Watching a ship go out
11th January 2014 – 3.31 pmThere's been another signature explosion in our home w-space system. It can't all be gas, not all three new signatures. Performing a blanket scan, as is good practice even when coming on-line, sees no ships in the system, so I get to scanning the signatures. Two gas sites, one wormhole. Plus the static wormhole. It's better than nothing, and indeed the K162 from class 2 w-space looks quite inviting. I'm going in. The discovery scanner won't even knock ahead of me this time.
The wormhole looked so good from the other side, but appearing in C2a over six kilometres from the locus may not be a good sign. There are plenty of ships on my directional scanner, though, so I won't dismiss this system just yet. I can see an Armageddon battleship, Broadsword heavy interdictor, Helios covert operations boat, Hurricane battlecruiser, Manticore stealth bomber, Orca industrial command ship, Raven battleship, and two Venture mining frigates. There are two mobile depots deployed too. I wonder if that's notable.
It's quite a mix of ships. Maybe they're scattered unpiloted inside the also-visible tower. D-scan suggests they are all at the tower, at least, and locating it sees that there are some pilots. The Raven, Helios, Manticore, and one Venture all have a capsuleer's pod inside them. But all the ships are accounted for at the tower. One mobile depot is not, however, which could make it interesting. I give Aii a sitrep as he comes on-line. 'They're just sitting at the tower? How boring.' Well, quite.
Actually, not all ships in the system are sitting at the tower, as seen by an Imicus frigate warping in from somewhere. Oh, but that means that they are all now sitting at the tower, so forget that last bit. No, hold on, the Imicus warps out again, and in my lack of excitement I've forgotten to orientate myself. Maybe the frigate went to the wormhole leading to our home system. But Aii's on the other side of that connection and sees no jumps, and when he enters the C2 to join me he also sees no Imicus. It went elsewhere.
The one ship that moved is gone. Sod it, I'm scanning that mobile depot. It's actually pretty easy, and I resolve the structure soon enough, sending my cloaky Loki across to end up floating near the tiny depot in otherwise empty space. I dunno why it's here, and I don't know if it's in use. I do know that it's within d-scan range of the tower, so I don't quiet fancy testing the depot's strength. I'd rather catch a ship visiting it. Perhaps the Imicus, although he's not here now.
Ship changes register on my combat scanning probes, returned to a blanket-scanning configuration, and with Aii, now cloaked outside the tower. A Dominix battleship appears, disappears, and appears again. That's a little ominous. A short trip by a battleship is suggestive of collapsing a wormhole, albeit slowly, and rather than be caught unawares I warp across to take a look at the wormhole home. It's still healthy, not even destabilised to half mass. Maybe there's another wormhole that the locals don't want.
Whatever's happening, it's not much. What to do, what to do. Watch the ships do not much for a bit longer, apparently. Ah, movement. The Dominix accelerates, followed by the Raven, and I anticipate their warp by heading back to the mobile depot. I don't know why, it's obviously not where they are going, but I suppose I only know two possible destinations in this system so far. That can be changed, particularly when Aii sees another battleship warp away from the tower. 'Near the fifth planet.'
I scan near the fifth planet. There's one signature, and it's a wormhole. Warping across sees the system's second static wormhole, this one a connection to high-sec empire space. There are no ships here, though. At least, not right now. 'Imicus warped off.' It's right here, Ray. It's looking at me. Or maybe the Imicus is looking at the wormhole, as it turns and manoeuvres closer, close enough to jump through. The locals need better bookmarks.
The Imicus is gone, but perhaps he'll be back. And perhaps he'll be back pretty soon, soon enough to be polarised. I'd like to take advantage of that, even against a minor ship like a frigate. It's not like this system promises to provide us with better opportunities. I decloak my Loki, activate the sensor booster, and sidle up to be best buds with the wormhole.
Nothing. The Imicus isn't taking another quick trip to high-sec, it seems. A bit more waiting has a bit more nothing, and by now polarisation effects will have dissipated. I bid adieu to the wormhole's locus and re-activate my cloaking device, in the vain hope that I can still catch something here. At least we're out of d-scan range of the tower, so hopefully no one saw my Loki loitering languidly by the high-sec exit.
But, no, still more waiting sees still more nothing. The Imicus doesn't return, the battleships don't return. Heading back to the inner system and the tower has no new changes. Overall, I'd rate this system as 'disappointing'. Maybe I'll have better luck through our own static wormhole.
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