Trapping a Cheetah

Some food recharges my system and I come back to have another look around today's w-space constellation. I take my Buzzard covert operations boat out, not seeing any sign of activity in our neighbouring class 4 system or the second C4 connecting to it, but seeing scanning probes on the directional scanner in the C3 makes me wonder if I should have a scanning boat more capable of combat. Perhaps a Manticore stealth bomber fitted with a probe launcher instead of bombs would be suitable, being far cheaper than a strategic cruiser and also offering no targeting delay on decloaking. It's something to ponder.

The presence of the probes in the class 3 system is suggestive of a new wormhole opening in to this crossroads. The two wormholes that were EOL and leading to C3s are now gone, and a new wormhole is indeed present, the jazzy JTQ signature resolving to be a K162 from a class 5 system. Jumping in finds a Thanatos carrier sitting unpiloted at a tower but no sign of activity. I don't bother scanning, having already found the static wormhole from the other side, instead beginning to think about catching the cov-ops boat that is in the C3.

I consider planting my Malediction interceptor on the C4 wormhole leading in to the C3, on the assumption that the scout will find it and jump through, but I doubt I'll catch him. I've already removed the sensor booster from the interceptor after I find even the boosted sensor strength isn't quick enough to lock a cloaking frigate. A colleague offers to drop a warp bubble on the wormhole to help slow the cov-ops pilot, which sounds like a good idea until I realise the pilot would simply jump back to the C3 and evade my clutches there.

But what I can do is swap to my Onyx heavy interdictor and have my colleague join the ambush in his Jaguar assault ship. My HIC's warp bubble can follow us through the wormhole and the Jaguar should be fast enough to 'bump' a cloaking ship to reveal it. So now we wait. And waiting is not always much fun, particularly if we are not sure if the target is still in the other system or has got bored and gone home to make a sammich. We call on another colleague to board a stealthy ship and take a look in the C3 for continued signs of scouting.

I drop the Onyx's warp bubble as our own scout enters the class 4 system, so that he can warp directly to the wormhole, but mere seconds after the module is deactivated the wormhole flares! I don't think it's out scout, my intuition confirmed as he drops out of warp next to me, and I quickly re-activate the warp bubble and get my weapon systems hot. Moments later a Cheetah cov-ops boat decloaks, obviously panicking at jumping in to our ambush and trying to flee back in to the C3.

The Cheetah's return jump fails, as his session change timer is far from expiring because of his fearful response. And as he is expecting to jump through the wormhole he doesn't try to cloak, letting both me and my colleague get a positive lock on his ship. The Cheetah quickly pops under our combined fire. The poor pilot's pod pivots in my HIC's bubble, a new session change timer initiated for having left a ship, however violently, stopping him from jumping even now and giving us ample opportunity to ransom his pod. But we just shoot the crap out of him.

I scoop the corpse, the wreck is looted and shot, but we don't clear the pocket. Not having seen any other activity, nor expecting any, we aren't in a rush to avoid retaliation. Instead, we send our scout in to the C3 anyway and then on to the C5, hoping to find something more to do, but there are no signs of life in either system. Our ambush is successful, even if it exhausts today's opportunities. Job's a good 'un. We head home to drop off the meagre loot and add another body to our morgue.

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Tags: buzzard, cheetah, eve online, jaguar, malediction, manticore, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, thanatos, w-space

Incidental earnings

I'm rich! And alone. Well, richer I suppose, but not aloner. Two hundred and fourty five of my collected datacores sold to a single customer overnight for a tidy hundred million iskies, but there are no corporation colleagues around in w-space. I go out exploring whilst occasionally checking my wallet to see if I've merely imagined the windfall.

The hundred million ISK remains in my wallet as I jump through the scanned static connection to our neighbouring class 4 system, that single transaction indicating more activity than the directional scanner reveals here. I can see two towers, one off-line, and an Onyx heavy interdictor, but the ship is unpiloted and inside a tower's shields. And not only is there no other activity in the system but the towers are blue, belonging to an alliance we are strangely still friendly towards.

I understand our arrangement with the alliance is not to run sites in their occupied systems without permission, with the favour reciprocated, making this system somewhat out-of-bounds. I can still scan, though, and with only three signatures in the system not being able to pillage here is hardly the missed opportunity it could have been. A second tower is visible in the inner system and a piloted Anathema covert operations boat sits inside its shields. I don't say hello, nor do I uncloak, as I don't want to trust members of an alliance that have consistently shot me on sight, instead jumping through a wormhole to the next system.

This class 4 system is unoccupied and quiet and could provide opportunity for profit, if colleagues are comfortable flying through the intermediate system. Not wanting to presume anything I scan deeper, ignoring some gas and rocks and finding a wormhole as the last signature of the few here. Having the signature EEK sounds ominous but it only leads to a class 3 system. Mind you, the last C3 I entered held two carriers. Nothing quite as powerful greets me in this one, only a couple of warp bubbles and some mining drones visible on d-scan. There is no activity to accompany the drones, though.

The C3 is stuffed full of anomalies and signatures and I start to whittle them down. I first find an outbound wormhole to another class 3 system but as it is reaching the end of its natural lifetime I leave it alone. I resolve a second wormhole, also an outbound EOL C3, its reference of N968 making it look unlike a static connection. I check intelligence on the system which suggests the static I am looking for leads to low-sec empire space.

A lack of further w-space exploration combined with three client crashes, each one reseting my list of ignored signatures, convinces me to give up scanning and head home to our tower for now. To cheer me up my wallet blinks again, all four hundred and nine mechanical engineering datacores having just sold. Along with last night's sale the datacores have made me an easy quarter-of-a-billion ISK. This is encouragement enough to repeat my datacore run at some point in the future.

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Tags: anathema, eve online, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

All talk and no action

With no one around w-space is my oyster and I have fresh systems to scan. I jump to our neighbouring class 4 w-space system and find an occupied but inactive system. My probes pick up only three signatures amongst the seven anomalies, so scanning will be quick. I resolve a radar site and a wormhole to a class 3 system, the final signature being the connection home. The C3 holds a couple of carriers, an Archon and Thanatos, although they both sit unpiloted in a tower. Depending on how accessible the carrier pilots are this system may not be a good place to hunt for targets, if there happened to be any around. Then again, the last time I was in this system, several months ago, I popped an Orca industrial command ship, but the changed location of the tower suggests the system is now under new management.

A scan of the class 3 system reveals only five signatures and one anomaly, as well as a second tower around an outer planet. There are still no piloted ships to be seen, though. I resolve all of the signatures and find just the one wormhole, a pristine exit to low-sec empire space. Both systems are thoroughly scanned and there is no further connected w-space, which ends my exploration for now. I jump to low-sec, checking where it leads, and appear in Molden Heath. There are a few pilots in the system, as is clear from the oddly transparent local channel, and scanning probes visible on the directional scanner make me hope that perhaps someone will find the wormhole and venture through, giving me something to shoot at.

I go back to our tower to swap ships, trying to choose between a stealth bomber or interceptor to loiter on the wormhole, picking the former for its capability to cloak despite its main weaponry being verboten in empire space. I see no probes when jumping back in to the C3, so the scout hasn't entered the system yet, and I lurk silently on the wormhole waiting for him to find it and expose himself, but after a while I exit to low-sec only to find no probes visible there either. There is nowhere to explore and no one to hunt. Some colleagues turn up as I lament the lack of activity and they talk of collapsing our static wormhole to reset our opportunities, so I head home and, as is the way of w-space living, delete my hour-old bookmarks.

After a short break I'm scanning again, out with a colleague looking for targets. Our new neighbouring system is less interesting than the previous one, again holding only three signatures but with fewer anomalies dotted around. A K162 wormhole coming from a class 5 system may explain this, particularly as the connection has had half its mass allowance passed through it already, but jumping through finds an unoccupied system. Scanning finds a wormhole leading in to null-sec k-space but no likely looking K162 to explain the weary wormhole. And there are maybe thirty anomalies waiting to be plundered, which are more profitable than those in the C4. I suppose this C5 is an intermediate system and the connecting wormhole has since been collapsed.

I return to the class 4 system where my scouting colleague has found a second wormhole, the system's static connection to a C4. It again isn't particularly interesting, occupied but lacking activity, and holding only three signatures and five anomalies. We resolve a ladar gas mining site and a static wormhole to a C3, which despite having a bunch of ships on d-scan turns out to be inactive, all of the ships sitting unpiloted in one of the two towers in the system. The static wormhole for the class 3 system is found, an exit to high-sec empire space, but a second wormhole is also found. An outwards connection to another class 3 system keeps our hopes alive for w-space activity and jumping through finds just that.

There is a conversation occurring in the local channel in this C3. It is a little peculiar to see open chat occurring in w-space, particularly as it seems friendly. I suppose it happens occasionally, like after I hunt a heron, but this is the first conversation I've stumbled upon. I'm tickled by one of the two saying that 'it's alright, not too many people come through' the system, no doubt oblivious to the entrance of my colleague and I. The chatter appears to be between an inhabitant of the system sitting in his tower in a Heron frigate and another pilot elsewhere in the system in a Nighthawk command ship.

The conversation suggests that the Nighthawk pilot has been pillaging sites of specific Sleeper interest and is perhaps preparing to leave. We can't find the site he's running before the Nighthawk leaves the system but perhaps the inhabitant will come out to play later. A few sites are bookmarked in case of later ambushes but it turns out to be academic, as one of the wormholes along our route enters its wobbly stage of reaching the end of its natural lifetime, limiting our access to the farther systems. And so another evening of scanning ends with little to show for it. I head home and get some rest.

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Tags: archon, eve online, heron, mmorpg, nighthawk, penny ibramovic, scanning, thanatos, w-space

Third time lucky

The neighbouring class 4 w-space system has been visited, but no further exploration performed. A colleague and I follow our earlier scout's visit to see what awaits through our static connection. The presence of some Sleeper wrecks on the directional scanner is interesting and I locate them as being within the only anomaly left in the system. Warping in reveals the anomaly to still be active, Sleeper ships milling around the wrecks waiting for their aggressors to return. I have seen no ships on d-scanner since arriving and it seems more likely that our earlier scout spooked whichever capsuleers were shooting the Sleepers. More evidence for this comes as the wrecks deteriorate in space, knowing both that this deterioration happens after about two hours and our connection to this system was opened around two hours ago. There is unlikely to be any continued activity here.

A K162 wormhole is found that is coming in from another C4, probably the home of the earlier active capsuleers. Jumping through finds the system is indeed occupied but there is no one to be seen, either at the tower or elsewhere in the system. As there is unlikely to be another wormhole in this system, the static connection leading in to the previous C4, I head back. My colleague has found our neighbouring C4's static wormhole and has jumped in to the system beyond. I follow him in to an occupied C5 where there are pilots around, but perhaps not active, a Scorpion battleship, Badger industrial ship, Cormorant destroyer, and Imicus frigate all inertly floating at the system's tower. The system itself is fairly empty too, holding little promise for anything to do. We return home and confidently collapse our static wormhole in the hopes of finding a better system through a new connection.

The new static wormhole is found and jumped through, landing us in a familiar system. I was last here three weeks ago where my ambush of some gas miners ends with a bit of a scrap and the loss of my Onyx. My notes have the locations of the towers in the system but are already out of date, a third tower now anchored and one of the other two moved to a different moon. I also find a Nightmare battleship, Drake battlecruiser, and Hulk exhumer inside the shields of one tower, the two combat ships piloted. Along with probes visible on d-scan we are unlikely to get any Sleeper combat done in this system either and head home to swap for more massive ships to collapse our wormhole a second time.

Our co-ordinator muses that if he had two pilots available for the Orca industrial command ships the collapsing of wormholes would be much smoother than it is when having to use battleships. The main problem is the polarisation effects that affect a ship, preventing more than two jumps through a wormhole every few minutes. I consider getting our Orca pilot to swap one Orca for the other to negate hull polarisation effects but dismiss the idea just as readily as it occurs. I am sure I have been in a rush to swap ships and head back through our static wormhole yet still fallen foul of polarisation effects. Maybe the polarisation affects all of the ship down to the capsuleer's pod such that even slotting the pod in to a different ship cannot dissipate the effect entirely. Either way, we are stuck with using battleships and the single Orca for now, collapsing the wormhole smoothly again.

And again I go out scanning, jumping in to the third neighbouring class 4 system for the day. It is another system familiar to me, having last visited here about four months ago when it was occupied. All that is left now are two off-line faction towers floating coldly around a couple of moons. But the lack of occupancy and activity is good for making ISK, the system bulging with anomalies waiting to be plundered. Our exploration is halted, the system's static wormhole left unvisited and inactive, and we swap the scanning boats for strategic cruisers. Our choice of C4 for Sleeper engagements is again holding a magnetar phenomenon, which will speed up combat nicely, and just as we set out a colleague appears, as if by magic, conveniently volunteering to salvage.

We warp to each anomaly aiming to arrive one hundred kilometres from its cosmic signature, instead of aiming directly for the beacon. This either puts us closer to the initial wave of Sleepers than at the signature, or further enough away to allow us to then warp to a structure to be on top of the Sleepers. Along with the increased damage from the magnetar phenomenon we save a fair amount of time being able to engage the Sleepers sooner and we leave anomaly after anomaly behind us in a trail of carnage. I clear five anomalies with the fleet before returning home to get some rest, 120M ISK richer, whilst others continue pillaging Sleeper sites.

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Tags: badger, drake, eve online, hulk, imicus, mmorpg, nightmare, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, scorpion, sleepers, w-space

Intimidating an Imicus

The evening starts with Sleeper combat. Specifically, it started some time ago with Sleeper combat and I am turning up half-way through the corporate operation. I launch Pengu, my Tengu strategic cruiser, and warp off to the location of the copied bookmark. Jumping through our static wormhole puts me in to a class 4 w-space system with a pulsar phenomenon, the bonus to shield capacity welcome in my Caldari ship, and I warp to join the rest of the fleet. Apparently I'm helping with a serious massacre, the anomaly I warp in to being the tenth the fleet has cleared so far this evening. There is a brief moment of heightened tension as a new corporation application arrives, causing the mail icon to flash. As my colleague notes, 'getting mail while killing Sleepers is scary. The last three times it was insurance'.

Sites are finished quickly with five strategic cruisers shooting any red cross that moves, the salvaging destroyer not able to keep up with the pace. Sixteen anomalies are cleared in total, wiping the system clean, and I return Pengu for Marxian Principles, my Cormorant destroyer, to help salvage the wrecks. Salvaging is smooth, the pulsar phenomenon also increasing targeting range, helping instead of hindering pathfinding like in a magnetar system. I rake in a generous seventy-five million ISK share of the profits for my limited involvement, only imagining what a full share of all sixteen sites would be.

Sleeper combat over, I take my Buzzard covert operations boat out to scan today's w-space constellation. There is now little to find in our neighbouring class 4 system beyond rocks and gas, although a single radar site is resolved before being left with the final signature in the system. I warp to a static wormhole in pristine condition that leads to a class 5 system and jump through. My standard check of the directional scanner reveals a tower in the system but no ships. A careful review then finds no force field on d-scan, making the tower off-line. There are no modules to plunder and no other signs of activity in this system, so I start to scan.

A second scout with me finds a static connection to the deadly w-space of a class 6 system and a bit more scanning confirms there are no more wormholes to find in this C5. Entering the C6 and checking d-scan shows an Orca industrial command ship and Imicus frigate along with a tower protected by a force field, but there are no defences at all. I quickly locate it and suspect that the tower is being set-up. This looks like a good opportunity to catch some unwary pilots! Both ships are piloted and inside the shields, and although they are currently inactive there still needs to be modules to import and defences to configure, which will make them occasionally vulnerable.

I check the rest of the C6 system but find no evidence that the tower is being moved or any other activity, and I launch probes to begin scanning. I need to find the wormhole these capsuleers are using to import ships and modules. My activity may go unnoticed, as the Imicus has launched his own probes and is scanning, so his attention may not be focussed on d-scan. And scanning should be quick, as there are few signatures in the system. Three, in fact. One is the wormhole I entered through, another is a ladar gas mining site, and the third is the system's static wormhole to a class 5 system. That's odd, I would expect to find a K162 that these capsuleers are using.

I jump through the static wormhole in to the following class 5 system, hoping to shed some light on how the capsuleers can enter a system the wrong way through a one-way connection. I find another tower with no defences but it belongs to a different corporation in a different alliance, but whatever I found would be unlikely to quell my curiosity. I don't scan any further and go back in to the C6, pausing only to check the tower before returning home to swap the Buzzard for my Manticore stealth bomber. There is nothing more to scan here and I could use a better weapons platform whilst maintaining a stealthy profile. Suspecting that I'll be trying to catch frigates, and knowing about my previous failures to do so in the Manticore, I refit the stealth bomber with a sensor booster, which decreases its time to get a positive target lock.

Back at the tower in the C6 there is no change. The scanning probes of the Imicus are still visible on d-scan, suggesting the capsuleer is distracted. No one can take this long to resolve three signatures. A bit of loitering sees some activity, a second Imicus appearing at the tower. I have positioned my Manticore close enough to the tower that my remote systems can switch to the viewpoint of the ships inside. I have also taken care to open the system map and note the relative directions of the two wormholes with respect to the tower. When the first Imicus aligns and warps away I am thus disappointed when I make an elementary mistake.

My care to detail lets me warp to the same wormhole as the Imicus but my impetus to hunt sees me warp to zero on the wormhole. Landing right on top of the wormhole is guaranteed to decloak my ship, whereas the Imicus may only be reconnoitring the wormhole and not intending to jump through. Sure enough, the Imicus is a hundred kilometres from the wormhole—the standard maximum distance to drop out of warp being dangerously predictable in itself—and my Manticore decloaks in full view of the other pilot. There is nothing else I can do but jump through the wormhole as if that was always my intention and pretend our combined presence is only a coincidence.

I move a little distance away from the wormhole in the adjacent system and activate my ship's cloak. I hold my position for a couple of minutes before jumping back, hoping that the Imicus pilot is fooled, or bored, and has returned to his tower. A glance at d-scan shows two Imicus ships visible and there are none in my overview, so one cannot be cloaked nearby watching the wormhole. Maybe my ruse worked. I warp back to the tower and resume my observation. The second Imicus moves to a canister jettisoned by the first, grabs the contents, and warps off. I suspect the jet-can held bookmarks but the direction of warp doesn't correlate to either wormhole in the system. I try to follow but fail to locate the ship, having it drop off d-scan. It may have cloaked or the capsuleer logged off, I'm not sure.

I return to the tower in time to see the first Imicus warp away again, this time to the static wormhole in this system. I don't warp to one hundred kilometres off the wormhole because I strongly suspect that the inhabitants already know about this wormhole and the pilot is going to use it. But I also don't want to make the same mistake as earlier and reveal myself unnecessarily, so I choose to warp my Manticore to ten kilometres from the wormhole which should, and in this case does, let me hold my cloak. My hunch is right, the Imicus drops almost on top of the wormhole and jumps through a few seconds later. Once his ship has disappeared I drop my cloak and burn the five kilometres towards the wormhole to get within jumping distance and follow.

In the other system, the Imicus is uncloaked and pootling away from the wormhole, giving me plenty of opportunity to shed the session change cloak, activate all my systems, and lock his ship. My siege launchers throw a couple of volleys of torpedoes at the frigate before it manages to jump back in to the C6, his shields and most of his armour destroyed. Again I follow, hoping to finish the job, but even my sensor boosted ship isn't quite quick enough, the Imicus warping away before I can get positive lock and disrupt its warp drive.

A conversation request appears as I activate my cloak and return to watch the tower. The first Imicus pilot is still around, it seems, and he wants a word with me. It is 'just plain rude' to shoot at his pilots in their home system, he says. I can only agree with that, I wasn't really trying to make friends. It seems he had a bad day yesterday and doesn't want a repeat today of the dreadnought and three dozen stealth bombers that 'kicked their ass', destroying their defences and tower. They are having to repopulate the system after the devastating assault, no doubt having a scanning ship first find a way out to empire space and pilots then hauling goods in through the scanned exit.

The director of the corporation offers me a future bribe to leave their system alone. It sounds like a good deal to me. I understand how w-space connections work and that after a day, when he promises to pay, I will not likely see this system again for months and therefore be in no position to extort payment should it not be made. I am also aware that the director of a corporation living in a class 6 w-space system would understand this and that the offer is likely an empty gesture. But what he doesn't know is that it is already later than I want to be awake and that I was ready to leave this system to go home after the Imicus escaped, fairly sure that the pilots would not come out to play again for a while anyway after the attack. If I can get some iskies out of doing what I was going to do anyway, all the better.

I doubt I'll see any payment, but I give the director my word that I'll leave his system and not return today. I also tell him that I'll advise my corporation not to bother his pilots, which I do to the couple of pilots still around, although neither of them were planning to go near the C6. And now I go to sleep, happy simply to have experienced the hunt another day.

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Tags: buzzard, cormorant, eve online, imicus, manticore, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, salvaging, scanning, tengu, w-space

Two new assault ships

I'm going shopping again. Only two intermediate w-space systems lie between me and high-sec space and I am still looking to increase my options in PvP combat. I have done a little bit of research to configure a couple of ships and I am finally going to take the plunge and buy myself both an assault ship and heavy assault ship. I doubt the fits I am considering are optimal but they are a good start. The main hurdle is getting the ship to our tower in w-space, after which I can worry about tweaking the configurations.

I load my Crane transport ship with as many modules as are available for my proposed new ships and start the short journey to market. As much as I have no problem buying my own modules and spares I am aware of the cruft accruing in the hangar, and taking what I can with me lets me make use of what we have, as well as find out what holes exist in our inventory that are masked by a thousand other items. I don't need to buy the plentiful items unnecessarily and can return in the Crane with some oft-used items that are depleted from our stocks.

Making my journey this way in the Crane means I can also dump the modules for the heavy assault ship in the station for a second trip whilst having room to bring back my first new ship, the Vengeance assault ship. The Vengeance is based on a frigate hull and fits in to the Crane's hold, letting me bring it, its fittings, and some spare modules home to the tower. Back in w-space I eject the Vengeance in to space where it magically assembles itself, after which I board it and install the required fittings. I give my new assault ship the inspired name of Vengeance and take it for a quick spin.

I can't indulge myself in the Vengeance for too long as the wormhole leading out to high-sec empire space is reaching the end of its natural lifetime. I'd better go back and get my second ship. It helps that the wormhole leads out to a minor market hub, only a couple of items sending me three hops further afield, the lack of travel time making me confident about finding the wormhole still present on my return. The repeat journey is made in my bare pod, the intermediate systems being quiet, and I dock in the same station as before. My second ship is sitting unassembled in the hangar, the modules from my first visit waiting to be fitted. Assembling my new Sacrilege heavy assault ship reminds me why I was hesitant to buy one on previous opportunities.

The Sacrilege is really ugly. I couldn't bring myself to buy one before when I saw its model and it must only be because I have been thinking of a different hull that let me buy one today. But I wanted a heavy assault ship to add to my flexibility in PvP engagements and now I have one. At least I won't feel too bad if it gets blown up. I name my new monstrosity Beaker and head home to w-space again, the exit wormhole not quite collapsed yet.

I don't think the new ships are the best options available on the market, but they are probably the best current options for my missile-heavy skills. Today's shopping trip may have expanded my personal hangar but the real benefit is in showing me that I really ought to train in gunnery skills in order to open up a wider range of piloting possibilities. I have more training to complete to get in to my next over-priced and under-utilised ship of fancy, after which I will focus my training to learn how to use guns, and lots of them.

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Tags: crane, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, sacrilege, vengeance, w-space

Tussling over a Harpy

I have a new Harpy. Well, the assault ship is nearly mine, and only nearly new too, I suppose. I can overlook the scorch marks on the armour where the VIN used to be and the rest of the damage will buff out. But I'm getting ahead of myself, as I still need to collect it from near a wormhole in our neighbouring w-space system. My colleague is guarding the frigate in his Arazu recon ship after a minor engagement pops and pods a Hound stealth bomber and forces the Harpy pilot to eject from his ship. I can pilot the assault ship and so I am parking my current ship in a hangar at our tower to return to the class 4 system in my naked pod to claim the Harpy as my own.

As I jump through our static wormhole in to our neighbouring system my colleague is telling me about the Chimera carrier and Hawk assault ship now somewhere on scan. I am entering warp to his position on the wormhole to a class 1 w-space system, where the Harpy sits abandoned, as I learn of the new warp bubble now anchored on that wormhole accompanied by the presence of the carrier's fighter drones. In warp to that location in my pod, I can't help but think that maybe I should have been a bit faster to collect the Harpy. Or a bit slower. Either way, my current speed looks to be getting me in to some trouble.

Luckily, my colleague was entering warp as he relayed the new information to me and I turn out to be travelling to an arbitrary point in space that he passed through during warp, and not the fighter-infested wormhole. I am careful to keep my cool and not warp directly back to the wormhole home, though. My recent jump back-and-forth must have polarised my pod and I won't be able to jump home again for a few minutes. The wormhole itself would be a dangerous place to wait and I am effectively sitting in a safe spot anyway. I stay where I am, checking the directional scanner regularly, waiting for the polarisation effect to dissipate. After a few minutes I warp back to the wormhole, which still has no ships loitering around it, and jump safely home.

Two of us are safe but another colleague is still out in the class 1 system, beyond the now re-bubbled wormhole guarded by an assault ship with a flight of the Chimera's fighter drones. Our colleague is piloting a covert operations boat and has a reasonable chance of cloaking and escaping the bubble, but maybe we can help his chances. Both of us board battleships and warp to our static wormhole, jumping in to the C4 to present bigger and more tangible targets to the inhabitants of the system, hoping to draw them away from the C1 wormhole and to our own. The manoeuvre also serves a dual purpose of starting to destabilise the wormhole, our plan now to collapse it and isolate ourselves once more.

The lure works and attention is shifted from the wormhole to the class 1 system to our static connection. Firbolg and Einherji fighters appear with a Megathron battleship, which sets itself up in a sniping position some two hundred kilometres from the wormhole. I note with interest that pilot of the Hound we popped and podded earlier is now back in the engagement in a Raven battleship. He must have updated his clone and got back to w-space pretty quickly. We sit on the K162 to engage the fighters for as long as our ships' tanks are comfortable before jumping back. It doesn't look like any hostile ships will follow through the wormhole, which is good as we don't have any more pilots to help reinforce our position. But the risk of the hostile ships jumping through in to our system was always small, as it would mean them leaving the carrier's fighters behind.

With no active threat on the C1 wormhole our missing scout is able to pass through the bubble unscathed and returns home without incident. He joins us in a third battleship and we continue to jump in to the C4, engage the hostiles, and jump back, steadily destabilising the wormhole and hoping to knock down a few fighters in the process. The last few jumps are fiddly and we hold in our system whilst permutations are calculated, determining how many more jumps need to be made and whether the extra mass of active micro-warp drives is required. The options are considered, the chances decided, and we each make one last trip. The wormhole collapses on schedule, with all three of our battleships safely in our system. I think the next time a pilot ejects from a ship I'll just blow it up.

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Tags: arazu, chimera, eve online, harpy, hawk, hound, megathron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scorpion, w-space

Helping myself to a Harpy

W-space is not much explored today. Only the static wormhole has a bookmark copied to our shared can. But both sides of the wormhole are bookmarked, indicating the wormhole is active. Maybe we have corporation miners in the neighbouring system. I head out to take a look, piloting my Buzzard covert operations boat so that I can scan and explore further if necessary. Jumping in to the class 4 w-space system offers a clear result from the directional scanner, only celestial bodies within range. Warping around finds two towers in the system, an unpiloted Hulk exhumer in one and a piloted Buzzard in another. No ships are out in the system, though, and scanning finds a wormhole to jump through.

Our neighbouring C4 holds a static connection to a class 1 system. As I make the jump a last check of d-scan in the C4 sees a Harpy assault frigate in the system, and now in the C1 I see probes on d-scan. There are active pilots around. Another pilot becomes active, a colleague of mine turning up and coming out to help scout, which is welcome given the number of signatures to resolve in this C1. We manage to find a connection leading out to low-sec empire space, the wormhole pristine, and a bit of back-tracking finds a second connection in the previous class 4 system. There is more activity too, a Cheetah cov-ops boat jumping from the C1 in to the C4 and warping to the tower there, and the pilots at the tower swapping ships until they settle on a Hound stealth bomber, Drake battlecruiser, and Falcon recon ship. But it doesn't look like they are doing anything.

My colleague heads in to the class 2 w-space system through the wormhole in the C4, whilst I remain at the tower in the C4 to keep tabs on the hostile ships. The Hound, Falcon and Drake all move out of the tower and drop off d-scan. My task now is to find out where they have gone, which may be difficult as two of the three ships can cloak. I find the Drake sitting on the wormhole heading to our home system, perhaps indicating the other two are cloaked as part of an ambush. I jump home to try to flush them out of hiding, confident that I can evade their attentions and warp away, but no ships decloak or follow me. Back at out tower I swap the Buzzard for my Onyx heavy interdictor, refitting with an ECCM module to help counter the ECM of the Falcon.

I keep my colleague in his scouting Proteus informed of these movements and he returns from the C2. I warp to our home wormhole and hold so that if he is attacked I can jump through and strike, and if not he can jump home safely. Before he comes back my colleague scouts the neighbouring system, seeing that there is now a Flycatcher interdictor and a Harpy on d-scan, which he finds on the wormhole leading to the C1. We wonder what we can do, as my colleague gets home without incident. The Proteus strategic cruiser is swapped for an Arazu recon ship, I remain in my Onyx. With warp bubbles available to both sides an engagement could be dangerous.

We warp to our static wormhole and jump, holding our session change cloaks. The Harpy and Flycatcher are still on the C1 wormhole and we warp to its location, the Harpy called as the primary target. But before we drop out of warp both ships have fled, leaving us alone with a mobile warp bubble placed on the C1 wormhole. We have another colleague out and scanning in the C1 now and the bubble presents a credible threat to his return. Indeed, the scanning boat in the C1 may well explain the presence of the bubble and small attack ships, as well as the ease at their being chased off by us. But now we shoot and destroy the bubble, which will let out pilot return unmolested. The wormhole flares shortly after the bubble pops but our pilot didn't say he was jumping back. A Hound stealth bomber decloaks instead and starts moving away.

The mobile warp bubble has been destroyed but my HIC is its own mobile warp bubble generator. I move towards the Hound and activate the Onyx's bubble, catching the Hound and preventing it warping away, as both my own and my colleague's weapons systems lock and fire on the stealth bomber. Curiously, the Hound just about clears my bubble when it stops and turns around. This manoeuvre is quite unfortunate, as it allows us to pop his Hound and destroy his pod to wake up a new clone somewhere in empire space. The odd direction change looks to be explained by his initial movements away from the wormhole sending him in the opposite direction to his tower. Rather than warping to a convenient celestial body to escape, his instinct was to return directly to the safety of his tower, which actually turned him around and back in to my bubble. You need to be a bit more aware than this in order to survive.

The combat is not quite over, as the Harpy warps in moments too late to distract us from shooting the Hound. The assault ship is too far from my Onyx to be caught in my warp bubble but the Arazu locks and points the smaller ship, disrupting its warp drive. They are both too fast for me and I turn back to scoop the corpse and loot the Hound, but before I do the Harpy pilot ejects from his stricken ship and warps his pod away from danger. That's a fairly clever move, our instinct being to stop shooting the ship, perhaps saving it from destruction, even if we may claim it as our own. Which I think I'll do, as I have been thinking about getting an assault ship and now I don't need to worry about how to fit one. I need to drop my Onyx off at our tower and return in my pod, but with an Arazu guarding the inert Harpy nothing can go wrong.

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Tags: arazu, buzzard, cheetah, drake, eve online, falcon, flycatcher, harpy, hound, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, w-space

K-space is a dead-end

What good timing. I turn up only minutes after our static wormhole dies, offering new exploration possibilities. I join a small scouting fleet to help scan our way through more wormholes to look for activity and opportunities. Our new neighbouring class 4 w-space system looks a promising start, with a tower and a Tengu strategic cruiser spotted on the directional scanner. The tower is located and a piloted Tengu is inside its shields along with a piloted Helios covert operations boat. The two ships are joined by a third, a Nemesis stealth bomber arriving as I warp away to launch probes out of d-scan range.

The Nemesis is warping around the system, its motive unclear, the other two ships remaining motionless. Scanning is about as easy as it can get in this C4, with only two signatures complementing the four anomalies present. Disregarding the wormhole home makes it trivial to find the system's static connection, leading in to a class 3 system. My paranoia concerning the Nemesis's movements makes me suspect the locals are monitoring this static wormhole now but all I can do is jump and see what happens. Nothing happens. And there is nothing on d-scan either.

A scout in the C4 behind me reports that all ships are back at the tower there, with not much activity from either the Tengu, Helios, or Nemesis. Maybe they didn't notice our scanning probes on d-scan, which is possible for inactive pilots sitting inside a tower. I launch probes in the C3 and start scanning here. I manage to resolve a wormhole quickly enough from the dozen or so signatures, finding an exit to low-sec empire space and potentially ending w-space exploration. I don't give up, though, and find a second wormhole. Warping to its position reveals a K162 wormhole coming in also from low-sec space. How boring.

All hope is not lost, as tenacious scanning resolves a third wormhole. Sadly, it is a K162 wormhole coming from high-sec empire space, and is reaching the end of its lifetime too. Even checking the low-sec exits shows there to be no one around to poke, making it a dreary set of connections indeed. I head home, jumping from the C3 and in to the C4 with no sign of a trap or an ambush, and disappointedly warp to the local tower in time to see the Tengu go off-line. Nothing is happening and so I go back to home to our tower for a quiet evening.

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

Collecting a Curse

Local w-space has been mapped and today offers a convenient exit. I am told that a few jumps will get me to a Gallente market hub, which seems like a good excuse to go shopping for another new ship. I board a shuttle and head to empire space, passing through three w-space systems to do so. Two of the w-space systems are occupied but there seems to be no activity, according to my directional scanner, and I reach high-sec without seeing another soul. And I also fail to see any market activity, hardly any ships or modules for sale within the region. Being unfamiliar with Gallente space I have to ask colleagues where this market hub is and am pointed towards Dodixie, only a few jumps away but across a region border.

I know which ship I'm going to buy, but I don't quite know how to fit it competently yet. The Curse recon ship seems quite useful, its focus on neutralising a target's capacitor energy being a serious threat to actively tanked ships, and I am continuing my desire to add more flexibility to my section of the shared hangar. Whilst I could feasibly jump in to a colleague's Curse to bring its utility to a fight there is no guarantee that my skills would ensure all the fitted modules would be brought on-line. I have trained a broad selection of skills to help mitigate problems with piloting unfamiliar ships but I still lack training in guns, and Tech II missiles and drones, which can lead to awkward situations. Having my own Curse at least ensures that I can jump in to it and fly off immediately.

Fitting the Curse isn't too difficult either, really. The bonuses to energy neutralisers and vampires makes installing them an obvious choice to start with. Beyond that, I assume the Amarr ship will be best fitted with an armour tank and try to beef up the armour as best I can within my abilities. In a spare mid slot or two I fit tracking disrupters, which impair the ability of guns to track targets quickly, as the Curse improves the functioning of these modules too.

And then I see the size of the drone bay. The Curse is my first ship which will hold more than one flight of drones, offering the ability to launch more should some be destroyed or to swap from one type of drone to another dependent on the circumstances. I'm not used to this at all. I even take time to buy the drone specialisation skill books to let me use Tech II drones, although I will need to squeeze some training time in at some point to meet the prerequisite of scout drone operation V. Until then, I get two flights of light drones and two flights of medium drones, all basic Tech I models.

Content with my simplistic preliminary configuration I name my ship Curse of Penny and launch it for its maiden voyage, a short trip back to our tower in w-space. But the journey is curtailed when jumping through the wormhole to leave high-sec space lands me a few kilometres from a waiting Loki. I wouldn't say I'm prepared for this but having spent so long living in w-space I am far from flustered. I hold the session change cloak and then wait longer, zooming my external view in to my ship so that I can see how long the cloak remains active. The Loki strategic cruiser keeps circling the wormhole, no doubt waiting for my ship to reveal itself. I quickly dismiss any idea of making a break for the next wormhole, as the Loki would no doubt lock, disrupt, and chew me up before I get close to aligning. As soon as my cloak starts to drop I jump back to w-space, session change over. I may now be polarised but I am relatively safe in high-sec space.

I warp away from the wormhole and keep an eye on the privacy-busting local channel. The Loki pilot doesn't follow me. But I also won't be able to tell when he gets bored and moves away from the wormhole. I wait for a while, doing some chores like taking the plastic off the seats of the Curse and adding a stinky tree to the overview, and a friendly scout turns up and is kind enough to take a look at the wormhole where the Loki was lurking. The strategic cruiser has gone, either bored of waiting or deciding that a Curse pilot may have bigger friends to call on for protection. I warp my new recon ship back to the wormhole and jump through, finding the other side as clear as reported, and I get home without any more drama.

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Tags: curse, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, w-space