Even the action is feeble
29th August 2011 – 5.34 pmBack from my break and all is still quiet. I can take a shufti at what the locals in the neighbouring class 3 w-space system are up to now, having waited in vain to catch a scanning scout of theirs earlier. I take my covert Tengu strategic cruiser through the connecting wormhole and warp across to the tower, finding the scout now in his own Tengu and joined by two colleagues, another in a Tengu and the third pilot in a Viator transport ship. This is pretty much how I left them a couple of hours ago, making me suspect that they will not coincidentally become active all of a sudden. I scan the system instead of waiting for movement.
A new anomaly has spawned since earlier but there remain seven signatures. A wormhole leaps out at me on a general scan, resolving to be the system's static exit to low-sec empire space but reaching the end of its natural lifetime. How dull. There is also to be found a gravimetric site, a ladar site, a second ladar site, a magnetometric site, and a third ladar site. There really isn't much to do here, and I see no benefit in risking the connection to low-sec collapsing behind me, so I simply head home and take another break.
And coming back again still finds space deader than tank tops. Undeterred, and wanting to entertain myself, I grab my stealth bomber and warp out to the C3 once more. It's actually kind of fun to be in the smaller ship once more. As convenient and powerful as the scanning Tengu is there is a certain simplicity in piloting the stealth bomber, agile and fast-locking, with a hull only just able to survive the expansion pressures of one atmosphere out in space. I hope after all this time I can remember what each button does.
Jumping in to the C3 sees eight ships on my directional scanner this time, along with an exciting-looking jet-can. I don't remember that being here before and maybe a ship has gone mining, but sweeping d-scan around places it at the tower, so maybe it was here all along. Also at the tower is the piloted Viator transport ship and Tengu, the only change being the disappearance of one pilot. Maybe there's a time dilation effect inside the force field of their tower, and it's only been five minutes perceived time since I first saw them several hours ago.
Activity! The Tengu moves! The strategic cruiser moves just far enough to swap in to a Drake, but the new battlecruiser keeps on moving, engines surging it forwards. I'm keen to see what happens next and try to get a bearing on which direction it will enter warp, but it remains under normal engine power. The Drake approaches the Viator, chomps the jet-can, which I suppose must have been new after all, and then sits still again, contemplating the contents of the can. Thus ends the excitement of the Drake.
Still simply watching ships, I stir a little when the Blackbird from earlier resurfaces. The pilot swaps the cruiser for an Onyx, the heavy interdictor a curious choice for a system apparently devoid of activity, and surely it isn't warping out to engage Sleepers. I try to follow him, only finding him back at his tower a minute later, but on my little trip around the system I pay a visit to where the exit wormhole was and has now died. Good, I can scan for the new one. I warp homewards, get back in to my covert Tengu, and return to the C3 to scan for the replacement static wormhole.
A standard examination of d-scan when entering the C3 has a new contact, a Tengu in the system again. Warping to the tower doesn't find him, but sweeping d-scan around shows we must have passed each other, as the local Tengu is now sitting on the K162 home. And as I find this out the Onyx warps out of the tower to join him. Whether my movements have been detected, or actively monitored, or they are being purely speculative in their camp I don't know, but I can't see anything to worry about. I'm probably safer now that I'm back in my Tengu too. The Onyx bubbles the K162, the Tengu jumps in to our C4. I warp away, having lost interest in them already.
Ignoring the two aggressive ships for now I launch probes and scan, resolving the new static exit to low-sec, and then wonder why I did it. It's getting late enough that I don't feel like scanning low-sec for more wormholes, and even if it weren't late and the exit were close to some stowed ships I don't think I'd want to bring them home through an Onyx's warp bubble. I recall my probes and head home for the night, just needing to navigate my way past an unintentionally feeble blockade.
Rather than throw caution to the wind I drop short of the wormhole, outside the Onyx's bubble, prefering to better control my approach. It's a simple matter to avoid the single ship in order to keep my cloak intact, and I jump through the wormhole. In the home system I ignore the session change timer and move away from the wormhole and cloak, although the Onyx doesn't appear to be in any rush to follow behind me. The hostile Tengu makes himself known, but only to decloak a second after I am once again hidden, giving him little option but to cloak again himself. The Onyx turns up but too late, making it all rather anticlimactic. I warp away, leaving the two ships to their own devices, and settle down for the night.
4 Responses to “Even the action is feeble”
Well, some nights are dull. :)
Do you fit core scanners to your bombers?
Only bombs come out of my Manticore's launcher.
How's John Preston these days?
Good, good, no prosium shots for a long time, but the gun kata is getting dusty, due to lack of opponents. :)
Going back to SBs - I've always dreaded the scenario in which I get stranded in a WH, while in my SB. Alas, going solo means you have to be like a boy scout - "Always prepared.". :)
Yeah, getting stranded is a concern. Without probes, I tend not to go through unstable or dying wormholes and try not to worry about it.