Trying to be a disrupting influence
18th February 2014 – 5.28 pmWhat's out there today? A tower and no ships in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, how novel. Scanning the seven anomalies and five signatures resolves three wormholes and a bit of gas, and as the first wormhole I warp to turns out to be the static exit to low-sec I decide to get the exit system before checking the others. I jump out of w-space to appear in a system in Molden Heath under the oppression of a Sansha incursion, which unfortunately forces an unwanted communications channel on me. I incorporate and hide the channel as best I can in my interface and return to C3a to see what the other wormholes are.
I've resolved two K162s from class 2 w-space, one healthy, one dying. I'll make use of the healthy connection, where w-space communications will remain blissfully silent. Or maybe I'll hold on the wormhole instead of jumping through, as it crackles with a transit on my approach. Could this be activity coming my way? Well, it's a Loki strategic cruiser that appears, so it is activity of a sort, but perhaps not the sort that I will be able engage directly.
The Loki aligns, cloaks, and, presumably, warps away. I head towards the low-sec exit to see if it's leaving w-sapce, but instead the other ship spews probes in the system and presumably starts scanning. Interrogating the pilot information, which I managed to snag, shows something interesting: the pilot belongs to EVE University. I wonder what resources he has behind him, and where they are. The probes disappear quickly, but I don't see the Loki again and nothing else passes through the C2 K162. Maybe I should jump through to see what's happening.
Yep, that did the trick. As I threaten to transit the wormhole myself it crackles again before I reach it, this time bringing multiple ships in to the system. I guess these are the Loki's colleagues in the Legion and Proteus strategic cruiser, Myrmidon battlecruiser, and pair of Guardian logistic ships. The fleet warps as one to what at first looks like empty space, but opening the system map and checking with d-scan shows to be an anomaly. That fleet's overkill for a C3 anomaly, but I suppose combat will be quick.
Warping behind the fleet to see what they are doing, and if there is a possibility of an ambush, sees the ships killing the site guns. That's a waste of time, but whatever. A Vigilant cruiser warps in to join the fleet, not flown by the Loki pilot who remains notable in his absence, as does a Navy Issue Brutix battlecruiser. Adding more ships just makes it harder for me to ambush them in my one, and on top of that the damned Proteus is salvaging as they go. I've got no shot here, particularly as my own colleagues only have null-sec routes out of their system currently.
Even though I have no ambush opportunity, I could still be a disrupting influence. I warp out of d-scan range of the fleet and launch combat scanning probes, throwing them out of the system to start with so that I can get back closer and watch what happens. The first anomaly is finished and the fleet has moved to a second. I call my probes in to the system to start scanning and, well, nothing much happens. At least, not to start with. Eventually someone updates d-scan and notices the probes, the fleet warping out of the anomaly and back to their K162.
Mission accomplished, I hide my probes again. The strategic cruisers jump out of the system but the others remain, holding on the K162. An Astarte command ship comes back with a Helios covert operations boat, followed by the return of the salvaging Proteus, and the fleet resumes its Sleeper combat, apparently happy that they can take on whoever happens to drop on top of them. That would be me, I suppose, which isn't much of a threat. But I did my best to make w-space life interesting. Maybe I'll just have an early, if unexciting, evening.
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