Prowling for fuel

We could use some fuel and fittings. We tend to run out of the first quite regularly, almost on a schedule, and shortage of the second only let themselves be known right before we want to use them. It's difficult keeping a fully stocked hangar of modules for all eventualities when there are so many of them, even with so few of us. Trying a new ship configuration, completing skill training to let us finally use a more advanced module, or getting blown up all contribute to needing more stock. Fin's out looking for our static wormhole already, which she finds and confirms as being the only one in the system, and I get a free ride out to the connection without launching a scanning probe.

Our neighbouring class 3 w-space system looks empty from where the K162 appears, and a quick scan shows it to be quite dull. It was unoccupied ten months ago, when I was last here, and still is now. There is one anomaly, no ships, and an exit to null-sec space to find, but we're not going to bother. Null-sec won't let us refuel our tower or buy new fittings, and the single anomaly is hardly worth the time of swapping ships. Having only just found our static wormhole we decide to collapse it and start again. Fin pushes her Orca industrial command ship through a few times, I help in my Widow black ops ship, and the connection collapses on schedule.

Scanning a second time is made easier by Fin holding her final trip as I make a blanket scan of our system, ignoring all the results whilst the current, and now critical, wormhole still exists. With all current signatures ignored Fin jumps home to collapse the wormhole and, after a short wait, one new signature appears. The new static is never easier to isolate, and it is mere seconds later that we are both warping to it. And jumping in to the class 3 system sees two towers on our directional scanners and lots of ships, from battleships and battlecruisers to industrial ships. The two towers appear to be around a single planet, which handily has only two moons, so Fin picks one and I the other and we warp to the towers to reconnoitre.

I find two Iteron haulers at the tower I land near, one of the ships piloted. More interestingly, the piloted Iteron is outside of the tower's shields, bringing defences on-line. Fin finds no pilots at the second tower, despite there being more ships. It looks clear to take a shot at the vulnerable Iteron, but not in my Buzzard covert operations boat. I warp home, noticing core scanning probes on d-scan as I jump out of the C3, and swap the Buzzard for my Manticore stealth bomber. Fin monitors the tower with the Iteron, unfortunately seeing the Iteron move back to the safety of the shields before I am back in the system in my Manticore.

The bombing opportunity is gone, but it may not be the only one. I jump in, cloak, and warp back to the tower to see if the Iteron pilot will come out of the shields again. It looks like he has finished placing defences and is now suitably paranoid, or sensible, and is using the tower management console to bring the defences on-line, rather than doing it manually at each defence. I don't suppose he'll be coming out of the shields for now. Maybe it's because there are scanning probes still on d-scan, as we are not sure if they are probes of other visitors or local scouts that we have yet to see.

A Helios cov-ops ship appears on d-scan briefly. Fin monitors our K162 but sees no jumps, although she may have got there late and missed the transition. As Fin warps away from the wormhole she spots a transport ship, although her speed made it difficult to see if the ship was jumping out of the C3 or coming back in. I head to the K162 to loiter menacingly and, not soon after I get there, the wormhole flares and a Prowler transport ship decloaks. I decloak my Manticore, lock the ship, and throw a bomb towards it, knowing that the ship is not only under a session change timer but also polarised. If I can disrupt his warp engines before he can escape I will have plenty of time to pop the ship. But I activate my warp disruptor only to see the Prowler warp off, even before the bomb detonates.

I know I got a positive lock, and that I was in the module's effective range, and I don't think I suffered from finger stutter. My best guess is that the ship had warp core stabilisers fitted, letting it ignore my single disruptor, which makes sense when sending a transport ship to investigate a new connection. It doesn't make a bit of sense for a transport ship to be the first to enter a new system, though, regardless of warp core strength. Oh well, the Iteron decided to be sensible, the Prowler got away, and now there is a Hound stealth bomber on d-scan. Resistance is only to be expected when hostiles appear in a system, but it does rather endanger any attempt we may make in getting fuel through this C3. Our best opportunity is to collapse the wormhole a second time and start again.

Fin uses the Orca to speed the destabilisation of the wormhole, and I pilot my second Widow to protect it, this one fitted with ECM modules. Breaking a positive lock on the Orca would be better than relying on destroying the attacking ship, particularly when you don't know what you may be facing. Nothing comes looking for us, though, at least nothing that we see, and the second wormhole of the evening is collapsed smoothly. But in our haste to clear the C3, and to keep the Widow's ECM available for the Orca, we don't perform a blanket scan to ignore of all the home signatures, which means I need to sift through them all to resolve the third static wormhole of the day.

We should have taken a minute to ignore all the signatures. It would have been easier, certainly, but I simply can't find the new wormhole, no matter where I look. It gets to the point where I think we have exhausted whatever Sleeper technology it is that spurts the connections in to existence and that we're just going to have to wait for another day before a new wormhole appears. It's getting late anyway, and even if we find a suitable exit there is not much time to get any fuel home.

Fin calls it a night, and I would too if I weren't intent on finding this stupid wormhole. I even think I have discarded every signature in the system as irrelevant, until a desperate blanket scan shows one final signature to be resolved. Inevitably, it is our new static connection. I don't visit it, which would activate it, but merely bookmark the signature, label the bookmark, and copy it to our shared can. The connection will stay available until it is activated, the bookmark giving us a head start for tomorrow's exploration. Now it is time to rest.

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Tags: buzzard, eve online, helios, hound, iteron, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, prowler, pvp, scanning, w-space, widow

Watching wildlife in class 3 anomalies

Fin's out and about, exploring w-space and destabilising wormholes. An return Orca passage hauling ore out to empire space and bringing fuel back in takes its toll on our static connection, the industrial command ship massive enough to make a dent by itself. And with a fleet now active in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system—two Drake battlecruisers, a Harbinger battlecruiser, and Tengu strategic cruiser all shooting Sleepers—our best option for adventure where we won't die needlessly is to collapse the wormhole completely and start again.

The Orca combines with my Widow black ops ship to break the wormhole, pushing it to collapse without too much inconvenience, and we are back to scanning the home system. It's not long before the new static wormhole is resolved, and I jump through to explore another C3. One planet and two moons are the only celestial objects visible on my directional scanner, along with a tower but no ships. Finding the tower is straightforward, necessarily at one of the two moons, and I make a bookmark to its location that avoids the warp bubble that initially snares me.

Exploring the C3 reveals no activity, and scanning finds a healthy eighteen anomalies. I'm happy to ignore looking for the wormhole here and shoot Sleepers instead, to bolster our wallets a little more after buying a second strategic cruiser, and I bookmark the anomalies and return home. Fin and I launch our Tengu strategic cruisers, fit for Sleeper combat, and jump in to the C3 to start our cull of the indigenous w-space population. I think it's a good idea to clear the anomalies within d-scan range of the local tower first, which will gives us advance warning of any pilots waking up, so we start with those three.

The first few anomalies pass with little fuss and no sign of the occupants appearing, so we move on to those further towards the inner system. I have noticed that a certain anomaly in C3 systems has three battleships, which are the most profitable for loot, and no neutralising ships, allowing for a less fiddly engagement as we can keep our shield boosters permanently active. I note the name of these anomalies for future sorties as I warp our squad of two towards the few that remain in this system. And it's in the next anomaly where I notice an asteroid that looks like a turtle. And there's one that looks like a bunny! This is a grand evening out.

Two more anomalies are cleared, to make five in total, before we decide to collect our loot. Despite the risk, we both bring a Noctis salvager each in to the system for greater efficiency. It is interesting that the more profitable anomalies also seem to be quicker to loot and salvage, with the ships appearing and getting popped closer together, and there being fewer of them overall. And we get a good haul, bringing home a quarter of a billion ISK of loot and salvage in total.

To end the evening we have a quick test of my new Legion, using Fin's Tengu as a simulated opponent. It seems rather imprudent to pit strategic cruiser against strategic cruiser, considering the exorbitant cost and risk of skill point loss should anything go wrong, but it seems rather more imprudent to send the ship in to battle without any kind of field test. And it's good that we have the duel. The current fitting definitely needs some tweaking in order to make it as capable as is required, which will no doubt involve compromises. I just need to work out what needs to stay, what replacement fittings will help, and what I can improve with skill training. I imagine we'll be having another duel soon to note the changes.

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Tags: drake, eve online, harbinger, legion, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, sleepers, tengu, w-space, widow

Continuing with a Catalyst

Our neighbours are alerted to our presence. Podding their salvager in their home system will do that, I suppose. Our hopes to simultaneously strike an analysing boat in a magnetometric site don't quite go according to plan, at least for us, when a Vagabond cruiser interferes with the coordinated bombing runs across that site and the anomaly where the Noctis salvager is popped. Both Fin's and my Manticore stealth bomber get away safely, though, and we are pondering our next move.

The assault against their analsyer caused it to warp out of the magnetometric site and a Crow to come in, the interceptor suitably effective at deterring further action from us at the moment. The Crow and Vagabond pick the wrecks of the Sleepers for loot, although neither is fitted to salvage them, and once this is complete all the ships warp out of the site. With this, Fin and I warp out too, forced now to monitor activity using our directional scanners so that we don't prevent the site from despawning.

Fin keeps an eye on the site, I warp to the outer planet where an active tower sits out of d-scan range. All the ships from the site are at the distant tower, and remain inactive until after the site despawns, at which point the Tengu strategic cruiser, Vagabond, and Crow all warp out. The Vagabond and Crow enter the despawned site, where Fin is now watching and waiting from a suitable distance, the Tengu pilot swapping his ship at a second tower for a Catalyst destroyer before warping to the site too.

I check that it is safe to warp close to Fin's position in the site from my location—to avoid being unintentionally decloaked—which she confirms, and I join the other ships. Despite our previous two-pronged attack, and the obvious presence of the Crow and Vagabond, our situation looks favourable for another attack. The Crow is inexplicably distant from the ship it is presumably meant to be guarding, and although the Vagabond is closer to other wrecks it is moving away from us. Our Manticores, on the other hand, are outside the cluster of wrecks but within bombing range of the salvager. We both agree that this is too good an opportunity to ignore.

We manoeuvre to maintain a suitable range of around forty kilometres—close enough for a bomb's explosion to hit the target whilst maximising our distance from the threats—and align towards the Catalyst. We hold for a few seconds to let the Vagabond crawl a little further away, and decloak and launch. We have both chosen a planet to warp to, and align and warp out of the site cleanly a few seconds after the bomb launches. It all looks good, but neither of us gets any damage notification, even though I see my bomb detonate just as I enter warp.

It all seems anticlimactic. We warp out as a precaution against losing our own ships, but we don't even get to witness the results. We're not even sure that we hit the Catalyst, or if our ships need to be on-grid for the detonation to be effective. But a cursory check of d-scan, to see the repercussions of our continued assault against this corporation, reveals the implicit destruction of the salvager, as now I see the Catalyst pilot's pod and no sign of the ship. And, indeed, the details of the kill are reported to our corporation's interface.

Excellent! Another successful bombing run, and under the noses of aware capsuleers and an active interceptor. On top of that, although perhaps not to be celebrated, we have negated pretty much all of the combat the capsuleers have done this evening. The destruction of the Noctis saw all the loot from the anomaly either destroyed or transferred in to my hold, and now the salvage from the magnetometric site is gone. At least their analyser wasn't blown up, and they recovered the Sleeper loot separate from the salvage in that second site.

'We probably should think about getting out with our two kills', Fin suggests. Yes, let's cheese it. It seems like a good idea even before a Purifier stealth bomber appears on d-scan before disappearing, no doubt cloaked and roaming itself. We both jump home, dump our ill-gained loot, and reload the bombers ready for a future ambush. Fin also points out that, with our third strike against this corporation, we have perhaps turned in to Pod Patrol.

I don't know if that's interesting or worrying. We occasionally encountered Pod Patrol in our previous class 4 w-space home, and each time they were rather more experienced and skilled, leaving us in pods or new clones after the engagement. But without Pod Patrol we would unlikely be the pilots we are today. We may not have appreciated it at the time but getting hit like that made us harden up. Maybe in time this corporation will feel the same way.

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Tags: catalyst, crow, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, purifier, pvp, tengu, vagabond, w-space

Two-pronged ambush

Our neighbouring class 3 w-space system was quiet earlier, but there is promise. A scanner showed some signs of activity, albeit not much more than being vaguely conscious, and we have successfully engaged the occupying corporation on a couple of previous occasions. I take my Manticore stealth bomber in to the C3 to reconnoitre, immediately seeing a Tengu strategic cruiser on my directional scanner, but no wrecks, owing to the Tengu sitting inside one of the three towers here. He moves after a while, though, and once he's finished bouncing off a hangar the cruiser warps in the direction of the third tower here, which is out of d-scan range. I prod my Manticore to follow.

The Tengu has moved between towers apparently to join with other pilots. There are two more piloted Tengus at this tower along with, of all ships to see in a class 3 w-space system, a Nidhoggur carrier. I even recognise one of the Tengu pilots from when we popped one of the corporation's Noctis salvagers. But there are no salvagers present at the moment, maybe because there are no wrecks, or any hint of wrecks being created. The ships are simply sitting still, which is rather boring.

I may have been dozing off when one of the Tengus warps away, as I didn't see where he went. Repositioning myself back at the first tower in the inner system finds him again, but only on d-scan, although there are now two added Drake battlecruisers at the tower. I find the Tengu itself to be in the system's sole anomaly, along with a third Drake and two Sleeper wrecks, according to d-scan. As combat will take more than a few minutes I take a moment to find the other ships again out at the third tower, seeing the Nidhoggur now unpiloted, before warping in to the anomaly at a safe range to bookmark a couple of wrecks. Three Tengus and the Drake are now slaughtering Sleepers, and not looting behind them. I think there may be another opportunity for a Noctis kill here.

I warp out of the anomaly, keeping a tight d-scan beam on the site to monitor progress, and align to the bookmarked wreck for a quicker response. No new wrecks appear after a while and one of the Tengus warps out, the other ships remaining. But, one by one, all the ships leave the anomaly. This is looking good. I widen my d-scan beam back to complete coverage, looking for an early sign of the Noctis to appear, but nothing comes soon. It is probable that the pilots are waiting for the anomaly to despawn first, which is why I have taken my Manticore out of the site. A new ship turns up after a short while, although it turns out not to be a Noctis salvager but the Nidhoggur.

A carrier is rather a curious choice for a salvaging ship, but my d-scan beam is still all-encompassing and it only takes a few seconds to realise the Nidhoggur has warped in to the magnetometric site in the system for further Sleeper combat. I warp to the site myself, found during my earlier scanning, as two Tengus join the carrier. I bookmark a couple more wrecks and a suitable position near the Sleeper artefacts, giving me options for ambushing either a salvager or analysing boat. But now that Fin has turned up, and starts preparing a second Manticore to join me, I think we may be able to launch a dual strike.

Whereas the only items of value in anomalies are the wrecks, there are artefacts in magnetometric sites, and those artefacts despawn with the site. That means we can safely loiter inside the magnetometric site and watch closely, as there will be no suspicion of an extra, cloaked presence simply because the site hasn't despawned. It is possible, and likely, that the targets will divide their time between combat and looting, taking their offensive ships out of the site to bring in an analysing boat and a salvager. Fin and I can pick a target each and perhaps get two independent kills, instead of focussing on and getting just the one. That's the idea, at least.

As Fin enters the system the Nidhoggur exits the magnetometric site, which doesn't bode well. It looks like a simple coincidence, though, as the other ships continue shooting the Sleepers. As Fin points out, with a carrier available they may not be too concerned about checking d-scan for intruders. We both are now in the magnetometric site and close to the artefacts, ready for the plundering to begin, and careful to remain sufficiently apart not to get confused and decloak each other. Combat in the magnetometric site completes and one Tengu warps out immediately. A Vagabond cruiser and Thrasher destroyer appear shortly afterwards, the Thrasher moving to the artefacts but the Vagabond's purpose unknown. A Noctis salvager appears on d-scan too, but he doesn't come in to the magnetometric site in good time. A check of d-scan puts him in the anomaly. It's time to split up.

I have a good bookmark to the anomaly, which circumstances haven't let me share with Fin, and I warp there by myself to line up the Noctis. I ask Fin to prepare for a bombing run against the Thrasher, or whichever target she prefers, as I drop out of a warp a little too far from the Noctis than I would prefer. But the salvager isn't moving, making it easy to crawl in to range under cover of my cloak. When I am just about in range I let Fin know she can take her best shot, hoping that our coordinated engagement will prevent ships arriving in time to help or warping away in defence. I decloak, launch my bomb, and lock the Noctis, disrupting its warp engines. The bomb hits, I follow with torpedoes, and one volley is all it takes to obliterate my target. My sensor boosted Manticore locks and points the pod too, soon leaving me with a corpse to scoop, and a wreck to loot and shoot.

Fin takes on the Thrasher back in the magnetometric site, but can't hang around for long because of the guard the destroyer has. Indeed, the Vagabond is able to lock Fin's Manticore before she can warp out of the site, which itself is before the bomb detonates, but the cruiser is out of warp disruption range and Fin clears the site safely. The Thrasher remains intact, though. I warp in to see if I can finish it off, but am warned against trying because of the Vagabond, and when I get to the site I find myself too close to the cruiser to risk an engagement. I merely back away and observe, watching the Thrasher warp out.

We consider taking a two-bomb shot at the Vagabond, seeing how much damage it could take. But before we get organised again a Crow interceptor warps in to the magnetometric site, super-fast and designed to tackle, making any further confrontation rather more dangerous for our Manticores. It looks like we'll just be getting another Noctis notch on our killboard today, which is not to be sneezed at. It was a patient and smooth operation, and one we are pleased with.

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Tags: crow, drake, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, nidhoggur, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, tengu, thrasher, vagabond, w-space

Close to a Widow

A new day brings new wormholes to find, hopefully without the raucous neighbours this time. Or maybe we will have unruly company, as the first wormhole I resolve in our home system is a K162 coming from class 5 w-space. Thankfully, though, the wormhole is critically unstable, already having had almost too much mass passed through it, and even one more ship passing through may collapse the connection, which should mean we won't see any visitors from this direction. The second wormhole I resolve is our static connection, which is plump and healthy, and I jump through to the class 3 w-space system beyond.

My directional scanner shows me two active towers in the system and two core scanning probes, but no ships. My notes suggest one more tower too, after having last been here four months ago where apparently there were three, and warping around finds them all to be in the same locations. This corporation is nicely settled, it seems, as well as providing us with some entertainment in the past, this being the system of the three little ducks, and the corporation who presented us with our first Noctis kill. There isn't much hope for action here at the moment, with no ships around, so I'll just launch probes and take a look around.

One anomaly and three signatures makes for quick scanning, and causes me to wonder why there are still other probes visible on d-scan. It takes a couple of minutes to resolve the magnetometric site and exit to high-sec empire space, and I already know the third signature is the K162 home, and I'm finished. Taking a shufti at the exit system puts me only four hops from Jita, which is mighty convenient. I am also only nine jumps away from the second Widow I own.

Yes, I have two Widow black ops ships, but I only bought one of them. The other was stolen when we took control of the C4 pulsar from the previous occupants, colleagues sacking the tower and making the system open to claim. I recovered the Widow to high-sec before planting my scanning boat in the C4 in advance of moving in, and now today's exit puts me closer to the stolen Widow than any other since leaving the ship in dock. I think I'll get it back.

Jumping back to the C3 finds no change, the lack of ships encouraging me to continue with my plan. I get home, stow my scanning boat, and take my bare pod to high-sec, making the jumps out to greet the Widow. I board the ship and head to Jita to replace the advanced cruise launchers with standard modules, so that I am not entirely without weapons when moving the expensive ship through w-space. At least I can use the drones in its bay, having managed to train in advanced light and medium drones in the time between recovering the Widow and now.

Launchers replaced, the advanced versions in my hold for potential later use, I return to w-space, now seeing a lack of even scanning probes in the C3. Maybe the probes simply decayed, having been left out in space and forgotten. But getting the Widow home safely and exploring the C3 in my Manticore stealth bomber finds a can at a tower labelled with today's date and as having bookmarks inside. I suppose a scanner was active, but maybe not completely focussed. There remains no overt activity in this C3, so I get back to our tower and take a break.

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Tags: eve online, jita, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space, widow

Avoiding action

Scary ships greet me when I jump in to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. Thankfully not directly, but my directional scanner shows a Broadsword heavy interdictor, Muninn heavy assault ship, Kitsune electronic attack ship, and some other equally threatening ships. I am not sure what the others were only because I refresh d-scan to find them all gone. No doubt the ships were in warp and passed across the part of the system where our K162 appeared, which luckily means I am yet to be noticed, but I ought to find out where they are now. Taking a look around the C3 finds a tower but no ships, and it is unlikely that so many pilots got here, stowed their ships, and logged off in such quick order. I imagine I'll find at least one more wormhole in this system beyond the static connection, and I launch probes to find out.

Out of the six anomalies and ten signatures I resolve a K162 from class 5 w-space, and I think I know now where the big ships came from. Or perhaps they are from the class 4 system beyond the second K162 I resolve. For their coherency and attack power I doubt the fleet came through the K162 from class 2 w-space which I also find. And it's unlikely they came from low-sec empire space, which is where the fourth wormhole, and the system's static connection, leads to. I've already discounted class 2 w-space as a probable home for the fleet, so I don't know why I resolve another such K162, even if this fifth wormhole is at the end of its life. There's certainly plenty to—oh, here's a sixth wormhole, another K162 from class 2 w-space.

The remaining signatures in the C3 look too weak to be wormholes, and I'm not going to bother resolving radar or magnetometric sites just for the practice. I get the destination system through the static exit, a low-sec system in Caldari space, before picking one of the C2 systems at random to explore. Jumping in to see on d-scan some ships, a tower, and a couple of Sleeper wrecks makes me think I've made a good choice. I bookmark the wormhole and warp around to see if I can launch probes covertly, accidentally finding a tower instead, with nine unpiloted ships, a mixture of combat and industrial, inside its shields. Crossing to the other side of the system sees only an off-line tower and the Sleeper wrecks. I'm clear to launch probes.

Judging by there only being two wrecks, and no signs of a capsuleer ship, I imagine I am looking for a ladar or gravimetric site. And indeed I resolve a ladar site, warping in to see the two Sleeper wrecks looted but no other signs of activity. It is possible the fleet seen earlier caught and popped a miner here, probably podded him too with a Broadsword in tow, which would explain the current lack of activity in the whole system. I make a note of the ladar site as being active anyway, in case my hunch is wrong and ships return here later, and scan and resolve the system's second static wormhole too, another exit to low-sec. I jump out to bookmark the empire side of the connection before returning through the C2 to the C3, and on to a second class 2 w-space system.

My second choice of C2 looks as promising as the first, at least in that there is obvious occupancy with a tower on d-scan, so here's hoping they haven't yet been disturbed in to inactivity. I manage to find three towers in total by warping around, some piloted ships at one of the towers, and some drones in empty space. At least, I presume it's empty, as all ships in the system are accounted for at the tower. To help me out, one of the pilots swaps from his scanning frigate to a Dominix battleship and warps out of the tower, where it looks like he reunites with the drones. I get closer to his position and start a passive scan, revealing the battleship to be in an anomaly. That's looking good. I dash home, swap the scanning boat for my Manticore stealth bomber, and head back to the C2.

I warp in to the anomaly to see the Dominix and his drones engaging Sleepers, and am pleased to see he is not salvaging as he fights. I bookmark a suitable wreck and warp out, monitoring the nearest tower directly and the anomaly via d-scan, waiting for the salvager to arrive. Actually, as the Dominix came from a different tower I could stay in the anomaly with him and warp out as he does, watching his actions directly, as it's likely he will swap ships and salvage the wrecks himself. I warp back to the anomaly with this change of plans only to see a Tengu strategic cruiser now in the anomaly, and he's not there to shoot Sleepers. It looks like I won't be getting my salvager target, but if I warp out and back in again to get in to bombing range I can get a sneaky assist on the kill and sate my bloodlust.

Maybe I won't try bombing the Dominix under Tengu attack. I have no moral qualms with doing so, either for attacking the battleship or trying to steal the kill from the Tengu, but the arrival of the Tengu's friends puts me off a little. A Proteus strategic cruiser, Heretic interdictor, Republic Fleet Firetail frigate, Crow interceptor, Cynabal cruiser, two Falcon recon ships, and a Muninn all warp in almost as one, with a Zealot heavy assault ship arriving fashionably late. The Dominix doesn't last long, the Heretic launching an interdiction sphere to capture the pilot's pod in a bubble for the complete kill.

I think it is safe to assume that assaulters of the Dominix are part of the big fleet I saw at the start of the evening. I also think I am fairly safe in assuming that the fleet has covert scouts operating, as there is no other way the fleet could have got to the active anomaly so quickly otherwise, and I doubt this fleet is arbitrarily jumping between systems and in and out of sites on a whim or hunches. And with this much firepower and coordination it is probably best if I simply head home and hide, at least for now. That relies on another assumption, though: that the route home is clear.

I won't simply assume I can get home without being hassled, particularly as the fleet is clearly still around. Some ships have returned to the anomaly to loot and salvage the wrecks, having finished off the Sleepers after swatting the Dominix. I warp back at range to the wormhole out of the C2 to see some of the fleet loitering there. But the ships are slowly exiting the system now, although the Broadsword jumping out only makes me worry that he's now sitting on the other side of the wormhole. Even so, ships warp here and jump, jump, jump, until the C2 looks clear again.

I wait a few minutes. The C2 may look clear but that is no indication that the ships have actually moved away from the other side of the wormhole. From my first indirect sight of them it seems probable that they will warp away until a new target is spotted, but I don't want to follow too soon, just in case. There remains no activity on or through the wormhole for a while, and I think it's time I try to make my way home. I approach the wormhole, jump through, and hold my breath.

Typical, I get back in to the C3 to see the bloody Crow waiting for me. Well, maybe not waiting for me, personally, but I doubt he's just taking in the view. Of all the ships that may cause me a problem clearing the wormhole in my stealth bomber it's going to be an interceptor. Still, there's not much I can do about it but try my best, and I gather my thoughts. There is no point simply jumping back and hoping he doesn't follow, as that gets me no closer to home, as well as being spotted anyway and maybe attracting the fleet back, or at least the Broadsword to prevent my warping away. That would be bad. I am far enough from the wormhole to cloak immediately, which is good, and there is a planet in a vector away from the wormhole, which I can warp to without breaking my cloak.

I wait for the session change timer to end and make a break for my chosen planet, knowing that if the Crow catches me I can at least jump back to the C2 for a second and probably final attempt. I align and activate my reheat, cloak, and warp. To my surprise, and relief, the Crow doesn't even move from his spot. Maybe he really is admiring the view. But I am still not home, and d-scan shows me a Zealot, Taranis interceptor, Hurricane battlecruiser, Heretic, Drake battlecruiser, and Broadsword all here in the system. Sweeping d-scan around confirms my suspicion that the ships are covering the exits. Each wormhole I have bookmarked has a ship coincident with it on d-scan, which can't be a coincidence. The fleet is locking down the C3.

There is one wormhole without a ship sitting on it, and that's the K162 leading home. This probably isn't a clever ploy by the hostile fleet, seemingly only giving me one choice to go but planting their nastiest combination of ships on the other side to trap me, but a result of my having opened our wormhole after the fleet scanned this system. And the fleet's scouts already having found the five wormholes in this system—the sixth I found being their own, whichever it is—it is actually a reasonable assumption this time that I came from one of the already extant wormholes and not through a new connection.

So it seems my way home is safe, and still unknown. But I take my time checking, warping around the system, bouncing off celestial objects and making sure at each stop which wormholes have ships on them and that the one home doesn't. All this while I am having a conversation with a drunk and sleep-deprived capsuleer who's perhaps not entirely convinced I am trying to evade interceptors in my stealth bomber, but it is a pleasant distraction that relieves the current tension somewhat. And once I am sure that the wormhole home really has not been discovered yet I finally warp there, dropping short and crawling the last few kilometres to decloak manually and reduce my time seen on d-scan.

Just before I jump home I notice that a pilot has said 'ciao' in the local channel in the C3, although I'm not sure if it is the fleet bidding anyone there farewell, or the Crow pilot personally seeing me on my way. It would be nice to know if the Crow pilot let me pass, but I am not about to go looking for an interceptor to match a name to a ship, and am happy to get home safely. There was a lot of potential for hunting today, with plenty of systems to explore, and even a target picked out and stalked. But the hunting grounds belonged to bigger fish, and I am glad simply to have stayed out of their way.

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Tags: broadsword, crow, cynabal, dominix, drake, eve online, falcon, firetail, heretic, hurricane, kitsune, manticore, muninn, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, taranis, tengu, w-space, zealot

Not bombing a Badger

Even though the two systems I've travelled through are quiet there is still one more to explore, not yet having jumped through the K162 to the class 5 system. I get my Buzzard covert operations boat out again to take a look. Only one planet is visible on my directional scanner when I appear on the other side of the wormhole, letting me launch probes without being noticed. A blanket scan of the system shows one anomaly, four signatures, and six ships, and it is the ships I determine to find.

Moving to the inner system shows on d-scan a Moros dreadnought, Nightmare battleship, Fenrir freighter, Crane transport ship, and a Mammoth and Badger hauler, as well as two towers. One tower holds five of the ships, the Moros, Nightmare, and Badger piloted, but the Crane is elsewhere. A quick sweep of d-scan suggests it is at the second tower, but before I warp off to find it the Badger here moves and warps away from the tower. I ignore the Crane for now and dash home, getting my Manticore stealth bomber in case the Badger is making himself vulnerable collecting planet goo.

I am back in the C5 in my Manticore in quick time, and the Badger is still at large in the system. D-scan puts his ship coincident with the customs office at one of the planets, but warping there doesn't find the ship. I look around again, thinking I see the Badger at one of the planet's moons but, again, warping there sees no ship. A third spin around suggests the Badger is at the planet itself, and I finally get it right, dropping out of warp in ideal range to pop the hauler quickly. No wonder I could find it quickly, I wouldn't have expected anyone to be sitting idly at zero on a planet. But the Badger isn't moving, and with Fin on her way I simply align and watch the Badger carefully. If it makes any move at all I'll take my shot, but until it does I can wait to share this moment with Fin.

The Badger remains motionless. Fin turns up and warps close to my position, where I suggest we don't bother with bombs. We won't need them to pop the industrial ship and may as well save the larger munitions for more worthy targets, like Hulk exhumers. We're both in range, so with little ceremony we decloak and lock, point, and shoot the Badger. The ship crumples under the combined fire, but both Fin and I are a split-second too slow to prevent the pilot's pod warping clear. We loot and shoot the wreck, although the surviving modules are quite unexciting, and I warp off to see the reaction at the active tower.

'Warp home and jump', I advise, perhaps overreacting a little, but I don't like the look of the newly launched Devoter heavy interdictor. We both get home a minute later, unmolested and happy to call it a night. We have our new ships, we get a lazy kill on a careless pilot, and we take no losses.

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Tags: badger, buzzard, crane, devoter, eve online, fenrir, mammoth, manticore, mmorpg, moros, nightmare, penny ibramovic, pvp, w-space

A maggot of a ship

There are two wormholes at home today. The first is super-easy to find, almost ensuring it's not our static connection, and I see that it is a K162 coming from a class 5 w-space system. I keep scanning until I resolve our static wormhole, which thankfully is also rather easy to locate, and then decide to ignore the C5 for now anyway. There are no ships in our C4 home and the C5 pilots may have ventured in to the C3, and I think it serves my needs better to find out first if that's the case.

I jump in to the class 3 w-space system to have a tower and a bunch of ships appear on my directional scanner, but I see no wrecks. I find the local tower and, at the same time, all of the ships in the system. There is no ship maintenance array, curiously enough, making the six ships the entire fleet of the corporation, barring any they are currently asleep in. And they are all asleep, every ship unpiloted here. With no one around I take time to scan, although a Crane transport ship appears briefly. When it doesn't appear at the tower I assume it belongs to the C5 occupants and that they are hauling to or from empire space, and I press on with scanning.

Some gas is ignored, revealing a wormhole. We've got one of those rare exits that leads to high-sec empire space today and, even better, the destination system is Caldari space. Oh, not only Caldari space, but in The Citadel, and two jumps from my still-packaged Flycatcher interdictor, bought on sale and not even having a fit worked out for it yet. I head home, copy my bookmarks in to our shared can, and take my own Crane out to collect the Flycatcher. I haul it back in the transport ship just to get it in to w-space, where it can be fitted later, instead of risking its destruction before I even put weapons on it.

Whilst out in The Citadel I notice the exit is a mere six hops from Jita too. Now that glorious leader Fin has arrived I enquire about an order we placed recently, and finding out that it has been fulfilled I get liberatingly nude to take my pod out to New Eden's market hub to pick up a new toy. Fittings are bought, the ship assembled, and subsystems installed. Yes, I have a new strategic cruiser, although this one looks less elegant than a Tengu and more like a maggoty worm. But it holds promise for me, perhaps with a bit of tweaking, and I am a little excited to bring my new Legion back home to w-space.

I am occasionally concerned about bringing a new ship home, worried that I'll get ambushed and never get to play with my new toy. But woe betide the fool who gets in my way today, as this ship is designed and fitted to be a killer. My only slight doubt is that I am not quite fully trained in the Legion subsystem skills, which is preventing one of the fittings from being brought on-line, but I should still be a formidable opponent. Luckily, I suppose, there remains no activity in either the C3 or our home C4, and I stow the Legion in our hangar.

Fin buys a Legion at the same time and I notice that, as with our previous lack of imagination with a hurried stealth bomber purchase, there is some overlap with names, but only because there are obvious options. At least we complement each other, Fin's Legion called 'We Are', and mine 'For we are many'. These little coincidences amuse me.

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Tags: crane, eve online, flycatcher, legion, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Cat and mouse

It's just me at the moment, me and a bookmark. A rather familiar-looking bookmark, I have to admit, and I realise that it points to our static wormhole from yesterday, a wormhole that must have collapsed by now. I delete the old reference and go scanning anew, happy to see the Sleepers are returning fairly quickly to our system, and resolving our current static connection. I make a copy of the wormhole's signature position, which is approximate but good enough for Fin to follow when she turns up, drop it in to our shared can, and warp away to explore our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

My directional scanner shows me a tower, an Iteron hauler, and Incursus frigate in the C3. I move away from the wormhole, cloak, and warp to the edge of the solar system so that I can launch scanning probes without being detected. But the planet out here has a second tower in range, and although there are no ships on d-scan it would be preferable to be entirely out of range of occupation to launch probes, so I warp to the other end of the system. This is where I see the system's third tower, along with an Orca industrial command ship and a Noctis salvager, both piloted. A Cheetah covert operations boat turns up too. Okay, the second tower had no ships, making that volume of space to be the most discreet place to launch probes, so I go back there.

Combat scanning probes finally in space, I send them out of the system and set them to maximum scanning range. The blanket scan reveals the five ships I have already detected, along with four anomalies and a mere three signatures, one of which is the K162 wormhole leading homewards. I locate the first tower to find the Iteron and now two Incursus frigates, all piloted, yet there remain five ships on a repeated scan with my combat probes. Maybe the Cheetah has cloaked. D-scan shows me core scanning probes out in the system, suggesting the Cheetah is actively scanning, and with only three signatures to resolve he should find our K162 easily.

I warp back to the wormhole home to see if anything happens. All five core probes get to within 1 AU of the K162, strongly suggesting the scout has resolved the connection, but even when the probes abruptly move away there is no sign of other ships, and no one jumps to investigate our C4. I imagine the scout warped here cloaked, made a bookmark, and warped away again. I keep myself hidden and my probes out of the system until I know how active the pilots are going to be. Glorious leader Fin turns up, though, which gives more options. I let her know what's happening and ask if she would put her Crow interceptor on our side of the wormhole, potentially to catch the Cheetah, and Fin agrees.

The probes have gone from the system now. The Iteron at one of the towers has been swapped to a shuttle, which I doubt is going to visit our C4, and I realise that he and the two Incursus pilots are all family. I also realise that the activity I've seen so far has been coming from the third tower, and warp out there. The pilot of the Cheetah is now in a Loki strategic cruiser, which warps away in the general direction of our K162. Abort, Fin, abort! I think she hears me, I'm sure she'll be okay. There is little I can do in my Buzzard cov-ops to help anyway, and as I now notice the Noctis here is unpiloted I decide I may as well scan the system whilst the Loki makes a fresh Fin corpse.

Resolving two signatures is super quick, even when one of them is a magnetometric site. The static wormhole in this C3 exits to high-sec empire space, although the current connection is reaching the end of its natural lifetime. Meanwhile, the Loki is spotted in our home system, Fin having retreated some three hundred kilometres away and now using her Crow for reconnaissance purposes. The Loki disappears, Fin unsure if he jumped back or cloaked, and so I warp to the tower in the C3 it came from to see if it returns. Not seeing any ships I wonder if the Loki indeed has cloaking capability, and has perhaps seen my scanning probes.

I warp to the K162 so that Fin and I can monitor both sides, making sure we know that the Loki leaves our system. When he decloaks a mere four kilometres from my own boat I am convinced he is in this C3, and let out a little yelp as I hurriedly back off, thankful not to have been decloaked from his proximity. The Loki launches a single scanning probe and cloaks again. Now that we know he's here, and he knows we're around, we can think about baiting him. We need a ship that looks like bait but can withstand a few good hits, as well as a ship that can dish out some damage. I think this may even be a good time to use my Widow black ops ship in anger. Fin considers the Maller cruiser to be a good bait ship and starts fitting it for survival.

Before we can put our probably foolish plan in to action a new ship appears on d-scan, a Tengu strategic cruiser now in the system. I sweep d-scan around on a narrow beam to see he's not at the tower but in an anomaly, and a Sleeper wreck has appeared. I warp in to the anomaly to see the Loki pilot has got bored with us and is shooting Sleepers, but it seems to me that making a target of yourself is an odd decision. And even though we don't yet have T3-killers we can get our stealth bombers out and hope to get another Noctis popped. I warp and jump home, share the bookmark I made of the wreck in the anomaly, and we take our Manticores to the C3.

Fin and I move away from the wormhole in the C3 and cloak. I warp to a nearby planet in order to give a different vector in to the site, so that we don't decloak each other in flight, and we both align our ships to the anomaly. Progress of the Sleeper fight is followed using d-scan, until the Tengu warps out. We stay out of the anomaly, in case the target is savvy and is waiting for it to despawn, because the site won't despawn if even a cloaked ship remains, alerting him to a hostile presence if he knows this. There is no sign of the Noctis, though, and I realise that the other anomalies in the system are outside of d-scan range. Thinking that the Tengu may be continuing combat, I warp to the pilot's tower to check the anomalies and see if I can gauge his plans.

As I arrive at the tower the now-piloted Noctis is warping out, towards the anomaly. I alert Fin, noting that it is the same pilot as was in the Loki and Tengu, and both of us warp in to the anomaly at range from the bookmarked wreck. The anomaly has despawned, making me think the pilot indeed was cautious to see if anyone was stalking him, but curious as to why he would even engage Sleepers in an easily found anomaly when he knows there are hostile pilots around, having seen Fin in her Crow. But those thoughts can wait. Fin says she has 'perfect alignment' to the Noctis, and I am looking good, if a bit close. I back away slightly before realigning to our target, and coordinate out launch. We're ready in seconds.

Two bombs glide gracefully towards the Noctis as I lock and point our target to prevent its escape, and two maximum-damage bombs is all it takes. The Noctis explodes to leave a smouldering wreck and the pilot's pod in empty space. I lock the pod, glad for my sensor booster again, and stop it from warping away, our barrage of torpedoes soon giving me a fresh corpse to scoop. The Noctis wreck is looted and destroyed, and we clear the anomaly. The pilots at the first tower, in range of d-scan of this whole event, seem oblivious or dispassionate over what's happened and don't even move, let alone come to the pilot's aid. That's good, we could probably even loot and salvage this anomaly for ourselves, there are plenty of Sleeper wrecks left.

Fin is the chosen one to receive a conversation from the podded pilot's new clone, somewhat bitter about his death. He mutters something about 'should have killed you when I had the chance' before abruptly closing the communication channel, indicating he just needed to vent. Punch a mirror, sir, it's not our fault you were caught. Fin pays the pilot no mind, swapping ships back home and returning to salvage our claimed anomaly in her... Crow? I know we need a fast ship to zip amongst the yellow wrecks, as we cannot use tractor beams on them, but that's rather ostentatious. It must be fun too. Fin recovers a little over twenty million ISK in loot, which isn't much, but more than we generally get from our w-space piracy.

There's little else to do in this C3. The other pilots remain as inactive since my arrival, and no one new appears at the tower of the podded pilot. The only excitement to happen is when I make a check of the wormhole out to high-sec. It is still alive and wobbly, and I have been hoping that the podded pilot would return and blindly warp to his tower, giving me a chance of catching him again. On my final check I see he does indeed return, but am there a few seconds too late, warping in as his Reaper frigate warps out. From his first reaction it's probably for the best I don't catch him a second time, he may have quit being a capsuleer.

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Tags: buzzard, cheetah, crow, eve online, incursus, iteron, loki, manticore, mmorpg, noctis, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, reaper, scanning, tengu, w-space

Shields work

No scanning for me today. Glorious leader Fin got here before me and has taken on the task herself, already in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system and eyeing up prospective targets. There is even copied in to our shared can a bookmark that points to today's static wormhole, so I can simply jump in to my Manticore stealth bomber and go out to join my partner-in-piracy. A Covetor mining barge was in the C3 at some point, Fin seeing it briefly appear on her directional scanner, but now the occupants are scanning, a couple of probes flying around the system. Fin finds the tower and a Heron frigate, perhaps the scanning scout—but perhaps not, as a Helios covert operations boat appears, showing us two active pilots. The Helios warps away from the tower, but not to our K162, as Fin monitors its vector and doesn't recognise the direction travelled.

It may be a good idea to jump home and plant an interceptor on our wormhole. Or it could be more fun simply to bomb the Heron, as it is curiously parked a couple of kilometres outside of the tower's force field. Fin is at the tower and says it is safe to warp to her, which I do, although I get awfully close to one of the gun batteries that form the tower's defences. My cloak is intact, though, and, making sure I don't cross Fin's path, I manoeuvre to get a good approach for a bomb launch on the Heron.

I'm assuming I won't be firing many torpedoes, if any, as the Heron will either pop, move back in to the shields, or the tower will start shooting me, and have a nearby planet in view for my escape route. I have what looks to be a good shot, and I take it. My Manticore decloaks, the bomb fires neatly towards the target, and it detonates with, uh, something of a whimper. I get no damage notification at all. I try to lock the Heron and get at least one volley of torpedoes launched its way but the force field is preventing target acquisition. I warp away and cloak, a little disappointed.

Perhaps the bomb was a dud, but I'm fairly sure I saw it explode. It is only later, when asking my cats what went wrong, that I realise my mistake. My normal approach sees me manoeuvre to get in to warp disruption range of the target, so that I can get a solid hit with the bomb and point the ship for continued pounding with torpedoes. I made the same approach this time, but putting myself around twenty-five kilometres from the Heron put my bomb's explosion about three kilometres inside the tower's force field. The bomb certainly detonated, but it did so ineffectually, the shields preventing any negative effects. Silly me. I should have realised this, as well as not actually wanting to be in point range, and launched from over thirty kilometres away, to guarantee the explosion catching the Heron.

Our hand is tipped, our neighbours know we're here and hostile. I jump home and swap ships to plant my Malediction interceptor on our side of the wormhole, thinking my stealth bomber won't be much use at the moment. Fin gets ready to launch probes and scan the system, not thinking we need to be particularly sneaky any more, and as she warps away from the tower to do so the Helios returns. And it goes again. Seconds later our wormhole flares, and it isn't Fin jumping through. I get my interceptors systems hot and see the Helios appear! I try to lock and point the cov-ops ship, but I am out of practice. The Helios cloaks and, although I am able to bump and decloak it again, it warps away before I can stop it.

The Helios can warp cloaked. We probably won't see it again until it tries to jump back, but he looks to be wary of returning whilst my interceptor is around. Or maybe he wasn't quick enough to bookmark the wormhole as he was warping away and needs to scan it to get home. It seems like a good time to destabilise our static connection, hoping the Helios is paying attention, to try to flush out our visitor. Fin pushes an Orca industrial command ship through the wormhole and, as she does, the Helios turns up, either seeing us start to collapse the connection and wanting to get home or simply making a break past my Malediction. He makes it too. I follow him in to the C3 and try again to snare him, but he evades me a second time and warps off to his tower.

Fin and I continue to collapse our wormhole, realising that we've probably had as much fun as we're going to see with our current neighbours. The operation looks to be going smoothly until the last pair of jumps, where the wormhole becomes critically unstable but doesn't collapse. That's okay, it's getting late and I doubt anyone will want to jump through the wormhole now anyway. We head back to our own tower and get some rest.

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Tags: covetor, eve online, helios, heron, malediction, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, w-space