Expanding further

I come on-line for an exploratory poke around w-space to see my glorious leader and the poppet in the home system. I sense great mining is afoot. But nope, 'we have a C2, with a high-sec to Kador'. That's the only K162 in the home system, and the second static connection in the class 2 system is its sole signature, apparently. Our neighbouring class 3 system, through our own static wormhole, is left unscanned for now, as it contains an exit to null-sec that no one can really be interested in.

I'm curious about the C2. Fin's been there and scanned, but I always like to see for myself. I jump through the K162, update my directional scanner, and see three towers, a Badger hauler, Magnate frigate, Impel transport, Impairor frigate, and two shuttles scattered around the system. Fin ignored looking for the towers to instead use the high-sec exit to export loot and import, um, useful materials I suppose. That's cool, because two of the towers are around planets with a single moon each, and the only tower around a planet with multiple moons holds no ships. And it's the ships I'm interested in.

Specifically, I'm interested in the hauler and transport, so warp to where the Badger sits first. Dropping outside the tower lets me see the hauler is piloted, but I don't see it for long. Barely before I'm reorientated, and without a chance to get in range to take a closer look, the Badger is warping out of the tower. At least I'm close enough to see where the Badger goes, and it's towards the nearest customs office. Good-oh!

I follow behind the Badger, but my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser feels clumsy in giving chase, the apparent time to enter warp exacerbated by my current sense of urgency. I warp to the customs office in time to see the Badger here, but do I have time to catch it now? I don't know, and I don't want to spook it, not yet. The hauler is moving again, so I hold my position, and my cloak, and simply watch the ship align towards the fourth planet and warp again. This time I'm right behind it.

It's all over rather quickly. I decloak, gain a positive lock, and start shooting. The Badger is ripped apart, throwing the pod in to the vacuum of space, which, despite my best efforts, escapes. I loot and shoot the wreck, gaining another valuable expanded cargohold, and—did the pod not warp back to its tower? It certainly didn't head in the right direction. I was already turning to shadow the pod as I looted the wreck, so rather than warp to the tower I head to the customs office in that direction.

I can't say I'm expecting much from this chase. A pod is notoriously difficult to catch without a warp bubble, and I'm a few seconds behind the fleeing capsuleer anyway. And as I approach the distant planet d-scan is showing me another tower along with the pod, so it's quite likely the pilot simply fled to the safety of a different force field. So it is with some surprise that I land next to the customs office to see the pod waiting for me. Hello, pod.

I may have mentioned that a pod is difficult to catch, so I didn't gimp myself unnecessarily. I remain uncloaked with my sensor booster active, and warped to land on top of the customs office, rather than being cloaked and dropping short. Systems hot, I make another, better grab for the pod, but despite the pilot being a little careless in sitting still for so long he is at least awake to my continued threat, and disappears again. ...to another customs office, it seems.

I surge my Loki in to warp again, and reach the next destination on the pod's whistle stop tour of the system's customs offices just in time to see it disappear in warp in a direction I am not quick enough to discern. It's a bit peculiar, but perhaps the pilot was using an overview configured to show customs offices, and used that instead of fumbling with bookmarks to get away from me. And now that he's bounced off a couple of customs offices to get clear of me he returns to actual safety, as I find him back in the first tower's force field.

My fun may not quite be over, though. The pilot swaps to a Bestower, but it's no surprise that a second attempt at collecting planet goo is not being attempted. The Bestower warps out of the tower to the high-sec exit, leaving w-space once there. I can lurk on the wormhole. Why not? If he returns too soon I can pop the polarised hauler, although I doubt that will happen. And looking at my atlas, knowing from Fin where the wormhole leads, seeing that the system in Kador is a dead end and many hops from a significant market system makes me think any wait I have will be long and unfruitful.

I think it's time for a sammich. Except a Tengu has appeared on d-scan. I look for the strategic cruiser with a tight d-scan beam, only for the ship to come to me. The Tengu drops out of warp on the wormhole and jumps to high-sec too. Well, that's probably that. I can get my sammich now. Or not, not with a new Bestower somewhere in the system. The hauler is at the tower I've yet to locate, but picking the first moon turns out to be a good choice. The Bestower is there, piloted, with a second Badger, also piloted. Lunch can wait a little longer.

Doop, doop, doop. The Bestower goes off-line and is replaced by a different contact in a different Bestower. Maybe there will be some movement now, by the new pilot ignorant of my recent shenanigans. No? Nothing? No, nothing. This pilot also goes off-line after idling in the tower for a few minutes. Okay, my desire for a sammich has been unsatisfied for long enough. I'm going home for a break.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: badger, bestower, eve online, impairor, impel, loki, magnate, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, w-space