Picking on a tower

Another early start means I am scanning. Fin is already through our static connection and gives me its signature reference so that I can quickly follow behind. This early scanning may find some sleepy targets, or the sites we bookmark may become active later, when we can drop in to them without needing to launch probes which would alert the pilots to our presence. Or we could find a whole lot of empty space. At least then we could shoot Sleepers in peace. Our neighbouring system is unoccupied, and leads in to another class 4 w-space system. Jumping through bring us in to a system we last visited about five weeks ago. I have the location of a tower in my notes and warping to the moon shows the tower is still there and on-line. There are a few industrial ships, an Enyo assault ship, and a Harbinger battlecruiser, but nothing particularly threatening and nothing piloted.

The system's static wormhole is found and I jump through to a C1, Fin staying behind for now. The C1 is unoccupied and quiet and I start scanning for the next wormhole. Fin is keen to shoot the defences on the tower in the C4, thinking them particularly weak with only cruise missile batteries on-line. I find a wormhole in the C1 and say that if the connection is an exit to empire space I'll help shoot the tower, otherwise I'll keep jumping. If the wormhole leads out of w-space today's chain of systems ends here, but if it leads further in to w-space there could be more legitimate targets to strike. I warp to the resolved signature and find an exit to low-sec space, so I turn my Buzzard around to return to our tower for something with bigger guns. I'm not quite sure what, though.

I am inclined to pilot my Drake, probably offering the most damage but feeling rather plain, and my recent training in gunnery makes a colleague's Harbinger somewhat more exotic whilst perhaps offering greater damage over the short ranges we'll be shooting. Fin chooses her Drake, so I take the Harbinger. Our plan is to destroy the warp disruption module first and then pick away at the rest of the defences, pretty much just indulging in some vandalism. Fin has a bookmark to the first module, allowing us to drop almost on top of it, and we start shooting. I soon realise that my unfamiliarity with the Harbinger, as well as not having fitted it myself, means I am here in a ship without any means of repair, so I am relying on buffer for protection. This isn't so bad, as the tower's missiles aim for Fin after a while, but I probably shouldn't hang around for too long if the situation deteriorates.

It isn't long before a pod turns up at the tower. I would imagine that an empire alt character has received a corporation alert that this station is being attacked, causing the w-space capsuleer to wake up. He doesn't board a ship immediately but instead brings more weapon systems on-line. With my lack of reppers I am told to warp out if I can. I can and I do, bouncing off a suitable planet to get to our return wormhole. I consider bringing back an ECM boat to help Fin escape the warp disruption module, but it is uncertain whether ECM would work. As neither of us could light the module with our target painters we assume ECM would be useless. Instead, I jump in to my Manticore stealth bomber and head back to provide what little support I can.

Fin's Drake holds up quite well but can't withstand the extra firepower brought on-line, and once the shields are down the Caldari battlecruiser explodes shortly afterwards. Her pod sits awkwardly still under the tower for a while but successfully warps away safely. I quietly watch, and line up my Manticore, as an Imicus and Cormorant come out of the shields to loot and salvage the wreck. I release a bomb and risk a volley of torpedos before re-cloaking for safety, hitting both ships, several modules, and destroying the wreck, but neither ship explodes. There is nothing more to do here, so I head back to the tower to reunite with Fin. 'As we were going for a warp disruption battery, do you think we should have fit warp core stabilisers?' Fin asks. Yes, probably. We live and learn. And at least we've cleared a little bit of space in our bulging ship hangar array.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: buzzard, cormorant, drake, enyo, eve online, harbinger, imicus, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space