Ambushed outside a tower

A nav-comp full of bookmarks makes me want to roam. I launch my Manticore stealth bomber, make sure I have a couple of bombs loaded, and warp off to our home system's static wormhole to look for unsuspecting targets. I find little activity or signs of occupancy in the first couple of systems connecting from our own, but the third has a ship visible on the directional scanner. As the ship is a Buzzard covert operations boat, and normally unseen in its natural state of being cloaked and scanning, I am expecting to find it floating passively in the system occupiers' tower. And, indeed, warping to the tower's location finds the Buzzard too. But the Buzzard isn't inside the tower's shields.

The cov-ops boat is piloted and uncloaked, vulnerable outside the safety of the tower's force field. I don't see any probes on d-scan which would indicate the pilot is actively scanning, explaining his position and perhaps absent-mindedness in forgetting to cloak, but perhaps his probes are on the other side of the system and out of d-scan range. Either way, he looks like a target to me. I try to gauge how far out of the shields this Buzzard is to give me an idea of how likely I am to get the kill before he can get back in and become immune to harm again. Adjusting my view shows that the ship is more than a few kilometres outside of the shields, which should give enough time to do plenty of damage at least. Depending on the pilot's level of attention I could even pop the ship. I have already started to move in to a better position.

I am quite far from the Buzzard and need to be careful not to get too close to the force field, which would break my own ship's cloak. I also think I ought to get close enough to the Buzzard to see the whites of the capsuleer's eyes, because if he is paying attention and has a micro-warp drive my attack is going to be over quickly. I need to get within range of my warp scrambler module to shut down any potential use of an MWD and give me a better shot. My cloaked Manticore manoeuvres its way towards the Buzzard, slowly creeping closer to the oblivious pilot. My concern that the ship will move away or cloak heightens the closer I get, but it doesn't. I get within range to start the attack.

With no ceremony I decloak, lock the Buzzard, and activate my warp scrambler to hold it in place. In a swift movement all my launchers are activated along with a target painter to increase the Buzzard's signature radius. My first volley of torpedoes hits the cov-ops boat, more effective against a painted target, and the Buzzard is remains motionless. A second volley hits and I am feeling confident. And then I get a lock warning, the tower's automatic defences training their weapons on my Manticore. One burst of fire from the defences destroys my ship's shields and I don't even get to turn around before the second obliterates the bomber.

I am left floating in space in my pod, my Manticore no more than a wreck floating within a few kilometres of the still very much intact Buzzard. I am able to warp my pod back to the wormhole heading home and make the jumps to get back to our tower, albeit without the ship I left in. The Buzzard looked like an easy target, but sometimes the situation isn't quite what it seems. I perhaps ought to learn more about different types of tower defences, as I thought I had more time to launch an attack before being targeted myself. However, I imagine the only research I'll do will be more empirical observations.

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

Testing the Tengu

Roaming in my Manticore's the only way to hunt because cloaky bombs are best, of course; I'm roaming in my Manticore. But I don't get far when I realise the only bookmark I have for our neighbouring class 4 w-space system is the one leading home again. I go back to the tower and get the missing bookmark copied between ship systems before heading out again, this time being able to warp to the wormhole connecting to a C5. Roaming for targets to shoot doesn't work too well in an unoccupied system, so I move on to the system's static connection to a class 3 system and jump through.

The C3 is occupied, at least. But finding the tower also finds it empty, there being no ships in the system. There is another connection to check and I warp to the wormhole leading in to a C2. Jumping to the C2 finds the system unscanned, the K162 I'm floating next to not even bookmarked. I make sure I record its position before warping away, hoping to find an easy target. Although finding a tower in this system reveals the presence of a Viator transport ship elsewhere I am ill-equipped to locate it unless the ship is lurking at a celestial object.

I return my probeless stealth bomber the way it came, swapping it for my Cormorant salvaging destroyer back at the tower. My colleagues have again gone out in their strategic cruisers to engage Sleepers, offering me more opportunity to salvage. I sweep up all the wrecks in the first cleared anomaly and the profit is looking good. The second anomaly is clear of Sleepers just as I finish salvaging the first and I warp in to continue my efforts. The battle for the third anomaly is still being fought when I finish clearing the second site of wrecks and I head back to our tower to drop off the loot in the meantime. I could loiter in the system, as I have done before, but delivering the currently accumulated profit minimises our losses should my Cormorant get ambushed in a later site.

Whilst at the tower, reason pays me a visit and slaps me in the face. You may have sub-optimal subsystem skills for your Pengu, begins reason, quite resonably, but flying in a fleet of three other strategic cruisers seems to be a much better opportunity in which to test the Tengu's capability than in a smaller fleet, or solo. That's a good point, reason. I tell the fleet my intention to bring Pengu to the fight and launch my Tengu from the hangar. I still need a flux coil to keep my capacitor stable and my shield and missiles aren't quite as effective as they could be, but Pengu still looks good on a theoretical level.

What reason forgot to remind me was that today's neighbouring class 4 system holds a black hole phenomenon. The reduction in missile velocity makes the range of my heavy assault missiles even shorter than normal but I suppose the increase in ship speed should get me within that shorter range a bit more quickly. It doesn't really matter, I just want to be out here in the Tengu shooting Sleepers, making use of my half-billion ISK ship. I warp in to the anomaly where my colleagues are busy and begin targeting and shooting Sleepers.

Whee, what fun! I'm flying a Tech III ship and firing missiles! It makes quite a change from my normal fleet role of piloting the Guardian logistics ship. As engaging as it can be to ensure the fleet remains repaired under heavy fire it can get rather monotonous after almost a year. Now I am speeding between Sleepers and orbiting them whilst my missiles slam in to their armour with impressive rapidity. The return fire from the Sleepers, when they choose to target me, doesn't bother my shield tank at all. Much of the damage is mitigated by my speed and what actually hits me is almost immediately repaired by my continuously running shield booster. This is a successful test flight of Pengu.

The anomaly is cleared of Sleepers. Now I go back to salvage. The wrecks are looted and salvaged, and all the profit returned to the tower and counted. Each of us receives seventy-six million ISK in profit for this evening's cleared anomalies, after the corporation's cut. I go to sleep, happy to have more ISK and feeling more confident about Pengu.

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Tags: cormorant, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, salvaging, sleepers, tengu, viator, w-space

Salvaging in a black hole system

There are three strategic cruisers popping Sleepers in our neighbouring class 4 w-space system, and they are all ours. I'm not quite feeling ready to take the Pengu out to join in, concerned that my most expensive ship so far probably needs a little more subsystem skill training to be completed. But my salvaging skills cannot be improved and I always enjoy the act of salvaging itself. I volunteer to help, launch my Cormorant destroyer, and jump through our static wormhole to start clearing up the wrecks.

Today's neighbouring system contains a black hole, one of its effects being to increase the base speed of ships. Whilst the extra speed helps to move more swiftly between wrecks it can also hinder efficient use of the tractor beams. A tractor beam pulls with a force that, ignoring physics as usual, maintains a specific velocity. If you fly towards the object being tractored it approaches more quickly but if you fly away from it the relative closing speed is reduced. And in a black hole system you can speed away from tractored wrecks more quickly than usual, the phenomenon not affecting tractor beam velocity.

I usually activate my salvager module before I am in range of looting the wreck, looting range being shorter than salvaging range, and rely on the tractor beam to pull the wreck close enough to loot before the salvager cycle completes. This method works well, even when I change direction away from the wreck being pulled towards my ship, because the tractor beam velocity tends to be sufficiently faster than my ship's. But in this black hole system my ship speed is increased and the reduced relative velocity of the tractored wrecks needs to be taken in to account. My normal method of salvaging is floundering.

Several times I misjudge the timing of salvaging, mostly when changing vector to get within tractor beam range of different wrecks, leaving me unable to loot the wreck before it is salvaged. The efficacy of the salvager II modules gives me mostly successful cycles but failed cycles at least offer more time for the tractor beams to pull the wrecks closer. Instead I am left with cargo containers adrift in space, no longer a wreck to house them, making me lose efficiency by having to lock and tractor them to my ship solely for the purpose of looting. The solution is to move directly towards the wrecks and hold the course for longer before changing direction. Of course, this effects my efficiency too. Salvaging in a black hole system is not ideal. But I cope.

I take the effects of the black hole to be another variable in the process of salvaging and try to adapt to it as best I can. I also enjoy zooming between groups of wrecks using the micro-warp drive which, as it boosts the ship's base speed, is much faster than in normal systems. And I need to speed between various groups of wrecks, and quite a few individual wrecks, because the attack paths of the strategic cruisers have not kept the Sleeper waves bunched up as a more standard fleet composition would. Four anomalies are cleared of Sleepers in total and I follow up behind salvaging and looting in those four anomalies. The loot is totted up and split amongst the fleet, making each of us seventy-five million ISK richer.

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Tags: cormorant, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, salvaging, sleepers, w-space

Keeping safe by making friends

I take my Manticore our for an optimistic roam. The local w-space systems didn't look terribly active earlier but at the moment neither does the home system, and there is little else to do. I jump my stealth bomber in to the nieghbouring class 4 system to find nothing of interest. But maybe someone finds me, as a conversation request pops up. I don't recognise the capsuleer but getting his public information shows him to be a member of the corporation occupying this system. That can hardly be a coincidence.

I accept the conversation request and get a friendly greeting, sending one back myself. The capsuleer says he knows I'm from a class 4 system and just wants a bit of information about Sleeper escalations. I see no harm in answering his question but am curious to find out how he knows that I live in a class 4 w-space system. The obvious answer is implied when he notes I am piloting a Manticore, he must be watching the wormhole connecting our two systems. That's a shame, I thought maybe I had a fan.

My new acquaintance may be friendly but I wonder how inexperienced he is. I warp to his tower, which I bookmarked earlier, then back to the K162 wormhole coming from our home system. Landing a hundred kilometres from the wormhole I crawl cloaked on a direct approach vector. If this fellow is a little green it is quite possible my ship will bump in to his and decloak us both. My intention, of course, is to shoot him but already I am feeling guilty about trying this. We are still chatting and he is quite friendly. It seems that he just wants to keep his system as safe as possible, asking if there are any other wormholes connecting in to our home system that could draw ships in to his. Luckily, he isn't careless, as I draw close to the wormhole without having decloaked him, and I don't need to decide whether to shoot or not.

I warp off to take a look at the class 1 system next along the route. A colleague boards a Bestower hauler to head out to empire space and get fuel for our tower. I have kept him informed about the friendly capsuleer and we both believe him to be sincere and so not a threat. The Bestower jumps through our static wormhole and is noticed. 'Nice Bestower', I am told. It's bait, I reply, don't shoot it.

The C1 is just as quiet as the C4 appears, no ships on scan and nothing at the tower. The high-sec exit wormhole is stable and the Bestower gets out safely to stock up on fuel. I return to the C4 and loiter around our K162. I don't expect any trouble, as we even get unsolicited permission to clear some of the anomalies in the C4 if we so wish, this chap being more of a miner anyway. But I don't want any surprises, and neither does my colleague.

The class 4 system remains quiet. I return to the high-sec exit to help my colleague speed back through w-space, having fitted a web module to reduce the Bestower's time to enter warp. I am approaching the wormhole, to get within range of the webber, as it flares. I ask if that's my colleague jumping back but 'no', he replies, 'I'm one jump out.' A transport ship decloaks and aligns before warping away, piloted by the same friendly capsuleer I've been chatting with. I don't remark what a nice Viator he has, though. I wait for my colleague to jump in to the C1 and help him warp back to the tower, which we reach safely.

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Tags: bestower, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, viator, w-space

A strategic purchase

An empty home system makes the static wormhole easy to find. My Buzzard covert operations boat is pushed through the connection to the class 4 w-space system on the other side, where a clear scan lets me launch probes in relative safety. I bookmark the wormhole's location and, whilst organising my probes in a standard pattern, warp to the centre of the system to check for signs of life. The ship's directional scanner reveals a tower and modules but no ships, although locating the tower shows my glance of the d-scan result to be a little lacking. I check the result again, now floating nearby the first tower and able to discern objects that aren't local, and see a second tower. But there is only one force field on d-scan, which I now look for specifically, and I am sitting outside it, so the other tower must be abandoned.

My scanning finds a gravimetric site first, which I bookmark in case of later opportunities for piracy, before then resolving a wormhole. I have found the static connection, a wormhole leading to a class 1 system. I jump through to the C1 and take the same precautions as always. I check d-scan for signs of life, bookmark the wormhole back, move away from the wormhole to cloak safely, and call up the system map to see if any planets are out of scan range. I find one tower near the wormhole and two more in the inner system with a few silos, but there are no ships in the system. Scanning locates a second wormhole almost on top of the first, an incoming wormhole that is reaching the end of its life, and then a gravimetric site. But there is only one more signature left to resolve, which gets me to an exit to high-sec empire space.

I check the destination system of the wormhole leading to high-sec, exiting to Caldari space where it almost feels like home. The system is only six hops from Jita, the market hub of New Eden, making it time to spend some ISK. I head back in to w-space and to our corporation tower where I swap my Buzzard for a simple shuttle, knowing that I will be leaving it behind in high-sec. I drop the bookmarks to the wormholes in our shared can, in case a colleague turns up whilst I am gone, then head back to known space. Whilst in k-space I turn off my bookmark pane, not needing it for navigating through the stargates clearly visible on the overview from anywhere in the system, and the directional scanner is de-activated too. It feels odd to have an uncluttered view.

The journey to Jita is straightforward and I dock in the busiest station I have ever known, around the fourth moon of the fourth planet. I call up the market interface and start buying my ship in pieces. For once, I have researched recommended fittings, received advice from colleagues, and created simulated fittings to see how the ship will fare. I am still not entirely certain I am ready to pilot such a ship but by this point I know exactly what I am buying. There is only one fitting slot that is fitted ambiguously, needing a certain module to compensate for my slightly lacking skills. I also buy the module that will replace the hack once my skills have caught up.

I assemble the ship and transfer to it from my shuttle. The fittings slot in to place easily and without over-stressing the CPU or power grid. The capacitor is shown to be stable by the fitting service, which is what I expect to see. A detail that I often lack for a new ship is a name, but not this time. I've had one ready for a while. I even remember to buy ammunition for the launchers, so that I am not defenceless when flying back through w-space. I sell the shuttle, taking a lower price than normal, but since the XP-38 came out they're just not in demand. Then I launch my new ship, taking Pengu out on her maiden voyage.

I pilot the Tengu strategic cruiser through high-sec back towards the wormhole I found earlier. The ship has clear Sleeper influences, which isn't surprising considering it was built using technology recovered from w-space, and it is beguiling to watch warping through space. I reach the wormhole, jump back to w-space, and navigate to the corporation tower without any trouble. I imagine the Tengu feels more at home out here than in empire space, just as I do. I park Pengu for now and adjust my skill training queue. Now I need to take a break and have a lie down, after spending half-a-billion ISK.

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

A quiet night scanning and salvaging

I launch scanning probes to see what lies beyond the safety of the tower's shields today. It comes as no surprise to find the ever-present static wormhole and I jump my Buzzard covert operations boat through to begin my exploration proper. I find myself in a system I've visted twice before, the previous time only two weeks ago, a system that remains unoccupied and holds only a few signatures. I am able to resolve the static connection quickly and jump through to a class 5 w-space system.

This C5 is vast. I have to travel 135 AU across the system to confirm that it is unoccupied, but luckily I am able to resolve a static wormhole after only a couple of scanning attempts. Jumping through to the class 1 system brings me to another unoccupied system and a thorough scanning reveals only the one wormhole, leading to low-sec empire space. Today's route is particularly uninspiring and jumping to the low-sec destination system finds me alone there too.

I return to w-space and our home system, where a couple of colleagues have turned up and suggest collapsing the dullhole. That sounds like a good idea to me. I leave them to the operation and take a break to make a sammich.

On my return we have another particularly uninspiring set of connections scanned. Our home system connects to a class 4 system, as usual, which leads to a class 3 system with an exit to null-sec space. The C3 also has a 'blue' corporation occupying it. However, two colleagues are in the C4 in Tech III strategic cruisers popping Sleeper ships, which sounds like fun. I volunteer to salvage behind them, knowing that I have no ship that can reastically contribute to the combat and withstand the Sleeper fire, and because I simply enjoy salvaging.

I launch my salvaging destroyer, a Cormorant named Marxian Principles, but before I get to salvage any loot I am asked to guide in a colleague from the null-sec system. He has made over thirty jumps so he can rejoin us in w-space and I get to visit QPOK-B in the Geminate region as I give him a beacon to reach the wormhole. It is only a quick couple of jumps to get him safely back to our tower, then I return to our neighbouring C4 to start sweeping up Sleeper wrecks.

I settle in for some relaxing fun. I survey the spread and density of wrecks and plot an optimal course between them. Green tendrils lash out from my ship in all directions to tractor the wrecks close enough to loot and salvage. Salvager II modules activate early enough not to waste much time but late enough to ensure that the wrecks are tractored within range for me to loot them before the ten second cycle time finishes. The timing is more important now that I rarely get a failure when salvaging, as leaving loot in a wreck has it jettisoned in to a can when the wreck is salvaged. Having to dedicate a tractor beam to loot the can separately is rather less efficient than focussing on wrecks. But it is perhaps not quite as troublesome as not being able to see where I am going.

The blinding bloom of poor design principles hinders my salvaging a little. The harsh white background makes it difficult to see the wrecks, the tactical overlay almost disappears, and the activation indicator on modules is lost in the brightness. I appreciate that space can be rather bland but some level of contrast would be preferable to the encompassing white cloud present in these common anomalies. Never the less, I finish salvaging the first site and move on to the second, only just vacated by my colleagues in their strategic cruisers.

A third site is cleared of Sleepers by the cruisers and wrecks by my destroyer, and we head home to tot up our profit. It has only been a short evening but each of our wallets gets ninety million ISK fatter. Maybe there is some tangible benefit to owning a strategic cruiser after all, particularly in these quieter times when we struggle to get even a minimal fleet.

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Tags: buzzard, cormorant, eve online, mmorpg, null-sec, penny ibramovic, salvaging, scanning, sleepers, w-space

Avoiding trouble

I have scanned, but not everything. I have a colleague coming out to check the local w-space systems with me, maybe we can find something interesting happening. I engage the warp drive of my Buzzard covert operations boat and head to our home system's static wormhole to continue today's exploration.

The neighbouring class 4 system is empty, as is the C6, but jumping in to the next C4 shows scanning probes visible on the directional scanner. I warp to the wormhole leading to the connecting C4 and spy an Anathema cov-ops moving away and cloaking. My colleague checks the wormhole leading back to the C6 and reports it as clear. The Anathema is cloaked and could be anywhere, so I leave it behind and jump onwards.

I enter the C4 and, on orientating myself, am a little taken aback to find my Buzzard surrounded by a Tengu strategic cruiser, Curse recon ship, and Myrmidon battlecruiser. Surprised, but not panicked. I calmly wait for the session change timer to expire, making sure I hold my cloak, and jump back. Moving away cleanly on the other side there are no flares of activity from the wormhole, so no ships are following me. I loiter for a while at a safe distance monitoring the connection but no ships come through.

It is possible that the Anathema is a scout looking for targets, particularly when I am reminded that the fleet I jumped in to doesn't look like one created for Sleeper combat. With this fleet lurking it isn't safe for us to fight Sleepers, even if we had enough pilots to do so, and the lack of pilots also means we cannot engage the fleet directly. Instead, I look for a peaceful early night and head back to our tower to sleep.

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Tags: anathema, buzzard, curse, eve online, mmorpg, myrmidon, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu

Missing a planet

To scout or to roam, my decision is made when the bookmarks in the can turn out to be old. I'm going nowhere without scanning first. Our static connection is easily found and I jump through to an unoccupied class 4 w-space system. There are signs of capsuleer presence, though, an abandoned tower named 'Do Not Shoot' is anchored around a moon but with no modules or defences. The system is almost as bare, only a few signatures to scan. I soon resolve a connection leading in to deadly w-space, the HAL-like glare of the wormhole daring me to jump.

The class 6 system is unoccupied and there are quite a few signatures to resolve as a result. But what is peculiar is the outer orbital path that doesn't appear to have a planet. The system map shows the ring but for all my looking I cannot see the planet. I hope the system's static wormhole is not to be found near this missing planet or I could be here a while. I start scanning, ignoring gas and rocks as usual, until only three signatures remain unresolved. At this point I pick the weakest of the signals to resolve, hoping to find an awkward wormhole, but get only more rocks. And now I see the outer planet! I wonder if a bug in the system map prevented the planet from showing on its orbital ring previously but examining a screen grab I took shows it was always there. I must be suffering from space blindness.

A wormhole is finally found by a process of elimination. Every other signature in the system is accounted for, so it must be this last one. At least it is indeed a wormhole and I haven't missed anything else as obvious as a planet. I jump through the static connection to a class 4 system. As were the previous two, this system is also unoccupied, making w-space fairly quiet at the moment. The next wormhole on my route is quickly found, a strong signature around an outer planet leads me to another C4 and occupation at last.

There are two towers in this system. The directional scanner also shows a host of giant secure containers, each individually named apparently after capsuleers. This seems like easy intelligence to gather and perhaps a little foolish of the occupants, but then I run in to a warp bubble protecting one of the towers, with all of the GSCs scattered inside it. It's a good trap and I have no idea how I manage to avoid every one of the containers, my Buzzard covert operations boat remaining cloaked. I have to be careful manoeuvring out of the bubble, though, as I am awfully close to a GSC or two. There is even a Proteus strategic cruiser piloted in the tower's shields ready to see if someone decloaks in their trap. A piloted Buzzard also floats in the shields.

I crawl out of the trap and make a more convenient bookmark before finding the second tower, where a Legion strategic cruiser and Drake battlecruiser sit piloted, joined by a Probe frigate. I make a convenient bookmark for this tower too but don't launch probes to scan this system. I have no need to head out to empire space and there are no colleagues around for the moment. Maybe later there will be softer targets to ambush, or more pilots to help attack Sleepers or harder targets. For now, I jump back and head home to take a break.

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Tags: buzzard, drake, eve online, legion, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, probe, proteus, scanning, w-space

Making the datacore run in twelve parsecs

I go out scanning w-space with a colleague. The home system's static wormhole is quickly found and we jump through to empty space, getting a clear return from the directional scanner. But there are two planets out of d-scan range that need to be checked. I bookmark the wormhole and launch scanning probes, knowing from d-scan that nothing obvious will see me do this, and warp away to see if the system is occupied. I locate a tower, neatly defended by absolutely nothing, but no ships. Scanning reveals a wormhole in the system and warping to it finds the wormhole to be a K162, hence inbound from another system.

The wormhole flares! A Cheetah covert operations boat comes through from the class 2 system beyond and warps away. I am not spotted, still sitting cloaked at a relatively safe distance away. I rarely warp directly to a newly scanned wormhole, because its cosmic signature doesn't relate to the precise position of the wormhole and because I may not want to jump through immediately. I want to check the stability and projected lifetime of the wormhole before I jump, as well as the class of the destination system. By warping to a point slightly away from the wormhole I give myself time to call up the information window for the wormhole and make my decisions whilst my ship remains cloaked. I find it to be a wise process.

The wormhole flares again! An Anathema cov-ops boat follows the Cheetah through, cloaking and presumably warping away. I stay where I am, if only because I have yet to find the system's static wormhole. A bit more scanning reveals a second wormhole and, warping to it, shows it is the static connection, leading in to a class 1 system. As I have warped to the static wormhole I jump through to the C1, my colleague heading to the K162 to scout the C2. A lone abandoned tower in the C1 is not as interesting as the on-line tower in the C2 with its Nemesis stealth bomber and Devoter heavy interdictor floating inside the shields. But we both find an exit to high-sec empire space in the systems we're exploring. The exit in the C2 is reaching the end of its life, but the one I find in the C1 is looking to be in vigorous spirit.

Checking the destination of the high-sec exit shows it to be close to an old R&D agent of mine, from days when I was an industrialist looking to invent Tech II modules. I never actually sacked the four agents working for me and they have been churning out results ever since. I think it's time for a datacore run. I return to our tower and swap my Buzzard cov-ops boat for my Crane transport ship, load up with blue loot and salvage—or 'bloovage'—and head out to high-sec.

I have some low-sec routes to cover but my Crane is more than capable of keeping me safe. So used am I to w-space that using auto-pilot no longer seems like the best option anyway. As warping point-to-point is necessary between wormholes applying it to stargates is only natural. Reaching my first R&D agent takes little time and, after ignoring a request for help, collect amlost four hundred mechanical engineering datacores. That seems like quite a lot. I am also able to find a station that is willing to buy the bloot at market prices and I plump up the corporation wallet nicely.

I'm not sure of the best order to visit the agents and simply pick the current shortest route. I hope I don't double-back much. There were only seven hops to the first agent, now fourteen to reach the second. After picking up almost two hundred more mechanical engineering datacores I have another fifteen hops to get to the third agent. This third leg is almost all through low-sec but I find this just makes for a satisfyingly quiet local channel. I am able to get a bundle of Caldari starship engineering datacores and then head for my old home, where I was lucky enough to have my fourth agent in the same system as my manufacturing base.

Collecting almost two hundred electrical engineering datacores from my fourth R&D agent completes my run. Now I need to work out what to do with the datacores. Well, I already know that I planned to sell them but now that I have so many it almost makes me want to put them to their original use and put some blueprints in to the laboratory for invention. But I won't get sentimental about my old life in production, grabbing the other datacores I have in storage and putting my entire collection up for sale. There is little point in having all these datacores and getting no benefit from them. I also may have neglected to tell all my agents on this visit that I am now based permanently in w-space, so they will continue to produce more datacores.

I have collected datacores, sold our Sleeper loot, and covered more empire space in one night than in the past six months. It is almost time to go home. Whilst I am visiting empire space I take advantage of the academies and spend a hundred million ISK on some skill books. With any luck, this financial commitment will encourage me to also commit my time to train for my next rather pretty ship. Only time will tell. But I know I need a plan or my training will flit from skill to skill, improving my capabilities but in an unfocussed fashion. With the skill books safely transferred in to my hold I travel back to the wormhole leading in to the C1 and from there the corporation tower, where I rest for the night.

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Tags: anathema, buzzard, cheetah, crane, devoter, eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, nemesis, penny ibramovic, w-space

Collapsing a wormhole as a trap

Only two bookmarks greet me when I look inside our shared canister. Both bookmarks point to wormholes, both in our system. We have our usual static connection heading out to a class 4 w-space system and an incoming wormhole, also from a class 4 system. There are no other wormholes in the system connecting in to our own and no real activity, so I go to help our scan man who is scanning the unoccupied C4 beyond our static wormhole. As we resolve the signature for a wormhole an Anathema jumps through from our system and warps off. The pilot is from the system connecting to our own.

On seeing the covert operations boat head away from his home my thoughts naturally turn to snaring him and popping his ship. Maybe there is something wrong with me. I go back to our tower and swap my Buzzard cov-ops for the Malediction interceptor. My colleagues have a parallel plan to collapse the incoming wormhole to leave us in relative peace, which should also irritate the Anathema pilot one way or another. One of our pilots prepares the Orca industrial command ship, its mass best-suited to destabilise the wormhole, and all other pilots available board combat ships to protect the Orca.

Despite wanting to see if we can catch the Anathema the first task for our fleet is to ensure our Orca returns home safely after its first pair of jumps. We sit our ships on the K162 of the inbound wormhole, in our system, ready to assault any capsuleer seeing the Orca and looking for an easy target. It looks like someone indeed sees the Orca jump but they don't move to attack, instead recalling the Anathema pilot from wherever he went. We still have eyes in our neighbouring class 4 system and the Anathema scout is seen heading back our way.

The fleet moves to our system's static wormhole. The Onyx heavy interdictor inflates its warp bubble and I get my interceptor's systems hot. Without warning the Anathema appears on my overview. Not having heard or seen the wormhole flare I am not as keenly ready as usual and, although I don't expect to lock the ship as it cloaks, my attempt to intercept and decloak the ship fails. I am told he has jumped back through the wormhole, which seems possible but unlikely. I imagine the capsuleer is more keen to get back home, through a wormhole currently being collapsed, than risk polarising his hull. Never the less, we continue to loiter on the wormhole, waiting.

The Anathema returns, but at over a hundred kilometres from the wormhole. He must have stayed in the system, cloaked and crawled away from the Onyx's warp bubble. I was too slow again. But now I fire up my engines, almost taunted by the Anathema's distance, and speed to try to intercept. Needless to say, the cov-ops boat warps away easily enough, even though I race towards him at 5 km/s. The Anathema is spotted jumping through the inbound wormhole, making it home. Now we concentrate on collapsing the wormhole, returning the fleet to the K162 to protect the Orca.

We have a little trouble pushing the wormhole to be critically unstable, but a couple of trips with battleships finally destabilises the wormhole enough. The Orca then makes its last jump home, the wormhole imploding as it does. Our system is once again more predictable as a dead end and we take the opportunity to cull some Sleepers from adjacent systems. We have our neighbouring C4 system and another C4 connecting to that, both with a few anomalies to plunder.

The Sleeper combat starts in the farther of the two C4 systems with a standard fleet, along with a salvaging Myrmidon battlecruiser. Three anomalies are cleared with only minor panicking from the Raven battleship pilot, as Sleeper battleship damage carves deeply in to his armour, but the Guardian logistic ships repair the damage soon enough. The Maelstrom with us isn't quite as lucky, suffering 1% structure damage as four Sleeper battleships punch through its armour, but a combination of heavy repairs and the Scorpion battleship's ECM being overheated for extra jamming power gets us through the scrape. Five anomalies are cleared, looted, and salvaged by the end of the evening, and my wallet is a healthy hundred million ISK fatter as I prepare to sleep.

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Tags: anathema, buzzard, eve online, guardian, maelstrom, malediction, mmorpg, myrmidon, onyx, orca, penny ibramovic, raven, scanning, scorpion, sleepers, w-space