Missing the salvaging action

Two corporation pilots are out in strategic cruisers. They are taking the fight to Sleepers in a class 3 system and I offer to salvage for them, but they already have help. But they note the presence of a Mammoth industrial ship in their system, so I head out to investigate. Our neighbouring C4 system is unoccupied and quiet, a system I last visited two weeks ago, and it holds a static connection to a class 5 system as well as an incoming connection from the C3 where my colleagues are. I jump through to the C3. This system is familiar too, although it is three months since I was last here.

There are bookmarks to two towers in the C3. I check both of them, finding one quiet and the other off-line and abandoned. But there is a second force field active, indicating a third tower. I use the directional scanner to locate this second active tower, also finding the Mammoth unpiloted in its shields. There is a capsuleer's pod floating at the tower too, soon joined by a second capsuleer and his pod. This second pod boards a Drake battlecruiser and warps off. Noting his direction I am able to find a third active tower in the system, making it quite busy. Judging by the Drake pilot's actions, it seems he is moving ships between towers. I wonder if I could trap him with an Onyx's bubble, particularly as I have a Legion and Tengu strategic cruiser in the system ready to provide firepower.

I make a couple of handy bookmarks and note that the capsuleer is still flying between two of the towers before heading back to the home system to swap in to my Onyx heavy interdictor. Going back to the C3, I try to set myself up outside of one of the towers so that, with a bit of luck and judgement, I can pull the capsuleer out of warp unexpectedly. The two towers are out of range of d-scan of each other, which I am relying on to catch the pilot unawares. Unfortunately, my timing is awful, dropping out of warp to position myself near one of the towers just as the pilot warps in to the same tower's shields, pretty much giving the game away. I only get shot by the tower's defences for my trouble.

Meanwhile, the salvager running behind the strategic cruisers has been nicely ambushed by a Manticore stealth bomber. The Catalyst salvaging destroyer that has almost become a mark of our corporation's w-space fleet is obliterated, throwing tens of millions of ISK in profit in to vacuum, no doubt to be scooped up by the stealth bomber. The salvager's pod escapes destruction, returning through the wormholes to our tower, and the Manticore evades any attempt to flush him out. The strategic cruisers halt their operation and head home, as do I, my opportunistic attempt to grab a lucky kill failing. I think perhaps I am pressing too hard to find some action.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: catalyst, drake, eve online, legion, mammoth, manticore, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, salvaging, tengu, w-space