Scanning for wormholes leads to wormholes
19th October 2013 – 3.33 pmI doubt I'll see any action tonight without a ship throwing itself in front of me. But I won't even see that if I don't go looking for it, so off I go. I resolve our static wormhole and jump to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system to see two towers and no suicidal ships visible on my directional scanner. No ships at all, in fact. I'll search for wormholes amongst the eleven anomalies and nine signatures.
Actually, I'll locate the towers first, just in case some industrialist logs on to collect planet goo, and it's probably a better choice to loiter cloaked outside the one that doesn't have a hangar named 'Trash Can'. Okay, now I'll scan. There's a whole load of gas waiting to be sucked, a couple of data sites being perpetually ignored, and three wormholes, giving me a static exit to low-sec in what looks to be the Lonetrek region, an N968 which also looks like it leads to Lonetrek but of course doesn't, and a K162 from class 4 w-space. I'll check the exit first. Yep, I'm in Lonetrek. Now for the wormhole with the most potential of holding activity.
Jumping to C4a is something of a disappointment, as I am spat in to the system over six kilometres from the wormhole. That's rarely a good sign, and locating the tower on d-scan confirms my suspicion that the almost-ubiquitous Orca industrial command ship is empty. They nearly always are anyway. The rest of the system is just as inactive, and scanning the four anomalies and nine signatures for further K162s finds one, this one from class 2 w-space. But continuing my exploration lands me again over six kilometres from the wormhole when jumping to C2a. This constellation smells stale.
Undeterred, I explore the system, reconnoitring the tower visible from the wormhole and bumping in to another elsewhere in the system. Except it's less of a bump and more of a slam, as my strategic cruiser almost rams one of the defences as I drop out of warp. Woop, woop, reverse course! Thankfully, despite my cloak dropping, I turn my Loki around and manage to get clear before anything bad happens, and, naturally, no one is around to see the incident. And trying to get away from this tower sees two more in the inner system. I find both of them too, damn the risks, but still there are no ships, so I scan.
Two anomalies and six signatures result in two more wormholes, one being the static exit to high-sec, leading to Solitude, the other simply a K162 from high-sec, leading in from the particularly distinctive Kor-Azor region. And although I care not for high-sec right now, an extra signature in the system in Kor-Azor compels me to resolve it, and it's a wormhole. The K162 from class 2 w-space is quite attractive too, for being a K162 in the first place, and for the system naturally holding a w-space connection waiting for me. I'm going in.
Damn. Jumping to C2b spits me over seven kilometres from the wormhole. This is getting worse. But there is at least one other wormhole to find, and maybe activity with it, so I launch probes and sift through the puny two anomalies and five signatures, resolving an alluring connection to class 1 w-space. I press on and, despite seeing a tower with no ships on d-scan in C1a, I at least appear under five kilometres from the wormhole. Maybe someone's here. I warp away from the wormhole, launch probes, and blanket the system, revealing ten anomalies, seven signatures, and bugger all else.
The only other connection in C1a is its static exit to high-sec, this one leading to a system in Metropolis, where once again I get sucked in to scanning the extra signatures. I would say I don't know why, but I do. I want to find more inter-region wormholes, and it's going to require tenacity to get images of them all. Just my luck, all four additional signatures are wormholes, two being X702 outbound connections to class 3 w-space, one an A641 connecting high-sec with high-sec, and the last is an R943 wormhole to class 2 w-space. Of course, outbound connections are less interesting than K162s, thanks to the discovery scanner, but I can't resist poking them all, even if I don't have time for it.
Jumping from one high-sec system to another takes me to the Derelik region, and only now do I look at my chart and realise that I'm only really missing null-sec regions and most of my effort is being wasted. Still, there could be null-sec K162s anywhere, so I've got to look. So I look, and the one extra signature in this Derelik system is another R943. I'm just making more work for myself. Maybe I should just poke the systems I've found and hope to find a target, to at least make my evening worthwhile.
In to C2d I go, where d-scan is clear and exploring finds two towers with no ships. The two static wormholes lead to class 4 w-space and high-sec Tash-Murkon, because of course I scan even when I said I wouldn't—in my defence, there were only three signatures. Moving further on and in to C4b has occupation and a shuttle, which is a change to the system being unoccupied a week ago, but even that, and a promise of a static connection to class 2 w-space, won't make me scan again. Not this time. I leave the way I came and keep going backwards.
Out of C2d, leaving Derelik for Metropolis, and choosing the first of the X702 wormholes. C3c is supposedly occupied, but although my notes are right about there being a tower they are wrong about its location. It's a simple matter to correct, which lets me lose interest in the Absolution command ship, Manticore stealth bomber, Prorator transport ship, Buzzard covert operations boat, and shuttle floating empty inside the tower's force field. My waning interest even prevents me scanning, instead taking me back out to Metropolis and in to C3d.
The palindromic nature of this w-space system's J-number is about as interesting as it gets, as all I see is a tower, a lack of ships, and nowhere to hide. Back again, and in to C2c, which turns out to be the system where I popped a tourist's expensive Tengu strategic cruiser a little while back. But where is everybody tonight? Back to high-sec, to C1a, C2b, again to high-sec, C2a, and in to C4a, where at last there is a sign of life. A crappy sign of life though, with a single combat scanning probe on d-scan, so who cares?
I almost care when a Buzzard appears on the wormhole to C3a. This may be as good as it gets, so I decloak to have a crack at a cov-ops. My big moment, the evening building up to my beating up a Buzzard, so naturally my target warps almost as soon as I decide to drop my cloak. The cov-ops warps to empty space too, indicative of there being another wormhole, so maybe it would have been nice had I not revealed my presence so carelessly to a scout. But it's late and I'm tired, and it's done. You would have done the same.
If I'm not scanning for the Buzzard's wormhole I can still look in C3b. Jumping in sees core probes in the system, and although my notes say there was occupation eleven months ago the tower should be in range, and all that sits out of range is a moonless planet. So did the scout currently scanning come in through the wormhole I'm on, or through one elsewhere in the system. And can I bring myself to care at this point? Not really. My head's spinning. I think I need to lie down for a while.
Sorry, comments for this entry are closed.