Sleepers and rats

Home, C3, low. The constellation is nice and simple today, and I don't even need to scan it myself. Bookmarks have been left in our shared can and I copy they to my nav-comp, but am told that the class 3 w-space system is boring. I generally like to see for myself, jumping to our neighbouring system to indeed find little of interest. It's my third visit to this system, but the tower has been moved from its previous position and there is no one home at the moment. I exit to low-sec empire space to look for any sign of life but only jump in to an empty system, obvious from the local channel. Even scanning reveals nothing of interest, a solo anomaly and the K162 being the only signatures in the system, and I head home.

A deathly quiet w-space system is perfect for clearing some anomalies, and in this way we're lucky the C3 has some. Fin and Mick board their Tengu strategic cruisers and I my Golem marauder, and we warp out to shoot some Sleepers. We royally romp through the sites, so fast that I can't keep up with all the wrecks appearing. I even manage to pop the wreck of a Sleeper battleship, potentially destroying a few million ISK in salvage, but luckily after I looted it. It's not helping that we're discussing skill training at the same time, and having my misunderstanding of percentages pointed out to me, as typing also slows down salvaging.

All five favoured anomalies are cleared in quick time, my Golem bringing back loot and salvage to the sum of around two hundred and thirty five million ISK. Now we can leave the otherwise dull C3 behind us by collapsing the wormhole and opening up a new connection to explore beyond. The wormhole dies on schedule, all of us in the home system when it does, and Mick makes use of his scanning skills to find the new static link. He jumps through to see a Dominix battleship and Anathema covert operations boat on his directional scanner, but they both turn out to be unpiloted at a local tower. Fin and I have warped to the new wormhole and, hearing that the system is dormant, follow in behind Mick for tag-team scanning.

Three wormholes in the C3 sounds exciting, but they all lead to k-space. The system's static connection exits to low-sec empire space and the other two connections are K162s, one from high-sec and the other from null. I think we can mostly ignore the high-sec connection, as ambushes are notoriously difficult to realise when ships can simply jump back to safety, and we have two less-secure connections to abuse. I exit to low-sec whilst Fin jumps to null-sec, my big prize being an empty system in the Solitude region. Undeterred, I scan and find a new wormhole, but one that is reaching the end of its natural lifetime and not really worth investigating. I also resolve a magnetometric site and a few anomalies, but Fin trumps that with some sanctums in a true -1·0 security system.

We both return home and get our Tengus out of the hangar, looking to reap the rewards of a profitable anomaly in an empty null-sec system. In the couple of minutes it takes to turn around and jump in to the Paragon Soul region a couple of null-sec capsuleers have appeared in the system, making ratting rather less attractive where impressive forces can be mobilised against unknown threats in short time. We wait for the session change timer to end and jump back to w-space, heading low-secwards. We make a pit stop first, swapping out of our expensive Tengus for a Drake battlecruiser for me and Nighthawk command ship for Fin, which will still make short work of low-sec rats without being as big a risk should we get jumped.

Low-sec is indeed rather straightforward, if a different experience altogether from w-space. The magnetometric site is thoroughly disappointing, in offering basic salvage as a reward and containing no rats to shoot, and moving on to the anomalies starts helping us regain a bit of security status we've recently been shedding. The rats pop quickly and before they've even barely scratched our shields, but it is the threat of the other capsuleers that we're concerned about. The system stays mostly quiet but a new face appears in the constantly updated local channel, and he's piloting a Dramiel, a fast frigate perhaps being used as initial tackle for a bigger fleet.

We decide discretion is the better part of valour and bug out of the anomaly whilst the Dramiel is around, but although Fin warps out cleanly I am left wondering why my Drake doesn't go anywhere. It takes a little too long for me to realise the rats have my warp engines disrupted, and I only switch targets to remove that particular threat by the time the Dramiel has left the system again. We get back to popping rats in a second anomaly but when the Dramiel returns again we start to think maybe he's taken an interest in us. This time, we both are able to warp back to the wormhole, which should at least keep us safe until we see scanning probes converging on our position. The Dramiel isn't passing through this time, and rather than wait for him to leave we jump to w-space, happy to have gained some security standing at least, and return home for the night.

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Tags: anathema, dominix, drake, dramiel, eve online, golem, low-sec, mmorpg, nighthawk, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu

Nidhoggurs and Naglfars

I'm back, and in a stealth bomber. A well-connected w-space constellation must make for ripe hunting grounds, and we have eight systems to roam today. I say 'we' but it is still just me. I'll just have to see what kind of havoc I can wreak by myself for now. Not much initially, it seems, with the neighbouring class 3 system remaining as quiet as earlier. The second C3 connecting in to this one holds activity, even if a Legion strategic cruiser is too much ship for my Manticore to wrassle with.

The Legion is showing on d-scan separate from the tower, making me wonder if a new wormhole has opened in to this system, but for now I warp to the tower to see if any of the locals are active. The Legion is, it seems, warping back in to the tower after presumably launching his probes at a safe-spot. He rejoins a piloted Ferox battlecruiser, and a Tengu comes along shortly too, but it looks like they are scanning only. I leave their passive selves alone and head back through C3a towards the outbound connection to class 4 w-space.

The C4 is unoccupied and I zip through it to the first of two class 5 systems mapped earlier, which is occupied. Warping to the tower even sees active pilots, at least on d-scan. Two Naglfar dreadnoughts are in the system and out of the tower, Sleeper wrecks putting them in a combat site, and I ignore the piloted Proteus strategic cruiser, Catalyst destroyer, and Nidhoggur carrier to find the action. I already have the sole anomaly in this system bookmarked making the Naglfars easy to locate, warping in to take a look at them in battle.

As I warp in to the anomaly, a little close to a structure for comfort, the Nidhoggur follows in behind me. The carrier doesn't stay, though, heading back the way he came immediately. It looks like he only wanted to escalate the Sleeper engagement, bringing in an extra wave of battleships for the dreadnoughts to shoot. It seems that they may have overstretched themselves a little, one Naglfar warping out and the second looking to make a move soon afterwards, but the Sleeper frigates buzzing around the giant ship like gnats have other ideas, scrambling its warp engines. I may actually see a dreadnought explode.

Out come ECM drones from the bay of the desperate Naglfar. Sleepers don't like drones, and they hate ECM, so you can guess what they think of ECM drones. Pop, pop, pop, the frigates are chewing through them surprisingly quickly, but not before the Naglfar gets a lucky jam and is able to warp clear. I'm sure he didn't plan it this way. As the Naglfar takes time back at the tower to repair his ship, I can update now-arrived glorious leader Fin on today's constellation and occupants. She starts making her way over to the C5 I am in, adding a second stealth bomber to form a fleet of two. I am hoping that the Catalyst salvager will come out to clear these Sleeper wrecks, giving us something to shoot.

My hopes of an imminent ambush are dashed when the Naglfar returns to the anomaly with two trailing Nidhoggurs this time, causing a second Sleeper escalation. There are now even more battleships to destroy before they get to salvaging, which will take a while longer. Fin has another idea of how to cause disruption, asking how the wrecks are clustered. There are two approximate clouds of wrecks, distinct enough, Fin confirms with me, for two bombs to destroy almost all of them. Blowing up all the dreadnoughts' profits would certainly be irritating, I'm game! But before Fin can reach me a Tengu strategic cruiser warps in to take care of the Sleeper frigates, and a Drake battlecruiser follows behind to start salvaging wrecks whilst there are still Sleepers to shoot.

The Drake must be tanked well to salvage whilst under fire from the Sleeper guns, but it also means he's taking damage. We may be able to get a lucky kill if we catch him with two bombs at the right time. Or we could aim for the Catalyst after all, which it turns out has gone with the Proteus in to the C4 behind me for some easier kills and salvaging in the anomalies in that unoccupied system. Fin notices the two ships as she makes her way to me and calls me back for a chance at a more suitable target. I leave the Naglfars, Nidhoggurs, Tengu, and Drake alone and warp back to the wormhole to the C4, jumping in and cloaking moments before the Catalyst warps to the same wormhole.

I daren't engage the Catalyst now, as he'll only jump home and warp away, with the rather more dangerous Proteus following closely behind. Instead I watch it, seeing it warp away towards a planet. I call out the direction to Fin and we both follow at different distances. I drop out of warp at zero, Fin at fifty kilometres, both of us guessing wrong as the Catalyst sits stationary out at one hundred kilometres. I warp back to the wormhole to bounce to a better range whilst Fin closes the distance under normal engine speed, but it turns out the Catalyst isn't keen to stay where he is. He warps away from the planet, in a direction unknown, but only to reappear a minute later.

Fin has got close to the destroyer and is ready to engage just as the Catalyst turns tail and runs again, this time back to the wormhole where he jumps in to his C5 home. The Proteus warps in and jumps too, the single Sleeper wreck visible on d-scan suggesting they perhaps detected my Manticore enter the system and don't care to continue their operation with an unknown hostile potentially stalking them. Quite wise too. Rather than follow behind them and try to catch the previous salvaging operation Fin and I decide to leave the C5 occupants alone, as aware pilots are dangerous pilots. Instead we head homewards, seeing no change in the C3 systems, and get some rest. Despite the wealth of systems to explore there has been surprisingly little activity to intercept.

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Tags: catalyst, drake, eve online, ferox, legion, manticore, mmorpg, naglfar, nidhoggur, penny ibramovic, proteus, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Scanning never ends

I was hoping to stay in my Buzzard for a while, and it looks like I will. Pilots coming and going, and a Tengu strategic making a target of itself put me in and out of my covert operations scanning boat, seeing me try to juggle finding wormholes and stalking ships. Now our neighbouring class 3 w-space system is empty of pilots and I can finally scan more thoroughly. There are quite a few signatures in this C3, which could take a while to sort out, but it's resolving four wormholes that makes me feel I'll be out here a while.

Two wormholes lead directly to empire space. There is a K162 coming in from high-sec and the system's static connection exits to low-sec. I get both exit systems first, merely bookmarking the wormhole and noting the region in high-sec, but taking a better look around in low-sec. There are a few pilots in the system and a Tengu visible on my directional scanner. Having nearly missed a shot at a Tengu earlier I think I'll take a moment to see if this strategic cruiser is a valid target, and sitting out in the middle of nowhere suggests it is.

I start a passive scan of the low-sec system to see if the Tengu is in an anomaly, but nothing nearby shows up and I may need to get closer. Manipulating d-scan a bit puts him right on the limit of detection, being almost 14 AU away, and I actually have no idea how he got out there. There are no planets nearby, nor any that may have been used to make such a safe-spot. He could still be in an anomaly, or on a wormhole, so I launch probes, fling them out of the system, and start a more thorough scan for sites.

The Tengu is hidden. He is not in any site, nor near any signature, but maybe that's good. If he's sat in a safe-spot he could be taking a nap and not expecting company to drop on top of him. I start positioning probes around him, knowing that I can't be too accurate from this range, and scan for his ship's location. My first result isn't good, as expected, and I refine my probes' positions, but even after three attempts his ship remains inscrutable to my combat probes. I launch more, suspecting that it won't help, and indeed it doesn't. The pilot knows what he's doing, holed up in a safe-spot in an unscannable ship. I recall my probes and head back to w-space.

I have two more w-space systems to explore here, the C3 also holding a K162 from further class 3 w-space and a random outbound connection to a class 4 system. The K162 holds most promise for activity and I jump through that first. A bunch of ships and combat scanning probes visible on d-scan looks good, if a little overwhelming for just me, and checking my notes lets me find the tower quickly, as my last visit was only three months ago. Only a Tengu is piloted at the tower, the other five ships empty, and I wonder if it is him scanning until the probes disappear and an Anathema cov-ops warps in. I find a distant point where I can launch probes, letting me blanket the system, but knowing that this C3 has a static exit to high-sec I simply bookmark the anomalies for now. The two pilots don't look to be doing anything for the moment, so with more w-space to explore I head back to the first C3 and onwards to the C4.

Only a corpse and wreck of a battleship are on d-scan in the C4, which could be interesting but probably just means those involved have scurried home already. Otherwise, there are no ships and no occupation in the system. I scan, ignoring mostly rocks and gas to resolve a static connection to class 5 w-space. I jump onwards in to clear space within d-scan's range around the K162 in the C5, and I launch probes. The two ships my probes detect in the system are soon found unpiloted inside a tower's force field, and I resolve two wormholes out of the six signatures present. The first leads to a second class 4 system through the system's static connection, the second wormhole being a K162 from more class 5 w-space.

Sticking with my plan to look for activity I head through the K162 first, finding none. The second C5 is unoccupied and empty, and it takes scanning to find what I think is an end to the current route, the static exit to null-sec k-space. But, of course, someone had to open the wormhole leading in to the first C5, and I resolve a second connection coming in from a C2. I am going rather far from home and have spent longer scanning in my Buzzard than I expected, which shows I should be careful what I wish for. I continue through to the C2, which is a tiny unoccupied system and must have another K162 lurking somewhere. Scanning finds the second static wormhole, another null-sec exit, and the K162 I am looking for, leading to a second C2.

I'm close to my limit for scanning now. I merely poke my nose through to the second C2 to look for activity, and even though a Tengu seems to be sitting at a local tower I ignore it as being too far from home and simply turn my ship around. I still have another branch of the constellation to investigate, and I head back from C2b to C2a to C5b to C5a, and from there to the second class 4 w-space system. Again, on finding no overt signs of activity I leave the system alone, making my way back through C5a to C4a and C3a, where checking the tower sees no change since I left it what feels like ten hours ago. I jump home, copy to our shared can the twenty-two bookmarks for wormholes in eight systems, and take a break for a well-deserved sammich.

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

Tracking local activity

Finding the static wormhole is easy when it remains in the same place as yesterday. And as much as a time saving as that is I remain happy that jumping in to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system is different each time. Today I see a Buzzard covert operations boat and Badger hauler in the system, thanks to my directional scanner, both of which I suppose to be at the tower also detected. I locate the tower to see if there are any pilots present, warping to it as a Reaper frigate turns up, making a second pilot to go with the first, who has now swapped Buzzard for a second Badger. I think it's time to lurk in my stealth bomber and see what the hauler will do.

I jump home, having scanned nothing of the C3, and stow my Buzzard to swap to the Manticore, heading back to our neighbouring system to loiter cloaked near the tower. Both pilots are in Badgers when I get back, but they don't look to be going anywhere. Examining the system map shows it to be quite large, certainly big enough to hide ships from d-scan in several areas, but for now I'll keep eyes on the Badgers in case they warp off to collect planet goo. That is, until a Tengu strategic cruiser appears on d-scan and launches combat probes. I think I should start looking for a second wormhole here, even if I haven't yet looked for the static connection.

Once more in my Buzzard I return to the C3 to see the Tengu still on d-scan, his reluctance to cloak making me suspect he's acting as bait. Even if he is, it would be good intelligence to have, as would the location of any wormhole he's entered through. I launch probes discreetly and perform a blanket scan of the system, returning twenty-one anomalies and twenty or so signatures, giving me plenty to wade through, but the number is reduced considering I am aiming for the Tengu and its wormhole. At least, it would if the Tengu hadn't disappeared from d-scan. And now a local Tengu arrives at the tower, so I am back to monitoring the ships I can physically see.

I repeat my blanket scan occasionally, not expecting new site signatures to appear but rather checking for new ships. And I have one, I just didn't realise. There are five ships in the tower and six returned on my combat probes. I probably ought to find where and what that unknown ship is. I repeat the scan to get a second impression of the extra ship, and now there are only four in the system. It looks like the Badgers have gone, and not just out of the system. Never mind, I look to have found the scanning Tengu, having warped to a distant planet probably to hide from other pilots' casual scanning efforts. My probes have him, though.

The Tengu seems to be near the planet itself, but warping there finds nothing. The Tengu is still on d-scan and, as I suspect it is not a ship that is configured to cloak, a quick adjustment to my scanner puts the strategic cruiser within 1 AU of the planet. That's really easy to resolve, and I position my combat probes in a tight pattern around the planet and hit 'scan'. One attempt is all that is needed for such a precise estimation of the Tengu's location, and I have his position. I warp in to see him sitting stationary in a not-very-safe spot off-grid of the planet. I hope he remains there and inattentive for a couple of minutes longer, as I'd like to introduce him to my Legion.

I warp home, swap to my strategic cruiser, and head back to the C3. Warping across the system gets my heart pumping, as I don't know if the Tengu will be there, if he is paying attention, or how his ship will withstand an attack from my own, and I am alone in this endeavour. But it is all worry for nought, as the pilot has logged off. I drop out of warp in to empty space with nothing to do in my Legion. I keep the bookmark of this location in case the pilot returns to the same spot, but it looks like I'm back to scanning this C3 again. I head home, note from d-scan that the C3 is now probably empty of pilots, and climb back in to my Buzzard at our tower. Maybe I'll stay in it for more than five minutes this time.

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

Irritating an Iteron

A couple of anomalies start the evening off with profit. There is not much else to do in this class 3 w-space system, being unoccupied and empty, just as it was six weeks earlier on my last visit. Knowing I am looking for a static exit to null-sec k-space makes it easier to look for the weaker signature, and I can rule out any K162s early, there being no fat-signatured wormholes present. But a null-sec connection looks surprisingly like radar sites and I only find the wormhole as the penultimate signature out of twenty-two in total. At least the system is quiet, letting glorious leader Fin and I swat the Sleepers for their loot, after which I head home to grab some food.

When I get back, Fin has collapsed our static wormhole and just scanned the new one, giving us more opportunity to explore. And jumping in to our new neighbouring system looks promising, with two towers and plenty of ships visible on my directional scanner. I find a planet out of range of any ships where I can covertly launch scanning probes, and I blanket the system to see what's here. Two anomalies and six signatures isn't much, but it will make scanning quicker and let us stay hidden. I locate the towers and, crap, they're blue. The locals are friendly towards us, although they have some non-blue friends also sitting in the tower. It looks like we aren't hunting here, but at least we shouldn't be hunted ourselves.

I scan the C3 to see if the exit wormhole leads anywhere interesting, only to find the perhaps-convenient connection to high-sec empire space reaching the end of its natural lifetime. These blues are rubbish, they can't even keep their wormhole alive for us. But a Heron frigate decloaks at the wormhole and warps away, and not to a tower. That could be interesting, but I didn't catch the pilot's name. As the local blues have non-blue residents the Heron could also be local and out of bounds, but as he didn't warp to a tower he could be a tourist and a valid target. I keep on scanning for now and resolve a second wormhole, which could be where the Heron is from. I warp to it to see a K162 coming from class 2 w-space, and jump through to investigate further.

The C2 looks clear, but I think some nearby moons are trying to tell me something. I risk launching probes at the wormhole, and blanketing the system shows loads of anomalies and signatures, but no ships. Stupid moons. Fin keeps a watchful eye in the C3, holding on our K162, knowing that the Heron cannot warp cloaked and that she will be able to see it coming, or at least going. I keep my Buzzard covert operations boat close to the wormhole back to the C3, so that if the Heron comes this way I can decloak early to negate the recalibration delay and try to lock the ship. I scan as we wait, resolving a wormhole, and I simply bookmark its deadspace signature for now, not wanting to miss the Heron. But my combat probes pick up what looks like an industrial ship in the system, which is gone or out of range by the time I switch to my directional scanner.

I move my probes to where I saw the ship appear in the C2, and resolve a second wormhole. With a new target I warp to the wormhole to check the destination, finding an exit to high-sec. It looks like we have a hauler going to market, the other wormhole I resolved probably leading to its home system, which turns out to be a K162 from class 4 w-space. If that's the case the hauler should return at some point and maybe we can bubble the wormhole to catch him. I need to reconnoitre the C4 first, to make sure we will be sitting on the right wormhole, and to ensure we get no surprises from what else may be jumping through.

Jumping in to the C4 has a Zealot heavy assault ship and Brutix battlecruiser jump past me in to the C2. I don't think they saw me, and maybe they are our new targets, depending on what they plan to do in the C2. I hold for a minute, jump back to the C2, and take a look around. The two combat ships are nowhere to be seen, maybe gone to high-sec themselves, for whatever reason. I'd better check the C4 more thoroughly now. And when I warp back to the K162 the Iteron and a pod jump in to the C2 and warp away. Perhaps they are breaking down the tower to move systems, taking ships out to empire space, which would give us an excellent chance of disrupting their operation. But jumping in to the C4 and finding the tower finds all the defences and hangars to be very much assembled and on-line. Maybe the exit to high-sec is simply conveniently close to a hub they want to use.

Whatever the motives of the C4 occupants, we have plenty of ship movements and the definite possibility of more. Fin brings her cloaky Legion to the C2 and monitors the high-sec connection whilst I head home to swap my Buzzard for a second Legion. Before I can rejoin Fin the wormhole flares, the Iteron returning. Fin follows behind it, looking for a soft kill, but only gets to the next wormhole in time to see the Iteron jump in to the C4 ahead of her. She makes the jump in to the C4 herself whilst I am in the C2 and warping to the K162, when the Zealot makes a second appearance, but he sadly warps before Fin's systems come back on-line after the jump. That's okay, the Iteron's coming back, and so soon!

Fin tells me to hold in the C2 on the K162, which I do, as the Iteron drops out of warp at the wormhole and jumps. Fin follows behind it and, with two Legions attacking an industrial ship, we easily melt the hauler. The pilot's pod gets clear, although perhaps only because I expertly prevent the wormhole from warping anywhere instead. His escape gives the pilot a moment to say 'thanks guys' in the local channel prior to jumping out to high-sec, our precious little snowflake maybe under the impression that non-combatants get free passage through w-space. Sadly not, and sadly all that was in the Iteron were empty containers. We perhaps caught the pilot going the wrong way, heading out for fuel instead of on his way back with a full load.

We loiter on the K162 for a little longer, hoping that the combat ships seen earlier would come and try to teach us a lesson, but no one jumps through to greet us. I suppose two strategic cruisers can be rather imposing. Fin warps out to check the high-sec exit, finding it indeed to be rather conveniently only two hops to Jita, which also explains the quick trips that were being made. Two pilots from the C4 can be seen in the local channel in high-sec, and it looks like they are currently reluctant to return home. We wait a bit longer, Fin checks the C4 to find it empty, and then decides we should 'head back before we die'. Of boredom? 'Or mistakes.' That's a good reason to clear the pocket.

Back at home there are combat probes in our system. It could be that Heron spotted earlier. I dump the Legion and jump in to my Malediction interceptor and plant it on our K162 in the C3, Fin doing the same with our Onyx heavy interdictor. And we're back to waiting. We're in range of the tower in the C3 but we're not molested, and if we're investigated it's only by a cloaked ship that I suppose would report back that we're blue too. That's a good benefit of having allies around. And Fin notes that we're protecting one entrance in to their system, which may be enough to convince one of the locals to go out mining in his Hulk exhumer. Either that, or they really are quite inexperienced and haven't noticed our Onyx and Malediction in their system.

We continue waiting. The Heron's taking his time. Fin's ready to give up and jumps home, but seeing probes still on scan convinces her to give the pilot a little longer to jump in to our ambush. But still the Heron takes his time. We only have a handful of radar sites and a single ladar site to resolve, it can't take this long to scan our system! It really is getting late and Fin heads home to sleep. I can't blame her, but now I want to convince myself I have not wasted this time and loiter a little longer. Eventually the wormhole flares, stirring me from my reverie and I get my systems ready. My warp disruption systems are hot, as is my micro warp drive, but I keep my weapons off-line until I get a positive identification on the target.

The Heron decloaks and starts moving. I surge my interceptor towards the frigate and get a positive lock, as I interrogate the ship for the pilot's information. As the information screen comes up and I see he belongs to EVE University I give myself clearance to shoot, but only to watch as the Heron warps away. I thought I had him, and surely my interceptor is too quick for a Heron to evade, but he's gone. I try to follow but he lands, cloaks, and moves away from his original position before I can catch him. Oh well, at least I made an attempt, and maybe this is the karma cost of having my Sacrilege heavy assault ship escaping the Hawk the other day. I'm okay with that. I head home and get some sleep.

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Tags: brutix, buzzard, eve online, heron, hulk, iteron, legion, malediction, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, sleepers, w-space, zealot

Continuing where we left off

The fleet and its bait are gone. Fin supposes a new wormhole has entered in to our neighbouring system, catching us by surprise. This is why Fin's the brains of the operation, I was just singing happy tunes in my head. Now that I can again come out of the protection of our tower's shields I bring my Buzzard covert operations boat to the class 3 w-space system to scan for the new wormhole. I don't suspect we'll be heading in to it for any confrontations, but knowing its location will let us keep tabs on the occupants and their hostile intentions. But maybe not even that, as the appearance of an Orca industrial command ship on our directional scanners suggests they are in the process of collapsing their wormhole.

It is easier to locate an Orca than a wormhole when scanning with combat probes, and the ship doesn't seem particularly keen to jump home. I suspect it to be more bait, hoping to attract the kind of idiot who would strike against such a tempting target when their presence is already known. They kind of do, as I suppose I am scanning the Orca's position, even if indirectly, but I have learnt my lesson. I'm scanning to resolve the wormhole, not to plan a counter-attack against a known stronger force. As suspected, I get a positive scan result on the Orca before the wormhole, but I imagine they are coincident and warp close to its position to reconnoitre.

The new wormhole is a K162 coming in from class 4 w-space, but the Orca isn't here. He is still on d-scan, though, making me wonder what he's doing. I can only assume he warped to a safe spot whilst a few more ships were experimentally pushed through the connection, to tip it to the point of collapse before the Orca returns to definitely finish the job. I have arrived to see the wormhole critically unstable, and if that isn't a clear sign that the hostiles are finished with this system then the Orca warping in, jumping home, and the wormhole collapsing certainly is. Good, now Fin and I can get back to ambushing the locals in the C3 ourselves. It looks like we have the opportunity too, a Drake out and about in the system.

I can only assume that the occupants in the C3 were aware of the hostile fleet themselves, either observing in their own cov-ops boats or inferring it all on d-scan. I would say that they had cov-ops out and watching the fleet leave and collapse their wormhole, because nothing else beyond sheer foolhardiness can explain why one of their pilots is now in his Drake shooting Sleepers in the anomaly left unfinished by the bait Drake. I suppose they want to capitalise on the loot and salvage left behind. I can also only assume that they think my earlier pursuit of their Helios cov-ops in my Manticore stealth bomber is a threat that has also left the system with the fleet. They'd be wrong, of course, but let's not tell them just yet.

Fin and I plan to assault the Drake, much as was our initial plan against the bait. I send myself home to swap ships again, undecided about whether to bring a second Legion strategic cruiser or the Sacrilege heavy assault ship, whilst Fin monitors the battlecruiser in the anomaly. Our plans change slightly when a Nighthawk command ship warps in to help the Drake, but the two ships are far apart and as long as we can tank the damage from the Nighthawk we can stick with our original plan to engage the Drake. But as the anomaly was already half-completed it doesn't take long to finish the job, and once the Sleepers are gone so are the Drake and Nighthawk.

The wrecks are left behind in the anomaly, unlooted and waiting to be salvaged. A Raven battleship is unlikely to be commissioned as a salvager, so when Fin mentions its arrival in the anomaly I make my choice of ship, boarding my Manticore once more. I suspect the Raven is a bouncer, making sure the site is safe before the salvager turns up. And I am in warp to our static wormhole, confident about what is to happen next, when a Noctis salvager warps in to start stripping the wrecks in to their component parts. I jump in to the C3, warp to the bookmarked anomaly, and land under forty kilometres from our new and wonderfully soft target. Even better, the Raven has left him all alone.

I close on the Noctis, holding my cloak, planning a bomb launch to be followed with torpedoes. Fin is cloaked in the anomaly and keeping a watchful eye on d-scan as the kilometres to my target tick steadily down. At twenty-five kilometres I decloak, launch my bomb, and gain a positive target lock. I paint the target and disrupt his warp engines, my momentum getting me in to range before the Noctis probably knows what's happening. Your ship is being destroyed, sir, that's what's happening. The bomb hits hard, my Manticore spews torpedoes, and I am locking on to the pilot's pod ejected from the wreck of the Noctis. A split-second separates the pilot from life and death, and this time he warps clear.

I loot and shoot the wreck, getting a fairly decent thirty million ISK for my efforts, and my Manticore is cloaked again. Disappeared from view, I warp to the tower to see what repercussions we can expect. Maybe some, maybe none, it's hard to say. The four pilots present suit up in a Proteus strategic cruiser, Hyperion battleship, and the Nighthawk and Drake, but they aren't making any movements. It doesn't matter. We've got our kill, it's getting late, we're heading home to rest.

It was an odd decision to continue with the unfinished anomaly, even though it looked like the main threat had not only left the system but severed their connection. The locals must have either known about our own connection, should have identified me separately from the hostile fleet, or at least not left the vulnerable Noctis alone. It's to our benefit, though, so I won't complain. After nearly losing the Sacrilege, or even a Legion, I am happy to end the evening with a kill and no losses.

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Tags: buzzard, drake, eve online, hyperion, manticore, mmorpg, nighthawk, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, raven, scanning, w-space

Finding the wrong fight

That Drake isn't looking for me. When I saw the battlecruiser on my directional scanner I thought it was a reaction to my chasing a Helios covert operations boat, who used a lazily predictable position to launch scanning probes. But Sleeper wrecks are slowly starting to appear, placing the ship in an anomaly instead, and, despite the current threat, he's not leaving. Maybe he thinks his Drake is safe from assault by a mere stealth bomber, and I suppose he's right, but I can easily change ships. And glorious leader Fin is almost returned from Jita with her new cloaky Legion strategic cruiser, giving us more firepower in a stealthy package. I think we can surprise the Drake.

I scanned this class 3 w-space system earlier and have the few anomalies present bookmarked. It is straightforward to place the Drake in one of them, and I warp in to see him continue shooting Sleepers. I bookmark a couple of wrecks, which he's looting but not salvaging as he goes, and warp to the static exit to high-sec empire space to guide Fin towards our target. Fin warps in one direction, me in another. I head home to change in to a suitably destructive ship to take on a Drake whilst Fin keeps eyes on him. But warping in to the anomaly goes awry, Fin's Legion landing in a cloud that disrupts her cloaking systems. She bounces right back out of the anomaly but it's safe to say Fin's been spotted.

At first, it looks like the Drake continues in the anomaly, but when Fin warps back in the battlecruiser has gone. He's still in the system, but we don't know where. It is possible he's taking a rest to recharge his passive shield systems, but he's gone from the site for too long to be only that keeping him away, so he's probably run away from our Legion. Meanwhile, I am in my Sacrilege heavy assault ship sitting on our static wormhole, ready to jump back in to the C3 should the Drake return, when the wormhole flares. We're not expecting visitors and I have no idea what ship will appear in front of me, but I hold and get my systems hot. An Anathema cov-ops finally sheds its session change cloak only to jump right back through the wormhole, apparently intimidated by my Sacrilege.

I follow the Anathema to class 3 w-space, giving limited chase on the other side of the wormhole. I don't expect to get a positive target lock or to be able to bump the cloaking ship, and of course it doesn't happen, the Anathema getting clean away. It makes me wonder why the ship fled home rather than simply evading me in our C4. But I'm back in the C3 now and I can hold station on the K162, as it is out of range of the anomaly where the Drake was spotted, making my response time quicker. All I have to do now is wait until the Drake is found. As it turns out, the Drake finds me.

Our target drops out of warp about twenty kilometres from our K162, which is convenient. I lock and start shooting, disrupting the Drake's warp engines, as Fin warps across to join me in the assault. I am cautious, however, not to get drawn away from the wormhole, which will be my escape route if I start to take too much damage. As it turns out, this is a sensible move. Before Fin lands a Hawk assault ship appears. The smaller target looks a quicker kill and I switch my fire away from the heftily tanked Drake, but even as I do Fin is calling extra contacts, including strategic cruisers. It's a trap!

I use my escape route to jump home as the other ships land on my position, but I saw the Hawk jump a few seconds before. He obviously plans to intercept me on the other side of the wormhole, making the situation look bad. I won't give up, and ignoring the session change timer I align to an arbitrary destination in our home system and hit 'warp'. But it's too late, I'm getting a reciprocal lock on the Hawk, indicating that my targeting systems have detected a positive lock on my ship and are responding in kind. I must be pointed, I must be losing my ship. But no, the Sacrilege continues to gain speed and, maybe a couple of seconds later, I am speeding away from the wormhole in warp!

I have no idea how the Hawk failed to disrupt my engines, but I'm glad he did. I drop out of warp, turn my ship around, and head directly to our tower, not waiting to see if I've been followed, and there I hide for a few minutes. Fin's also glad that she aimed to drop short of my initial position, letting her Legion maintain its cloak and not get the attention of the hostile fleet. It looks like the Drake was bait. Maybe the signs were there, but it is difficult to tell bait from naivity, particularly when so much of the latter is around.

It's disappointing to be lured in to yet another ambush, mostly because our own attempts at baiting pilots don't seem to work. At least we escape without loss of ship this time, thanks to Fin's vigilant monitoring of d-scan. I can tend to focus too much on the local grid when entering combat, and it is a lesson today that I should continue to be aware of my greater surroundings at all times. As for our current situation, it looks like the hostile fleet isn't one to linger, as they jump back to the C3 and slowly disappear. All appears quiet again.

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Tags: anathema, drake, eve online, hawk, legion, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, sacrilege, w-space

Running out of steam

Glorious leader Fin is on her way to Jita, flying on autopilot, to collect and assemble newly delivered Legion strategic cruiser subsystems. She interrupts her relaxation to briefly update me, saying there are no new wormholes in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system and that the Helios covert operations boat there has been sitting stationary at the tower for a while. Fin then tempts me to join her in Jita, as a second replacement Legion and its subsystems also awaits. That sounds like a good idea, so I strip down to my pod and head out to empire space.

Travelling through high-sec is peaceful, until I reach Jita. I have to close the local communication channel to ignore the continuous scrolling of scams, which thankfully is easy enough to do. I dock, collect the subsystems, and assemble the Legion, then recall the improved fitting from earlier fights, and losses, and buy what I need from the market. Fin does the same, but for our cloaked variant. Before long I am heading homewards again, where along the way a Rupture cruiser takes an interest in me, locking my Legion shortly before I warp to the next gate. I pay him no mind.

The connection between the C3 and high-sec is reaching the end of its natural lifetime when I pass through, but we should have at least a couple of hours left to make use of it. And warping homewards across the C3 sees two Helios cov-ops on my directional scanner, indicating some change in activity levels. I drop off the Legion at our hangar, swap to my Manticore stealth bomber, and return to the C3 to loiter at the local tower. All has changed in the couple of minutes it has taken me to change ships, the two pilots now in a battlecruiser each, a Harbinger and a Drake. But before Fin and I get too excited about testing our new Legions they change again, getting back in to their Helios boats and warping away.

I mention this to Fin, who relays information to me that apparently Mick saw the same ships warp out of the tower to land at a hundred kilometres from the system's star, where they launched probes. I like predictable pilots, it makes them so easy to catch, and I send my Manticore off towards the star to land in approximately the same place. I don't see a Helios when I drop out of warp, and pushing forwards a little doesn't bump me in to anyone, but I only need to wait a couple of seconds longer to see a Helios decloak voluntarily and start launching probes. Under ten kilometres from my target, I turn around and strike.

I drop my cloak and activate my weapons systems, relying only on torpedoes as I am too close for a bomb launch. The Helios cannot cloak to evade my target lock, his own probes interfering with the cloak even if he had lightning reflexes, and torpedoes start firing towards the cov-ops boat. I surge forwards, giving chase as the Helios burns away from me, and his light ship just has the edge. I can't quite keep up, watching as the cov-ops increases the distance between our two ships, but my torpedoes continue to strip away his shields. I only need to stay with him a bit longer to get the kill.

The separation between our ships gets close to severing the warp disruption effect I'm imposing on my target, but it is my capacitor being drained of its juice that lets the Helios escape. The micro warp drive is too much of a burden on the capacitor to sustain such a chase for long, its primary use after all being to get me out of trouble, not continue headlong in to it. With no juice, the drive shuts down and my ship drops to a crawl, seeing the Helios surge away and enter warp. It was close, but I miss the kill. And in return a Drake looks to be coming out to shoo me away, I'd better re-activate my cloak and hide.

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Tags: drake, eve online, harbinger, helios, legion, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, rupture, w-space

Music of 2011, part one

Almost half of the year is gone and it has taken this long for me to work out what I want to write about my first collection of new music. There is plenty to listen to and more is coming out every month, and I'm reading between the lines and investigating new bands to find some gems amongst the rough.

Despite having a mini-album and live album already under their belts, The Joy Formidable finally release their debut album, The Big Roar. The same blend of rock and pop is expertly combined with a high dynamic range to produce some excellent songs. Earlier songs from the mini-album A Balloon Called Moaning have been re-recorded for inclusion, as well as recent singles I Don't Want to See You Like This and Greyhound in the Slips, along with a bunch of new tracks. Having been listening quite avidly to almost half the tracks on the album for eighteen months or more, from previous releases, The Big Roar doesn't quite have the impact it perhaps should with me, but the new tracks show The Joy Formidable continuing to create exciting music that deserves a wider audience. The debut album is a great place to start for a first exposure.

The NME convinced me to get Fujiya & Miyagi's third album, even though I was less than impressed with their second. I have to say that Ventriloquizzing suffers from the same awkwardly superficial and formulaic lyrics that turned me off the previous album, making me feel a bit foolish for trusting them a third time. Too many songs seem to be built on lyrics like 'X is <verbing> Y, X is <verbing> Y, X is <verbing> Y, Y <verbs> X', which gets tedious quickly. However, if you can tune out the lyrics and listen to the vocals as if the voice is just another instrument all is well. In fact, it's rather spiffy. The songs are certainly an improvement over those on the second album and there is enough variation to keep the music entertaining from start to finish, you just have to be able to appreciate or ignore the lyrics. Ventriloquizzing is an album that would work best if heard as a foreign language.

A throttled synthesiser growl greets the first track of Zeroes QC, debut album of Suuns, adding a sparse drum track and handclaps before distorted guitars swirl around the loops. And strong if simple beats accompanied by almost hypnotic riffs form the backbone of the album. Arena's repetitive keyboards dancing for well over two minutes before the vocalist decides to jump in, and the guitar squeals of Marauder play over reverberating drums for a couple of minutes of instrumental delight. The whole album is packed with rhythm, an exercise in how to make repetition sound good, which is remarkably difficult to do well but rightfully rewards repeated plays. Zeroes QC is a a sonic delight and clearly my favourite album of the year so far.

I'm not usually one to buy soundtrack albums, although I may have a couple, but as I completely love the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World film I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get the Beck-penned Sex Bob-omb songs. We Are Sex Bob-omb is an energetic blast that is as dynamic at the start of the soundtrack as it is to the film, and my own favourite of Threshold is an amazing couple of minutes of rock music. Other original music from the film is included, such as Crash and the Boys' (in fact, Broken Social Scene, I believe) completely brilliant We Hate You Please Die, and Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl, which is barely noticed in the film but a beautiful song when heard in its entirety. The original songs are short and very sweet, with those previously released and used in the film being conspicuous in their length but still a good selection. And when returning to re-watch the film the familiarity with the soundtrack adds an emotional punch with each cue. Scott Pilgrim just gets better!

Fresh and exciting tunes dominate Daydreams and Nightmares from Those Dancing Days. Happy keyboards and clean guitars underscore strong individual vocals, which all merge to create gentle harmonies for the catchy choruses. Opener Reaching Forward is a great start, and Dream About Me will have you singing the chorus long after listening to it. There is the occasional rawer song, like the fabulous Fuckarias and I Know Where You Live pt. II, adding an extra dimension to an album which on the whole delivers some brilliant and enjoyable pop music. A much recommended listen.

With a name like Yuck I expected music rather less agreeable from the band's eponymous debut album. But from the start I am greeted with pleasantly tuneful songs, the fuzzy guitars and vocals reminiscent of old-school indie even relenting for third track Shook Down to become fairly standard radio fare. It feels like a guilty pleasure to enjoy music with such a broad appeal, the inoffensive and familiar pop sounding like it could have been produced any time in the past fifteen years, and despite my contrarian leanings I can't help but like it. The songs are well-crafted and catchy, particularly with choruses belted out like in Georgia, with enough variation between them to hold the whole album together. There is everything to like from Yuck so far.

Posted in Audio | Comments Off on Music of 2011, part one
Tags: cd, fujiya & miyagi, scott pilgrim, sex bob-omb, suuns, the joy formidable, those dancing days, yuck

Passing time in high-sec

The home system is nicely sparse now. All our mining sites have been cleared the efficient way, by activating and forgetting about them, leaving only anomalies and a handful of radar sites. This makes wormholes remarkably easy to find, and new mining sites can be activated on discovery to keep the system clean. Resolving only the one wormhole lets me move onwards and explore our neighbouring class w-space system, which looks to have two towers and no ships, according to my directional scanner.

I launch probes and blanket the system, as I warp around locating the towers. I find them both as a Nemesis stealth bomber arrives at one, but is gone again by the time I drop out of warp. I could get wary about his presence, or lurk and hope he'll reappear, but that way lies tedium. Instead, I bookmark the ten anomalies in the system and set about resolving the mere four signatures, which turn out to be the wormhole home, a static exit to high-sec empire space, and a gravimetric and radar site each.

Exploration is complete, and nothing of much interest is happening. I return home, stow my scanning boat, and get a newly bought Drake battlecruiser out of the hangar for her maiden voyage. I am only going to high-sec to shoot some rats, in a continuing bid to repair my hardly broken security status, but the Drake will remain more than capable of the task whilst being less costly a risk than piloting my Tengu strategic cruiser through unknown space. The PvP fitting should also let me fight back more effectively if threatened.

It is the Drake's first sortie, and I did not buy her and bring her home, so although I made sure I was armed and armoured I failed to notice that the missiles are all faction ammunition. Those are just dandy for engaging other capsuleers, but perhaps an expensive choice for puny high-sec rats. I don't want to head back through the w-space now, as I would face polarisation delays, so instead I look to buy some regular missiles from the market. The nearest seller is four hops away, the travel time being the equivalent of the wormhole polarisation, but I can pick up the missiles and shoot rats in each system on my way back.

Rats pop left and right, barely scratching my passive recharge shield, the most time-consuming process being finding any to start with. I have four anomalies bookmarked in the exit system, which I scanned briefly earlier, but none further afield. I find a few pockets of resistance before getting back to the first system, where I quickly despatch all the rats in two of the anomalies and ignore the drones in the other two. There are no bounties on drones and so I am not sure if Concord rewards security status for their destruction.

The combat is all over rather quickly. I get some janitors, who are happy to relocate to our tower in w-space, which should keep the place tidier, and no doubt a miniscule gain in security status as a result of my slaughter. I don't care to loot or salvage behind me, as returning any of that to w-space would just be a burden that would need to be taken back out to empire space at some point. It seems best just to leave it. And after a gentle mid-afternoon ratting I head home through an empty class 3 w-space system to get some food.

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Tags: drake, eve online, mmorpg, nemesis, penny ibramovic, w-space