Negotiating with a miner

'I'm looking at a Covetor mining.' What beautiful words. They make me want to jump in my Onyx heavy interdictor and blow the crap out of the mining barge and pod the pilot. But I am getting ahead of myself and have to store the HIC and pilot my Buzzard covert operations boat. Our scan man has found the miner, and the gravimetric site he's in, but doesn't want to jump out of the system and possibly alert the other capsuleer, and he is the only one with a bookmark to the system. Luckily, all but the final wormhole in to the miner's system has been bookmarked and copied to our shared can, I only need to find the connection to the class 3 w-space system before we can spoil someone's evening.

I warp to and jump through our static wormhole, pass directly through the class 4 system to jump through its static wormhole to a class 2 system, and launch probes to begin scanning. I check my directional scanner as I travel and note occupancy in both systems, but don't dally to find the towers. Scanning is quick, as scan man gives me the signature reference of the wormhole I am looking for, letting me pluck the right signature first time from the many return signals an initial scan receives. This is why noting the signature reference in w-space bookmarks is advised. I resolve the signature, warp to the wormhole to bookmark it directly, then rapidly return home to swap ships.

I am back in my Onyx, a colleague is in his Arazu recon ship, and our scan man is in his combat Cheetah cov-ops. We probably have enough firepower to kill a defenceless miner. Then again, a Drake battlecruiser has also been spotted at the miner's corporation tower in the C3 system, as well as a Buzzard whose pilot could swap in to a combat ship. The other capsuleers may be lured in to giving us a proper engagement. First we must catch the Covetor. Our small fleet pilots its way to the wormhole leading in to the class 3 system, but our scout can only report that we may have missed our opportunity. The Covetor was not jet-canning his ore—jettisoning each full ship's hold of mined ore for a hauler to collect in a more convenient load—instead warping back to his tower to drop off each cycle's small worth of ore. The mining barge was dropping off its current load as we started making our way to the wormhole and now he's just sitting idly in the tower. Maybe he's finished.

We wait anyway, not wanting to give up. And, after a long pause, the Covetor moves. It twists inside the tower's shields and the mining barge's warp drive engages, hurtling the ship back to the gravimetric site. We are ready. The Arazu has jumped in to the system and cloaked quietly, guided to the gravimetric site by our scout. I am sitting on the wormhole, waiting. Slowly, the Arazu creeps closer to the mining barge, then decloaks, locks the target, and disrupts its warp engine. The Covetor is going nowhere, I am jumping through the wormhole and warping to the Arazu's position. On arrival I activate my warp bubble and lock the Covetor, moving directly to his position. Negotiations begin with a few warning shots.

We have agreed to try to ransom the capsuleer's pod. The miner, on the other hand, doesn't want to talk to us, refusing an invitation to chat. He's not trying to move, though, and my bubble is keeping him from warping away. We keep his Covetor intact for a bit longer as another colleague turns up at our tower and wants to join in on the piracy, having to travel to our position first. Once our colleague arrives in his Myrmidon battlecruiser we show the miner we are serious, quickly popping his Covetor and trapping his naked pod. Now he is willing to talk.

Our best diplomat starts discussing iskies with the miner, negotiating payment for the release of the pod. He rejects our initial offer and is perhaps stalling for time, but we don't mind waiting, as a combat ship or two turning up will make our evening more interesting. But it looks like our show of force is too much too early, the lone Drake we saw earlier unwilling to engage three PvP ships. In the end we are left with a dilemma. The capsuleer agrees to a ransom but will pay half now and half when he's safely back at the tower. We have no way to enforce the second half of the payment and no real means of retribution if he doesn't. On the other hand, the capsuleer has no guarantee that we'll release his pod once he pays. Piracy is a tricky business.

Everyone agrees to the terms of the ransom. Half of the ISK is paid to us and we release the pod from our clutches, letting it warp safely back to its tower. Once the pilot is safe we are paid the second half. I am glad the ransom worked this time, although I don't really like the precedent. Then again, the first time a capsuleer breaks such an agreement may well be the last time we accept one, other capsuleers finding themselves waking up in a clone if they aren't willing to bow to the terms of our piracy. That's the way it should be.

The ransom is split and we clear the system cleanly and safely, returning home without incident. The two intermediate systems remain quiet and I take the opportunity to get an early night, satisifed with my evening's adventure.

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Tags: arazu, buzzard, cheetah, covetor, drake, eve online, mmorpg, myrmidon, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space

Sleepers reject salvation

The Sleepers are in trouble. Back at the tower, lacking a full fleet, a couple of colleagues are preparing to take their strategic cruisers out to some anomalies in our neighbouring C4. I volunteer to salvage and am encouraged to provide more support by taking my Damnation command ship refitted as a salvager, or the 'Salvation'. The Salvation can provide shield and armour warfare links to boost the effectiveness of the Tengu and Proteus strategic cruisers, and I can do this outside of the combat anomaly, letting me stay out of immediate danger. It sounds like a good plan and we fly out and jump to our neighbouring system.

I lurk around the wormhole, warfare links active, as my colleagues engage the Sleepers, but after a while I am invited to join the fun. I can add a couple of launchers' worth of DPS to the fight whilst clearing up the wrecks with my salvager II modules. Sleepers really don't like my Salvation. I get a lot of attention quickly and, without any local or remote armour repairs, find my ship rapidly being blown apart. I start to warp out to save myself but am delayed a little longer than I find comfortable as the Sleeper frigates remove their webs from me one by one, each incremental change of my maximum velocity delaying my entrance to warp a little longer. At least there are no Sleepers tackling me and I am able to return to lurk on the wormhole, with an unhealthy 17% armour remaining.

I return home to swap the Damnation for a dedicated salvaging ship. I don't relish the idea of being ambushed in my most beautiful ship when it is in a poor state of repair. The strategic cruisers are able to clear the site of Sleepers without me and I warp in only when it is time to salvage and loot the wrecks. This is my first opportunity to use my new Cormorant destroyer fitted with Tech II salvager modules and what a joy it is! Salvaging has never been smoother, even if the wrecks are scattered over a couple of hundred kilometres.

My colleagues head off to pick a fight with Sleepers in another anomaly. They suggest that maybe my Drake battlecruiser's notorious passive tank could withstand more of the Sleeper onslaught whilst adding to the overall damage output. I am uncertain of the ship's survivability in a class 4 anomaly when relying only on its own shield buffer, if only because I've already shown the Drake has to warp out of a class 1 anomaly occasionally. I am willing to give it a go, though, and spend a few minutes warping in and out of the anomaly to alternately throw missiles at Sleepers and recharge my shields.

It is curious to see that we have trouble breaking a Sleeper battleship's tank, with remote repair coming from other Sleeper ships, but when my Drake warps out to recharge its ailing shields the two strategic cruisers by themselves are able to destroy the battleship. The apparently changing level of logistics the Sleepers deploy, depending on the number of attackers present, suggests that Sleeper combat is rather more dynamic than we have suspected so far.

I stay out of the second anomaly until the battleships are gone, warping back to enjoy crushing the remaining Sleeper cruisers. After the site is clear I swap back to my destroyer and sweep through the wrecks looting and salvaging. My combat ships may not be adequate for unsupported C4 anomalies, and I may well need to slip myself in to a strategic cruiser too, but I am always ready to help with salvaging. All the loot is safely recovered and returned to our tower, and I get almost seventy million ISK as my share of the profits. Now I sleep, my pillow stuffed with comfortable iskies.

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Tags: cormorant, damnation, drake, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, sleepers, tengu, w-space

Scanning local w-space

It's back to scanning for me. There are no bookmarks available in our shared can, which means I need to get in my Buzzard covert operations boat to find the current w-space connections. Scanning resolves our new static wormhole and jumping through gives an unlikely occasion, as I am in the same class 4 system that connected directly to us yesterday too. At least my intelligence about the system is current.

Starting my scan, I am able to find the system's static wormhole on my first choice of signature and, just like yesterday, it leads to another C4. I have previously visited this next system along our route too, a couple of months ago, and it remains unoccupied. But there is also a lack of anomalies, although plenty of signatures dot the system, which is curious. I chase a likely looking signature half-way across the system before resolving it to be a wormhole leading to a C5 system.

The class 5 w-space system is unoccupied and contains plenty of anomalies and signatures, but I am only interested in wormholes for now. I find two quickly, the first wormhole coming in from another C5, the other leading out to null-sec k-space. I pop out to null-sec, landing in the RF-CN3 system in the Querious region, which is actually quite close to civilisation. The system is a dead-end but only five jumps from low-sec, and one more would take a pilot to high-sec.

I don't explore the route to high-sec but simply head back to w-space, then jump through the K162 to the second C5. Taking a look around, there is a tower in this C5 but it is off-line, making it likely that I'll find another K162 in this system. Indeed, scanning reveals a wormhole leading in to this class 5 system, but only from null-sec k-space again. I jump through to visit REB-KR in Immensea, and a couple of adjacent systems for exploration points, before heading home. It looks like I have a complete map of local w-space for now.

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

Rat in mi kitchen

My kitchen cupboard doesn't smell right. It smells of rodents. A bit of a tidy up finds evidence¹ of a mouse having been in the cupboard. My Sherlockian mind then realises that the holes in the bag of kitty food were probably not there when I bought it but gnaw marks made later. It seems that one of Panda cat's catches got away from her and has made itself home in my kitchen. It even found a food source, ironically enough in the cat food.

I clean the cupboard and move the cat food to the breakfast bar, where I note I've never eaten breakfast and am using it as a general storage area. I doubt a mouse could get up there, though. Without a food supply the little fellow will be forced to come out of the cupboard to forage, where surely one of my cats' instincts will kick-in and catch the bugger properly this time. Not wanting to go to the hassle of dismantling my kitchen to flush out the rodent, I consider my job done for now.

One weekend morning, I am putting groceries away when I hear a rustle. I turn and see the bag of cat food move a little, still perched on the breakfast bar. I've been serving cat food to cats for a good number of years, I am fairly certain it doesn't move. I'm not entirely sure what I expect to find² and tentatively go to look at what is now apparently inside the bag of cat food. My loyal Kenickie is standing nearby so I am confident that if I am attacked I will be defended. I cautiously open the cat food, noting the presence of a new hole gnawed in to it, and find cat biscuits. But I know I saw the bag move.

I start clearing a few items from the breakfast bar, but there is no obvious sign of rodents. I then notice that the cover of my sewing machine is lifted slightly at one corner, so I lift if off completely. I turn the machine a little and there's a sudden dash of scratching claws as something big, brown and furry leaps from the surface on to the kitchen floor! I have to admit to being somewhat startled, partly by its size and partly by brave Kenickie fleeing from the kitchen at full pelt. I nearly did too, but it's not my job to catch mice. Or a rat.

There's a rat in mi kitchen, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna fix that rat, that's what I'm gonna do. Kenickie doesn't have the killer instinct and won't hunt it actively, unless I manage to stuff the rat full of catnip, and Panda apparently prefers more of a safari than a cage-fight. I have little option but to borrow a couple of mousetraps. I am shown how to set them and how sensitive they are and I bring them home to try to catch the rat. It means killing the rodent but it seems the most convenient way.

I cautiously arm both traps, one with a chocolate button as bait and the other with a peanut, and place them in the cupboard where the rat's presence was first noticed. I place the bag of kitty food back in the cupboard, hoping to tempt the rat to forage for snacks again. Now I wait. It doesn't take more than a couple of hours before a harsh snap is heard from the cupboard. I tentatively open the door, hoping the sight beyond isn't too gruesome, to see the more sensitive trap decided the cholocate button was its target. A false alarm. I'm not risking putting my fingers near that bone-breaker again and leave just the single trap in the cupboard.

More hours pass, then days. The other trap isn't triggered and there are few signs of the rat in the cupboard. In fact, it looks like he is coming out to feed directly from the cats' food bowl, but I can't put a trap in the open where the cats could get to it. I may have a new accidental pet.

The weekend comes again and Panda is helping me feed her by meowing, but moving out of the kitchen gets her interested in something else. I know that look, she senses prey. Panda sniffs and prowls around my little practice amplifier, once used for awkward attempts at playing the guitar and now hooked up to my electronic drum kit. 'Have you found it?' I ask her, cautiously tilting the amp so that I can see inside the back. Yikes! Yes, you have.

Naturally, my first instinct is to take photos of the rat for evidence, because I know the rules of the internet. Luckily, it is gracious enough to stay in the amp until I have a couple of shots, although I suppose the threat of Panda cat helps keep it there. The amp also acts as a carrier for me to take it outside to release it back in to its natural habitat of not-my-home. But the rat quite likes being indoors and having access to all the cat food it can eat, and makes a break from the amp as I carry it out. It scutters out of the amp and on to my hand before thankfully jumping back in to the amp. I am able to carry the amp outside and dump the rat on the pavement, where it scurries off at an impressive speed.

That was a big fellow. I'm not entirely convinced that Panda brought it in, the rat may have just decided to come through the cat flap. But hopefully now it will be happy to be outside again. And, perhaps upset that Panda missed the kill by my interference, I come home later to find a dead bird next to the food bowl, it's head crushed to a bloody pulp. This kill is a little quicker and easier to clean up.

1. Poo.
Return to post.
2. Okay, obviously I am expecting to find a mouse.
Return to post.

Posted in Personal | 5 Comments »
Tags: kenickie, kitty, panda

Chasing frigates

There is some activity on my way home. I am returning from my scanning exploration that led me to an exit from w-space to low-sec space when I note a change of ships in the class 4 system along my route. The pilot of the Iteron Mark III is now sitting in an Imicus frigate and floating near a can labelled 'BMs d'ici'. It's in French. With nothing better to I quickly warp to our home system and swap from my Buzzard covert operations scanning boat to my Manticore stealth bomber, returning to the C4 see what the Imicus is doing. He's gone.

There are no probes in the system and, moving another system along, none in the class 3 system either. Believing I have today's w-space connections completely mapped out I warp to the exit to low-sec empire space and set up camp, waiting for the Imicus to appear. There is a lot of waiting some days, and I wait, wait, wait. Probes appear on one of my cursory checks of the directional scanner and I get more interested in space again, putting aside the reading material on my secondary computer system for now. I adjust the range of d-scan to see how many probes are close to the wormhole I am sitting on. Four probes are within 2 AU. Now they are within 1 AU. Gone. I get ready in case a ship warps in.

A Probe frigate appears on d-scan, no doubt having recalled his scanning probes, and he predictably enough warps to the wormhole. I already positioned my Manticore within jump range of the wormhole but outside of any likely approach vector, so I won't be decloaked. I also don't engage the Probe, instead letting him jump through the wormhole to the low-sec system. My assumption is that he has no desire to travel through low-sec and is only interested in noting the wormhole's destination. When he comes back his ship will be polarised, leaving him no option to jump to flee my attack and I will have a better chance to destroy his ship.

The wormhole flares shortly after the Probe first jumps, approximately the time it takes for the session change timer to expire. I get my weapon and disruption systems hot and prepare to lock the Probe. The other ship decloaks and I quickly do the same. But my timing is slightly off! In my excitement I pre-empt the second it takes for the cloaking device to de-activate and my systems fail to lock on to the target. By the time I have corrected my error I am fumbling to re-engage my offensive systems, giving the agile Probe frigate time to warp away unharmed. I re-activate my cloak and then kick myself for letting a polarised and surprised target get away because of my error. But I don't sit still.

I check the tower in my current system and the Probe isn't there. And there are scanning probes still in the system. I warp to the connection to the C4 and jump through, positioning myself on the wormhole to try to catch the ship again. I wait a little more and am rewarded as wormhole flares! All my systems are hot when the same Probe decloaks after jumping. I time my own decloaking perfectly and... the Probe warps away before my ship can lock. I don't think I could have timed my ambush better, so it seems that my Manticore cannot lock the Probe before it gets in to warp. At least I can no longer blame myself for missing him the first time.

The Probe is now at the tower in this class 4 system. I head home to rest. But on the way back I note more scanning probes visible in the next system across, our neighbouring C4 system. A Manticore may not be able to lock a frigate but if any ship can it will be my interceptor. I swap to my Malediction and sit on the home side of our static wormhole. Again my patience is rewarded with a flare signaling a ship's entrance to the system. My Malediction is not cloaked, removing any decloaking issues as well as the element of surprise. Well, it still comes as a surprise to the Imicus pilot, seen earlier, who doesn't expect to be greeted by an interceptor.

The Imicus decloaks and heads for the wormhole, my Malediction's weapon systems successfully locking on to the frigate and launching an initial volley of rockets before the ship can jump back. I quickly follow, my own ship still within range of the wormhole. I try to shed my session-change cloak as soon as I can and make my systems hot, but I am a little clumsy and the Imicus warps away. I probably could have caught him but I am satisfied in merely scaring the crap out of the capsuleer and successfully chasing him away. I loiter on the wormhole for a while, in case the Imicus pilot is foolish enough to return, and reducing any polarisation issues I may have, before jumping home and returning to the tower to rest for the night.

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

Scanning from w-space to low-sec

There are bookmarks waiting in the can again. I copy them to my nav-comp and go out exploring what has already been found. My retracing of steps is surprisingly quick, because the incoming connection from a class 2 w-space system is now at the end of its natural lifetime, encouraging me not to jump through it, and the class 4 system beyond our static wormhole hasn't been scanned yet. I consider the possibility that the system's static connection is left undiscovered for potential undisturbed Sleeper engagements at some point, but it is a reasonable hour and there is still no one around. I launch probes in the C4 and begin exploring anew.

Our neighbouring system is unoccupied, just as it was a month ago when I last found myself here. I resolve the inevitable rock and gas mining sites out of the signatures present in the system, and second-guessing which signature is likely to be a wormhole has me finding it last of all. But I find it and it's a static connection to another class 4 system. Jumping through the wormhole shows an unusual presence on the overview, that of a territorial claim unit. These units are used in null-sec space to claim sovereignty, I believe, but are useless out in w-space. At least, they cannot claim system sovereignty, but they can be effective lures.

The TCU makes me think I have visited this system before but my notes show otherwise. And rather than warp directly to the TCU I instead locate the moon it is presumably anchored around and warp to that moon instead, recalling that the previous system with a TCU had it set as a trap. Indeed, this TCU is also installed to trap unwary capsuleers, with the unit encapsulated by a warp bubble. But it is a poor trap, as there is no tower or any other presence nearby to witness anyone caught by the bubble. Maybe the bubbled TCU is merely meant as an irritation or a distraction, but it seems like a lot of effort to go to for no benefit.

Leaving the TCU behind lets me locate the tower in the system. Eleven ships float inside the shields of the tower, only an Iteron Mark III piloted. As I scan the system I bookmark a couple of gravimetric sites, in case this chap will be mining and hauling ore at some point, before warping to see the static wormhole leads to a class 3 system. There are no more signatures to find and I jump through to the C3. I soon find the lone tower in this C3, with lots of bubbles around it but no ships, and no activity in the system. I ignore the wealth of gas in the system and one site of rocks, finding the static low-sec exit to empire space as the final signature. And that's the route for today with no more wormholes to find.

I check the low-sec system to see lots of pilots in the local channel but nothing of interest apparently occurring in space. I see what looks like a couple of carriers somewhere in the system, but the lack of wrecks and presence of towers makes me think the ships are unpiloted. I jump back to the comfort of w-space and start heading home.

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Tags: eve online, iteron, low-sec, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Dots, loops, and spheres

There are some bookmarks dropped in the can, begging me to take them and go roaming in my stealth bomber. I launch the Manticore, ensure I have a suitable configuration loaded to pick on the weak and defenceless, and head out. A call went out earlier to try to irritate the pilot of a carrier by bombing his fighters and although the opportunity appears to be gone I am keen to see what other ships may be around. Going through the K162 wormhole to an incoming class 3 w-space system seems like a good start.

My goodness, this system is vast. The wormhole I jump through is on the outskirts of the system and is 125 AU from the star. Warping the 175 AU across the system, even in a covert operations boat at a speedy 13·5 AU/s, must be what it feels like to warp in normal systems in an Orca. I finally am able to find four towers lurking around one planet in the system but there is no activity. There are two wormholes in this system, one to a different class 4 system than our own and the other incoming from a class 5 system. I check the class 4 system first.

The C4 appears unscanned. I take care to bookmark this side of the wormhole before warping off but find no occupancy and no activity. As I am in my stealth bomber I have no probe launcher fitted and my only option is to jump back to the C3, moving on from there to the incoming C5. The C5 is much the same as the C4, unscanned, unoccupied, and inactive. I jump back to the C3, spend a month warping to the wormhole I first came through, and return home. There is still the home system's static wormhole to check. Jumping through gets the same result of an otherwise unscanned system. It looks like my stealth bomber is the wrong ship to pilot at the moment.

Learning that our scan man is one system ahead through our neighbouring C4 system I take a break to get a snack, in case my sugar levels fall dangerously low. Once I am full of sweet goodness again I swap ships to my Buzzard and go back through the incoming wormhole from the C3 and scan in a different direction, splitting our efforts and extending our exploration. With three wormholes, and maybe also an exit to empire space that I've ignored so far from a lack of interest, it seems safe to assume that this system has been thoroughly scanned. I jump through to the connecting C4 to begin scanning a fresh system.

I already know the C4 is unoccupied, making it relatively safe to launch probes at the wormhole once a quick check of the directional scanner is performed. There are only a few signatures to resolve, and some anomalies that can be ignored, although I only find the static connection when it is the final signature. The wormhole leads to another C4, and I jump through to another unoccupied system ready to be scanned. And I think I finally understand the new scanning interface's seemingly arbitrary selection of signatures that it highlights on each scan.

Since Tyrannis deployed, the scanning interface highlights multiple signatures after each scan, but the signatures selected in this way don't seem to follow a pattern at first. However, it looks like any signature that resolves to a single point or a ring is highlighted and those that are too fuzzy and can only be displayed as a general sphere are not. I imagine this change is meant to highlight the more determinate signatures on each scan result. Understanding this change certainly helps recognise and interpret the scan results more quickly, but only once the apparently arbitrary nature of the selection is realised. Deducing the new behaviour should now make my scanning more effective.

Back to scanning, it is nice to find a wormhole in this C4 on my first pick. It makes me feel competent. Again, I am led to another static C4 connection. Jumping through finds occupancy this time and I wait to launch probes until I have found both towers in the system. A Megathron battleship is unpiloted at one tower and a Covetor mining barge and Imicus frigate are piloted at the second. I quite like the idea of the Covetor getting ready to go mining and I quickly try to scan for any suitable gravimetric sites whilst he's idling. Instead of mining sites I find two wormholes almost on top of each other, making me reflect on all the times I have scanned for wormholes and only found rocks. But more wormholes are good too.

One wormhole comes in from a class 2 w-space system, the other is a static connection to a C3. There are no gravimetric mining sites in this C4 so I jump through to the C2 to explore some more. An initial d-scan reading reveals three towers in this class 2 system and a few ships, but there are no drones, cans, or wrecks, and I am getting a little far from home to be effective so don't look any further. I go back to the C4 and through to the C3, finding a single tower and half-a-dozen ships. I go looking for this tower and although I find two pilots in the shields I also see nothing much happening and leave the system the way I came.

I check on the Imicus and Covetor in the C4 but they are still exactly as I left them earlier. I have a string of jumps through unoccupied systems and then a long warp across the C3 before I am home again. It is another night of lots of connected systems but little activity. It is interesting to explore all these systems and be nosy towards other corporations, but finding such long chains of connected systems takes enough time that it is not possible to fully explore the systems and also act on the intelligence gathered. I wasn't even able to find the end of the route tonight, even looking in only one of the two directions afforded us. But it was another interesting evening of exploration and that is often enough to keep me entertained.

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Tags: buzzard, covetor, eve online, imicus, manticore, megathron, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Too many ships and a flaming Rook

Skill training progresses. I don't really have a training plan to speak of, and although I have tentative ideas of which ships I'd like to pilot I'm not entirely convinced of their overall utility in w-space operations. However, there are plenty of support and secondary skills that are increasing my effectiveness in current ships and offering opportunities to fly different ships already present in the corporation hangar. Training in ECM opens up the possibility of taking a Scorpion battleship or Rook recon ship in to Sleeper combat, whilst improving my target painting is useful for ambushes in my Manticore stealth bomber. Incremental steps are being taking in other attacking and defensive skills, but maybe now I should focus on being able to fit Tech II weapons.

As for our local area of space, there are three bookmarks waiting in the shared can. Once I have stopped procrastinating about which skill to learn next I copy the bookmarks to my nav-comp and warp out to see what wonders await today. The static wormhole is active and healthy, leading me in to a class 4 w-space system I last visited five months ago. My notes indicate the system was unoccupied then and it remains so now. The remaining bookmark, after our static wormhole's matched pair, connects to a class 5 system from this one. I jump through to see a single drone on the directional scanner and nothing else of interest.

Our corporation's expert scan man is ahead of me in the next system along, a C3. I don't want to interrupt his concentration or efforts so don't ask him to come and get me, instead launching probes to begin to scan. Finding the static connection to the C3 should be straightforward anyway. There are not many signatures in this C5 and picking the weakest signature to resolve first finds me the wormhole, which I jump through to join the scan man. He is now heading home but has found the next wormhole along our route and guides me to it directly without needing to scan. I bookmark the wormhole, confirm that this C3 is occupied and find the tower, then jump through to another class 5 system.

The C5 is unoccupied and inactive. I soon find the static connection, again leading to a C5, and jump through to another unoccupied C5 system. It seems we have quite a few systems to explore but not much to find. At least, not until I find the next wormhole along the route. I jump through to another C5 system and habitually get my d-scan return to get a measure of occupation and possible threats, boggling as I scroll down the billion ships that are revealed. To paraphrase a wise pilot I encountered recently, haven't they heard of a ship maintenance array?

Sifting through the d-scan result—after taking care to move away from the wormhole and engage my cloak—I find the system holds four towers along with these ships, and that there are no wrecks to accompany the wealth of ships seen. I start to refine my d-scan searches to locate the towers. Warping to the first tower shows me carriers, dreadnoughts, strategic cruisers, exhumers, and any other ship you can imagine short of a titan. There are maybe six ships piloted, but it is difficult to tell. I estimate there are one hundred and eighty ships on my overview, all inside the shields of the tower. I try to grab an image of this wonder but my system only captures a dark blur, which I only find out later, much to my disappointment. It was a good image.

The second tower I find is quiet, with no ships around. The third tower has maybe a dozen ships and the fourth holds about fifty more ships, both towers with a couple of pilots visible. Limiting my angle and range with d-scan finds a few ships elsewhere in the system but I can't pin them down and, with the type of ships and lack of wrecks, I assume they are monitoring a wormhole. I am not going to scan this system to find any more wormholes, mostly because I am half-a-dozen systems from home already. But scanning in this system doesn't really feel threatening to me. There may be two hundred and fifty ships or so floating around making d-scan almost useless but it works for intruders as much as it works for the occupiers. They cannot see probes any more quickly than someone outside of their corporation.

I head home. There is still time for some Sleeper combat to make some profit in the evening. Our system is sufficiently distant from any activity that we are unlikely to be ambushed. We fly a standard corporation fleet along with a Myrmidon battlecruiser as a combat salvager. There is a little consternation when our Rook's ECM cycles fail to jam the Sleeper battleships that, when combined with a slightly casual approach to effecting repairs, pushes the recon ship to taking structural damage. We pull it back out of immediate danger, even if the Rook looks quite pretty with flames coming out of it, and are able to clear the anomaly and a second without any further trouble. At the end of the evening we return home fifty million ISK wealthier, which lets me rest easily.

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

Swooping around a wall of bubbles

Our wormhole is dying. But that's okay, we'll just get a new one. Each static wormhole in our system lasts for about sixteen hours and, with good intelligence on when the last one was opened, I warp out to the connection to watch it collapse. Before the wormhole dies I launch probes and scan the system, ignoring all of the returned results. Then I wait. After a while the wormhole dies with little ceremony, leaving me staring at empty space. I reactivate my scanning probes to find the new static connection. I warp to it, bookmark it, and jump through the wormhole to our new neighbouring class 4 w-space system.

The directional scanner is clear of activity so I launch probes. Bookmarking the wormhole home lets me warp away to check the two planets out of d-scan range of the wormhole, where I find a tower but no ships. The system's static connection is easy to resolve, with only strong signals and a single radar site, and I jump through to a C3. D-scan shows me two towers in the system, as well as a Zephyr exploration ship and some probes. I locate one tower, empty of ships, then the other, which holds the piloted and probably scanning Zephyr in its shields and has an impressive array of warp bubbles floating nearby. The bubbles are no doubt aligned to delay capsuleers gaining access to the tower, but it will only work when warping from the centre of the system, which I didn't do. Regardless, I make a more convenient bookmark to avoid the bubbles entirely.

I check the solar system map and find that I cannot launch probes out of d-scan range of the Zephyr, all celestial bodies being within 14 AU of the tower. It's not really a problem, as my probes will be visible on d-scan soon enough. I warp away from the tower, launch probes, and begin to scan, returning to the tower to monitor the Zephyr as well. I discard a few gas and rock mining results, and just as I am close to resolving a new wormhole the Zephyr warps off. I know that these prototype ships cannot cloak and, as I have weapons on my Buzzard covert operations boat, I wonder if I can catch it examining a wormhole. In a bid to catch it I assume that the Zephyr has found the wormhole I came through and initiate warp to the K162, but dropping out of warp finds no ships. A second after I enter warp my current scan finishes and I have a solid return on the new wormhole, so I warp to that after seeing nothing at the K162. But if the Zephyr was at this new wormhole it has come and gone. I find it back at the tower.

Now core probes are visible on d-scan, different to the combat probes I assumed the Zephyr was using. I assume again that it is the Zephyr scanning but another Buzzard appears on d-scan briefly. Warping to the wormholes doesn't find the Buzzard and the Zephyr remains inactive. I head home for a break.

On my return I learn that our scan man has been more thorough than me. He has found two more wormholes in the class 3 system that both lead to class 2 systems, although there doesn't appear to be anyone to stalk. I head out anyway to explore and record these new systems, as there is currently no corporation fleet looking to engage Sleepers. The Zephyr in the C3 appears to be bouncing around the system again, joined by a Magnate, but I doubt I'll find them haphazardly and jump through to one of the C2 systems. The first is unoccupied and inactive but has a connection to a C1 bookmarked. I jump through to find some probes on scan and an inactive tower abandoned around a moon. I launch my own probes to locate the system's static connection, an exit to low-sec k-space.

I make one jump back to the C2 and poke my ship through the incoming connection to a C4. My notes suggest this system is unoccupied but it seems that a corporation has moved in within the last ten weeks, and even brought a Chimera carrier with them. There is no activity in the system, though, so I head back to the C3 and onwards through the other C2 connection. The other class 2 w-space system also has a tower, with four piloted ships inside its shields. Then a fifth, as a Sigil industrial ship returns from somewhere. I get a general idea of its vector and scan to find the wormhole it used, an exit to high-sec empire space. There is no activity now and laying a successful ambush on a high-sec wormhole is challenging, so I head back to the C3.

The corporation in the class 3 system looks to be waking up. A Hurricane battlecruiser and Wolf assault ship are sitting piloted in the shields. I wonder if they are likely to start tackling Sleepers in anomalies and quickly return home to swap my Buzzard for a Manticore stealth bomber. I return to stalk their tower to see a Magnate scanning frigate return, further suggesting the capsuleers are soon to leave for combat, either locally or in one of the class 2 systems. I watch and wait, but nothing happens. The Hurricane and Wolf remain passive, the Magnate pilot remains in his Magnate. On top of which it is late and I am tired, so I head home to get some sleep. It has been a full and satisfying day of exploration, even if there were no explosions.

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Tags: buzzard, chimera, eve online, hurricane, magnate, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, sigil, w-space, wolf, zephyr

Manoeuvring around a Machariel

W-space is well-connected again today. There are plenty of bookmarks to copy in to my nav-comp, which means I can leave behind my Buzzard scanning boat and head out to roam in my Manticore stealth bomber instead. I warp to our home system's static wormhole and jump through to start looking for activity.

Our neighbouring class 4 system is unoccupied and quiet, only an abandoned tower floating around the outer planet showing any residual signs of capsuleer presence. I move onwards through the system's static connection in to a C5, another empty system, and then again through an incoming K162 to another C5 system. Again, the system is unoccupied and, again, I jump through a K162 in to C5 system. This time my directional scanner shows me a tower, along with a mining drone somewhere. The drone is not accompanied by any ships so I assume it to be lost or abandoned. I find the tower and with it a complete lack of activity, moving on to check the incoming connection from a C6. The wormhole has collapsed, the bookmark no longer relevant, and I retrace my jumps back through the class 5 systems.

The first C5 has a static connection to a C3 I jump through. I see two Sleeper wrecks and two drones on d-scan, which I assume to be left from the solo Tengu a colleague earlier chased away from an anomaly. Moving away from the wormhole I activate my on-board scanner to resolve nearby anomalies passively, in case any ships return. As the scan progresses I check my notes. They show that I have visited this system before, about five months ago, and that the system is occupied, but not where the tower is. Before I can locate the tower d-scan reveals an Abaddon and Machariel in the system. A couple of anomalies are returned by my scanner and a quick check with d-scan shows the two ships to be in one of them.

I recognise the Abaddon as an Amarr battleship, as I've flown with a few of the capacitor-greedy blighters, but the Machariel is new to me. It sounds like a speedy frigate for some reason, but I don't know why it would be fighting Sleepers. I have already alerted my colleagues about the presence of the two ships and the Machariel has got some attention. A small fleet forms and options are discussed. I am asked to find out if any other ships are in the system and, given the location by our scan man, I check the occupants' tower. There are no more ships or pilots visible and warping in to the anomaly finds the two ships in combat with Sleepers, apparently unaware of my presence. I also see that the Machariel is actually a battleship. I don't think I've seen one before.

I take care in my Manticore not to get decloaked by the other capsuleers or the Sleepers, but note that I am sitting between our targets and the wormhole. I need to manoeuvre around the ships to provide a better warp-in reference for my colleagues. Warping in at range to a reference point always drops the ship short, never long, so I have to position the targets between me and the wormhole for the best opportunity of a successful ambush. There are no planets to bounce off, so I crawl under the ships to get in to a good position. As I manoeuvre the Manticore I relay information about the Sleeper combat, the indigenous ships being destroyed quickly in this C3 system by the capsuleer battleships. But today our timing is good, the urgency imparted working to our benefit in two ways.

First, our Dominix battleship warps in to the anomaly moments before the final Sleeper is destroyed, catching both the Machariel and Abaddon at just the right moment. Second, our pilot's rush to engage before the rest of the fleet is ready means that the Abaddon and Machariel are less likely to flee immediately, letting him get warp disruptor modules active and holding the ships in time for our Rook to enter the system and warp to the anomaly. The Rook recon ship targets the battleships and applies its ECM to jam their targeting systems, which takes the pressure off the Dominix, now quite badly damaged, and also allows my stealth bomber to decloak and engage. I activate my warp disruptor and target painter, and loose volleys of torpedoes at the Machariel, our primary target, as our Harbinger follows in to the anomaly to provide more firepower.

As the Machariel starts to take heavy damage the Abaddon manages to warp away, perhaps some minor confusion about warp disruption targets freeing him for just long enough to escape. The Machariel has no such luck. The battleship explodes soon after the Abaddon leaves and I am even able to snare its pod. The pilot wakes up in a clone in some station. We quickly loot the ship and scoop the corpse, the combat ships clearing the pocket and leaving the system. I remain, able to cloak, and reconnoitre the tower. The Abaddon is sitting inside the tower's shields, unmoving. We could salvage. There are no other ships in the system, the anomaly is out of d-scan range of the tower, and I have eyes at the tower. If there is any threatening activity I would give plenty of warning to allow our salvager to leave safely.

A couple of salvaging destroyers are piloted by my colleagues back to the anomaly in the C3. I monitor the Abaddon pilot but he remains apparently inactive as the salvagers loot and clear the wrecks, reaping all the profit for ourselves. The salvagers finish and exit the system before any activity is seen, the Abaddon pilot swapping ships for a Magnate scanning boat. I imagine he is going to scan an exit to k-space to enable his colleague's return. There is a brief period where we try to snare the Magnate, or the presumably returning pilot, but I need to take a break and there is no saying how long it will be before anyone uses the new wormhole.

As I head home to our tower I am told more details about the Machariel. It is no ordinary battleship but a faction variant! I am amazed to see that we destroyed almost 900 million ISK of ship and fittings, which certainly explains why it was our primary target. It is perhaps best that I didn't know this initially, as I probably would have got awfully nervous, but destroying a Machariel is quite a catch. It has been a good day.

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Tags: abaddon, dominix, eve online, harbinger, machariel, magnate, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, rook, scanning, w-space