Looking after the leap
5th January 2011 – 7.09 pmI forgot about the second tower. I saw it, and avoided it to launch probes, but for some reason I simply disregarded it entirely instead of considering it the home of the miner. The tower I saw first, with the Tengu strategic cruiser sitting unpiloted inside, caught my attention and I focussed on that, but second tower was just as important to monitor. That was a serious mistake when hunting the miner, but luckily one that didn't cause me problems. I'll have to do better next time.
The niggling doubt is removed when I take my Buzzard covert operations boat back in to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system to scan more thoroughly than just the single ladar site. I locate the second tower and see the Orca industrial command ship from earlier now joined by a Prowler hauler, both ships piloted. And both pilots could have come to the assistance of the gas mining Stabber cruiser, in different ships though, and my attack could have been costly.
I wonder if the Prowler was getting ready to collect the gas, and if he knows that I already picked it up in my Crane transport ship. I would hope the pilots here aren't foolish enough not to check first in a cloaked boat, but capsuleers are always surprising me. Then again, I already got my kill and I don't want to sit here waiting for an action that is unlikely to occur, so I warp away, launch probes, and begin to scan the C3.
There is only one anomaly in the whole system, accompanied by a magnetometric, radar, and three gravimetric sites, with the ladar site of stabbing pain completing the set of cosmic signature types here. I resolve the system's static wormhole and, quelle surprise, it leads out to low-sec empire space. I swap to my Manticore stealth bomber to check the exit system, not needing my scanning boat any more and not wanting to be at a disadvantage should I catch any movements.
Exiting the C3 puts me in the Heimatar region, two hops from high-sec and nine to my stored Retriever. I don't want to risk bringing the mining barge in through two low-sec systems, and merely make a bookmark of the empire-side wormhole before heading back to w-space. There is no change in the inner system of the class 3 system, the unpiloted Tengu remains the only ship at the first tower, and the Orca and Prowler are both now gone from the second tower. All is quiet, and I head home to get an early night for myself.
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