Unseen observations

Colleagues are baiting capsuleers mourning the loss of an Orca industrial command ship, but I have some Russians to check on. A fork in w-space led me through a K162 wormhole to a system holding three towers and, as I was leaving to join the action elsewhere, three piloted Drake battlecruisers at one tower looking like they were preparing for activity. I return to the system hoping to continue the hunt but instead find two of the Drakes unmoved in the same tower. The other pilot has swapped to a Stiletto interceptor but his swift ship sits just as still as the bulky battlecruisers.

There is another ship in the system, though. An Iteron hauler is visible on the directional scanner and isn't inside this tower's shields with the other ships, and having caught the Orca whilst it collected planet goo from customs offices the obvious thought is that the Iteron is doing the same. Before I go racing off on a wild goose chase to each customs office in my Manticore stealth bomber I quickly warp to the other two towers in the system, sadly finding the Iteron sitting inertly in the third.

It doesn't look like I'll be catching any more unwary capsuleers near customs offices tonight. Then again, I've got nothing better to do than lurk cloaked and wait for an opportunity. And these Russians are quite tempting, enough to keep my attention from wandering. A Mammoth hauler appears on d-scan separate from a tower but a quick check of the only planet coincident in the d-scan angle with the ship finds nothing, and warping back to the first tower finds it now nestled comfortably inside the shields. More vague activity sees the Orca pilot swap to an Exequror cruiser, suggestive of a gas mining ship, and warping off. I may have a target.

My Manticore doesn't have any scanning capability that would let me find a ladar gas mining site, so instead of rushing back to get a suitable scanning boat I exhaust my available options. The easiest option to discount is that the Exequror is now at another tower, which I can check whilst keeping an eye on d-scan for the appearance of any new cans that would indicate mined gas being jettisoned for collection. My anticipation of the hunt is quickly quashed, though, when I find the cruiser at another tower. But my interest piques when I realise that the Exequror isn't inside the tower, instead accesing a secure can floating outside the force field. He's a sitting duck.

Unfortunately, the sitting duck is currently far outside of my range. I could open fire with torpedoes but I would not be in range to disrupt the Exequror's warp engines. An alert pilot could perhaps escape whilst the torpedoes were in flight and certainly before a second volley hit. I begin to close the range but I roughly calculate that it will take a couple of minutes to get within range. I could warp out and back in, which would be slightly quicker, but I need a position to warp to. It is not possible to bookmark the position of ships directly, but it is possible to do so for other objects, like giant secure cans. Recording the position of the can is effectively recording the position of the ship accessing it and there is a planet neatly opposite my vector that gives me a good approach to the target.

I warp out, returning as soon as I can, and land within twenty kilometres of the Exequror. But now I have a new dilemma, to bomb or not. Launching a bomb generally puts the target out of range of my warp disruptors, but relying only on torpedoes makes me more at risk from the tower's defences, the high damage of the bomb blast allowing for a shorter engagement. But a bomb blast fifteen kilometres in radius exploding thirty kilometres away should hit a ship twenty kilometres from me, which also puts me close enough to get a quick lock and point on the target. An initial bomb strike is safer for me and more likely to destroy the target, and I turn my Manticore around to increase my range slightly. But just as I am being decisive the Exequror starts moving and warps off.

My wavering misses the opportunity, but I was close. At least I spotted the opportunity, realising the cruiser was outside of the tower's shields and being able to get in to a good position. The last few moments of uncertainty counted against me. I may have been better off locking and pointing the ship to launch a couple of volleys of torpedoes, at least to see how vulnerable a standard cruiser is to such fire for future reference. But I had the thrill of the hunt, with some unknown danger in the form of tower defences. Now it is getting late and the Russians have shown little activity outside of their towers, so I go home to rest.

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Tags: drake, eve online, exequror, iteron, mammoth, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, stiletto, w-space

Planet goo piracy

An invitation to explore is returned with our scout, bookmarks for today's w-space constellation connections copied to our shared can. I make my own copies of the bookmarks and warp to our static wormhole in my Buzzard. Not all connections and systems have been mapped, so I am expecting to need my covert operations boat instead of a more combat-orientated ship. Our neighbouring class 4 w-space system is empty and I warp across and jump through its static connection to a C3, bringing me in to a system I visited only two weeks earlier. I have the location of a tower in my records, and now a current bookmark pointing to the same moon, where I find an Iteron hauler unpiloted inside the shields. The system is unnotable today as it was before and I move on.

I have a choice of two directions to head, either through the system's static wormhole or a K162, both leading to another C4. I jump through the K162 in the hopes of finding some activity and I may be in luck. My ship's directional scanner shows me three on-line towers and as many ships, an Orca industrial command ship and two Drake battlecruisers all sitting piloted inside the shields of one of the towers. Another ship warps in to the same tower, the pilot of the Cormorant destroyer swapping in to a third Drake, and this action suggestive of imminent combat gets me warping out of d-scan range of the tower and launching a combat scanning probe. I set the probe to its maximum range and perform a blanket scan of the entire system, letting me uncover every anomaly without revealing my presence. But before I get too excited here my scouting colleague has a rather more pressing discovery.

A Falcon recon ship has accompanied an Orca in warping away from a tower in a class 2 w-space system found a couple more systems deep. The unlikely pairing has our scout wondering what is happening, and even considering the Orca to be acting as bait for an unseen trap, but anyone else scouting, me included, is already rushing home to swap ships. I swap the Buzzard for my Manticore stealth bomber, thinking I should fit an ECCM module to counter the Falcon's jamming capabilities but deciding to scramble as quickly as possible rather than messing with fittings in the hangar. I am half-way through our neighbouring system when I hear that the two ships have been spotted at a customs office. The slow-moving, expensive Orca is being used to collect planet goo, protected by seemingly a lone ECM ship! These foolish capsuleers need to be shown that w-space is too dangerous for such a weak configuration.

I have bookmarks leading me in to the second class 4 w-space system but not in to the newly scanned C2. For that, the scout will need to jump out of the system. I am first in to the C4, swiftly followed by another colleague in a stealth bomber, and we warp to the scout sitting on top of the C2 connection. 'They're at the customs office at planet one', we're told, and I'm jumping through. I clear the wormhole cleanly and engage my cloak before warping to the customs office around the innermost planet, getting my weapons systems ready for combat. Dropping out of warp sees no ships in my overview, they must have moved on. Hoping that their collection of planet goo hasn't ended so soon I point a narrow d-scan beam at each planet with a customs office but find no ships. But there is one planet out of d-scan range.

There is no other logical choice of location for the two ships and I impulsively send my ship towards the customs office of the planet out of d-scan range. I drop out of warp to eagerly find the Orca and Falcon, but there is not much I can do yet. I aimed to drop short of the customs office so as not to get too close and decloak, but this has positioned my Manticore out of range of warp disruption effects of both ships. I am also the only ship of the fleet here, although I am calling and repeating the location to get other ships with me as soon as possible. At least waiting for support and crawling towards the ships gives me time to consider whether to launch a bomb or not.

A bomb would hit both targets but also require me to stay out of warp disruption range initially. The Orca probably won't be able to warp out before I could get within point range, although it's best to assume the pilot has taken the precaution to align to his next destination already, and the Falcon is unlikely to warp away to leave his charge unprotected. I think I am safe to launch a bomb. And I hear that I have support, the second stealth bomber in position along with our scout's stealthy strategic cruiser. Pilots are ready, time is of the essence, I decloak and launch my bomb!

What a spanner. My bomb flies off in completely the wrong direction, as I remember that not only did I have to close the range between my Manticore and the targets but I also had to manoeuvre around the customs office. My ship was pointing towards empty space on bomb launch. But it gets the attention of the two ships, particularly that of the Falcon who is now thoroughly jamming my targeting systems and preventing any positive lock on either of them. Having the Falcon's full attention is just dandy, as it allows my colleagues to follow my cue and decloak, lock, and pop the recon ship within seconds. The Orca is now a juicy, fat target for us all.

I get a positive lock on the Orca, disrupt its warp engines, and start pummelling its shields with torpedoes. The damage moves from the shields to the armour, and from the armour to the hull, our combined firepower reducing the industrial command ship to a wreck in surprisingly short order. The Orca's pilot escapes with his pod, as did the Falcon's, leaving us two wrecks to loot and the possibility of retribution to consider. I am able to loot the wreck of the recon ship but the Orca is stuffed full of goodies. The ship apparently wasn't emptied when it came out to collect planet goo and has all kinds of modules and fittings inside its hold, far more than we can haul back. Not without a hauler, anyway.

It would normally be as stupid to bring in a fragile hauler to loot wrecks as it is using an Orca to collect planet goo, but we have plenty of ships in the system and provoking a reaction could be to our benefit. Bringing the Iteron hauler in to the system to plunder the Orca's wreck also maximises the profits of our piracy. And there are rumblings of ship activity—a Legion strategic cruiser and a couple of stealth bombers scrambled—all watched by our now cloaked scout who reports little actual movement by the locals. Our Iteron will either return home with buckets of loot or act as bait for our still-lurking ships. But the only trouble we have is still not being able to carry everything. The Orca really needed more than a single Falcon for protection considering our cargo-optimised Iteron can't haul half what it was holding—the other half destroyed in the explosion.

Our Iteron gets out of the system cleanly and I follow. The locals don't look to be keen to retaliate, although they are apparently tracking our movements. A battlecruiser is sent in to clear up the remaining loot, taking its time and trying to appear inept. The only response it gets is a communication in the local channel asking 'do you think you could use a bait ship that's a little more tempting? I mean, a Myrmidon, come on!' although I doubt any ship would tempt them in to an engagement now. I have no idea what these capsuleers were thinking in taking the industrial command ship out for a routine collection operation where a much cheaper hauler would have sufficed, but it led to a lively start to the evening.

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Tags: buzzard, cormorant, drake, eve online, falcon, iteron, legion, manticore, mmorpg, myrmidon, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, w-space

Countdown to destruction

I recognise the bookmarks in the can as yesterday's. The static wormhole should be gone by now, which means I need to scan the new one. Only having one signature in the home system makes resolving the wormhole rather easy and I am soon in our neighbouring class 4 w-space system. In the new system the directional scanner only shows a couple of planets and their associated moons, so I move away from the wormhole, launch probes, and cloak. Now I consult my records, finding out I was last in this system ten weeks ago and that it was occupied. I quickly move my probes out of the system and check the location of the tower, before realising it should be within d-scan range. It looks like the inhabitants moved out.

I concentrate on scanning the system, seeing a dozen anomalies and a few more signatures scattered around. I resolve a wormhole within two hits, a K162 coming in from a class 4 system, but it is reaching the end of its natural lifetime and I leave it alone. Continued scanning reveals plenty of gas mining sites but oddly no gravimetric sites, making me wonder if perhaps miners came through the K162 and if perhaps it is worth the risk of the wormhole dying to venture through myself. But there turns out to be a gravimetric site in the system, although only one is still rather unusual, piquing my curiosity. I still haven't found the static connection, though, so I press on, scanning the remaining three signatures.

Ignoring a couple of magnetometric sites brings me down to scanning the final signature in the system which is, quelle surprise, a wormhole. At least I am forced in to being thorough in my scanning. The static connection leads to a class 1 w-space system, which is enticing, but I want to check the system beyond the K162, at least quickly, and jump through the EOL wormhole. My records show I was in this C4 two weeks ago and that it is inhabited by supposed allies. D-scan reveals two towers and as I have two listed in my records—and there is only one ship visible but no wrecks and no jet-cans—I don't even check their locations and head straight back through the wormhole, leaving this blue system alone. I warp across to the connection to the C1 and jump through.

A clear d-scan result lets me launch probes and warp off to look for activity, finding a tower far from the wormhole. At the tower is an unpiloted Probe frigate sitting inside the shields but, rather more interestingly, the tower is in reinforced mode. It has been assaulted recently and with some force. A class 1 w-space system is likely to have a connection to k-space too, which suggests the attackers will be back to finish the job, in about seven hours from now. Sadly, that puts it too late for me or most of the corporation to witness, or join in, and it also means that this system is likely to be inactive for most of that seven hours. I scan more rocks and gas as I look for the next wormhole but there is no point in resolving any mining site for a potential ambush, the inhabitants no doubt too concerned about the imminent vaporisation of their tower to go mining.

The next wormhole is found, indeed a connection to k-space. Jumping through the exit to high-sec empire space places in me in Bomana in the Khanid region. There are no stations in the system and I have to make one hop in order to dock and contract a copy of the bookmarks to a stranded colleague, which will let him return to our tower. I check the market in case it is worth coming out to shop but the constellation does not look like a market hub and I simply turn my Buzzard around and head back to w-space.

I swap the covert operations boat for my Manticore stealth bomber back at our tower and take it out to loiter around the doomed tower in the C1. There is a chance that the inhabitants will want to move some ships out of their hangars and in to empire space, and me an opportunity to catch them and turn their bad day worse, but it is more likely that they have already done this. A bit of futile lurking at the tower turns in to futile lurking at the exit wormhole, hoping instead to catch a high-sec tourist, but when the connection goes EOL I give up on seeing any activity. And with a colleague returned from empire isolation I am encouraged to be productive elsewhere and help shoot some Sleepers to end the evening.

A fleet of strategic cruisers starts to form and my Tengu is ready first. Our neighbouring C4 holds a magnetar phenomenon, increasing inflicted damage, and confident that under such an influence my ship can take on the Sleepers by itself I head out to make a quick start. I am soon joined by my newly returned colleague in his Loki, and another Tengu shortly after that. I wasn't keen on engaging in Sleeper combat today but zooming around in Pengu with HAMs, Sleeper lasers piercing the vacuum all around, is actually really good fun. And I get paid iskies for doing this! The Tengu is beautiful to fly. I end up enjoying the combat so much I clear five anomalies with the fleet before the late hour calls me to rest. I jump home, stow my Tengu, and get some shut-eye.

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

Four systems, one pilot

Sleepers are exploding in our home system. I consider roaming our w-space constellation for targets instead of joining the corporation fleet to make some iskies but I can't make head nor tail of the bookmarks currently in the shared can, so I launch my Tengu stratetic cruiser and warp in to the action. There are only two Sleeper battleships left in this frontier barracks, which are quickly despatched, but there is another one to clear for a fuller experience, along with a command post. The anomalies are sweeped of Sleeper presence, our salvaging Myrmidon battlecruiser only nearly dying at a couple of points, leaving barely a couple of minutes before our static wormhole is due to collapse.

I board my Buzzard covert operations boat and launch probes, performing a preliminary scan of the whole system and ignoring every result. I sit and wait near the doomed wormhole and watch it end not with a bang but a whimper. A second scan finds the only new signature in the system, which must be the new static wormhole. I resolve the signature and warp to it, jumping through with a colleague for some exploration. The class 4 system now connecting to our own is unoccupied and apparently unpopular, having also been unoccupied six months ago when I last found myself here.

Scanning the C4 soon finds a wormhole on the outer planet, which turns out to be a K162 from a class 5 system. A second wormhole is also resolved, this the system's static connection to another C4. I enter the C5 first, the K162 more suggestive of activity. Checking my notes only brings disappointment, as my previous visit had the system inhabited by supposed allies and checking the last recorded positions of the tower here confirms this. They don't look overtly blue to me, but I suppose they never really have. I assume that only the static wormhole will be of interest and, as I entered through it, leave the way I came to warp across to the second class 4 system.

My scouting colleague is already in the second C4 and has spotted a Badger hauler on his directional scanner, but one he suspects is abandoned. He scans the location of the ship and warps to it, finding it indeed unpiloted. As I am now in this system and scanning he volunteers to drop his ship back at the tower and come to collect the Badger as a gift. I start sifting through rocks and gas to find the static wormhole, again leading to a C4, and my colleague slips his pod in the Badger to find it servicable but empty and unfitted. We both jump out of the system in different directions.

The third C4 in today's w-space constellation has a tower with a handful of ships inside. Thankfully they are all unpiloted, so no one sees my Buzzard get decloaked in the warp bubble anchored near the tower. The system holds no activity, letting me scan freely. There are lots of gravimetric mining sites to be found and I consider fully resolving and bookmarking them, but realise there being so many is probably indicative that the inhabitants aren't miners, giving little chance of ambushing them in such a site. In fact, they don't seem to be active at all in their home system, with plenty of anomalies also present. I concentrate on looking for wormholes, finding the static connection to a class 3 w-space system.

There is little to be seen on d-scan in the C3, although a jet-can labelled 'BMs' is somewhere in the system. It seems odd that bookmarks would be left in an unoccupied system and suspect the distant outer planet holds more than just a few moons in orbit. Warping across the system finds occupation but no inhabitants, only a Thanatos carrier sitting inside a tower's shields. My colleague has returned after taking the claimed Badger to our tower and reports only three signatures in the C3, making this corporation rather more fastidious than the one in the previous C4. And their heightended activity is displayed in the appearance of a Helios covert operations boat at the tower. It's not much, but it's the first sign of life so far tonight.

The local pilot warps away from the tower and launches probes, as seen on d-scan. There are only three signatures to resolve, he should be quick. My colleague and I also have all the signatures scanned and we wonder if we could perhaps catch the Helios. The most likely location for a trap is the K162 leading back to the third C4, as this extra wormhole will be unfamiliar to the Helios pilot and probably more interesting than the static exit to low-sec space. My colleague sits on the C3 side of the wormhole and I jump through to the C4, where I get my systems hot. Actually, I'm not sure a single rocket launcher would get that hot, so maybe I just get my systems lukewarm.

Scanning probes converge on the K162 wormhole but the Helios doesn't jump, only seemingly noting the connection and warping away. I head homewards in case I need to change to a more pointy ship, copying the bookmarks I have made to our can and swapping in to my Manticore stealth bomber. The Helios is reported to have left the C3, which I confirm when I see scanning probes on d-scan in the neighbouring C4. I hold my position in the C4 on the next K162 along the inwards route, assuming the Helios pilot will venture deeper rather than going home.

A careful eye and occasional adjustments to d-scan's range lets me know when the probes are converging on my position, but each time they veer away to scan a different signature. I patiently wait, not revealing my presence, and after a while all the probes get within 1 AU of the wormhole. I get ready, expecting the Helios to turn up and jump, but all that happens is the probes move away to a neutral point in the system. Maybe the Helios warped at range to the wormhole, holding his cloak, to note and bookmark the connection without wanting to jump through directly.

I continue to wait. The probes remain active for a little longer before disappearing, but still the Helios doesn't appear. My colleague reports a flare at the wormhole back in to the class 3 system, the Helios returning home. I warp across the system and jump, but only to see the Helios sitting passively in its tower and the pilot logging off. The only activity in our explored constellation is gone. I head homewards, seeing nothing new in the intermediate systems, and get some rest back at our tower.

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Tags: badger, buzzard, eve online, helios, manticore, mmorpg, myrmidon, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, tengu, thanatos, w-space

Causing ripples in null-sec

There are two ways out of our system but only one is viable. Our static wormhole is reaching the end of its lifetime and isn't worth travelling through, so it's convenient to have an incoming connection from a class 3 w-space system. I am told there is a tower in the C3 and a wormhole leading to null-sec k-space, and with little else to do I aim my Buzzard covert operations boat towards the K162 to take a look for myself.

The class 3 system is indeed occupied but it is devoid of activity, not even an unpiloted ship loitering inside the lone tower. I have the bookmark to the exit to null-sec space which I may as well visit to get a red dot of exploration on my star map. I warp to the wormhole and jump in to YQX-7U in the Querious region which, checking my atlas of New Eden, is only two hops to a dead-end system. With only one other pilot in the system, easily discernable from the open local channel, this looks like a good opportunity to visit that dead-end system, as I don't know when a wormhole will next open up near here. One day I'll have visited every system in New Eden, even if it looks to be ten years away at this rate.

Entering BX-VEX gets me one step closer and the lack of any other capsuleers in the system encourages me to visit the dead-end system of B-7DFU. Jumping in shows eighteen pilots in the system with nowhere else to be, which is a little unsettling for someone used to isolation. A reflexive check of my directional scanner suggests that a Maelstrom battleship and Cerberus heavy assault ship are ratting, but I don't care to look for them or any other ships. I turn my Buzzard around and leave the system as quietly as possible, which is difficult when activating a hulking stargate.

I warp back across the intermediate system and jump in to YQX-7U again, finding a Vulture command ship sitting on the gate. This is little threat to my agile and stealthy ship and, after pausing to see how the Vulture reacts to the gate activation, I warp off to the wormhole and cloak. I get back in to w-space and make the short hop home, where a couple of colleagues are interested in what turned out to be my little reconnaisance trip. There is talk of heading out to engage either the Vulture or the ratting Maelstrom and Cerberus, which seems like a bit of a lark to me as well.

I choose to take my new Sacrilege heavy assault ship, keen to see its firepower, joining a Vagabond heavy assault ship. We move out to sit on the exit wormhole as a third pilot in a Pilgrim recon ship scouts null-sec ahead of us. The exit wormhole is now in its EOL stage but we should have a few hours before it collapses, which is plenty of time to get blown up. The Vulture is no longer sitting on the gate in YQX-7U, which isn't surprising given the time it took for us to return, but there is activity as a Crow interceptor passes our colleague in his Pilgrim. The scout moves in to the next null-sec system and our two HACs jump in to null-sec and warp to the stargate he vacated.

Two unfamiliar pilots are now present in this null-sec system, my partner HAC pilot thinking one is heading towards us and telling me to get off the gate. I warp off to the planet nearby as an Ishtar HAC drops on the gate. It looks like he warps away again, as the pilot remains in the local channel but his ship disappears from d-scan. As there is 136 AU separation between stargates here it is easy to lose track of a ship using the 14·1 AU range of d-scan. I warp around looking for the Ishtar, as it presents a decent change of target for us, but can't find it anywhere obvious.

All this moving and manoeuvring is starting to make space-waves. One of our fleet conveniently has access to intelligence communication channels for this region and our presence has been noted. More than noted, in fact, as it appears that a fleet is being scrambled to intercept our ships. I consider that to be our mission accomplished and, as we aren't equipped for anything but a small skirmish, we warp to the wormhole and jump back to w-space. We may not have engaged any other ships in this corner of null-sec but I am pleased enough to have caused a minor stir. The class 3 w-space system remains quiet and we simply return home, still waiting for our static wormhole to choke on its own vomit.

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Tags: buzzard, cerberus, crow, eve online, ishtar, maelstrom, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, pilgrim, sacrilege, vulture, w-space

Disrupting an ad-hoc supply line

Our static wormhole is collapsed, we are again isolated and can start to earn some ISK to pay for the ships we lost to the returning strategic cruisers. An anomaly and radar site are currently in our system, offering easy opportunity for iskies, and the fleet reforms to engage the Sleepers within. I board my Damnation, fitted with codebreakers as Hack Hackz Maru, and we warp to and clear the radar site first. Rather than add my unnecessary Damnation to the combat in the anomaly, or waste time changing to a more suitable ship to do so, I swap in to my salvager and sweep up the wrecks in the radar site before heading to the now-cleared anomaly to do the same there.

Each fleet member pockets twenty-three million ISK for their efforts, which won't much pay for a new Dominix battleship but should defray the costs of lost battlecruisers. Now we can scan and open the new static wormhole in our system and hope for more opportunity in the class 4 w-space system beyond. The small fleet reconfigures again and I join several scouts for some exploration. The static wormhole is easy to find in an otherwise empty system and we jump through to an unoccupied C4. Scanning probes are launched as we examine the resources and connections in the system.

I soon resolve a wormhole in the C4 and warp to it, forgetting that perhaps we want to keep the connection inactive should we want to engage in more Sleeper combat. But it turns out to be a wise decision, as the wormhole is a K162 opened from a connecting class 5 system. I let others know that I am at the wormhole, so that they can warp to my position to bookmark its location themselves, then jump through to the C5. As I reorientate myself on the other side of the wormhole I see a ship on my overview. A Hoarder is eleven kilometres away from the wormhole and moving slowly.

With little pause I frantically click on the ship in the overview, decloaking and moving my Buzzard towards the Hoarder, taking care to lock on to the ship and activate my warp disruption modules. I call for my colleagues to warp to the C5 K162, and correcting myself for them not to come through as it looks like the Hoarder will instead jump unsuspectingly to them. My Buzzard is only a covert operations boat but it has a single rocket launcher fitted, and the Hoarder's shields are already depleted by the time it reaches the wormhole and jumps through. I follow to see it locked and attacked by the rest of the fleet, one scout's scanning Loki strategic cruiser no doubt causing the Hoarder pilot some panic. He tries to flee back to the C5, and although my Buzzard is polarised from the two quick trips the rest of the fleet isn't. Two colleagues follow in to the C5, popping the Hoarder and podding its sorry pilot.

My experience is starting to show. I know on sight that the Hoarder is an industrial ship, posing no threat. I also know that although de-activating a cloaking device causes a targeting delay dropping the session change cloak doesn't. I saw the Hoarder, identified it, checked my surroundings, and attacked, getting the rest of the fleet in to position quickly as I did. I'm pleased with that and we get a new corpse for our morgue as a result. Now I am curious as to what a hauler is doing by itself out here. The class 5 w-space system is unoccupied and there is nothing else visible on the directional scanner, so we start exploring further.

A scout finds two wormholes in the C5, one inbound and one outbound connection to null-sec k-space. Just as I am thinking that this still doesn't explain the Hoarder's presence a pod appears at one of the null-sec wormholes. The pod belongs to the pilot of the Hoarder, no doubt because he is based in null-sec. The pod is spotted jumping in to the C4 and warping away from the K162, but we still haven't fully scanned that system yet. A more concerted effort finds the static connection in the class 4 system, which leads to an unoccupied class 1 system. And now it seems likely that the Hoarder pilot was hauling goods between null-sec and empire space, using the relative safety of unoccupied w-space systems to do so. It is unfortunate for him that a new connection opened in to his route.

More scanning reveals the exit wormhole in the class 1 system, indeed leading to high-sec empire space. Finding the wormhole also finds a Buzzard jumping in through it. The different affiliation of the pilot suggests he's a high-sec tourist and has accidentally stumbled in to the action. Meanwhile, a colleague has taken the initiative and swapped in to an Onyx, planting the heavy interdictor on the C5 K162 in the hopes of trapping more unwary capsuleers. There are a couple of flares whilst she sits there, one explained by a Manticore stealth bomber apparently roaming between null-sec, the C5, and the C4, but he cloaks and is able to move out of the Onyx's warp bubble.

Even with my agile Buzzard and a Harbinger battlecruiser for support we aren't quick enough to catch the stealth bomber on its return. It sneaks through the bubble to jump through the wormhole and, although we follow, is able to warp away on the other side. As we rue the escape of the Manticore the Buzzard seen earlier is spotted in the C5, explaining the second flare of the wormhole. The class 5 w-space system connecting to null-sec k-space may be active but the travellers are not going to be caught so easily now. And it is getting late for me. I leave my colleagues to their continued stalking and return to our tower in the home system to get some sleep after an evening of capsuleer hunting.

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Tags: buzzard, damnation, eve online, hoarder, loki, manticore, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, sleepers, w-space

Music of 2010, part three

A rip-roaring start to my third collection of 2010 music is the debut album from Sleigh Bells. I saw the band getting a fair amount of attention but, as with most new bands, never get around to listening to anything by them, despite finding a free track to download. I pick up Treats on spec when in Sister Ray, curious to find out if the hype is deserved. I am not quite prepared for the machine gun electronic beat of Tell 'Em that bursts from the speakers but it is hugely invigorating, and the energy keeps coming. Even when songs seem initially muted, like Infinity Guitars with its basic beat augmented by electronic hand-claps, they reach an explosive climax. Synths frolic over deep bass beats, and the vocals in equal parts drone and soar over it all. And everything is lo-fi, giving the sound a jagged edge you could cut yourself on. Softer tracks like Rill Rill balance the much rougher Straight A's to create a sublime overall composition. Treats deserves the hype and attention it has been getting.

Folk rock band Blitzen Trapper return with fifth album Destroyer of the Void, second for the Sub Pop label. The solid songwriting and juxtaposition of folk guitars and unconventional noises remains, but there is little to define this work separately from previous album Furr. Not that there is anything wrong with creating Furr Part II but the apparent lack of progress between albums is a little underwhelming for me, as Blitzen Trapper have so far pushed my expectations with each release until now. Destroyer of the Void is a good album, and certainly worth listening to, but it doesn't feel new.

Crush Depth is another album of metal-jazz fusion from Chrome Hoof, and is a brilliantly evocate title. Having thought the eponymously titled first album was an intense collection of songs only to find out that Chrome Hoof could get harder and harsher with Pre-emptive False Rapture I snap up this third release with some excitement. So it's a shame that it disappoints slightly. The same grooves are mixed with the same angles, but that it's mostly the same is the problem. The songs are clearly different to those on the previous album but they sound to have come from the same mould, extending without expanding Chrome Hoof's music. There is plenty to like on Crush Depth, I just feel I've heard it before.

Factory Floor's first EP is four-track vinyl release A Wooden Box, and only my second digital purchase. After seeing the band play live earlier this year I had to capture some of their magnificence so I could listen to it at my leisure. The first song is Lying and one I distinctly remember, the simple synthesiser beat repeating throughout yet remaining an effective hook on top of which different drum patterns, squawling guitars, and the droning vocals create a strong track. Following on is 16-16-9-20-1-14-9-7 which is much sparser and more electronic-sounding, but is nicely hypnotic for the whole ten minutes. Titular track A Wooden Box follows the same style of laying down a pattern and building on top of it, something Factory Floor do amazingly well. The up-tempo synthesiser is suggestive of a more urgent sound and otherwise disguises another simple but effective song. Final track Solid Sound is experimental, an ambient soundscape that perhaps doesn't work so well in isolation. Overall, A Wooden Box is an exciting initial release from Factory Floor.

Fifth studio album Sky at Night from I Am Kloot starts with the catchy Northern Skies, a typically beautiful mixture of poignant lyrics and jovial music that John Bramwell does so well. The singer and guitarist has honed his songwriting skills over the years, continually creating interesting and engaging music, and always building on what has gone before. Fingerprints has an interesting disturbing undercurrent; Lately sounds like it should be played in a bar after hours, the quality of the production making it feel like you're there; and Radiation is weighty and impressive. It is a little odd to hear a re-recording of Proof on the album, and a bit of research suggests that the original recording from second album Gods and Monsters was scheduled to be a single but the release was thwarted by the label. Now the song is getting the full release that it originally deserved, and a second airing on another engaging album from I Am Kloot.

School of Seven Bells follow their debut album with another burst of shoegazing electronic pop in Disconnect from Desire. The second album starts positively with a breezy and breathy Windstorm before picking up the tempo for more urgent Heart is Strange. The music and vocals feel softer than on first album Alpinisms, giving a more pop feel to songs like I L U and Bye Bye Bye, but one that is a natural progression from the earlier recording. Other tracks like Camarilla bridge the changes between the two albums gracefully, creating an overall dreamy collection of songs and a fabulous second album.

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Tags: blitzen trapper, cd, chrome hoof, factory floor, i am kloot, school of seven bells, sleigh bells

Spot the ambush

I'm trapped. I've jumped in to a class 4 w-space system after following a Helios covert operations boat in the hopes of finding activity and, as a reminder to be careful what you wish for, found plenty. A pair of interceptors and a couple of strategic cruisers are camping their static wormhole, hoping to catch a scanning boat they think is in the adjoining system. I think it is lucky that they don't know I'm here with them, but I'm not sure. Asking my scouting colleague to disappear from the system and remove the presence of a target hasn't quite worked, the small fleet now bolstered by an interdictor.

I don't want to try to evade an interceptor, and certainly not two of them. Although it is possible I could move away from the wormhole, cloak, and warp without being caught too much depends on the vagaries of the inter-system jump. A cloaking device needs two kilometres of clearance between any other object or interference disrupts the cloaking field. If the wormhole spits me out several kilometres from its signature then I am fairly safe, but it is quite possible to transition and be less than two kilometres from the wormhole. Not being able to cloak immediately will almost guarantee a good interceptor pilot locks on to my ship, and I try to avoid my lovely capsuleer body being turned in to a charred corpse.

The good news is that more pilots are turning up, and they are from my corporation and not the ambushers'. I explain my predicament and my colleagues are up for a fight. I was expecting to sit here for the next hour or so, twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the ships to get bored and wander off, but now the cavalry is mounting up and preparing to come to my rescue. We are facing two interceptors, two strategic cruisers, and an interdictor. The corporation scrambles three battlecruisers, the Drake, Harbinger, and Myrmidon joined by a Lachesis recon ship and Dominix battleship. Given the intelligence that I can supply, unbeknownst to the ambushers, we are likely to repel the hostile fleet and gain a couple of kills in the process. The evening is starting to look better.

The only impediment to our pre-emptive counter-assault is that no one has the location of the wormhole I passed through. I haven't been able to jump back to share the bookmark and it remains otherwise unscanned. A new scout comes out to quickly scan the connection, helped by my knowing the signature's identification, which I enter in to all my bookmarks for reference. Now that the wormhole is scanned and resolved it's time for action. The Taranis has warped off but is not followed by any of the other ships and looks to remain somewhere in the system, perhaps making himself a sammich. The Stiletto interceptor and Sabre interdictor still sit on the wormhole, and presumably so do the cloaked strategic cruisers, a Legion on this side of the wormhole and a Proteus strategic cruiser on the other side.

The Sabre warps away as the corporation fleet leaves the tower to make the two jumps in to this system. The Stiletto then also warps away seconds before the fleet appears on the other side of the wormhole ready to jump through. No doubt their Proteus pilot is keeping an eye on his directional scanner and warns of the coming fleet, giving the others time to flee. A single ship of ours jumps through the wormhole acting as bait but is met by no aggression. I warp my cloaked Buzzard covert operations boat to one of the two towers in the system and find all the recently active ships piloted inside its shields.

I was reluctant to launch scanning probes when I was trapped earlier because I didn't want the ambushers to know they had a target actually in their system but now I launch probes to try to lure them in to returning to the wormhole. And as I have my probes out I may as well take a closer look at the system. It's pretty clean in here, they keep a tight system. There is only one signature accompanying the static wormhole and it is a gravimetric site. I warp in to the mining site to activate it, out of spite for the inconvenience I have suffered, and as I warp away from the tower the Legion arrives, decloaked. The only threat now is a cloaked Proteus somewhere in the adjacent system. In fact, a return trip to the tower shows that many of the pilots have logged off, only the Sabre pilot remaining in his ship.

I feel a sense of relief and take advantage of the situation to warp to the wormhole and jump through, exiting the system at last. But I also feel a bit guilty about the corporation fleet coming out here and not seeing any action. The fleet takes it upon themselves to close this wormhole so that we can safely profit from the Sleeper opportunities in this class 4 system without fearing any interruption should the hostile pilots return from their break. I jump back home and return to the tower to swap in to my Falcon recon ship to provide support to the fleet, should they require some ECM, as battlecruisers and battleships are jumped in to and out of the hostile system, removing mass from the wormhole. That's when the explosions start.

Our ships have been caught unawares by a fleet of strategic cruisers, apparently returning from a sortie. They warp to the wormhole we are trying to collapse to find juicy targets jumping in and out of their system, and it seems willingly becoming polarised to complicate any escape. I warp my Falcon to our static wormhole to see a colleague's pod entering warp back to the tower. Jumping through to the C4 finds a second colleague's pod preparing to jump through the wormhole, soon followed by a third colleague's pod dropping out of warp also heading homewards. It would be comedic if it weren't all my fault.

I wonder if my Falcon is still needed after seeing the pods pass me in the other direction. But our Lachesis pilot is still fighting, apparently, putting up a good show against a Drake battlecruiser, and a Proteus and three Legion strategic cruisers. I don't quite know how he's surviving but I warp my Falcon to a safe distance from the wormhole to take a look. The Lachesis is keeping its distance from the wormhole, where the hostile ships have congregated, and appears to be sufficiently out of range for the hostile ships' weapon systems to be made ineffective. None of the hostile ships looks willing to break from the wormhole to threaten the Lachesis and our pilot doesn't need to get closer. But he can't break their tanks either.

We could bring more ships to the fight and focus fire to try to get some of our own kills, but the hostiles know their tactics. Sitting on the wormhole provides them with quick escape should their ships become heavily damaged. The best we could hope for is to push their ships back in to their home system, which is hardly a good result, and we would only be risking more ships to achieve this stalemate. The Lachesis is ready to pull out when an enemy Falcon appears and starts to jam him. That's my cue to decloak and jam the Falcon back, sending some spare ECM towards the strategic cruisers as well.

The foolish Falcon pilot is too far from the wormhole to jump back or to get support from his colleagues and my appearance to counter his ECM drastically reduces his chances of survival. Unable to prevent the Lachesis from locking on to him soon reduces the hostile Falcon's flimsy frame to a red-hot wreck. But crushing one cocky capsuleer will be our only trophy tonight. The rest of the hostile fleet stays on the wormhole to signal the stalemate and I and the Lachesis head back home to fight another day. I get to use my Falcon in anger for the first time and come away with a kill, and all our pods are safe, but tonight shows that w-space remains unpredictably dangerous.

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Tags: buzzard, dominix, drake, eve online, falcon, harbinger, helios, lachesis, legion, mmorpg, myrmidon, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, sabre, stiletto, taranis, w-space

Trapped by an ambush

Today's exploration is underway. I go to join a scout through our static wormhole where the class 4 w-space system should be familiar. I was last here only three weeks ago but both towers listed in my notes are no longer present. Indeed, the system is now uninhabited and apparently inactive. An initial blanket scan with my probes reveals plenty of anomalies and signatures, which could take time to sift through to find a wormhole. I notice one signature mimics that of the K162 of our own system's static connection, both currently split between two points of uncertainty and of a similar strength, and choose to resolve that first. The signature is a wormhole, warping to its location finding it to be a K162 from a class 4 system, which explains the noted similarities.

My Buzzard covert operations boat drops out of warp close to the centre of the wormhole but not so close as to decloak my ship. I call up the information panel for the wormhole, finding it to be stable—as stable as wormholes get, at least—and bookmark its location. As I register the signature's identity and the class of the two systems the wormhole connects a Helios cov-ops boat decloaks in front of me and jumps through the wormhole. I am almost sitting on top of the connection but somehow the Helios doesn't get close enough to my Buzzard to interfere with the cloaking effect and I remain unnoticed. I also don't jump immediately after the Helios, as my Buzzard is unlikely to be able to catch or destroy it alone and I don't want to give my position away. But I will follow, hoping to find further signs of activity, and after waiting about a minute I break cloak and jump.

The other side of the wormhole is clear of ships, so my entrance is probably unnoticed. Hitting the directional scanner shows in the system some strategic cruisers, two Orca industrial command ships, the Helios, and a Stiletto interceptor. I move cleanly away from the wormhole to engage my cloaking device but before I can go looking for the ships on d-scan one of them comes to me, a Proteus strategic cruiser warping to the connection and jumping through. The Stiletto follows closely behind but stays on this side of the wormhole instead of jumping. I recognise this behaviour from my own. The Helios saw scanning probes in their neighbouring system—assuming this is their home system—and anticipates a scanning boat to jump through the K162 at some point, at which point the interceptor will snare the unsuspecting ship. It's a shame for their plan that I saw their Helios return and followed before they could scramble any ships. It's also a shame for me that I am now stuck in this system.

My own attempts to use an interceptor to catch cov-ops boats on wormholes may so far be disappointing but I shouldn't expect other pilots to be lacking in experience. The Stiletto looks like a real threat to me, and when it is joined by a Taranis interceptor and a Legion strategic cruiser, the latter of which then cloaks on the wormhole, I start to get concerned. I assume the Proteus that jumped previously has also cloaked and is lurking on the wormhole to act as eyes in the other system, as well as additional firepower for any ship that tries to flee back the way it came. It looks like I'll be here for a while, so I may as well explore the system.

Making sure I have the wormhole bookmarked I warp away to get more intelligence on this class 4 w-space system. There are two towers anchored here, one of which holds the two Orcas, both unpiloted, and the Helios seen earlier sits in the second tower. That was some exciting exploration, I suppose I'll head back to the wormhole where the two interceptors and probably the cloaked Legion still lurk. I am certainly not going to launch scanning probes. First, I already know and have bookmarked the system's static wormhole, as it is the way I came in. Second, I would rather not let the occupants know that they also have a cov-ops boat in their system. They are currently waiting for one in the adjacent system to come through in to their ambush, if they think there is also one wanting to get out they will probably be more persistent.

Actually, that's an interesting point. I am working on the notion that the ambushers don't know I am in their system, which fits with their positioning of scary, pointy ships on this side of the wormhole in full view and nothing on the other side, as confirmed by my scouting colleague. If their potential target disappears there should be no need for the ambush, and the pilots may get bored and disperse. I ask my colleague to recall his scanning probes and jump out of the system. If the cloaked Proteus is paying attention he will see the probes disappear from d-scan and then it is simply a matter of seeing how long the hostile pilots are willing to wait for no one to show up. It sounds like a good plan to me. I know that I can wait on a wormhole for a stupidly long time waiting for a potential ship to jump through, but if the target travels in a different direction I am quick to abandon the operation.

Now all I have to do is let the Proteus pilot tell his colleagues that the probes have gone, then maybe wait a few minutes as they hope in vain for a cov-ops ship to innocently jump in to their trap before getting bored and warping back to their tower. Except now an Anathema cov-ops boat from the same corporation warps to the wormhole and cloaks, then the Helios pilot turns up in a Sabre interdictor. A lack of activity has actually escalated their response. I may have picked the wrong wormhole to jump through today.

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Tags: anathema, buzzard, eve online, helios, legion, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, sabre, scanning, stiletto, taranis, w-space

Breaking five billion

Pengu is borrowed, letting me spend the evening relaxing in a salvager. The corporation strategic cruiser fleet is shooting Sleepers in our neighbouring class 4 w-space system and I am a little too late to get in to my own Tengu, but as I enjoy salvaging a little too much I board Marxian Principles, my Cormorant destroyer, and sweep up behind them.

I may be late to join the fleet but only by a little, just the one site currently full of Sleeper wrecks waiting for me. And our neighbouring system holds a black hole, significantly increasing speeds but reducing missile ranges. That's both good and bad for the Tengu, and mostly good for salvaging, as a black hole system needs a modified salvaging strategy. But it is the glow of the system's star and the anomaly's bloom that is more detrimental to my efficiency today, making it difficult to see the wrecks amongst the glare. Even so, it doesn't take long to loot and salvage all the wrecks, the added velocity from the black hole phenomenon helping my destroyer speed along, and I move on to the now-obliterated second anomaly.

The third anomaly sees my hold fill up with reinforced metal scraps, the bulkiest element of looting and salvaging, but I'm not going to leave it as jetsam to make room for more precious materials. Instead I bookmark my current position, warp to and jump through the wormhole home, and transfer all my current cargo in to our corporate hangar. I am led to believe that even though the reinforced metal scraps are not worth much they contain enough tritanium to help pay some alliance bills, and I am not rushed for the time to make these return trips, salvaging the wrecks quicker than the fleet makes them.

I go back to my previously bookmarked position and continue salvaging where I left off. Our squad leader then alerts us to a potential threat. He has scanning probes launched and checks them occasionally for the appearance of new signatures and ships, and he now reports a wormhole coming in to this system. A new connection could mean hostile ships coming to look for us. 'Oh. Well', he continues after a short pause, updating us that the wormhole is coming 'from our system'. I volunteer to check to see if it has any towers, just to be safe, and our squad leader agreeing, as 'those people would attack us if they found us', aggressive bastards that they are.

Crisis over, combat and salvaging continue. The fourth and fifth sites are cleared, and I make another journey back to our tower to return the loot and bulky metal scraps, before twiddling my thumbs for a bit whilst the fleet finishes fighting in the sixth anomaly. The operation is running without a hitch and we manage to clear eight anomalies in total, as I revel in the opportunity to salvage so many wrecks in all those sites in one evening. A quick scouting expedition ends the night, finding a couple of towers in a couple of systems, and although there are two piloted ships in the tower of a class 1 system there is no activity occurring.

I head to bed after getting my share of the night's profits, the hundred and forty-five million ISK pushing my wallet's total to over five billion iskies. Life in w-space continues to look healthy.

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Tags: cormorant, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, sleepers, tengu