Bridging through null-sec

It's a new day with a new w-space constellation to explore, but I'm not going to scan just yet. Mick's left us a message saying that when checking the previous static wormhole had collapsed of old age he actually found it to still be there. Jumping through put him in a different class 3 w-space system than we were connected to, making it look like the new wormhole spawned in exactly the same location as the old. I use what should be a stale bookmark and warp to the wormhole, confirming it is indeed in the same position. We've had consecutive wormholes connecting to the same system, Fin's even encountered a wormhole that connected to the other side of the system, and now we have seen a wormhole spawn on the corpse of its predecessor. Randomness is weird.

The position of our static wormhole may be interesting, but our neighbouring system is not. There is no occupation or activity, and only one anomaly present. Mick left a bookmark to the static exit to null-sec k-space, which I have copied to my nav-comp, but that was a few hours ago and my limited supply of optimism urges me to scan again in the hopes that a new connection has opened in to this system. I start sifting through the twenty-seven signatures, finding mostly the rocks and gas that builds up in uninhabited w-space, only to end up discarding every signature as not being a wormhole. It's us and null-sec today, so I may as well see where the exit leads.

Jumping out of w-space lands me in the Wicked Creek region, and alone in the system. A populated local communication channel is quite the luxury compared to the paranoia of w-space. As no one is around I could peacefully scan the system, maybe finding another connection to w-space here. And, despite a false start with an 'unknown' signature that turns out to be an Angel Base, I resolve a second wormhole, an outbound conncetion to class 5 w-space. I jump in to the C5 to see four ships on my directional scanner, a Tengu strategic cruiser, Orca industrial command ship, Drake battlecruiser, and Charon freighter. There is also a tower on d-scan, but no wrecks to indicate combat. I bookmark the wormhole and warp off to locate the tower.

The Tengu is piloted at the tower in the C5, and even though that is the only ship with a capsuleer aboard it could still be promising if he decides to do anything. I warp away to launch probes, in case the Tengu becomes active, and perform a blanket scan of the system. My combat probes reveal a fifth ship in the system, which could be interesting, and warping around to find it also finds two more active towers. The Iteron hauler is piloted and sitting in one of the towers, and I am tempted by the prospect of an industrial ship collecting planet goo. I recall my probes, head home through the null-sec bridging system, and bring a stealth bomber back to the C5 to shadow the Iteron.

On my way out of the C5 the Tengu is gone from d-scan, the pilot most likely asleep now, and he hasn't come back when I warp my Manticore towards the tower with the Iteron. There is no change in the Iteron's status either, it still cocked at a januty angle inside the tower's shields, so now I wait to see if he moves. And I wait, and wait, and screw this, he's really boring. I'm fairly sure I have better ways to spend my time than watching a stationary Iteron, I just need to think of them. Noticing on my way back to our tower that the null-sec system remains quiet tempts me to getting my Tengu out there and seeing what lurks in an Angel Base. I know I perhaps ought to shoot some rats in k-space in order to help repair my security status after recent low-sec engagements, and this should help. I don't really know what to expect, though.

I've seen reports of null-sec complexes before, with swarms of frigates, cruisers, and battleships all blasting away at ships, and it looks rather overwhelming. I try to find some information on the Angel Base and find its difficulty rated as 'moderate' by some, which makes me hope I am not throwing my Tengu in to a tough situation where I lose it in an embarrassingly unprepared way. And it comes as quite a relief to see that the Angel rats are nothing compared to Sleepers. I indeed get swarmed by a dozen or so, but I am barely having to pulse my shield booster, my missiles are ripping through the rats' ships, and on top of that I don't need to worry about d-scan. Keeping an eye on the local channel will show me should anyone enter the system. For now I remain alone.

I clear the Angel Base a bit too easily, almost relying on only my Tengu's puny passive shield recharge, and getting a bit of pocket change from the bounties along with a pitiful increase in my security standing. I come back to loot and salvage, using my Noctis salvager to make it quick, getting a lot of mostly worthless modules that would look better melted in to minerals. At least I know that null-sec ratting can be fairly straightforward, and if I encounter another empty system I will probably opt for increasing my security status a bit more. For now, it's back in a stealth bomber and lurking at the tower holding the Iteron, who still hasn't moved. But that's okay, as Fin and Mick have turned up, and with little prompting I can get Fin over to this C5 in a Crane.

I earlier spotted a couple of unanchored defences around the Iteron's tower in the C5. 'Unanchored' means 'stealable', and if the occupants are going to be so careless as to leave loot lying around I think it's worth a few minutes of our time to claim it as our own. And as unlikely as it probably is there is a chance the Iteron pilot will see what we're doing and try to stop us, at which point my Manticore can greet him with open launchers. Fin and I coordinate our movements, making sure we are both aiming for the same defence at the same time, and she swoops in, scoops, and swoops out again. The same is repeated for the second defence, and still the Iteron just sits there. I wonder if his corporation will even notice the two missing defences.

Mick meanwhile scans further than me, bringing his scouting Loki strategic cruiser in to the C5 and finding out where it leads. We get a chain of w-space leading through a class 4 system where according to a named can a capsuleer is stuck, in to another class 5 system, and then in to deadly class 6 w-space. The wormhole leading in to the C6 is reaching the end of its natural lifetime, and I am happy to stop here, but Mick the Daring carries on, finding the C6 to be occupied but inactive, and resolving another wormhole to a C5. Jumping ahead sees mining ships somewhere in the system, but when they turn out to be sat pilotless in a tower Mick wisely decides to turn around and come home, which is where Fin and I already are.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Bridging through null-sec
Tags: charon, crane, drake, eve online, iteron, loki, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space

Save the whale

Fin's out in empire space in her Orca buying fuel. I'm sat on the wormhole in high-sec in my Legion, hoping to be a suitable deterrent to any ships interested in our connection. Mick's in his Arazu, reconnoitring the intermediate class 3 w-space system between high-sec and home. The C3 held some activity earlier, but nothing we could intercept and engage, and now it all looks quiet. We're not expecting any trouble getting Fin's industrial command ship back home but it's better to be safe than sorry, which is why I'm trying to look suitably threatening in my strategic cruiser and Mick's recon ship is keeping an eye on the C3 for new dangers. He spots one too, a scout apparently active with core scanning probes visible in the system, and clustering around the K162 heading to our home system.

The Orca is still in station, having tower fuel loaded in to its bays, and has a ponderous return journey to make, giving me time to head home and plant an interceptor on our wormhole in the hopes of catching the scout. I warp across the system to our K162 but, as the C3 is over 100 AU across and I am warping from one side to the other, by the time I reach the wormhole the scanning probes have disappeared. Undeterred, and knowing that the scout may have the same long warp ahead of him, I jump home, swap to my Malediction, and warp back to our wormhole to lie in wait. It's whilst I am lurking that Mick spots a Tengu strategic cruiser on his directional scanner in the C3, which could be the scanning boat, a ship my little interceptor would barely scratch. Once again, I stow the Malediction and return to my Legion.

Whatever or even whether the Tengu has scanned, he's not heading my way. He's spotted warping in the direction of the exit to high-sec in the C3, at about the same time that Fin jumps in to the high-sec system and is aligning to the wormhole. She holds her Orca steady as Mick follows the Tengu, reporting that it jumps to empire space. We also get a reminder of an earlier visitor we have seen in the C3, a Proteus strategic cruiser decloaking at the wormhole. A little over 2,500 km away from the Proteus, Mick is nearly reciprocally decloaked but luckily evades being bumped. Now we have interesting circumstances. The Tengu is warping Fin's way, and the Proteus is configured for covert operation and looks to by lying in wait. At the same time, my Legion should be a match for the Proteus and what better bait to lure him than an Orca? As long as we're facing only one strategic cruiser we should be in a good position.

Fin spots the Tengu warping to the gate she's sitting on and, reporting it to jump out, I call her to warp in to the wormhole and jump to the C3. At the same time, I jump from home and warp across the w-space system to land on the wormhole to high-sec, arriving there first and ready to protect our fuel-laden Orca. Even if the Tengu turns around immediately he'll have a short journey and a couple of system changes before he can catch up with whatever happens here, which should be plenty of time to despatch the Proteus, or get Fin home safely. We should be okay, if only because any of us will be able to jump to high-sec to escape destruction, including the Proteus.

The wormhole simultaneously flares and shrinks as Fin's industrial command ship jumps in to the C3, and she begins to align the massive Orca homewards. There is no sign of the Proteus, and I think about loitering for a bit longer to see if I can attract his attention. Luckily I realise my error in good time, understanding that the operation is not to engage the Proteus but get the Orca home safely, and instead of thinking what I can do to flush out the Proteus I too align my ship homewards. As soon as the Orca enters warp and flashes away I engage my own warp drives, flinging my ship across the system once more, landing on the wormhole moments before Fin's engines cut out to let her jump. We both enter our home system where I'm relieved to see all is clear.

Belay that smile of satisfaction, cadet! As the Orca decloaks and starts aligning I finally get an eyeball on the Proteus, not five kilometres away and targeting Fin. I don't even pause to consider the situation, knowing instead exactly why I am here and confident in my ship's capabilities. I decloak, lock the Proteus, and get all my systems hot. My launchers fire volleys of advanced missiles at the strategic cruiser, my energy neutralisers start sucking his capacitor dry, and I disrupt his warp engines because I can. I check the status of the Orca and it is holding up well, the on-board shield booster visibly pulsing outside the skin of the ship. Its shield levels are low but deceptively so, the effect of the pulsar phenomenon in the home system boosting their capacity but not level on jumping in. And it looks like I am having a greater effect on the Proteus than it on the Orca, as my target signals his retreat by jumping back through the wormhole to the C3.

The Proteus isn't getting away that easily. I follow him back to the class 3 w-space system, where Mick has caught up to the K162 in his Arazu and is also waiting. The strategic cruiser is caught before he can cloak or warp, and both Mick and I have him trapped. I engage all my systems against the Proteus again, happy now that Fin's Orca is safely warping back to our tower and much more confident in our assault after routing the ambush. This class 3 w-space system also holds a pulsar, degrading my Legion's defensive systems, but it is the Proteus fighting to escape destruction. He targets Mick's Arazu, perhaps hoping to secure some small victory from what he sees as inevitable defeat, but I don't think he's going to last that long. Missiles continue to slam in to the Proteus, shields vapourised and armour dropping rapidly. I doubt his capacitor has the energy to run any repair modules he has fitted.

In one of the most satisfying fireballs I've been party to so far in w-space, the Proteus explodes. Perhaps disorientated, the pilot doesn't even manage to get his pod clear of our ships before we have locked and pointed it. We make clear our intent to protect our colleagues and assets, ripping the pod apart and waking the capsuleer up in a new clone in some distant station. We scoop the corpse, loot the wreck of juicy modules and ammunition, and this time we don't shoot the wreck. Instead, Fin returns in a salvager to see what we can recover from the Tech III cruiser. As it turns out the salvage is rubbish, but we had plenty of time to pick through the wreckage this time and the results were worth finding out.

This has been a slick operation, even if it started out as a routine run for supplies. Mick's experienced scouting was invaluable in identifying the threat so that I was in a ship fit for repelling the threat of a strategic cruiser. We knew our route, coordinated our movements, and understood our roles. Fin's piloting was professional and brave, and although she missed the kill we got the Orca home safely with its cargo intact, which was our prime motive. And on a personal note I am really pleased that my ship killer lived up to its promise.

As a postscript, when the occupants of the class 3 system find out about our kill they join our open channel to both congratulate and thank us. The Proteus was not in their corporation and had in fact been camping in the C3, hounding them for a couple of days. We take the thanks gracefully, but don't mention to the C3 locals that we too were trying to hunt them, as sometimes it pays to be diplomatic.

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Tags: arazu, eve online, legion, malediction, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, tengu, w-space

Looking for targets, finding fuel

There's no one home and the bookmarks in the can are stale. I'd best delete them and scan afresh. The wormhole sits nice and obvious amongst the two dozen signatures in our w-space system, and looks to be the only one present. I jump through to our neighbouring class 3 system to explore, finding but a single planet within range of my directional scanner on the other side of the wormhole. Having a distant wormhole is great for hunting, giving covert passage between systems, and I can launch probes discreetly immediately. Finding the system to be over 100 AU in diameter is as much an inconvenience as it is a problem. Warp times will be longer, and keeping an eye on any situation is going to be awkward. That is, if there is a situation happening.

I am still able to blanket this C3 with my probes, even if it is almost difficult, and I am a little crestfallen when I discover a complete lack of ships here. There looks to be a tower somewhere, which I warp off to find, and nine signatures keeping the lone anomaly company. The tower is easy enough to find, and at least it is on-line even if empty. I bring my probes back in to the system and arrange them to start sifting through the signatures when a Badger hauler warps in to the tower. Badgers can't warp cloaked, and my probes have only a moment ago told me there were no ships in the system, so I am guessing this pilot has just woken up. I fling my probes back out of the system to hide them, then consider that a hauler may initially check his planet goo situation. I'll want my stealth bomber to shadow the Badger, so recall my probes and head home to swap ships.

By the time I've made the trip across vast swathes of empty space to the K162 and back, making the relatively short hop back home to get my Manticore, the Badger has disappeared. I continue with my assumption that the pilot will start his day collecting planet goo and warp off to try to find him. Locating the hauler at one of the customs offices won't be easy when most planets are out of d-scan range of each other, so I hedge my chances and warp to the inner system, where I can at least monitor four planets indirectly. I don't see a Badger on d-scan when I get close to the star, but a Raven is out and about. I don't see where, and he's definitely not shooting Sleepers in the anomaly, but a second check of d-scan now reveals a jet-can named 'loot'. It seems like an odd choice to me, but perhaps the Raven is harvesting gas. I'll need my Buzzard covert operations boat again to scan his position.

Back in the C3 in my Buzzard, our distant K162 lets me launch probes safely out of d-scan range of just about everything, and I move them out of the system as I warp back towards the star to begin narrowing down the Raven's position. Except once I get to where the Raven was all I can see are different combat scanning probes and a lack of ships. I check to make sure they really aren't my combat probes—and they aren't—before warping to check the tower, where the Raven pilot is now swapped in to a Sigil hauler. Glorious leader Fin wakes up to join me in the C3, her in a stealth bomber in case the Sigil makes a target of himself, but when the hauler warps he heads in a direction I don't recognise. I follow in roughly the same direction, having to land around a celestial object to monitor the ship using d-scan, where I see a Proteus strategic cruiser also appear. Both ships disappear again before too long, without any wrecks being left behind, and I am left wondering what just happened.

Two new pilots arrive at the local tower, in Drake and Harbinger battlecruisers. The Sigil is not to be seen, making me wonder if he exited the system. As I have probes out in the system, and there are others still very much visible, I start looking for a wormhole in case we can catch the hauler on his return, Fin keeping eyes on the tower. I only find two ladar, two gravimetric, and a radar site in the inner system, no wormhole, but it looks like the Raven from earlier probably was harvesting gas. I expand my search to the rest of the system, resolving a K162 coming from high-sec empire space a stone's throw from the tower, and the system's static exit to low-sec a little further afield. I still don't know where the Sigil went, and the C3 has mostly quietened down now. The combat probes persist in the system, though.

Mick turns up and we update him on the situation. With probes out and about, potentially pushing the scout towards our K162, Mick boards an interdictor and sits in wait on the wormhole in our system. Nothing else is happening in the C3, so I go back and join him in my Malediction interceptor. It occurs to me that we could be waiting for no one, particularly if the scout is a tourist from high-sec and wary about delving too deep in to w-space. Having a bit of time on my hands makes me opine about missing the Raven from earlier, a potentially juicy kill ruined by what could be an inexperienced tourist, at which point Fin reminds me that the scout is perhaps in that Proteus briefly seen. That's a good point, it could be a cloaky scout, and it would need more than my tiny interceptor to hurt it. I chuck my Malediction back in our hangar and return to loiter with Mick on our wormhole in my killer Legion strategic crusier.

Despite the activity dying down we have access to a connection to high-sec. It's worth checking the exit to see where it leads, and with still no scout jumping through to our system I take my Legion across the C3 to find out. Jumping out of w-space puts my ship in Gallente territory and apparently only nine hops to Dodixie. It looks like we can buy some fuel, and the relative safety of the high-sec connection encourages Fin to take an Orca industrial command ship out to buy fuel. It's more sluggish to get between destinations, but the volume of fuel and fittings it can hold makes a single trip of the Orca more efficient than multiple trips in a more agile and stealthy Crane transport ship. We should be okay with my Legion as an escort, which for now I keep lazily orbiting the wormhole in high-sec as a warning for approaching pilots, and Mick now in his Arazu recon ship making sure the C3 remains quiet. We may not have engaged any ships, but being able to fill an Orca to restock the tower's fuel supply is a good result.

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Tags: arazu, badger, buzzard, drake, eve online, harbinger, legion, malediction, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, raven, scanning, sigil, w-space

Looking in the wrong direction

Despite not popping the Moa harvesting gas I am not expecting the cruiser to be back in the ladar when I return from eating my sammich. Rather than roaming in a stealth bomber I take my Buzzard covert operations boat through our neighbouring class 3 w-space system and in to the connecting class 4, in case I need or get the opportunity to scan the C4 more fully. Hullo, as I move away from the wormhole and cloak after jumping in to the C4 a Hound stealth bomber jumps behind me in to the C3. Maybe I should have brought my Manticore after all, but there's not much I can do about it now. I note the possibility of being bombed and, seeing core scanning probes visible on my directional scanner, loiter on the wormhole to see if the Hound returns. I could use a Fin right about now.

The Hound doesn't come back to stalk me, and maybe he's simply waiting for me to turn around and fly in to his clutches. I'm happy in this C4 for now, particularly as I entered through a random outbound connection in the C3, giving me this system's static wormhole to find at a minimum. I warp away to launch probes and start scanning, feeling no need to be coy now that I've been seen and with probes already in the system, returning to monitor the wormhole to the C3 for any movements. There are few signatures in the system, and the ladar site from earlier already disappeared gives one less to worry about. There is only a gravimetric site to resolve along with the static wormhole, and although the connection to class 2 w-space would normally be alluring it is currently at the end of its natural lifetime.

A Tengu strategic cruiser and Heron frigate appear on d-scan, and I find both ships inside the shields of the local tower. The probes I see could belong to the Heron, or he could be a new arrival, and the Tengu's appearance may turn out to be interesting if he decides to leave the tower. Fin returns from her absence as the Heron pilot swaps to a Badger, making me hope he will believe the passage of time has made his system safe again, if he and the Hound don't talk to each other, and I prompt Fin to get herself in a stealth bomber and over to this C4 in the hopes of an easy kill. Or, better still, maybe we can flush out the Hound.

Fin makes her way to the T405 in our class 3 neighbouring system and loiters. I head back to the K162 side of the same wormhole, getting ready to jump back to the C3. If the Hound is still waiting for me Fin can counter the attack and give the pilot a bit of a surprise. The only way this brilliant plan can fail is if the Hound isn't actually waiting for me, and jumping through the wormhole shows this to be the case, leaving us both sitting expectantly at the wormhole doing nothing. The five core probes on d-scan in the C3 are interesting, though, and I go home to plant my Malediction interceptor on our static wormhole, whilst Fin takes a look around. She reports the probes getting closer to our K162, but then they all disappear abruptly and there is no sign of a scout investigating either our wormhole or the static exit to null-sec.

The C3 quiet again, Fin explores ahead in to the C4, seeing the Hound on d-scan there, along with the Tengu, the Badger pilot back in his Moa, and a new Prowler, all found at the tower. It seems possible, if peculiar, that the Hound was the scanning boat, not waiting for me and responsible for the probes seen. But that's okay, as it turns out, as a routine check of d-scan at home shows five probes clustered around my Malediction. Actually, as they are core scanning probes they are clustered around our static wormhole, and I am merely there contingently. And also because they are core scanning probes, and not combat scanning probes, they have not directly detected my Malediction being here too. It looks like we have a K162 opened up in our home system, and I may yet have the chance of catching a scout. I jump through to the other side of the wormhole and resume waiting with some level of patience in the C3.

There are some movements afoot in the C4. Fin reports the Hound warping around, perhaps to the wormhole back to the C3, and hoping to catch him I thrust my interceptor towards the other side of the same connection. I see no Hound, nor a flare indicating a jump, and head back to our K162 in case I miss the other scout coming through. It's only back at the K162 that I see the Hound on d-scan, showing his entry to the system and my missed opportunity. He must have seen me now too, and is not only cautious about approaching our wormhole but is mobilising ships back in his C4. A Drake battlecruiser is launched and set to sit on their side of the wormhole. On top of that, a Legion strategic cruiser and Vagabond cruiser become piloted, all of which makes me want to call it a flare!

I was going to call it a night, but what I see is a flare, leaving a half-written message to Fin in our communication channel. A ship has jumped through the wormhole I'm sitting on, and it is probably the owner of the scanning probes I saw. Judging by his reluctance to shed his session change cloak I think it's safe to say he's wary of my interceptor. I activate my micro warp drive, and get my weapon and disruption systems hot. I'm not sure if the pilot will try to flee in to the C3 or just head back the way he came, so I need to get an eyeball on him quickly and look for the tell-tale signs of his ship jumping. Finally, his ship appears, I get a quick target lock, and I hear another flare. The Helios cov-ops shimmers at the same time and I know he's making a break for home. I get my Malediction through the wormhole to follow him.

Back in our home system I shed my session change cloak immediately and get all my systems hot again. The Helios doesn't wait for the session change timer to end this time, knowing that it will work against his hoping to beat my reactions, but I am alert and ready. I gain a second positive lock on his Helios and disrupt his warp drive, not even needing to bump his ship to decloak him. My ship is faster, better armed, and fully in control, and to all intents and purposes it looks like the Helios gives up. Indeed, it's not long before the ship pops under the incoming fire of my rockets and laser, but just before its structure disintegrates I drop one of the two warp disruption effects I have active in preparation. My sharp targeting systems snag the pod, and the now-spare point holds it in place to deliver a fresh corpse for me to scoop.

I let Fin know what's happening, backspacing over the part about calling it a night, and apologising for sending her on a wild goose chase to watch capsuleers shuffle between ships whilst I stumble over a Helios podding. I could have called her over, but although warping across two systems and making a single jump doesn't seem like it takes much time it actually takes at least twice the session change timer to achieve, and it seems rather impolite to effectively invite a colleague to come and look at a corpse you're scooping. Even so, I think we can ignore the C4 now, as they held some interest but have done little since some fool bombed their Moa earlier, but there is more to be done. For a start, there is the K162 to locate in our home system.

I exchange the Malediction for my Buzzard and start scanning. I soon find a new signature, the wormhole undoubtedly the K162 the Helios used to enter our system, and I bookmark the deadspace signature, copy it to our shared can, and head off to explore. I swap ships again, taking my Manticore to roam the new connection, on the assumption that the connecting system is the origin of the Helios pilot. The K162 connects back to more class 4 w-space, and jumping through and punching d-scan excites me with a display of a Hulk exhumer, Prowler transport ship, and Orca industrial command ship. The additional presence of a tower predictably enough means I find all the ships safely nestled inside its shields. They are also all unpiloted, and the only ships in the system.

The owner corporation of the tower in this new C4 matches that of the Helios pilot, so I at least know he came from here and don't need to find another wormhole. But with this C4 sleepy and the other boring it looks like the evening really has come to an end. Fin takes a little time to collect some planet goo, and I shadow her in my interceptor in case a stealth bomber has followed us home and is being sneaky. But Fin is rather good at living in w-space and particularly cautious about superficially routine tasks, keeping her safe from any attempts to follow her route. Once all the planet goo is collected and stored in our hangar we both hit the sack, after another interesting and occsionally eventful evening.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Looking in the wrong direction
Tags: badger, buzzard, drake, eve online, helios, heron, hound, hulk, legion, malediction, manticore, mmorpg, moa, orca, penny ibramovic, prowler, pvp, tengu, vagabond, w-space

With a rebel yell

The static wormhole has been mapped for our home system, but nothing further. I copy the bookmark from our shared can to my nav-comp and head out to explore our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. Punching my directional scanner gets me a little excited until I realise all those Mastodon transport ships are merely giant secure containers given teasing names. I can actually see no ships in the system yet, only two off-line towers and those GSCs. I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system, confirming a lack of ships but finding twenty anomalies and a similar number of signatures. Warping around also reveals a third off-line tower, perhaps indicating that this C3 has changed hands a few times.

I locate each off-line tower, which also finds the GSCs clustered around one of them. Glorious leader Fin brings in a Bustard transport ship to claim the GSCs as our own and, chomp chomp chomp, swallows them all up in one visit. And then, like Kaiser Soze, she's gone. I'm not going to shoot Sleepers alone, despite buying the Golem marauder ostensibly for these opportunities, and start sifting through the signatures to check for any secondary wormholes in the system. I will either confirm the system is relatively secure, or perhaps find more to explore.

Scanning is simplified in an unoccupied system. Rather than resolving each signature and bookmarking it, in case of potential ambushes, I simply identify the type of each signature and ignore it if it isn't a wormhole. Only needing to resolve the signature to 25% strength to identify it helps speed the process, only having to spend time resolving what turns out to be a wormhole. I bookmark the deadspace signature of the connection from the scanning interface, not wanting to visit it yet, but a second wormhole is interesting. Actually, the second wormhole makes the first one interesting, as the second is a weak enough signature to suggest an exit to null-sec k-space, making the first one I scanned more likely to be a K162.

I warp to the first wormhole I scanned and find it not to be a K162, but interesting none the less in that it is a T405 random outbound connection to class 4 w-space. I do indeed have more to explore. There are no more wormholes in this C3, so I jump through the wormhole in to the C4, where d-scan shows me a tower, Drake battlecruiser, and Moa cruiser. There is even a jet-can given a timed name somewhere in the system, which makes me think the Moa is harvesting gas somewhere. A quick spin with a tighter-beamed d-scan shows the Moa outside of the tower and coincident with the can, giving me a ship to hunt.

The system is big enough that I can warp outside of d-scan range of the tower and ships to launch probes, a blanket scan showing me four anomalies, four signatures, and just the two ships. The tower turns out easy to find too, being anchored to the sole moon of one of the inner-system planets, where I warp to check the status of the Drake. The battlecruiser is piloted, perhaps to clear any Sleepers that show up to interrupt the Moa, but it also adds a threat to my planned ambush. A Badger hauler, on the other hand, merely adds a second target. The pilot of the Drake has swapped ships and warps out, the jet-can in space disappearing as the harvested gas is collected and returned to the tower. The Moa stays out, though, so the operation hasn't ended yet.

I start locating the gas harvesting Moa. I get its position in space down to within a five degree d-scan beam, and 210 to 215 million kilometres from my position, which is just under 1·5 AU, its proximity making it easier for me to position my combat scanning probes. I arrange my probes around where I think the Moa is in space, take a breath, and hit 'scan'. It's a hit, and noting that I have at least one result at 100% strength I recall my probes so that they don't appear on d-scan for longer than necessary. I have the Moa's position, and the ladar site it is in, both of which I bookmark. I pause for a few seconds, checking d-scan for signs that my probes were spotted, but the Moa remains out in space. It looks like I've got him.

I head home, dropping short of the wormhole back to the C3 to again minimise my visibility on d-scan. Once out of the C4 I recklessly zoom across the C3 and our home system with no regard for being spotted, in order to save time. I stow the scanning boat and board my Manticore stealth bomber, not willing to risk the sluggish Onyx heavy interdictor when a second pilot is active in the target system, and return as quickly as possbile to the C4. I move away from the wormhole in the class 4 system and cloak, happy to see the Moa still on d-scan along with a new jet-can. Rather than burst directly in to the ladar site, though, I bounce off the tower to check on the second pilot.

The second pilot is back in his Drake, but is idling inside the tower's shields. Even if he reacts to my ambushing of the Moa I should have plenty of time to pop the cruiser, and maybe even catch the pod, before he can get to the ladar site. But the thought occurs to me that I could be even more cunning, and rather than catch only the Moa I could wait until the second pilot goes out in the Badger again to collect the gas, warping myself to the site to pop the Moa whilst the more laggardly Badger follows behind, unable to turn around, giving me a second helping of piracy. And, as luck would have it, I don't have long to wait at all, the pilot swapping the Drake for Badger not ten seconds after I decide to wait.

I am aligned to the ladar site in preparation, and race the Badger in to warp. I am aiming to drop out of warp twenty kilometres from the Moa, assuming he hasn't moved, as my experience with navigating gas clouds is not positive and I want to loose the bomb and start shooting immediately. As long as I can pop the Moa without fuss I should be able to snag the Badger before he can turn around to flee. The situation looks good as I drop out of warp, the Moa indeed a mere twenty kilometres from me and seemingly oblivious, and I have beaten the Badger to the site. I make sure I'm aligned before decloaking, launching my bomb, and locking the Moa.

Systems are activated, I wait for the bomb to detonate, and find out I am all fingers and thumbs when trying to follow up with torpedoes. It seems too long since I last ambushed an innocent industrialist in my stealth bomber and I'm all a-fluster. Not only am I tardy in cycling my siege launchers but I watch helplessly as the Moa warps away, barely losing half its shields. I assume initially that it had warp stabilisers fitted, shrugging off my single warp disruption effect, but I may have accidentally deactivated the point in the excitement. I honestly don't know which happened, and both are possible.

I've missed the Moa, but the Badger has turned up and must be a valid target. And it would be a valid target if the weirdo hadn't warped to the ladar site's deadspace signature and not the Moa's position, as he now sits seventy kilometres from my Manticore, far out of warp disruption range. Even so, I switch my attention to him now that we are the only two ships here, and burn towards him whilst gaining a positive target lock. Of course, I am nowhere near fast enough to cover fifty kilometres in the time it takes even a Badger to turn around, and my first volley of torpedoes disperses as they no longer have a target, the Badger warping away in time easily.

There's not much more for me to do now but re-activate my cloak and pretend none of this happened. It was a solid opportunity, with a great bit of one-shot scanning leading to a sitting duck of a Moa. It's a little embarrassing that I got it wrong, my only consolation being that it is quite possible the cruiser was warp-stabbed and its escape not my fault. I'm also quite pleased that I saw the chance of a double-ambush, and nearly pulled it off. But never mind, the moment's gone. Both ships are back at their tower and staying resolutely inside the shields. I think I'll head home and make myself a sammich.

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Tags: badger, bustard, drake, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, moa, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Exploring the vacuum

Oh look, our tower's still here, and completely intact. I suppose the foul-mouthed null-seccers didn't consider us worth bothering, or didn't want to sully their ships by being in w-space for longer than necessary. Either way, it's business as usual, and I get my Buzzard covert operations boat out to scan the home system, quickly finding our static wormhole and seeing no obvious sign of a K162. I jump in to our neighbouring class 3 system to explore today's constellation.

I was in this C3 only five weeks ago, when it was occupied and I found a static exit to null-sec k-space. I can only seen an off-line tower on my directional scanner at the moment, but not where I have the on-line one listed in my notes. Actually, I can also see a ship wreck, and it is interesting in being an Amarr battlecruiser wreck. Some kind of confrontation has occurred here recently, although I cannot tell whether it is owing to Sleepers or other capsuleers.

I am free to launch probes, letting me perform a blanket scan of the system whilst I warp to the location of the tower in my notes. I find the tower still to be on-line and operational, and my probes show me eleven anomalies, five signatures, and four ships. All four ships are sitting unpiloted in the tower's shields, making the system currently inactive, and I start resolving the signatures present whilst no one's watching. The weak wormhole signature must be the static exit, and the other three unknown signatures are all ladar gas harvesting sites.

The wreck of the battlecruiser is not coincident with the wormhole, which I leave unvisited for now, nor any of the anomalies or ladar sites. My best guess is that the ship was destroyed on a now-collapsed wormhole, or maybe in a site that has since deactivated. Either way, the locals look to have been spooked and are not showing themselves. As nothing is happening, and Fin and Mick are not around, I simply head home, copy the bookmarks to our shared can, and go to grab a bite to eat.

Through the magic of narrative structure I am back after grub and roaming in the C3 in my Manticore stealth bomber. Sadly, there is still nothing happening, but the lingering presence of the battlecruiser wreck becomes more interesting. Wrecks only last in the vacuum of space for two hours before disintegrating, so I must have jumped in to the system to see it on d-scan half-an-hour or less after the ship was destroyed. That doesn't really help with locating it or working out what happened, but it indicates that the locals perhaps won't be back for a while longer.

Glorious leader Fin and Mick are both here now and have started to collapse our static wormhole, already having worked out that the current neighbouring C3 is a little dull, hoping to find more than Sleepers to shoot. The collapse is smooth, and Mick scans the new static wormhole and jumps through to explore anew. 'On-line tower, no ships', comes his report. He in fact finds two on-line towers and six decent anomalies we could blast through, but still no one to shoot. It seems like a while since we've had a decent scrap, the pot-shot at the null-seccers hardly counting, and we're all keen to keep looking. We collapse our wormhole a second time.

Mick scans again, and again he jumps through to class 3 w-space to report. 'One Russian tower, one Russian Zealot', he tells us, the lone heavy assault ship sounding familiar to me. I find out the system number and match it to a C3 we visited only seven weeks ago, but I suppose it's hardly an uncommon ship. And when I encountered the lone Zealot it was piloted, whereas this one today isn't, still leaving us with no one to shoot. The collapsing and exploring has taken its time, almost bringing the evening to a close. And not wanting to collapse our wormhole a third time makes me stow my ship and call it a night. W-space can be quiet on occasions, but sometimes it feels empty. Maybe we should make more of our Sleeper-shooting opportunities when they arise.

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

From Russia with love

Like Schrödinger's capsuleer, Fin's here and not here. I see her in our corporation channel but not in our home w-space system, and thankfully she's not too far away, only in our neighbouring class 3 system and not some festering petri dish of biological samples that is empire space. Our neighbouring system, Fin tells me, 'was going to be a rich point of action, until a big null-sec alliance came in to shoot an off-line tower'. Quite why they are taking the time to shoot a tower that will only reward them with a few standard defences is beyond our ken, particularly when there are plenty of profitable anomalies to plunder in the C3. Maybe shooting a barn door for hours on end is what passes as entertainment in null-sec.

I grab the BMs Fin took time to make, jump in to my Manticore stealth bomber, and head across to the C3 to join her in watching the lack of action. I count seven battleships, four stealth bombers, and a battlecruiser, along with a couple of dozen drones swarming around the tower. We're not going to be able to do much here, and even a couple of bombs won't put much of a dent in most of the ships. We could try to collapse our wormhole, but there's no guarantee we can do that. It's possible that the pilots are only paying enough attention to reload ammunition and check occasionally that they're not under attack, probably confident in the low odds of a w-space fleet being formed to try to engage them directly. They may not even notice our Orca industrial command ship appearing briefly on their directional scanner.

On the other hand, we have some evidence that they've scanned the C3 and found our wormhole, and if they are paying attention then trying to collapse our wormhole will get us killed. Of course, throwing a bomb in their direction will definitely get their attention and perhaps get us in to trouble, but at least it's something to do. And now Mick has turned up, giving us a third bomb at our disposal. After a little contemplation, and noticing that a Nemesis stealth bomber in the null-seccers' fleet is making a stationary target of himself, we decide to poke the hornets' nest. If nothing else, their reaction will give us a good indication of how safe it is to push an Orca through our static connection.

Getting our three stealth bombers in to position is quite straightfoward against a tower operation. We have off-line defences at cardinal points to use as reference, and the tower itself as a guide to range. The static nature of the targets lets us approach from different directions, and there are celestial objects all over the place we can use to align to. All three of us get within optimal range of the Nemesis and are ready to attack when Mick notices a canister jettisoned by a Raven battleship, renamed to show the fleet clearly know we're here and what we are planning to do.

Bully for them. I suppose we could back off passively, but this assault is about opportunism and disruption, and if we take cues from our targets we may as well head back to high-sec and run missions for NPCs. A quick check confirms that we all all in position, aligned, and ready to fire. A short countdown synchronises our bomb launches, all aimed primarily at the Nemesis. My own position puts the Nemesis between my Manticore and a distant moon, so I align to the moon, launch, hold for a second, and enter warp smoothly, not wanting to hang around for the ensuing fireworks.

Fin's position also lets her align to a celestial body, and she warps away cleanly after launching her bomb. Mick sticks around to throw some torpedoes too, losing his Nemesis for his boldness, and I see his wreck when I warp back to the tower to a different position to witness the aftermath. I ask Mick what hit him. 'Everything', he says. And on top of that we get a verbal assault, the local channel flaring up with insults and threats, mocking or otherwise, all of which is rather over-the-top. We didn't even pop the Nemesis, it being slightly scorched but otherwise intact, not that you would know from the invective hurled our way.

These null-seccers are not only dicks, they are also not that bright. Either that, or we really are Russians from a class 5 w-space system and I've been in denial for a long time. It's soon made clear that they do in fact know about our wormhole and home system and are just filling in the gaping holes in their knowledge with bluster. And swearing. I can only suppose their corporation has a rather loose policy about smack-talk in local, and probably recruitment. But at least we now know that they have been keeping tabs on us for a while and trying to send an Orca through our static wormhole to collapse it probably would have ended quite badly. I think that's worth the cost of a stealth bomber.

There's not much else to do now, we pretty much have to hole up at home for the evening. We're not entirely sure whether to take their threats about coming to attack our tower next seriously or not. They clearly have the means and the motivation, much like giving a box of matches to a child gives it the means and motivation to burn a house down. Either way, there's no point worrying about it, and no point making it easier for them. As a precaution we load up the Orcas with loot, ships, and fuel and send them off to safe-spots, and Mick and I each take an expensive ship out to a safe-spot to sleep in overnight.

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Tags: eve online, hound, manticore, mmorpg, nemesis, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, raven, w-space

Scanning and collapsing

Sites are popping up everywhere in the home system. Our recent spate of invaders has calmed down, no longer rampaging through our system whilst we sleep, stealing profit that we'd never realise anyway, and the local concentrations of rocks and gas are beginning to build up again. I am mostly ignoring the new sites as I look for today's static wormhole, even if I am better served by resolving and bookmarking each one to more easily disregard them on subsequent days. Despite the increasing clutter, I find our connection to class 3 w-space and head there with Fin to explore.

I spy a Drake battlecruiser and Orca industrial command ship on my directional scanner, along with an active tower. A quick adjustment of my settings and a second look reveals no wrecks, however, so I am probably looking for two unpiloted ships. I locate the tower and am pleased to see another capsuleer, and that he is in the Orca. The Drake would be a more challenging target, I have no doubt, but a punching bag can give a satisfying workout too, and the Orca fits that bill nicely. Of course, this is assuming the Orca will come out of the tower.

My best hope is that the Orca is mid-way through collapsing a wormhole and will soon make another trip. But even if this were the case catching him would be tricky, as the system spans less than 14 AU between the two most distant planets, preventing me from launching probes covertly. Of course, I would still need to scan the system to find wherever the Orca would be going. Thankfully, I think I can manage scanning without being noticed, but sadly only because I don't think the Orca is going to move. A refinery is being brought on-line and has thirty minutes left until it is ready, and I suspect the pilot of the Orca is having a whale of a time outside of the command deck as the timer ticks down.

Assuming the Orca isn't paying attention I begin scanning. Five anomalies are bookmarked and six signatures sifted. Unexpected exploration excitement is spawned by resolving a second wormhole, after first finding the static exit to low-sec empire space, a K162 coming from class 5 w-space looking rather pretty to me at the moment. Not expecting any further connections beyond the K162 I return home, share my current bookmarks with Fin, and swap my scanning boat for a Manticore stealth bomber instead. Fin goes to monitor the Orca in the C3 whilst I take a look around the C5.

I see no ships, but I also see no towers. D-scan is clear at the connection leading back to the C3, and I bookmark it, move away, and cloak. Warping to a far planet locates a tower and an unpiloted Anathema, and crossing to the other side of the system sees a second tower and four more ships. None of them are piloted, though, the Rokh and Scorpion battleships, and two Ishkur assault ships inside the tower's force field simply teasing me. I could swap ships again and come back to scan the C5, searching for another K162 that would lead to piloted ships, but we stand more chance of finding activity by collapsing our own wormhole and starting the evening again.

A few Orca trips later and I am looking for a new wormhole. I performed a pre-emptive scan-and-ignore of all the signatures in the home system, forcing the single new signature to stick out like a sore thumb when it appears shortly after the collapse. I resolve, warp, and jump. Only an off-line tower greets me on d-scan, but the system is bigger than my scanner can reach. Not by much, but I am thinking positive thoughts. A blanket scan of the system reveals five more anomalies and nine signatures, and exploration finds a second off-line tower. There are still no ships, though.

Gravimetric, ladar, ladar, gravimetric. With the strongest signatures discounted the static wormhole stinks like a null-sec connection, and removes the possibility of finding a fat K162 in the system. I skip over a couple of radar sites as Fin resolves the wormhole, which indeed leads out to null-sec k-space, and we decide to collapse our wormhole a second time. At least we've become experienced with pushing enough mass through our static connection to kill it, no longer needing to count millions of kilogrammes on our fingers. I have already ominously announced that if there are no targets in this next class 3 system I am getting an early night, but Fin thinks 'the third time's a charm'.

A clear d-scan in the third C3 of the evening is not automatically a bad sign, particularly as only one planet happens to be in scan range. I launch probes and blanket the system, happy to see a ship in the scan results amongst nine anomalies and three signatures. I would feel more optimistic if the ship didn't happen to be so far from any of the anomalies, as it looks like it is snuggled close to a planet and likely to be inside a tower. It may even be unpiloted. Warping out to the planet all but confirms the inactive state of the ship, a Nidhoggur carrier, as shown now by d-scan, unlikely to be operating solo, and locating the tower is merely a formality.

My last hope for the evening is for the rogue signature in this system to be another wormhole, the other two being our K162 home and the system's static connection. But I resolve only a gravimetric site, and the static wormhole doesn't buck the trend of leading out to k-space, giving us another exit to null-sec. I turn my ship around and head home. I've scanned a lot, and warped around a fair bit, but I don't feel like I've done much. W-space is like that sometimes. I go to bed wondering what the Orca pilot in that first C3 is up to now.

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Tags: anathema, drake, eve online, ishkur, manticore, mmorpg, nidhoggur, orca, penny ibramovic, rokh, scanning, scorpion, w-space

Sleepers and slow interception

All is quiet, despite others being here. W-space seems sleepy today, and even taking my stealth bomber for a roam in our neighbouring class 3 system doesn't wake anyone up. There are two towers in the C3 but a lack of ships, and no one is stirring. With a bit of prodding I wake glorious leader Fin up, so that we can at least take Tengu and Golem out to clear the two anomalies in the C3. My marauder gets a nice boost from the pulsar in the system, increasing my capacitor enough for the ship to be stable running my x-large booster constantly. And with my booster on all the time I no longer have to concern myself with incoming damage, easily absorbing anything the Sleepers can throw at me whilst I concentrate on looting and salvaging.

As well as affecting capacitors, the pulsar phenomenon also reduces armour resistances and increases the signature radius of ships, which becomes a big help shooting torpedoes at Sleepers. Sleeper ships don't have shields and rely on armour as their main protection, and there is probably some fancy maths that explains why torpedoes like hitting targets with a bigger signature radius. Fin says that watching my Golem's torpedoes slam in to the Sleepers 'is like watching a Great White shark take bites out of surfers'. It is quite impressive, but I'm not convinced I'm hitting harder than usual, my logs indicating similar damage seen when engaging Sleepers in normal systems.

No one wakes up in the class 3 system whilst we reduce the two anomalies to vacuum, my Golem scooping all that can be salvaged from the wrecks in to its hold as we go. We get home with over a hundred and fifty million iskies in profit, which is pretty good from only two sites. Now we collapse our wormhole to look for new targets, hopefully capsuleer ones this time. As tends to be the case when my Golem has been taken out on a sortie, the collapse is smooth with just the Orca industrial command ship used. I perform a pre-emptive scan and ignore of all the sites at home, letting me see the newly spawned wormhole signature easily. I resolve the signature, warp to the wormhole, and jump.

A tower and no ships once again doesn't look promising, although it's possible the locals are off shooting Sleepers or mining outside the range of my directional scanner. I launch probes and blanket the system, an initial scan returning two anomalies, four signatures, and no ships. It's all quiet again. A wormhole is almost on top of our K162, and it is not the system's static connection but a second K162, this one coming in from high-sec empire space. There won't be any tourists coming in to liven up our evening, though, as the wormhole is reaching the end of its natural lifetime. We continue scanning to resolve a gravimetric mining site and the static wormhole, also a connection to high-sec space and one that's healthy.

Thoughts of clearing the anomalies in this C3 are purged when we realise there is a phenomenon in this system too, this one not the helpful pulsar but a Wolf-Rayet star. The Wolf-Rayet phenomenon gives significant penalties to shield systems and boosts to armour, which we could probably overcome but it strikes me as rather masochistic to attempt when we don't need to. Instead, we export our stored Sleeper loot to empire space, NPC buyers of such items present in the exit system in the Kor-Azor region, after which we collapse our wormhole a second time.

Mick comes back from making a sammich to help with scanning the new wormhole. He resolves the wormhole, calls me in so I can grab a bookmark, and jumps to the third class 3 w-space system of the evening. He immediately spies a Helios covert operations boat on d-scan, prompting me to dash back to our tower to swap to my Malediction interceptor, hoping the Helios will come this way. But Mick thinks the scanning boat may actually be sat in a planet's orbit, which would let us catch him before he even jumps. I stick with my plan to get the interceptor to our wormhole, so that Mick can locate the Helios and I can swoop in to ensure we catch him, but before I make it back to our static wormhole Mick has the cov-ops in his sights.

Mick's Loki strategic cruiser dropped out of warp on top of a scanning probe launched by the Helios, which decloaks him and gives little option but to engage. He has the cov-ops locked and pointed, and is holding the ship for me to warp to him, ostensibly so that my interceptor can catch the pod too, but also because we like to share the fun in popping ships. But the Helios pilot wakes up and starts moving. In case the target has warp core stabilisers fitted, and some do, Mick stops dilly-dallying and destroys the Helios. He catches the pod too, even without my interceptor, and introduces a capsuleer to hard vacuum. I finally get my sluggish Malediction to his position to see only the aftermath of the violence.

It's a neat little kill, and shows that you really can't be complacent when it comes to simple matters like launching probes. Mick explores the system whilst I try in vain to recover the stranded probes, learning that the Helios is not from this system, perhaps giving us a new w-space system to find. But it's already late and I doubt the colleagues of the Helios will be innocently coming out to play when they learn that we podded one of their number. We also need to find the wormhole leading to their system first, and there are quite a few signatures to sift through. I turn my Malediction around and head home, to get some rest.

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Tags: eve online, golem, helios, loki, malediction, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Hassling a Hulk pilot

The home system is still empty on my return, and it's perhaps a little optimistic to hope that the neighbours are out harvesting gas in the lone site in their class 3 w-space system. I am keen to find out, though, so I board my Manticore stealth bomber and take a look. Jumping in to the C3 sees no change, according to my directional scanner, with just the Imicus frigate and Viator transport ship sharing space with the two towers. I start to push my Manticore towards the ladar site, to activate it out of spite, when a hopeful last check of d-scan shows me a pod in the system. It looks like another pilot has woken up.

It doesn't take long to find the new pilot, his pod having warped to one of the towers in the system. It does, however, take a while for him to do anything that doesn't involve sitting stationary in a pod. Curiously enough, the pilot boards a Hulk exhumer and starts moving, to the point of entering warp and flashing away from the tower. It seems like an odd choice of ship, considering the lack of gravimetric sites in this C3, and my only guess is that he's heading out to empire space, having warped in the rough direction of the static wormhole.

I follow behind the Hulk, at least I think I do, aiming to drop short of the wormhole by ten kilometres, because if he hasn't come this way my cloak will be deactivated by landing on the wormhole and signal my presence. But the Hulk has indeed warped to the wormhole, my Manticore landing to see him jump out to empire space. On this occasion I am quite glad that this C3 is typical in having its static exit lead to low-sec, as it lets me follow and engage the slow-aligning exhumer, almost guaranteeing me the kill. I drop my cloak, burn towards the wormhole, and jump.

Out in low-sec the Hulk is trying its hardest to align to what is probably a stargate. I really don't care, as I shed my session change cloak, lock the Hulk, and disrupt its warp engines, preventing it from going anywhere. My torpedoes start slamming in to the unarmed mining ship, my security status taking another dive for this act of piracy, leaving the pilot little option but to explode in low-sec or w-space. He chooses w-space, perhaps hoping I won't notice that he disappears through the wormhole, but I follow and re-engage back in my natural habitat. The Hulk explodes soon enough and, despite my best effort to bump the ship out of alignment prior to the final volley of torpedoes, the pod evades my grasp and warps back to the tower.

I have no corpse to scoop, but I can loot and shoot the wreck. Or I could, if it weren't stuffed full of mining goodies. Plenty of Tech II mining crystals, strip miners, and mining laser upgrades were all in the Hulk, which is a little odd. It is also far too much for me to carry, so I grab what I can and loiter, re-activating my cloak. It's possible the pilot will risk trying to recover some of this loot, and he returns to the wreck a couple of times in his pod. I have no doubt that he's merely testing the waters, seeing if I am still around, and I don't rise to the bait. His pod can jump through the wormhole to escape a positive target lock, and is easily agile enough to evade my stealth bomber in a race between his warping and my locking. I simply let him think that I have gone away, in the hopes that he'll bring a bigger ship out to salvage.

A Harpy assault ship has me backing away from the wreck a little, then warping to the tower to see its intentions in a more timely manner. What I find is the ship ejected from a hangar and the Hulk pilot now in the Viator. My hopes that the transport ship will venture out to loot the wreck are dashed when the pilot logs off instead, but at least it gives me a chance to collect it all for myself. And maybe a little more can be retrieved, as I have just noticed that not only are some of the defences around this tower off-line but they are also unanchored, which means that anyone can pluck them from their positions in to a ship's hold. That seems a little careless.

I jump home, swap in to a Crane transport ship, and head back to the C3. I warp to the wormhole, loot the wreck of the Hulk to leave nothing behind, and head home to drop off the loot. Now to return to steal the defences, a rather more nefarious deed. But the Viator is back on d-scan when I check after jumping in to the system, heralding the return of the pilot. Although the Hulk's wreck has been looted, giving him no reason to loiter at the wormhole, I swap the Crane back for the Manticore to shadow the pilot. He may still believe I've disappeared, or lost interest at least, and make himself vulnerable as a result.

I get back to the tower in the C3 to see the pilot off-line one of the two hangars, and finally the light dawns on me: he is taking down the tower. This is why there are unanchored defences, why he was taking the Hulk full of mining equipment out to empire space, and probably why the Harpy was taken out of the hangar. And it also means that he may be coming out to get the defences himself, giving me another opportunity to shoot him. In fact, he's not after the defences just yet but the warp bubbles placed haphazardly around the tower. He uses an interceptor to zoom between each bubble, presumably to take them off-line, before settling back inside the shields.

I'm not about to pit my stealth bomber against an interceptor so I just watch this bit, but when I see him warp to an unknown spot off-grid in the Viator I think I know what's coming next. The transport ship warps back on-grid, appearing right next to one of the four off-line bubbles. He scoops the bubble in to the ship, then warps off again. He's bound to come back for the other two. I bookmark the locations of the other bubbles and approach the one nearest to me. If I can get close enough to it in time I can catch the Viator as he appears, and if not I can warp out and in to a third bubble in preparation.

The next choice of bubble to collect for the Viator is the one I am pointing at. He decloaks when close to the bubble and I do too, surging forwards, launching a bomb, and locking and pointing the target. Unfortunately, despite having time to get close enough to disrupt the warp engines of the Viator I didn't manage to get in the horizontal plane of the bubble, and neither did I allow enough time for my Manticore to align to the target, so my bomb floats ineffectually away from both my ship and the Viator. But I still have a positive lock and am stopping the target from entering warp, and I start throwing more torpedoes.

Transport ships aren't that flimsy and are quite fast. The Viator makes his way towards the safety of the tower's force field and makes it before I have even broken the ship's shields. The tower defences have woken up by this point and are starting to threaten me, but I prepared for this, aligning out when the result of the engagement was clear, and warp away from the tower immediately. I have no idea if a successful hit with the bomb would have weakened the Viator enough to pop him before he entered the force field, but it was still a bit careless to launch so quickly.

The one positive result is that the pilot has been forced in to inactivity, logging out again. Now I can get back to passive-aggressive piracy. I jump home, swap back in to the Crane, and come to collect the defences that will soon rightfully be mine. Oh, and whilst I'm here I may as well get the other two warp bubbles that have kindly been unanchored for me. But I can't carry everything at once in my Crane. In fact, only one defence will fit in its hold at a time, and using giant secure containers won't help. I will need to drop off each defence as I pick it up.

I don't want to wait for polarisation effects to dissipate between each sneaky steal, so I will drop each defence in a central location where I can collect them all with a bigger ship when I'm finished. But I also don't want to drop the defences at an obvious location. Luckily I have a wormhole to help me here, and I make a rough safe-spot between the tower and the K162 home where I can store the defences without them being found quickly. Now I just need to get them, which is easy enough after the practice I've had. Warp close by, approach, then decloak, scoop, and burn away and re-activate the cloak. It's pretty easy to achieve in the agile and fast Crane.

I snatch six defences and both warp bubbles in total, all that is unanchored around the tower. I take home what I can in the Crane, which is just the one defence and a bubble, and bring back in its bigger sister for the rest. The Bustard transport ship has a much bigger hold than the Crane, but it is unsurprisingly less manoeuvrable and also cannot warp cloaked. It is ideal for warping from the wormhole to the safe-spot and back again, easily fitting the rest of the defences in its hold with just the one trip. I get home with a Hulk kill, lots of expensive loot, and some stolen defences. It's been quite a night.

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Tags: bustard, crane, eve online, harpy, hulk, imicus, low-sec, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, viator, w-space