Bringing back the brains

All I want is my sammich. Why must you tease me so? I warp away from the tower, after watching a Bestower appear, go off-line, a second appear and go off-line, only to get as far as the wormhole home when the hauler makes a reappearance on my directional scanner. I look at the wormhole, at d-scan, at the wormhole, and consider just jumping home and ignoring the temptation. But it's not called a temptation for nothing. I turn my cloaky Loki around and warp back to the tower, hoping that this time the pilot will head out to collect planet goo.

Fat chance. I drop out of warp outside the tower's force field to watch the Bestower, and I watch the Bestower go off-line. Maybe the pilot of the Badger I caught earlier really has warned members of his alliance about the roaming Loki. If I'm not getting any scraps in this C2 I'm definitely getting my sammich. Back to the wormhole with me.

And straight back to the tower. This time, it's not the false allure of the same Bestower but a new contact in a pod, albeit at the same tower. A new pilot could mean a pilot ignorant of circumstances, and being in a pod makes him likely to soon choose a ship from his hangar. I drop out of warp outside the tower's force field to watch the pod, and I watch the pod do nothing. 'Soon' is relative, after all. I'm hungry, I'm going home for my sammich.

Dammit, one last update of d-scan as I approach the wormhole home has the pod replaced by a Wreathe. Great timing, capsuleer, plucking a hauler from your hangar just as I warp away. I really can't ignore that either. A new pilot jumping in to a hauler is as sure a sign of planet goo collection as anything. But if the pilot follows standard behaviour patterns, the boarding of the ship will be followed almost immediately by the first choice of destination. I imagine I am already lagging behind the hauler.

Rather than warp back to the tower I take a punt at the pilot's first choice of customs office, that of the closest one to his tower. I warp directly there, hoping to at least see the Wreathe, but the hauler remains on d-scan and not my overview. A quick point of d-scan at the tower confirms the hauler is out and about, but I have no idea where. I aim d-scan at each planet, checking the customs offices in turn, and locate his current position. Thinking I won't catch him there I warp to what I hope is the next stop on his route.

I actually get to where I think I'm ahead of the hauler whilst the Wreathe is still at the previous customs office. That's good, as it means he's moving slowly, but my guess is bad. The Wreathe moves on and not my way. But he is taking his time at each customs office, so I take another chance and warp to where he is now, hoping to see where he goes next if I don't actually get a chance to catch him directly this time. But I'm seconds too slow, the hauler dropping off my tight d-scan beam as the planet looms large ahead of me. I need to locate him again.

At least this next attempt should be good. As I've noted before, if he warps before I can stop him I should be more agile than the industrial ship, and get to where he's going with plenty of time to catch him at the subsequent stop. If he happens to be warping back to his tower, then I'd have lost him whatever happens. And if he doesn't get away, well, I've got him. So with this in mind, I decloak when dropping out of warp to finally see the Wreathe in front of me. I don't need to hide any more.

I get my sensor booster active as my Loki decloaks, and my guns and warp scrambler hot. I burn towards the Wreathe and gain a target lock, which simultaneously disrupts his warp engines and gets my autocannons chattering. The Wreathe positively falls apart, as only Minmatar ships can, and, as a special reward, I snare the ejected pod. And once my Loki slows down a little, my guns manage to track the tiny object in space, cracking it open after a few failed attempts, to reveal the corpsicle inside.

It's just me again. I scoop the corpse, and loot and shoot the wreck, bagging yet another expanded cargohold for my collection. And now I can get that damned sammich at last. As I can also enjoy it with my new corpse buddy and his hundred million ISK brain, I would say that this tea party was worth the wait.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: bestower, eve online, loki, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, w-space, wreathe