Scanning never ends

I was hoping to stay in my Buzzard for a while, and it looks like I will. Pilots coming and going, and a Tengu strategic making a target of itself put me in and out of my covert operations scanning boat, seeing me try to juggle finding wormholes and stalking ships. Now our neighbouring class 3 w-space system is empty of pilots and I can finally scan more thoroughly. There are quite a few signatures in this C3, which could take a while to sort out, but it's resolving four wormholes that makes me feel I'll be out here a while.

Two wormholes lead directly to empire space. There is a K162 coming in from high-sec and the system's static connection exits to low-sec. I get both exit systems first, merely bookmarking the wormhole and noting the region in high-sec, but taking a better look around in low-sec. There are a few pilots in the system and a Tengu visible on my directional scanner. Having nearly missed a shot at a Tengu earlier I think I'll take a moment to see if this strategic cruiser is a valid target, and sitting out in the middle of nowhere suggests it is.

I start a passive scan of the low-sec system to see if the Tengu is in an anomaly, but nothing nearby shows up and I may need to get closer. Manipulating d-scan a bit puts him right on the limit of detection, being almost 14 AU away, and I actually have no idea how he got out there. There are no planets nearby, nor any that may have been used to make such a safe-spot. He could still be in an anomaly, or on a wormhole, so I launch probes, fling them out of the system, and start a more thorough scan for sites.

The Tengu is hidden. He is not in any site, nor near any signature, but maybe that's good. If he's sat in a safe-spot he could be taking a nap and not expecting company to drop on top of him. I start positioning probes around him, knowing that I can't be too accurate from this range, and scan for his ship's location. My first result isn't good, as expected, and I refine my probes' positions, but even after three attempts his ship remains inscrutable to my combat probes. I launch more, suspecting that it won't help, and indeed it doesn't. The pilot knows what he's doing, holed up in a safe-spot in an unscannable ship. I recall my probes and head back to w-space.

I have two more w-space systems to explore here, the C3 also holding a K162 from further class 3 w-space and a random outbound connection to a class 4 system. The K162 holds most promise for activity and I jump through that first. A bunch of ships and combat scanning probes visible on d-scan looks good, if a little overwhelming for just me, and checking my notes lets me find the tower quickly, as my last visit was only three months ago. Only a Tengu is piloted at the tower, the other five ships empty, and I wonder if it is him scanning until the probes disappear and an Anathema cov-ops warps in. I find a distant point where I can launch probes, letting me blanket the system, but knowing that this C3 has a static exit to high-sec I simply bookmark the anomalies for now. The two pilots don't look to be doing anything for the moment, so with more w-space to explore I head back to the first C3 and onwards to the C4.

Only a corpse and wreck of a battleship are on d-scan in the C4, which could be interesting but probably just means those involved have scurried home already. Otherwise, there are no ships and no occupation in the system. I scan, ignoring mostly rocks and gas to resolve a static connection to class 5 w-space. I jump onwards in to clear space within d-scan's range around the K162 in the C5, and I launch probes. The two ships my probes detect in the system are soon found unpiloted inside a tower's force field, and I resolve two wormholes out of the six signatures present. The first leads to a second class 4 system through the system's static connection, the second wormhole being a K162 from more class 5 w-space.

Sticking with my plan to look for activity I head through the K162 first, finding none. The second C5 is unoccupied and empty, and it takes scanning to find what I think is an end to the current route, the static exit to null-sec k-space. But, of course, someone had to open the wormhole leading in to the first C5, and I resolve a second connection coming in from a C2. I am going rather far from home and have spent longer scanning in my Buzzard than I expected, which shows I should be careful what I wish for. I continue through to the C2, which is a tiny unoccupied system and must have another K162 lurking somewhere. Scanning finds the second static wormhole, another null-sec exit, and the K162 I am looking for, leading to a second C2.

I'm close to my limit for scanning now. I merely poke my nose through to the second C2 to look for activity, and even though a Tengu seems to be sitting at a local tower I ignore it as being too far from home and simply turn my ship around. I still have another branch of the constellation to investigate, and I head back from C2b to C2a to C5b to C5a, and from there to the second class 4 w-space system. Again, on finding no overt signs of activity I leave the system alone, making my way back through C5a to C4a and C3a, where checking the tower sees no change since I left it what feels like ten hours ago. I jump home, copy to our shared can the twenty-two bookmarks for wormholes in eight systems, and take a break for a well-deserved sammich.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: buzzard, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space