Ambush, baited, isolated, escape, and getting home too

Having made my way safely to empire space and docked, I'm ready to hit the sack. But now seems like a better time to find my way home than tomorrow, if only because of the random connection from class 3 w-space in to our system. Having home connect to two systems that will exit w-space seems like a better opportunity than the one we will only have for definite tomorrow. It's worth a look at least.

Of course, I say 'find my way home', what I mean is 'have someone else find me a way home'. Getting to a specific w-space system only really works from the inside out. So it is that I wake up Constance, Cthulhu-like in her ancient slumber. I can only wonder at home many games of minesweeper she's played since the last time I've needed her.

The first task for Constance is to swing past our tower. Mick tells her that prior to my earlier ambush, the corporation whose salvager I popped lost a stealth bomber to our defences. Good tower, have another biscuit. She finds the wreck, still floating full of loot, and grabs all that is inside for a few million ISK of additional profit from that little incursion.

That done, I think we can also get Constance updated. She's running a basic probe launcher, albeit with Sisters probes loaded, but we can do better than that. A bit of a refit later and she's got a Sisters expanded launcher on her Buzzard covert operations boat, thanks to the plunder we've recovered in recent months. That should help. Now to scan the exits.

Thank goodness, my probe formation is saved for Constance too. That saves a bit of fiddling around. And through the K162 to C3b first, where we can pretty much ignore any ships and just look for exits. Constance is not trained or fit to engage other pilots, so even if a miner is chomping on rocks there is nothing that can be done. Thankfully, the system is occupied but empty, so there is no regret at having missed anything.

C3b holds five wormholes amongst the gas. Two K162s from null-sec probably won't be helpful, the static exit to low-sec is expected, a K162 from low-sec could be an option, and, well, we can ignore the K162 from class 5 w-space for now. The U210 leads out to Placid, far from the Derelik exit I ended up using, and the low-sec K162 in C3b comes from Kor-Azor, further from Derelik than the Placid connection.

Checking the null-sec wormholes, just for completion, gives connections in Providence and Wicked Creek, the latter pretty much the other side of the galaxy from me. Never mind, back to C3b with Constance, in to and across the home system, and through our static wormhole to C3a. Another exit waits to be found, this time in a system empty of both occupation and activity. At least the threat level remains low.

Scanning takes until the penultimate signature before resolving the static exit to low-sec that, by colour, looks to lead to Metropolis. The final signature is a second wormhole, but weak, a T405 outbound connection to class 4 w-space and itself at least two more systems from another exit. As it is already late, the last task for Constance is to bookmark the other side of the exit from C3a, after which she returns home to hide once more.

Now back in control, I see how I feel about making the journey back home. Do I fancy a trek through stargates, or can I tolerate a night outside of w-space, docked in a station? Oh, the route's not as bad as I expect. Although the wormholes are all rather distant from the one in Derelik, I made almost a dozen hops to get close to Rens before giving up and docking early, and that's got me half-way to the entrance in Metropolis.

I may as well go home. This kind of closeness doesn't happen often when using wormholes. It's really been that kind of night, though. Despite getting isolated from home, most circumstances have gone my way. It's really quite a nice feeling, I highly recommend it. All that's left for me to do is pass through the security of high-sec, hop to low-sec, cross one w-space system, and jump home. That, and make a last visit to the site of the Noctis ambush that started this evening, where I scoop the abandoned drones to keep our system tidy.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: buzzard, constance sokolov, eve online, manticore, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space