Bubbles are meant to inconvenience others

The rocks are dead. The mining sites that I activated a few days back have despawned, leaving nothing but empty space where they once were. That's nineteen bookmarks I can remove from my folder, and nineteen fewer pins in the system map to confuse my finding our static wormhole each day. Naturally, a few more sites have appeared that I didn't know about, but scanning is much quicker now without all the clutter. I am soon warping out of the tower and jumping in to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

Exiting the wormhole in the C3 is beautiful, as I find myself past the outskirts of the system, beyond the outer planet and out of d-scan range of all other celestial objects. It's a shame that there are no pilots to hunt here, as this is the ideal wormhole position for covert operations. A blanket scan reveals only a single drone or probe in the entire system, along with eleven anomalies and over a dozen other signatures. Warping around finds an off-line tower and lets me idenfity the drone as a Hobgoblin, but there's little else for me to do but start sifting through the signatures.

I resolve a wormhole, but refrain from visiting it in case Fin turns up and we want to make some iskies from the good number of anomalies here. A second wormhole is interesting, though, and cannot really be ignored, in case it is a K162 that could bring hostile pilots in to this system. It could also lead to more w-space, whether an incoming or outbound connection, which could mean finding activity. Judging by the relative strength of the signatures, though, I am guessing that this second wormhole is an exit to null-sec k-space, the first wormhole perhaps being a K162 instead. I'll keep scanning for now, just to make sure I've found everything.

A third wormhole crops up, almost making this system a junction, and once I resolve the final few signatures I warp to each wormhole to see where they lead. The second wormhole is indeed the system's static exit to null-sec, as I suspected, and reaching the end of its natural lifetime. The other two are a K162 from class 5 w-space, which is unstable but not critically so, and a K162 coming from another class 3 system. I imagine the C5 K162 was destabilised by a fleet coming and going, who probably also opened the exit to null-sec earlier, making them probably inactive for now. The wormhole from the C3 is healthy, meaning it was opened later and that pilots may still be active, making it my first choice to visit.

Jumping in to the second C3 system sees lots of ships appear when checking my directional scanner. A Widow black ops ship, Nighthawk command ship, Loki strategic cruisers, Machariel battleship, Chimera carrier, and Broadsword heavy interdictor are all big and scary, and those are just the few that grab my attention. I also detect three towers, which I set about locating. I find the Loki and Machariel piloted in one of the towers, the Loki moving but only in a lazy orbit around a hangar. A pilot speaks something inconsequential in the local channel, but I doubt it is directed at me. Unless the locals have a scout watching the wormhole they don't know I'm here, and I'm not about to make the mistake of introducing myself.

As I bookmark a convenient position around the third tower an Iteron hauler warps in. A moving industrial ship makes me think it's time to swap from the scanning boat to my Manticore stealth bomber. I make the short trip home and bring my Manticore back to the active C3, returning to the tower where I saw the Iteron. He's still there—or gone and returned—but not for long. The hauler moves and I watch him closely, seeing the ship's vector send it to a distant planet. I assume he's collecting planet goo and warp my Manticore to the customs office, looking to get an easy kill. But the Iteron didn't warp here, he must have gone to a moon instead. And as d-scan shows a further tower I imagine he's there now.

I find the tower and warp to the moon, where I do indeed find the Iteron. I don't find him where I expect to see him, though, which is inside the safety of the tower's shields. Instead, he's some three hundred and fifty kilometres away, sitting silenty in empty space. It's such a tempting target, but I have no idea how to cover that much distance quickly, as ships cannot warp to other ships unless they are in the same fleet. I suppose I could offer a fleet invitation and see if he blindly accepts it, but it's quite a gambit and decide against it.

I may have some luck getting closer if I warp away and make a quick bookmark, bouncing back off a planet. I give it a go and manage to close the gap by over a hundred kilometres, but that still puts the Iteron two hundred kilometres away, slightly out of range of my torpedoes. There's nothing for it but to crawl cloaked towards the still-stationary target, and I start the slow journey to his position. But what a tease, I barely get close and he warps in to the tower, finally finished with whatever he was doing. Never the less, I spur my engines back to life and keep my forward momentum.

The point the Iteron sat at is not an arbitrary point as such. I warped to the moon, more or less, and landed far from the Iteron, which means the hauler must have warped to a bookmarked position and not the moon itself. And if that's a bookmarked position he may warp back out to it, which is why I am continuing my push to get in to range of that spot in space. To confirm my suspicion a Noctis salvager warps to roughly the same position, but still I am too far to wreak any havoc and have to watch silently as it pauses, turns, and warps to the tower. It's rather curious behaviour, and I'm glad I didn't stop moving.

I push onwards, not quite sure of the exact range I'm aiming for but confident I am heading in the right direction. When an Imicus warps in just eighteen kilometres from me I think it's safe to cut my engines. But I'm not going to engage the frigate, as it is rather small reward for the time I've spent getting here. I'd prefer to wait for a meatier ship. The Imicus doesn't spend long in this bizarre junction, but I use his appearance to adjust my position for the next ship to appear, getting more in the horizontal plane and in a better bombing range, also ensuring I make a bookmark in case I need to warp away and return.

The Myrmidon battlecruiser that appears next is perhaps a little bigger target than I want to engage, as I can't tell how it is configured. I have seen some Myrmidons fit as gas harvesters, but a combat battlecruiser, particularly one with drones, will chew me up pretty quickly whilst absorbing the damage I can throw its way. The Myrmidon warps to the tower, then disappears off-grid again, d-scan showing its drones to be out. A passive scan of my surroundings reveals no anomalies, and the Sleeper wrecks that appear are only small, so it looks like the Myrmidon is fighting only the guardians of a ladar site. As he does, a Drake battlecruiser warps to the point in front of me and then to the tower, another ship I can't really hope to engage successfully. But his transit makes me realise the situation.

I think I can explain the strange behaviour of the pilots. The tower nearby is protected by almost a complete ring of warp bubbles, and it looks to me like the ships are warping to this distant position in a bid to avoid being dragged in to a bubble, bouncing off this spot to get in to the tower. If that's the case, those are some really stupidly placed bubbles. When I warped to this moon I was unmolested by any warp bubble, making them useless for catching unwelcome visitors. And there can't be a much more stupid operational decision than making it impossible to warp directly in to the safety of your own tower. I hope I can show them vividly the dangers of relying on an obscure but predictable procedure.

A Noctis salvager has warped out to be with the Myrmidon, obviously the ladar site now cleared of Sleepers. If he is warping back to this tower, and uses their standard procedure, he's in for a shock. And, sure enough, the salvager warps to the point my Manticore now sits nicely aligned with and in ideal bombing range. I wait a few seconds as the Noctis continues to drop out of warp before decloaking and launching a bomb. I try to gain a positive target lock but the salvager is still slowing, interference from the active warp engines confusing my targeting systems. I may have mis-timed this, not realising how ponderous the engines are, as being in warp will prevent damage from the bomb too. But his engines cut out and I get my target lock just before the bomb detonates.

I activate my target painter for maximum effect and follow up the bomb with torpedoes, as the Myrmidon warps in behind the Noctis to the same point in space. I align my Manticore and get ready to enter warp, but the Myrmidon doesn't engage. The battlecruiser simply warps to the safety of the tower, saving himself at the cost of the Noctis. Not just the Noctis, though, as the ship explodes and my sensor boosted stealth bomber snares the pilot's pod too. A few more torpedoes and a frozen corpse floats in space in front of me which, after I destroy the wreck of the Noctis, is all that is left of the salvager.

I warp out and cloak, still expecting at least the tower's defences to start shooting me, but I am entirely unmolested. I return to my bookmarked location, happy to see the corpse floating in the supposedly safe staging point. I don't scoop the corpse this time, as I don't want to announce that I am still around. It also serves as a decent marker, at least for the short time the body stays there. The position of ships cannot be bookmarked directly, or warped to, but the corpse is an excellent reference point. In fact, despite having a nearby position saved, I bookmark the corpse's position, which I squirrel away in a suitable folder. If I ever return to this system it may be worthwhile to keep this particular location handy.

The moral of today's adventure, much like after many of my engagements, is: don't be predictable! Certainly, an arbitrary point three hundred kilometres from your tower is a fairly safe position to warp to, but not half-a-dozen times over such a short period. I only got there and sat there because so many pilots were making themselves vulnerable in the same place. The Iteron pilot's first sloppily extended visit made it much easier, without a doubt, but I would probably have got the kill anyway, with the amount of traffic there was. And I am really pleased with this hunt, as it rewarded observation and patience. I return home, seeing that no more ships dare to move from the tower now, with the rosy warm feeling of a lesson taught.

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Tags: broadsword, chimera, drake, eve online, imicus, iteron, loki, machariel, manticore, mmorpg, myrmidon, nighthawk, noctis, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space, widow

Shooting through clouds

I return to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system in my Manticore stealth bomber, looking for trouble. Two pilots sit inside the shields of the tower in the system, one in an Iteron hauler, the other in a Megathron battleship, but the Megathron isn't there for long. Just as I spot on my directional scanner an Arazu recon ship somewhere in the system the Megathron warps away. Spinning d-scan around shows the battleship didn't go to one of the two wormholes here and remains in the system. I soon locate the ship to be at a moon, where I follow to see what he's doing.

Dropping out of warp at the moon reveals the Megathron to be shooting an off-line tower, and all by himself. I ponder my options for engaging him—I won't pop him before he melts my tiny hull, getting a different ship could be risky as he has potential support nearby, and even refitting to attack at range with remote sensor dampers would let him warp away with no fuss—but I'm not given long to think, as he warps back to the tower. Maybe this was only a test-firing, either against the tower directly or to gauge the effectiveness of the ship's weapon systems in general.

The Megathron's return to the tower could be because his colleagues are waking up. A Helios covert operations boat turns up, the pilot switching to a Thorax cruiser, and a Buzzard cov-ops boat arrives to see its pilot swap in to a Drake battlecruiser. And they warp off as a pair, before I even get a good look at the direction they head. My first thought is that the cruiser is collecting planet goo from the customs offices, but d-scan shows me the two ships are actually in a ladar site, one I scanned earlier. I may have a soft target to hit. The Drake's presence is awkward, though, but it doesn't make a successful strike impossible.

First I need to reconnoitre the ladar site, as the Thorax, presumably the ship harvesting the gas, won't be at the deadspace signature but inside one of the gas clouds. And I need to get in to the site without decloaking from passing through clouds, which would rather give the game away early. The system map helps here, as I can see that one of the planets is on roughly the same horizontal plane as the ladar site, and warping from that planet to the site should let me avoid the gas clouds within. I bounce off the planet, warp a little short of the signature, and arrive cloaked to see the Thorax harvesting away.

I can get a good look at the Drake now. His position away from the cloud shows he isn't there to gather gas, and the hull is shimmering with what must be active shield hardeners. I would say the Drake is acting as muscle for the Thorax, not because of me but as protection from the Sleepers that are expected to turn up. The Drake and I sit and wait, watching the Thorax at work, both of us wanting the Sleepers to turn up so the Drake can get back to doing nothing at the tower. But the Sleepers are taking a day off and, luckily, the Drake thinks that he can too, warping out of the site once certain the Thorax won't be molested by w-space denizens. Now's my chance.

I've passed the time so far by manoeuvring to be on the same horizontal axis as the Thorax, which will make my approach more convenient. I crawl closer to the cruiser, my tactical overlay visible as I scrutinise the gas cloud. I know that the cloud will decloak me, I'm just not sure at what point it will. I am tempted to warp out of the site and back in, using the jet-can being used by the Thorax as my reference point, knowing for sure that I'll decloak but taking a quick shot as soon as I am able. I don't like losing visual contact with my target, though, and it looks like I can get to thirty kilometres of the Thorax before I encroach on the cloud. That's enough to launch a bomb and get in to warp disruption range before the cruiser can escape.

I close in for the kill, cackling to myself, the Thorax pilot nicely oblivious to my presence. That is, until I get to fifty kilometres from him and the gas cloud interferes with my cloaking device. I still look to be a good twenty kilometres from the physical boundary, I should be cloaked! My plan is scuppered, but I still take my best shot. And, as it turns out, my best shot in this case is pretty poor. I launch my bomb a couple of kilometres too early, seeing it detonate just short of the cruiser, and only get one volley of torpedoes fired before the Thorax warps away, barely dented. I have to warp away too, to re-activate my cloak.

That was unfortunate. It is clearly difficult working with amorphous objects, but I expected the physical representation of the cloud to have better defined edges, considering the implications. At least I know for future attempts that warping out and in is probably the plan most likely to succeed. As for the locals, there is a small flurry of activity as notice of my presence no doubt ripples across communication channels, and after a short while the Arazu is very obviously spotted heading to the ladar site. In fact, warping back there myself, the recon ship is in plain sight, despite it being able to cloak.

The Arazu is protecting the Thorax, now back to harvesting gas, and whilst the Thorax likes the deterrent effect I think he'd rather I get my comeuppance. The Arazu cloaks, perhaps under orders, to make it look like the operation has reset. But even with the Arazu for protection the Thorax is no longer jetting the gas to be collected later, instead returning to the tower with every full hold. That must be tedious for him. And as tempting a target the Thorax is, I am careful to remind myself about the Arazu's abilities before thinking about a second bombing run. As I thought, the Arazu has a bonus to warp disruption module range, which means I would not be free to hit and run even from a moderate distance. I think I'll leave them to it and keep my ship, heading home instead to get some rest and reflect on the hunt.

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Tags: arazu, buzzard, drake, eve online, helios, iteron, manticore, megathron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, thorax, w-space

Scanning action

Another false start to a day, as a K162 wormhole coming from class 2 w-space distracts me. I can't divert my attention further that way, though, as the wormhole is at the end of its life. Instead, I continue to scan until I resolve our static connection. The wormhole to our neighbouring class 3 system is stable and healthy, and I jump through. An off-line tower and some scanning probes are visible on my directional scanner, showing activity but perhaps not originating here. The probes are only core scanners, and there are no ships on d-scan, so I feel safe enough launch my own combat scanning probes and moving them out of the system. Of course, the other scout here could be cloaked and in range of d-scan to see me, but I consider it a fairly safe assumption that an active scanner doesn't check d-scan that often.

A blanket scan of this C3 system finds no anomalies, a few signatures, and some ships, so I imagine there is an on-line tower for me to find. I warp around and locate it, seeing a Badger industrial ship, Viator transport ship, and Ishkur assault ship inside its shields, the latter two both piloted. I also notice a second set of scanning probes, and I am fairly sure they are not mine. Presumably both scouts are cloaked somewhere, as the piloted ships here aren't ideal for scanning. With so many probes in the system some more can't hurt, and I start what I hope to be a quick scan.

My first hit is a wormhole, which turns out to be the static connection to low-sec empire space. I loiter at the exit for a while, as I resolve a radar, ladar, and three gravimetric sites, but no one seems interested in visiting low-sec. I warp back to the K162 homewards, wondering if it will attract more attention, and it does, a Purifier stealth bomber jumping through to our C4. The final signature in this C3 is a K162 from a C2 system, which is also pretty neat. I jump through to take a look.

Nothing appears on d-scan in the C2, and I launch probes, move them out of the system, and warp away from the wormhole. A few signatures dot the system, but no anomalies, and the two ships I see are both at the local tower. They are both also piloted, which could be interesting, particularly as they change from inoccuous boats to a Falcon recon ship and Legion strategic cruiser. I decide to scan this system regardless of activity, resolving the second static wormhole as an exit to high-sec empire space.

I poke my nose out to appear in the Heimatar region and far from any assets, and returning to the C2 sees one pilot changed back in to his Anathema covert operations boat—perhaps a source of probes in the C3 earlier—and the other disappeared. Whether his Falcon is out and about and cloaked or he simply logged off I cannot tell. The C3 is equally quiet with promise, pilots around but not moving out of the tower. I get the exit to low-sec here too, which takes me to the Placid region, but have little else to do for now. I return home, not getting bombed by the Purifier as I jump through our K162, and take a break.

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Tags: anathema, badger, eve online, falcon, ishkur, legion, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, purifier, scanning, viator, w-space

Practice drones

Where have our anomalies gone? It looks like the visitors we had the other day not only cleared all the sites they could handle but activated those they couldn't, or didn't have time to complete. Scanning the home system finds no anomalies in our system now, which at least means I can delete those bookmarks. I can delete more soon, when the mining sites I activated disappear, which should leave us with a relatively tidy system¹. But my idea to get some quick profit from the sites goes nowhere when warping to them in my Tengu strategic cruiser finds no Sleepers have turned up yet. I suppose like any good w-space hunters they wait until their victim is actually in the site and mining rocks. I'll simply let the rocks fade away.

I return to our tower and swap the Tengu for my Buzzard covert operations boat, ready to explore beyond our static connection. The neighbouring class 3 w-space system doesn't look too interesting on first entering it, with only two planets visible on my directional scanner. But the lack of ships and towers, and my position on the outskirts of the system, lets me launch probes and move them out of d-scan range without been noticed. The probes can stay out of d-scan range whilst still being able to cover the entire system, and a blanket scan sees a ship and drones in the system. It looks like the hunt is on.

And the hunt is off again. Warping to the middle of the system sees only a Reaper rookie frigate on d-scan, which is hardly going to be using the mining drones I can also detect. I locate the tower that is here and see the Reaper sitting unpiloted in the shields, whilst the drones are floating abandoned elsewhere in the system. I have already confirmed there is no activity here, but I can still use the drones as a practice hunt. They are in the middle of space and need to be located, I will see if I can scan their location with a single attempt.

I pick a suitable point in the system to start refining my search for the drones, getting close to them to start with, which helps when positioning probes. I open my system map and start narrowing my d-scan beam, repositioning a reference probe with each positive reading. Of course, I'm only moving the probe's 'box', the actual probe remaining far out of the system for now. Once I have the drones in a 5° d-scan beam I adjust the range of d-scan to gauge their distance from me, which I work out to be around 1·2 AU. With range and bearing information, I carefully position my probes and, when satisfied, hit the scan button.

Sure enough, my first hit is a solid 100%, good enough to bookmark the reference and warp to the drones. The exercise wasn't exactly under normal conditions, as there was no time pressure involved, whether real or imagined, letting me be more cautious with each step, but it is good practice all the same. It's also interesting to note that there is no gravimetric site sharing the same space as the drones, so they really are just floating in space. Maybe they were forgotten and the site despawned, or a miner was ambushed there and the drones were left behind. Either way, I don't collect them for myself. We have enough mining drones and, should they wake up, I would rather the occupants not immediately realise another capsuleer has passed through their system.

I get to scanning proper, with this system's nine anomalies and seven signatures to resolve. I find a wormhole, a K162 from low-sec space, but the second one is more interesting, being a K162 from class 2 w-space and a good potential source of targets. At least, it would be ace, if it weren't reaching the end of its natural lifetime. The third wormhole here is the system's static connection, another exit to low-sec, leaving a gravimetric, ladar, and radar site each to resolve. I check the two exits from this C3, the static wormhole leading out to the Placid region and the K162 coming in from, oh, Placid. The two exits are only eight hops separate, which is considerably shorter than any trip to a decent market hub.

I head home, the C3 still quiet, and copy the bookmarks to our shared can. I take a break, hoping that the system will wake up later and present some juicy targets, but a couple of return trips in my stealth bomber finds no change. The Reaper and drones remain the only objects of note on my directional scanner, leaving this a day of exploration and exercise.

1. Relative to, for example, my flat.
Return to post.

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

System orientation

Our neighbouring class 3 w-space system is dull, particularly now the trapped pilot has left. Oh sure, she was blue to us and technically not a target, but I still had an ethical decision to make. The good news is that we now have a brand spanking new exit to high-sec space, by way of a class 2 system connecting in to our class 4 w-space home. Having only now scanned the exit, after the old one collapsed, and seeing the blue pilot leave the system, I head out myself to see where the exit leads. And it may be high-sec empire space, but it doesn't look very inviting, being a dead-end system and many hops from any of my assets. Checking my atlas is more enlightening, a cross-region jump being more obvious when looking at a fuller picture, and putting us only eight hops from a decent hub. We can buy some fuel at Tash-Murkon Prime.

Two combined trips from me and Fin can get us a whole lot of fuel, and we both board Crane transport ships to start hauling. The first trip is nicely uneventful, the second outward journey through the C2 sees the Iteron hauler that has been sitting lazily in a tower now gone from my directional scanner, replaced by a Buzzard covert operations boat. I ignore him for now, being no obvious threat and perhaps simply looking for the new exit to high-sec himself, no doubt more aware of the timing of his own system's static wormhole than we are.

My second trip to empire space also has my hold partially filled on the way out, as Fin reminds me that we also have Sleeper loot to sell. I have to take a small diversion to find an dealer willing to pay the best prices, but we get a nice injection of capital in to our wallets, and some tax in to the corporation wallet. I pick up more fuel and head back home, where the tower becomes nicely stocked indeed. And with tower management out of the way for a couple more weeks I jump in to my Manticore stealth bomber to lurk in the C3, where the Buzzard was seen coming and going.

A pod is now visible on d-scan, although his whereabouts isn't easy to discern in this silo system, and then the pod is gone. I can't tell if he's logged off or used the exit to high-sec himself. I like to think the latter, and that he'll come back with a suitably squishy ship I can pop when he unwarily decloaks on the wormhole before the session change timer ends, preventing him from jumping out again. With my imagination somewhat fevered, I warp to the exit wormhole and lurk, letting Fin know where I am and asking her to inform me when she jumps my way, so that I can be ready to pop any other ships.

A flare! Fin's said nothing, this must be the pilot returning. I get my systems hot, and prepare to drop my cloak to engage. But only the purple fleet icon appears on my screen, Fin's Crane cloaking and warping away, and I let my heartbeat return to normal levels. 'I thought you were on the C3', she says, after I point out my recent request. Yep, that's what I said, and this is the C2, so I'm not here. There remains no activity in this system and I am not keen to wait for a pilot to return when I have no evidence that he left. Now that Fin's home safely I have no real need to loiter in the C2, so I go home myself and call it a night.

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

Lucky escape

I'm going to declutter our messy home system. My first task of the day is to activate some pesky gravimetric and ladar sites. We don't need to get rid of all of them, just in case the mining bug infects us or we need some gas, for whatever gas is used for, so I stick to activating the more common and less profitable sites. This still will remove a good bunch of signatures from the system whilst leaving us with a bunch of exotic gas and ore to harvest should we want to. And, to be smart about this operation, I move all of the bookmarks for the sites I activate to a separate folder, so that I can check and delete them easily over the next few days.

Sites activated, I scan for our static wormhole and explore. The wormhole is easily found, sitting on the outskirts of the system and stupidly distinct. Why am I even bothering to tidy up? Maybe because it isn't our static wormhole but a K162 from class 2 w-space. It's time to hunt! I jump through to see a messy result from my directional scanner, as I count nine towers in range, along with an Iteron hauler somewhere. This is a silo system. I look for the Iteron, finding it piloted at one of the many towers here, but he doesn't seem to be active. Warping to the outer planets finds two more towers, but the lack of ships lets me launch scanning probes quietly. My probes find seven anomalies and five signatures, which I'm sure I can resolve pretty quickly.

Three ladar sites and two wormholes are resolved. The connections lead homewards and out to high-sec empire space, although the exit wormhole is reaching the end of its natural lifetime. The Iteron is still doing nothing, and maybe this C2 with its static exit to high-sec can be used to ship some fuel home, although I don't trust the EOL wormhole at the moment. Glorious leader Fin arrives and has no qualms about that, though. I jump home and copy my bookmarks to our shared can, whilst Fin collects some rogue mining drones that apparently didn't want to see the rocks go to waste, before going out to look again for our static wormhole.

I resolve the wormhole and, as it turns out to be our static connection this time, jump through to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system. Nothing beyond planets and moons is on d-scan, and I launch probes and blanket the system, finding three anomalies, no ships, and a bunch of signatures. My notes tell me I was here before, only a couple of days ago too. The promise of an exit to null-sec is discouraging, but I can look for additional wormholes and if I find only the one I can keep what must be the exit to null-sec closed, making this a good system to shoot Sleepers in.

Hullo, someone is talking to me in local. 'Hey, you there', says Diamond Benau, probably meaning me, as my scanning probes are all over d-scan, 'I need a hole out'. Haw haw haw, I bet you do! 'I'll pay a lot.' O RLY? I think we can work something out. This could of course be a trap, but it would be rather elaborate, particularly as I know this system to be unoccupied and leading out to null-sec. I am also prepared to set a trap of my own, alerting Fin to what's happening, and perhaps thinking about getting the Onyx heavy interdictor warmed up and placed on the home side of our static wormhole. I'll just negotiate for now.

I point out that this C3 has a static connection out to null-sec, but that I have a route to high-sec, luckily found via the C2 connecting in to our home system. I think an exit to high-sec is worth rather more than being dumped in to null-sec, and start sorting out terms. We bash out a deal, I see my wallet blink with iskies deposited, and get ready to drop the relevant bookmarks for this hapless pilot. I warp to a planet, jettison the copied bookmarks, and move away and re-activate my cloak. I am curious to see what ship is being piloted, so that we can prepare a proper welcome on the other side of the K162 out of here. A Cormorant destroyer appears to eat my can of bookmarks, which is a small enough fish to pop, but she turns out to be blue to us, part of a friendly w-space alliance. Aww, I have to call off Fin and—once reminded that I have been paid—happily refund the iskies, as blues don't pay blues for help.

There is a slight kink to the rescue plan, though, as the EOL exit is now gone. The wormhole really was at the end of its life. Fin finds this out too, having abandoned our attempt to make a capsuleer's day even worse and gone out in her Crane transport ship to buy fuel. That's okay, I already mentioned to the lost pilot that if the wormhole had collapsed I'd scan a new one, it being a static connection and all, and I simply head back to the C2 myself and scan again. All the signatures from a little earlier are the same, except for the missing and new wormholes, and I soon have the new exit to high-sec in front of me. I invite the blue pilot in to a fleet and instruct her to warp to my position, and she is quite grateful to see empire space again. That's my good deed done for the day year.

It can't have been good to be stuck in w-space with no way of scanning an exit. And it turns out the Cormorant was a salvaging boat, stuffed with over half-a-billion ISK of Sleeper loot! I ask how long she was stuck, wondering if she'd have to lose all that profit and a clone in order to get back to k-space. 'Only two hours', she says, making me care less for her plight. She kicked back with some reading material, checked d-scan occasionally, and got rescued within a couple of hours, and by a blue pilot at that! That's one lucky escape.

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Tags: cormorant, crane, eve online, iteron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

An improbable chain

I'm going to tidy up this system. At some point I'll warp around and activate the gravimetric and ladar sites, so that they'll disappear within a few days and leave me an easier task of exploratory scanning, but I ought to get Fin's agreement before I do. For now, I simply find our static wormhole amongst the noise and jump through to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. My directional scanner is clear, an off-line tower not really causing me any concern, although one planet is out of range of d-scan. I launch probes and blanket the system, finding nine anomalies and twenty-five signatures, but no ships, and warping to the distant planet shows no occupation.

Glorious leader Fin arrives and, after some planet goo configuration, joins me to scan the C3. I handily left a bookmark to our static wormhole in our shared can, sparing Fin the hassle of finding it herself, and she agrees with the idea of reducing clutter at home. Super, I can get on that tomorrow, as we can find something else productive to do today. We decide to scan for an exit, as we have fuel to buy and loot to sell, and start scanning our way out of w-space, concentrating only on finding the wormhole here. I sift through the many signatures to find a wormhole, although it turns out not to be an exit to k-space but a random outbound T405 connection to class 4 w-space. More exploration and unexpected opportunity to hunt is good!

A second wormhole in the C3 comes quickly, this one turning out to be the static exit, but the null-sec connection is not much use for buying fuel. A system crash of my Buzzard covert operations boat discourages me from scanning here further, as switching the systems off and on again, whilst necessary, causes all of the ignored signatures to be reset. Rather than scan everything again I instead jump through the outbound connection to the class 4 system. D-scan is clear in the C4, my probes revealing no anomalies or ships and only three signatures. Warping around finds a tower on an outer planet, where there are obviously no pilots given the lack of ships in the system. The three signatures turn out to be a ladar site, the K162 back to the C3, and the system's static connection to another C3. I jump onwards.

I've been in this class 3 system before, the last time only three weeks ago. I'm confident the tower will be where I didn't destroy it, and the static exit leads out to low-sec empire space. Although there are twenty-three anomalies here the mere nine signatures should make finding the exit easy enough. Once a lack of activity is confirmed I start scanning, looking only for the wormhole and a good exit which we can bring fuel through. I find the wormhole quickly, but it turns out to not to be the wormhole but a wormhole, a K162 from C4 w-space. I persevere to find the exit to low-sec, but being spat out to the Sinq Laison region and too many jumps from anywhere makes me return to w-space and jump in to the next C4 along my route.

I think I've come home by mistake. I'm in a class 4 w-space system with a pulsar phenomenon and a static connection to a C3. Maybe I've got myself turned around, or just headed in a big circle, I'm not sure. I double-check my bookmarks to realise that it is indeed a simple coincidence and I am still heading forwards. Even so, the system looks familiar, with its curious configuration of planets, and my notes show that I was here four months ago. The C4 remains unoccupied, which means there is likely another wormhole to find here, apart from the static connection, which should be a K162 that leads to an occupied system. Ten anomalies and four signatures keeps scanning easy, and indeed there is another wormhole to find. At least it shouldn't connect from another C3 system, as all class 3 systems lead to k-space.

Naturally, the K162 I drop out of warp in front of comes from C3 space. Jumping through reveals the wormhole to be another random T405 connection and that I have another wormhole to find here. As I am scribbling notes a Cheetah cov-ops boat appears on d-scan, which when narrowing d-scan's beam looks to be at the local tower. My probes find only four signatures in the system and, as two of them are wormholes, unless the Cheetah pilot swaps to a mining ship there is probably not much to do here. I scan quickly, hopefully whilst the local pilot gets his bearings, resolving a radar and ladar site, and the static exit that leads out to low-sec empire space. Done. And that's the end of today's improbable w-space constellation.

The Cheetah remains inactive in the tower as I get the exit from this C3, ending up in the Khanid region and, again, many hops from anywhere. I return to w-space once more to now see a simple Probe frigate on d-scan. I head homewards, intending to share with Fin the fifteen wormhole bookmarks I've accumulated and to decide what to do next. We could shoot Sleepers, but I'm keen to see what the Probe pilot will get up to. I swap to a Manticore stealth bomber and head along the chain of systems to the final class 3 system, only to warp to the tower and find out that the pilot has been a capsuleer for less than a day. I doubt she's going to wander out of the tower at all for now, making my trip rather pointless. And all the scanning has eaten in to the evening, leaving little motivation for what can only be a short engagement with Sleepers. I go back to the home system and settle down for the night. So many systems, so little activity.

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

Iskies for nothing

We have visitors, big visitors. A Legion and two Tengu strategic cruisers, a Raven and two Maelstrom battleships, and a Basilisk logistics ship are all on my directional scanner in the home w-space system, and I'm fairly sure Fin and I aren't piloting them all, particularly as Fin isn't here. Unsurprisingly, there are Sleeper wrecks on d-scan too, as these marauders are no doubt working their way through our many anomalies. I can't get too excited about the anomalies being cleared by outsiders, because we make the majority of our profit in external sites. After all, your home w-space system is not as an important source of income from Sleepers as your connecting system. But there is still hopefully an opportunity here to pop a salvager, and show these pilots we can defend our territory, at least a little.

I jump in to my Manticore stealth bomber and warp out of the tower to cloak, getting off d-scan as quickly as I can. I open up the system map and start sweeping d-scan around the bookmarked anomalies, seeing which ones have wrecks in and where the intruders currently are. I quickly find the active site, and two that only have wrecks floating in them. I warp in to the despawned sites to bookmark a couple of wrecks, and wait for the salvager to turn up. The fleet warps to the despawned site I am in and starts fanning out, making me wonder if they saw my Manticore on d-scan and are trying to locate me, but that's likely just paranoia, because even if they saw me it would be highly improbable to accidentally bump in to my ship in the vastness of space.

There is still no sign of a salvager yet, making the fleet's presence in the cleared anomaly a, well, an anomaly, until the Legion in their company tractors and salvages a wreck. It looks like I'll have no shot today, not with a strategic cruiser salvager being protected by other strategic cruisers and battleships. I suppose I will have to simply let them take what they want. 'Burn the wrecks', a colleague suggests when I relay to him what's happening, but that sounds like a waste of ammunition and profit. It gives me an idea, though. I warp to a different cleared anomaly and, with the intruding fleet busy elsewhere, start transferring the Sleeper loot in to my own hold.

I am somewhat concerned about the potential sudden arrival of the imposing fleet, and try to be cautious. I sidle up to a wreck, loot, and re-activate my cloak. I pick the Sleeper battleships to loot, as they have the greatest profit in their wrecks, ignoring the cruiser and frigate wrecks as not worth the risk. But the risk seems minimal, as even if my Manticore is spotted on d-scan by the intruders—and a 'don't panic' in local suggests maybe it has—they won't know what I am doing, and I should have plenty of time to disappear if I see them coming. And the Legion is a relatively slow salvager, giving me enough time to loot all of the battleships in this one anomaly, netting me a little over fifty million ISK in profit. That leaves under fifteen million ISK in Sleeper loot in the wrecks of the smaller Sleepers, plus any good salvage that can be recovered, giving me the lion's share of the profit in this anomaly without doing any fighting.

I am keen to see if I can grab loot from more wrecks in a different anomaly, but the fleet has moved on and is salvaging in the only other cleared anomaly I found. I watch and wait, eventually following them in to the anomaly I looted almost under their noses. They seem appreciative of my work, one of them saying 'lol great ninja' in local, and I don't think I am in any particular danger should I reply, so I take a bow, telling them that it was more profitable than shooting the wrecks. 'Why not shoot us?', I am asked. Hang on, I reply, let me get my Titan out. I must have left it in my other hangar. I'm not being goaded, though.

But they make me feel silly when I say that at least they have removed some boomarks from my busy system map, which should make subsequent scanning easier. Activate the gravimetric and ladar sites, they say, if you're not going to mine them, and let them despawn. It is sensible advice, even though I have been loath to follow it for a long while. It all feels like profit, despite how little motivation I have to mine rocks or gas, but trying to justify keeping the sites around to a bunch of strangers makes me realise that I could be smarter about this. And, with salvaging complete, the fleet warps out of the anomaly, shortly disappearing from d-scan, presumably having jumped out of the system. Shadowing them let me see their exit vector, and now seems like a good time to scan for the wormhole they've been using.

I swap the Manticore for my Buzzard covert operations boat and start scanning. Resolving the K162 is fairly simple, after seeing the ships warp out of the site, and as well as connecting from another class 4 system the wormhole is reaching the end of its natural lifetime, which probably means we have seen the last of them. A wider scan shows that they have been busy for a while, eight more anomalies cleared from the home system. I think they got a good haul of profit from us, which is perhaps why they weren't too bitter about what little I claimed. Continued scanning finds our static connection leading to class 3 w-space, which is occupied but inactive. A K162 from C4 w-space in the C3 would be more interesting if that, too, weren't EOL, and the exit from the C3 leads to low-sec empire space in the Molden Heath region and one jump from null-sec. I simply make notes and return home to sleep.

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Tags: basilisk, buzzard, crane, eve online, legion, maelstrom, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, raven, scanning, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Finding a splinter

Our target has left w-space, our neighbouring class 3 system is quiet, but there is still the matter of the scanning probes seen earlier in our home system. There was no point looking for the source of the probes when we had an active target, but now they offer us potentially more exploration, if my suspicion is right and a new wormhole has connected to our system. Fin and I board our Buzzard covert operations boats and look for signs of a K162 at home. Fin finds a new wormhole and warps to it, with me following close behind. She lands at a connection coming from another class 4 system, and she jumps through to investigate.

Fin's directional scanner shows no activity in the C4, and I follow her in to the system. In fact, the system is tiny, the entirety of it visible to d-scan from just about any relative position, making it obvious that there is no occupation. And no occupation means there is likely to be a further K162 here, an origin for the scouts who opened the connection to our system. We launch probes and scan, finding eighteen anomalies and fifteen signatures to sift through. I imagine that after scanning this C4 and getting to our home system, with its fifty-plus signatures, the scouts despaired and turned around, probably never making it to our neighbouring C3. But going backwards to find them looks to be easier.

Both Fin and I resolve a wormhole each, almost at the same time. Mine is a K162 from a class 5 system, but reaching the end of its natural lifetime, whereas Fin's is a healthy C5 K162. We swap positions to bookmark the other's found wormhole, and I jump through the healthy K162 in to the class 5 system beyond. D-scan reveals a Tengu strategic cruiser and Magnate frigate in the system, along with a tower. Sweeping d-scan around finds the tower, but warping to it doesn't reveal any ships. But they are here, they just aren't on my overview. It is only when I see the green-backed white star insignia that I realise why my overview is apparently deceiving me. We've found our splinter faction!

Actually, I suppose our splinter faction, set-up in this class 5 system with a static connection to a C4, found us. But they didn't stop to say hello, which is a little rude. I warp in to the tower, wondering when I will be noticed, but it takes a while even with my loud all-caps shouting in the corporation channel. Being invisible has its benefits, though. We need some more ECM modules and drones at our tower, and the hangar here seems to be much better stocked than our own. I cram a bunch of drones and modules in to my Buzzard's cramped hold as pilots start to notice I'm actually flying around them and not just being noisy in the communication channel.

'We could use some laser crystals too', points out Fin, thinking of our next tower siege, but our colleagues don't have many themselves. But that's okay, they have a link to high-sec empire space and a pilot is on a supply run, he just adds them to his shopping list for us. That's awfully kind. I almost feel guilty about coming back in my Crane transport ship and taking a Retriever mining barge, particularly as Fin notices on my return that we have three unused in storage ourselves.

The high-sec trader brings back the supplies, gets help hauling them to the tower, and we are thankful to get some stock for ourselves. We hang out for a bit, happy to be physically in the same system for the first time in months, but the hour is getting late. We turn around and head home. We didn't find activity we wanted to shoot, but it was a lovely surprise to see some old friends that are generally just floating heads. Maybe next time they'll recognise our system and stop to say hello, although maybe they would have done this time had I kept home a bit tidier.

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

Hollow threats

Fin's been busy, scanning her way out of our class 4 w-space home, through our C3 neighbouring system, and out to the arse-crack of New Eden that is Aridia. Sadly, apart from a couple of covert operations boats, whose origins are unknown, there is little to see or do in the class 3 system and Fin's work is being undone as we try to push our wormhole over the edge of stability. A couple of trips in an Orca industrial command ship on refining runs has already reduced the wormhole to below half mass, so it only needs a bit of a nudge to complete the collapse. A coordinated jump with a Raven battleship and the Orca sends the wormhole in to oblivion, and we start the day afresh.

The new static wormhole is scanned and we are back in C3 space, a different system hopefully offering better opportunities. There are lots of warp bubbles visible on my directional scanner, along with an off-line tower, but no direct signs of activity. I am free to launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system, finding seven anomalies and only three signatures. Scanning here will be easy. Exploring the rest of the system finds a second tower too, this one on-line and really quite poorly defended. There are three active defence batteries, which could easily be incapacitated, and no hardeners for the force field, making the tower an inviting target to siege. But scanning finds two other wormholes in the system, the extra connection beyond the static wormhole presenting a risk.

The second wormhole turns out not to be a K162, which would strongly suggest activity in the connected system, but an outbound wormhole to another class 3 system. The best option is to check the second C3 for activity and if none is found assault the tower in relative safety. I jump through and immediately see Sleeper wrecks and a Legion strategic cruiser on d-scan. Admittedly, the Legion probably won't be scanning any time soon, and we could probably start shooting the tower in the first class 3 system, but the Legion presents a better target. If only we had the ships to deal with him, whilst also being able to fend off Sleepers. Until we get those ships we should probably wait until he salvages. But first I need to find him.

I start a passive scan of the system, not wanting to launch probes, as Fin returns home to launch her Manticore stealth bomber. I soon find the anomaly the Legion is in, and warp to it so I can bookmark a couple of suitably positioned wrecks. Bookmarks made, I head homewards, dropping short of the wormhole and manually navigating the last ten kilometres so that my ship's visible time on d-scan is minimised. On the other side of the wormhole I copy the bookmarks I have made and jettison them for Fin to pick up, on her way here, before heading homewards to get in to my own Manticore. On my way out of the home system I spot core scanning probes on d-scan, giving us visitors. I pay them no mind for now, as we already have a target, we can come back and deal with these new pilots later.

We have a problem. Fin's Manticore appears in the second C3 a mere forty-five metres from the wormhole, giving her almost a full two kilometres to travel before she can activate her cloaking device and disappear from d-scan. She could immediately jump out, wait for the polarisation effect to end, and try again, but those three minutes of polarisation could mean the difference between success and failure themselves. She gives it her best effort in moving away from the wormhole, hoping the Legion pilot is not paying too much attention. The strategic cruiser warping away and being replaced by a Magnate frigate suggests he was being vigilant with d-scan. Never mind, there isn't much to be done about randomness. Besides, the Magnate can't warp cloaked, we may still get a shot.

Probes are launched, and presumably the pilot will be looking for the new wormhole that has opened in to his system, the only means for unfamiliar ships to enter. If he wants to investigate the wormhole directly he will need to fly out to it, and as he can't warp cloaked, I have an idea. We get both of our Manticores on a direct line between the K162 and the local tower, at different ranges. If the Magnate is predictable enough, he will warp directly from the tower and appear on one of a few distinct points. With our positioning, we should be in with a good chance of snaring him as he lands. The most likely circumstance is that he will cloak as soon as he lands, breaking our lock, and we'll need to burn the range to bump him, at which point he will be aligned and ready to warp away. But if he were that experienced he would probably be in an Anathema cov-ops boat, not a simply frigate.

Mr Legion talks to us in the local channel, asking 'where you from?', in a curious dialect. We don't answer, we just want to shoot him. And when his Magnate appears on d-scan I think we may get the chance. I sweep d-scan around, seeing that he's not at his tower, and it looks like his ship is coincident with a planet. I break formation and warp to the planet, dropping a little short just in case, but he's gone already. Actually, he's right there, in front of me! His ship has decloaked, and I rush to try to lock the frigate and disrupt its warp engines. My first attempt fails, as I forget I am still cloaked, and by the time I have dropped the cloak and am a split-second from getting a positive lock with my disruptor hot the Magnate warps away.

Damn, that was close. Also, 'just in case'? Just in case of what? I drop out of warp on top of him and decloak a frigate in my stealth bomber? That sounds like the best plan! I shouldn't have been so cautious in this instance. The pilot gives a little chuckle in the local channel, but I'm not sure what he's so happy about. I'm not the fool who warped to zero on a celestial object with hostiles in the system. He points out that 'friends are on their way, we will find you'. Big words, but they sound hollow. After all, he had to ask us where we were from, even when he was actively scanning the system. I don't think he has the skills to find us.

I spend a little time finding the towers in the system, all four of them. An Executioner frigate is now on d-scan, finding it at a tower showing it not to be a new presence but the Legion pilot still. I keep an eye on him, so I can see which direction he warps away in, if he decides to move, waiting for perhaps another silly mistake. When he finally moves he warps to apparently empty space before disappearing from d-scan. I assume he has jumped out of the system, although I doubt he'll be back with his 'friends' to hunt us down. His friends all sound about as imaginary as mine. But his departure leaves us with no one else to stalk, and we turn around and head home.

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Tags: anathema, eve online, executioner, legion, magnate, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, raven, scanning, w-space