Making ISK and missing ships
25th June 2014 – 5.34 pmI'm a masochist at heart, apparently. Returning to the home w-space system may be worthwhile this evening, though, what with all the anomalies that have popped up recently. There are also three signatures, however, and I had better check to see what they are before making any firm plans. One is the static wormhole, unopened since, uh, six minutes ago? Ah, no, two days ago. The copied bookmark renews the timestamp from the original, I see.
The other two signatures are resolved to be gas sites, giving us a closed system. I'm going to shoot some Sleepers. I may as well make some ISK when I'm barely a target and can barely find others, and at least I'll see some explosions. I swap out of my Proteus strategic cruiser and in to a Golem marauder, loaded with cruise missiles and a silly mobile tractor unit, and warp to the first anomaly.
Sleeper sites are straightforward. Anchor the mobile tractor unit for unwarrantedly convenient loot collection in the harshest areas of space, lock on to the Sleepers, and start spewing missiles towards them to create the wrecks for the MTU. A few drones take some damage from the Sleeper frigates, damage I'll no doubt forget to repair, or not care to fiddle about with, but otherwise all the Sleepers are exploded without any drama.
Most of the loot is hauled in to the MTU, which I collect with the Golem and take back to the tower before moving to a second anomaly. Second site, same as the first. More loot collected by the MTU, salvaged by the Golem, except for the last two wrecks. It's not worth the time to wait for the MTU to drag them in, or the risk to the Golem. I scoop the MTU and leave the two wrecks for now, swapping to a cheap and disposable destroyer back at the tower, letting me loot the last wrecks with little risk.
Two anomalies is about all I can take solo for the evening. It passed the time, I suppose, and made us some potential iskies, about 180 million of them. That's not bad. Now, what else can I do? Huff on the gas clouds? I'm not yet that desperate. I'll poke our neighbouring class 3 w-space system, through the static wormhole, in the hopes of jumping someone not paying attention. It can happen.
Updating my directional scanner in C3a gives me some hope, as I see a couple of towers and handful of haulers in the system. My notes from a few months back list just the one tower, but that one remains and looks to hold most of the ships, so I warp across to see who is there. A Buzzard covert operations boat is piloted, but doesn't seem to be looking for our K162 yet, and the Bestower hauler, Epithal hauler, and Viator transport are all empty. Never mind, let's check out the second tower, once I locate it.
I find the second tower as an Imicus frigate warps away from it, leaving behind a Purifier stealth bomber and shuttle, both piloted. A second Viator looks to be missing, as it is on d-scan but not at this tower, and I'm sure it wasn't at the first. I'm more interested in the Imicus currently, in case it's found our K162 and I've been rumbled. I warp back to the wormhole but see no scanning frigate, even though it remains on d-scan. Maybe I should find out where it is.
I warp far out of range of the locals, launch scanning probes, and blanket the system, seeing all but keeping my probes hidden. Warping back to the second tower sees the Imicus gone from d-scan, a Tengu strategic cruiser new to the tower, and the missing Viator back inside the force field. He could have been gooing, and I try to take a close look at his ship in case he goes out again. I don't know why, the interface is still broken, although at least when my view snaps back to my ship I know the transport is aligning to warp. I just can't tell where.
The Viator enters warp, and it is only when he is speeding towards a planet that I can see where to. I can barely keep up with a blockade runner at the best of times, and when he has a head start like this I have no chance. Matters are exacerbated when the new tooltip doesn't show the customs office for the planet the Viator warped to either, and I see no other way of selecting it. I have to switch to a specific overview to be able to warp there. I'd rather be fighting ships than the interface.
I don't know why I'm warping to the customs office, as the Viator should be long gone by the time I can tell he's warped here and I can find the right object to warp to. It's something to do, I suppose. I'm almost rewarded too, landing near the customs office to see the Viator still here, but it looks like he's moving. He is, just not far. The transport backs away from the customs office and cloaks. He doesn't return to the tower, though, at least not immediately. I can't really do much but watch at the tower for his return, although I don't know why I'm persisting, not when I can't watch the ship align and can barely manage to warp to where he goes. I should probably admit I've had my fun and head home.
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