Making the datacore run in twelve parsecs
15th July 2010 – 5.57 pmI 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.
One Response to “Making the datacore run in twelve parsecs”
That is allot of datacores! I haven't gotten to the point where I can even do R&D as yet working with such a Agent. However am missioning for a R&D Corp and plan to work for a few other for a while when I can working my way up as a quite young industrialist. Be glad when can get a agent to start doing research for me some day soon for a few datacores. You having that many sitting around hundreds, that's allot of ISK, well much more than I've earned anyway.