new ladar site to activate and the static wormhole. Jumping in to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system sees a tower and no ships on my directional scanner, just right for an initial snoop around. A blanket scan of the system confirms no ships, and reveals a single anomaly amongst the eighteen signatures. Start sifting, Penny.

A lack of anomalies but many signatures would suggest to me that the locals are not industrialists, so I am not going to bother bookmarking all the sites holding gas and rocks. I'll restrict myself to combat sites and wormholes. And I find the first wormhole on the third signature, the second on the sixth, and the third on the ninth. I'm beginning to sense a pattern here, ignoring two mining sites to find a wormhole, but I also feel it won't hold for long. Indeed not, there being no more wormholes to uncover, but a single magnetometric site may be useful to bookmark in case of later ambushes or we want to realise its profit ourselves.

The wormholes I resolve are a static connection to low-sec empire space, a dying K162 from high-sec, and a healthy K162 from null-sec. How disappointing. But a lack of w-space connections in w-space doesn't end my exploration, and I jump out to low-sec to scan the system in the Derelik region. A Buzzard covert operations boat is also in the system launching its own scanning probes, one of two other pilots here, which I ignore for now. A couple of extra signatures resolve to a magnetometric site and a K162 from class 3 w-space that's reaching the end of its natural lifetime and probably not worth exploring.

The Buzzard's probes are gone, as is one of the pilots from low-sec, so I am thankfully not tempted to wait to try to catch the cov-ops. But jumping back to C3a sees the ship moving away from the wormhole, so I try to engage, but cov-ops are difficult enough to catch in an interceptor and rather more so without a specialist ship. The Buzzard simply cloaks and my attempt fails. Never mind. I wonder if the pilot came from null-sec and, as I'm heading that way anyway, head across the C3 and through the K162 to find out. There's no one else out here in this system in the Tenal region, so I suppose the Buzzard pilot originates from the other direction.

Whilst in null-sec I launch probes and scan, finding no signatures beyond the wormhole I'm sitting on but plenty of anomalies. With the availability of the local channel to alert me to threats, and weaker rats than in w-space, I head home and swap my scanning boat for a Drake battlecruiser, returning to the null-sec system to pop some rats for giggles. I pick an anomaly mostly at random and start popping Gurista rats without much trouble, looting but not salvaging as I go, hoping for some interesting loot but getting none. I don't really understand null-sec.

A pilot appears in the local channel, signifying his arrival in the system. I feel free to ignore him, recognising the Buzzard pilot from earlier, confident my Drake could handle itself well enough against the sole cov-ops. He returns to the C3 within a minute. I pop, pop, pop more rats until a little while later a new contact appears in the system, the second pilot from low-sec earlier. I update d-scan and notice that she's in an Arazu recon ship, a rather more threatening vessel, and I warp out of the all-too-easily found anomaly.

I resist the natural urge to flee to the wormhole, as this is undoubtedly where the Arazu is, and instead bounce around the system making a couple of safe spots. Once made, I sit in one and go off-line. The pilot probably won't leave me alone, but I can probably bore her away. I busy myself elsewhere for a while, returning once more to an empty system. I break for the wormhole but realise that I remain in an empty null-sec system with a bunch of anomalies. I also see the significant jumps in security status the combat has so far endowed me with, so point my Drake back towards an anomaly and continue popping rats.

I clear the anomaly, Gurista ships individually no match for Sleeper ships, my Drake handling them pretty well, although there are enough that I warp out a couple of times to recharge my shields. I pop the final ship and reload my launchers to find a handful of missiles left in my hold, which is more down to luck than skilful logistics. The system remains empty so, with nothing left to shoot, I warp back to the wormhole and jump in to w-space. C3a looks clear, and I wait for the session change timer to end before moving on. The wormhole home looks clear, and I jump home and warp to the tower without being molested. I suppose I didn't explore so much, but it's been a productive afternoon all the same.

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Tags: arazu, buzzard, drake, eve online, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Following behind a Bestower

Home alone, there aren't even intruders here. I am kept company by two new signatures, some ISO standard rocks and ZVQ gas, although the signature identifier for the gas doesn't fit in to a pun quite as well as that of the rocks and pretty much ruins a snappy start to another day. Never mind, I find the wormhole to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, interestingly enough where we left the previous one to die, but pause before warping to it. I am bouncing my ship in to the gravimetric and ladar sites to activate them, where I find not just rocks and gas but also Sleepers. I imagine Fin was here earlier and activated the sites first, which is why the delayed Sleepers have arrived. I may as well take the two minutes to pop the frigates and salvage their wrecks to make some pocket iskies.

And here is my glorious leader! She helps me pop the Sleepers, and my salvaging gives us only pocket iskies, no great salvage letting either of us buy new clothes, although exporting skirts and boots in to space is apparently pretty expensive business. Fin tells me of a cocky Russian in our neighbouring C3, one who had 'two surprises' in his hauler when collecting planet goo. They were both warp core stabilisers, it seems, which isn't much of a surprise but unfortunately prevented Fin from ravaging the Russian's ship. Sleepers popped, we jump through the static wormhole to see what our neighbour's up to now, which turns out to be not much. He's gone off-line.

Fin didn't scan this system earlier, preferring to stalk the planet goo hauler, so we launch probes and do so now. Resolving six signatures doesn't take long, and we have rocks, gas, gas, wormhole, and wormhole, but not in that order. One wormhole leads out to the Derelik region in low-sec empire space, the other comes in from class 2 w-space, where there are ships and towers visible on my directional scanner. I see a Rorqual capital industrial ship, Orca industrial command ship, Noctis salvager, Ferox battlecruiser, Bestower hauler, and two Badger haulers. With no wrecks or jet-cans on d-scan we're unlikely to catch the Ferox out of the tower harvesting gas, but the dominance of industrial ships gives me a warm feeling that we may catch a pilot being careless.

Locating the towers has a Badger and Bestower piloted. Warping out to launch probes finds a third tower, this one with a piloted Buzzard covert operations boat. Fin holds station at the tower with the piloted haulers whilst I warp even further out to launch probes, which I manage to do without bumping in to more towers. A mere three signatures sounds eminently scannable, which we really ought to do to have a hope of catching a hauler moving between systems. I quickly throw my probes around to resolve a static exit to high-sec that is reaching the end of its natural lifetime, and another K162 from class 2 w-space. Fin watches the locals for action as I press deeper in to the constellation.

The second C2 is a vast system, giving me a nice and clear d-scan from the wormhole. Exploring finds two towers on the outskirts of the system, one not really defended by some guns that are not currently on-line, the other not even bothering with the pretence of anchoring defences around it, relying instead on an unpiloted Mammoth hauler to keep it safe. It's a bold gambit, and although I wouldn't mind shooting these towers I find I don't quite have four hours to spare doing nothing else. And as there are only two signatures here in total, the two static connections that lead to class 2 w-space and exit to low-sec, I turn my boat around and return to C2a.

Fin's given up on watching the haulers. One going off-line soon after we arrived, the other refusing to move and then going off-line himself. It looks like another quiet evening, Fin heading home through C3a and me lagging a system behind, when my glorious leader spots a Cheetah cov-ops in the system. She warps to the tower to see the pilot swap in to a Crane transport ship, a positive indicator that the pilot will be active. I am approaching the wormhole and moments away from joining her in C3a when the Bestower reappears in C2a. I want to see what he's up to, so turn around and warp across to the active tower.

The Bestower isn't at the tower. D-scan doesn't put him at the second tower in range either. I open my system map and point a narrow d-scan beam at the wormholes, not seeing the hauler heading to high-sec, braving the dying wormhole. Dismissing the system map I swing d-scan around the planets in the system and find the Bestower at one of them. He's probably collecting planet goo from the customs office, so I warp my covert Tengu strategic cruiser there, dropping short so I don't decloak. There's the Bestower. I don't decloak to engage as it looks like the hauler is aligning out, getting ready to warp, which makes sense as I am straggling behind him, and I don't want show myself if I won't have time to lock his ship.

I can see where the Bestower's heading next, no doubt to another customs office and not the planet itself, and align my Tengu on the same vector. He warps, I warp. Sure enough, we both land near the customs office, and now I have a much better shot at my target. I decloak, burn, and bump the Bestower, locking, pointing, and shooting. The magnetar phenomenon in the system makes this brutally quick, the Bestower exploding in a shower of blue sparks.

The pilot's ejected pod doesn't get clear by the time I have locked on to it and disrupted its warp drive too. I launch missiles at my second target until I have a new corpse to scoop. Once the execution is complete, I loot the wreck of some toxic metals, leaving the expanded cargoholds, although it seems I shoot the higher-cost items when destroying the wreck. No matter, we have plenty of expanded cargoholds from previous piracy.

Job done, I leave the C2 to help Fin stalk the Crane, but I jump in to the system as the transport ship warps out of the tower. It is long gone through low-sec by the time we catch up with it, the slippery little bugger, although that probably means it will be returning. I loiter in the low-sec system looking for the pilot's appearance in the local channel, whilst Fin swaps ships to gain the portable warp bubble of an interdictor, and we set up an ambush. But checking the atlas shows that I am far from any civilised space, meaning the pilot could be gone for a while, and it's already getting late. Rather than wait for an agile, stealthy ship to maybe return the way it came we decide that perhaps we'd benefit more from a sensible bed time, and head home.

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Tags: badger, bestower, buzzard, cheetah, crane, eve online, ferox, mammoth, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, rorqual, scanning, tengu, w-space

Stalking, scanning, and Sleepers

Fin's watching an Anathema. She's in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, waiting to see if the piloted covert operations boat will move. I haven't even found our static wormhole yet. I've only just arrived, though, and with a bit of a headache. Fin lets me know the signature identifier of the wormhole to help me along, scanning for it also confirming no new connections have opened in to our system. Jumping to join Fin has my directional scanner show me just how much our neighbours like warp bubbles, Fin already warning me that the tower is quite heavily defended with them.

Warp bubbles are little nuisance to an interdiction nullified strategic cruiser, although there is always the risk of flying in to the heart of the bubble and decloaking on its physical presence, even if the bubble itself has no effect. I drop out of warp outside the tower almost doing that, nestling inside a large bubble but thankfully safely away from the hardware. I give a little shrug and make a bookmark where I sit, figuring it as good a place as any to watch the tower. I get bored of watching a stationary Anathema pretty quickly and, deciding he's not really paying attention, warp out to launch scanning probes.

A blanket scan of the C3 shows me nine anomalies and sixteen signatures, which won't be quick to sift through. Stealth be damned, let the Anathema see my probes! If he tries to set an ambush he'll either be surprised by my Tengu, or Fin's, and if he hides we've lost nothing. I soon resolve the static exit to high-sec empire space but find no other wormholes, only rocks, gas, and radar sites. How dreary, not even a profitable magnetometric site for us to pillage as the Anathema pilot watches on with voyeuristic titillation at the thought of catching a Noctis unawares. Or maybe that's just me.

The exit from the C3 heads out to the Tash-Murkon region, near our carebear industrial base of years ago. Fin gets coy about recognising the system, refusing to tell me why it is so familiar to her. It's best not to pry in to such details, I find, so merely agree that the exit offers a convenient way to realise the profit we made from shooting Sleepers yesterday. As Fin crams loot, salvage, and stolen modules in to a transport I scan the high-sec system in a bid to continue the constellation, doing so by resolving three wormholes. Two are intra-k-space connections, both leading to low-sec empre space, the third a K162 from class 2 w-space.

A K162 from a C2 is encouraging. Class 2 systems have two static connections, one to w-space and one to k-space, so entering from k-space gives me the connection to w-space to find, letting me continue my exploration. Before that, it gives me the C2 itself to explore, and it looks like I could be in for a hunt! Warping to a distant planet, far out of d-scan range, shows me a Retriever mining barge and five mining drones somewhere in the system. I already launched combat scanning probes back in the heart of the system, so once I find the tower also visible on d-scan I will be in a good position to surprise the miner. But there is no miner. The locals are just tarts who like to get a capsuleer's hopes up.

The Retriever sits unpiloted inside the tower's force field, the mining drones littering a warp bubble nearby as part of a trap. Suitably deflated I start scanning, resolving a wormhole on the other side of the system, 115 AU away. I initiate warp and go to get myself a drink as my Tengu crawls across the system, landing near a static connection to class 1 w-space. Hey, a C2 with static connections to high-sec and a C1, that's pushing the envelope, guys! I shouldn't make fun, I didn't stay out of empire space overnight for quite a while during our former corporation's first foray in to w-space. We all have to start somewhere.

I've resolved the static connection class 1 w-space, but the wormhole is reaching the end of its natural lifetime. So I'll have to be quick. I jump in and punch d-scan, seeing nothing but a Hurricane. An adjustment to my scanner still sees the battlecruiser but also now shows there being no wrecks in the system. A third check and the ship's still there, so I move away from the wormhole and cloak, warping away to launch probes, at which point the Hurricane drops off d-scan. I take a look around, finding a tower with a dozen hangars, a dozen arrays, and no one home. Wherever the Hurricane came from and wherever he went will remain a mystery, a dying wormhole waits for no capsuleer.

I return to the C2, then back out to high-sec, where I attempt to pop a few rats to give the tiniest boost to my security status, but warp in to a site only to see a lack of ships. Fin gracefully swaps in to an analysing boat, finished selling loot, and tries to provoke an attack, but all we get are some armour plates to sell for Quafe iskies. Heading back to the C3 finds the Anathema gone, the system empty. We may as well take the opportunity to plunder the three good anomalies here, when the going is good, keeping the wallet plumped up when we can.

We clear three anomalies without trouble, sailing through the C3 sites with an ease of pilots who were engaging Sleepers in a class 4 system the previous day. Salvaging is simple and smooth, no pilots appearing in the system in the short time it takes to sweep up the wrecks, and we bring home a haul of 150 Miskies or so. It's only about a third of what we made yesterday, but a fair result for the effort and time required. We dump the loot in the recently cleared export section of our hangar, before each hiding in a corner of the home system to settle down for the night.

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Tags: anathema, eve online, hurricane, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, retriever, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Staying home for Sleepers

'I've missed two cov-ops', Fin says with a sad face, as I arrive in the home system. Hah, that's nothing, I've missed dozens! They're tricky little buggers, disappearing from sight and sensors with their cloaking devices, small and agile hulls entering warp within moments, barely giving a zippy fast-locking interceptor a chance to catch them, let alone any ship bigger and slower. I think the few covert operations boats I've caught were snared more by pilot error or poor judgement on the other's behalf than my own skill. The few I recall losing myself were definitely lost by pilot error. Missing them is nothing to be ashamed of.

In other news, my glorious leader has collapsed a wormhole by herself, the K162 from class 5 w-space gone before I can even find it. The C5 was empty and unoccupied, but could easily have brought ships from further afield in to our system and posed problems. And this is the difference between us. We can both miss catching cov-ops on wormholes, but only Fin would have the nous to collapse the connection. I'd have left it. Maybe once I'm more comfortable in an Orca I'll feel okay using the industrial command ship's bulk to over-stress wormholes, but for now I still worry about getting caught and getting Fin's ship destroyed.

It looks like I'll have a chance to get more experience in an Orca sooner than expected. Fin's already scouted our neighbouring class 3 w-space system and, apart from the passing scanners, found it boring, despite all the ships present. Maybe not so much boring as tedious. The ten ships are floating empty inside the tower, and there are far too many signatures to have to sift through for the effort to be able to offer any commensurate reward. Rather than spend so much time working through the signatures we think we'll be better served by collapsing the wormhole and making profit from the anomalies in the home system for a change.

Two Orcas make quick work of our static wormhole's mass allowance, only one polarisation timer needing to be waited to decay before we are isolated once more. Now we can board our Sleeper Tengu strategic cruisers and start to make some profit. It's been a while since we've engaged Sleepers in the home system, external fleets having made more ISK from our own anomalies than we have. And I'm well aware that the last time we boarded Sleeper Tengus mine was a different and much more battle-scarred boat. I'll be paying rather more attention to my surroundings today.

As we blast our way through waves and waves of ships, I have to wonder why I ever thought Sleeper combat was dull. I'm diligently watching my directional scanner for unexpected or hostile ships, tagging Sleeper ships so that we combine our firepower effectively, plotting a course for our remote-repair Tengu train, keeping our velocity high against hard-hitting battleships, slowing down for the fast-moving scramming frigates so that the slower cruisers don't get in range in time to repair them before they pop to make them much more difficult to destroy, speeding up again once the frigates are despatched, bookmarking a suitable wreck for later salvaging, noting which anomaly we are in to remove it from the scan results, and all whilst keeping in communication with Fin. It can all get a bit tense. No wonder I wasn't being so diligent with d-scan before, as I suppose not updating it every few seconds can relieve some of the pressure. But it also relieved me of my ship.

Four anomalies are cleared without problems or interruptions, but still we haven't made any profit. It's not a simple matter of shooting Sleepers for their bounties, as they have none. We need to loot and salvage the wrecks for our efforts to count for anything. After all, a couple of fleets didn't quite realise the profit from anomalies in our system, being rudely interrupted whilst salvaging. Even then, with the wrecks looted and salvaged, we still won't have made any ISK until we safely export the loot to empire space, which poses its own risks. But we can concentrate on salvaging for now, both of us swapping to Noctis salvagers to sweep two sites each.

No one was stalking us. At least, no one who wanted to show themselves. We both clear the Sleeper wrecks from two anomalies and return to the tower unmolested. Fin makes out like a bandit tonight. Despite the blue loot the Sleepers carry being identical in each site, and so each of us bringing back the same amount, Fin's salvaging success means she brings back 80% more profit than I do. It all goes in to the same pot, but it illustrates how much effect luck can have. We stow a respectable 440 Miskies of loot in to our hangar and settle down for the night, after a successful evening of not get killed.

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Bait and collapse

Glorious leader Fin's out selling loot and some junk we've accumulated on our w-space roams. I'll check our home system for new connections, so that we can stay safe from surprises. Finding nothing out of the ordinary I stow my scanning boat and board a Manticore stealth bomber to take in to our neighbouring class 3 system. I popped and podded an industrialist taking his morning constitutional around the customs offices earlier, and am interested to see if there will be any repercussions. Maybe not, with only a Helios covert operations boat sitting piloted inside the tower, particularly when he's not moving and there are no probes visible in the system.

All clear in the C3, Fin asks me to scout the stargate she'll be using to return to low-sec and the wormhole homewards. Sure thing, boss! A combat ship passes through the almost-empty low-sec system as I loiter near the stargate, but otherwise there is no sign of trouble at all and Fin gets home safely after plumping up our wallet. I linger in our neighbouring system, seeing a Nemesis stealth bomber appear briefly before dropping off d-scan, and with the Helios no longer at the tower it's possible the pilot has swapped ships and is loitering himself. Perhaps we can flush him out.

I'm not sure why, but Fin once more agrees to act as bait. I'd think she be fed up with sitting in the firing line with only me to retaliate, but she boards a simple Heron frigate and returns to the C3 to act like a newbie. Launching probes and 'forgetting' to cloak, Fin sits near a celestial object that should be easy enough for the Nemesis to find, if he's paying attention. And I think he's paying attention, a little more than either of us would like, as when his stealth bomber appears again it is not to take the bait but to swap ships back at his tower. Now the pilot's aboard a Dramiel frigate, a stupidly fast and deadly small ship, one that will melt the Heron and my Manticore without too much trouble. Abort, abort!

Fin bounces around some planets whilst I scout our wormhole, seeing no sign of the Dramiel but also noting it to have dropped off d-scan too. I wouldn't think a pilot would go off-line in such a ship, and although I didn't see him jump through the K162 to our home system I could have arrived a few seconds too late. Fin volunteers to take a look, which I should probably object to and place my covertly configured ship in harm's way instead, but I find it hard to say no to Fin. She jumps home and, sure enough, there's the Dramiel, wise to our bait and setting his own ambush in its place. This would be our plan backfiring.

Fortune smiles on Fin today, spitting her out of the wormhole far enough away to get clear without Dramiel interference, which makes me feel better, particularly as a Devoter heavy interdictor has just appeared on d-scan in the C3. I still need to get home at some point, though, and I can't guarantee I'll avoid the Dramiel, not with a HIC's warp bubble to hinder me. But Fin swaps in to the Dramiel's natural enemy, a Rapier recon ship, the webbing powers of the Rapier able to slow the Dramiel down to be little more annoying than a basic frigate. And it works, merely the appearance of the Rapier on d-scan sending the Dramiel back through the wormhole.

I see the wormhole flare and take that as my cue to jump too. Even if the Dramiel sees me and tries to follow he'll be tangled by the session change timer, giving me time to clear the wormhole. It turns out I should have waited, as the Dramiel warps away from the wormhole immediately, and all I've done is shown him my ship. Oh well, I'm not quite sure what else we can do now. We have no eyes in the C3 where there are hostile pilots to monitor. We can't collapse the wormhole without risking assault against our vulnerable ships, and we certainly can't shoot Sleepers in the home system safely.

The best we can do is send a scout back in the C3 to see what our neighbours are up to. I swap back to my covert Tengu strategic cruiser, Fin staying in the Rapier in case we need to shoo a Dramiel, and warp to our static wormhole. I'll just jump in and take a holy crap, they're waiting for me! I drop out of warp to be glad once more that I rarely warp point-to-point in w-space, as I'm greeted by four ships all sitting on our static wormhole. It looks like our neighbours have brought in the big guns to start a fight, but just as I start to back off, gaining a bit more distance, all four jump back to the C3. Ah, they're not here for a fight, they're here to collapse the connection for us. That's jolly decent of them.

I suppose our neighbours have had enough of our antics today, whether it is corpsifying their industrialists or baiting their combat pilots. But there could still perhaps be opportunity for disruption. The return home of the four battleships destabilises our wormhole to half-mass, and as they work out the maths and wait for polarisation effects to end Fin and I get in position, waiting to see if anyone gets stranded. A Scorpion battleship comes and goes, followed by an Abaddon battleship, at which point the wormhole destabilises critically. Now it becomes interesting.

There was little point attacking the previous battleships, as they would simply jump back to the C3 to avoid us, prompting us to follow or disengage, and we have no idea what could be waiting for us on the other side. But now that the wormhole is in its critical stage the pilots have a decision of whether to risk another battleship or something smaller. It's possible a battleship could be pushed through and returned, collapsing the wormhole, but it's also possible the wormhole will collapse on the outbound journey. Fin and I push our watching ships closer to the wormhole, closer to strike any stranded ship, but the next jump comes from an overweight cruiser.

The cruiser comes and goes. The wormhole remains. We wait a little longer but no more ships are pushed through. It looks like our neighbours are suitably risk averse about stranding ships in hostile systems, and are probably content with leaving the wormhole in such an inhospitable state. It doesn't do us any favours, though, but I suppose they don't really care about that. We don't even get to shoot any of them, which is a bit of a shame. We could try to topple the wormhole ourselves, using a HIC for safety, but the night's getting late to do much even if we get a new wormhole. We simply turn our combat boats around and head back to the tower.

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Tags: abaddon, devoter, dramiel, eve online, helios, heron, manticore, mmorpg, nemesis, penny ibramovic, rapier, scorpion, tengu, w-space

Oodles and oodles of lows

Raa! In Amarr! The static connection in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system leads to a system in low-sec empire space worthy of shouting, controlled by an empire that also rolls off the tongue, but sadly in the Devoid region which ruins the flow. Never mind, I've popped and podded a poor industrialist trying to collect planet goo in the C3, and now I've left that system behind to see what else I can find. Not more pilots, at least not in this system. That's fine, I'm happy to scan and look for more w-space to roam. But all that's in Raa is a good name, it seems, as the one extra signature my probes reveal turns out to be stupid drones. That's fine too, as the C3 holds a second stable wormhole leading to low-sec, I'll explore through that one instead.

I'm still under Amarr protection after passing through the C3, although this time in the Kador region and twenty-one jumps from Raa. Scanning is more productive here, the two additional signatures both being wormholes, although I still don't find more w-space. Both wormholes are K162s coming from more low-sec systems, one stable and one wobbly and dying. I may as well continue jumping through wormholes, as it's what I do, and it's only stargates I'm wary of. Jumping through the stable K162 puts me in Heimatar, the other side of New Eden, where scanning again finds two extra signatures, two more wormholes. This time I've found some w-space, in the form of a K162 from a class 3 system, although the chain of empire space continues with the other wormhole being a K162 from high-sec.

Entering C3b has ships and three towers appear on my directional scanner, but no wrecks means there is likely no activity to speak of. Still, there are some industrial ships, so maybe I can catch a second planet goo collector. First I need to find the towers, which is made more difficult when there are more than three moons, which C3a was kind enough to limit itself to. Using d-scan finds me the towers, one of which seems to be having some minor configuration changes applied, which is activity but nothing that makes the pilot vulnerable, although an Orca industrial command ship warps in. It looks like he's ferrying ships or modules between towers. Then again, he's not stopping for long, so maybe he's bouncing between towers to keep himself amused.

The two other towers hold a piloted shuttle and Falcon recon ship, and a Viator transport ship that is so slippery that I don't even bother to see if it is piloted. I also notice a Heron frigate appear in the system and launch probes and, although I can't tell where from, the presence of a tourist piques my interest in scanning here myself. I would quite like to catch the frigate when it lands on a wormhole, but scanning seems like a good idea anyway now that the Heron's being so bold about it, as I doubt I'll catch any local ships with an obvious scout throwing scanning probes everywhere.

I warp away, launch probes, and scan. A mere five signatures shouldn't take the Heron long to resolve, but I've seen some slow scanners before. Along with the K162 I entered through I resolve rocks, gas, and two more wormholes. As I scan, a Hawk assault ship appears on d-scan, perhaps looking for the Heron himself, before being replaced by a Manticore stealth bomber that drops off d-scan. I'll bear that in mind. The two wormholes are both K162s, one another link from high-sec, the second coming from class 5 w-space. I'll take a look in the C5, as maybe that's where the Heron's come from, as unlikely as it seems.

The C5 is a small and simple system, with five planets and seven moons all in range of d-scan, showing me at a glance that it is unoccupied. I've had my fill of exploration for this morning and don't bother launcher probes, simply turning around and jumping back to C3b. I have the wormholes mapped, I should be able to catch the Heron on one of them. That is, as long as I guess where he goes and what range he chooses to visit each wormhole. I make the assumption that the pilot came through the high-sec wormhole and will visit the C5 first, so sit my ship near the C5 connection in alignment with the K162 from high-sec, and wait.

Yep, there's the Heron now, investigating the wormhole I'm loitering near, but he's come from a different direction and has landed on top of the link. Damn my failed intuition. I can't catch him from where I am and have to watch as he cloaks, reappearing only to warp away. Hullo, it looked like he warped to a planet that holds two of the towers. I follow behind to find that the Heron's not a tourist at all, but a local pilot. Well, that's good to know, if a bit late to find out. And I can't get excited when the Heron is swapped for an Iteron, as I'll bet that he's only going to take the hauler through the K162 to high-sec, giving him a pretty safe route out of w-space. I've been out here for a while, too, so don't quite fancy waiting for its return, particularly as I'd only have a slim chance of popping it before the session change timer ends to allow it to jump back out to safety.

But a second Orca perks me up. Maybe they want to collapse the wormhole connecting them to the C5. Sure, other pilots here could come to the Orca's aid but it's always worth a shot at such a big target. And the Orca's moving, but sadly towards the K162 from high-sec, probably on a fuel run for the tower. I follow anyway, dropping short to see, oh, how tempting, the Orca has dropped short too. I can't quite tell how far he is from the wormhole, and I would be amazed if I had enough time to shred its impressive armour by the time it could crawl close enough to jump, but I'd be stupid not to give it a go. I decloak, lock the Orca, and start shooting.

I web the Orca to slow its ponderous pace down to a crawl and give it a bump to take it a little off course, but I still only loose a couple of volleys before the massive ship gets close enough to the wormhole to exit the C3. I think I scratched its paint a little. Now I'm heading home for a break. Seeing that the wormhole leading back to low-sec is now reaching the end of its lifetime and probably won't be here later I return to jump out to high-sec, the way the Orca went. It's a twenty-jump trip between this and the other high-sec system, so I don't think I'll travel the long way around just to prod these capsuleers again. I work my way home, through C3b, low-sec, more low-sec, in to a quiet C3a, and back home. I could use a sammich right about now.

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Tags: eve online, falcon, hawk, heron, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, viator, w-space

Bumping a Bestower

I'm hoping for a more manageable constellation today, but give myself an early start in case it is just as meandering as yesterday's. I make a brief diversion in our home system to activate a new ladar gas harvesting site before jumping in to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see what's out there today. My directional scanner shows me ships and a tower, along with a mere three moons in the whole system. Locating the tower is quite easy because of the lack of moons, only needing to sweep d-scan around, and I find that the locals have taken the sensible precaution of planting a tower on the two moons they are not using, to prevent easy occupation and subsequent usurpation by outsiders.

At the tower I find only an Anathema covert operations boat piloted, which is probably the source of scanning probes also visible on d-scan. I don't have much time to wonder if he noticed our wormhole appear, as a new contact arrives at the tower in a Bestower hauler. I think it's worth watching the industrial ship for a little while, particularly as this C3 is small enough for there not to be anywhere I can launch my own probes out of d-scan range. If the hauler looks like not doing anything I can scan for more wormholes, but I would rather make sure of that before revealing my presence and potentially spooking him.

There he goes. The Bestower turns and powers its engines, looking like he's heading directly towards a planet, or more likely the customs office anchored to it. I think that's sweet. He probably thinks that if he turns up early and moves quickly no one will catch him, that taking time to scan for incoming connections will somehow make him more at risk. I think he'll be in for a surprise. I align my covert Tengu strategic cruiser towards the customs office the Bestower's aiming at but hold cruising speed for the moment. There's little point rushing to the planet if the hauler changes his mind at the last second. This one doesn't, and he enters warp, my Tengu right behind him.

I'm not quite sure why my pulse is racing. I've popped plenty of innocent, unarmed ships collecting planet goo before. I suppose it's because nothing is ever certain in w-space. I know there's a second pilot around, so help could arrive if I'm not quick enough. The Bestower may not have warped to the customs office after all, but the planet itself, and I'll need to react. Or maybe it will be a simple execution after all. Either way, I ought to remain alert and getting the adrenalin flowing is probably for the best.

Sure enough, the Bestower drops out of warp at the customs office. I drop my cloak once I've confirmed he's there and heat up my systems. Haulers are not the most agile ships and my recalibration delay ends several seconds before the Bestower's warp engines have even cut out, giving me a prime shot. I lock the target, disrupt its engines, and start shooting. The Bestower's shields look like they'll take a bit of damage before collapsing and I have to consider that the ship may have warp core stabilisers fitted, allowing it to break my single point of disruption, so I burn towards the Bestower and bump it.

The bump should push the ship out of any alignment the pilot is trying to achieve, preventing it from entering warp in a rather less technical fashion than my warp disruptor. The noses of our two ships tussle a little, the Bestower trying to nudge me away, my Tengu continuing to interfere with the hauler's path. I don't know how much longer my ship can stay in the other's way like this, so I back off to get a second run-up, which should let me give a bigger bump than the dainty nuzzles we're sharing at the moment.

As I turn my ship away from the Bestower I de-activate my web module. The web drastically reduces the maximum speed of a ship, which is generally a good idea when trying to shoot it, but can be a really bad idea when it wants to enter warp and isn't impeded. But by removing the web I effectively force the Bestower to have to accelerate more in order to reach its unmodified three-quarters normal speed to enter warp, which it will be nowhere near after being webbed. That should buy me enough time to turn around and bump it again. It turns out I don't need that time.

The Bestower's shields evaporate moments after I turn away from it, leaving paper-thin armour and hull for my missiles to rip through. I am soon aiming for and catching the pilot's pod, ejected from the wreck, pummelling the pod with a few more missiles to give me another corpse for my collection. I scoop, loot, and shoot, leaving only space dust around this customs office as evidence. It seems I needed to pay attention and use a couple of tricks against the Bestower, as it was fitted with a couple of warp core stabilisers after all. Had I sat back and shot it the hardened shields may have withstood enough damage for the hauler to shrug of my simple point and warp away safely.

Early execution over, I head back to the tower to observe the reaction. The Anathema is still there and passive, but a new contact in an Iteron hauler warps in a minute later. Surely I cannot be this lucky, or the locals that oblivious or uncommunicative. Indeed not, the Iteron does nothing and goes off-line after almost no time at the tower, replaced by another new contact, this time in a Loki strategic cruiser. That's more the response I was expecting. I'll ignore him, though, and scan this system for more opportunities elsewhere.

A mere two anomalies and eight signatures are scattered around the system, which won't take long to sift through. The Anathema finishes scanning and recalls his probes as I have two signatures left to check, and I catch up to have two radar, one gas, and one rock site, along with three wormholes. The wormholes are two K162s from low-sec empire space, one stable, the other reaching the end of its life, and the system's static exit also connecting to low-sec. It's not a great result but may give some initial uncertainty as to where my assault came from. The wormholes also give me more space to scan, even if it's not w-space. I'm heading out to explore further afield.

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Tags: anathema, bestower, eve online, iteron, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space

Too much to explore

'Finally!' Uh-oh, that sounds ominous. 'You're going to be busy.' Maybe I should pretend I'm only here to update my skill queue, and quietly disappear. My glorious leader is quick to allay my apprehensions, pointing out that half-a-dozen systems all connect to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, merely giving us too much to explore. Fin is completing her scan of C3a, bookmarking the final wormhole, as I turn up in time for us to share the burden of exploration between us. I grab the bookmark to our static wormhole from our shared can, warp to its reference, and jump to join Fin.

The C3 has an on-line tower, with ships but no pilots, in the same location it was a year ago. The system also has many wormholes, all outbound, connecting mostly to class 4 w-space. And as class 4 w-space inevitably leads to more w-space we have plenty of space ahead of us to scout. I warp to Fin and collect copies of the bookmarks she has so far made, along with a corpse she can't identify, and we split up to take a look around what is likely to be a sprawling constellation. I start by picking the odd-system-out here, apart from the static exit to low-sec, choosing to explore the class 1 w-space system first. And after determining that the exit appears in where else but Aridia, Fin picks the wormhole that leads to what she has decided during scanning as C4d, and we both jump out of the C3 in different directions.

My directional scanner is clear in the C1 from the K162, but the system is 65 AU across, spanning a much greater volume than d-scan can cover. Launching probes and performing a blanket scan shows me three anomalies and eleven signatures, but no ships. I look for and find a tower before settling down to sift through the signatures, resolving a wormhole that disappears by the time I've warped to it. I'm compensated with a new signature that turns out to be the static exit to high-sec empire space, suggesting that the disappearing wormhole was the previous static connection that died of old age waiting for me to resolve it. I didn't think I was that slow a scanner.

There's nothing else of interest in C1a. I jump through the exit to appear in Gallente space, which is also not interesting. There's no point scanning here when there are more systems behind me to explore, so I merely bookmark the high-sec side of the wormhole and jump back to w-space, return to C3a, and choose C4a as my next destination. I don't quite make it through the wormhole before stalling, as I see a Cheetah covert operations boat on d-scan in C3a, and it's launching a probe. The problem is that it could be from anywhere and I am not able to discern the Cheetah's position before it cloaks, so it's best to ignore it for now and move on.

C4a is unoccupied an empty, same as fourteen months ago when I found a static connection to class 5 w-space here. I do so again today, amongst the seven signatures, but all I do is poke my nose in to C5a. When I see no ships and no occupation I turn around, not wanting to be drawn in to following a chain of unoccupied class 5 w-space systems, as tends to be the case once the first is found. Back to C3a and in to C4b with me, where I see ships and three towers on d-scan. My notes put me in this system eighteen months ago, when my notes were not terribly complete, so I locate the towers the old fashioned way, using d-scan.

One tower in C4b has a Proteus strategic cruiser and Purifier stealth bomber piloted, a second a Buzzard cov-ops, two Cheetahs, and an Iteron hauler all piloted. The third tower holds no ships and, apart from two unpiloted carriers, that's all of them accounted for. There is some activity as I am locating the towers but nothing of particular interest. The Purifier drops off d-scan, giving me hope that perhaps he'll try to ambush me, and the Proteus is swapped for a Phantasm cruiser, which would be an excellent trophy to pop, as Fin says, but only if it would venture outside of its tower. I'm guessing it won't, and as much as I could waste the evening hoping for a ship to make itself vulnerable I would prefer to be active.

I warp away from the towers and launch probes, scanning the system's three signatures quickly. I know about the K162 heading back to C3a, the static connection to class 1 w-space is attractive, and the other signature is just some rocks. I recall my probes and, noting no change in the occupants, jump to C1b. Sadly, a couple of stragglers from C4b are not pillaging their way through some simple Sleeper sites in this C1, and it all looks as quiet as the other one. There are bubbles everywhere, though, one on each planet it seems, probably placed to be an irritant to visitors. I imagine it works, too.

Launching probes and scanning sees three signatures and six ships, the ships spread evenly across two towers on the edge of the system, and all lacking pilots. I feel like heading back to C4b to avoid this dullness, but it would be churlish not to resolve the mere three signatures here first. Again, I know about the K162 I came from, leaving rocks and a static exit to more high-sec space. The exit leads to Gallente space, seven hops from the C1a's exit, which apparently is enough to turn my stomach. I'm going to have to call it a night, even with plenty more w-space to explore. Sometimes there's simply too much space to cover before you run out of time to actually accomplish anything.

Fin's been having her own adventure down a different rabbit hole, uncovering more wormholes, including one to class 6 w-space, and finding a Dominix battleship in the midst of collapsing a wormhole. It's a tempting target, but it's no good. I don't want to leak fluids all around my pod. Well, not accidentally. I turn my scouting boat around and head home, noting no change in any of the systems as I pass through, to keep Fin updated. I copy the nineteen wormhole bookmarks made from my half of exploration to our shared can and, oh, before I collapse somewhere I jettison the corpse Fin had in her hold. Ah, it's the blue corpse Fin recovered recently, and not a kill of mine. I'm glad we at least cleared that up.

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Tags: buzzard, cheetah, dominix, eve online, iteron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, phantasm, proteus, purifier, scanning, w-space