Stealth bomber, the clue is in the name

Early scanning gets an early result, a wormhole found in our high-sec mission base system. The K162 from class 1 w-space is stable and healthy, and jumping through shows me drones but no wrecks and a couple of towers in the system. My directional scanner also has a Probe and probes out and about, although I expect to find the frigate at one of the two towers. Finding the towers doesn't find the Probe, though, so on the assumption that he's resolved the wormhole and gone to investigate I return there myself.

The Probe is not only sitting on the exit to high-sec but he's launched a scanning probe. I don't think I can engage on the wormhole, as the pilot will simply jump out to empire space and evade my attentions, so I just watch and wait for now. But I suppose if he had jumped out and come back, which is a reasonable assumption to make if he had to recall his probes, then he would be polarised and unable to jump out again for a few minutes. And with scanning probes scattered about he would be unable to cloak easily. Maybe I should have taken a shot, if only I had been thinking more clearly.

I watch the Probe warp away to one of the towers, and I warp in a different direction to see if I can get far enough away to launch probes covertly. It looks like I can, and I send them far out of the system to keep them hidden until I may need them, only using them to blanket the system for now. Two anomalies, four signatures, and the Probe is all my combat probes pick up, which will make scanning quick if I get the chance. I warp back to the tower and monitor the actions of the Probe, although 'actions' is a rather grandiose term for sitting still and doing nothing.

I should have taken my shot at the Probe on the wormhole, he's clearly not going to move. Oops, I blink and he's gone. I warp across to the wormhole in time to see the Probe exit, and I loiter there whilst taking the opportunity of being alone to scan the few signatures that are here. I get as far as almost resolving one site before the wormhole flares, and I throw my probes back out of the system. The Probe returns and warps to the tower, where a Drake battlecruiser also now sits. Maybe I'll get some excitement soon.

Here we go, the Probe pilot swaps to a Hound stealth bomber and warps towards the wormhole. Maybe my probes were spotted, or the pilot is looking for an opportunistic kill on the exit. I follow behind, aiming to drop out of warp at bombing range in a bid to decloak the Hound, although I'm not sure why a capsuleer would choose to scan in a frigate when covert operation boats are available to him. The answer may be that he cannot use covert operations cloaks, as when I approach the wormhole I see the Hound uncloaked and ten kilometres away from me.

I decloak my Tengu as the strategic cruiser's warp engines cut out and target the Hound. I gain a positive lock and burn forwards, launchers spewing missiles at the tiny target. I am not half way through the Hound's armour when the pilot bails out, ejecting his pod and warping safely back to his tower, knowing that this is a fight he won't win. I pop the Hound anyway, not wanting to risk recovering it myself but still wanting my spoils of the hunt, and I loot and shoot the wreck. I find a cov-ops cloak still surviving, and I can only assume that the pilot cannot use them or he'd have cloaked, and probably be flying a Cheetah for scanning.

The Drake doesn't come out to challenge me, but the routed pilot slides his pod in to a Jaguar assault frigate. I doubt I'll find much more to do here, though, so I head back to high-sec to move on to scan a different system. But now that I think about it, I'm not sure why the Probe pilot would have to scan the already-open exit to high-sec, unless it wasn't him or a colleague of his who opened it in the first place. Maybe I should be looking in the C1 for a further K162, but I'm out here now and have many more systems to explore for further w-space adventures.

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Tags: drake, eve online, hound, jaguar, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, probe, scanning, tengu, w-space

Shooting the greys

Fin's fickle agent still snubs me. If that's the way it's going to be, I'll look for capsuleers to shoot in w-space. I take my Tengu strategic cruiser to look for wormholes in high-sec, finding nothing in the home system and a single wormhole in the next system along. Sadly, the wormhole only connects this high-sec system with null-sec k-space, and as I sit cloaked to bookmark the link a Buzzard covert operations boat warps in, seems as disappointed as me with his find, and warps right back out again.

It's still perhaps worth a look for more wormholes in the null-sec system, but jumping through to see three red pilots in the local channel is enough to deter me from exploring here. I wait for the session change timer to end and turn to jump back to high-sec, just as the three pilots drop on top of and engage me in their own Tengus. It's no big deal, I jump out and ignore them, warping to the next stargate in the constellation to try my luck in a new high-sec system.

Another system, another lone signature. This one is also a wormhole, a K162 from class 2 w-space that is reaching the end of its natural lifetime. I can afford a quick look. Jumping in presents me with a clear return from my directional scanner, and I launch probes at the wormhole and blanket the system. Eighteen signatures, no anomalies, and no ships. I don't care to sift through all those signatures at the moment, moving on to yet another high-sec system to scan instead. And the next system across has a stable K162 to more class 2 w-space, jumping in showing me a tower and ships on d-scan, which looks more promising.

I move away from the wormhole and cloak, and checking d-scan more closely sees the wreck of an Amarr industrial ship. That's curious, and from experience I would put such a wreck near a customs office. I narrow d-scan's beam and sweep it around, checking each customs office in turn until, as suspected, the wreck appears coincident with one. I warp directly there, pretty much hoping to catch the assailant with his pants down, so to speak. I tend to shoot the wrecks rather than leave them behind, so maybe this is a fresh assault. And indeed it is, as I drop out of warp to see a Manticore stealth bomber move towards the wreck to loot it.

It's not just any Manticore in front of me, it's Bjurn Akely's Manticore, of the 20 Minuters. I share some banter in their channel regularly, which presents all kinds of ethical quandaries about shooting a pilot you are friendly with but isn't blue. Whilst I consider the moral dilemma I decloak and lock on to his Manticore, getting my weapons systems hot, only to watch as he warps away a split-second before impending doom takes a firm grip around his neck. 'PENNY!'

Hi, Akely!

'You can have the loot, I have no room for it.'

Cool, thanks. It's just a few fittings, but they're Tech II and worth a few million iskies. How did you escape my clutches?

'I was already aligned, I've been taught well.'

Yeah. Still, I probably wasn't going to shoot you, and you can't prove a thing.

We share a bit of intelligence about the system and local corporation, and I congratulate him on his planet goo kill, despite it being the terrible act of a bloodthirsty pirate that I clearly cannot condone. I also pat myself on the back for recognising the situation and acting quickly enough to nearly get a sneaky counter-kill on the side of justice. I'm not that smart, though, as in my haste I forgot to bookmark the wormhole I entered through. My launcher fires scanning probes and I cloak, moments before a Thorax cruiser warps in to land almost on top of my probes. I don't know if the pilot thinks I am in a smaller ship, not the Tengu, or if he has warp core stabilisers fitted, or maybe is bait for a bigger fleet behind him. Whatever it is, the Thorax warps away again soon enough and I get to scanning.

My exit is easy enough to find, and my combat probes keep picking up the Thorax, who appears to be warping around randomly, and a Buzzard. The Buzzard looks stationary and tempting as a target, and I get his approximate position before he cloaks, but it looks like he is sitting near a planet and I warp there to see what's happening. The Thorax is back with the Buzzard but they are over two hundred kilometres from my position. I bounce off a nearby moon to try to get closer, which I manage but only by apparently also attracting a Dominix battleship at the same time. Rather than moving closer again to try to engage them, I simply watch what these three ships do, which is warp away to the tower in the system. Maybe the locals have given up trying to find my scanning boat or that pirate Akely. Or maybe not.

I assumed the three ships are local, but warping to the tower to reconnoitre their next movements sees wrecks of the Buzzard and Thorax, and no sign of the Dominix. It appears instead that the fleet of three were from another system and got attacked when warping directly to the local tower. I'm not sure if they were looking to attack the tower, bait the locals, or accidentally warped to the wrong moon, but they've gone now, tails between their legs. I share this humorous moment with Akely before getting back to scanning. I find a K162 from class 2 w-space here, perhaps where the kamikaze pilots came from, and the second static wormhole which leads to a class 3 system.

The C3 is occupied but inactive, only an empty Maller cruiser sitting inside a tower, and the wealth of signatures discourages me from scanning further. I head back through the C2 and return to high-sec. No kill for me tonight, but plenty of space to explore and some minor action and excitement. I return to our mission base happy with the evening's entertainment.

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Tags: buzzard, dominix, eve online, maller, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, thorax, w-space

Finding the right system

Despite there being stargates all around I'm going out scanning. Having moved my covert exploration Tengu strategic cruiser to our mission base I may as well make use of it. Besides, I still can't access the agent Fin uses, although I probably ought to get more involved in running missions to help with that. Still, I am by myself today and so cannot progress agent standings, so scanning I will go, and there are three signatures in the home system. One of the signatures is a magnetometric site, the other two are wormholes, a K162 each from class 2 and class 1 w-space. The class 1 system sounds like a gentler start to the day, and the K162 in to the C2 has a Tengu loitering nearby, so I jump through the wormhole leading there.

The C1 is empty and inactive, and a quick scan reveals a few anomalies and signatures, but resolving them finds no further K162 here. I jump back to high-sec empire space and move to check the other wormhole again, and as the previously seen Tengu warps in to the C1 K162 as I am warping out it may be clear to enter the C2. But it isn't clear, as an Ishtar heavy assault ship sits on the wormhole before either jumping or cloaking as my warp engines disengage. Being in a vast connected galaxy of systems I can afford to be picky about where I roam w-space, so instead of seeing if I can be easily spotted and maybe attacked I leave this wormhole alone and jump to an adjacent high-sec system to explore.

Only two anomalies are in the next high-sec system, and the one adjacent to that may have a wormhole but only one that pointlessly connects high-sec space to high-sec space. I scan through another system finding nothing before two signatures turn up on my probes, both turning out to be wormholes, and both K162s from class 2 w-space. I arbitrarily pick one to explore first and jump in to take a look around. The system is occupied but inactive, the only two ships present sitting unpiloted in the local tower, which at least lets me scan for the C2's second static wormhole. I find the connection to class 3 space easily enough, the only other signatures being the exit to high-sec, and a ladar and radar site, but jumping to the C3 puts me in an unoccupied and empty system that only exits to low-sec. I turn around, head back to high-sec, and investigate the second C2 I found.

Jumping through the other K162 puts me in the middle of an Onyx's bubble, a Vagabond cruiser and Hurricane battlecruiser keeping the heavy interdictor company. I suppose I'll turn around. I'm not concerned, as I'm sitting on a wormhole to high-sec, and all I have to do it hold my session change cloak until the associated timer ends, at which point I jump back. As I jump, a Probe Patrol covert operations boat gets pulled in to the bubble, making me realise that perhaps the ships aren't trying to repel high-sec tourists but are there to stop others from leaving the system easily. Best of luck to them, it looks like they know what they're doing.

I'll scan one more system for wormholes before calling it a night, and luckily the sole signature in the next system across is another wormhole. It looks like I'll have plenty of choice for exploration in my high-sec hiatus. This wormhole is another K162 from class 1 w-space, and there must have been some activity as the connection is already somewhat mass-compromised. It's not enough to stop me and my Tengu, so in I jump and start nosing around. My directional scanner shows me a tower, ships, and Sleeper wrecks, all the ingredients for a good hunt. But finding the tower only sees a Buzzard cov-ops boat piloted amongst the frigates and industrial ships. And I note that the tower doesn't have a ship maintenance array, so what I can see is what the three-member corporation has currently available.

I want to find the wrecks, even if there doesn't appear to be a Noctis salvager available to scoop the loot, but a passive scan doesn't reveal an active anomaly where the wrecks are. I warp off to the outer planet, actually hoping to find a second tower with more active pilots and the promise of a salvager to stalk, but all I find is more wrecks. At least this time the wrecks are in an active anomaly, and I warp in to bookmark a wreck in case a salvager turns up only to find the Sleepers haven't been fully eradicated yet. I don't know what's been happening here, so I do what I think is best and warp back to the tower to monitor the only pilot I know about in the system.

Oh, for a stealth bomber. The Buzzard pilot has switched to a Bestower hauler and is crawling very slowly out of the tower's force field to scoop a couple of unanchored defences. My Tengu doesn't have quite the destructive power of a Manticore, particularly compared with a bomb launch, and the added recalibration and locking time would make me more vulnerable to the tower's defences. But hold on, taking a closer look at the meagre defences around this tower shows them only to be ECM and other disruptive effects, there are no gun or missile batteries to inflict damage. Even if I get targeted I won't lose my ship, not unless other ships appear from nowhere. If only I realised this sooner, the Bestower would have been toast.

Thankfully, the Bestower is not finished. After scooping the defences he turns around and heads back in to the force field, unanchoring a couple more defences in another quadrant. I bookmark the defence, happy to see it being closest to the planet to give me an easy way to bounce back in to range, and wait for the Bestower to move again. And he does, even if it is still very slow indeed. Slow is good, though, as it looks like the industrial ship doesn't have a propulsion module fitted, and he isn't likely to turn and flee at top speed when I reveal myself.

I could warp in at just the right moment, dropping my cloak as my engines begin to cut out to be ready to target as soon as the recalibration delay ends, but I realise that if I am going to do that I am just as well served by sitting in position and decloaking, because I will still be visible for the same amount of time before I can gain a positive lock. So rather than worry about timing my approach I bounce off the planet to the defence now, get in to position a few kilometres from the defence, and sit in wait for the hauler.

A Bestower without reheat is slow. Waiting for a slow Bestower to get in to range to be ambushed has a time-dilating effect on top of its slowness. I must be patient, I must wait until the ship is sufficiently outside of the tower's shields, or I risk him getting back inside to safety. It's an obvious point to make, but being overconfident about attacking a defenceless target and failing to wait patiently can lead to mistakes, and I force myself to hold my cloak until the Bestower is almost scooping the defence. Here he is, and here I am. Surprise!

I decloak, lock, and point my target, preventing him from warping clear. Missiles slam in to the hauler, popping the ship pretty quickly, and now I get to see how experienced the pilot is as his pod is ejected in to space. He can't warp back to his tower, but he probably also cannot outrun me, thanks to my holding until he was this far out of the force field until I attacked. An experienced pilot will already have a celestial object targeted and be hitting the warp button, to get clear from the threat before warp back to be inside the tower's shields. This pilot doesn't seem to be experienced, as his pod doesn't get clear before I lock and disrupt that too. I have a new corpse to scoop.

I loot and shoot the wreck, only get a couple of expanded cargoholds for the kill, and don't have room in my hold to grab the unanchored defences myself. And by now the tower's defences are all over my Tengu, yet somehow I survive the ECM assault and am able to warp clear without taking damage. I warp back to the tower but, unsurprisingly, there is no one left to monitor. Happy with my brutal slaying of an innocent industrialist I warp back to the wormhole and return to high-sec. A few hops later I am once more in our mission base and in my second Tengu, helping Fin clear up another Angel extravaganza to end the evening.

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Tags: bestower, buzzard, eve online, hurricane, ishtar, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tengu, vagabond, w-space

A tale of two Tengus

My first day back out in high-sec empire space will be simple enough. Glorious leader Fin has a level 4 agent sitting out in Caldari space somewhere who she wants to introduce me to, which will involve flying shared missions for a while, so I need to move my PvE Tengu strategic cruiser up there. But I will not be leaving w-space behind me either, preferring wormholes to stargates and an empty local channel instead of strange faces staring back at me like ghosts of my victims. A second ship to move to the mission base will therefore be my covert exploration Tengu. And I think that's it.

Having a Tengu for exploration lets me travel light, not needing one ship to scan and at least one more for combat support. My second ship has nominally been a stealth bomber, but I also like having an interceptor around, despite my incompetence in flying one. The Tengu doesn't really replace these two ships, as I am hardly likely to catch other cov-ops boats in the relatively bulky strategic cruiser, even if I've somehow managed to catch two with it already, and the stealth bomber still seems to be rather more deadly. But the Tengu can survive a lot more punishment and should be able to engage more targets in its multi-role capacity, which when based from high-sec space dock makes it almost essential when time is an important factor.

I could, of course, use the single Tengu and swap out the subsystems as and when required, which would save some iskies on a second hull and realise the full potential of the modular construction of strategic cruisers. But living out of a hangar in w-space, where swapping subsystems is not yet possible, has conditioned me in to building a Tengu and believing it to be fixed, which it essentially was when changing it required scanning an exit through multiple w-space systems and finding a convenient and safe station. So it is that I already have the two Tengus, and rather than strip one and swap the modules around I may as well take advantage of the two ships.

We were lucky in getting a good exit to high-sec yesterday for our evacuation, which means I have a straightforward path across regions to drop off Pengu, my Sleeper-shooting Tengu, even if I don't quite fancy making the eighteen hops back again this evening. Instead I join Fin for some missions, to help start building my standing with her agent, and getting some iskies for my efforts too. The missions are bigger and harder than I am used to, being rated at level 4, but even though I remember once being impressed and threatened by rat battleships, my time spent fighting the tougher Sleepers means I don't even bat an eyelid when facing four battleships and half-a-dozen more warp in. My Tengu soaks up their damage and spews enough missiles to chew through their hulls with ease.

A Guristas Extravaganza comes and goes, a second mission has us collect from rats something that I don't really pay attention to, and then the Angel Cartel wants an extravaganza of their own, which we aren't going to refuse. It's all a bit simple, really. The local channel stays quiet despite the people staring at me, I can not only ignore my directional scanner but close it completely, and my Tengu is not worried by any of the rats for the whole evening. And although I wasn't going to make the trip back to our previous night's staging area I would like to get back to MCP, my covert exploration Tengu, in preparation for finding some w-space tomorrow.

I get out of Pengu and, stripped to my pod, make the uneventful journey back down to Amarrian regions. Reunited with MCP I remember to make the tweaks to my fitting I was thinking about, trying to marry speed and damage as best I can, but realising that the Tengu as configured doesn't quite have enough resources to cope with all the modules. But I remember from Fin and Mick's teachings that faction modules are superior to even their Tech II counterparts, and not just in their primary function but also fitting requirements. I check what is available in propulsion modules and see that a faction drive will fit with my modifications and, somehow not as fazed as I used to be about prices, am happy to buy one from a contract.

The only problem with buying a faction item is that even though I can search contracts across known space I can only complete a contract when in the same region as it is offered. I have spotted a bargain and would like to take advantage of it, but that means travelling most of the way back to the mission base, to get closer to the Forge, as naturally the contract is underwritten in Jita. For not wanting to make the first journey this evening the lure of saving iskies on an expensive purchase has me undocking and jumping through stargates again, even knowing that, as inevitably happens, I won't get to my destination before another capsuleer buys the bargain. But I made the journey, I may as well buy my module, and I find a reasonable price for the faction module I am after. I end the night fitting the drive to my Tengu and seeing that everything is working just right. It was worth it.

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Tags: eve online, jita, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, tengu

Making like a banana

The home system looks quiet. Intelligence puts a maximum of a couple of possible hostile pilots available to cause disruption, but none seen locally recently. My mission can go ahead, and I start scanning for an exit. The static wormhole leading to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system is easy to find and space is clear on the other side of the connection. I launch probes and scan, focussed on finding wormholes to the point of even ignoring finding any local occupation. I'm moving my ships out of w-space and just want to be quick about it, which is perhaps a little reckless but I need to regain my autonomy.

As luck would have it, the first wormhole I resolve in the C3 is an exit to high-sec empire space, jumping out putting me in the Tash Murkon region. It's hardly Caldari space but it is fairly central and certainly safe. I dock my scouting Tengu strategic cruiser, buy a batch of frigates, and pilot the first back in to w-space to start the minor evacuation. Glorious leader Fin arrives and, thankfully, is simpatico with my plan to leave the system behind. The good timing, lucky connection to high-sec, and coordination will work out well. I was planning to simply get my scanning Tengu, ratting Tengu, and rather expensive Widow black ops ships out of w-space, to mitigate the financial loss when the tower goes off-line, but now we can move more, and more safely.

Fin loads the first Orca with modules, ships, and loot, and I prepare the first Widow as an escort ship. Both are high-value targets, but we suspect there to be only the one hostile pilot still camping in our system, with maybe one more ready to be called upon should we disregard our safety, and my Widow's potent ECM systems should enable us to get clear of any minor aggressive attention. And I have already told Fin that should more of the hostile corporation suddenly wake up, as if being scrambled for an assault, I will abort the operation at that point. For now we seem okay, and Orca and Widow get out to high-sec dock safely.

I share some of my frigates with Fin and we go back to w-space. With a wingman I am persuaded to get more ships to safety, feeling strong enough in twin Legion strategic cruisers to take them out next, then our two Tengus. And with w-space remaining quiet I pull my Damnation command ship from the tower, a ship I haven't had a need to fly since moving here but have a sentimental attachment towards, and get it to dock with Fin's Nighthawk command ship flying alongside. My supply of frigates is lasting, and I recover a Crane transport ship stuffed to the gills with fittings and other items, followed by bringing out Fin's Crane also packed full of modules, as Fin does the same with the Bustard transport ship after taking our laboratories off-line.

Pushing my luck a little, and having to buy more frigates for all these trips, I get another Nighthawk out to high-sec. But despite all going smoothly I realise that I am pushing my luck and should probably stick to my original aim, which was to pull out the high-value assets and leave the system behind. Smaller and lower-value ships can be replaced, if necessary, and they are not worth dying for. I will make one last trip, having saved the second Widow to accompany the second Orca. I let Fin know my intentions and she fills the Orca with all that it can carry, and we warp out together, just as we started our withdrawal. Again, we get to high-sec without seeing another ship, and I feel satisfied about the operation going so well.

I am satisfied, but also disappointed. The denial-of-service attack on our home system doesn't really seem to achieve anyone anything, and only serves to move more capsuleers out of w-space. Maybe we'll be back, but I have no idea how fanatical this hostile corporation will be towards us. At least for now I can run missions with one Tengu, scan for and hunt in w-space with my other, and have my most expensive assets safe in a station where they cannot be lost.

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Tags: bustard, crane, damnation, eve online, legion, mmorpg, nighthawk, orca, penny ibramovic, tengu, w-space, widow

Comms are coming from inside the system

It turns out we're not rid of our visitors just yet. Glorious leader Fin has been ambushed by a covert Tengu strategic cruiser, catching her completely off-guard whilst checking some stale bookmarks. I wake up shortly after and disappear quickly in my own scanning boat, launching probes and cloaking away from the tower. I scan the home system looking for multiple connections, hoping that it is cosmic coincidence that brings our attackers back to our system, but all I find is our static wormhole. It looks like our new friends have taken an interest in us, and are keeping a ship or two around to hassle us for a little longer.

I don't tempt fate and exit our system, instead simply sitting near the wormhole and waiting and watching. Nothing happens and no passage is seen, and a little investigation confirms that Fin's assailant is not currently around. Still, I'm not going to make a target of myself for any other pilots of the corporation who are somewhere in New Eden or w-space. But maybe we can make Fin a target once more, particularly when the lurking pilot is noted to wake up again. If we can counter his ambush maybe we can persuade him to leave. Then again, maybe it will just convince his colleagues to come back with greater force, but we both have some vengeance to wreak too.

Fin feigns scanning, tries to act obviously, and exits to scan the neighbouring class 3 system, but our target is either not here, not watching, or not being fooled. And here is his advantage. He only needs to wait until we board ships not fit for PvP and head out to engage Sleepers, where we become prime targets, easy kills. We could try to compromise our fits so we can strike back, but we don't know how many or what exactly we'll be facing. All we know from previous engagements is that the fleet will have superior numbers and more flexible fleet composition. If they have no advantage, or suspect a counter-attack, they can simply hide and bide their time.

This is a denial-of-service attack against our home system. We cannot make use of the resources, nor can we can hunt effectively. I don't see anything we can feasibly do to actively push the attackers from our system. So they win. There is nothing else I can do today, normal operations must be suspended and looking for a cloaked ship in space is pointless. I hit the sack, knowing what I have to do but upset about it. I am happy to remain a target out in w-space, if I also have a measure of autonomy, but I am not going to be forced in to choosing inactivity or losing expensive ships on a daily basis. I'm moving out. Like I say, they win.

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

Scanning goes nowhere

All is quiet at home, and with only one wormhole to find I jump through to our neighbouring system. My directional scanner shows me two towers in this class 3 w-space system, but no ships that would indicate signs of activity. I launch probes to perform a blanket scan of the system as I warp around to locate the towers, finding four signatures amongst the seven anomalies here. Of the towers, one is owned by a three-member corporation, which makes me think we have good opportunity for mayhem should they turn up, until I find that the second tower is owned by a 150-strong corporation. Neither corporation shares an alliance, but I imagine there must be some kind of agreement to share this system or the smaller tower would have been squished by now.

Of the hundred-and-fifty-three potential pilots in this system there are none around, and I scan to look for wormholes. I resolve the C3's static exit, this one leading out to high-sec empire space, but it is reaching the end of its natural lifetime and not much use to me. But as I am finishing scanning the other two signatures, bookmarking the ladar and gravimetric sites for reference, the wormhole collapses in front of me. That's twice in two days my proximity has killed a wormhole, maybe I have a destabilising influence. At least now I can find a brand new exit to high-sec, or I could if a ship weren't detected by my scanning probes.

Switching scanning panes has d-scan reveal the Orca industrial command ship somewhere in the system, most likely warping from dormancy in to a tower. I am already imagining the sleepy capsuleer loading the Orca with loot and heading out to high-sec via the now-collapsed wormhole, ending up in empty space and so very vulnerable as he turns the sluggish ship around. But it's more likely that he knows the wormhole was due to collapse at around this time and is here to continue operations with a fresh connection, and unfortunately he swaps the Orca for a Buzzard covert operations boat and warps off.

I see no probes being launched in the system and I suppose the pilot went to check the status of the wormhole, but if that's the case I'm not sure why he warps back in to the tower only to bounce right back out to a safe spot. Force of habit, maybe. Now I see probes, and I warp my own scanning boat back towards the K162 home, checking d-scan to see when the probes converge here. I should have time to tell when the Buzzard is likely to visit our C4 and get home to swap my strategic cruiser for an interceptor, the Tengu not really a suitable ship to catch a cov-ops. Sure enough, the probes start to get closer to the wormhole, and I jump back, swap boats, and sit on our static wormhole to wait in ambush.

As is generally the case, I feel like I am waiting for nothing. I know there are few signatures in the C3, and I like to think that many pilots in w-space are at least inquisitive about what lies behind new connections, the presence of a welcoming party still rare enough not to warrant isolationism. But no Buzzard jumps through to my waiting Malediction. I am also aware that only yesterday I missed an opportunity for the sake of five more minutes waiting, but this has to be balanced with being productive. I swap ships again and take my Tengu back in to the C3, but still probes are somewhere in the system and I persuade myself to wait a little longer, returning to idle in my interceptor. But I am being idle and when another few minutes pass without company appearing I take my Tengu to scan for the new wormhole, regardless of the state of the C3 this time.

The Buzzard and Orca are both sitting inside the shields of the tower, probes nowhere to be seen, and I disregard the pilot in order to scan the new exit for myself. If I can find nothing to do here maybe I can look further afield. I exit to empire space through the new wormhole and take a look around the high-sec system I find myself in. Two more wormholes are in this system, one of which is a link between two high-sec systems, which is the first of its kind I've seen. I don't care to jump through it at the moment, not when I have a K162 from class 1 w-space to venture through.

A Primae on d-scan looks quite tempting, the industrial ship designed specifically for planet goo operations, but I find it unpiloted in the local tower. As it turns out the whole system is currently inactive, and a quick scan reveals a K162 coming from class 5 w-space, which may be a source of activity. Or maybe not, as jumping in to the C5 puts me in an unoccupied system, and even though I should expect to find another K162 leading to an occupied origin my scanning probes can see no obvious inbound connections. It's possible that the active pilots collapsed their static wormhole for better opportunities, leaving this dead end for wanderers like me. There's nothing happening tonight, even the pilot in the C3 gone when I pass back through on my way home, and I park my Tengu to get some sleep.

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

Back to the routine

My first day home, what shall I do? I know, I can scan! Oh, how exciting. But it might actually be, as I briefly see a Rifter frigate on my directional scanner, giving me a feeling there is more than one wormhole to find today. Before I can start looking for other capsuleers there are more sites to catalogue, as it looks like the Sleepers have been repopulating the system in the week we've been absent. Anomalies are easy to find and record, though, and I only have a few ladar and gravimetric sites to note before I am warping to a pair of wormholes, one a K162 coming in from class 4 w-space and the other our static connection to a class 3 system.

The K162 is sitting at half mass, suggesting the inhabitants of the other C4 have been moving a fair number of ships across systems. Rather than run headlong in to them I first jump through our C247 to the C3 and see if there is any activity there. Two Reapers sitting amongst the eight towers doesn't look promising, the rookie frigates unlikely to be doing anything but sitting unpiloted waiting to be used as disposal shuttles. I've been here before too, thirteen months ago, when there was only one tower. I don't think I'll look for all eight today, until I realise this is a silo system and check my system map to find that there are only eight moons in this C3. It appears I already have located all the towers, if only indirectly.

Not worrying about whether the Reapers are piloted or not I launch probes and scan. Not only is this a silo system but it is kept clean, there being no anomalies and only four signatures to resolve, three of them being wormholes. The ladar site sits alone amongst our K162 home, an outbound connection to class 5 w-space, and the system's static exit to high-sec empire space, with only the K162 still having plenty of life left. I don't jump through either wormhole reaching the end of their natural lifetime, loitering on the wormhole to high-sec only to wonder if anyone will come back. I get my answer when the wormhole collapses in front of me.

The death of the exit to high-sec could be interesting. For a start, it gives me a new wormhole to look for, one that will be healthy, but it also means a pilot may warp to the old location not realising the wormhole is no longer there. And if a capsuleer does that in a ship that cannot cloak he will make himself a sitting duck. I resolve the new wormhole and bookmark its location, then head homewards to get a more appropriate ship for an ambush at the old location. But before I jump a Manticore stealth bomber enters the C3 through our static wormhole, cloaking and probably warping away. I imagine the other C4 dwellers are about to learn of the death of the wormhole.

I loiter on the K162 for a while, knowing that I have little chance of catching a cloaking Manticore but even less so if I have to deactivate my cloak first, so hoping to jump behind him instead. As expected he returns, jumps, and easily evades my Tengu, my strategic cruiser hardly agile enough to chase the smaller ship. But I follow him back to the K162 in our system and watch him jump, waiting for long enough to see a Buzzard covert operations boat come back this way and through to the C3, no doubt to scan for the new exit himself. And as he's jumped out, he too will be coming back, and that is more than enough motivation for me to plant my Malediction interceptor on our wormhole in wait.

And so I wait, and wait, and wait. There were few signatures in the C3 to start with, and he must have had them mapped already. I can't believe it's taking this long to resolve one wormhole. There is another possibility, in that he's bringing back company with him, another pilot who got caught by the collapsed connection, which could pose a problem for me, depending on what ship he's in. I wait a little longer but it's a lot of sitting around with no guarantee of action, let alone a kill, so I decide to be disruptive in a different way. I swap the interceptor for my Widow black ops ship and start pushing it through our static wormhole, hoping to collapse it to isolate the absent pilots again.

I manage one trip in my Widow before I'm kicking myself. Holding cloaked on the wormhole for polarisation effects to dissipate, the wormhole flares and the Buzzard returns. There is less I can do in my Widow than the Tengu, despite getting lucky against a Buzzard once, and I merely hold my position and watch the scout cloak as he aligns to warp home. And a second ship appears, one I'm not immediately familiar with, but the Maulus frigate would probably have been caught and melted by my Malediction had I waited maybe five more minutes. You never can tell, though. Never mind, one more return trip through the wormhole in my Widow destabilises it, which I have to take as being productive enough for this evening. Scanning, waiting, and missing my target. It's great to be home again.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, malediction, manticore, maulus, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, reaper, rifter, tengu, w-space, widow

Almost getting home safely

I call on Constance again to get me home. She finds the home system clear of all but our static wormhole today, and all looks good for the return journey until she jumps through to the class 3 w-space system beyond. The C3 is familiar to me, having visited it four months ago, and it supposedly has an exit to null-sec k-space, which is unlikely to offer a convenient way home. But Constance knows that systems can hold more than one wormhole and scans anyway, hoping to find an extra connection that could lead to a better route.

Sure enough, out of the bundle of signatures in the system, a second wormhole is found almost immediately after the first, neither of them looking much like a null-sec connection from their return strengths. A third wormhole reveals itself too, which should give enough options for now, and Constance warps to each in turn to see what she's found. Two of the wormholes are outbound connections to class 3 w-space and both reaching the end of their natural lifetime, and as Constance is my lifeline to the home system I don't want to risk her getting isolated. The third wormhole is what looks to be a static exit to low-sec empire space. It seems I mislabelled this system in my notes, particularly as Fin later confirms the exit from her own records.

Constance jumps out of the C3 to find herself in the Genesis region, in a one-system low-sec island only eleven hops from where I am currently basing myself. That's pretty good, and she makes the one jump to high-sec to drop off the bookmarks heading home, although she has already given me the signature identifiers to allow scanning my way home as a safety measure. Bookmarks contracted, Constance heads back to w-space and hides herself away once more, and I undock my Tengu strategic cruiser to make the relatively short journey homewards.

The passage is uneventful, and I collect the bookmarks and jump in to low-sec to head towards w-space. I am feeling safe in my covert configuration, letting me cloak and warp cloaked, but Fin is bringing her Tengu fitted for Sleeper combat and would like a scout to guide her in to low-sec. I can do that, and loiter a short distance off the stargate in the low-sec system, noting arrivals and pilots currently in the system. There is a little activity here and there, but no combat and no ships lingering on the gate itself. As Fin prepares to jump I call her in, the gate still clear. But just as she jumps a Tempest battleship, glowing with what could be boosted sensor systems, warps in almost preternaturally.

Fin tries to warp clear before the battleship can gain a positive lock, but is snared and held in place, warp engines disrupted. A Harbinger arrives to add to the firepower, and a second battlecruiser appears soon after the first. I crawl closer, holding my cloak for now, knowing that my short-range launchers will be entirely ineffective out here, but I know I need to help Fin. To hit with my missiles I would have to get close enough to be in range of warp disruption effects, and I realise that my engaging would almost ensure my own ship's destruction. This is because if I fired any shots at the other ships an aggression timer would be activated that stargates use to limit piratical traffic and prevent me jumping clear.

Unfortunately, I am not quick enough to alert Fin to the danger of shooting back. She panics, shield dipping to dangerous levels as her webbed Tengu tries desperately to reach the stargate. And w-space has spoilt us, being conditioned to jump through wormholes with far less restrictions, and it is only too late that we realise we are not dealing with Sleeper technology here. It is also too late for me to realise my primary aim was to help Fin get home, not to sit on my backside and watch her get shot. I should have gone back to w-space, swapped the Tengu for a Falcon recon ship, and sat some distance off the stargate ready to use my ECM systems in case of such an ambush. Instead I watch helplessly as another of our strategic cruisers explodes.

At least Fin's pod gets away cleanly, warping to the wormhole and getting to our tower safely. But getting home is small consolation when the journey started in a ship that thankfully survived the ambush that got us stuck out in empire space in the first place. We've got used to mostly empty space, I think. Clearly the pirates had a scout in the high-sec systems either side of the low-sec island and were primed to warp in when a juicy target presented itself, and we should have been prepared for this. But we're home now, if a little deflated, and hopefully can get back in to the swing of normal operations again, pushing our paranoia levels suitably high once more.

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Tags: constance sokolov, eve online, harbinger, low-sec, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, tempest, tengu, w-space

Staying out for a salvager

Intelligence puts our lingering hostiles out of our home w-space system, and hopefully it is safe to go back. But getting home is not as simple as scanning from empire space, because to reach a specific w-space system you need to scan from the inside out. This is why Constance is sitting undisturbed in her Buzzard covert operations boat in our home system, and I wake her up to scan an exit for me to return through. And scanning looks to be pretty simple again, a wormhole found on the outskirts of our system as a first hit.

Warping to the wormhole doesn't put Constance at a connection to class 3 w-space, though, instead she is staring in to the blister of a K162 from class 6 w-space. Although not an impediment to returning home, the connection to the C6 may result in my sitting inside our shields for the rest of the evening, avoiding any large fleet the C6 potentially holds. Instead of going home I thank Constance and let her get back to watching vids, as I spend another day out in empire space.

As it is in w-space, my routine begins by scanning the system I'm in. Unlike w-space, there is no guarantee of finding a wormhole, and I have to jump to and scan four systems before I find my first wormhole of the evening, and even this one is reaching the end of its natural lifetime. Being in a combat scanning boat and facing a K162 coming from class 2 w-space I am happy to jump through the EOL wormhole to take a look in the system. After all, this is probably one of the C2's static wormholes and, as it leads out to high-sec empire space, should it collapse it will be replaced by another I can resolve and exit through.

It looks like my choice to enter the system could prove fruitful, as already my directional scanner is showing me an Abaddon battleship in the system with some Sleeper wrecks. A passive scan and tight d-scan beam finds the anomaly easily enough and, hullo, a Noctis salvager is warping in already. I align to the anomaly and start updating d-scan regularly, watching for signs of the Abaddon leaving. My strategic cruiser doesn't have the high alpha strike of a stealth bomber, and although I could probably survive a battleship's attentions long enough to pop a Noctis, and no doubt outrun it should it also have a warp disruptor fitted, I haven't had this Tengu long and would rather not challenge it quite yet.

My luck is in. First the Abaddon's drones disappear from d-scan, then the battleship itself warps out of the anomaly, all noted from d-scan. Already aligned, I am in warp to the anomaly immediately, hoping to strike before the efficient salvaging ship can finish and exit itself. I hold my cloak until almost out of warp, only doing so when confirming that I am already close enough to engage the Noctis, revealing myself as my warp engines cut out. Within seconds the Noctis is locked, pointed, and missiles are slamming in to its hull. The pilot's pod warps through the exploding hull, easily evading my Tengu's relatively sluggish targeting systems, and I am left surrounded by wrecks.

I ambushed the salvager a little too quickly, before he'd really got started, leaving me nothing to loot from the wreck of the Noctis. I consider grabbing some of the loot from the Sleeper wrecks but realise that this is a C2 system and it's perhaps not worth the effort, particularly if a retaliatory strike could be heading my way. I haven't even stopped to look around this system yet, only entering a couple of minutes ago, so I re-activate my cloak and warp off to find the local tower. And at the tower is the escaped pod, a second Noctis, and a Purifier stealth bomber. A Drake battlecruiser warps in seconds after I arrive, perhaps returning from looking for me.

The Purifier and Drake warp out, the other Noctis not being used, and it looks to me like the battlecruiser will be salvaging with a little extra protection from the stealth bomber. That's cool, I'm more than happy with my little hit-and-run, and head back to the wormhole to return to empire space. Shortly after I jump out the wormhole flares behind me, and I wait to see a shuttle appear before returning directly to the C2. I imagine he just came to check that I was out of their system, which he could confirm with my presence in the high-sec system's local communication channel.

I leave the wormhole behind me as I warp to the first stargate on the short trip back to my mission base, another successful sortie in my scanning Tengu complete. And with any luck this will be the last night I spend in dock, as I will again look to return to the home w-space system tomorrow. It's been a productive break out in empire space, but it's just not the same as operating from a tower in w-space with my friends.

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Tags: abaddon, buzzard, constance sokolov, drake, eve online, mmorpg, noctis, penny ibramovic, purifier, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space