Back to scanning and ratting
25th April 2012 – 5.59 pmMy glorious leader has found her way home and is exploring w-space again. So far, Fin's found some new gas in the home system, our static wormhole, and two wormholes in our neighbouring class 3 system. The wormholes are a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space and a static connection to low-sec, which takes us to a one-system low-sec island in Domain. I go to join her exploration, jumping in to the C3 where, as Fin says, nothing exciting is happening. A Covetor mining barge was seen briefly, but as it didn't hang around Fin got down to scanning the system. I point my ship towards the T405 to look beyond this system.
I pause at the wormhole, having spotted a second tower on my directional scanner during my considerable warp across this vast C3. The system is 95 AU across, making it easy to miss ships and occupation, particularly when an active tower is first spotted elsewhere, which Fin did. I double back to scout the inner system, where I see another tower, Iteron hauler, Imicus frigate, and some mining drones somewhere in the system. Maybe Fin's scanning interrupted the Covetor's mining after all. Either way, there's no sign of him now, and neither the hauler nor the frigate are piloted at this second tower. I make a quick scan of the system, resolving the mining drones but no gravimetric site around them, before pointing myself back towards the T405 wormhole.
I was in this class 4 system a mere ten weeks ago, and already there have been some changes. There was only one tower here when I last visited, one that should be out of d-scan range, and now I can see two. I locate the two new towers and warp further out to see the third has been moved one moon across, or more likely replaced with a different tower. No one's home, despite the three towers, so I launch probes and scan. Three signatures will take less time to resolve than the fourteen anomalies will to bookmark, particularly as I already know one of them is the K162 I entered through. The ratio of signatures to anomalies probably indicates industrialist occupation, so I take time to resolve the gravimetric site that accompanies the static connection to class 3 w-space, just in case any local pilots wake up.
Passing through the static connection to C3b doesn't present any new or exciting opportunities. D-scan is clear, as I sit over 4 AU from the nearest planet, and my notes from eight months ago show the system holding occupation and a static exit to high-sec. I launch probes and scan, revealing six signatures, six anomalies, and no ships. I find the tower where I left it and start resolving gas and a pair of magnetometric sites. A K162 from null-sec has me visiting the Insmother region, but in a system populated with another pilot and so not one where I want to risk ratting. I don't see the point in losing my ship when doing an activity I never wanted to do in the first place. I return to C3b only long enough to jump through its exit to high-sec, and I appear in Metropolis, parsecs from anywhere. How dreary.
Fin, meanwhile, has been productive. She's taken an Orca out to Domain, through C3a's static exit, and has sold loot and bought supplies, including fuel pellets for our tower. Now she could use a simple escort to help reassure her that the low-sec system remains clear, and escorts don't get more simple than me. I warp across C3b, C4a, and C3a to exit to low-sec, where a single pilot sits somewhere in the system with me. Fin recognises the name of the pilot as the one who was in the system earlier and deems it safe to bring her Orca home. I warp to the stargate anyway, just to be safe, and see the pilot sitting nearby. He's in a Navitas mining frigate, a few tens of kilometres from the stargate, and being such a tempting target I don't know if I can help my ailing security status.
I check with Fin, who confirms that the stargate was clear in the high-sec system, as I approach the Navitas, taking care not to decloak by bumping in to the stargate. This surely can't be a trap, the frigate bait for a bigger fleet, as they would have pounced on Fin's Orca. But why would a vulnerable frigate sit so far from an easily found stargate otherwise? It's not bait, it's just a temptation I should ignore. Getting opportunistic kills is fine, but sacrificing my security status, and much more time to ratting as a result, is not worth popping a basic frigate that's simply carelessly positioned. I warp out and launch probes to scan this low-sec system instead.
I resolve a wormhole in low-sec, just as the Navitas warps away and leaves the system. That's fine, maybe I'll get a proper kill in w-space. The wormhole is an outbound connection to more class 3 w-space, and I jump in to take a look around. There was a tower here seven months ago, along with an exit to low-sec, although if the structure is still here it is out of range of d-scan from the wormhole. I launch probes whilst I'm in this good position, blanket the system, and warp away to see the tower in the same place. But, yet again, there are no pilots to be found. There are some ECM drones in the system, which indicates some kind of activity, but the kind that is stale and offering no excitement. A quick poke around with my probes finds no other wormholes besides the one I entered and the static connection, so I scoop the ECM drones and head back the way I came.
I take one last look in null-sec, through the K162 in C4a, to see that this system at least remains populated. I'd prefer empty null-sec and active w-space, thanks. But just as I am about to give up on ratting the pilot disappears, leaving me alone. I warp around the rock fields, knowing I can do better than a simple rat cruiser, until I bump in to a rat battleship. I greet the Angel war general and his escort with open launchers, turning back to w-space just as a Scimitar logistics ship enters the system. That was good timing. And I think I've finished for the evening. It all feels a bit quiet of late.
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