Scanning around battlecruisers

Spurred by recent success I am out scanning early again. I am hoping that some preliminary legwork will let me roam freely a little later, hopefully catching pilots by surprise, but it looks like I may do that sooner than expected. Jumping in to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system sees on my directional scanner ships, drones, and cans. The jet-cans make me wonder if the Prophecy and Drake are for some reason harvesting gas, but adjusting d-scan reveals Sleeper wrecks and it looks like the battlecruisers are in an anomaly.

There are also scanning probes in the system and within a minute of my arrival the ships disappear, making me suspect whoever is scanning has noticed the new wormhole opening in to the system. They aren't entirely scared away, however, as a third battlecruiser returns with the other two, the Prophecy now flying with two Drakes. I can't take these ships alone, so I'm looking for a salvager will fly in behind them.

I warp around to see if I can launch my own scanning probes, but the only place in the system I can decloak out of d-scan range of the ships is around the planet where the tower is anchored to one of the moons. There may be no ships here but I'd prefer to be sure of being unnoticed. I'll stick with a passive scan for now and trust the ships are in a basic anomaly.

My scan returns the anomalies in the system, and the ships and wrecks are indeed in one of them, but I don't warp there to reconnoitre the site just yet. I may as well return home to get my stealth bomber, which will let me move around just as covertly and strike opportunistically. But a niggling concern makes me falter just shy of our wormhole, and I check d-scan again. As I thought, the number of Sleeper wrecks isn't increasing.

That the wrecks aren't stacking up likely means that the ships are looting and salvaging as they fight, and that means there will be no salvager to ambush. I hold for another minute to check d-scan again, noticing that one wreck is replaced by another, one salvaged and one created from a Sleeper ship. I have no shot here. I may as well hang around and scan the system, which I can do openly with no concern for sending the ships scurrying home. I could even be a disruptive influence this way, even without shooting one of them.

The ships don't scatter and it is only now that I consider that they may not be local. With only ten signatures to sort through it doesn't take long to resolve three wormholes. I imagine the capsuleers have come from class 4 w-space beyond one of the K162s, and probably not the K162 coming from high-sec empire space, or the system's static connection to low-sec. Mind you, battlecruisers seem like light fare for C4 occupants, but maybe they are bringing their cheaper ships to fight abroad.

The ships have gone now, having finished clearing the anomaly and leaving only one more in the system, and scanning probes are out in force in this C3. I check the destination systems of the two exit wormholes but don't wander in to the C4. If I were them I'd have a heavy interdictor and interceptor waiting for me, so I simply leave them looking for me by heading home and taking a break for now. Maybe there will be action I can participate in later.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: drake, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, prophecy, scanning, sleepers, w-space