Worst scout ever
2nd March 2013 – 3.46 pmIs there anything happening now? All I could find in the w-space constellation earlier was Aii, sucking up gas in the home system. I'm pretty sure I can't shoot him. Pretty sure. Aii's gone, though, and so has a ladar site. Coincidence? I'll ponder that question as I perform a blanket scan of the system, but forget it when I see no new signatures. I'll be roaming through the couple of connected class 3 systems to look for activity. I hope I find some.
Jumping to C3a and warping to the tower, once my ship turns to point in the right direction under the effects of a black hole, sees the same empty Blackbird recon ship as was here earlier. I don't bother checking through the static wormhole to null-sec k-space. Instead, I warp to the N968 wormhole to C3b and jump through. The tower in C3b is within range of my directional scanner from the K162, unlike in C3a, so I don't have to go anywhere to see the Iteron hauler that probably remains unpiloted. That Mastodon is new, though.
I warp to the tower to see what the transport ship will do. Not much. In fact, I'd go as far as saying the Mastodon does nothing. Thankfully, my glorious leader comes on-line, allowing us to chat as I continue to silently urge the transport to leave the safety of his force field. But he doesn't. Why is the capsuleer even in space, if all he's going to do is idle? Oh, he's flying Minmatar. I suppose the ships need to be turned over occasionally just to keep them running. Leave them for a few days and they probably seize.
Whatever the reason the Mastodon's in space, he isn't long after. But when one pilot goes, another comes, this one in a Tengu strategic cruiser. That's a more interesting target. I alert Fin to the change and ask her to get to the N968 in C3a, whilst I cover C3b's static exit. If the ship moves, hopefully we can catch it. Except there is another K162 in C3b, also coming from null-sec, so we are relying not only on the pilot's curiosity but a specific kind of curiosity that guides him through w-space.
The Tengu warps from the tower but not to a wormhole, only to empty space, where he launches probes, and cloaks. That's a good start. A minute or so later the Tengu appears on d-scan again, and lingers for longer than expected. Whatever he's up to, I want to find out, so warp out, launch combat scanning probes, and go to look for the strategic cruiser. I react a bit slowly, though, and by the time I return to the inner system the Tengu has cloaked again. Or, I suppose, gone off-line.
It takes me a couple of minutes to notice, but I eventually realise there are no probes visible on d-scan, which are kind of a crucial component of scanning. That's when it clicks that the Tengu's appearance on d-scan was his ship going off-line, his cloak deactivating as the ship was powered-down. As far as I can tell, he didn't even resolve a single signature. Worst scout ever.
Oh well, all is quiet once again. Fin and I stand down, and think what to do next. Crash our static wormhole, I suppose, and look for better opportunity through a new one. The plan stalls when we get home and core scanning probes are visible in the system. In case of a new wormhole connecting to us I launch my own probes and perform a blanket scan, warping back to the static wormhole to simultaneously confirm no new signatures and see a Buzzard jump to C3a. The covert operations boat wasn't orange, so isn't from the w-space systems we are currently aware of, but the lack of new signatures at home at least shows that he didn't come from behind us.
To see if the constellation has been extended I jump to C3a to scan again, as Fin throws an Orca industrial command ship through the wormhole to start the collapse. There's nothing new in C3a, suggesting the Buzzard came from null-sec. Whatever, I'm not chasing him out there. I return home and help Fin kill our connection. Or, rather, critically wound it. We could give the wormhole a final push, but rather than risk one of us getting isolated we decide simply to call it a night. We can have more adventure tomorrow.
3 Responses to “Worst scout ever”
Seeing the title, I was sure this was my biography come to pass.
Tish and pish. There isn't a 'glorious' in sight in the title.
Forgot to add I was greatly relieved to NOT be the titular character!