Scanning in and out of w-space
20th November 2010 – 3.22 pmW-space waits for me somewhere out there, I just need to get to it. Scanning the base high-sec system is a good start, resolving two wormholes leading to unknown space. The first is a K162 connection coming from a class 1 w-space system, but the other is more promising, an outbound wormhole to a class 2 system. Any outbound connection from empire space holds promise, but a C2's two static connections guarantees a second link to w-space for me to follow. I jump through the wormhole in to the class 2 system to continue my search for a new w-space home.
My directional scanner shows me two towers and lots of ships in the system, but there are no wrecks or any jet-cans to indicate activity. A more refined d-scan search and some warping around finds nine unpiloted ships at one tower, two more at the second. There is no activity. I launch scanning probes and start looking for more wormholes, quickly resolving a static exit to high-sec empire space, moving on to find the second static wormhole leading in to a class 3 w-space system, which I jump in to. D-scan is clear, letting me launch probes whilst moving away from the wormhole, but warping around finds a tower at an outer planet. A Rattlesnake faction battleship sits unpiloted inside the shields, the only ship I can see in the whole system.
The C3 is kept clean, only a few cosmic signatures showing up when scanning. It is easy to find the static wormhole here, disappointingly leading me back out to high-sec empire space so soon. I have one more option, but the prospects are slim. I head back through the C2 to my base system in high-sec space and jump in to the class 1 w-space system. The K162 is probably the C1's static wormhole, but it is possible that a scout entered the system from deeper w-space, leaving me a route to find. But only the briefest of scans shows this not to be the case, with two anomalies and just the one signature in the system, the signature being that of the wormhole I jumped through.
There is a piloted Bestower hauler in the system occupants' tower, and the tower has no defences protecting it, but I am not particularly interested in camping an exit to high-sec space at the moment. I return to empire space, but before I get that far a Drake and Hurricane pique my interest by sitting on the wormhole out. Having warped to zero on the wormhole, and thus decloaking myself, there is not much I can do about the battlecruisers except avoid them by jumping out of the system. But even the limited time I spend in the company of the two ships makes me think they are camping the wormhole, even if I can't linger long enough to gauge their motives.
I wonder, though, if this is a good opportunity for some safe sparring. The wormhole borders Concord-patrolled high-sec empire space, which means that safety is almost guaranteed as long as a ship can jump out of w-space at a moment's notice. And I would like to see what sort of damage my Widow black ops ship could do, particularly to another capsuleer's ship. I mull over the implications of jumping in, engaging the battlecruisers, and either forcing them to flee or escaping myself, before realising that the connection in to the class 1 system is not big enough to allow a battleship hull through, and my idea fizzles before it has barely started. It's probably for the best, though, as it stops me embarrassing myself in a ship worth over half-a-billion ISK.
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