Laying the spacework

I'm taking time to make an afternoon reconnaissance of w-space, hopefully laying the groundwork for later ambushes. Or spacework. Either way, I start as I always do by scanning the home system. All looks normal and I resolve our static wormhole, letting me jump to our neighbouring class 3 system. I have a Maelstrom battleship, Blackbird recon ship, and Cheetah covert operations boat visible on my directional scanner in the C3, along with a tower, which is startling easy to find. Despite my notes informing me that this is my third visit, the last having been four months ago, I only need to open the system map to locate the local tower.

This C3 is tiny and holds a mere two moons around its eight planets, both moons around different planets. As towers can only be anchored to moons I am soon in warp to see what pilots are here. All that my notes can add is that a second tower has been torn down since my last visit, cleanly too, with nothing left behind. When I reach the still-active tower I see that the Cheetah is piloted, the other two ships are not. There are no probes visible on d-scan and the Cheetah looks inactive, so despite there being nowhere to hide I warp out to launch my own probes so that I can scan. I doubt the pilot is paying enough attention to notice what I'm doing.

There is only one anomaly to be revealed in the C3, but our K162 home should at least be a little concealed amongst the dozen signatures. I start scanning through them, the Cheetah still refusing to move. I resolve and bookmark one gas site, two rock-mining sites, one magnetometric site, and five radar sites. I imagine it's a waste of time to bookmark those radar sites, their quantity probably an indication of their not being raided regularly, but I do it anyway. And it looks like I'm finding only a single wormhole until I get to the last signature in the system. The static exit to low-sec empire space is joined by a K162 from class 4 w-space. And it's not ours, I checked.

I jump out of the static wormhole to find myself in the Bleak Lands, bookmarking the entrance to w-space, conveniently one hop from high-sec and only a handful from Amarr, before heading back to explore C4a. A Condor frigate and Bestower hauler are on d-scan, along with a tower, and I rush to find the industrial ship only to see it sitting unpiloted inside the tower's force field. Knowing the hauler's not about to collect planet goo I can slow down and take a better look around. My probes show me only the two ships I know about, along with a lonely single anomaly and two signatures. It would be churlish not to resolve that second signature, the first being the static connection to class 3 w-space, but I only find another radar site.

The pocket of w-space connected to our home system is mapped. I can head out to low-sec and see if there is any more w-space to find that doesn't require jumping through a stargate. Six signatures in the low-sec system is a promising result, and amongst some dumb rocks and a space monastery I find two more wormholes, both K162s, one from class 1 w-space and one from class 3 w-space. I'll explore in to the C1 first. An Anathema is on d-scan when I enter, the cov-ops disappearing before I can determine where it may be. I warp away from the wormhole to launch probes, spotting the Anathema a second time, making me think that the cov-ops has just crossed this C1, decloaking on wormholes.

My probes show me a mere four signatures, which includes rocks and more rocks along with the other wormhole I'm expecting to see. I drop out of warp near a K162 from class 2 w-space, which is a good result for continued exploration. Jumping in sees a Crow interceptor, Scorpion battleship, and tower on d-scan, which I locate to find the Crow piloted but not the Scorpion. I ignore him and warp out to launch probes, bookmarking three anomalies and resolving five signatures as the Crow perks up and warps out of the tower. I scan rocks and gas before finding the second static wormhole, which d-scan tells me the Crow is sitting on. I suppose he's patrolling his home's borders, which could make it tricky for me to leave.

A new contact in a Cyclone battlecruiser appears at the tower in the C2, but the pilot just sets his ship to orbit lazily around the tower inside the force field, so I leave him to investigate the second wormhole and the Crow. The wormhole exits to high-sec, which could be interesting if the interceptor weren't bouncing between the two wormholes here. I head back the way I came, waiting for the Crow to disappear to the connection to high-sec before burning to the wormhole and jumping to the C1. The C1 remains empty and uninteresting, so I jump to low-sec and warp across to explore the second class 3 w-space system exiting to this system.

An off-line tower on d-scan is not particularly interesting, but it's my fourth visit to this system and the previous one six months ago suggests there is an on-line tower somewhere out of range of d-scan. I warp away to find it still there but with no one home. I launch probes and scan the system, the eight signatures amongst the seven anomalies persuading me to make a cursory check for other K162s. Exploration has taken its time already and I am no longer bookmarking every site I find, so I hope this is not the system that wakes up later when I come out to roam.

The only other connection I find in this C3 is a K162 from low-sec, which doesn't provide any temptation to jump through and continue scanning. The w-space constellation is mapped, at least to the k-space boundaries. I head home, not bothering to make a second sweep of any of the systems, only noting that the Cheetah in C3a is now gone. I park my ship and go off-line, getting food and taking some time away from the controls, giving w-space the opportunity to get comfortable and feel safe. I'll be back later to reap the benefits of my reconnaissance.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: anathema, bestower, blackbird, cheetah, condor, crow, cyclone, eve online, maelstrom, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, scorpion, w-space