Scanning until there's no more life left

Home alone. I won't construct elaborate traps for potential invaders, though. We already have them in the form of gas clouds, they just aren't attracting any suckers yet. It's no surprise that we have no visitors, because scanning finds no wormholes except for the static connection. I resolve it and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see if anyone other than me is active.

My directional scanner is clear from the K162. How disappointing. The system looks to be small too, although careful inspection shows that one planet sits outside of d-scan range. The far planet even has a tower around one of its moons, but sadly there are no ships or pilots to stalk. I launch probes and scan. Fourteen anomalies and ten signatures look to be reduced to only the static exit to low-sec being of interest, until a second wormhole crops up near the end, which is nice.

I poke out to low-sec to bookmark the other side of the wormhole, which is in a faction warfare system in Black Rise and of little interest, before returning to C3a to see where the other wormhole leads. It's a connection to more class 3 w-space. That's good enough, and I press on through the constellation. D-scan shows me a tower and no ships, which is confirmation that I am indeed in a C3. One planet out of range held three towers a year ago, but a canister somewhere in the system dated four weeks after my visit indicates when that corporation moved out. The new tower is easy enough to locate.

Scanning C3b has two more wormholes amongst the seven anomalies and seven signatures. The static exit to low-sec is general issue for class 3 w-space systems, but the K162 from class 5 w-space could be interesting. I jump in to find out, and see a black hole prominently in front of me, and a tower with no ships on d-scan. Locating the tower is a miserable process, if only because it's so easy. The system is small, nothing is out of d-scan range, and there are few moons. All I can see is all there is to see. Back to scanning with me.

Naturally, the eleven anomalies and twelve signatures hold another wormhole, and the K162 leads to another C5 system, as a good chain of class 5 w-space would. A second wormhole is less exciting, being a K162 from high-sec, but offers another safety net, even if it turns out to be in Gallente space and near Dodixie. Jumping to C5b has a clear d-scan return and, repeating a motif of the evening, one planet out of range. This time, however, the far planet doesn't hold a tower, making the system unoccupied as well as inactive. On the positive side, this should mean there is likely to be a wormhole waiting to be found.

Launching probes and performing a blanket scan shows that whatever wormhole may be here doesn't really want to be found, not with twenty-nine signatures to sift through. But concentrating on the chubby probables, I pluck a wormhole from the noise within a couple of minutes. It turns out to be a Z142 connection to null-sec, but that's okay. Before I drop out of warp at the first wormhole I've resolved a second. EVE Hermit is now probably scheming to kill me, but I'm not worried. He's got to find me first.

Sadly, the second wormhole I find, whilst continuing the backwards chain of class 5 w-space, is at the end of its life. Maybe the wormhole has a couple of hours of life left in it, but I've stopped caring for scanning my way through inactive system after inactive system. So, of course, I head out to null-sec to rat and scan, when I see it empty of pilots. I don't understand myself sometimes either. Ratting bags me a puny cruiser, and scanning three extra signatures a wormhole, but only a K162 from a different null-sec system. I don't know which one, and I don't find out. It's all quiet again, and I'm heading home.

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