Scanning to high-sec can be an end in itself

Aii and Fin are on-line as I wake up in w-space. 'Are we being industrious?' Nope, my glorious leader is scanning the home system, and Aii is locked out, like an errant adolescent. I see from our shared bookmarks that we have a few rock sites in the system, which we probably need to turn a profit, as a blanket scan shows that our anomalies have been stolen again. There are also wormholes, two of them, with Fin resolving a K162 from class 2 w-space before our static connection to class 3 w-space. I leapfrog past Fin to the C2, whilst she continues scanning and heads to C3a.

A class 2 w-space system connecting to our class 4 home should also contain a second static wormhole to high-sec empire space, which could be good for bringing Aii home. 'Unless it's a Gallente faction warfare system', Fin says. Yeah, that would be worse than Aridia. I warp out to launch probes, consulting my notes whilst in flight. My last visit was over two years ago, and I doubt my notes stay relevant, but I see that I found a wormhole to class 1 w-space back then. I imagine that was a random connection. It should be easy enough to find out.

It's easier to confirm the static connections in C2a than I thought. The system is bare, with only two signatures in total. Scanning is therefore pretty simple, and accomplished after locating a local tower bereft of ships and pilots. I resolve the second wormhole, adding more evidence that class 2 systems with a static connection to class 4 w-space also connect to high-sec, and update my notes to reflect the actual static wormhole types.

I exit C2a, to bookmark the other side of the wormhole and give Aii a beacon to guide him through high-sec, appearing in a system in the Derelik region. The Janus system, in fact, which has me making hilarious Janus/anus puns in corporate chat whilst I scan. Thankfully for my colleagues, there aren't many signatures in the high-sec system, and I warp to a wormhole that is dead-on-arrival, ignore some rocks, and find a bona fide wormhole, an R943 outbound connection to more class 2 w-space. That'll stop me mentioning what ships I can see in my Janus.

I can see ships in C2b as well. Not on the wormhole, which wouldn't be too threatening on a high-sec connection, but on my directional scanner. Seven of them. But no wrecks. Locating the tower also visible finds the ships too, and sees that the Loki strategic cruiser, Nemesis stealth bomber, Sleipnir command ship, and Prowler transport are all piloted. Before the pilots get busy, I warp out and launch probes, ready to find all the anomalies and maybe hunt the pilots in other sites.

Hello, five mining drones are floating near this outer planet. It's a shame that I missed the miner that went with them, but never mind. I launch probes and perform a blanket scan of the system, revealing two anomalies, seven signatures, seven ships, and five drones. There isn't a signature near the mining drones, though, so I don't suppose anyone will be back to claim them. Poor little buggers. They only wanted to serve their master, however deluded he was to be mining.

I return to the tower, ready to stalk any of the pilots, as a new contact in a second Loki appears. He moves towards a hangar, swaps to a Helios covert operations boat, and follows behind the now-active Nemesis in warping directly upwards out of the tower. It would be coincidental to have a wormhole appear in such a position, but not impossible, and although I rather suspect the cov-ops has warped to a safe spot to launch probes I don't see any appear on d-scan. Neither do I see the Nemesis and Helios again, suggesting they hold their cloaks, until they reappear at the tower.

The Helios returns first. The pilot goes off-line as the Nemesis comes back, and the Nemesis goes off-line. Well, that was fun. I'm almost interested in delving deeper in to the constellation, what with a static connection to w-space to find, but I'm a little distracted. I also suspect the two cloaky ships either just reconnoitred the neighbouring system and found nothing, or reconnoitred the wormhole itself to see it still dying and not yet dead, hence their quick return. I think I'll just make this an early night. I've got a high-sec connection for Aii to use, and Fin's found a second in C3a. That's a good result.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: eve online, helios, loki, mmorpg, nemesis, penny ibramovic, prowler, scanning, sleipnir, w-space