Persevering for a PI popping

It feels like a while since I've shot another pilot for kicks and giggles. I should remedy that. I've got the disco playing, let's go hunting! Well, exploring first, and there's no guarantee I'll find anyone, but thanks for harshing my buzz, Penny's inner voice. Even so, I have a good start to this afternoon's adventures, as two new signatures in the home system both turn out to be wormholes. One is a K162 from class 4 w-space, the other a K162 from class 2 w-space. Normally, I'd jump in to the C2 to look for soft targets, but that K162 is looking rather wobbly and may not last much longer. I'd better leave it alone for now.

Jumping through the healthy K162 to C4a has a tower visible on my directional scanner, but no ships. The tower wasn't here six months ago, so I can't rely on my notes to warp directly to it and need to locate it the old-fashioned way. But as there's no one here and no guarantee of other K162s to find, I head back the way I came and across the home system to explore through our static wormhole. Our neighbouring class 3 system doesn't look any more active, only a couple of off-line towers visible on d-scan from the wormhole. Launching probes and performing a blanket scan reveals no ships, but it does show seven signatures and a clump of twenty-nine anomalies all in the centre of the system.

I find a tower on the outskirts of the system, with no one home, and start scanning. Picking the signatures in no particular order, I resolve a magnetometric site, some gas, a wormhole, a radar site, a second wormhole, and some more gas. Fascinating. The wormholes are, well, the first one is the system's static exit to low-sec empire space, which I jump through to bookmark the low-sec side before returning home to poke through the dying connection to class 2 w-space. Now that I have a way home I can risk the wormhole collapsing on me. Or I could, if it were still there. It seems the wormhole really was quite wobbly, as it has died in the short time I've been scanning.

Back in the C3 I check the second wormhole I resolved, which drearily turns out to be a K162 from low-sec. Popping out through the K162 puts me, love a duck, in Canard in the Genesis region, where I may as well scan for more connections. Of the four extra signatures, one is a wormhole that dies before I can reach it, the second is also a wormhole, a K162 from class 1 w-space that is nearly dead, and one radar and magnetometric site each. I still have my way home, so I quickly poke my nose in to the C1. I see a Dominix and Armageddon on d-scan, a lack of wrecks probably putting the two battleships unpiloted in the tower. That's good enough reconnaissance for me, and I jump back through the dying wormhole to low-sec.

I pop a few Blood Raider rats in low-sec to pass some time and gain some security status, then return to C3a, warp across the system, and exit through the static connection to resume scanning for wormholes. I don't find any, only another magnetometric and radar site pair, and a trial yard, whatever that is. But heading back to w-space and across C3a now has a Buzzard covert operations boat and Dominix battleship sitting piloted in the tower, and the pilot of the Dominix soon swaps in to a Prorator transport ship. That's mildly interesting, but I don't rate my chances of catching the cloaky transport.

I watch the Prorator for a while, as it engages in the thrilling activity of sitting still, before realising I could be more productive elsewhere. I have paint I could be watching dry. I head home to take a break. Except a pang of persistence hits me and I feel compelled to take a second look in C4a, through the K162 connecting in us. Jumping in has activity in the previously empty system, a Tengu strategic cruiser and core scanning probes visible on d-scan. As I ponder how my own scanning Tengu would cope in combat against another the probes vanish and a Buzzard appears on d-scan. I suppose that's not a covert scanning Tengu after all, so I warp off towards the tower to see what's happening.

What's happening, Penny, is that the Tengu pilot has swapped to a Bestower whilst I was in warp. That is awesome. I keep my eyes on the hauler and, yep, there he goes, warping off to what is most likely a customs office. I follow, hoping I've picked the right office, dropping out of warp to realise that I haven't, as the Bestower is nowhere to be seen, except indirectly on d-scan. I spin d-scan around to try to catch up with the hauler but luck is with me, as the customs office I'm sitting on is next on the Bestower's route. He warps in to me instead.

The only disadvantage to the Bestower warping to me is that we end up on different sides of the customs office. I can easily burn in to range of my warp disruptor, but I won't be able to bump the hauler with the office in the way. I'll just have to do my best from where I am. At least I can decloak and get my systems hot as the Bestower drops out of warp, unable to effect any course change as he does. As a result, it is pretty easy to get a positive lock on my target, and my warp disruptor keeps the ship from fleeing as missiles tear through his hull. I didn't need to bump him after all.

I'm not quite quick enough to snare the pilot's ejected pod, instead watching it warp away and, checking d-scan, getting back in to his Tengu at the tower. I loot the wreck of wondrous spoils that is an expanded cargohold II module and shoot the wreck, cloaking again once done. The Tengu doesn't come out to get revenge but simply floats passively in his tower. That's okay, I got my kill, even if it is a soft target and with no corpse to show for my efforts. I can go home and grab a sammich now.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: armageddon, bestower, buzzard, dominix, eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, prorator, pvp, scanning, tengu, w-space