Shooting for the stars
14th August 2014 – 5.47 pmI've not much time tonight, enough for a poke around w-space, at least. And to update my skill queue, perhaps. I'm taking a rather more pragmatic approach to this task nowadays, and simply throw a skill in to the queue that is under a month long. It will come in useful at some point, I'm sure, and saves a lot of time in the long run. I actually start scanning within a few minutes of coming on-line.
One new signature in the home system is just more gas, so I warp to our static wormhole and jump through, updating my directional scanner on the other side. A tower is somewhere in the class 3 w-space system, but I see no ships to go along with it. That's pretty standard, and I warp away from the wormhole, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan of the system. Three anomalies, five signatures, still no ships. It's looking to be a straightforward night.
This is my fifth visit to the system, the last being a year ago, almost to the day, when there was no occupation. I locate the tower the slow way, not relying on my notes but pinging planets and then moons with d-scan. It takes a little time but is hardly a chore. Rather than wasting time warping around to look for additional towers, I check my combat scanning probes for structures around the distant planets, seeing a bunch in one direction. Warping that way to look for other potential towers finds one surrounded by bubbles, but off-line and inactive.
I return to loiter outside the on-line tower whilst I scan. Gas, wormhole, relics, wormhole. A K162 from null-sec comes in from the Venal region, with two pilots in the system and a signature that I ignore, if only because it's over 115 AU away. The static exit in C3a leads to low-sec Tash-Murkon, by the looks of it, confirmed by jumping through. There are pilots in this system too, probably dirty pirates, with this low-sec system bordering high-sec and being eight hops to Amarr.
Seven extra signatures in this low-sec system are more interesting than its proximity to a trade hub. Scanning finds just the one other wormhole amongst the combat, data, and relic sites, which turns out to be a K162 from class 3 w-space. That seems pretty normal. I head in to C3b to see if anything's happening. A tower and no ships on d-scan, a red giant off in the distance. No anomalies is a bit peculiar. Maybe some wicked soul activated them out of spite, but my last visit was five months ago. They should have come back by now.
A lack of sites often means the signatures are mostly wormholes, as particularly active pilots are generally active in all arenas. Launching probes and scanning the seven signatures suggests otherwise in this class 3 system, with all but one signature being a gas site. I don't know why the locals would chomp on rocks but not huff gas, but whatever. The wormhole is a K162 from class 4 w-space, the symmetry of the constellation not lost on me as I jump through.
This time there is almost literally nothing to see in the system. D-scan shows me yet another tower lacking ships, and the discovery scanner highlights one signature, the wormhole I'm sitting on, plus some anomalies. There are planets beyond d-scan's reach, though, so there may actually be something to see. I launch probes and blanket the system, adding seven ships to the meagre scanning results. Is that activity, or a second tower?
Warping across to the ships finds the boring second tower, where a Tengu and Legion strategic cruiser, two Epithal haulers, and two Orca industrial command ships lie dormant, only the Legion piloted. To reinforce the fact that nothing's happening, the Legion blinks off-line. One ship is missing from the tower, but it's only a shuttle, easily found on the edge of a bubble at an off-line tower around the same planet. Empty, of course.
No one is around, there's nowhere else to go, and I have a ship—of sorts—vulnerable in front of me. Naturally, I decloak, blast the shuttle in to smithereens, and self-five. There may be nothing and no one in our w-space constellation, but I can still get a kill! I can hum a happy tune to myself as I take my all-powerful Proteus strategic cruiser home.
7 Responses to “Shooting for the stars”
No, look closer: those defences in the image are on-line. I nearly fell foul of another tower trap.
A bigger bait ship, some dropped loot, and I may have lost my Proteus. I need to be more careful out there, when such devious exploits are possible, and apparently becoming popular.
i was wondering if you are passive tanking your proteus to fit an expanded probe launcher on it?
Yup, it's a flying brick. I have a fit somewhere, modified by something Bayne shared with me
"If I can tolerate the Gallenteness of it all, perhaps I can get some shopping done."
Says Penny whilst traipsing about in a Proteus.
Crap, that comment was meant for the "Finishing the Fitting" post. Must have clicked the wrong doo-dad.
She's repressing the fact it's a Prot.
La la la I can't hear you.