Quietness in scanning

It's all quiet on the edge of space. It's all quiet on my combat scanning probes too. A single cosmic signature in the home w-space system, our static wormhole, probably accounts for our anomalies remaining, and it's that lone signature that interests me more than the Sleepers in the anomalies for now. I jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see what, or who, is next door.

My directional scanner shows me nothing from the K162 in C3a, which isn't necessarily a bad sign. There are planets beyond the range of d-scan, so that I can covertly launch probes and hide them outside of the system is actually good. I do that, and perform a blanket scan, revealing eight anomalies and five signatures, but no ships. My notes from six months ago suggest occupation, though, and warping across sees that the tower stays in the same place. Naturally, no one's home, so I sift through the signatures.

Two wormholes, rocks, and gas is a decent result from the few signatures in the system, at least on paper. The static exit to low-sec is joined by, how sad, an N968 outbound connection to more class 3 w-space that's at the end of its natural lifetime. To low-sec I go, appearing in an uninteresting system in Molden Heath. At least, it's uninteresting until I blanket the system with my probes and see eight extra signatures.

The system becomes uninteresting again soon enough, as I resolve a dirty site, four ladar sites, rocks, some Angel rats, and a rogue drone infestation. Three 'unknown' signature types and not one wormhole to show for it. Low-sec is stupid. My best option now is to crash our static wormhole and hope for a better constellation beyond its replacement, so that's what I do. A bit of to-ing and fro-ing with massive ships collapses the wormhole without issue, but rather than dive right through the new static connection I pause for a deserved snack break.

I get back to see my glorious leader on-line and active, having resolved the replacement static wormhole but without yet opening it. We could clear some of the anomalies of Sleepers, and we could use the potential profit in our wallet, but instead we choose to look for other ships to shoot. We warp to the wormhole and jump to a new C3a, where d-scan again is clear from the K162. There may be a tower around the fourth moon of the sixth planet, I say to Fin, before opening my system map and seeing that the sixth planet is the only one in d-scan range. Never mind.

Exploring the system after launching probes and getting them in position for a blanket scan finds new occupation, but no pilots or ships. I update my notes with the tower's position before scanning the ten anomalies and eight signatures, starting with a wormhole, working through the usual sites, and, thankfully, ending with a second wormhole. But, again, a second wormhole only looks good on paper, as this one is merely a K162 from low-sec.

I exit C3a through the K162 to appear in Aridia, naturally, where scanning finds exactly nothing. Dumb, stupid Aridia. Fin goes through C3a's static connection, also to low-sec, and appears in a rather less remote system in Domain, one with an actual second wormhole in it. The K162 comes from class 3 w-space, and, on exploring through it, Fin sees a 'tower, 5/1. Probe, Buzzard, Vengeance at the tower, piloted'. Good-oh, I'm on my way.

Sure enough, a tower sits at the designated planet/moon, with a piloted frigate, covert operations boat, and assault frigate, but there's not much actual activity. There's also nowhere to hide in this small system, so what we can see on d-scan is all there is to see. That makes it awkward to launch probes covertly, but as the local pilots don't appear to be conscious I don't think it will make a difference if I drop my cloak for a few seconds.

I picked up twenty anomalies on a passive scan of the system, which made me fear for the number of signatures my probes would reveal, but there are only seven. I suppose the locals are industrialists by nature. There is even a K162 amongst the seven signatures, although it turns out to come from low-sec again, which is a disappointing motif to the evening's exploration. I exit through the K162 anyway, out of curiosity, to appear in Domain again, eight hops from the wormhole leading in to the other side of C3b.

The two wormholes in Domain linking to the same w-space system is a fancy coincidence, but I'm more sleepy than impressed. It's time to go home and off-line. Crossing low-sec and returning to C3a sees probes visible on d-scan, which is mildly interesting. Fin sees them too and, being a few seconds ahead of me, sees the probes first, relaying along information of the what and where. Sadly, 'I said it in local', which kinda gives our presence away. We're probably best sticking to our plan to go off-line.

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