Abaddonded
6th November 2013 – 5.27 pmI'm scanning. One signature of the four in this second class 3 w-space system is a relic site. I know this not because Tyler knows this, but because I successfully hunted a Gnosis battlecruiser there. I can ignore that signature. I can also ignore the K162 from C3a that I entered the system through. That leaves two more signatures, one of which I know to be the static exit to high-sec even if I haven't found it yet, leaving one to be determined. Spoiler alert: it's a K162 from null-sec.
The static exit obviously leads out to Verge Vendor, which is just typical. I wait three months to grab an image of these wormhole colours and then get two opportunities in as many days. But never mind that. I exit w-space to see if there is any sign of the Gnosis pilot but I don't see him. He must be a tourist, and high-sec is the most likely source of the pilot, but I suppose he was hopping systems looking for sites before diving through this wormhole. I can ignore high-sec and instead check the other wormhole in C3b.
Look at that, it's a K162 from null-sec. It's a K162 from null-sec whose colours I don't quite recognise, and as I jump through to see where it leads the wormhole crackles. Well, of course it crackles, as I'm jumping. What actually happens is the wormhole crackles a moment before I initiate my transit, which means someone has just entered w-space from null-sec. That's unfortunate timing on my part, as my Loki strategic cruiser will have been spotted by him, but I have no idea what ship is now behind me. Then again, I think I'll find out soon enough.
I appear in the Immensea region, with a Rupture cruiser and Manticore stealth bomber both on the wormhole, and thirty other pilots hopefully elsewhere in the system. If all I'm facing are these two ships, and one more behind me, I may as well take a shot at them. The Manticore may not last long, after all, but I think he knows that too. He's already moving away from the wormhole as I shed my session change cloak, and has activated his module cloak as I try to gain a positive target lock on the stealth bomber. No doubt whoever saw me on the wormhole mentioned what I was flying to his colleagues.
I'm decloaked, I may as well see what I can do. Which apparently is chicken out when the wormhole crackles to bring back in to null-sec what turns out to be a Hurricane. I see the battlecruiser and fling my Loki through the wormhole to C3b, disengaging from my decidedly short fight with the Rupture. Silly Penny, I could easily have stayed a bit longer, just to see what would happen, even if it probably wouldn't have gone well for me. Still, equilibrium is restored, null-sec pilots in null-sec, w-space pilot in w-space, and my no longer unduly concerned about thirty assorted heavy assault ships, carriers, and dreadnoughts dropping on top of me.
Backing away from the wormhole has no one follow me, which offers little surprise but gives me the opportunity to grab some images of the wormhole. I can add Immensea to my collection now. And, with this system and its exits more ignored than explored, I can see what's through the low-sec connections in C3a. I jump back a system and poke through the class 3 system's static exit to appear in a system in Metropolis, five additional signatures to resolve. Wormhole, combat site, data, relics, and a second wormhole. I make the easy choice between a K162 from class 2 w-space and a dying K162 from class 3 w-space, and jump to C2a.
My directional scanner shows me a tower, too many warp bubbles, and four ships, but being spat almost seven kilometres from the wormhole doesn't have my expecting much from the Abaddon and Dominix battleships, Orca industrial command ship, or Occator transport. Then again, pointing d-scan at the planets to locate the tower sees the Abaddon is elsewhere, the elsewhere looking to be another planet. Is the ship in the middle of taking down a customs office?
I warp to the tower first, wanting to know the status of the other ships, and find no capsuleer presence. Now to find the Abaddon, but he's not at the customs office, or the planet itself, nor at any of its moons. But he's close. 1,200 kilometres is close in a solar system, even if I'm still not going to spend the twenty minutes at full burn to get in to visual range. This is why I have combat scanning probes.
Disappearing to the edge of the system finds no other occupation or signs of activity, so I launch my probes, hide them just in case, and warp back cloaked to be near the Abaddon. Resolving his position is trivial. A single scan of a tight probe cluster on top of the planet does the job, and I am in and out of warp within seconds. I don't know what I'm going to find when I get in range of the Abaddon, but what I don't expect to see is an abandoned ship. But what else was I going to see if not an Abaddon?
I'm having that. The system looks inactive, there are no pilots that I can see, and the ship is clearly there for the taking. For the second time this evening I take my Loki home, stow it in a hangar, and return the way I came in my naked pod, hoping to jump in to someone else's ship. I just hope this isn't some overly elaborate ruse by a freakishly patient pilot.
Nope, it's just what it looks like. Someone dumped the Abaddon in space. It's fully fit too, albeit rather underwhelmingly, but I can't bring myself to complain about a free battleship. And now it's time to head back to revisit those punks in Immensea and lay down the pain in a real ship! Or, you know, I could just go home, happy in my stolen ship, and hit the sack richer after tonight's adventure.
2 Responses to “Abaddonded”
I stumbled on a battleship like this once. I was scanning down mission runners in high-sec and warped to a dominix...unpiloted. I couldn't believe my luck. I ditched my helios right there, boarded the domi (with a terrible mission fit), stashed it in station, flew back out, and collected my helios again.
I had to log shortly after, so I didn't do anything else with it. When I logged back in again, I was greeted by a message in my inbox from a GM stating that he had returned the dominix to its original owner. Apparently a server error had caused the ship to be left in space after he had logged off while inside it. Sad day.
That's frustrating.
I suppose this Abaddon was in the right kind of position that could be the end of an emergency warp, and not really having a need to look at it again I haven't checked to see if it's still in our hangar since picking it up. But also I haven't had a GM message telling me that they've stolen it back. I guess it's probably still there.