Sleeper bookends

What news? 'Nada.' Fin's monitoring the C3 and reports zero activity, and my heading in the other direction sees one connection to be reaching the end of its natural lifetime, so I leave it alone. We may as well try to be productive and, despite there being no anomalies in the C3, there is a magnetometric site we can plunder. Fin and I clear it easily in our twin Tengu strategic cruisers, but returning home to get a salvager and analyser to realise our profit sees an Iteron hauler and Imicus frigate on d-scan, the new ships meaning new pilots. Fin gets an analyser boat out to the C3 to get the expensive loot home whilst I reconnoitre the local tower in my stealth bomber, to watch for movements against us.

Being out of range of the directional scanner, the locals may not even know we're here, which is handy. Fin recovers all the Sleeper artefacts and returns to loot and salvage the wrecks, all without the two piloted ships making a move. I pass the time by starting a rumour that Mick has turned spy against us, thanks to the corporation-wide notification that our tower was attacked, and I'm perhaps a little too credible in my claims. There is talk about locking down our hangars to prevent access and putting him on a shoot-on-sight list. I'm sure he'll see the funny side. And he turns up to help Fin with the last of the salvage, but it's just as likely he is just stealing our loots. On a more serious note, the Iteron pilot swaps to a Drake battlecruiser, but only after the magnetometric site loot is all returned to our tower.

It's a fake-out! I swapped my view to look at the Drake instead of the Iteron, but the pilot swaps back and initiates warp. It's not possible to 'look at' a ship in or entering warp and I cannot get a accurate bearing on the Iteron's vector, but luckily the two ships needed to be close for the pilot to switch and I can make a good guess at where he's going. I push my Manticore in to warp towards what I think is the target customs office. And dropping out of warp sees the Iteron has indeed come here. I decloak, lock, and start shooting the Iteron, disrupting its warp engines to prevent it fleeing. As the armour drops rapidly under torpedo fire I try to bump the ship to disorientate the pilot moments before his pod is ejected in to space, but it's not quite enough.

I don't lock the pod in time to give me another corpse to scoop, and in frustration—or incompetence, I'm not sure which—I shoot the wreck of the Iteron before I even see what loot survives in its hold. I assume it was empty anyway, given that this was its first trip to a customs office and I attacked before it had time to transfer planet goo to its hold. But I am wrong, as apparently I destroyed six command centres along with the ship. I have no idea what they were doing in the hold, however. And now we may have repercussions from my unprovoked assault, as the two local pilots swap to Drakes.

Mick and Fin are up for a scrap and are getting ready to engage whatever comes. But I get a bit panicky and tell them to run when a Devoter heavy interdictor appears on d-scan, probably arriving at the second tower, and its quick disappearance is a concern. I do my best to monitor both towers and see that the Devoter pilot isn't being sneaky or threatening, merely having connection issues. And without him the Drakes are not leaving their tower either, although whether they would or not with a HIC for company can't be determined. Either way, we're not getting a fight. We'd better collapse our wormhole if we want to continue being productive this evening, so that we aren't waiting for the Drakes who aren't coming anyway, whilst isolating ourselves from any sneaky retaliatory ambush if we try to shoot more Sleepers.

The collapse of our static wormhole is smooth, a simple scan of our system also confirming no new K162s connecting in to us. We finish the evening by tackling one of the radar sites in our home system, taking three remote-repair Tengus in for some spider-tanking Sleeper combat. 'Let's start with the hard ones', says Mick, making me wonder if I should have started that rumour about him being a traitor. But the harder radar site rewards us immediately with a deserted Talocan cruiser, which is something I haven't seen in a while. And our only real problem with clearing the radar site is having to hack one of the databanks to initiate the third wave of Sleepers, but a simple reconfiguration of one of our Tengus gets that done without compromising our fleet.

We salvage and hack, bringing home another hundred and fifty million ISK in salvage and loot, plus the hull and databank loot, to go along with the hundred and thirty million ISK plus artefacts from the earlier magnetometric site. It's turned out to be quite a good evening overall.

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Tags: devoter, drake, eve online, imicus, iteron, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Scouting for targets

It looks like our tower is under attack! A rather puny attack against one gun, but it's still damage inflicted on us. This means war. After which many used to buy bulk ammo online to keep themselves safe.Or maybe it means Mick was testing his tower defence skills, where the only available target for his gun was another gun. I think I can step down to puce alert and go looking for action. Mick's almost scanned everything in our current w-space constellation and reports it to contain nothing interesting, but me and my Buzzard covert operations boat will take a look anyway.

My first stop is class 4 w-space through a K162 wormhole at home, but I pass through this empty and unoccupied system to jump through another K162. This second C4 is occupied and vast, some 170 AU across, which takes a while to traverse. Although large the system is rather sparse, the single signature being the wormhole leading homewards and accompanied by a mere four anomalies. There is also a ship, which Mick says wasn't there earlier, and I warp around the four towers to find the Nightmare faction battleship piloted but inert inside one of them. As he's not going anywhere I do, making the two jumps to arrive back in the home system.

I pick up a bunch of bookmarks that Mick has copied to our shared can and warp off in the other direction, through our static wormhole. Two towers and no ships are in the class 3 system, apparently belonging to a 'fighting miner corporation', which sounds positive. I start looking for some mining sites to bookmark when a Nighthawk command ship appears on my combat scanning probes, causing me to pause to see what the pilot will do. Scan, apparently. Using a command ship to scan is an odd choice, but the Nighthawk warps out of the tower, seemingly launches probes, then returns inside the force field.

A Nighthawk is a decent target, if rather formidable in our pulsar system. When he warps off in the direction of the C3's static exit to low-sec empire space, drops off my directional scanner, only to reappear a minute later, it seems likely that he will pay our home system a visit once he finds that too. Mick suits up in a battleship as a welcoming party, but we'll probably need more damage than just that, as well as a scout so that we aren't sitting on the wormhole waiting for a pilot who's gone elsewhere. As luck would have it, as I jump home and swap ships to add to Mick's firepower, glorious leader Fin turns up.

We swap ships around, ending up with Fin and I on our wormhole in combat ships and Mick in his cloaky Loki strategic cruiser to find out what the Nighthawk is up to. Probes are still visible in the C3 but no Nighthawk, and the low-sec system is empty of our target too. There may be an Anathema cov-ops in the C3 and Fin and I swap ships again to have a heavy interdictor and interceptor waiting for it, but it's all in vain. A look in the opposite direction sees the Nightmare still stationary, and by now my tummy's rumbling. Mick returns to take a break, and I follow his lead to get some food. Maybe there will be some action later.

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Tags: anathema, buzzard, eve online, loki, mmorpg, nighthawk, nightmare, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Isolated Sleeper combat

There is movement afoot in a nearby class 4 w-space system. An Anathema covert operations boat may be headed my way, spotted by glorious leader Fin sitting on the K162 connection between our neighbouring C3 and the C4. She has scouted the system and seen a couple of combat ships and another cov-ops piloted at the tower in the C4, but nothing more than a few ship movements since the earlier combat I detected. A pod jumps through to the C3 and evades Fin's grasp, but if it headed out to empire space naked then maybe it will be back in a ship that we can engage.

Fin returns home to swap her Buzzard cov-ops for a cloaking Onyx heavy interdictor, looking to make use of its warp bubble to catch unwary ship passages. I board my trusty Manticore stealth bomber, always my favourite ship when I'm not sure what else would work, and jump to the C3 to lurk and scout. It looked like the C4 dwellers were headed the way of the C3's static connection to low-sec empire space, and I jump through it to make use of the transparent local channel, looking for pilots of the C4 corporation before they get to the wormhole.

No one of interest is in low-sec space with me, but a Buzzard appears in the C3 before presumably cloaking. Maybe we're monitoring the wrong wormhole and our targets are using the connection to high-sec, which would make more sense and also make an ambush a little more difficult. Rather than stopping the ships on the exit we could trap them on their own wormhole, I suppose, but with a Drake battlecruiser and Legion strategic cruiser available at their tower we wouldn't have much time to engage and clear the pocket before we are potentially overwhelmed.

The appearance and subsequent disappearance at an unknown location of a Navy Issue Scorpion battleship in the C3 gives me enough of a bad feeling that I abort our embryonic operation at the 'I have a headache' stage. It's probably best that we head home and collapse our wormhole if we want to be productive. Mind you, the presence of core probes in our home system is not encouraging, particularly as they are first spotted when Fin is already warping to the wormhole in her Orca industrial command ship, but there is not much we can do about it now except continue.

Space remains clear as the Orca leaves our home system and returns. A second trip is similarly uneventful, making us suspect the scout to be from a new wormhole connecting to us than from already mapped w-space. Our wormhole is now critically unstable, on the verge of collapse, and Fin makes use of another piece of shared advice to help collapse wormholes and isolate ourselves. Refitting the Onyx heavy interdictor lets her exit the system a svelte 352 tonnes and return at 65 kilotonnes, enough to ensure safe passage out and collapsing the wormhole coming back. Job's a good 'un.

I scan our system and see no sign of a new wormhole, making me wonder where the scout was from, but he seemed to leave without us noticing as the only probes in the system are now my own. I resolve our new static wormhole and jump through to explore more class 3 w-space. My directional scanner is clear of any ships or structures, and I launch probes and perform a blanket scan. Before they give me any result I update my notes and see that we were here only six weeks ago, giving us an occupied system with a static exit to low-sec. Fin jumps in and, as I have two towers listed, we pick one each to reconnoitre.

I find an on-line but empty tower, Fin an unpiloted Noctis salvager at the second on-line tower. That matches with the single ship seen on my blanket scan of the system, but despite being the only two capsuleers we know about here Fin's Buzzard still explodes. It seems she became unintentionally decloaked and a target for the tower's automatic defence systems. Oh well, accidents happen, and I only have five signatures to sift through to find out that there is only a single wormhole that we can keep closed whilst we clear some anomalies to pay for a replacement Buzzard.

There is only one of our favoured anomalies amongst the nine present, but scanning also resolved a magnetometric site which could be full of profitable artefacts and worth visiting. Combat in our Tengu strategic cruisers is straightforward, if a little haphazard in the magnetometric site, and salvaging and analysing brings home a decent haul. The loot and salvage from the Sleeper wrecks covers the cost of the Buzzard nicely, and we have a bunch of artefacts as pure profit to end the evening on a positive note.

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Tags: anathema, buzzard, drake, eve online, legion, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, onyx, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, scorpion, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Scanning around battlecruisers

Spurred by recent success I am out scanning early again. I am hoping that some preliminary legwork will let me roam freely a little later, hopefully catching pilots by surprise, but it looks like I may do that sooner than expected. Jumping in to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system sees on my directional scanner ships, drones, and cans. The jet-cans make me wonder if the Prophecy and Drake are for some reason harvesting gas, but adjusting d-scan reveals Sleeper wrecks and it looks like the battlecruisers are in an anomaly.

There are also scanning probes in the system and within a minute of my arrival the ships disappear, making me suspect whoever is scanning has noticed the new wormhole opening in to the system. They aren't entirely scared away, however, as a third battlecruiser returns with the other two, the Prophecy now flying with two Drakes. I can't take these ships alone, so I'm looking for a salvager will fly in behind them.

I warp around to see if I can launch my own scanning probes, but the only place in the system I can decloak out of d-scan range of the ships is around the planet where the tower is anchored to one of the moons. There may be no ships here but I'd prefer to be sure of being unnoticed. I'll stick with a passive scan for now and trust the ships are in a basic anomaly.

My scan returns the anomalies in the system, and the ships and wrecks are indeed in one of them, but I don't warp there to reconnoitre the site just yet. I may as well return home to get my stealth bomber, which will let me move around just as covertly and strike opportunistically. But a niggling concern makes me falter just shy of our wormhole, and I check d-scan again. As I thought, the number of Sleeper wrecks isn't increasing.

That the wrecks aren't stacking up likely means that the ships are looting and salvaging as they fight, and that means there will be no salvager to ambush. I hold for another minute to check d-scan again, noticing that one wreck is replaced by another, one salvaged and one created from a Sleeper ship. I have no shot here. I may as well hang around and scan the system, which I can do openly with no concern for sending the ships scurrying home. I could even be a disruptive influence this way, even without shooting one of them.

The ships don't scatter and it is only now that I consider that they may not be local. With only ten signatures to sort through it doesn't take long to resolve three wormholes. I imagine the capsuleers have come from class 4 w-space beyond one of the K162s, and probably not the K162 coming from high-sec empire space, or the system's static connection to low-sec. Mind you, battlecruisers seem like light fare for C4 occupants, but maybe they are bringing their cheaper ships to fight abroad.

The ships have gone now, having finished clearing the anomaly and leaving only one more in the system, and scanning probes are out in force in this C3. I check the destination systems of the two exit wormholes but don't wander in to the C4. If I were them I'd have a heavy interdictor and interceptor waiting for me, so I simply leave them looking for me by heading home and taking a break for now. Maybe there will be action I can participate in later.

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

Finishing with a Ferox

Stimulated from some stealth bomber kills we head back home to explore the new w-space system connecting in to us, looking for more action. Mick spotted a scout in the class 2 system earlier and if he's still out and about maybe we can catch him. Better still, we can hunt the Ferox battlecruiser not at the tower in the C2. The addition of a jet-can makes it look like the Ferox is harvesting gas, which should make him a soft target. Or, at least, softer than normal. Glorious leader Fin boards an Onyx heavy interdictor for pod capturing, I remain in my Manticore stealth bomber for its decent firepower, and whilst we sit on the wormhole patiently Mick is in the C2 ready to scan in his Arazu recon ship.

Before scanning probes can be positioned around the Ferox the battlecruiser is gone. It seems a bit of an anticlimax, but we haven't been spotted. The pilot swaps to an Iteron hauler at his tower and warps out again. Mick asks if he should scan the hauler, hearing a resounding 'yes' from both me and Fin, and he continues trying to get a bearing. But, again, the fiddly process of covert scanning takes a little too long, the Iteron warping back to the tower and leaving us no target. Maybe I am too optimistic from our recent engagements but I won't give up straight away. It's possible the Ferox merely filled up a can and wanted to recover it to a hangar before continuing. Even if he sucked up the entire cloud, it's possible that his peculiar gas fetish hasn't been fulfilled and he will find another ladar site in which to continue. We hold on the wormhole, Mick stays in the C2, and we wait.

'Ferox!' Oh yeah, he's coming back, and a little more waiting sees a new jet-can appearing. Now seems like the best time to scan, as the pilot may have checked his directional scanner when his gas harvesters completed their cycle and after jetting the gas to the can, giving us a short window where he may be complacent. Mick's probes are in place, he warps back to the wormhole, and calls us to jump in to the system. We jump, he scans, and we're led in warp to the ladar site.

Our ships drop on top of the Ferox and Fin activates the Onyx's warp bubble, trapping us all. Mick retreats to a safer distance, confident in his target damping modules and not wanting to be trapped, whereas I get close and hug the Ferox for a picture opportunity. It is only when the battlecruiser launches its combat drones that I realise being so close may not be the best idea, but the drones head towards our Arazu, ignoring the Manticore's tin foil hull despite my torpedoes damaging his ship more than my two companions combined. It's good that I am doing this damage too, as the Ferox has a pretty hefty tank on it. Thankfully, once we finally blast through the shield both the armour and structure disintegrate quickly, and the Ferox explodes.

The pod can't escape the Onyx's bubble and it is simple to lock and shoot it to get our fourth corpse of the day. We scoop, loot, and shoot, and destroy the low-value gas too, before clearing the pocket. To the victors go the ship configurations, and we can see the core defence field purger rigs, shield power relays, and shield extenders that comprised the Ferox's impressive tank. It wasn't quite enough, I suppose. Mick continues his scan of this C2 whilst here and resolves the second static connection, an exit to high-sec empire space. Checking the exit puts me in Niarja in the Domain region, a high-traffic chokepoint and fairly convenient location. There are fifty pilots in the system as I loiter by the wormhole and, hullo, our recently podded Ferox pilot is one of them.

I jump back to the C2 before the returning pilot gets to the wormhole, so that he is not spooked by a second flare when I follow home, and Fin warps the Onyx to my position. The HIC has a cloaking device fitted, which is vital in this case as an ambush on a high-sec connection will rely on the victim unwittingly shedding his session change cloak early, or he'll simply wait until he can jump straight back out to safety. Then again, maybe he saw me in the local communication channel too and is being wary. Or, says Fin, 'he might have been passing through to Jita', perhaps to pick up a new ship. I wonder how long that will take.

We wait for a while, certainly many times longer than it takes to warp from a stargate to a wormhole, and it doesn't look like he's returning. We've had time to think about our strategy and I have backed off to bombing range, the HIC easily able to withstand a single blast, and Fin is sitting cloaked nearly on the wormhole, primed to activate the warp bubble when a ship decloaks. It has been a while, though, probably long enough to buy and fit a new ship, we should think about going flare! It's impeccable timing from our friend, if it is him, and we get ready.

As suspected, the returning pilot thinks the system is clear and warps almost immediately after jumping in, before his session change timer has expired, trapping him in the system at least for a short while. We have to see if we can make it count, and against a Brutix battlecruiser, the ship he's brought back, it's not going to be easy. As soon as he decloaks Fin does too and the warp bubble encompasses the Brutix, holding him in place. Seeing this, I decloak and launch a bomb, delaying launching torpedoes until it detonates. It's a good hit, evaporating the Brutix's shields in one blast, and Fin and I follow with missiles. But we only get one volley each before the pilot is free to jump back out to high-sec, sadly in an intact ship.

It was a good attempt at an ambush on a wormhole connecting to high-sec, and had the ship been somewhat lighter we may have got a second kill. And, I imagine, a second podding. In a way I am almost glad we didn't manage that, as it is a little more piratical than I am used to, although I imagine I wouldn't have baulked at taking the shot at the pod had it arisen. I was happy to set up the ambush, after all. But for now we leave the C2 behind us. The pilot is unlikely to return again soon, and if he does he'll be more cautious, and we are unlikely to do anything but prevent access. I'd rather get some sleep and let paranoia keep the other pilot occupied.

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Tags: arazu, brutix, eve online, ferox, iteron, manticore, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, w-space

Bomber baiting

W-space is waking up. A Mammoth podding has got me out of the doldrums, and it looks like the hauler may be just the poppadoms before the curry. A Tengu strategic cruiser has been detected on my directional scanner out in this second class 3 w-space system and Mick is coming to help me hunt it down. My Manticore stealth bomber may not be the best choice of ships for the task, but the sensor dampers on Mick's Arazu recon ship could keep me out of trouble. I am assuming we even find the Tengu, which turns out to be quite simple as he is sitting inside the shields of the local tower, but the pilot switches to a Drake battlecruiser, warps out, and disappears from d-scan.

Wondering if the Drake has headed through the static exit to low-sec empire space I jump out to take a look. It's only me in the local channel, so the Drake isn't here. Our second target is gone as quickly as he appeared. But that's okay, Mick has found a K162 in our home system coming from class 2 w-space, which could offer us new targets. I jump back from low-sec to head home when, oh hi, I see the Drake now sitting under thirty kilometres from my position. I move and cloak, and the Drake doesn't stir. With a definite target in front of me Mick comes my way instead.

Mick enters the system and warps near to the wormhole, the Drake maybe pretenaturally sensing his recon ship's arrival and cloaking as a defence. The Drake cloaked makes engaging him more difficult but maybe not impossible. Mick pushes his Arazu towards the Drake's last seen position, knowing that it can't warp cloaked and its speed will now be drastically reduced if it tries to shift position, but space is big and Mick doesn't bump the ship to decloak it. Instead the Drake decloaks voluntarily and, before we decide to engage, warps back to its tower. There he switches ships to his own Manticore and warps out and disappears from d-scan again.

Now we have a target we are confident we can pop without loss, and we plot to provoke him in to combat. I assume that the pilot has seen me enter the system and, perhaps believing I am a tourist from low-sec, is lurking once again on the exit should I raise my head again, so that's what I'll do. With Mick staying in the C3 I jump out to low-sec, pausing decloaked before jumping long enough for the presumably watching Manticore pilot to get a good look at me, as well as making me seem suitably inexperienced. In low-sec I hold on the wormhole, waiting for any potential polarisation effects to dissipate, in case I need to jump back out again, although I also realise this makes me look like I am perhaps actually doing something out here instead of purely acting as bait. And out in low-sec there is only one pilot in the system with me, and I see hide nor hair of him as I loiter.

The few minutes pass uneventfully and, polarisation effects avoided, I jump back to w-space. I hold my session change cloak and wait, but the assumed Manticore pilot doesn't reveal himself early. My session change timer ends but the cloak holds for longer, and I continue to wait. Now the Manticore strikes, perhaps believing me now to be vulnerable. He decloaks, launches a bomb, and holds station. I watch the bomb come directly towards me on the wormhole, hoping my session change cloak holds for a few seconds more, then nearly blow it in my excitement by almost moving a second before detonation. But the bomb explodes with no effect to my ship as I spring in to action, decloaking, locking, and burning towards my target.

I eschew launching my own bomb, wanting instead to close the range to ensure I can disrupt the Manticore's warp drives. Once I make myself known Mick decloaks too, his Arazu being rather better at preventing targets fleeing, being equipped with an extended point—or the 'finglonger'—and now we're fighting two versus one. Even if our two Manticores were equally matched the added punch of the Arazu is enough to turn our target to dust first. We're sharp enough to capture the ejected pod and another fresh corpse is blasted in to space for my collection. And just as we finish, and Mick is telling me that the wormhole flared during combat, a Hound stealth bomber appears.

Along with my intended target, I have apparently accidentally suckered in to an ambush the lone pilot I saw in the low-sec system. 'Get him!' I turn my Manticore around and burn towards the Hound, Mick's finglonger already stopping it from escaping, getting a positive lock and launching torpedoes as I do. The Hound tries to flee but can't, and moving away from the wormhole turns out to be a bad idea. The second stealth bomber in as many minutes explodes to our combined firepower and again we catch the poor pilot's pod. I stuff another corpse in to my hold as we loot the surviving modules, before shooting the wrecks to leave no trace.

I can safely say my perceived dry spell has ended, with what looks like ships virtually throwing themselves at me today. Good scouting and a bit of luck caught the Mammoth's return from empire space, and Mick and I coordinated our actions to successfully bait the Manticore. Having the Hound appear at such an opportune time was the icing on the cake, and also perhaps saved us some headaches of being stalked ourselves. Now that we've podded pilots from both C3s between us and k-space it's time to head homewards, as we aren't likely to see much more activity here. Luckily, we still have a class 2 w-space system to explore fully in the other direction.

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Tags: arazu, drake, eve online, hound, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, tengu, w-space

Mashing a Mammoth

Constellation mapped, it's time to take my stealth bomber out for a roam. I scanned two connected class 3 w-space systems earlier and left them alone for a little while, now I'm hoping to see some action. A Bestower in the first C3 is a good start, having not seen any ships in here previously, and warping to the tower sees the piloted hauler sitting inside the force field, maybe contemplating going to collect his planet goo. Instead he disappears, but rather than believe the opportunity missed and move on I stay where I am, anticipating a capsuleer shuffle. As if by magic, in warps a Mammoth.

The second hauler chomps a jet-can left behind by the first, which I am guessing to be bookmarks to the current wormholes, and the Mammoth warps out of the tower. Damn, I was thinking myself prepared, but despite having all the wormholes mapped I haven't orientated myself to their relative positions in the system. I hurriedly open the system map and gauge the Mammoth's vector to be towards the wormhole to C3b, which would make sense if he's using the stable exit to low-sec empire space there in preference to the static exit to null-sec in this system. I warp behind the Mammoth, aiming to drop a little short of the wormhole in case I am mistaken, but am too slow. The Mammoth is off my directional scanner and I didn't see it jump.

I can only assume the hauler is heading to low-sec and jump in to the second class 3 system. Greeted by empty space, I warp to the exit to low-sec but again miss seeing the hauler jump. He was here, d-scan showed me, but now he's gone. I hold on the wormhole pondering my best option, before taking a look in the low-sec exit. There is no one populating the local communication channel and I could wait here to get an early indication of his return to w-space, but I think my best bet is to wait on the wormhole back to C3a. There is a second exit to low-sec in C3b which the Mammoth could have used, one reaching the end of its lifetime, and although I would personally consider it reckless to use I can't make that assumption for others.

I jump back to w-space and warp to hold close to the K162 back to C3a, updating d-scan regularly. One such update sees the Tengu strategic cruiser spotted briefly earlier appear, but he's gone again and maybe without knowing I am lurking. Mick wakes up and I let him know what's happening, with the Mammoth and Tengu, and he prevaricates between bringing a heavy interdictor to help catch the Mammoth and hunting the Tengu. As he works out a suitable fitting for one of his ships the Mammoth reappears on d-scan. Game on.

The Mammoth warps from the stable low-sec connection to the wormhole I'm sitting on, flying straight through me and decloaking my Manticore. Not moving away from the direct vector between the two wormholes is a newbie mistake to have made for me, but it is inconsequential. Industrial ships are hardly agile and my being decloaked is really only the equivalent of the Grim Reaper appearing with his scythe, probably with the same element of fear involved for the intended victim. I try to gain a positive lock on the Mammoth before he jumps, in case he tries to be clever and holds the wormhole open for a lady before running in the other direction, but he doesn't wait. I follow behind as soon as his ship makes the transition between systems.

Back in his home C3 I easily lock and start shooting the hauler, glad to see this time that my target doesn't have warp core stabilisers fitted. My torpedoes gradually knock down the shields of the ship, but before I am denting the armour the wormhole flares a second time, the Mammoth jumping back to try to evade me. That's okay, I'm not polarised, and I jump back too. Now there is no escape and, as C3b holds a magnetar phenomenon, he has only quickened his demise. The Mammoth explodes, I trap the pilot's pod, and I am soon scooping a fresh corpse for my collection.

Excellent, the groundwork earlier in mapping out the constellation has paid off. I could perhaps have seen the Mammoth leave, scan, and be ready for his return anyway, and I wasn't exactly quick off the mark in chasing his exit, but having scanning already complete saved much time and uncertainty. And, like always, it is my patience that gets the kill, holding on the wormhole and waiting for the target to come to me instead of pressing for an engagememt. I loot the wreck of its surviving modules, a little disappointed that I have nothing of particular value to recover, but getting close has the dust of almost three million units of tritanium bouncing off my Manticore.

My final act is to destroy the remnants of the Mammoth, to leave no trace. I have the kill I was after, my fix as it were, and re-activate my cloak quite satisfied with the act of piracy just commited. And there be more piracy to come, arr. Not only is the evening still young but the Tengu is turning up on d-scan again, along with a Magnate frigate somewhere in the system, and I have Mick's expertise to help me catch them.

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Tags: bestower, eve online, magnate, mammoth, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, tengu, w-space

Early exploration

I'm jonesing for a kill. There has been an awful lot of w-space to explore and roam, but what little activity we've actually seen has done well to evade us and now I'm getting a little frustrated. This isn't good, as the tension is making me a little impatient and probably trying to press for combat, whereas the rational side of me knows that patience has been one of my biggest assets in successful encounters. Even so, I am up early and out scanning our constellation, hoping to find occupied and empty systems which I can map thoroughly for later ambushes. If I can know where potential targets are going before they do I can stay one step ahead.

Our neighbouring class 3 w-space system looks like it has potential the moment I check my directional scanner, but sadly the three Ogre II drones are by themselves in space. My notes list occupation from seven months ago but all I find is an off-line tower with incapacitated defences. I suspect the static exit to null-sec k-space worked against this corporation at some point, and now the C3 is empty. I launch probes and scan, picking up nine anomalies, seven signatures, and the three drones, which I resolve and scoop for our own use.

An empty and unoccupied system is an unfortunate start to the day but I am not undeterred yet, the null-sec connection I'm looking for perhaps offering further wormholes to find. In fact, a rather chubby signature turns out to be an unexpected wormhole which, in case it is an outbound connection, I leave unvisited until I have resolved the rest of the signatures here. I find the weaker-strength static connection and ignore some rocks and gas, then warp to see what turns out to be an N968 wormhole, a wormhole to further class 3 w-space. This could be good. I jump through to continue exploring.

I'm spat out over eight kilometres from the wormhole, which is just dandy for remaining covert. I don't really need to be too careful right now, as even though there is a tower on scan there are no ships to go with it, many capsuleers probably still brunching. Launching probes shows me another twelve anomalies, which I bookmark for later reference, and a mere five signatures to resolve. The tower here is on-line too, so I resolve each signature as a site of potential ambush for future targets. I hope my optimism isn't going to be horribly dashed again.

I resolve and bookmark a gravimetric site, wormhole, second wormhole, magnetometric site, and is that a new signature? The fifth signature is the K162 heading back to C3a, and I'm sure there were only five signatures in the system and that I can count accurately when it involves only one hand. Sure enough, the signature is new and a wormhole, perhaps the most overt sign of activity so far. Instead, I find myself warping to the system's static exit to low-sec empire space and, as I suspect, warping to one of the previous two bookmarked deadspace signatures places me in empty space, the previous static exit having died during my scannning. The actual second wormhole is a K162 coming in from low-sec and although reaching the end of its natural lifetime is not actually dead.

The w-space constellation stops early, which actually makes a nice change from recent expedititions that almost had us resorting to cannibalism on the long journey home. I get the low-sec exit systems for reference and find myself in Molden Heath, which may offer opportunity later, and perhaps a bit of ratting now. At least there is one occupied w-space system to, um, I need to check something first. As I head homewards I punch d-scan in the first C3, sitting on the wormhole to the second, and see what looks like the defences on a second tower in here. I thought I saw something different on a routine check before I jumped out, but wanted to scan C3b first. Now I can confirm that C3a is occupied too, which is a poor oversight to have made, but one I have corrected, and there are two occupied w-space systems to hunt in later.

To let off a little steam, and continue to recover my security status, I take a Drake battlecruiser out to low-sec through C3b and indulge in a bit of ratting. It is only me in the system, making it fairly relaxing, and I pop rats for a little while before turning around once core scanning probes appear on d-scan. There is one other pilot in the system now and I am pretty sure he's in a Cheetah, but I'll leave him to find the wormhole and maybe get comfortable before I come back to crush him mercilessly. The Tengu strategic cruiser I spot in C3b, which d-scan places at the tower, can also wait for now. I've done the legwork, I am taking a break. I jump back to a quiet C3a as the Tengu disappears from scan, and warp and jump home to take a break. With any luck, when I return later I won't be alone in space.

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Tags: cheetah, drake, eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Dodging Dominix

Lots of ships could mean activity, but most of them are merely parked. A new class 3 w-space system to explore holds a Brutix battlecruiser, Buzzard covert operations boat, three Dominix battleships, a Drake battlecruiser, two Raven battleships, a Scorpion battleship, and a Scythe cruiser for Mick to see on his directional scanner. Quite a bevy of ships, and all but the Buzzard and Brutix are found to be empty once he locates the local tower. He also sees scanning probes on d-scan, sending me scurrying in an interceptor to our static wormhole in case the scout pays us a visit.

The Buzzard warps out of the tower and I get ready to intercept him, now accompanied by glorious leader Fin in an Onyx heavy interdictor, but it returns to the tower without jumping through to say hello. He doesn't sit still at the tower, though, warping away again not quite towards a planet. Mick suspects he's gone to a wormhole in the system, one he returns from soon enough and, back at the tower, swaps the cov-ops for a battleship. The Dominix warps away and disappears from d-scan, giving Mick a window to scan for the exit he's using. And with a battleship for a target I swap ships myself, boarding my Legion strategic cruiser back at our tower before returning to loiter on our wormhole.

The Dominix reappears on d-scan before Mick has resolved the exit but is gone again, and now he has probably seen our own scanning probes in the system. A wormhole presents itself to Mick's probes, and despite it being an outbound connection to class 3 w-space Mick doesn't think it is the link the Dominix is using. Further scanning reveals a second wormhole the Dominix wasn't going to, but a third in what looks to be roughly the right area. A fourth wormhole leading to another class 3 system is joined by a fifth, an outbound link to class 5 w-space.

We've certainly been experiencing some connected w-space recently, and today's nexus of a C3 perhaps explains why the locals haven't explored through our wormhole, as they probably haven't found us amongst the noise. 'I wager they have no idea where I came from', Mick says, with the wealth of wormholes disguising anyone's entrance in to the system.

'At this point', Fin replies, 'even I do not know where you came from'. Let's just hope Mick can find his way home when the time comes. He finishes scanning by finally resolving the system's static wormhole, naturally an exit to low-sec empire space. The Dominix is whizzing about the system again and now that Mick has all the connections mapped he sees that the pilot is hopping between wormholes, but we can't really say why at the moment. It's possible he is trying to collapse some of the connections, only not visiting ours because he doesn't know it's here.

If the Dominix jumps in to our welcoming wagon we probably need a bit more firepower. Fin swaps the Onyx for a Raven battleship, which should be enough with my Legion to strip the Dominix to its hull. And Mick has followed the target to an outbound C5 connection and seen him jump, calling Fin and myself in to the system to warp to his position. If the Dominix won't come to us, we will go to him. As we are in warp the battleship returns from the C5 and Mick gains a positive target lock, only to see the ship warp off anyway. We give chase, bump in to him again on a connection to class 4 w-space, and all three of us lock and shoot the Dominix this time.

Still it's not enough. The Dominix warps clear, its pilot saying 'lol you guys' in the local channel, clearly amused by our antics. It looks like we guessed poorly, assuming the battleship would be fully armed and armoured, instead it choosing to compromise its defences to stabilise its warp core as far as possible. Had we suspected this we could have kept Fin in the Onyx, its warp bubble preventing even a heavily stabilised ship from warping clear. And even though the Dominix pilot is confident in evading our current fleet he knows that if we have a HIC we'll field one, and that we can probably trace where he goes. We have no target here now, and with the late hour we head home for the night, another ship slipped through our fingers.

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Tags: brutix, buzzard, dominix, drake, eve online, legion, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, raven, scorpion, scythe, w-space

Too much space, not enough stupid

Like day-old bread, the bookmarks in our shared can have gone stale. Instead of having an easy ride to explore w-space I first need to scan, which thankfully our sparse system makes easy. I resolve our static wormhole and note that no other connections are present at home, before jumping through to explore today's constellation. My directional scanner shows no occupation or ships, so I launch probes and blanket the system. The initial scan shows no ships either, so I can filter through the mere seven signatures to look for further wormholes whilst warping around to find the tower I now know is here.

As I resolve the class 3 w-space system's static exit to low-sec empire space, Mick arrives and catches up to join me in scanning. There may not be much left to do, though, as the exit wormhole is reaching the end of its natural lifetime, not even offering an empire system to roam or scan. But a second wormhole here is interesting, even more so that it leads to further class 3 w-space. Mick jumps onwards and, when he reports no ships in the system, I follow. C3b is occupied, just empty at the moment, and we combine our efforts to scan through the fifteen signatures.

A static exit to high-sec looks like all we will find in this second C3, until Mick locates two more wormholes on top of each other. And by 'on top of each other', he really means that, and he's just kidding about there being two wormholes. What we actually have are two deadspace signatures for the same wormhole, which is a little peculiar. Peculiar doesn't matter, we have an outbound connection to class 5 w-space to explore beyond. Mick goes ahead but I jump out to high-sec to get the exit system first as a safety precaution.

I don't think I hear Mick correctly. He's told me that there are twenty-one on-line towers in that C5. I understand that some corporations anchor cheap towers to all the unused moons in an occupied system to prevent usurpers gaining a quick foothold, but on-line towers need fuel to stay active and supplying over twenty of them in a system must be a logistics nightmare. He's not imagining it, of course, and there are twenty-one force fields visible on d-scan. They're not all new either, as I was last in this C5 some eight months ago, where I have seventeen towers listed in my notes. I don't think I'll bother confirming their locations now, or finding the new ones, particularly as Mick has discovered that the occupants are blue to us. At least we can scan and pass through here without hassle.

The C5 turns out to be well-maintained by the locals, with only one site of specific Sleeper interest in the system. There are eight signatures in total, however, which means we find seven wormholes, which is quite a few even if we're including the K162 heading back the way we came. Mick scans a K162 coming in from null-sec k-space, an outbound connection to null-sec, a K162 from class 4 w-space, two K162s from class 5 w-space, and the system's static connection to class 5 w-space, which is reaching the end of its life. That's a lot to explore, and Mick picks the C4 to jump in to first.

I head back home. Glorious leader Fin has arrived and I can copy the bookmarks so she can come and join us. But rather than take back scanning boats we'll board stealth bombers instead. Mick can continue to scan and scout, whilst Fin and I can provide firepower if we see any targets, so we don't have any delay in having to make several jumps home and back to change ships. I don't think we'll go much deeper than our current mapped constellation anyway. We're not going deeper in the direction of the C4, that's for sure, as it is unoccupied and lacks another K162, perhaps whoever opened the first link having collapsed it already. Mick returns to C5a to pick another wormhole to jump through.

C5d is the next choice for us. Again, the system is unoccupied, but there is a K162 present. Three, in fact. The first two come in from null-sec, deflating our spirits a little, but the third is from class 4 w-space and definitely worth exploring. A Chimera carrier and Tengu strategic cruiser are on d-scan in the C4, both turning out to be at a local tower and only the Tengu piloted. Fin volunteers to keep a watch on him in case he moves, as Mick backtracks to C5a and then pushes in to C5c. This system is occupied but empty, becoming something of a theme of the evening, and the only other connection to be found comes in from null-sec again.

There is almost no one around, the only piloted ship we've seen still sitting stationary inside his tower's shields, and most of our links lead to null-sec. We're going home. It comes as a pleasant surprise, after finding nothing ahead of us, for Mick to see a Tengu out and about in our neighbouring system, C3a. He's shooting Sleepers too, although perhaps in a radar site that we don't have bookmarked. That's easy enough to remedy, given a little time and careful positioning of probes, the only problem being that Fin and I are the wrong side of home to swap ships, and the wormhole connecting C3a to C3b is in d-scan range of the Tengu. But unless the pilot is updating d-scan every two seconds we should be able to sneak in with our bombers, and I jump in to the system, move away from the wormhole, and cloak, ready to continue homewards to warm up a Legion strategic cruiser for combat.

It turns out the Tengu pilot is being rather vigilant with d-scan, saying hello in the local channel to both Mick's Loki stratetic cruiser and my Manticore. He bugs out from his Sleeper shooting to swap in to a Buzzard covert operations boat, leaving us with no one to shoot. We could loiter a bit longer and hope he returns to his Sleeper slaying, but given his keen watch of d-scan to spot us entering the system it seems unlikely he'll make a target of himself. Instead we simply head home and collapse our wormhole, disconnecting ourselves from another extended w-space constellation, albeit one with little current activity. Maybe the next connection will offer us better opportunity.

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Tags: buzzard, chimera, eve online, legion, loki, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space