Reflections on the hunt

Popping and podding the Cyclone is a little unsettling. Not that I have any qualms about stalking and shooting the unsuspecting pilot. The hunt was thrilling, the operation smooth, and the strategy and options discussed helps to make us better pilots ourselves. This is what brings me out to w-space, and the battlecruiser's pilot didn't even see us coming. But that is what concerns me.

I was able to get in to the class 2 w-space system through a freshly opened wormhole, undetectable except for someone performing a blanket scan of the whole system at regular intervals. My ship warped cloaked around the system, looking for activity using the passive directional scanner. The system was big enough for me to decloak and launch scanning probes out of detectable range, and then set the probe to find all the anomalies in the system whilst it remained out of d-scan range.

The Cyclone was seen entering the system without him seeing me. I followed him in and to his chosen anomaly without being spotted, where my cloaked ship got within striking range. I could have called in a fleet to my position then, but was still able to exit the system, re-ship, and return with help without being detected. The first the Cyclone could have seen of his impending doom was an Onyx heavy interdictor on d-scan, and only once it was already in warp to his position.

But nothing I did was particularly special, or the methods secret. Which means that when I am by myself engaging Sleepers in an anomaly it is quite possible that the first I become aware of an attack is when ships drop out of warp on top of me. I know that I take care to survey the system first, finding any active wormhole connections, and look for other ships and pilots. And I keep a vigilant watch on d-scan for any unexpected activity as I am in the anomaly. But I have proven that I could still be found silently, from an unanticipated direction, and ambushed quite effectively.

I suppose it's all part of the risk. We mitigate what threats we can and accept the others as part of w-space life. At least I am aware of the dangers and don't just blithely think that an empty system is a safe system. I can accept that and try my best to be the hunter more than the hunted. And, if I find myself prey, not to go down without a fight.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: cyclone, eve online, mmorpg, onyx, penny ibramovic, pvp