Adding insult to injury

There is still an unfinished anomaly in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system. Glorious leader Fin and I didn't start it, but I happened to interrupt the combat, albeit indirectly. I managed to locate their Noctis salvager and steal the loot that survived its explosive end, causing the rest of the fleet to come and look threatening for a bit. I've come home to drop off the loot that I rightfully claimed, but I would like to know what's going to happen now.

Rather than head back to the C3 in my covert Tengu strategic cruiser I swap to a Manticore stealth bomber. The fleet is looking for and expecting the Tengu, and could prepare a counter-ambush should I strike again. But they may not be quite as prepared for the hit-and-run tactics of a bomber, flown properly. Hmm, that's a point, I haven't flown my Manticore properly for a while, but I'm sure it will all come back to me. Not today, though, as it looks like my ambush was more effective than I thought, jumping back in to the C3 seeing none of the combat ships on my directional scanner.

Actually, the disappearance of the ships strikes me as a little odd. The tower in this system is in range of d-scan, and there is still the Iteron hauler visible that has been present throughout, so I'm wondering where the other ships have gone. Of course, sometimes I'm not so bright, and it is only now I realise the ships have disappeared not because they've gone off-line en masse but because this isn't, in fact, their home system. A little scouting finds the local tower and confirms immediately that it belongs to a different corporation than the one I engaged. That would explain where they've all gone: home.

The ships have left the unfinished anomaly behind them, with quite a few Sleeper wrecks floating unclaimed. I am tempted to grab the loot from some of them, at least the two battleships, which would net me a tidy little prize, as long as I don't panic and get my Manticore destroyed by Sleepers. Oh, hullo, there's little risk of that, as the anomaly isn't actually unfinished, it has been cleared. I had the presence of mind to locate and bookmark the anomaly the fleet had been fighting in before I took my Noctis loot home, and warping to that position has me floating amongst wrecks but no threats. If they're not coming back, and it has been a fair while, I could have all this myself.

I head home and swap ships again, this time to a salvaging destroyer. A Noctis would do little good here, tractor beams not able to pull wrecks belonging to an unallied corporation and so the salvaging ship's bonuses would go to waste. The bonuses to salvager module cycle time would be a benefit, and a Noctis fitted with a micro warp drive is no slouch, but I would prefer the agility of a destroyer, a quick escape probably of better utility in this situation. I take Marxian Principles, my Cormorant from long ago, to our static wormhole, jump to the C3, and take a careful look at d-scan.

There is no change from when I left. The tower, the Iteron, nothing else. If the other corporation has come back it is not with a salvager, and they would be evil geniuses deserving of my kill if they are guarding their wrecks against my salvaging. I warp in to the site, directly to a wreck I bookmarked when I reconnoitred the despawned anomaly in my Manticore, and get busy. I loot the wrecks and salvage, having to burn between each one, which gives me some perverse pleasure in trying to find the most efficient route to take to visit each wreck in turn, and the profit piles up in my cargo hold.

I am keeping an eye on d-scan as I salvage, and it's lucky I do. Only too late do I realise that my shortest-path between the wrecks is not a maximum-profit effort, and stopping to scoop some basic drones was probably pointless, although I think I've coincidentally managed to loot and salvage the battleship wrecks by the time a Harbinger appears in the system. I am down to two final wrecks when d-scan shows me the battlecruiser, and rather than continue my path towards the next wreck I align out of the anomaly. He could be from the ambushed corporation coming to salvage, or he could be local and appearing at the tower. I'm not taking any chances.

The Harbinger warps in to the anomaly, close to my Cormorant but not much of a threat. Before his warp drives cut out mine are engaged, and I am heading back to the K162 home. He may have been there only to salvage but must have had some offensive systems fitted, and probably a fleet waiting to provide assistance should my Tengu be flushed out again. I get to the K162 safely, jump home, and drop the additional and beautiful thirty million ISK in stolen loot in to our hangar. Had I been more prepared I could have instead warped to the planet holding the local tower and bounced off that to the K162, to make it look to the Harbinger like I was local. Warping directly to the wormhole gives away more information than necessary, but it doesn't matter. Popping a Noctis, spooking a fleet, and stealing more of their loot is a good result of an evening.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: cormorant, eve online, harbinger, iteron, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, w-space