Slowly getting to high-sec

One good anomaly beckons to me in our home system. I continue to ignore the ghost site, resolve our static wormhole—the only signature in the system—and warp to our tower to take the Golem marauder on another excursion. It's pretty straightforward, popping Sleepers, having the wrecks lazily pulled towards me by a silly mobile tractor unit to be salvaged by the Golem, and a last bit of sweeping up in a destroyer. One hundred million ISK later, I'm back in my scouting Proteus and warping to our wormhole.

Jumping to the neighbouring class 3 system and updating my directional scanner sees a tower, Helios covert operations boat, and little else. Not that it matters, really. Our K162's signature will ping the discovery scanner of the Helios if it's piloted, and if it isn't there's really nothing to see. I need to do more to find any activity than opening an unknown wormhole these days.

I warp to the other side of the system to the tower, launch probes, and perform a blanket scan. Two anomalies, six signatures, and the Helios light up my combat probes. Checking my notes has a previous visit from just over a year ago. The static exit to high-sec still remains relevant information, the location of the tower does not. What is interesting is not finding the Helios when looking for the tower, the cov-ops apparently in deep space by itself.

I should find the Helios. I call my probes in to scan, not caring to try any kind of stealthy hunt using d-scan first, and ping the ship in a couple of places, the second being back at the tower. Well, at least I found the tower, and it seems the Helios is now scanning too, with core scanning probes cluttering the system. Two sets of scanning probes, in fact. Who else is out there?

Lurking on our K162 seems like a good choice to see potential scouts whilst I scan, particularly when I drop out of warp at the wormhole to see a Cheetah cov-ops there too. I don't know, and can't tell, if he jumped or cloaked, and I keep scanning. Two gas sites are already ignored from looking for the Helios, and resolving a wormhole has a ship coincident with the signature. Helios or Cheetah, my probes aren't telling me.

The static wormhole is the only other one in the system, apart from our own, and as core probes are still in the system and my probes spotted a ship on the exit, I shall assume the Cheetah has left for high-sec and the Helios is still scanning. In that case, I do what comes naturally. I jump home, swap my Proteus for a Flycatcher interdictor, and wait on our wormhole for a curious Helios. As I wait, I ponder the question 'just how long can I wait?' The answer, it seems, is 'about fifteen minutes', at which point I consider that the Helios isn't curious enough for my own good.

Back to our tower, to my Proteus, to C3a. No probes, no Helios, and five signatures. Five signatures? Has a wormhole died or been collapsed? Ours is still here, the static wormhole is pinged to me by the silly discovery scanner, and I scanned two gas and one relic site. That makes five signatures. Maybe one other signature deteriorated after I launched probes but before I scanned. I rather suspect I miscounted the number of signatures in the first place. That can happen. Either way, there is no Helios or Cheetah, so I'm going to see what's happening in high-sec.

I get to the exit wormhole and pause, as I usually do, checking d-scan one last time before I leave. That Stabber is new to the system, d-scan placing the cruiser at the tower. I warp across to take a look, seeing the ship piloted, of course, and fit with what looks like a mix of guns. I'm no expert, but that doesn't look good for its health. I really hope the cruiser does something so that I can find out, but all he does, after a short while, is accelerate and warp to the high-sec wormhole.

Following behind the Stabber sees it disappear to high-sec, leaving me to once again loiter. That's a fancy term for doing nothing. The cruiser doesn't return with a polarised hull, which would probably be what it takes to catch him properly, so I stop loitering and actually jump to a third system this evening. Through the wormhole to high-sec Metropolis, where DUST Bunnies are busy, no oranges are visible, and one extra signature resolves to be a combat site.

I think I'll just go home. It's rather anticlimactic, but I don't fancy hopping a stargate this evening to look for more wormholes. It feels like I've done plenty already, looking for ships, waiting for ships, and at least we have the potential profit from the anomaly to show as progress for tonight.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: cheetah, eve online, flycatcher, golem, helios, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, sleepers, stabber, w-space