Muffing a Myrmidon murder

There is not much space to explore today. A scout relays the local w-space constellation as leading from home to a class 4 system, in to a class 1, and then exiting to null-sec space. I board my Manticore stealth bomber, copy the bookmarks available, and head out to take a look for myself. The C4 has a tower around a distant planet but no activity, and the C1 is empty. I am guided to the wormhole leading to null-sec, as it has only just been found, the scout still continuing his scanning. And he finds a second wormhole in this system.

A K162 wormhole has opened in to the C1 from a class 2 system, which looks good for signs of activity. We both jump through the wormhole to explore, although there is little I can do without probes. The directional scanner shows a tower on scan along with a Myrmidon battlecruiser, but the presence of wrecks of Sleeper ships suggests that that Myrmidon is not sitting inertly inside the tower's shields. I activate my ship's on-board scanner to start looking for anomalies, as my colleague warps off to find the local tower.

I get only the one anomaly returned from my scan and directing d-scan to take a narrow-beam reading shows the Myrmidon or wrecks are not there. I warp away from the wormhole and closer to the centre of the system and initiate a second scan. I get a second anomaly, with cosmic signature SEX. The filthy pervert Myrmidon pilot is getting his rocks off there. I warp in voyeuristically to find the Myrmidon engaged against a single Sleeper, not that I'm implying the capsuleer slipped the other ship a roofie. But the Myrmidon doesn't stay in the anomaly for long, warping out shortly after I arrive.

Having the Myrmidon warp out of combat looks like we've been made, but perhaps not. A minute or so later the battlecruiser returns to start shooting the Sleeper battleship again. Maybe the capsuleer is having difficulty tanking the Sleeper fire, which bodes well for the success of our own assault. I call in my colleague in his scouting Proteus, who is happy to point and hold the Myrmidon as I head back to the C1 system to guide in a fellow pilot who wants to help with the kill. Unfortunately, the Proteus strategic cruiser warps through the structure in the anomaly to reach me and is harshly decloaked, despite coming to a rest tens of kilometres away from it. The Myrmidon sees the Proteus and flees. Although I drop my cloak and burn towards the battlecruiser my Manticore can't get close enough to disrupt its warp engines.

There is a small flurry of changing ships and monitoring wormholes both by us and the Myrmidon pilot but it doesn't look like anything is going to happen. The capsuleer is not going to return to the anomaly he started for fear of us shooting him—which is what would happen, to be fair—and it seems a shame for the loot to go to waste. The wrecks already littering the site will disintegrate in the vacuum after a couple of hours, so they need to be salvaged soon or be lost. I jump home and refit my Tengu strategic cruiser with a salvager module, returning to the C2 to steal the loot and salvage the wrecks. My colleague's Proteus helps with shooting the remaining Sleepers and our two combat ships deter the local pilot from interrupting us.

Just for kicks, we decide to clear the last remaining anomaly in the system too, bringing in another Tengu to help. The class 2 anomaly is pretty easy for a pair of Tengu cruisers used to class 4 systems, but we aren't looking for a profit as much as trying to bait the Myrmidon pilot. And he pays us a visit, now in a Purifier stealth bomber and trying to disrupt our attempts at disruption by destroying the wrecks before we can salvage them. It nearly goes wrong for him when he tries too long to take a second shot, my colleague's Tengu hitting the Purifier quite hard and dropping it in to low armour, but we don't quite get close enough to pop the bomber. We clear the anomaly and are able to salvage the remaining few wrecks without any more trouble, as trying to look inattentive doesn't fool the Purifier pilot and he stays away.

We leave this now-empty system and get home with our meagre but stolen C2 loot. As we are in our strategic cruisers and have got in the mood to shoot Sleepers we continue the operation in our neighbouring C4 system. The black hole in the system reduces missile range but compensates by letting me speed much faster between ships, which makes the combat a little different to normal. More corporation pilots arrive and we are able to have a Cormorant destroyer fly behind us to salvage, my Tengu now restored with a full complement of five launchers, and a fourth strategic cruiser pilot joins us as we start the third anomaly. We finish after the the fifth anomaly, clearing this system as well, and head home a little bit richer after another fun day in w-space.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: comorant, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, myrmidon, penny ibramovic, proteus, purifier, pvp, sleepers, tengu, w-space