Looking for rats and finding trouble

Both the static wormhole and glorious leader Fin have collapsed. Fin orchestrated collapsing the wormhole before deciding it was already late enough. I'm keen to take another look around w-space in the hopes of finding an exit close to Jita so I can buy a new and expensive toy. I jump to our new neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see a tower and two carriers on my directional scanner. I'm going to assume the Nidhoggur and Thanatos are both unpiloted, and launch my scanning probes right here. A blanket scan of the system reveals only two signatures to accompany seven anomalies, which makes scanning as simple as it can get.

Locating the tower here is straightforward too, as it's in the same place from my previous visit seven months ago. I make a note and resolve the static exit to false-sense-of-sec empire space, or low-sec as it's more commonly known. I leave w-space to appear in a system in the Metropolis region by myself. It's not a great place to bring a marauder through, but would be a neat opportunity to regain some security status brutally ripped away from me if I weren't once again in the middle of a faction warfare constellation. There are no suitable rats to engage here, and I doubt I'll find anything else in nearby systems either. Even so, I check my star map and see the constellation is quiet, so pick a direction and head one hop over to scan again.

This second system is ripe with faction warfare anomalies, but there are also seven promising-looking signatures. I'm bound to find some rats I can pop to increase my security status amongst all of these sites. The first signature turns out to be a wormhole, which is very funny, space, ha ha. The second is full of drones, which don't offer security status gains, and I'm still not laughing. The next is another wormhole, and another, and a fourth wormhole, before finally resolving a radar site! The seventh signature is a fifth wormhole, just for kicks. Oh well, I suppose I have more to explore, if perhaps not the time, and a radar site to rat in first.

I'm not sure popping a single frigate could be considered 'ratting'. It's all the first wave of the radar site comprises and without a codebreaker fitted I won't be able to trigger further waves. This is really not going as I had hoped. I'll check the wormholes and see if I can find a soft target acting stupidly to pop to lift my spirits. Warping around sees a C3 K162, C2 K162, and C1 K162, but they don't get any lower, the last two being a C2 K162 and C3 K162. I completely ignore the symmetry and head for the middle, the K162 from class 1 w-space, hoping to find the softest targets first.

The class 1 system looks clear on d-scan from the wormhole and warping around finds no occupation or activity. Despite this implying another K162 to find I have four more wormholes to check back in the stupid-sec system, and am not going to scan any deeper. I'm just looking for easy targets. I jump back to low-sec, pick one of the K162s from class 2 w-space, and jump through to see roughly the same as in the C1. Warping around finds a tower here, though, along with a piloted Viator transport ship and Prowler hauler, and unpiloted Ibis frigate. I sit and watch the ships for a couple of minutes, hoping they'll collect planet goo, but it's like watching paint dry. In the case of the Minmatar-built Prowler, it's like watching metal rust. I leave the pair of pilots behind and try the next system.

C2b looks rather busier than the previous two systems. Two towers are on d-scan along with maybe two-dozen ships, mostly combat hulls but with some industrials too. There are some probes visible on d-scan too, so someone is active and I warp off to locate the towers, wondering just how many of these ships are piloted. Not the Mammoth hauler in one tower, but the Orca industrial command ship and Helios covert operations boat in the second are. But that leaves loads of ships still unaccounted for. A bit more warping around confirms I haven't missed a tower somewhere, and adjusting d-scan shows a lack of Sleeper wrecks. I'm confused.

Here we go. A Dominix battleship warps in to the second tower with a Rupture cruiser coming in behind it, although they head right back out again. A Hurricane warps in, as does a Harbinger and a second Hurricane, the battlecruisers followed by another Orca. Blimey, it's all go, and the movement of the Orca gives me an inkling as to what's happening. I warp to the exit to low-sec, the wormhole I just entered the system through, dropping sensibly short to see a small but significant fleet of combat ships mostly loitering around it. The bigger ships are jumping in and out of the system, and I doubt they are doing so for fun. The fleet is collapsing the wormhole, my route home, and I have no idea if I'll be able to get past them. This is looking a bit sticky.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: dominix, eve online, harbinger, helios, hurricane, ibis, mammoth, mmorpg, nidhoggur, orca, penny ibramovic, prowler, rupture, scanning, thanatos, viator, w-space