I brake for d-scan

I would say that Shev's here, early as usual, but apparently he isn't. He's out of w-space and in null-sec k-space, looking to cosy up to a pirate faction. More power to him, I say, as it sounds like a lark and is different to my run-of-the-mill exploration. He can still give me a sitrep of what he found when scanning his way out of the home system, which is pretty much just that we have a neighbouring class 3 w-space system holding a tower with unpiloted ships in its force field. It's not exactly inspiring, but at least it will quell my initial excitement of thinking there are actually pilots in our w-space constellation.

There are no new signatures in the home system to give me a different route to fly, so I take my covert Loki strategic cruiser to C3a. Sure enough, there's a tower and a bunch of ships on my directional scanner, but I don't get my hopes up for activity just yet. I warp to the tower bookmark that Shev made earlier to see that the unpiloted ships he saw remain unpiloted. The only good aspect of the lack of capsuleers is that no one will see me launch probes, as this C3 is too small to offer anywhere to hide from d-scan. And I'm scanning now, even though the system was scanned earlier, because I'm hoping a new connection or two has opened up since Shev came through.

My combat probes picked up the nine ships in the tower, along with six anomalies and four signatures. That's really not much, and two of the signatures are our K162 wormhole and the static exit to high-sec empire space. And despite one of the other signatures resolves to be a ladar site it looks like I get lucky, as there is another wormhole to be found. It's even a K162 from class 2 w-space, which would normally get me tingling with expectation, but this one is critically unstable and liable to collapse with even the slightest extra stress.

Then again, maybe there's a reason someone took the trouble to try to kill the wormhole. If a fleet is active and doesn't want visitors I could give them a surprise, as long as I can get home should I collapse the wormhole when passing through it. I don't even need to leave this C3 to give myself a route home either, as Shev bookmarked the other side of the static exit on his way out, so with no concern about the health of the wormhole I jump through to C2a. The wormhole survives! And d-scan is clear. Hopefully there is more to see, and the system is big enough to hide other ships around a planet or two, so I move away from the wormhole, cloak, and warp away to explore.

There's really not much to see in this class 2 system, which is a little disappointing. I had hoped to find a mining operation in progress, a few exhumers thinking themselves safe with a known critically unstable wormhole discouraging any visitors. Sadly, there is only a tower with no ships on a far planet, and no activity that I can tell. Even scanning only gives me two anomalies, some rocks, gas, a radar site, and another exit to high-sec. The exit leads to the Domain region, and a system a piddling eleven hops from C3a's exit to Tash-Murkon, but I bet some quantum entanglement has happened there. If the critical wormhole had actually collapsed as I passed through it I'd now be in a C2 with an exit leading to a far corner of null-sec.

Scanning the high-sec system in Domain finds plenty of ships but no signatures beyond the K162 I'm sitting on, so I return to w-space and C3a. The wormhole still doesn't collapse, but I doubt I'll be heading back that way. Instead, I warp to the exit to high-sec in this system to scan there instead. But hold on, as I approach the wormhole a last refresh of d-scan looks different. That Manticore is new. I turn my Loki around and warp to the tower, where I find the stealth bomber and confirm that it is indeed a new contact and piloted. Even better, the pilot switches to a Mammoth hauler with barely time to get his bearings.

Please don't go to high-sec, please don't go to high-sec, please don't go to high-sec. You beauty! The Mammoth aligns out of the tower and warps to the nearest customs office, with me following close behind. I decloak as my warp engines start to cut out, and I get my systems hot and ready to activate as soon as the recalibration delay ends. I gain a positive lock on the hauler, disrupt its warp drive, and start shooting. I am conscious that some haulers fit warp core stabilisers, so am reluctant to use my stasis webifier quite so readily, as that tends to ironically speed them in to warp and away from me. And as the Mammoth is taking solid hits but not much shield damage I wonder if this pilot is a cautious one.

I thought I was burning towards the Mammoth as I started shooting, but it seems I was a bit eager in activating my micro warp drive, trying to do so whilst my warp engines were still engaged. Wanting to give the hauler a solid bump I get the MWD active and surge towards my target. My Loki spins the hauler on its axis, turning it back towards the customs office, before I back it off a little to get a run-up for a second bump. And now that the Mammoth is taking heavy armour damage he realises his ship is lost, ejecting his pod and warping clear, his defensive action not passing me by but definitely giving him an advantage in awareness. Another volley pops the Mammoth, and I loot some shield modules—which along with the pulsar phenomenon helps explain the sturdiness of the ship's shields—and expanded cargoholds before shooting the wreck.

Reloading and cloaking, I lurk back at the tower for a minute, but the pod of the hauler isn't doing anything else. I'll continue with my plan and head to high-sec to scan. Again, I drop short, precisely because one last look at d-scan can show a changed situation, and warping to zero will decloak my ship and effectively force me to jump, but this time the nine ships and a pod remain as nine ships and a pod. Exiting to the system in Tash-Murkon and scanning finds as little as in the system in Domain from C2a, but that's okay. I've explored some w-space and had my wicked way with a hauler, so I turn my Loki around and head home for an early night. I pause in C3a long enough to see the pod get slotted back in to the Manticore and warp out to a safe spot, presumably with the same aim as me, to leave w-space just as I found it.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: eve online, loki, mammoth, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, w-space