Reminder of a tower operation
16th January 2012 – 5.52 pmI really ought to replace the Legion I lost recently. Without it, we are ill-prepared to assault any juicy ships that may come our way and it would be a shame to miss a kill because I'm too busy hunting to give thought to the availability of hardware. It would be easier if losing a ship meant a ten-minute trip to a station and taking a chunk out of the corporate wallet, but the itinerant nature of w-space life means we need to be aware of convenient exits and take our opportunities when they arise. I'll see if our neighbouring class 3 w-space system has an exit close to market today.
One new site in the home system distracts me for a minute, resolving to a gravimetric site that I activate, before I'm jumping through our static wormhole. In the C3 I see a few warp bubbles and a flight of drones on my directional scanner, but nothing else of interest. There aren't even any wrecks to accompany the drones, making them look quite abandoned. I warp out, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system, finding a tower empty of pilots as I do so. Four anomalies and eight signatures is a tidy-looking system, and I soon forget my mission to market by scanning quite thoroughly, resolving two ladar sites, two radar sites, and one gravimetric site, along with two wormholes.
The C3's static wormhole exits to low-sec empire space, which is pretty standard. The second wormhole is an N968 outbound connection to more class 3 w-space, but reaching the end of its natural lifetime. I won't risk the dying wormhole, which must have been opened at least half-a-day ago, instead jumping out of the stable connection to low-sec. I appear in low-sec in the Heimatar region, sharing the system with plenty of other pilots. I wonder if the cynosural beacon accounts for the other capsuleers present, but don't think so after checking the route to market.
I am only a couple of hops from the relative safety of high-sec space, and a handful of jumps from both Amarr and Rens, either of those two systems probably being a good place to buy a replacement strategic cruiser. But the route to high-sec, short as it is, would take me through Amamake, which even innocent little me knows is a hotspot for pirates. Considering the number of pilots simply in this system, I don't quite fancy piloting any ship through Amamake without a suitable escort.
With nowhere to go and surrounded by stargates I do what I know, launching probes to scan. A couple of extra signatures in the system give me hope that I can continue exploring, perhaps even finding a serendipitous link between low-sec and high-sec space, but I simply resolve a ladar and radar site, no more wormholes to be found. I jump back to C3a and head homewards, thinking about maybe getting some Sleeper combat in later, or collapsing the wormhole to start again. But if I don't want to leave space just yet I suppose I could also take a quick look through the dying wormhole to C3b.
I have the entrance system from low-sec to C3a available, so even if the EOL wormhole collapses I should be able to get home unaided, even if it is by a somewhat tortuous route. And maybe I can surprise some pilots who think no one would risk isolating themselves. There is even a bunch of ships visible on d-scan along with a tower, but another object catches my attention, one that triggers some memory from a while back. Fin and I were here before. But how do you know this, Penny? No, not because of my notes, but because the can is named 'Merry Christmas—WHEN'.
My notes don't even provide the full story, and I have to look back through my archive to find the time that Fin and I happen upon a defenceless tower on Christmas Eve and force it in to reinforced mode. That was a fun present for them. Fin then burns off-grid from our wormhole, drops and anchors the can, and leaves the inhabitants a particularly hard-to-find memento. Surprisingly enough, the tower remains in the same place from a year ago, although I don't suppose many capsuleers would have been roaming w-space for potential tower operations on Christmas Day.
I warp to the tower, where I can see that the ships are all unpiloted. I'm not going to scan for the static null-sec connection, and don't want to risk a simple two-jump return journey for the vague possibility of extra wormholes being present. Finding that memento of our earlier adventure has made me now content with the afternoon's exploration. I turn around and head home for a sammich.
2 Responses to “Reminder of a tower operation”
Encountered your can today - No POS anywhere in the system :)
I think we can claim that as a delayed WIN.