Space: 1999

There are no anomalies I care to clear tonight, but two new signatures grab my attention. For a second they do, at least. My glorious leader has scanned them both, resolving two pockets of gas, bookmarking them for reference. She's also found our static wormhole, which looks to be unopened. I can change that, given nothing else to do in the home system. Huffing gas doesn't count as doing something.

Jumping to the neighbouring class 3 w-space system sees what looks like a familiar J-number, but not familiar enough to remind me of anything. It's probably nothing, much like the results from my directional scanner. Clear space all around me, but then there is a lot of space to the inner system, 34 AU of it. I launch probes and perform a blanket scan to get a good idea of what's out there.

My combat scanning probes show me a cluster of sixteen anomalies at the centre of the system, one anomaly elsewhere, and eleven signatures scattered here and there. I see no ships. My last visit was only six weeks ago, not soon enough to prompt recognition of the system's J-number, I'm sure, as I visit a lot of systems, but it's still fairly recent. The tower should be in the same place, which would help if I had listed it.

I only have the planet holding the local tower noted and not the moon. I had probably got bored the last time out, the previous system on my last visit holding the tower trap that I was oblivious about, but I'm fresh this evening and finding a tower is straightforward. I locate the tower and tag the owner corporation for reference, and call my probes in to scan for wormholes.

Four wormholes are resolved amongst the gas, data, and relic sites, the weak one obviously the static exit to high-sec, the others chubbier and probably K162s. Leaving the exit for last, I reconnoitre a K162 from class 4 w-space that's both at the end of its life and critically unstable—I'll call that Plan B, given that I fear just being twenty kilometres from the wormhole could be enough to push it over the edge—a K162 from null-sec that's also EOL, and, thinking positive thoughts for the last one, a K162 from low-sec Lonetrek. I wasn't quite positive enough, but at least the low-sec connection is healthy.

I poke the null-sec K162 first, not because I want to be isolated in the arse-end of space, but because I'm still looking for that elusive connection to Period Basis. I won't find it here, of course, not with the Cloud Ring nebula clearly visible, and I know I'm jumping to Outer Ring before I even get within jump range. Sure enough, I appear in Outer Ring just long enough to bookmark the other side of the wormhole, before returning to C3a to finally see where its static wormhole leads. Sinq Laison, it looks like. Sinq Laison indeed, where I am alone with two extra signatures. Well, I'm scanning here or in low-sec Lonetrek, and as I'm already here I launch probes. Relics and a data site. I'll go to Lonetrek.

Or maybe I should sell some of the loot I've been stockpiling for a rainy day. That doesn't seem like a bad idea, particularly as this system in Sinq Laison is a mere six hops from Jita, except for two reasons. One is that the system I'm in, the one conveniently close to Jita, is part of a two-system high-sec island, surrounded by low-sec. The other is that my glorious leader has already sold our loot, judging by the unexpected jump in ISK in our corporate wallet. Okay, I'll go to Lonetrek to scan for more wormholes.

Or maybe I won't go to Lonetrek to scan for more wormholes, not when I get closer to the low-sec K162 and see a tiny Cloud Ring reflected back at me and tinges of Verge Vendor. I didn't think the bland grey of Caldari space was quite as bland as it ought to be for Lonetrek, and now I realise why: this wormhole comes from Black Rise. Whatever, I'll go to Black Rise to scan for more wormholes. It's all space to me.

Exiting to low-sec Black Rise unsurprisingly puts me in a faction warfare system, with a dozen loyal citizens/stinkin' usurpers, and four extra signatures that I launch probes to scan. Fat wormhole, skinny wormhole, fat wormhole, and some relics. That seems like a fair result. The chubby wormholes are a K162 from class 5 w-space, and, uh, a K162 from another low-sec Black Rise system. I recognise the colours immediately this time, strangely enough.

I'm still curious enough to jump through the low-sec K162, and although I'm not surprised to find myself in Black Rise, I am moderately surprised to find myself sixteen hops away from the first system, yet still in faction warfare space. I'm not sure why I am amazed that space is so big, though. Taking a quick look around shows that there are more signatures to be scanned, but I already have wormholes behind me to explore through, including an outbound connection yet to be identified, and I'd rather explore wormhole space than scan low-sec. Back I go.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space