Cracking open a Corax

I could use some company. No one's at home, the anomaly-stealers nowhere to be seen, so I'll scan for wormholes and look for some play friends. A second wormhole to go with our static connection could be promising, but the K162 from class 2 w-space is at the end of its life and not terribly enticing. Hmm, I hope whoever opened this connection hasn't messed with our wormhole. But warping across to the home system's static connection shows that to be EOL too, damn those pigfuckers and their earliness.

Shall I over-stress the wormhole to force its collapse, or wait and watch it die naturally? It could be hours, or it could be minutes. Or it could be hours. I'll collapse it myself. The chances of actually getting isolated from the home system are slim, as Mick once pointed out to me. Despite the time it takes to collapse a wormhole, waiting for polarisation effects to end across the multiple jumps required, I will only be out of the system for little more than ten seconds at a time. I'll probably be okay.

My first jump puts me in a class 3 w-space system with nothing of interest appearing on my directional scanner, but a black hole quite obviously in the background. I don't explore further, though, least of all because I'm in an Orca industrial command ship. Straight back home with me, wait for polarisation to end, and I make a second return trip in a Widow black ops ship. The wormhole shrinks to its half-mass state as I jump back home, so I repeat the two jumps but with the ship order reversed. The wormhole survives long enough for me to choke it to death with massive ships. Now my evening can begin properly.

I resolve the replacement static wormhole and jump to a new C3a, where there is a lovely and unusual sight: a tower and a ship on d-scan together. There are no wrecks, though, so I lollop around the system locating the tower, only to be surprised when the Drake is no longer there. The battlecruiser remains in the system, however, and a sweep of d-scan within the system map suggests it's now in one of the few anomalies present. I warp in to take a look and see, well, not much happening.

The Drake sits a fair distance from the curiously passive Sleepers, both apparently sizing each other up. I would be tempted to engage the Drake directly, but the ship isn't sitting anywhere near the cosmic signature, making him awkward to drop on top of. Then again, looking closer, it seems that he warped to the anomaly directly from the tower, so if I do the same, dropping short as he did, maybe I can get close to him. I can worry about what ship I want to drop on his Drake afterwards.

I bounce off the tower and in to the anomaly and, sure enough, arrive on the same vector as the Drake, but significantly further from the cosmic signature than he did. This is easily fixed, except that now the battlecruiser is in combat with the Sleepers and moving around, making his position rather unpredictable. But now it's not just the Drake in the system. A Velator frigate appearing on d-scan gets my attention, and it appearing on my overview gets even more attention. The frigate warps directly to the cosmic signature, gets blown up by Sleepers, and the ejected pod simply sits in the middle of the anomaly. That's curious, but not particularly important.

What to do about the Drake. I can't reliably drop anything but my cloaky Loki on top of him, and the age of the pilot suggests his skills could ensure his Drake has enough of a shield to withstand my covert boat's firepower. I'll wait for a salvager. It's going to take a while at this speed, as the Drake takes another break, apparently with the Sleepers observing the ceasefire too, but not as long as it could be. The wave of Sleepers is finally obliterated and another wave doesn't appear. I dunno why.

The Drake warps out of the anomaly, the pod stays near the Velator wreck, and I align my Loki towards the site from my perch, as I watch d-scan for changes. I see from afar the Drake drop to a pod, and the pod hop in to a Corax. The destroyer seems to me like an odd choice for salvager, but maybe the pilot flies old school. Now I just hope for a good result. And I get it. The Corax warps in to the site on top of the cosmic anomaly, which puts it on top of the pod. That's what I was hoping for.

Rather than the destroyer warping to any of the wrecks spread around the cleared anomaly, dropping on top of the pod has them close enough together to make them both targets. I warp my Loki towards the pair, decloaking when close, and aim for the Corax. I get a positive lock and disrupt his warp engines, ensuring I stay within range of my warp scrambler, before turning my attention to the pod. I gain a lock on that too and start shooting. As I am essentially chasing behind the Corax it takes a few shots before one lands solidly on the unmoving pod and cracks it open, but out comes the corpse. Now for the real target.

The Corax isn't going anywhere, and d-scan remains clear of any potential help. My autocannons make short work of the destroyer, although try as I might to catch the pod in the middle of the exploding ship it warps away from the anomaly easily enough. Even so, I have a corpse to scoop, even if not from the Corax, and two wrecks to loot and shoot.

I grab the loot from a nearby Sleeper wreck too, but don't waste time looting any more. I reload my guns and cloak, happy with the simple kill, and warp to the tower in time to see the surviving pod board a Buzzard covert operations boat and warp away. That's a good idea. I think I'll scan too.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: buzzard, corax, drake, eve online, loki, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, velator, w-space, widow