Eyeing up an Orca

I'm scanning, of course. Ignoring the sites in our home system in favour of wormholes sees me jumping in to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, to be greeted by two towers and no ships on my directional scanner. I warp around a bit to locate the towers and look for intelligent life—or at least some miners—only to see over a dozen more towers and associated force fields flash on my d-scan display. A quick count puts the total number of active towers at nineteen. This is a silo system, each tower powering the reactions only possible in lawless space.

I won't bother to find each tower here, as it is more effort than can possibly be repaid, merely noting that the system has 'lots'. But the Apocalypse battleship, Orca industrial command ship, and Magnate frigate are worth locating, if only to see if they may be targets. And it looks like the Orca is, being the only piloted ship and it disappearing from the tower, but still on d-scan, when I'm not paying attention. I went away from the tower with the Orca to launch scanning probes, and glorious leader Fin has started scanning already. She finds the system's static connection, leading out to high-sec empire space, and I find a K162 coming from another class 3 w-space system. I get a tingle of excitement when I think that perhaps the Orca is making itself vulnerable collapsing one or other of the wormholes.

We both jump home and swap our little scanning boats for stealth bombers. Now that we have the locations of two wormholes in the C3 we should be able to ambush the Orca, and the bombers have the firepower to reduce one to a smouldering wreck. I warp back to the tower where the Orca sat safely in the shields, and it is not there. But neither is it at either scanned wormhole, even if it remains in the system. Fin returns to our tower again and swaps back in to a scanning boat, graciously offering to be ready with combat scanning probes to find the chunky industrial command ship if it moves again, whilst I try to keep visual tabs on it.

The Orca is back at the tower, and moving again. I keep a close eye on its direction of warp and wonder, also with a tinge of excitement, if it is collecting planet goo. But warping out to a distant customs office has me waiting alone for longer than even a ponderous Orca takes to warp, and I head back to find the Orca once again nestled close to a tower. Finally I get a good bead on its direction, and now that the overview brackets for moons actually appear on my display I can see his destination as he enters warp. I suspect I know where he's going and so follow at range, confirming as I drop out of warp that the Orca is not being reckless at all but merely warping between the many towers in the system.

It looks like the Orca pilot is performing the ritual of activating the silos to start the reactions, and we aren't going to catch him outside of a tower. 'Move along', Fin says, 'these aren't the industrialists we're looking for'. She heads through the wormhole to high-sec and I jump my Manticore stealth bomber through the K162 in to the other C3 system. Hopefully, there will be more of interest to find here.

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Tags: apocalypse, eve online, magnate, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Scouting for scouts

There are twelve scanning probes in our home system, which is not only enough for anyone but too many for just one pilot. We have at least a couple of visitors. In an attempt to keep a low profile I swap the Buzzard covert operations boat I sleep in for a Manticore stealth bomber, warping out of the tower and cloaking. Personally, I loiter outside local towers when scanning in a system, so that I don't need to watch d-scan too carefully to miss a capsuleer's arrival, but others probably have different operating methods to me.

Glorious leader Fin is in the system too, cloaked herself, and updates me. She abandoned the collapsing of our static connection when the probes appeared on d-scan, a couple of trips in an Orca industrial command ship already having reduced the mass allowance of the wormhole to below half. The scanning pilots must have opened a new wormhole in to our system, and they are newly arrived. As the visitors are likely simply exploring, and not about to throw more ships through the wormhole, I swap ships back so I am once again in my Buzzard, and I add my own scanning probes to d-scan to look for the K162 that must be in our system.

The K162 connection is relatively easy to find for me, despite the couple of dozen signatures present in our home w-space system. I have most of the sites bookmarked and can quickly ignore them, only needing instead to focus on unfamiliar signatures. By contrast, the visitors have a bit of work ahead of them before they find our static wormhole to the class 3 system, which gives us an advantage in time. Not that I know what that advantage will do, but it's there. I warp to the wormhole, confirm that it is a K162, and that it is coming from a class 5 system, and jump through.

No one waits for me on the other side of the wormhole, the C5 system looking clear. Warping around finds a battleship wreck and corpse somewhere in the inner system, which is interesting, and the outer system holds a tower with some scary ships. But the Nidhoggur carrier and other smaller ships are all unpiloted, and the tower itself is undefended. It's possbile that the two scanners have come from this system, but it is also possible that they have come from another system beyond. The corpse in the system concerns me, but I can see no obvious cause for the cadaver.

I don't scan the C5, unsure whether there is a K162 leading deeper to w-space or not, but happy to consider the system inactive. And with the scouts currently in our system no doubt having to return this way, and no one in this C5, I have a plan for some disruption. Fin boards an Onyx heavy interdictor and comes to the C5, and I change to a Malediction interceptor to join her. We set up camp on the wormhole in the class 5 system, Onyx bubble activated, and wait for the scouts to return and jump, hopefully unsuspectingly, in to our trap.

We wait patiently, again a little hampered by our lack of numbers in not having eyes in our home system or the C3. All we can do is assume that the scouts are still active and planning to return. But either we lack patience or the scouts are slow, and our uncertainty of their location makes us want to be more productive. Luckily, Fin has a new plan. Rather than continue with collapsing our static wormhole we could collapse this class 5 system's static wormhole, the one we're sitting on, denying the scouts a route home at the same time as isolating us.

The plan is put in to action. Fin uses an Orca to start sucking mass allowance out of the wormhole coming from the C5, and I plant my interceptor on our own static wormhole, ready to raise the alarm if the scouts return. I get curious, though, and jump briefly in to the class 3 system, finding no ships and no probes. Maybe they have found an exit or deeper w-space connection and are exploring that. Either way, I return to our home C4, and change ships again, this time in to my Widow black ops ship in case its mass is needed to help collapse the wormhole. Fin instead opts to use a narrowly fitted Maller cruiser of her own design, built for collapsing wormholes with only a 100 MN micro-warp drive fitted to add mass, and I again sit cloaked on our static wormhole waiting for activity.

The Maller finally destabilises the wormhole enough for the Orca to be brought home and the connection from the C5 collapsed. Just as this occurs, our static connection to the C3 flares, as ships jump in. 'Fin, come back!', I yell, urging her to make the jump as soon as possible, as Cheetah and Helios cov-ops boats appear and disappear, cloaking and warping to their K162 homewards. I throw my Widow in to warp, still enjoying this agility in a battleship hull, hoping to catch the small ships in empty space, but knowing already that my targeting systems and speed will be no match for the interloping pair. At least I end up in empty space, the Orca having returned and collapsed the wormhole, and I even see the Helios still in the system, although I am unable to gain a positive target lock.

I hurry back to our tower to ditch the Widow and return to my Malediction interceptor, but it's too late. It looks like the Cheetah jumped in to the C5 in the nick of time, and although the Helios is isolated it clears our system and warps across the unscanned C3. We were so close. We nearly forced two ships to warp in to empty space where their wormhole once was, and we nearly caught at least one of them in doing so. My mistake was getting out of my interceptor, pretty much the only ship that stood a chance of locking the scanning boats, but you can only have so much patience and time to spare. And the action certainly made for an interesting start to the evening.

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Tags: buzzard, cheetah, eve online, helios, malediction, maller, manticore, mmorpg, nidhoggur, onyx, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space, widow

Shields are there for a reason

Fin has returned, and collapsed the wormhole behind her. She's a genius. This gives us a new static connection to find, with a new class 3 w-space system beyond it to explore. Resolving the wormhole is straightforward, and I warp both myself and Fin to it to continue today's adventure. Jumping in to the C3 looks promising, with two towers and two Iteron haulers on the directional scanner. But the haulers are unpiloted and not preparing to pick up ore or gas mined elsewhere in the system. No one is home, so we may as well scan for wormholes.

Only one wormhole is found amongst the ten anomalies and eleven signatures, most of the latter being radar sites curiously enough. The system's static connection doesn't lead to low-sec empire space today, instead pushing us out to null-sec space in the Esoteria region. Finding the system in my atlas shows it to be close to some dead-end systems, and I take the opportunity of being here to get more red dots of exploration on my star map.

I visit eight more systems in total in null-sec, reporting a rat battleship sitting on a gate in our exit system but otherwise encountering no ships. I see plenty of wrecks on d-scan though, capsuleers apparently out ratting themselves until unfamiliar me traipses through their enclave. My route takes me back to the exit system soon enough, where I see Fin has despatched the battleship in her stealth bomber, and unsurprisingly poor loot is dropped from the gate rat.

We head back to the C3, where a Prowler transport ship has appeared on d-scan. I warp to each of the towers in turn, finding the Prowler in the shields of one of them. As I watch to gauge the pilot's intentions a Thanatos carrier appears on d-scan, moments before it drops out of warp at the same tower as the Prowler. I suppose the carrier pilot has just woken up. And his tiredness shows, as his vector in to the tower's shields sends his collision avoidance systems haywire, catapulting the Thanatos directly away from the tower he came close to destroying with his massive ship.

Onwards the carrier drifts, apparently under no compulsion to correct this movement further towards the edge of the force field, and beyond. I watch amused as the carrier starts to breach the tower's protective barrier, making itself vulnerable to attack. Of course, it could easily return to be inside the shields before anything Fin and I could throw at it would do any real harm, and the active tower defences would reduce us to smouldering wreckage in the mean time anyway, but it tickles me that the carrier pilot has been quite so careless.

Fin doesn't want this transgression to go unnoted, and she's in a stealth bomber. She started a good distance away from the carrier, but as the pilot has been quite so insensitive to his capital ship's movements Fin has had ample time to manoeuvre in to a better position. And, with no fanfare, Fin decloaks and launches a bomb at the silly Thanatos pilot, scoring a direct hit and maybe scratching the paint a little. But at least it stops the carrier pilot from hitting 'snooze' again, as he finally gets his ship's engines on-line and the Thanatos back in to the force field.

And so we collapse our static wormhole a second time, just in case our powerful neighbours want to exact any kind of revenge against our puny and humorous prod. We are getting better at collapsing the connection now, having worked out a reliable rotation of ships to use for a mostly fresh wormhole, and we isolate ourselves for the night. We leave our system unconnected as we head for our bunks to sleep.

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Tags: eve online, iteron, manticore, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, prowler, pvp, thanatos, w-space

Completing what others started

Our home system is not stabilising on my arrival. I expect to find Fin there as a result, but it's just me again. This means someone external has visited our system, and recently. There are no ships or probes visible on my directional scanner, which at least suggests whoever was here has since left. I begin scanning, looking for a K162 wormhole, but only find our system's static connection amongst the unchanged anomalies and mining sites. Perhaps Fin popped on briefly earlier, or the connection leading in to our own system was collapsed, for whatever reason. I have no explanation, but also no other direction to go but through to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.

D-scan shows me two off-line towers in the C3. Although there are no convenient force fields to count, it is because there are no force fields that I take my time in finding the towers in my d-scan return. My notes also show me that I was last in this system seven months ago, and I am directed to one of the towers, confirming its change to being inactive. I suppose the corporation didn't move out conventionally. The only other sign of activity is a jet-can on d-scan, but not one that promises miners to slaughter needlessly. Instead, the can bears a sentence becoming more familiar with time, if not gaining any real meaning, stating that 'moosemen pumped your hole'. I can only suggest that another corporation has a static connection to a class 3 system and leaves calling cards as they travel.

But there is no activity in this C3, letting me launch probes and scan at my leisure. The lack of occupation is evident upon an initial scan, thirty anomalies waiting to have their profit ripped from them violently, and eighteen other signatures to sift through. With so many anomalies to entertain myself with, and no obvious signs of ships, I see no point in resolving any mining sites. At least, not unless I find a K162 in to this system. I make a perfunctory scan of the system, looking only for wormholes and finding just the one. I refrain from visiting the wormhole, hoping to keep it inactive, but only now do I realise that this C3 also didn't need to stabilise before I entered. Whatever happened, it looks like I've missed it. Maybe I can clear some anomalies, but later. For now, I take a break.

On my return I take a stealth bomber in to the C3, looking for any changes and finding none. It's time to make some iskies, taking the stealth bomber home and swapping it for my Tengu strategic cruiser. I am still fitted with heavy missile launchers, keeping me in range without having always to pursue, but it would benefit me more if I realised this and actually started shooting at range. It is only a hiccup and I am soon in to the swing of shooting Sleepers. But the first anomaly having just the one wave of ships pricks my senses. There should be more ships to face, which can only mean that other pilots have visited this anomaly before me.

A second anomaly confirms my suspicions, holding all three waves of Sleeper ships that the first should have, but still with one less cruiser in the initial wave. I certainly appear to be completing someone else's combat sites. But my consternation is balanced with the clarity of not having seen any wrecks on d-scan earlier, or indeed in the sites now, and that Sleepers tend to hang around in anomalies for three days after the first assault before abandoning them. There may have been earlier visitors, but they are several hours gone, if not a day or more. I should be safe from those who began shooting the Sleepers here. But that doesn't make me safe from others, and I still keep a vigilant eye on d-scan, for what good it does.

Glorious leader Fin joins me for some Sleeper combat, and we clear six anomalies in total between us, even if they aren't six full anomalies. We salvage the bits and pieces of wrecks scattered here and there, bagging almost three hundred million ISK. We don't quite manage to blitz through the thirty anomalies present, but we take a good bite at it. I take another break, wanting to bang some drums or I'll never be a good at it, whilst Fin heads through the bookmarked wormhole in the C3, naturally ending up in low-sec space. We need some more high-tech launchers and salvagers for imminent skill training completion, demanding a trip to market.

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

Hunting a Hulk

Most days start out with my resolving our static wormhole and jumping in to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. And today is no exception. A tower and jet-can but no ships are all visible on my directional scanner in the C3, and I launch scanning probes to identify the signature of the wormhole homewards. But I also recognise the size of the system, with a few planets out of d-scan range, so once finished I quickly flick the probes upwards and hit scan again to warp them far out of the system as I take a look around.

I locate the tower, the jet-can nestled inside its shields, and also notice a second, off-line tower, named 'Abandoned', which I don't care to find. Warping towards the outer planets hits gold, though, a Hulk exhumer mining alone in the rim. The three jet-cans no doubt with him show how long he's been here, and the name he's given one of them indicates how long he's likely to stay, which is under twenty minutes from now. I immediately start trying to narrow down the Hulk's position using d-scan, but I realise that I am not fully prepared yet. I only launched four probes on my entrance to the system, which is enough to resolve wormholes, but I prefer a central datum point that a fifth probe provides when hunting ships.

There is a planet far on the other side of the system. I warp there and launch a fifth probe, and although it is already a long way from the Hulk, and the tower, I move it out of the system as a precaution. And with all of the probes safely warped out of the way I can reposition their boxes as I please, until I am confident I've found the Hulk and am ready to hit scan once more. I return to the planet near the miner, pleased to see his continued presence, and now I start to refine his location. I use one probe box as my datum position for bearing, getting d-scan down to five degree angular certainty, and a second probe box as a datum position for range. Lining up the range box with my own position and the bearing datum gives me my calculated location of the Hulk. It's time to find him.

I hit scan and wait for my probes to warp back in to the system, resolving any signatures to be found. I am using core scanning probes again, which will let me find only the Hulk indirectly in the gravimetric site itself. I tried using combat probes as default for a while, but having to ignore the dozens of signatures, or hundreds in a silo system, for towers, defences, and arrays got tedious fairly quickly. Maybe I should try combat probes again, as resolving the ship directly would negate the time needed having to warp in to the site and locate the ship manually, as well as avoiding the danger of decloaking whilst warping in. But I have core probes out now, and they get me a 99·89% strength hit on the gravimetric site. So close!

A quick adjustment to the probes' positions gets me the 100% hit required to bookmark and warp to the site, which I do at the same time as I recall my probes, preventing them from being seen on d-scan for longer than is necessary. I enter the gravimetric site safely and see the Hulk some distance away, the three jet-cans all near the ship. I bookmark one of them and hold briefly, happy to wait until I am sure the Hulk isn't starting to leave, then I warp out myself. I return to the wormhole connecting back to the home system and jump through, moving swiftly to our tower to swap ships. I stow the Buzzard covert operations boat I used to find the Hulk and board my Onyx heavy interdictor. I know the system is devoid of other ships and pilots, and the Onyx will let me capture the pilot's pod with no effort.

I warp back to the wormhole, jump in to the C3, and hit d-scan almost as a reflex. As my session change cloak is in effect I may as well check passively that the situation hasn't changed. But it has, an Iteron hauler now visible along with the local tower. I imagine the Hulk pilot is collecting his ore, but not because he knows I am coming for him. The time is getting close to the name of the jet-can, and I suspect he has named it as a reminder of the time the harshness of space will finally take its toll on the can, rather than the more often seen notation of the time the can was jettisoned. But as he doesn't know I'm here he should be warping back to the site and, more importantly, to the spot his Hulk has vacated. I spur my Onyx in to action and warp it to the location of the jet-can I bookmarked. The Iteron will get there first, but he won't be agile enough to warp out before I can join him.

It's all over rather quickly. Whether the pilot was watching d-scan or not I cannot tell, but my Onyx lands almost on top of the Iteron, the warp bubble inflating to prevent its escape. The hauler is not built to withstand missile fire, and the Terror assault missiles wreck the ship frighteningly quickly. The pod is captured by the warp bubble too, but I don't even consider a ransom. I'm not a social person and don't like awkward conversations with strangers. The warp bubble drops as I scoop the corpse and loot what little fittings survived the Iteron's explosion.

I would have preferred the Hulk kill to the Iteron, but it is still a good result. All three jet-cans remain in the gravimetric site, and the miner is no longer able to recover his ore. I warp back to the wormhole, pausing briefly to check d-scan and seeing an Imicus frigate appear. A relative, perhaps, sent a distress call by the Hulk pilot and turned up to bring the pilot's new clone home. I watch from a distance, using d-scan, and the Imicus disappears, although I see no probes. Either way, the frigate isn't a direct threat and neither can it collect any ore. I return to our tower and swap the Onyx for a Bustard transport ship, pausing briefly to adjust its fitting. Rather than dedicate it to cargo room I optimise it for cargo and agility, hoping that it's standard fitted additional warp engine strength will be enough as default.

Jumping back to the C3 sees no surprises on d-scan but I don't warp directly to the gravimetric site. Instead, I warp to the nearby planet, pausing there to check d-scan now that I am in range of the gravimetric site. No ships are visible here either and, confident I can escape from a cloaked threat, I move in to the site to start claiming the ore as my own. No one is there waiting for me, so I move the ore from the cans to my hold, beginning with the one about to implode. Indeed, it is disintegrating just as I get to it. I cannot carry all the ore it holds and so jettison what I have already picked up, creating a new can, and transfer the ore across to stop it from dispersing in to space.

I get the first shipment of arkonor home safely and return twice more to collect the rest, making a final trip in a more stealthy and agile Crane to pick up the last few hundred cubic metres of ore. With the last of the ore collected, I return to the wormhole via the local tower, which my cloaked Crane is able to do discreetly, to see the Imicus pilot not scanning but putting some defences on-line. I suppose the new clone won't be returning soon, so I go home. I recover 2,870 units of arkonor for my effort, which is a nice afternoon spent mining, and I have a new corpse in my collection as well.

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Tags: bustard, buzzard, crane, eve online, hulk, imicus, iteron, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Dead ends in each direction

The tower can again run unsupervised for a while, like a kitten high on catnip, leaving me free to explore the w-space constellation. I scan and resolve our static wormhole and jump in to the neighbouring class 3 system, seeing a tower with silos on my directional scanner, but no ships. Locating the tower makes the situation even more interesting, as I note that it has almost no defences, only a single thermal hardener active and no weapons batteries at all. The wolf-rayet phenomenon in the system reduces the effectiveness of the tower's shields too. An option for fun vandalism today would be to put the tower in to reinforced mode, if my cohort turns up later.

But my plans for mayhem are deflated quickly, warping away to launch scanning probes revealing two more active—and defended—towers in the system, one with a piloted Viator transport ship inside its shields. I suppose I may as well leave the defenceless tower unscathed and simply scan instead. My scanning probes show me a fair number of gravimetric and ladar sites to ignore before finally revealing a wormhole, and then a second for good measure. The first wormhole is an exit to low-sec empire space, the second a K162 coming in from null-sec k-space and not, unfortunately, deeper w-space. As it looks like my exploration is complete, I may as well check the exit systems before heading home.

I jump through to low-sec first, finding the exit leads me to Exit. I am fairly sure I've been here before, or at least close, as it is in the original constellation of stars that holds EVE gate, the now-closed wormhole that uncovered New Eden. Whilst I am close, I take time to visit the system of New Eden again, which is historical and as exciting as that sounds. Jumping back to w-space and out to null-sec puts me in another dead-end system, this one in The Spire region. There are plenty of capsuleers in the system, visible through the local communications channel, and I warp around a bit to survey the system but don't find any activity of interest.

Just as I am jumping back to the class 3 w-space system one pilot says 'J102143 get the carriers in there', apparently indicating some intention to enter the C3 themselves. But I think it's just bluster, letting me know they know where I came from, at least indirectly. I loiter for a short while on the wormhole, hoping to see a carrier jump in to w-space, but no one appears. Instead, I simply warp and jump homewards, copying my collected bookmarks to our jet-can for sharing, and take a break.

Fin arrives later, and we collapse the wormhole connecting us to the rather uninteresting C3. The collapse goes smoothly, our calculations worked out between Orca and Widow jumps, the masses of the industrial command and black ops ships complementing each other nicely. We don't look for the newly spawned wormhole but decide to make some iskies at home, particularly now that Sleepers are writhing in a full twelve anomalies in our system. They can't take advantage of us like this!

Two Tengu strategic cruisers are launched, and missile launchers primed. What I don't expect is for my shields to drop to below 20% on the second wave of a frontier barracks, the Sleeper battleships slicing through my defences like I have never felt before. It's a little concerning, but I recover to curse them, as well as reduce their ships to wrecks. The other anomalies don't cause such problems and we clear three sites of specific Sleeper interest before swapping to salvage boats. A tidy 260 million ISK of loot is returned safely to our tower, lower than desirable because of some poor salvage, but enough to pad our wallets some more and keep us in fuel a while longer.

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Tags: eve online, mmorpg, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, viator, w-space, widow

Cool your boots

A little over a day's worth of coolant won't last long. A little over day, I'd estimate. And without coolant the tower's force field will de-activate, which won't be good for anyone, except passing pirates. The sinking inevitability of finding an exit to low-sec space in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, whilst rarely allowing much opportunity to explore, at least offers me hope that refuelling will be easy. Resolving wormholes that instead connect to null-sec k-space for the past couple of days is quite amusing but, much like losing an arm in an industrial accident, it's always funnier when it happens to someone else.

I can't really give up, though, not without abandoning the tower and life in w-space. I start another desperate lunge towards empire space, resolving the home system's static connection and jumping in to the class 3 system beyond to see what I can find today. For a start, a tower and some ships appear on my directional scanner, which I shall investigate before even launching scanning probes. A Megathron battleship, two Drake battlecruisers, and a Badger hauler are all inside the probably well-fuelled tower's force field, the pilots in the Megathron and one of the Drakes no doubt content to sit in comfort knowing that their protective barrier will remain up for longer than thirty hours.

I warp out of d-scan range of the tower to launch probes, which is easy to do in this big system, and start to scan the outer planets first, to try to avoid alerting the local pilots to my presence. And I'm in luck, finding a wormhole on the edge of the system. And it's good luck, being an exit to high-sec empire space! None of the low-sec, or even null-sec chicanery today, I can jump right out to the welcoming banality of Concord-protected space. And I do, just making sure that I am not in a bizarre high-sec island on the edge of the rim. My luck only gets better, though, w-space spitting me out only two jumps from Jita, the core of New Eden's thriving market. I could barely ask for a more convenient exit at such a necessary time.

I jump back to w-space and warp homewards, happy even that the locals will barely be able to notice my movements through their system, with the wormhole so far from their tower. At our own tower I swap the Buzzard covert operations boat for my Crane transport ship, choosing its stealth over the capacity of its sister ship, the Bustard, as I don't need to buy too much at the moment. I load up with Sleeper loot and salvage to sell, and head out to empire space. Jita is the place to buy, and I order coolant and oxygen for the tower, along with some more concussion bombs for ambushing salvagers, but I need to find an agent happy to buy Sleeper loot for the right price, taking me on a small diversion. But with the loot sold I am soon in Jita and filling my Crane's hold.

It hasn't escaped my attention that the exit system from w-space is a dead end, which makes it likely to be an academy system. I take advantage of being in empire space and close to an academy to pick up some more skill books, getting the Amarr Industrial book a day too late to collect the Bestower hauler left in yesterday's neighbouring C3, along with Minmatar Industrials—just in case—and the range of books covering basic large gun skills, for future consideration. And whilst I am here and considering skills I update my clone, as I am nearing yet another boundary. The clone is cheap for what it offers, but even if it weren't I am happy to throw iskies at clones, books, and fittings, now that selling this most recent batch of Sleeper loot has returned my wallet to being over the five billion mark.

Shopping done, I point my Crane back towards the system holding the wormhole home, and return to w-space and our pulsar system without hassle. I even remember to put the coolant in the fuel bay of the tower. And with the tower safe for a few weeks more, I ditch my ship and join friends for some Dark Heresy.

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Tags: badger, buzzard, crane, drake, eve online, jita, megathron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Looking for fuel

The tower still needs some fuel, so I'd better get some. At least an exit to low-sec empire space should give my Crane transport ship an easy, if potentially lengthy, route to a station in high-sec. All I need to do is find it, and our neighbouring class 3 w-space system is the obvious place to look. I scan our static wormhole and jump in to today's class 3 system. My directional scanner is clear of any threats or occupation, but the system is vast and I had better warp around a bit to make sure.

Unless I am missing a planet again there are no locals to interrupt my scanning, but there is a Bestower hauler visible on d-scan somewhere in the system. Already distracted from my important task I launch combat scanning probes to locate this industrial ship, once I am sure it is not in a slowly degrading orbit around a planet. As I already know it is near a certain planet, there is only that ship in the system, and I am in no hurry, it is trivial to resolve its position with the combat probes.

Unsurprisingly enough, the Bestower is abandoned. It's a shame—or perhaps shameful—I can't pilot one, meaning I'll have to leave it here in deep, unknown space. At least, for now. Once I get to empire space I could buy the appropriate skill book and perhaps come to collect the ship later, to add to our collection. I return my attention to scanning for an exit out of w-space, but nothing looks like a wormhole on my initial covering scans. Time is limited for me tonight and I would rather not have to identify each signature in turn, but that's what I do.

I eventually resolve the only wormhole in the system, making it the system's static connection. But I have to check my nav-comp a couple of times just to be sure, as it seems that the wormhole leads out not to low-sec empire space but null-sec. That can't be, it's the static wormhole in our neighbouring class 3 system! I take a look on the other side of the wormhole anyway, and I am about as far away from a space station as possible. F-WCLC in the Outer Passage region is a dead end, making me think I'd have better luck finding tower fuel in w-space. Oh well, there is still a couple more days until our force field collapses, maybe I'll have more luck tomorrow.

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Tags: bestower, eve online, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Stalking Sleeper slayers

My clever ploy to manoeuvre out of the system first instead of chasing the ships goes slightly awry. I am able to warp sneakily to the wormhole leading back to the class 3 w-space system, bridging both our class 4 homes, but jumping through sees a Cheetah covert operations boat moving towards me. The Cheetah is actually moving towards the wormhole and cloaks shortly after seeing the flare announcing a ship's passage—my entrance. I hold my session change cloak, hoping for the Cheetah to ignore me and jump home safely, but no jump comes, the Cheetah waiting to see who is exiting their system. And then I realise it is probably best that the pilot does indeed see me. After all, I need to convince him, and the others, that I'm not a threat, and a puny Buzzard cov-ops will do that well enough.

I move away from the wormhole and cloak using my standard procedure, appearing on the overview for no more than a few seconds. But that's good, as the Cheetah pilot can confirm my non-combat ship whilst I pretend to act normally. I decide not to wait to see what the Cheetah does now, instead warping homewards to continue with my original plan, hoping to catch the salvaging Cormorant destroyer as it follows three Drake Battlecruisers and a Dominix battleship in to this class 3 w-space system, where sixty-two anomalies wait to be plundered. I swap the Buzzard for my Manticore stealth bomber and return to the C3, warping to sit at range from the K162 wormhole coming from the class 4 system home of my targets. In fact, I arrive to see the Cheetah jump home, which makes me wonder if he perhaps saw my Manticore on his directional scanner briefly, definitely scuppering my chances of an ambush.

I sit and wait at the wormhole. I don't dare jump through to see what the targets are doing, as any more movements are much more likely to be detected and any sign of my stealth bomber must surely change their operation to my detriment. I have to sit patiently and hope they come to me. The first ship to pass through the wormhole is the Cheetah, making me think that perhaps he didn't see my Manticore enter the system a little while back. He moves and cloaks, and I wonder what his purpose here is. He may continue scanning, through the two other wormholes leading to C4 systems, or hope to provide early warning of other ships in the system. But I can't concern myself with him, for whatever he can do won't alter my own operation.

A short time after the Cheetah returns, the big guns jump in to the system. The Dominix and three Drakes all appear, as does the Catalyst, and they sit silently on the wormhole. It is a little previous to plant the salvager in the system before any ships become wrecks, but sitting on a wormhole is relatively safe, as long as you are paying attention. The combat ships align together and warp off, the Dominix a little slower than the battlecruisers, and it looks like I have been disregarded as unimportant. Of course, maybe I haven't, I'm not to know, but I shall work on the assumption that all is well. I open my system map to see the sixty-two pins indicating bookmarked anomalies, now glad I took the couple of minutes earlier to note their positions roughly, and sweep my d-scanner around in a tight five degree beam until the four ships and a bookmark align. That's their first chosen site.

I warp in to the site at range, hoping I don't bounce off a structure, and see the ships striking Sleepers. The Drakes and Dominix are not moving, letting their long-range missiles and drones do most of the work, which makes it more convenient for me. The Sleepers move to the targets and all the wrecks are closely bunched together as a result of the lack of ship movement. The cluster of wrecks makes a much better reference point to bookmark, as the Catalyst will likely start there, or at least spend a good portion of time salvaging there. And with a juicy bookmark made I return to the wormhole. I don't want to loiter in the anomaly. My presence will keep the structures from despawning after the destruction of the last Sleeper ship, which experienced pilots will notice, and even if that weren't the case I am better served by watching and basing my own actions of those of the Catalyst.

Returning to the wormhole is interesting, as the Catalyst is now over two hundred kilometres from it, but not moving too fast. Part of me thinks that if I had been here to watch this I could maybe have caught him unawares without him being able to jump home, but my cloaked ship would not have been able to keep up with the destroyer even if it only has a reheat and not a micro-warp drive fitted. And there is no celestial body beyond the Catalyst I can use to 'bounce' off and return closer, so I merely have to watch him increase his distance away from the wormhole. But I align to my bookmarked wreck, a really convenient new feature of our flight systems, and when the Catalyst warps away I am only a couple of seconds behind him.

I aim to drop out of warp at thirty kilometres or so from the wreck. I am hoping to get a quick bomb launch from this, without needing to crawl closer and risk losing the shot, but I am taking a separate risk. Other wrecks may have been created around my bookmarked wreck, and the combat ships may have decided to move, and I could be warping in a bit too close for comfort. Which I almost am. Although I am not decloaked, I find myself feeling a bit crowded by the Drakes still in the anomaly. It looks like my Manticore was spotted, or at least my presence taken as a threat, if the Drakes are staying to guard the Catalyst. Or maybe not, as the battlecruisers only loiter for a few more seconds before warping away, perhaps only ensuring that the Catalyst successfully used their Drakes as a beacon in to the site. Now the Catalyst is alone, or so he thinks.

I back my Manticore away a little. The thirty kilometre flight of the bomb and its fifteen kilometre explosion radius lets me get close enough to apply warp disruption effects with a twenty kilometre range on a target, but I don't want to push the envelope too much. Of course, if a pilot tries to escape the explosion by moving towards me it merely makes my warp disruption more likely to stick. I get to twenty kilometres away from the Catalyst before turning, making sure my Manticore is fully aligned with the target before decloaking and launching the bomb eighteen kilometres out. As the bomb sails quietly towards its destruction I grab a quick target lock on the Catalyst and get a point, successfully disrupting the warp engines. And I pause briefly, letting the bomb explode and blast the Catalyst's shields away, before launching torpedoes. Three volleys is all it takes before the salvager explodes, throwing the pilot's pod out in to space. I try to snare the pod too, but even my sensor-boosted Manticore isn't quite quick enough.

The salvager pop is a good kill, clean and efficient. I never expect to get the pod unless a warp bubble is present, so I am not disappointed at it escaping. I simply make sure my ship is away from any obstructions and re-activate my cloak. And it's good that I do, as the three Drakes return a second later, dropping out of warp where the Catalyst used to be, now only a wreck, which just so happens to be about five kilometres from me too. I am relatively safe, as long as I don't do anything silly. I move away from the ships, taking care to avoid the almost-invisible cosmic signature of the anomaly, just to make myself feel safer, and two of the Drakes warp out. But one stays, and it starts spewing missiles! I'm not quite sure what's going on or what he's firing, that perhaps there is a new guided weapon designed to seek cloaked ships, but my alarm subsides when I see the Sleeper wrecks being destroyed. I suppose if they aren't getting the salvage they don't want me to have it either.

I warp back to the wormhole to see the Drakes jump home. It doesn't look like they are coming back, either. And after a while the Cheetah seen earlier jumps home too. I'd almost forgotten about him. But there is no more movement through the wormhole, the sixty one anomalies now remaining will still be here tomorrow. My patience pays again, getting me the Catalyst kill, and I am glad I used a bomb this time. The damage from the bomb was significant and the Drakes turned up in such short order that torpedoes alone would not have been quick enough. And the Drake that shot the wrecks didn't quite finish off the wreck of a Sleeper battleship, which remains in the system. As the others are not returning I swap to my own salvager and sneakily grab the loot from the wreck, earning myself a little over seven million ISK, which is a fair prize considering I couldn't loot my kill. But I still don't have fuel for the tower, which was my original goal of the evening. I'd better get it in the next few days.

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Tags: buzzard, catalyst, cheetah, dominix, drake, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, w-space

Sixty-two anomalies

The tower is running low on coolant. I have a nagging suspicion that if it isn't replenished something dramatic will happen, like the force field dropping and pirates taking or shooting everything we own. That would be bad, so I'd better get some more, which means scanning my way out to empire space. It is a simple matter to resolve the home system's static wormhole, and jumping through puts me in an unoccupied class 3 w-space system. I launch probes to start looking for wormholes and am greeted by a burst of green.

There are sixty-two anomalies in this system! That's a fair number, making me think that this system is not well-travelled. I bookmark each one, in case a colleague turns up and we can blitz through some, but mostly so that I can count them accurately for this record. It takes a few minutes to do, but is far from a chore. Now I can concentrate on the thirty-odd indeterminate signatures left. About half-a-dozen of the remaining signatures look like possible wormholes—one being the K162 home—and I concentrate on resolving those to start with.

A wormhole presents itself after only three other signatures are discounted as rocks or gas, which saves me the effort of having to scan too many. Or maybe it doesn't, as it is an outbound connection to a class 4 system, not the system's static wormhole. I keep looking, getting a second wormhole soon enough, but this one turns out to be a K162 coming from another C4, which is interesting but doesn't get me closer to refuelling the tower. A third wormhole is another outbound connection to a C4, and makes me double-check that I am resolving discrete connections and not just flying in circles. I am still to find the static wormhole in this class 3 system, and no signatures are looking at all like a wormhole any more.

I scan each signature in turn, ignoring rocks, gas, and the occasional radar site, until I eventually resolve a fourth wormhole. The system's static connection leads out to null-sec space, which makes a change from the normal exit to low-sec empire space but is far from helpful now that I am looking for a convenient seller of fuel. Navigating low-sec would have been just dandy, thank you, Mr Cosmic Joker. As I can't go shopping and have some extra connections available, I may as well explore. My first stop is the K162 from the C4, as its presence implies activity.

Jumping in to the class 4 system finds little immediately, my directional scanner showing only celestial bodies. The lack of occupancy jibes with my notes from seven months ago, but plenty can change in that time and only two planets are within range of d-scan. I bookmark the wormhole—the system's static connection, and perhaps the only wormhole here—and warp away to look for towers. I see two closer to the inner system, along with a few ships. Locating the towers finds the ships, two covert operations boats and a Drake battlecruiser at one, and a third cov-ops boat at the other, all ships piloted. The second tower is curious in that all its defences are incapacitated, but both towers belong to the same corporation, so I am left only to wonder what situation occurred.

As I ponder the defenceless tower, the pilot of the Buzzard inside its shields swaps to a Drake and warps away. I travel back to the first tower to find the Drake now there, and in short order the other cov-ops pilots switch to battlecruisers. Four Drakes sit at the tower now, most likely having spotted the iskiemine of the class 3 system they're connected to, and there's not much I can do about it by myself. That is, until a Dominix battleship turns up, prompting one of the other pilots to switch in to a Catalyst destroyer. Now it looks like a combat fleet trailed by a vulnerable salvager, and that is an operation I can disrupt.

I'm not going to wait here at the tower to confirm the fleet's intentions. I suspect that they will warp out together and the Catalyst will wait on the wormhole to be called in to the first anomaly once it is cleared, and if I wait to see the ships warp out of the tower I will be spotted jumping through the wormhole. I ideally need to remain undetected. I shall make the assumption that this fleet of Drakes and the Dominix are planning to shortly engage Sleepers in the C3, and return home to reship in to a stealth bomber in a bid to snare their Catalyst. If I can get out of the system before they see me this should make for an interesting evening.

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Tags: buzzard, catalyst, dominix, drake, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space