Drones and a bubble should fool no one

The home system is deserted, my Buzzard holding the only living presence. Some early scanning is in order, hoping to find other early birds. Of course, I will only find birds if the ships are of Caldari origin, which is why metaphors shouldn't be taken literally. I resolve our new static wormhole and jump through to the neighbouring class 4 system. W-space connected me to this system about four months ago, my notes reminding me of the hapless Buzzard pilot popped and podded by me and the absent Fin. I wonder what he is doing now and if he is still in w-space, particularly as we catch the capsuleer a second time a month later, also in a Buzzard. But enough reminiscing, I am hoping to find new targets. I launch probes and start scanning, the directional scanner revealing no signs of life.

Most signatures here can be found in the inner system, but I still find rocks, rocks, rocks, and a radar site before finally resolving a wormhole. It is the system's static connection, leading to another class 4 system I've visited before. I was last here about five months ago but only have a note of there being occupants, not where the tower is anchored. It looks like I only passed through last time and didn't care to stop to look for other capsuleers. My first task is to find the tower here, which I do, ignoring the five mining drones on d-scan for now as there is no ship to accompany them. I soon locate the tower, along with an unpiloted Magnate frigate inside its shields, which only leaves the mining drones and a warp bubble elsewhere in the system according to d-scan. It looks like a clumsy trap to me. I launch probes and start scanning.

With a handful of signatures to check I feel I do quite well to find a wormhole after resolving only the one gas mining ladar site. As I am looking for activity and there is none in this system I jump through the connection, ejected in to yet another class 4 w-space system. Only an abandoned tower is seen on d-scan, keeping a bunch of anomalies and few signatures company. I have to scan through all of the signatures again to resolve the system's static wormhole, this one leading to a class 5 system. Jumping through I am spat out over eight kilometres from the wormhole! Appearing so far away from the wormhole makes for easy cloaking but would require quite a rush to flee the way I came if I had to. Luckily there is no one around, even with four towers in this system. The only ship I see is a Mastodon hauler named Bait.

Four signatures are in this C5, and judging by their signal strengths I suspect the weakest of them will be the next wormhole on my route. And I am right, finding a connection to a class 3 system. The C3 is occupied and has some ships on d-scan, but they are all seen inside the towers of the occupants and are unpiloted. Scanning for wormholes only finds a connection to a C4 that is reaching the end of its natural lifetime. And so I reach the end of my exploration for the time being. All is quiet, although there may be opportunities for activity later. I head back home, copying the bookmarks I have made in to our shared can when I get there. I flick the switches on my control panel and take a break, hoping that capsuleers will come out to play later.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: buzzard, eve online, magnate, mastodon, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space