Second-day frustrations
4th November 2010 – 5.55 pmA new day brings a new constellation to explore, and with it new hope. The bookmarks in our shared can look current, and there are no notes about unstable wormholes. I copy them to my nav-comp and take my Buzzard covert operations boat out to reconnoitre the connecting systems, and maybe see if there is a convenient exit to empire space. Jumping in to our neighbouring class 5 w-space system finds both occupation and activity. A tower is bookmarked at one moon, another off-line tower noted elsewhere, but it is the ships and Sleeper wrecks on my directional scanner that grab my attention.
There is a piloted Catalyst destroyer sitting inside the shields at the on-line tower, and checking d-scan from that position suggests that a Thanatos carrier is fighting Sleepers with three battleships, a Megathron, Apocalypse, and Typhoon. There is no way I can engage that fleet, at least not on my own, but the Catalyst will perhaps salvage behind the combat ships, making it a suitable target for a stealth bomber. I first need to find the site where the ships are fighting, but that should be easy enough.
The wormhole I used to enter the system is out of d-scan range of the tower and fleet, letting me warp back there to drop a few scanning probes. I adjust their range to maximum and position them carefully around the system, providing full coverage of celestial bodies without putting any of the probes within d-scan range of the ships. I start the scan and only have to wait a few seconds before all the anomalies in the system reveal themselves, at which point a narrow d-scan beam easily locates the anomaly the fleet is fighting in.
I warp to the anomaly, thankfully not decloaking on any structures or ships, and survey the situation. The ships are still fighting the Sleepers and there are enough wrecks to bookmark a few for reference. I check the bearing from the wormhole to make sure I know which direction I'll be approaching from, then warp back home to change ships, having already alerted colleagues about the targets. 'Please do not engage', I am told in return.
An ally wants to bring in his own carrier and doesn't want to attract any unnecessary attention before it is safely in our home system. That's fair enough, particularly as moving in to the C5 is meant to provide a good opportunity for pilots to fly capital ships, even if it leaves me a little frustrated. I abandon the hunt and, with nothing really to do, go off-line to read a book.
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