Night of the class 2 system
1st June 2014 – 3.53 pmThere's not much to report at home. Probably. That one new signature could be a wormhole, but it feels like gas. I burp some probes in to space and scan, resolving myself a second wormhole. Okay, then, let's take a look. Well, that will be our static wormhole, making this a poor guess, but one easily remedied. A second warp takes me to the K162, and a little jump sends me to class 2 w-space.
Updating my directional scanner in C2a sees a tower and ships, but with no wrecks also visible I doubt the two marauders are up to much, and are likely idling with their Curse recon ship buddy. I warp to distant planets that my notes from six months ago have holding towers, and launch probes on finding them gone. A blanket scan reveals little, just eleven anomalies and three signatures, plus the three ships I know about.
Locating the towers finds the Golem piloted and most certainly idle, the Vargur piloted and idle but maybe less so than the Golem, and the Curse empty. I can scan the signatures quickly before anyone notices. Gas and the static exit to high-sec, with the Vargur blinking off-line as I recall my probes. Fair enough, I'll go somewhere else.
Exiting C2a to high-sec puts me in a system in Metropolis, nowhere convenient. I launch probes to scan the three extra signatures, trying to give myself something to do to soak up the wormhole polarisation time. It's good to be safe sometimes, even if I doubt anyone is waiting for me. Combat site, relics, and a wormhole. That's good, because it didn't take me anywhere near five minutes to scan.
The wormhole in high-sec is an R943 connection, leading to class 2 w-space. That's pretty neat. I jump through and update d-scan, but appearing 6·8 km from the locus on entry doesn't get my hopes up. One lone drone. Is there anything else out there? I imagine so, as the system is vast and only one planet is currently in d-scan range. I launch probes, perform a blanket scan, and wait for the results before warping off to explore.
Four anomalies, seventeen signatures, no ships. One planet has a load of structures around it, and heading that way finds a tower, but obviously no one is home. I scan. One, two, three wormholes and two gas sites around the first planet. Four gas sites and one data site on the next. That leaves five more gas sites and a data site at the other three planets. The wormholes are a static exit to high-sec Metropolis in pristine condition, a K162 from class 2 w-space, and a neat-looking static wormhole to class 1 w-space. I'll go there.
D-scan is clear from the K162 in C1a, with not much out of range. I look anyway, combat scanning probes picking up eight anomalies and five signatures, still no ships, even with a tower at the far planet. I poke the signatures for wormholes, not expecting much and not getting much. The static exit to low-sec is expected, and a C2 K162 is less attractive than the one behind me, given that this one is at the end of its life. Back I go.
I return to C2b and move on to C2c, d-scan showing me three towers, a Mackinaw exhumer, Retriever mining barge, and Basilisk logistics ship. Space is also showing me a couple of reinforced structures, customs offices, I'm guessing. If the mining ships did that, I'm not sure I want to tussle with them. I doubt I'll get that opportunity anyway, as neither ship is in either ore site.
My notes from eight months ago give me the locations of the three towers, which is handy, but list the static connections as going to class 4 w-space and high-sec, yet I came from class 2 w-space. That discrepancy is easy to check, particularly as only the Retriever is piloted, and the barge is floating next to an operating refinery. No one is paying attention. Scan, scan, and class 4 w-space and high-sec it is. My notes are good.
Time is marching on. I can poke through to C4a anyway, just to have a look. A tower, no ships, not much of anything. Three anomalies, two signatures, and I'm sitting on one of them. How can I resist scanning it? I can't. Huh, it's the night of class 2 w-space, which is where C4a's static wormhole leads. Of course, I take a look, where d-scan shows me a tower but no ships. I'll list occupation as 'yes' and head back.
C4a to C2c, where the Retriever remains idle, to C2b and out to high-sec. Crossing high-sec puts me at C2a's K162, where I check my log and, yes, I think my polarisation timer has expired. I continue back the way I came, with a Tengu strategic cruiser and Curse now in C2a, but still no wrecks, and I easily ignore them to jump home. It's been a fair old night of scanning, enough to make me curl up in a corner of the system without even checking through our static wormhole. I'm sure it will be there tomorrow.
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