Getting away from nothing

Tomorrow never comes, which is particularly annoying if I keep having to promise to myself that these pilots will collect gas tomorrow. I am still in the class 3 w-space system I became isolated in, and have been hoping that the occupants would make nice fat targets of themselves in cruisers armed only with gas harvester modules when they think they were alone. So far all they have done is warp between their two towers and scanned slowly, and today there is currently no one around.

With an empty system I get back to scanning, confirming the bookmarks I have for the gravimetric and ladar sites, along with a couple of magnetometric combat sites, and a new wormhole. At least, the wormhole is new to me, but it is simply the one from yesterday that I didn't bother looking for and is now reaching the end of its natural lifetime. My hopes of a soft kill are raised when a Badger hauler appears in the system, but it doesn't warp out to collect planet goo and chooses instead to stay safe by warping between towers. How novel. It then makes itself even safer by logging out.

I think I've had enough of this system, my explorer spirit wanting to press on and see new sights. Despite the wormhole being nearly dead, and possibly leaving me without a way back here if the destination system is horrible, I poke my nose out to see if I can get to civilisation. Dammit, of course the connection would lead to the Aridia region, about as far from civilisation as you can get without actually docking in Amarr. My best hope now is to return to the C3 wait for the wormhole to die, and get a better exit.

Whilst I am waiting for the death of the wormhole I amuse myself with shooting Sleepers. I don't think my covertly configured Tengu strategic cruiser would be capable of withstanding a full Sleeper attack in an anomaly, but I can pop a few frigates in the local ladar sites. I also deprive the locals of some of their resources in the process, which appeals to my spiteful side. I clear two mining sites of the puny Sleeper presence and loot the wrecks, making a cool million iskies for my troubles, and shooting the wrecks too so that my presence isn't inferred. But I think I've made up my mind that I'm leaving.

The wormhole collapses, I scan for the new one, and exit to be in the welcoming embrace of, well, the Placid region doesn't sound much better than Aridia but I am only one hop from high-sec. I set my nav-comp to guide me back to Caldari space, aiming for my old manufacturing base in The Citadel, and engage the warp drive. I was hoping to get at least one soft kill by staying in that C3 but the locals weren't terribly active, and although I can be patient I also need some stimulation, which generally comes from scanning my way through w-space. I now have to wait for an entrance to the C5 bivouac to make itself known for me to return to my colleagues, but at least I have the whole of New Eden to scan whilst I wait.

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Tags: badger, eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Staying on the inside

Why am I waking up in a class 3 w-space system? It must have been quite a night. Ah, now I remember, we were waiting for a scout nine jumps from home and the universe disappeared. Rather than stay up far too late in the hopes of dashing back home, and because I feel rather safe in my scanning strategic cruiser, I accept my fate of staying in this fully scanned C3 with a history of the occupants harvesting gas to pass the time. Yeah, it's pretty bleak to lurk undetected in a system where you can ambush pilots who think they're isolated from everyone else. That is, as long as they wake up and do something.

A Buzzard covert operations boat is sitting piloted in one of the two towers here and doesn't look to be particularly active. The C3 is large enough for me to warp away and launch scanning probes, after which I throw them out of the system to perform a blanket scan with the probes not visible to the local's directional scanner. The results surprise me a little, as yesterday's fourteen anomalies have already been whittled down to three, and one new signature to resolve. Perhaps the locals have already done their Sleeper slaying for the week and aren’t going to come out again, but I can continue to hope. I leave scanning the new signature for now.

As I keep watch on the tower, the Buzzard warps out. It looks like he’s headed to the exit to low-sec, which I scanned yesterday and reconnoitred when waking up to find it available but reaching the end of its life. I follow behind the Buzzard, not intending to reveal myself just yet in the hopes of bagging a bigger prize, and see him jump out to empire space and return a minute later. Ah, he’s brought a friend back, piloting a Punisher frigate. It’s still small fry and my choice to remain hidden seems sensible, particularly when an Abaddon battleship warps to the tower and it looks like the system is waking up.

Sadly, nothing happens. Despite teasing me with industrial ships and some warping around, no one goes out to collect planet goo, harvest gas, or mine rocks. The ships only warp between the two towers, and even when arrays are taken off-line and stowed the tower itself is not stripped down and unanchored. None of the pilots do anything more risky than warp from inside one force field to inside the other. And when the wormhole to low-sec collapses of old age and breaks its hip, the Buzzard scans at a rate that makes me wonder if maybe she too has fallen and can't get up. I give up watching these pilots for now and get an early night, hoping for better and brighter prospects tomorrow.

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Tags: abaddon, buzzard, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, punisher, w-space

Nine systems deep

The end of our w-space constellation still hasn't been found. Glorious leader Fin is out scanning and is 'in C5d jumping in to C3a', or in the fourth class 5 w-space system we've encountered in our path and jumping in to the first class 3 system. All I need to do to help is catch up with her, once I remember how to get to C5d. Thankfully the constellation is fairly linear today, most K162 legs coming directly from k-space, so I just need to follow the bookmarks with arrows leading outwards. I like to think my bookmark-naming convention makes navigating easy.

I take my covert Tengu strategic cruiser out of our home class 5 w-space system and through the neighbouring class 4 system, onwards to the connecting C5, past the next C6, and in to the second external C5. This puts me in C5b and there are two wormholes in this system, one coming from null-sec k-space and the other heading out to more class 5 w-space, or C5d. C5c is actually behind me, connecting in to the C6 and essentially a dead end. Once in C5d Fin guides me to the wormhole leading to the C3 and, as all class 3 w-space systems lead to k-space, it appears we have found the end of our constellation, nine systems wide at its theoretical strongest.

Of course, there could be more connections incoming to this class 3 system, and we still need to resolve the exit wormhole, so with a clear directional scanner from our position we launch probes and scan. Consulting my notes I see that Fin and I were in this system only a short while ago, losing two Legion strategic cruisers to a bait Tengu. But that puts the system occupied, and occupied with gas miners, which is good information to have. I locate two active towers in the system but no pilots, giving us time to sift through the fourteen signatures that are sprinkled amongst the fourteen anomalies.

The exit to low-sec empire space is found and the destination system checked, putting Fin out in the Lonetrek region. I take a bit of time to resolve the rocks and gas I find, hoping for the locals to turn up and make targets of themselves, and am able to determine that there are no other wormholes to find. Although it seems that the w-space constellation finally ends and can be mapped we may be a bit premature, as one system behind a K162 hasn't been explored yet. And heading in that direction Fin spies core probes on d-scan in the class 5 system, indicating an active scout.

I go back to sit on what looks to be the next wormhole on the scout's route, turning up just in time for Fin to call the contact. A Buzzard decloaks at the wormhole in C5c and jumps to the C6 where I am sitting. I have my Tengu decloaked and systems hot, waiting for the covert operations boat to reveal himself, even though I don't rate my chances at catching him in my comparatively large cruiser. And indeed after the pilot's session change timer ends and he makes a break for it he gets away cleanly. It looks like I was close to bumping his Buzzard but I was probably miles away. Or kilometres, to use futuristic space terms.

The Buzzard isn't fazed by our ineffective ambush and can be indirectly seen launching probes to continue his exploration, and more power to him. There seems little point in his turning around just because a clumsy fool tried to make a nuisance of herself. I go back to my original plan of hoping the capsuleers in the C3 wake up and go gas mining, whilst Fin scans C5c to resolve the wormhole the Buzzard used, which turns out to be a K162 from null-sec space. And that is the end of our constellation. Because I like visualising our connections I map out the constellation, ignoring that the connection between C6b and C6a has been collapsed.

I wait patiently in the C3 for a pilot to turn up, rewarded by a new contact in a Buzzard. A new contact with connection issues, coming and going from the tower like a yo-yo. Eventually she stays long enough to start scanning, and as there is only the static exit to low-sec and the K162 back to C5d some colleagues and I are hoping that this pilot's curiosity will get her to jump out to investigate her new neighbours. A new ambush is planned, one a little more professional than a vaguely awake strategic cruiser, and a heavy interdictor and interceptor are brought across as a welcome party. Sadly, the universe has other plans for us and dies itself instead. It looks like I'll be waking up in a class 3 w-space system tomorrow.

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

Miner skeet

What with my proclivity to shoot miners I find in w-space, corporate conversation turns to that subject, and wanders a little in the process.

And a couple of minutes later, my character sheet blinks:

Gold medal! My colleagues are the best.

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp

Getting diverted

Maybe I can spend a few more minutes here. 'Here' being the class 4 w-space system where a Tengu strategic cruiser and Orca industrial command ship have appeared on d-scan, previously unseen when I scanned my way through the system earlier. And now two Hulk exhumers and an Iteron hauler can be seen too. I like the look of this. I warp to the undefended tower to see them all safely nestled inside, and am now thankful I didn't loose a couple of volleys at it, as it would have created notification that may have discouraged the pilots from activity. As it is, I can see a jet-can labelled with a time on d-scan, strongly suggesting a mining operation is in progress. I assume the arrival of Sleepers has temporarily halted rock shooting, Sleepers that aren't quite as aggressive as in a C6.

I warp in to the gravimetric site that I resolved earlier and, sure enough, Sleepers are there. I bookmark the position of the jet-can and warp back to the tower to see what will happen next. The Tengu warps out, and I follow behind to see him despatch the Sleeper frigates, rather too efficiently. I don't have time to get in to decent range and coordinate with a recently arrived colleague to conspire to ambush the strategic cruiser, but that's okay, because I imagine we'll get a shot at some Hulks soon enough. And here they come, using a warp-in point to let them reach any rock in the site conveniently, but they all go to the same one.

A new can is jettisoned, which I bookmark, and I warp out and back in to get close without decloaking. My colleague is now in the system with me, out of d-scan range at the distant wormhole, and we are ready to strike. I get closer, closer, until I am well within warp disruption range, and I call in my colleague to warp directly to me. I refresh d-scan continually until I see his Tempest battleship appear, give it another couple of seconds, and then spring in to action myself. I decloak my Tengu, burn towards the oblivious miners, and start targeting.

I aim first for the Iteron. It's a lower-value prize but also a much softer target. My plan is to pop it quickly and move on to a Hulk, with my colleague hopefully catching another so we can get more ships than we have warp disruption modules. The Iteron is crushed under my missile fire, helped by the system's magnetar phenomenon, but I pause to see if I can catch the ejected pod. I can, and I brutally slaughter the sluggish capsuleer, even though it means other ships warping clear. The two of us are still able to prevent one of the Hulks from fleeing, though, and that one doesn't last long under our combined fire, and again I am able to stop the pilot's pod from escaping his burning wreckage.

Out of all the ships in the site we only get the Iteron and Hulk, and although we also get their pods I am not sure which result is preferable. Forcing pilots in to new clones seems like a good result to me, but ISK loss seems to be a primary aim for most other organisations. Either way, I could also have been clearer about calling separate targets for me and my Tempest-flying chum, which may have snagged us a second Hulk. But we get two ship kills and two pod kills, which is a rather splended end to a fair bit of scanning, and I scoop, loot, and shoot the wrecks to leave nothing left for the locals to recover. I cloak and we wait, but there is no retaliation from the Tengu seen earlier. The pilots simply sit in the tower, sending out only a lone Helios cov-ops boat, either to scan or to keep an eye on us.

The two of us warp homewards, and I finally reach our class 5 w-space system again. But before I finally take a break I fancy having a quick look at what's happening in the class 6 systems behind us. C6a is still empty and quiet, and warping to the next K162 puts me only in empty space. It seems that the occupants of C6b collapsed their static connection to isolate themselves, probably after I tried to assault their scanning Buzzard. I suppose they didn't want to perform logistics through actively hostile systems, but surely they have to expect that when living in a C6. At least we don't have to worry about them either, and I turn around, jump back to the C5 bivouac, and take a break for food.

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Tags: eve online, helios, hulk, iteron, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, tengu, typhoon, w-space

Scanning and scouts

I'm taking an early look around this morning. My initiative may pay off too, as there are two wormholes to be found in the class 5 w-space bivouac. One is the static connection to a class 4 w-space system, the other is a K162 coming from deadly class 6 w-space. Fearing nothing, I jump through the K162 to see what dangers await. I fear nothing because there is nothing to fear. A clear return from my directional scanner may not be the whole picture, though, and I launch probes to perform a blanket scan of the system. I see no ships, nor any structures, making this C6 unoccupied, so I start sifting through the many signatures here looking for another K162.

I find a K162 easily enough, and it comes from more class 6 w-space. This is very cool, as it gives me a new image for my collection of wormhole colours, and after doing my best David Bailey impression I jump through to see what lies on the other side. Towers, lots of towers. I count thirty five active towers on d-scan within range of the wormhole, with only a handful of silos, and warping around finds at least ten more. Sadly, listing them is not straightforward, as there are fifty-five moons in the system and not all are populated, and I am not going to any pains to note the position of each one. I can't even be bothered trying to find the few ships that are in the system, not even to see if they are piloted. But the wreck of an elite mining barge catches my eye, I think I'll find that.

My probes are soon clustered around a gravimetric site in the area of the wreck, making me wonder if I've missed a recent hunt and kill. But warping in sees the wreck unlooted and the jet-can nearby intact, and the presence of a Sleeper battleship is more indicative of the miner caught off-guard and popped by the indigenous species than another capsuleer. This system is probably quiet, at least quiet enough to mine, although shortly before finding the gravimetric site I noticed a Buzzard covert operations boat jumping out to the previous C6. I wonder if he's going to get a new mining barge.

I head back to C6a and onwards to the home C5, where I see combat probes on d-scan. I am guessing this is the Buzzard scanning his way to empire space, and rather than press on myself I simply warp to and sit on the wormhole to our neighbouring class 4 w-space system. Sure enough, within a couple of minutes the Buzzard appears, approaches the wormhole, and jumps. I decloak and follow behind, knowing that in my Tengu strategic cruiser I have little chance of catching him, but give it a go anyway. I get my systems hot on the other side of the wormhole, as the Buzzard sensibly holds his session change cloak, and pounce as the cov-ops pilot moves and cloaks. My Tengu surges towards the tiny ship, but he has entered warp and is gone before I get close enough to bump in to his ship to decloak it.

Loitering at the K162, I keep an eye on d-scan but don't see any probes being launched for the Buzzard's continue scanning. I don't wait for him to return, not wanting to waste time on another futile attempt to catch him, and instead warp around to explore the C4. There is a wonderfully tempting target of an undefended tower, made more alluring in this damage-amplifying magnetar system, and if only my missiles had enough range I'd probably fire a few potshots just for kicks. Scanning the system reveals little of anything, merely four anomalies and the same number of signatures. It is easy to resolve and bookmark the gravimetric and magnetometric sites, and the system's static wormhole to class 5 w-space.

Jumping on in today's exploration, the C5 is all within range from the K162 and nothing interesting appears on d-scan. I launch probes in this empty system and have another easy time with the eight signatures to work through. It's rocks and gas, man. Rocks and gas. There is only one wormhole and, would you believe it, it is sending me back to deadly w-space. Continuing my journey in to C6c doesn't close the circle but I have been here before, about a year ago, which I can tell immediately from d-scan without consulting my notes. I couldn't forget coming across Eyjafjallajokull.

I consult my notes anyway and they help a little, even if I have both a connection to class 5 w-space and null-sec k-space listed as being found. I suppose I couldn't identify the static wormhole from two outbound connections, and surprisingly enough I can't today either. I find another pair of outbound connections the same as I did before, along with a K162 coming from another C5. This C6 being inactive I jump through the K162 to C5c, as I will call it, but find only another empty and inactive system. Rather than scan backwards, for more K162s, I go back to C6c and onwards through the possible static connection here to C5b.

One planet is in range of d-scan, and launching probes finds lots of anomalies and signatures but no ships. I think that's enough scanning for one session, particularly with almost no activity to be found, I'm going home. Or I would be if there weren't now a Magnate visible to d-scan in C5a. I imagine the scanning frigate has appeared through a new K162 and launch probes, resolving it quickly enough and finding it to be a K162 from null-sec, which isn't as interesting as I'd hoped. But the Magnate is flying around and looking for wormholes, I may be able to catch him. But after a few flashes on d-scan and some warping around I am not able to catch up to the elusive pilot, and instead jump out to the null-sec system to see if it provides a convenient route for an isolated colleague to return.

The null-sec system could be close and my colleague starts his journey, which will take him through some different w-space first, and before I jump back to C5a I check the local channel for possible Magnate pilots. There are two other capsuleers in the system with me but I can't tell if they look like they're in a Magnate just from their portraits. What was I thinking? I jump back to w-space and, crap, I move away and cloak from the wormhole just as the Magnate pilot chooses to return home. He passes through the wormhole and my polarised Tengu can do nothing about it. I really am going home now.

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

From snake to salvager

I'm still in the class 5 w-space system bivouac, but glorious leader Fin is elsewhere. She's only as far as the neighbouring C4, scanning the constellation, so I go out to join her. There are two Orca industrial command ships, a Rorqual capital industrial ship, and a Tempest battleship all sitting unpiloted at the tower in this class 4 system, which I find out just as a second colleague scanning in a covert operations Buzzard resolves a wormhole leading to class 3 w-space. My MCP rides his beam to the connection.

The C3 looks interesting immediately. My directional scanner shows a Rattlesnake and a tower, but the presence of Sleeper wrecks suggests the faction battleship is not as inert as the previous ships. A passive scan reveals only two anomalies in this C3 and the wrecks are not coincident with either of them, so it looks like the site has despawned. A Noctis salvager appears and the wrecks start to clear. Our target may be a cautious one, taking care to ensure no ambushers lurk cloaked as he flies solo. But I have the location of the two remaining anomalies, all I need now is for him to go out shooting Sleepers again.

I locate and warp to the tower in the C3 to wait for the pilot's return, hoping he will continue his Sleeper slaying when his salvaging finishes. And indeed he swaps back to the Rattlesnake after dropping his loot, which bodes well. Now that my own colleagues are waking up we even have an excellent chance of successfully engaging the Rattlesnake, and our small fleet grows with pilots looking for combat. The battleship doesn't look to be going anywhere, though, and we now have new contacts in the previous system.

Fin is completing a full scan of the C4 and notices a Cheetah cov-ops boat on d-scan, who warps out of their tower and back. More pilots wake up in the C4 and their own fleet starts to form, with a Rokh battleship first to appear joined by a Megathron battleship, two Tengu strategic cruisers, an Ishtar heavy assault ship, Falcon recon ship, and a Phobos heavy interdictor. The Cheetah has warped out and jumped in to our C5, looking awfully like a scout for the fleet. Our own force must have been noticed before it mobilised and now a countering fleet has been gathered, one that is warping to our K162.

It's a shame that our fleet is being held, and by superior force, as the Rattlesnake has decided he wants to shoot more Sleepers and has warped to one of the two anomalies in this C3. If only we could get our ships here we could get a decent kill. As it is, my best hope now is that the pilot continues to fly solo and brings his Noctis in to salvage unguarded. At least any concern I may have about getting back past the hostile fleet vanishes with our wormhole, as the fleet jumps the Rokh through the connection, followed by an Orca, and collapses our way home. They may think they have only isolated themselves from a threat, not realising that three of us are still on the wrong side, but I doubt they care. I wouldn't.

The anomaly in the C3 is cleared of Sleepers and I warp back to the tower to see what the Rattlesnake pilot does next. My colleague warps out to a nearby planet and keeps watch on the anomaly using d-scan, taking care to stay out of the anomaly to let it despawn, which our target seems to sensibly use as a precaution. But not this time. No sooner am I dropping out of warp at the tower than the pilot switches to the Noctis and warps straight back out again. I follow behind, aiming a little short for safety, and find myself in an excellent position to engage the salvager.

Fin's heading my way, naturally losing interest in the occupants of the C4 and having no way home herself, and she has time to reach me. The Noctis is a quick salvager, but not that quick, and I am still crawling under cloak to get in to warp disruption range. Fin jumps in to the C3 and warps to my position, at which point I decloak and burn the last few kilometres towards the Noctis, locking and pointing the ship as I do. Popping an unarmed ship is super simple, particularly with two Tengus, even configured for covert operations, and the salvager explodes with little ceremony. The ejected pod warps cleanly away, leaving us a wreck to loot and shoot.

I grab about forty million iskies of loot from the Noctis, it having had time to loot and salvage many of the Sleeper wrecks, but it's not quite the victory or trophy of ambushing the Rattlesnake. Now we need to get home, and we scan the C3 to resolve the system's static exit to low-sec empire space. It's one short hop to high-sec from this small, three-system low-sec island in The Citadel, and I and my two fleet mates clear the C3 easily enough. Our colleagues back in the C5 have been busy too, having scanned their way through their new constellation to get a new exit, one we can immediately use to get home. The entrance is even in high-sec empire space.

Sixteen stargate jumps later and we've picked up the relevant bookmarks, contracted to each of us, and are making our way through w-space to the C5 system. I pause briefly in a class 4 w-space system as I see a Bhaalgorn, Apocalypse, and Abaddon on d-scan with drones and Sleeper wrecks. The battleships don't hang around, though, probably spotting Fin or me jumping in to the system, and they warp out of the anomaly there are in with more Sleepers yet to pop. I loiter for a couple of minutes but the locals really have finished for now, so I warp to the next wormhole and jump in to the C5 to bivouac down for another night.

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Tags: abaddon, apocalypse, bhaalgorn, buzzard, cheetah, eve online, falcon, ishtar, megathron, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, phobos, pvp, rattlesnake, rokh, rorqual, scanning, tempest, tengu, w-space

Changeable conditions

A corporation fleet is in our neighbouring w-space system shooting Sleepers. I could join them, if I were feeling sociable, or I could scout for the safety of the fleet, which suits me better. My choice is helped in that a Buzzard has been detected by the fleet in the class 4 system, making my first task to look for new wormholes. I jump in to the system and launch probes, warping my covert Tengu strategic cruiser over to the static connection to further class 4 w-space so that I can directly monitor any movement between the two systems whilst I scan. I sift through the rocks and gas to confirm no new wormholes are present, and jump through to C4b to see if the Buzzard has returned this way yet.

'Fleet on K162.' Having given a taut warning about a hostile fleet on the other side of the wormhole I can take time to determine ship classes. Sleeper combat stops and our fleet bugs out of the anomaly to get home safely, as I make note of a Devoter heavy interdictor, Loki strategic cruiser, Hyperion battleship, Legion strategic cruiser, Drake battlecruiser, and Manticore stealth bomber all clustered on the wormhole. And now that I have sufficient information about the hostile fleet, one that certainly isn't out to engage Sleepers, I can think about evading them.

I could simply jump back through the wormhole to C4a, but I should follow my own wisdom. Jumping back would polarise my ship and give me one chance to flee. Trying to evade the fleet in this system would give me a chance here and, if unsuccessful, the same chance when jumping back. I move but have unluckily appeared too close to the wormhole to cloak immediately, and the hostile ships lock on to and start shooting my Tengu. A second later I am jumping back to C4a, and additional flares indicate I am unsurprisingly being followed. I know I am polarised and that I can't jump back a second time, so I don't wait for the session change timer to end and simply move and cloak, which works this time.

The Hyperion and Devoter appear, the HIC's warp bubble covering the wormhole, but I am safe. Our fleet is safe too, thanks to the warp bubble, as the hostile ships are trapped themselves at the wormhole and can't warp across to our K162 for some potential interception of our PvE ships. I ran some nifty interference. I warp away from the wormhole and the threat of the ships, and return to sit at range to monitor further activity as our fleet reconfigures with thoughts of engaging the hostile ships. Their numbers and ship types are known and we could probably give them a bit of a slap.

My colleagues swap from shield- to armour-tanked ships, throw in a couple of Guardian logistics ships, and they warp out ready for action. Our decision to attack is bolstered when I make a new contact at the wormhole, an Orca industrial command ship pushed through in what looks like an effort to collapse the connection. This is a defensive posture and one that my colleagues are keen to abuse. They jump in to the system and, as I am sat a fair distance from the wormhole, giving a handy position to warp to that will avoid them getting dragged in to the HIC's bubble, they warp in to engage. The close range ships warp directly to the wormhole, the support warping near to me.

Three battlecruisers assault the Devoter, the pair getting on top of the HIC being watched carefully by our Guardians. The Devoter takes heavy damage and can do little but jump back to his home system, the confidence of our own pilots urging them to follow. The support ships have to burn to the wormhole to jump through too, and even though this seems like a bad idea to me I approach the wormhole to add my missiles to the combat. I don't like the idea of our support ships fighting at zero range, and on the other side of a wormhole to home, and on a wormhole where a heavy interdictor is deployed. But the fight looks to be going our way and I will contribute the best I can.

The Guardians have jumped to C4b and there are no hostile ships in this system any more. I drop my cloak and burn the last twenty kilometres to the wormhole, jumping as soon as I get in range. At least, that was the plan. My nav-comp informs me I still have combat probes launched in this system, which I was using to detect additional ship movements, and rather than leave them stranded I cancel my jump to recall them. And in the few moments that the probes are warping back to my position I hear a colleague say 'we should possibly run'. There's no point jumping in to the middle of a slaughter and, as our ships start returning, I burn away from the wormhole and regain my cloak.

The hostile fleet may have dispersed when our Sleeper fleet bugged out, and only had minimal presence for what they probably saw as a mopping up operation to collapse the wormhole, but they quickly return when under attack, and in greater numbers. The Devoter returns behind our fleet, along with seven strategic cruisers—two Loki, two Proteus, two Tengu, one Legion—and a Drake battlecruiser. The HIC's bubble inflates once more and we are pushed on to the back foot. Our Hurricance is first to pop, the pod caught in the bubble and our pilot killed. A Harbinger soon follows, also caught in the bubble.

Our Guardians have escaped the bubble and have been trying to keep the fleet alive, but a strategic cruiser has chased them down and has disrupted the warp engines of one. It's not going to be able to break free, but there's no point in losing both ships and she tells the second to warp clear, which he does. I can do little but watch the destruction, knowing that my ship will be destroyed if I reveal myself. In the end, we lose four ships and two pods, for no kills ourself. I suppose the battle turned when we surrendered our favourable conditions to move in for the kill, and without a scout on the other side of the wormhole it was always going to be dangerous. At least we put up a fight.

The hostile fleet loiters in the class 4 system only long enough to loot and salvage our wrecks, disappearing back to their own system shortly afterwards. One more jump comes from the wormhole, not the Orca I am expecting but a Widow black ops ship, leaving a couple of minutes later to finally collapse the wormhole. Now that we are isolated from each other our own salvaging boats come out, and start sweeping up the Sleeper wrecks from the earlier, rather more benign combat. We will probably post a loss on the evening, but it was interesting and exciting.

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Tags: buzzard, devoter, drake, eve online, guardian, harbinger, hurricane, hyperion, legion, loki, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, tengu, w-space, widow

Scanning until spotted

I'm home alone again in the class 5 w-space system. Checking the bookmarks can finds references for the static wormhole here and a connection in the neighbouring class 4 system marked 'unopened'. I copy the bookmarks to my nav-comp and warp out to take a look at what's out there. Jumping in to the C4 has nothing of interest appear on my directional scanner, and I warp off to explore. The system is unoccupied, which I expected from noting the next wormhole being kept closed, probably so that the corporation could plunder sites of specific Sleeper interest here. But I'm out and exploring, so I'll push through and see what else there is to find.

The newly opened wormhole leads to more class 4 w-space, and the K162 is only in d-scan range of the outer planet in the 50 AU-radius system. I launch probes to perform a blanket scan of the system, revealing no anomalies, two signatures, and a bunch of ships. I locate the tower that is obviously here to find ships from covert operations boats to industrials, command ships to strategic cruisers, and even a dreadnought, but none piloted, not even the pod. That's a nice bubble boy they've constructed though.

Scanning is easy here, the two signatures obviously being the wormhole I entered through and the static connection, and I am soon jumping in to a class 3 w-space system. I was here seven months ago, when I noted the location of a tower but not the type of static wormhole I can expect to find. The tower remains in the same place and, like the rest of the system, is devoid of capsuleer activity, letting me launch probes and scan. Nine anomalies accompany seven signatures, one each of a gravimetric, ladar, magnetometric, and radar site, along with two wormholes and the K162 homewards.

Increasing the evidence that all C3s lead to k-space, one wormhole is an exit to low-sec empire space, the other being an outbound connection to further class 3 w-space. I jump to the second C3 to continue my exploration, d-scan immediately showing me four ships and Sleeper wrecks. Game on. Or maybe not, as the drones are recalled and it seems that the ships have warped away from where the wrecks are. I may have been spotted when entering the system. It's also possible that the anomaly has been cleared and the fleet is moving on to the next, but a passive scan locates the anomaly containing the wrecks and warping in sees a Sleeper battleship still there. I've been spotted.

I find the tower in the system, where three of the four ships sit unpiloted. I had assumed the Dominix battleship was out shooting Sleepers and the Noctis waiting to salvage, even if I didn't actually think the Bestower hauler was part of the operation too. It seems I've encountered a lone Proteus strategic cruiser and, although unlikely, it's possible he warped out to recharge his tank and I may still have a target.

Okay, I've been spotted. The little message in the local communication channel can only be directed towards me, leaving me no ambush opportunity. And as this class 3 w-space system will probably only lead out to more low-sec space I don't even bother to scan for wormholes. Instead I turn around and head home, copying my new collection of bookmarks to the shared can when I get there and taking a break for food.

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Tags: bestower, dominix, eve online, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, w-space

Covetor comeback

The class 4 w-space behind me has been routed of hostile capsuleers, where 'hostile' means 'not us', and I'm moving on to continue exploring the class 1 system ahead. Other corporation pilots are here and scanning, so rather than saturate the system with scanning probes I mosey over to the local tower and lurk cloaked in my Tengu strategic cruiser. The shuttle and Brutix battlecruiser remain unpiloted, and the system devoid of activity. An exit to high-sec empire space is resolved by our small fleet, which, apart from the connection we used to enter the C1, is the only wormhole to be found in the system. All looks quiet, until a Drake battlecruiser arrives at the tower.

As should be predictable, the w-space inhabitant swaps to a scanning boat and warps out of the tower. A single combat scanning probe appears, perhaps because he saw a colleague's probes and is checking the integrity of the system, and then the Magnate decloaks and starts launching a handful of probes to begin scanning proper. Maybe with the single probe he was simply checking the number of signatures in the system against known sites and will now check the new ones. But a quick sweep of my directional scanner on a tight beam may have found him, and I warp to the second planet in the system only in time to see his probes clustered over a hundred kilometres from me.

I try to flush out the Magnate as the pilot scans, guessing his position and vector from where the probes were and the position of the planets around us. I have no idea how close I get to the frigate, but it's not close enough. We can try to catch him in other ways, though. Glorious leader Fin in her Tengu is sitting on the wormhole leading out to high-sec, I move to the K162 back to the C4, and Mick and another colleague are in a heavy interdictor and interceptor pair in the C4 on the other side of the wormhole waiting for the Magnate to jump through. The pilot is slow at scanning but eventually reappears on d-scan at the second planet, warping towards the exit to high-sec.

We get ready to engage when the Magnate jumps and returns, but he only warps to range from the wormhole before heading back to the tower. He just wanted to bookmark the wormhole for reference, it seems, although if we manage to catch him he may wish to have got the name of the exit system. But at the moment we are no closer to bagging another kill. I warp back to the tower to follow the pilot and see him switch enticingly in to a Covetor mining barge, giving us a bigger and more satisfying target to shoot! If only we'd taken the time to resolve the gravimetric site here.

I have a probe launcher and scanning probes on my Tengu, and once the Covetor warps away from the tower, and with no one else around to see it, I am safe launching my probes around a different moon. I fling them out of the system then warp inwards to get a fix on the barge. My choice of planet to sit on whilst looking for the target is a good one, being almost directly underneath the gravimetric site and under 1 AU away. This will make it really easy to scan. I cluster my probes around the point where I have a fix on the Covetor and prepare to scan, but the ship warps out before I do, deflating the hopes of my colleagues who were all ready to pounce. But the tower is out of d-scan range of the site, making it an excellent time to scan in case he comes back.

I hit 'scan', get a solid result on the gravimetric site on the first go, and recall my probes. I warp in to reconnoitre the site and there aren't even the Sleeper defenders arrived yet, so I don't know why the Covetor left. There's a new contact at the tower, though, an Iteron hauler now with the Covetor. With both wormholes in the system out of d-scan range of the tower we sneakily move our HIC over to the high-sec wormhole, which we bubble. If the Iteron moves to high-sec he can be caught short and destroyed, if either ship moves anywhere else I can spot it and the HIC will cloak to keep us covert. It's a good plan, if only either ship would move.

Iteron or Covetor, and it's the Covetor that moves first. Our HIC cloaks as the mining barge warps back to shoot more rocks and returns to the tower almost immediately as the Sleepers turn up to shoo him away. Even better for us is the Drake sent in to the take care of the Sleepers, giving us a proper target. I sit a safe distance away, trying to get a decent bookmark to let us warp on top of the Drake, finally getting the object I need when a Sleeper pops and leaves a wreck. I warp hurriedly over to the exit to high-sec, where Fin and Mick have been patiently waiting, call for the HIC to drop its cloak, then send us all in to the gravimetric site to introduce ourselves to the locals.

We drop on top of the oblivious Drake, the HIC's bubble trapping him, as we call in another couple of ships who have been waiting in the C4. And not only is the Drake in the gravimetric site, popping the Sleeper frigates, so is the Covetor, blissfully mining ore some seventy kilometres away. I am tempted to burn across to the Covetor to get a second target, but I need to remain focussed and ensure we take down the one. All firepower is aimed at the battlecruiser and his shields drop quickly under our combined damage, the pilot's pod ejected in to the amber of the warp bubble, giving us a corpse to scoop as a trophy.

The Covetor has long warped out by now, leaving us the battlecruiser wreck to loot, space high-fives to give, and a pocket to clear. But just as we are congralutating ourselves on a decent hunt and clean kill we get a surprise, the Covetor warping back in to the site. I'm not quite sure what the pilot was intending to do, but with our warp bubble still active he gets dragged to the edge and well within our attack range. Before his warp engines have completely cut out I am burning towards him to make sure he has no chance of escaping, and my colleagues are all thinking the same way. It is a lamb to the slaughter, the mining barge ripped apart and a second pod trapped and crushed in short order.

That was quite a mistake for the Covetor pilot to make, and I don't think we'll know his motives. Even if he didn't know about the effects of the warp bubble it was peculiar to warp in to the gravimetric site itself to see if we were still there, especially in the Covetor. There must be other ships he could use that would be more agile, and d-scan is your friend at times like this. But we are appreciative of the lemming-like action, looting the wreck of the barge, as well as those of the pre-popped Sleepers for some extra pirate profit. And with another system cleared of hostile activity the fleet turns around and heads back to the C5 bivouac for the night.

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Tags: covetor, drake, eve online, iteron, magnate, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space