Exploring behind combat
30th July 2011 – 3.01 pmCurse my timing. In trying to moderate my time in space and be a more rounded capsuleer I have managed to miss out on colleagues popping not only a Loki strategic cruiser engaging Sleepers but also a Crane transport ship out collecting planet goo. Hopefully I haven't missed all the action, as my colleagues tell me that stealth bombers could be out and about looking for them, and I grab the bookmarks for today's w-space constellation from our shared can and head out to take a look around.
Jumping through our static wormhole puts me in the class 4 w-space system where the Crane was caught. And despite a Proteus strategic cruiser, and a Scorpion and Nightmare battleship all piloted at the local tower it doesn't look like they are planning a counter-attack. I imagine I've missed all the action here. I continue onwards, happy to infer from the number of bookmarks that even though the class 2 system next on the route has had activity quelled from the death of the Loki it remains unscanned, which at least gives me something to do. But before that there is even a K162 leading to class 5 w-space in this C4, which also needs exploring. I'll go there first.
The C5 has a tower but no ships visible on my directional scanner, and trying to get out of range of the tower to launch probes covertly only gets me closer to two more. There are ships coincident with these two towers, a Fenrir freighter at one and a small collection of combat and industrial ships in the other, all unpiloted. A lack of pilots means I can be blasé about launching probes, and I scan the system to find but one anomaly nestled amongst the five other signatures and eight accounted-for ships. What is interesting are the drones also in the system, warping around letting d-scan show me they are all ECM drones. I consider scooping them to claim them for ourselves, but change my mind when they turn out to be in a barely started magnetometric site.
Further scanning of the C5 resolves a K162 wormhole coming in from null-sec k-space, and I'm guessing that's where the drones came from. At least, indirectly. I imagine some null-seccers came in to the C5, fancied themselves capable of taking on a few measly Sleepers, but perhaps didn't realise the step in difficulty between normal rats and w-space denizens. Even the few mere cruisers that initially defend this particular type of magnetometric site look to have caused enough troubles, the flights of ECM drones launched to let the capsuleers escape with their ships. And with Sleepers still shooting the ECM drones this must have been recent.
I doubt we'll see more from the null-sec pilots for now and I head back to the C4 to warp across to the C2. But before I enter warp I hold my session change cloak on the K162 in the C4, as I have found one of the stealth bombers looking for my colleagues. The Nemesis decloaks shortly after I enter the system, launches his bomb, and makes his escape almost as it detonates harmlessly on the wormhole. I break my cloak to try to lock and snare the stealth bomber but he's in warp without trying to follow up with torpedoes, and I end up merely shadowing him back to the local tower. I suppose the locals think my colleagues came from that C5 earlier and were looking to exact some revenge, not even thinking to scan for new wormholes.
The Nemesis doesn't look like he's going to venture out of the tower again, so I press on unfazed to explore the C2. One anomaly and twenty signatures can be found in the class 2 system, which will probably keep the owner of the other combat scanning probes here busy too. The first wormhole I find is a K162 from more class 2 w-space, which is rather splendid, the second being a static exit to high-sec empire space. The third wormhole resolved is a K162 from more class 5 w-space, reaching the end of its natural lifetime and already stressed to half its mass limit. The fourth is dead on arrival, no doubt replaced by the fifth, which is the second static connection that leads to class 4 w-space.
I jump out the last resolved wormhole to the C4, putting me in a system where I got a lucky kill before, but that corporation has since moved out. There is still occupation, though, a piloted Anathema covert operations boat sitting dormantly in a tower. But Mick behind me has actual activity, picking up a Magnate on d-scan. The scanning frigate cloaks, making locating him a little trickier, but I suspect he's from the next C2 outbound. I warp to the wormhole at range in time to see the Magnate decloak and cloak again, kindly but probably accidentally showing himself to be blue to our corporation. Light blue, but still blue.
I presume the presence of the blue pilot on the wormhole makes the C2 behind him blue too, which halts scanning for now. I'm not going to scan a blue system, and my tummy doesn't want me to delve deeper in to w-space through the C4, so I turn around and head home to make a sammich. Maybe all this preparatory scanning has set me up to find a ship to destroy later.
4 Responses to “Exploring behind combat”
I love how a majority of your blogposts end with food.
Sleepers will only shoot drones when a player is on grid with them. If you see the drones beginning to drop off dscan it shows that a cloaky has loaded grid on that site, otherwise the drones will stay there for days.
That's good information to know about drones and Sleepers, thanks.
And food is my motivation. If I do a good job, the tower dispenses a food pellet. Ding!
@kryn : that is a ridiculously sneaky tip. Thank you for sharing that one :D