Finding the source of a fleet
6th December 2013 – 5.58 pmFin's on-line as I come on-line. My glorious leader has been here a while, though, as she's already scouted the constellation. I get a sitrep, involving various w-space connections, a few to empire space, and hearing that a bunch of strategic cruisers were spotted at one point—more than we could handle. 'So we have many holes and potentially fatal forces wandering around.' Ah, w-space.
What to do. I'll look in the class 3 w-space system that, for a change, connects in to our system. A system beyond that remains unscanned, and the strategic cruiser fleet was implicitly seen heading this way. What could go wrong? Not much to start with, as jumping through the wormhole sees three towers and Iteron V on my directional scanner. 'Itty is empty', says Fin, cooling my boots immediately.
My notes indicate just the one tower in this system three weeks previously, but had I needed to locate the Iteron quickly amongst the three now present it would have been trivial to do so. Opening the system map sees six planets in the system, only three with moons, and those planets with moons having only one each. I think I can safely guess where the towers are, and warping to the one with the Iteron is simplicity itself. It's still empty.
There's no need to scan C3b, as Fin did it earlier, so I warp my cloaky Loki strategic cruiser to one of the three wormholes. Out of the static exit to low-sec, K162 from class 4 w-space, and outbound connection to class 5 w-space, my choice is clear. Maybe potentially following the fleet earlier wouldn't have been such a good idea, but K162s are where action is to be found, and outbound links are anathema to activity with the dumbscovery scanner still working.
To C4a, where a Chimera and Thanatos carrier are visible, but thankfully only on d-scan with an Orca industrial command ship and tower. It's a nicely bubble-trapped tower too, which I find out by warping there, even if my interdiction-nullified Loki isn't itself caught. And as there is no one home, the three ships floating empty, I start sifting through the thirteen anomalies and fifteen signatures for K162s.
Got one. It's a K162 from class 2 w-space pulsating with the stress of a half-mass wormhole too. A second C2 K162 is in better condition, so I ignore that to throw myself through a wormhole that has had many other ships do the same, as that sounds a more interesting option. I would say so, too, given that d-scan shows me a Loki and Legion strategic cruiser, Scorpion battleship, and Velator frigate, along with a dozen towers in the system. Maybe that's too interesting for me.
I don't really care to take much more than a look around C2a. I'm certainly not going to catalogue all of the towers, and unless I see Sleeper wrecks I doubt I'll do anything but get myself in to trouble if I try anything else. But warping to another side of the system has my wanting to locate one of the extra fifteen towers pulled in to range, as it holds the pod of a pilot familiar to me. I think he needs a few more defences to protect him, though.
Tarunik Redshirt, perpetually red to our corporation only because of a nickname. I think he's sleeping, and rather than poke the hornets' nest I'll leave the system alone. Fin's been busy behind me, stressing both the C3b K162 and our static wormhole to the point of collapse, ready for my return. Isolating ourselves sounds like a good idea, even if starting again doesn't.
I can't resist a peek in to C2b first. There may be a careless pilot or two we could take advantage of. Or there may be three towers, two known from a previous visit and one new, and a complete lack of ships or pilots. That's this system scouted to my satisfaction. Back to C4a and across to C3b, where I get disorientated about what wormhole I'm on, wondering why it's still in good health until I realise I'm still a system away from home. The next wormhole is mass-stressed, and it has a hidden Fin on it, revealed once I jump home. Fin returns, the wormhole collapses, and we're safely isolated once more. With that, I think I'll call it a night.
One Response to “Finding the source of a fleet”
porcupine, it's the new death star!