ISK and a Venture

Let's see what's changed. Our anomalies are still here, a few new ones have turned up, and although our sites have gone they have been replaced by a similar number of signatures. Maybe the gas has just migrated, like sponges, but only one signature is a gas site. The others are data, relics, and a wormhole. That will be our static connection to class 3 w-space. I'm smart like that.

All looks clear. It would be remiss of me not to profit from this island of isolation, and before visiting the wormhole I warp to our tower, swap to the Golem marauder, and warp to an anomaly. Look out, Sleepers, here I come! I launch the silly mobile tractor unit, ruining the salvaging experience for an entire generation, and activate my launchers against the nefarious watchdogs left by the indigenous population.

The first site is cleared, no problems, no interruptions, and no one really cares about shooting Sleepers any more. It's all the same. How about discussing just how bad Oblivion is? Obviously, I can't fit all that's wrong with it in to a journal entry of any kind of sensible length, so I'll just mention how way that the Moon is shattered, supposedly destroying our tidal systems

The problem is that the Moon is visually shown to just be broken apart. Yeah, it's a bit of a nuisance, I suppose, but not only does it spice up our eons-old view from the ground, the mass is still up there, reasonably close together. It will cause the same tides. At least in the equally bad remake of The Time Machine the Moon was shown to be falling out of its orbit. That's something to be rightfully concerned about.

I drag home a quarter-of-a-billion ISK in loot, a decent haul from two sites, and swap back to my Proteus strategic cruiser to go exploring. I think I've earned some more free time. Jumping to C3a and updating d-scan even looks rewarding, with a tower and a whole bunch of ships visible. If only I didn't feel forced time pressure from the discovery scanner to locate them, look for pilots, and assess the circumstances. Still, ships!

Adjusting d-scan sees no wrecks, but surely something is afoot at the Circle-K with battlecruisers, battleships, and strategic cruisers all visible in the system. I can't get to the tower quickly from using my notes, even though they were updated a mere seven months ago, but there being five planets and seven moons lets me warp to the new one with some sense of urgency still present. I don't see any pilots, sadly, but a new ship not at the tower is brought in to range, a Venture mining frigate. How lovely.

Is the Venture perhaps in an ore site? I should be so lucky. He's probably huffing gas, though, which means getting probes out and hunting his location with practiced precision. I warp to our K162, as good a place as any not to be caught unawares, and definitely out of d-scan range of the Venture in this small system, and launch probes, throwing them out of the system immediately. Back to the tower, where I can at least be assured of seeing the Venture on d-scan, if not being particularly close to it. Now to hunt the Venture.

I get a good bearing in the mining frigate fairly quickly, which is good. Determining my range to the target is pretty straightforward, also good. My probes even seem to be in the right place, rather coincidentally, which is excellent. I align my Proteus in the rough direction of the Venture, to help speed my ship in to warp, and call my probes in to scan.

I scan poorly. Worse still, trying to document my shoddy scan makes the positional arrows disappear on the probes! I get them back through panicky button presses, reposition them over the fuzzy Venture signature, and scan a second time. Amazingly, the Venture is still in the gas site, now brought in to focus, and I send my Proteus in to warp and recall my probes, hoping they are still yet to be seen.

I hit the button to recall my probes a second time, the scanning interface enjoying watching me sweat, apparently, and they finally disappear from space and d-scan. I even drop in to the gas cloud a couple of kilometres from the Venture, who is either not watching d-scan or asleep. I aim for a positive target lock, get one, and blast the ship in to smouldering pieces. Aiming for the ejected pod even catches that, so I suspect turning the capsuleer in to a corpse won't be noticed for a while.

I scoop the corpse, and loot and shoot the wreck of the Venture and its inattentive pilot. I can't say this has been my finest hunt, but you never know what you're getting until you engage in some way, and this one definitely provided some minutes of excitement and tension. A quick scan of C3a once I've calmed down only finds more gas, some data and relics, and a dying exit to low-sec that I don't care to use. I've made loads of ISK and podded a gasser, that'll do me.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: eve online, golem, mmorpg, oblivion, penny ibramovic, proteus, pvp, scanning, sleepers, venture, w-space