Well-connected w-space

All hail the glorious leader! Fin has collapsed our static connection in my brief absence, isolating us from the previous neighbouring class 3 w-space system where a bit of light ambushing occurred. Now we can start again. Scanning finds the new static wormhole easily enough, and we jump through to explore the C3 beyond. A Stiletto interceptor visible on my directional scanner looks a bit threatening, a Cheetah covert operations boat less so, although they may well both be at the tower also visible. Locating the tower is easy again, my last visit to this system being only three months ago, and I find both ships to be floating unpiloted inside its force field. That's fairly unthreatening.

My notes list this system as having a static connection to null-sec k-space, which is what the Iteron hauler was trying to use when I destroyed it, and its cargo of moongooium worth 750 million ISK, the last time I was here. I doubt I'll see that type of mayhem again today, but perhaps the exit to null-sec could be useful for some significant ratting. And blanketing this small and inactive C3 with my probes reveals three anomalies Fin and I could clear for some pocket iskies before heading out to null-sec. So we have a plan, and we know how those have been working out lately. We only need to ensure that the eleven signatures aren't riddled with wormholes like the system we just isolated ourselves from.

Two wormholes appear under my probes almost straight away, which isn't the best start to ensuring a quiet system. A third, fourth, and a fifth wormhole pretty much put an end to our tentative plan to earn ISK and gain security status. I suppose at least we can explore, but we need to decide where to go first. We have the choice of the static connection to null-sec, a K162 from class 4 w-space, a K162 from class 3 w-space, an outbound connection to class 3 w-space, and an outbound connection to class 4 w-space. That's a pretty good selection, I have to admit. It's just a shame that we isolated ourselves from one super-connected system to land in another.

I'm sitting on the T405 wormhole when we decide there are no more connections to be found, so I may as well jump through this outbound link to C4b to start with. D-scan is clear on the K162. I launch probes and blanket the system, warping off to explore as I do. My probes show me anomalies and signatures, d-scan an off-line tower. The system is unoccupied and inactive, and my notes tell me there is a static connection to more class 4 w-space to be found. I think my time will be better spent diving through a different wormhole than scanning here. I head back to C3a and jump through the K162 to C3b.

Again d-scan is clear after jumping through the wormhole, this time with only one planet out of range of my scanner. Warping away to investigate reveals nothing of interest, merely some off-line towers. I've been here before too, noting that this C3 also holds an exit to null-sec. There is probably another wormhole to find here, a K162, but scanning reveals twenty-four signatures dotted amongst the thirteen anomalies, and I don't care to sift through so many with other options still behind me. It's possible I could find a K162 here but experience tells me that w-spacers tend to be more active in their neighbouring systems than at home, so any system I find is unlikely to have potential targets.

I jump back to C3a and head out to null-sec, where Fin has kindly found me a rat battleship in an asteroid field. If only there weren't active pilots in the system, one zipping around in a Sabre interdictor, I could get another soul-drainingly minor gain to my security status. As it stands, the risk outweighs the lack of reward, so we abandon the rat for now and explore more w-space. There's enough of it today. We jump back to C3a and head to C4a, through the K162. D-scan is clear, but my blanket scan reveals three ships. Warping around sees two Hurricane battlecruisers somewhere, but not at a tower. I wonder if maybe they are harvesting gas but a check of their range from my position shows them to be much too far from a planet to be in any type of site. I have no idea what they are doing.

The Hurricanes are also too far away to get a good bearing on their position using d-scan. A distance of 11 AU can introduce some significant azimuth errors even on a tight five-degree beam. I bounce between planets, making bookmarks as I do, to try to get closer, only to see a Tengu strategic cruiser appear on d-scan. One of the Hurricanes has moved too, as there now only seems to be one in deep space. I warp out, launch probes, and get them out of the system for now as I try to get a bearing on the lone battlecruiser. And it looks like the other Tengu is doing the same. Being rather more brazen about it, the Tengu looks to have found the Hurricane and joined him, but when I try to get a more precise scan I manage to find nothing at all. Expanding the scanning range on my probes doesn't help, which d-scan explains by the ships apparently having warped out from where they were. No wonder my probes couldn't find them.

I look for the second Hurricane and find him in a more mundane position, although still quite distant from a planet. He's undoubtedly now on a wormhole. My probes must have been seen, so I rather less carefully position them near the battlecruiser and successfully scan his location, which indeed coincides with a wormhole. I warp across to see the Hurricane sit on top of a K162 from more class 4 w-space, and he is sitting right on top of it. That's some nifty manoeuvring, sir. But there's not much we can do here. If we were to engage he could jump back immediately, and if we followed it would likely only be to see empty space or an ambush. And the evening is getting late anyway. I think it's time to go home. A quick diversion back to null-sec finds a different rat battleship to pop, thanks to Fin again, which stops the evening from being entirely unproductive, but sometimes there is simply too much space to explore to get anything done.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: cheetah, eve online, hurricane, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, sabre, scanning, stiletto, tengu, w-space