Strange Events in C5a

It's the morning, and I am out for a bit of exploration before work.  It's corp night tonight, meaning we have a standing plan to run sites to make money.  Part of that involves opening our static C5 the previous night, to scout it out.  Last night the system looked great for running sites, other than it not having that many.  It had no live towers, just two dead ones.  And it had only its static C6 wormhole, and one other small wormhole to nullsec.  (This one I likely instantiated; it will last 16 hours and therefore be gone by the time corp night starts.)  But now it's been eight hours, and I want to peek in to see if anything has changed.

I jump into C5a, and dscan.  Nothing on scan, good.  But there are three new sigs -- not so good.  One is the static, which is evidently gone since last night.  The other two, I don't know.  I move off the wormhole, fire probes, and hide them.  Then I warp around the system.  Nobody home.  OK, time to scan.

Scanning reveals three new wormholes.  The new static, to C6a.  And two new wormholes to nullsec.  One is small, which is not a great sign for my plans tonight.  Grr.  The other is a K162.  Having found these wormholes, I start exploring them.  The incoming one first.  I warp to the wormhole.

As I arrive on grid with the wormhole, I see there's a Tristan here.  Huh?  Where'd he come from?  No time to consider that.  I am about to exit out of warp at the center of the wormhole, which will uncloak me.  Tristans are drone frigates, which means they are great for killing stealth bombers.  Nothing to do but jump.  I jump.  There are several people in Local in this system.  Maybe he's from here.  I hear the wormhole noise.  He followed me.  I bookmark the entrance just in case, then jump back into C5a.  Once in, I order a warp to the next nullsec wormhole, and cloak.  The Tristan has followed me, again, but he does not catch me.  It's really hard to catch anyone in a cloaky frigate on a wormhole any more.  If the Tristan pilot was trying, he did not succeed.

I assay the remaining two nullsec wormholes one after the other, coming back in immediately.  Nobody in nullsec in either system.  The Tristan remains on scan.  I'm ignoring him: not my target profile.  On to C6a.  I instantiated it last night, but did not enter.  (Instead I sucked gas, confident that it was closed because I saw it in the "new" phase.)  Now I plan to enter.

As I warp up to the wormhole, I see a Venture on scan.  That's interesting, but the Tristan is there on grid again.  Maybe he is escorting a supply run through wspace?  Who knows.  Anyway, once again I  jump, then elude him.  Then I warp around C6a hoping to find something, perhaps a mining op?  But nothing is there to be found.  Instead I launch probes, and start scanning.  I figure that will deter the Tristan and his friends from... whatever it they are doing.  And it does seem to.  The Tristan leaves the system.  I scan down two wormholes: a second C5, and a C4.  My time here is growing short -- must go to work -- but I have time to check those two systems out to gank any really obvious targets.

I duck into C5b.  Nothing on scan from the wormhole.  I fly around the system, and I can see a Buzzard at a POS at an outer planet.  There's also a bubble trap there, and I start thinking about trying to get on grid before I realize that's idiotic.  Not for a Buzzard, and not with limited time.  I warp back to the wormhole, and back into C6a.

Now I try C4c.  I jump in, and see a lot of anoms.  Nothing on scan from the wormhole.  Looks abandoned; I'll have to fly around -- no, wait a minute.  There's a ghost site!  That means that almost certainly the system is empty; nobody leaves a ghost site around.  It also means time to get back home and get my ghostbusting Tengu.  (Nobody leaves a ghost site untouched, I'm not nobody.)  I jump back to C6a immediately.

In C6a I scan as I cross the system, but nothing has changed.  Good.  Back into C5a.  Again I scan, expecting nothing, but I see two things of interest.  First, the Venture I saw before is still on scan.  Gassing?  Second, so is the Tristan I saw earlier.  But there's something more interesting: Ishamael Balthamel's corpse.  Since it is there, and the Tristan is not a wreck, I guess that he must have ejected and self-destructed his pod.  Why?  I have no idea why.  Let's find it first.

A bit of dscanning shows the Tristan is at the wormhole to nullsec where I first encountered it.  I warp over for a look.

Suicide?

Sure enough, there's the empty Tristan and the corpse.  (In the lower left you can see the Cataclysmis Variable effect.)  OK, I'll want to be grabbing the Tristan.  But first I want to find the Venture.  I assumed earlier the two ships were together, but perhaps not.  Perhaps it is out mining gas, although I already know it's not in the one place -- the Vital Core Reservoir I was in last night -- which makes the most sense.  Still, it could be mining lesser gas.  A quick dscan or two shows the Venture is not in any site.  In fact it is at planet VII somewhere.  I warp to planet VII.

Just being near planet VII does not mean that I can find it.  I can find it if it is at the POCO or a moon; otherwise I'll have to combat scan for it.  Both of those are weird places for a Venture to be.  But then, anywhere around a planet other than inside a POS is.  I find it at a moon.  Weird.  I warp over to look.

I land on grid about 170km from a dead tower, and sure enough there is the Venture over near the tower, next to a giant freight container.  It is unmanned, just like the Tristan.  Weird.  And hey, look at that.  The POS modules are unanchored.  I could grab them.

A dead tower.  Ooh, look at those modules.

I warp to the tower to look closer... huh?  I cannot warp to the tower.  I know you can warp to towers; I do it all the time watching would-be prey.  But maybe only when they are online?  I dunno.  OK, I bookmark the tower -- that's allowed at least -- and then I warp to that bookmark, at 30km.

OK, now I have two ships to grab.  And maybe those unanchored POS mods, too.  I log off my Jita alt and log on my alt Otto.  He puts his Hound into storage so he can pod over and get the ships.  Back at the dead POS, I make a picture of the Venture, and in doing so notice something... do you see it?

Something here is unusual.

The tower is unanchored!  (That's why I could not warp to it.)  That's a large Minmatar tower, worth 280m ISK or so.  It's just floating there, waiting to be grabbed by the first person to come by!  Well, I am first.  Actually, I am not first.  The Venture's pilot was first, but for whatever reason, did not or could not do the deed.  I will.  Not with Von, though; I'll remain on the grid to dscan and check overview.  And maybe kill someone who's coming to collect the tower, if anyone is.  Best be fast with Otto.

Otto jumps into an Iteron V, and refits it for more warp core stabilization.  I am pretty sure this is not a trap -- if so, it's very elaborate.  Still, it might be a trap, and more WCS won't affect the mission; the tower is 8000m^3.  Otto warps to the C5 wormhole, then in, and he makes the grab.  Nobody kills him.  He warps back home and dumps the Iteron.  Now for some ships.

First Otto goes for the Venture, hoping that it is packed with gas as its name suggests.  It's not.  It has no cargo or drones, just two gas miner Is, a nanofiber (offline), and a microwarpdrive (offline).  Otto onlines the microwarp, then heads home.  He has to wait briefly for polarization to abate.

Next Otto goes to grab the Tristan and its corpse.  This also goes without incident.  The Tristan is completely unfit.  No modules at all and no drones.  Really strange.  More polarization on the way home.

As Otto is warping (and sitting polarized the second time), I notice something.  Some of the POS modules, the energy neutralizers, are actually faction.  Ooh.  OK, that determines it: I am grabbing them too.  I warp Von out to make a perch so that Otto can bounce back and forth quickly.  Also I bookmark one POS module in each of six locations.  (There are two clumps of two each.)

Otto gets into a different Iteron V, fit for maximum cargo.  There are eight POS modules, all 4000m^3.  I can do it one run.  Otto warps over, jumps in, and starts grabbing.

Coming for more loot.

Grab, bounce.  Grab grab bounce.  Eventually he gets all eight modules, and warps home.

POS and parts.

Not from C5a.

Now I am finally done with C5 for the immediate future, and I recall my plan to go get the ghost site.  I finally get to it.  I get three cans done, the last just in the nick of time.  Ha!

I got lots of loot, but I am left with many questions.  What was Ishamael Balthamel doing in wspace?  Why was he in a completely unfit ship?  (Indeed, how did he manage to even get into wspace with no probe launcher?)  Why did he not convo me for help?  I could have gotten him out.  Was he connected to the Venture in some way?  Why was there a Venture and a juicy tower and parts just sitting there to grab?   Who left it there, and why?

I probably will never find answers to any of these questions.  But it's stuff like this that keeps me playing.  You never know what you are going to find when people shape the environment.

Another Massacre

It's corp night.  That's the night we get together as a corp to run PVE sites in C4 -- usually -- to earn ISK.  Since we got a C5 static in Hyperion, C5 is now also a possibility.  We got our latest incarnation of our PVE fleet ready to go last night.  So, tonight we are hoping for a good system.

I log on.  I expect the guys to appear in an hour or so.  But I am on by myself right now.  This is wspace, so there is no gain without scanning.  Let's see what we've got in the home system.  A bunch of new sigs since last night.  Only two gas sites have persisted, but there are five sigs.  This is likely to mean we have a K162, but it might mean a new sig site.  Only one way to find out.  I launch probes and scan.

Sure enough, the extra sig is a K162.  I warp to it; it's from C2.  That probably means a highsec connection, which would be nice if we needed anything.  But we don't really, and we will probably be popping this wormhole.  I also scan down our statics, and fly there to bookmark them.  The statics may or may not be linked from the far side; that depends on whether whoever opened up the connection from C2 came in and instantiated them.  But the K162 is linked for certain.  I'll look at it first.  I warp to it, and jump into C2a.

As always when I jump in wspace, I dscan upon entering C2a.  And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but two mobile depots and one tiny reindeer.  No, I mean a Ferox.  A Ferox?  Caldari battlecruiser, T1, guns.  Shield based tank means big sig radius likely.  Guns means I might be able to kill it in my Manticore.

I am near the outer planet in this system, which is rather far out from the rest.  So I can only see it on scan.  I bookmark the wormhole, then move away and cloak.  Now I look to see if I can find the Ferox.  If it is out in space, I cannot.  But it might be at some moon or something.  A quick narrow-beam dscan of the nearby planet disproves that theory.  It's out in space.  I dscan towards the inner system.  It appears to be on grid with a mobile depot, or maybe both depots.

A ship not in a POS

I dscan again, expecting that by now it has disappeared.  But it is still there.  That's... odd.  Why would someone be sitting out in nowheresville?  I can't fathom.  What I can do is get combat probes.  Not in my Manticore, of course.  The CPU is far too limited.  I'll log in my alt, Otto, for the purpose.

I log Otto in, then fly him to our tower to change ships.  He's got a Cheetah that has combat probes, so I get that, then warp to the wormhole.  As I warp, though, a dscan from Von shows the Ferox is gone.   Rats.  Kind of expected that, really.

I bring Otto in anyway, and orbit the wormhole at 30km cloaked.  It is possible the Ferox is running sites or something, and so I may still want the combat probes.

Meanwhile, Von examines the system map.  There is just a single anom in the whole system.  It's an ore site in the inner system.  Recently I have taken to entering un-dscanned space by warping to ore anoms if they exist.  The reason for that is that if miners are there, you find out via overview.  You do lose the possibility of luckily finding of a tower at a moon.  But you also eliminate the possibility of warping into a tower with a decloak trap.  So, all in all a slight win.  I warp Von to the ore site.

As I enter the inner system, I dscan, and my excitement rises.  Covetor!  Miasmos!  Retriever!  Mack!  There's a mining op on!  And I am headed to the only place it can be.

Sure enough.  I land on grid and there they are.  They are about 80km from me, so I can use Look At.  Three of them are clustered together near an arkanor asteroid.  The fourth, the Mack, is elsewhere in the field.  You might ask WWPD?  But I know, and I think you know.  This is a miner massacre waiting to happen!  I bookmark the asteroid, then hightail it back to the wormhole.  I am going home to get my Onyx.

Otto will keep cloaky eyes on.  I warp him into the ore anom, where he sits and watches.

Von crosses into C4a, then flies to my tower.  He gets into my Onyx, then warps right back to the wormhole.  This is no time to be worrying about polarization.  This is a once in a year opportunity which should not be missed.  The operation might break up at any moment.

I cross back into C2a, and sit cloaked a second.  Where to warp to?  A little eyeballing with Otto shows that the arkanor asteroid is a bit further away from the outer system than the miners.  So I warp the Onyx to the ark at 10km.  The die is cast.  I notice as I am doing this that the Mack has now joined the other miners.  Mwahahaha!

Will the Ferox interfere?  I don't know.  I don't know if my Onyx can kill it in a straight-up slugfest or not.  I do know, though, that I'll get a bit of warning.  I'll dscan.  And if the Ferox does warp in to attempt to help, my bubble will stop it before it lands right on me.  If it has a scrambler, it can't pin me before I can (maybe) drop my bubble and attempt to flee.  But I think I'll take my chances and just slug it out.

All this rumination is cut short as I land on grid.  Hands shaking!  Cool.  The miners don't flee in time.  I pop up the bubble, and start locking up ships.  It's killin' time.

Trapped in my bubble.

I kill the Mack first since it's most expensive.  The barges have some drones, which attack.  But they can barely more than scratch my paint, and they will soon be turned off.  When the Mack dies, I shift to the Retriever, Covetor, and finally Miasmos.  I get a conversation request from someone as I am killing the ships, but I have no time for that now.  While I am still killing the barges, I move over to loot the Mack's wreck.  I get a bunch of low-value loot, but it fills up my Onyx.  The barges all killed, I dispatch the pods.  (Strangely I miss one of them.  Not sure what happened there.  Did not notice it get away.)

Massacre.

I feel like a god.  Fear me!  I dscan from time to time through the massacre, but I never see the Ferox.  Now that it's done, I feel it's time to GTFO.  I don't know who lives here.  The Ferox may be swapping ships into something appropriate to kill me.  So, I turn off the bubble (this takes a while), and when it finally deflates, I warp to the wormhole back home.

I check Local for the time to see if I am still polarized.  (I am not.)  I am amused to find the following conversation there:

[ 2014.10.08 23:48:58 ] NightFury128 > Hello :D
[ 2014.10.08 23:49:09 ] Alpha Strike Toaster > SUP :D
[ 2014.10.08 23:49:31 ] NightFury128 > Hows hows WH life been?
[ 2014.10.08 23:50:08 ] Alpha Strike Toaster > good I enjoy it so far. trying to get into Astral inferno to try it out more.
[ 2014.10.08 23:50:17 ] NightFury128 > ah nice
[ 2014.10.08 23:50:47 ] NightFury128 > WH space can be fun :)
[ 2014.10.08 23:51:43 ] Alpha Strike Toaster > It has been so far. I'm curious what it's like living out of a POS
[ 2014.10.08 23:52:13 ] NightFury128 > in High sec space? meeeh not very exciting
[ 2014.10.08 23:52:20 ] dav Uitra > u do know talking in wh local shows all the other players that ur active lol
[ 2014.10.08 23:52:21 ] Forloth Rollard > ^^^^^
[ 2014.10.08 23:52:32 ] NightFury128 > lol
[ 2014.10.08 23:52:51 ] NightFury128 > I like being socialble :)
[ 2014.10.08 23:53:16 ] dav Uitra > makes u a target use a channel
[ 2014.10.08 23:53:32 ] NightFury128 > k

Ironic.  I did not see this in time for it to matter.

Meanwhile, I have this lovely chat with CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK:

[ 2014.10.09 00:03:57 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > what an ass hole
[ 2014.10.09 00:04:12 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > we are a new miner corp you would have mad more if asked us to pay
[ 2014.10.09 00:04:45 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > never mind, your a pussy not an asshole
[ 2014.10.09 00:05:43 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > poor little pussy cant fight anyone with gus?
[ 2014.10.09 00:06:26 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > most the guys you killed are players less then a month
[ 2014.10.09 00:07:39 ] Von Keigai > Sorry, was busy.
[ 2014.10.09 00:07:48 ] Von Keigai > Hi.
[ 2014.10.09 00:07:49 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > being a pussy, yes
[ 2014.10.09 00:07:59 ] Von Keigai > Look.  I don't pause to look at bios or whatever before I kill.
[ 2014.10.09 00:08:06 ] Von Keigai > I kill first, ask questions later.
[ 2014.10.09 00:08:21 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > because your a pussy, it was easy for any body but a noob to see
[ 2014.10.09 00:08:30 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > duh no fighting escort, no links
[ 2014.10.09 00:08:46 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > all bunched up
[ 2014.10.09 00:09:05 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > lol, what atool, your skill must really suck to pick on a new miner corp like that
[ 2014.10.09 00:09:33 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > you even pod killed, waht a totall pussy to pod kill after that
[ 2014.10.09 00:09:48 ] Von Keigai > Hmm.  Pod killing is de rigeur for wspace.
[ 2014.10.09 00:09:53 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > pod killed people who cant fight wow what a man, lol
[ 2014.10.09 00:09:58 ] Von Keigai > I think this is a valuable lesson for your new guys.
[ 2014.10.09 00:10:02 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > no
[ 2014.10.09 00:10:13 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > taught me what a real pussy looks like
[ 2014.10.09 00:10:31 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > a man would have said wait these guys could need some help,
[ 2014.10.09 00:10:42 ] Von Keigai > I am sorry you are so hurt.  That's EVE, friend.  Permanent gain, permanent loss.
[ 2014.10.09 00:10:48 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > a child or boy acts like you did
[ 2014.10.09 00:11:06 ] Von Keigai > I am not a man.  I am a monster.  Don't forget that in wspace.  Most people here are.
[ 2014.10.09 00:11:11 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > i am not hurt, just amazed at what a tool you are
[ 2014.10.09 00:11:22 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > monster, lol
[ 2014.10.09 00:11:25 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > your a child
[ 2014.10.09 00:11:32 ] Von Keigai > Aw, so hurt.
[ 2014.10.09 00:11:41 ] Von Keigai > Did you lead these guys up here?
[ 2014.10.09 00:11:47 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > not trying to hurt you, your too noob for that
[ 2014.10.09 00:11:57 ] Von Keigai laughs.
[ 2014.10.09 00:12:37 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > run away child, find more targets that cant fight back
[ 2014.10.09 00:12:53 ] Von Keigai > Um, I just did.  A clump of them.
[ 2014.10.09 00:13:04 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > another miner group?
[ 2014.10.09 00:13:12 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > wow, what a pussy
[ 2014.10.09 00:13:58 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > whats really funny is in all you pussniess you missed the most valuable target, lol nood
[ 2014.10.09 00:14:25 ] Von Keigai > Please educate me then.  What did I miss?  Other than some kills?
[ 2014.10.09 00:14:53 ] Von Keigai > I am always looking to improve.
[ 2014.10.09 00:15:13 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > the ship, 100 km off, no pilot, thank god you did not pod ivanna
[ 2014.10.09 00:15:29 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > hopefully by now she has it and is gone
[ 2014.10.09 00:15:41 ] Von Keigai > I went for the clump.  Assault missiles have a range of about 25km.
[ 2014.10.09 00:15:43 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > no kill mal
[ 2014.10.09 00:15:46 ] Von Keigai > Could not go after both.
[ 2014.10.09 00:15:53 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > so she must still be alive
[ 2014.10.09 00:16:42 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > well if you would have been smart you would have it the unpiloted trasport ship first, that would have been right up your pussy little ally
[ 2014.10.09 00:17:29 ] Von Keigai > Missed one?  That was in range?
[ 2014.10.09 00:17:42 ] Von Keigai > See, now you are helping in spite of your anguish.
[ 2014.10.09 00:17:45 ] Von Keigai > Thanks.
[ 2014.10.09 00:18:11 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > no, we were invited in for a little minig because we are Hi sec, we wont be back
[ 2014.10.09 00:19:16 ] Von Keigai > Well.  Live and learn, eh?  Or die and learn?
[ 2014.10.09 00:19:21 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > 30 Day Pilot's License Extension (PLEX)  30 Day Pilot's License Extension (PLEX)  Tobacco  Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I  1MN Afterburner I  Acolyte TD-300 Blueprint
[ 2014.10.09 00:19:38 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > some of what you missed, we were on a trasport mission when they invited us in
[ 2014.10.09 00:19:54 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > Concentrated Veldspar  Concentrated Veldspar
[ 2014.10.09 00:20:16 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > Expanded Cargohold II she said she is safe in .4 space, need to go later
[ 2014.10.09 00:20:38 ] CAPTAIN CRIMSON HAWK > i would have given you the ship to let my friedns live, lol dumb ass pussy

"we are Hi sec, we wont be back."  Yup.  He claims he was transporting PLEX.  In wspace.  I'd have loved to gank that, assuming it was the truth.

This chat goes on as I continue doing stuff.  Back home, I get into an Iteron V to collect loot and corpses.  It is fit for medium sized cargo, about 17k m^3m and two warp core stabs.  Seems about right for the task.  But back at the ore anom, Otto sees the Ferox land on grid.  What is it doing?  I dunno.  In any case, I can't go there now in a transport.  I want to kill the Ferox.  What ship should I use?  Hmm.  Probably one of our PVP Ravens.

As I consider this, Hiljah logs in.  Corp night!  Well, having a gang changes things.  I mention in corp chat I have a target.  Then Jayne logs in.  We get on coms.  I get back in the Onyx.  Hiljah gets something, an Arazu I think, and Jayne gets a Raven.  We warp to the wormhole.  We'll warp straight to the ark asteroid bookmark, pin the Ferox, and kill him.  Before we can jump, though, he warps out.  Dammit!  He's salvaged the wrecks (?) and perhaps looted some.  But there is some loot still there.  And the bodies.  I notice now that there are more corpses than I made: there are five.  Eh?  Is this the second gank these guys have suffered here?  (EVE is strange.)  In any case, I warp back home to get back into the Iteron V.

The Ferox appears on dscan at the wormhole.  It seems it is back at a mobile depot.  We call for combat probes.  Jayne logs in an alt who can probe.  This takes time.

Meanwhile, I have taken the Iteron in to C2a and warped to the site of the massacre.  I figure I want the Ferox to try to stop me.  I'll stay on grid as long as I can while my buddies land.  But the Ferox is still in the outer system.  I run around collecting loot and all five (again: ?) corpses.  Then I warp back.

The guys have probes out, but did not get a 100% hit in time.  The Ferox disappears.  If I were him, I'd warp out of the system.  But he seems to have cloaked.  We lurk about a while longer.  We search down the mobile depots and the Ferox reappears.  We get a 100% hit and get Hiljah on grid.  Hiljah almost gets the Ferox, but it decloaks and warps just in time.  Oh well.  It still remains in system, but we can't find it and decide to forget about it.  If he has any skill, he can evade us easily.

We pull out and pop the hole.  Onward with PVE.  These hits don't pay for themselves.

Two Birds, One Stone

It's the weekend.  A C5 system has connected to my home.  Earlier today I entered C5b, scanned it down, then saw probes.  I killed a scout who jumped into my system and jumped back immediately.  Now I am just lurking in my stealth bomber.

There are several interesting things in C5b.  For one, there is a tractor unit out in space, somewhere.  Another is the Vital Core Reservoir I found when I scanned earlier.  I'd like to get some Ventures and ninja-mine some gas.  But I feel that having ganked the scout, the system is a bit hot for that.

Also, there are IRL chores to do.  I can't sit here playing all day.  In fact I have to go AFK.

Ooh.  Wrecks.

Back later, and I dscan.  There are sleeper wrecks on scan, eight of them.  Four battleships and four frigates.  I know what this must be: the sleepers from the core gas site.  I warp to it at 100 km, and sure enough.  The wrecks all sit as they were killed.  All are unlooted.

Well well.  Do I have the stones to come in and attempt salvage?  I consider it.  But I'd rather gank than be ganked, and I assume that whoever did this will be back.  You don't leave out ~80m in loot and salvage.  So I move back, make a perch, and sit.

I wait.  I wait some more.  Nobody comes.  Strange.  Well, I have more chores to do, but I will try to get back soon enough to have a shot at salvaging.  My window is two hours since the wrecks were made, which time I do not know with certainty.

IRL, I mow the lawn.  I try to make it snappy, but when I get back, it's an hour and a half later, and the wrecks are gone.  Maybe someone looted and salvaged, or maybe they went poof.  Either way: dammit.

Now I go back to lurking at my wormhole while I do manufacturing with my Jita alt.  And again, I have to go AFK for a while.

Back again!  I dscan, as always when I return to EVE.  Dscan shows two Ventures.  They must be in the Vital Core gas site; I warp to it without even checking.

This is mining dumb.  Don't do it.

I land on grid, and I was correct.  There the Ventures are, 25km from me.  Incredibly, they are both unmoving, and sitting right next to each other in the C320 cloud, sucking away.  I set course at them immediately.  Can they really be that dumb?  Will they start to move after some temporary lapse of attention?  No.  They sit.  I move in.

Sneaking up.

When I get close, I get ready.  I rehearse my plan to myself.  Then I head right at one Venture, and uncloak, and start locking both ships.

I turn on my sebo and my warp scramblers, but not my missiles.  Both locks complete; the first Venture locked is now scrambled.  Now I select the non-scrambled Venture and turn on my light missiles.  My plan is to go after both of them.  I'll hold the one as I shoot the other.  The second will be able to escape if it is paying attention, but I hope it won't be.

They are not reacting at all.  I sit and shoot.  They sit and get shot.  The second Venture explodes.

Now the first starts to move, as I lock the pod.  And... locked.  The pod can still flee; it is not scrambled.  I kill it.  Evidently AFK.

One down.

Now I follow the first Venture and start shooting it.  I am concerned that it will afterburn out of range.  But it does not outrange me at all, and then it too explodes.  This pod flees promptly.

Two ships at a time!  I am pumped.  My hands shake.  I gather the loot and the corpse, then get out of range and cloak.  No response comes, at least not that I can see.

Wrecks.  Still have bulky gas aboard.

I still want to find the tractor unit out there and see what's in it -- but that's another story.

Passing at my Static

It's the weekend.  Yesterday Jeedmo got himself stuck out, when a wormhole closed rather unexpectedly sooner than expected.  So today I am scanning out, looking for highsec.

I find our static, which will be a C4.  I jump through, in my Manticore just in case there is someone there that's gankable.  Nobody around, though.  I scan the system down.  It has a C3 static, which is good news for getting people in.  But the static is EOL.  Magic 8-ball says: try again later.  OK, I set up a listening picket on the wormhole, then do other stuff for a while.

After only about an hour, I hear the zluuurrrp! noise of a wormhole going away.  I raise my window, and sure enough, gone.  Not a bad wait.  Now I scan down the new wormhole, and warp to it.  Crossing into C3a finds a system with just four sigs and one anom.  Nicely kept; thanks guys.  The system has a highsec exit.  Perfect for my purposes.  The sigs are a gas site, a relics, and two wormholes.  There's a nullsec, and finally the highsec static.  I pop out into highsec, mark the wormhole, then tell Jeedmo.  He'll be back this way eventually.

Meanwhile, I notice there's a ghost site in the highsec system I landed in.  Well, that's worth something if I can get there in time.  So I head back into wspace, risking polarization.  Nobody around.  I warp back up the chain to home, and reship into my ghostbusting Tengu.  Then back down the chain, and out into highsec.  Is the site still here?  Yes.  (Surprisingly, people do not seem to do these sites very fast in highsec.)  I warp to the site, then smash through it quite rapidly.  One can has nothing in it, but I fly to it after getting the other three just to see if there would be time.  I get to it, and crack it quickly, then warp off just as the Serpentis show up.  Ha ha.  I score two blueprints.

Since I am in the ship anyway, and I have a nullsec exit, I figure I am fated to do ghostbusting tonight.  So out to null I go.  I am out in Esoteria.  There is no loop I can exploit, which is unfavorable.  But there are multiple cul-de-sacs, several with zero jumps and some more with just a handful.

The situation looks great, but I have little luck.  I explore fifty-eight systems, most of them twice, finding just one site in which I get little time before the enemy shows and blows the can I am at.  Nice implant, poof.  Oh well.  Nothing interesting happens in the rest of the run, just a lot of warping and no finding.  Sometimes ghostbusting is like that.

One of these things is not like the others.

It's getting late by the time I head back into wspace.  I just into C3a, then dscan as always.  Nothing interesting.  I cross to C4b; again nothing interesting.  Then into my home system.  I dscan as always, and this time I do see something quite unexpected: a pod.  Nothing else is on scan, aside from customs offices.  So why is there a pod in my system?

A quick check of the probe scanner shows that there are no new sigs.  So, he must have lost a ship here.  Probably lost to my wicked decloak trap.  OK, so he will be headed out -- right to me.  In fact he must already be in warp, since my tower is not in range.  Just as I am making these deductions, the pod warps onto grid with me.  Naturally, I start trying to lock it to kill it.  It lingers briefly at the wormhole, and I cannot lock.  Why?  Oh, my gate cloak (duh).  I double-click to drop cloak, and try to lock, but the pod jumps.

I'll be polarized and the chance to get it is poor.  Still, I jump too.  Then I drop cloak hastily, but this time the pod does not linger.  It warps.  I warp to the wormhole to C3a, hoping to get one or two more shots at it.  But either it beat me here and jumped already (I don't think so), or it did not go this way.

I check the scanner.  Ah, there's a new sig here in C4b since I was here earlier this evening.  Since I am here for five minutes anyway, I scan it down.  Wormhole, to C2.  That's where he went.

My five minutes are up, so I head home.  Warping to my tower shows the expected wreck.  (Here's the kill.)

Almost out.

The kill happened not in range of any of my objects or in the warp bubble's volume, so I imagine that he was trying to microwarp clear when he got locked.  He was probably this close to warping...

I swap ships to get a Coercer salvager, then bounce off a perch to get the loot.  A nice set of Sisters probes.

Loot

I can only imagine what poor Eddie Pollard thought was happening.  He blunders into my trap and gets killed, then as he heads out he is jumped at the wormhole by a Tengu.  How could that be a coincidence?  Except that it was.  EVE is strange sometimes.

Cat? Mouse?

It's late in the eeevening... the EVE-ning... time for some pixel violence.  If only popping a few NPCs.  But there's always the hope that people are playing where I can get at them.

I log on, as usual in my Manticore off in a quiet corner of my system.  The system map shows there is just one sig our in our system.  I look for a wormhole bookmark, and there is one.  So I won't need to fire probes, and I cloak up.  A look at corp chat shows Jeedmo is on.  He's evidently been out exploring.  Good; I won't have to.

I wave, he waves.  We start talking.  It seems that we have some guests in our system.  Jeedmo was out exploring, saw them, then watched the hole cloaked.  At that point there was a cloaky scout in our system.  Then he logged in his alt at our tower and got in an Epithal.  After that he saw an Astero enter our system.  I commend him on this idea: obviously the scent of planet-gooer in the water brings sharks.  Of course, there's no use in attracting sharks unless you have a way to kill them.  Right now, we don't.

And there is also a third ship in our system: a Prophesy.  It's circling our wormhole.  I warp over to look: yes, sure enough.  It stops and puts out some Gardes.  I look up the info on the ship type: Amarr ship, lasers and drones.  I am not attacking a drone boat in my Manticore.  So I start to think about ships at our tower I might use.  But that's premature.

There's two problems with attacking the Prophesy.  First, I assume they have eyes on my tower; if I switch ships, then presumably they will see it and have the option to bail if they don't like the potential matchup.  That's no win for me, and a lose if they do like the matchup.  The second problem is worse: I have no idea what's on the other side of the wormhole.  And if my experience in wspace has taught me anything, it is that you never, never engage someone on a wormhole unless you have eyes on the other side, or otherwise have good reason to believe that nothing is there.  In this case, it's their system over there.  So first order of biz here is to get eyes on.  But there's a problem with this, too: I can't get across the wormhole without being seen.

I watch the Prophesy for a minute or two, as I try to think of something that would work yet not too risky.  Before I think of anything, he pulls his Gardes then heads at the wormhole, and leaves.

OK, that's my cue.  They may have eyes on the wormhole.  But at least I don't see any.  It's as good a time as any to get in their system.  I log on my alt, Otto, who's in his exploration Cheetah.  He warps to the wormhole and jumps.  Nothing on the other side.  He moves off to orbit the wormhole cloaked.  Now I have my eyes on the wormhole.

I also have eyes on their tower -- sort of.  With dscan, Otto can see the Prophesy and a Venture there.  Uh, a Venture?  What?  Jeedmo has been to the tower, and tells me the Venture is sitting there empty.  OK, mystery solved.  There may be cloaky ships out, of course, but I think I have a decent picture of where things are.  It appears the enemy has perhaps four characters, perhaps two guys playing them.

With eyes on, I can see there is not a fleet sitting on the wormhole waiting to jump on anything I do.  I can also see no fleet sitting at their tower, or otherwise within 14 AU.  So, I have a wider range of things I might do.  I start to think about that.  I also ping Jayne via text.  No answer.

I think there is a chance we can bait out the Astero.  Asteros are good ships for hunting Epithals in, since they armor tank and have four midslots to pack in the silly number of warp scramblers needed to overcome the inevitable three or four warp core stabilizers that all non-stupid pilots use on their Epithals.  But Asteros also turn on a dime and are very fast; they can escape easily given almost any warning.  The only ship we have that I think would have a chance is our Sabre.  It's not quite as fast as the Astero, so it would eventually be outranged.  But a web would work.  I could take off the sebo for the web.

The big problem with the Sabre is that I am not in it, and I can't get in it without them seeing.  (Probably.  Assuming they are hunting at all, they should be watching my tower.)  So, I start to think of a plan to get the Astero off the tower.  Here's how: my tower sits at the outer planet of my system, 20AU away from the rest.  So, we get our bait Epithal ready, then make a run to one of the other planets.  A fake run: go to a moon instead.  Hopefully the Astero sees it align, then warps to the CO.  It finds nothing.  The Epithal returns home.  Meanwhile, I warp home, get in the Sabre, then fly to the CO of our outer planet and cloak.  Then, after a wait to let the Astero re-acquire the Epithal, we fly it to the same CO.  And we see what happens.

I get Jeedmo on coms, and I am about to start explaining this plan.  But then Jayne logs in.  He logs in at the tower, twice, with Tengu and Stratios.  Well, that's awkward.  On the one hand, it makes things a bit easier, since I have more force on my team.  I won't have to go there to change.  On the other, it will make our guest a lot more skittish about engaging.

I get Jayne on coms and explain the situation.  Then Timmay logs in, at the tower, in a Proteus.  Oh well, the more the merrier.  We get him on coms too.

As we do this, Otto at the wormhole sees something.  A Loki appears at the wormhole and jumps.  I relay the info, then see the Loki on the other side with Von.  I assume it will move off and cloak, and I am starting to think about if we can take it and the Astero.  (We can.)  But then the wormhole flashes again.  Did it go back through?  Otto sees it warp off.  It went back.  I don't know what was up with that.  I guess he decided it was too risky, or maybe he got called off by real life.  (EVE is played by real people, who sometimes do things that are inexplicable from within the game.)

My new plan is similar to the first one, but a bit more straightforward.  The plan is: the Epithal makes its fake run, then goes to the nearby CO, and if it gets engaged, we all jump in and kill kill kill.  Seems good enough.  Timmay gets the Epithal, since it turns out Jeedmo's alt can't run a warp scrambler yet.   I warp my Manticore to one of our tower perches, so that I can warp in to the tower and reship as quickly as possible when things start happening.

Now we execute the plan.  Timmay runs out and back to a moon as specified.  Then he waits a bit -- it takes time to load and unload PI goo -- and warps to the outer planet's CO.  Nothing happens.  Waiting too long makes the baiting obvious, so I tell him to come on back.  He returns.  Everyone comes up with the joke to tell him to "fly casual".

I tell him to go to another CO.  Now we are slightly off plan.  This CO is in the inner system, so it is closer to our static wormhole (and thus to the enemy's assumed reinforcements), and further from us.  But I figure what's the worst outcome?  We spring the trap, lose the Epithal and the enemy escapes.  It's just an Epithal.  And maybe Timmay's pod.  But we'll buy him a new one.

Timmay warps to the CO, then pauses... and nothing happens.  Again, he turns and comes back to a chorus of "fly casual".  Jayne is beat from a long day, so we'll try one more CO.  Timmay warps, lands, and sits.  Nothing.  He warps back home.  That's disappointing.  We go through all the trouble to put out bait and they don't take it!

Jayne and Tim log off.  We have a connection to lowsec on the other side of C4b, but I am not keen to use it with the enemy still sitting at his tower, and maybe with a cloaked Loki out there, and maybe in my system.  Instead, I'll take the opportunity to go do combat exploration in highsec.  My Jita alt is gearing up for standings-scummage.  The new Gila makes it absurdly easy to do combat sites with minimal skills.  I get Otto back home, fly to the middle of nowhere and log out.  Then I log in my Jita alt and start exploring.

Meanwhile, as Von I watch our wormhole.

I chat with Jeedmo for a bit longer, but he is also tired from a long week, and he logs off.  (I suspect the prospect of PVP was already keeping him on longer than he wanted.)  I'm alone.

Von does not see anyone leave for two hours, although I am AFK for several chunks of that.

In the end, I am left in the dark about what happened.  Was that Astero still in my system, and laid off the bait?  (If you are reading, mysterious Astero pilot, I salute your spider sense.)  Did the Astero slip out somehow?  With no local, there is simply no way to know.  The whole thing could have been an elaborate pantomime for no audience at all.   Does it really matter whether he was there?  I amused myself thinking of how to trap him.  We amused ourselves quite a bit putting on the show.

A Minor Massacre

It's the weekend, and you know what that means.  It means I can interact with Russians and maybe even Australians, if only I log on early.  Well, let's see if we can't get some international flavor in the killin' today.

I log on, warping into my safespot that is out in the middle of nowhere in my system.  Dscan shows nothing, which is no surprise, because there is nothing within 15AU.  The probe scanner shows two sigs.  One of those is going to be our static wormhole, which might be EOL by now but should still there from last night.  The other one... well, what is it?

I fire probes, then recloak.  Now I look at our bookmarks.  Ah, there's a C4c marked, and in the right place.  It appears someone has already been on, and scanned.  That's nice; saves me having to do it.  (Thanks, Jeedmo.)  I recall my probes, then warp to our static at 20km.  I want to see if it is still there before considering the new wormhole.

It's still there.  But I do a dscan almost out of habit, and it shows something quite unexpected.  A Retriever, a Venture, and ten sleeper wrecks.  Eh wot?  I know we have, or least had yesterday, two mining anoms.  So I guess someone is mining in my system!

Let me just interject to point out how weird this is.  Nobody mines rocks in wspace, at least not in midlevel wspace. And nobody but nobody mines rocks in someone else's system.  Well, apparently that's wrong.  At least one corp does.  EVE is strange.  OK, forward.

I point at various sites with a narrow-band dscan.  Eventually I find a site with the Venture in it, but not the Retriever.  I warp to the site at 10km; time to get on grid.  The Retriever is not in the other ore site either.  That's odd.  Let's try a scan with full 360.  Ah, the Retriever is gone.

It is possible it just left.  But most likely, the Retriever just filled up and will be back.  I can wait.

I drop onto grid with a bunch of rocks, the wrecks of five sleeper frigs that guarded them, and the Venture.  The Venture is moving towards the wrecks.  It might be a salvager, or it might just want the blue loot that's on one of them.  As I watch this, the Retriever warps back on grid about 110km from me.  I can't see what it is doing; is it mining?  I cannot see the laser.  Well, it's not a Procurer at least.  Unlikely to be bait.  It deploys three drones.  (Three?  More weirdness.)  That's bad news for me; even a few hobgoblins can kill a stealth bomber.  I will need a different ship.

I look for ways to warp close to either enemy.  I can certainly get to the wrecks, but they are not particularly close to the enemy.  Well, they are close to the Venture right now.  But it loots a wreck, then warps off.  OK, what about the Retriever?  There are a few large asteroids sort of close to it, but nothing obvious.  The Venture warps back into the site, near the Retriever.  With careful spin and zoom, I get a closer look without being close:

Now I know what they are doing.

Now I can see what they are doing: there is a teeny weeny Arkonor asteroid that they are mining.  I could not see it before.

Two miners, in striking range, without anything more than a few drones for defense.  I can reship and be here in a minute.  Everything is clear to me.  WWPD?  I know, and I will do it.

I bookmark the Ark asteroid, then warp home.  They may have eyes on my tower, but it's not in dscan range from the miners, at least.  I will swap ships fast as I can.  I land on grid, inside the force field.  This of course uncloaks me.  The clock is ticking now -- maybe.  In any case, I reship into my Onyx, Brick.  400 DPS, a huge tank, and 16km of warp bubble.  Immediately, I warp to the Arkonor bookmark.

As I cross the system, I turn on my massive tank.  If they do not warp very, very soon, they are dead.  Did they have eyes on my tower?  Will they see me on dscan?  Is it a trap?  I'll find out real soon.

I land on grid, and both the Retriever and Venture are still there.  Oh yeah.  ASAP upon leaving warp, I pop up the warp bubble.  The bubble inflates, and they are still there.  Both of them are trapped.

I start locking them.  The Retriever finishes first but I wait; the Venture completes, and I open up on it.

Bubbled.

A few volleys and boom.  It never moved; moving would have helped.  The pod is ejected, but it is trapped by my bubble.

Venture killed.

So I turn to the Retriever.  As I aggress, its drones attack me.  But they cannot even scratch my tank.  The kill takes more than a few volleys, but the Retriever is going nowhere fast.  Dead.

Back to highsec.

Finally, there are the pods.  I lock them up.  Pop.  Pop.  Ah!  What a monster I am!  Mwahahaha!  It is a dream come true. 

Now I scoop the drones, and scoop both wrecks -- the Arkonor is too large -- and turn off my bubble.  Bubbles go for quite a while, so I have to wait for it to drop.  Finally it ends, and I warp back home.

Grabbing Arkonor.

As I do this, I am logging on my alt Otto.  He's already in the ship I want, a cloaky scout.  I warp him to the assumed enemy wormhole, the one to C4c.  Once Otto is set up, I feel safe enough to reship into a Miasmos.  This can handle the Arkonor loot, and it also might serve to cheaply reveal if they have cloakies on the site.

I warp over, and grab the Ark.  Nobody kills me.  I warp back to the tower.  Now I feel a bit more confident, so I get our Coercer salvager.  I want those ten sleeper wrecks.  And also I want the two wrecks I just made.

Domis on scan.

I warp to the Arkonor first, to get the two ship wrecks.  On the way, I see something quite unexpected: three Dominixes on scan.  Was I wrong about where these guys are from?  I guess so.  It seems they are from C4b, even though it is EOL.

Anyway, I land on grid and lock up the two miner wrecks, and start salvaging.  But I also set my dscan to half range, and the Dominixes do not show up.   OK, that is good.  I can get good enough early warning.  Two frozen corpses are there on my scan, and I realize I forgot to scoop them earlier.  I scoop them now. Now I start dscanning like a maniac.  Nothing.  Nothing.  Nothing.  Etc.

Loot.

The two wrecks are salvaged, so I am off to salvage the sleepers.  I microwarp over, dscanning all the way.  Then I salvage, which seems to take forever.  It takes forever because I am dscanning every 10 seconds religiously, and also I have to tractor in all the wrecks.  Nothing shows up.

Finally I finish.  I want to do the second site too, but I think I should dscan at full range to see if they are still lurking out there.  They are not.  They are gone.

A glance at Otto's screen shows they are not gone.  Rather they are sitting on the wormhole to C4c, in a spider configuration, with Garde IIs out.  

I won't attack this by myself.

I revise my guess again: C4c must be where they are from.  Were they hiding in my system?  They did not enter, at least not since Otto started watching and listening.  Were they in the system my static connects to for some reason?  That's possible, I suppose, but what would they be doing there?  Running sites?  But we have a few barracks; why not run those?  It's a mystery.  It does not make sense.  But this is EVE; real people often do surprising things.  I am just happy that they cannot see either ore site.  

I warp to the second ore site, and microwarp to its sleeper wrecks, and salvage them.  All the time I watch the Dominixes on my other screen, and I dscan just in case.  But nobody uncloaks, and I zoom off with a bit of loot.

One of the Domis leaves.  It's just two now, and I am still not attacking them.

My curiousity is piqued.  I have to know if those guys were doing anything in C4b.  So I get my Manticore and warp over, and jump.  It might be a trap... but it is not.  Nobody at the wormhole.  There are no wrecks on scan in C4b.  I warp around to the planets.  No wrecks.  I have no idea what, if anything, they were doing in there. 

Later on, they attack my tower.  Revenge, perhaps.  But that's another story.

A Null Kill

I am out in nullsec tonight, ghostbusting.  I am in my trusty ghostbusting Tengu.  My exit system is C0O6-K, in Wicked Creek.  Lots of systems nearby with low numbers of jumps, although unfortunately none with zero.  This is good, though not great, terrain for ghostbusting.

I don't have a huge amount of time tonight, so I plan on going through the local cluster of systems I am in, then a large circle to the east.  I am not sure how far yet -- it depends on the timing.  So I set off.  My local cluster: C-LTXS, SJJ-4F, HD-AJ7, SR-4EK, 0RI-OV.  No sites.  I keep going.  L-Z9KJ, 7K-NSE, OR-7N5.  There is someone in this system, so I bother to cloak when crossing to the gate to 5NQI-E.  As I land at the gate, I see something unexpected: there is a ship on grid here, 280km off the gate.  5NQI-E is a cul-de-sac.  Is he waiting to try to pounce when I come back?  Maybe I should not go through.  No, wait.  He is in a Prowler.  Can't hurt a fly.

What is he doing uncloaked?  I don't know, but I am also jumping.  There are no ghost sites in 5NQI-E, and one character is present.  My guess is the guy at the gate is just a scout for this guy, to give earlier warning.  I burn back to the gate and jump.

The Prowler is still there.  That's... odd.  There is no reason at all for him to be uncloaked.  He must not know he is uncloaked.  This suggests he is AFK, or semi-AFK at best.  I wonder if I can kill him.  Still, I cannot get at him easily.  280km.  I look around for celestials.  The local planet is sort of in the right direction, so instead of just leaving, I bounce off the planet and return at 100km.  OK, that's pretty good, about 180 km.  I do it again, and I am no closer.  179 km?  Oh, forget it.

This is not close.

On second thought, don't forget it.  My Tengu goes 248 m/s.  180km at 248m/s is doable.  It is 720 seconds: 12 minutes.  I've hunted a lot longer than that, for a mere Epithal that I probably cannot even scramble.

It's a small system, but fortunately the furthest planet is just out of dscan range from here, at 15.5AU.  So I bookmark my location, then warp out to the far planet.  I deploy the mobile depot I carry for such occasions, then refit into a combat fitting.  It's designed for ganking frigates, so it has got weak DPS, but it should at least apply it fully.

I warp back before remembering to check the ammo.  I have EM missiles loaded.  I get info on the Prowler, and check its shield and armor hardness.  Its base shield hardness is 50, and armor hardness is 80.  My EM missiles are very bad here.  Explosive missiles or kinetic are about the same, and much better.  I need a reload.  Also, I notice that I forgot to put on the target painter I have.  So I warp out again to the outer planet, deploy my mobile depot, and wait.  Then I get the scourge missiles loaded and my target painter mounted, and return.

And now the slowboating.  I point in the general direction of the Prowler, and go.  (It seems you cannot use "Approach" at great range.)  Now I turn my attention to the web, since it is going to be a while.

Will the guy notice he's sitting uncloaked?  Is he AFK?  I will find out soon.

At 100km, I can look at him and also Approach.  So I do that.

Still not close.

At about 30km, I can't focus on the web any more.  I am getting combat adrenaline, which is kind of stupid for a gank, but then I don't really see much combat.  So I just sit and watch me crawling across space.  By now I am pretty sure he is AFK and thus dead.  But there is some possibility that the guy in the next system might try to come.  So I rehearse scenarios in my mind.

I plan to head straight into him: if I am on top of him, he cannot cloak.  That should give me enough time to lock him.  From there, my warp scrambler will secure the kill.

Close!

At just over 2000m, I uncloak.  Then I try to lock him repeatedly as my sensor recalibration delay of 4s dissipates.  I lock him, and my missiles fire.  They are rapid lights, so lots of firing but not so much damage.  The Prowler turns, which I think is from my bumping.  He's into armor, then structure, and boom.  Now I go for the pod, and kill that.  Plans work better when the enemy is AFK. 

Die, cruel pod.

Loot time.  I am surprised at what I find: siphons.  I had noticed two of them at the outer planet when I was refitting.  Now I am guessing this guy was ninja-siphoning moons out here.  I can only imagine he must have forgotten to cloak, and was AFK.  Not much of a kill, but a kill nonetheless.

In retrospect, I can see maybe there was some danger.  He had tackle fitted, and a covert cyno.  I think I might have been hotdropped?  I am not really sure how that stuff works.  Well, I got away with it.

A Space Chase

I'm up early.  There's some time to waste.  Hey, I think I will drop into EVE in Aussie time.  They'll never expect it.

I log in, already in my Manticore.  Last night our system had two wormholes connecting to it; I scanned down the chains behind both of them.  This morning there are still two sigs.  I warp to one with the longer chain.  I warp to it at 10 km: I don't know its timing, and I may not jump if it is EOL.  In fact, it is not there at all.  Oh.  I open bookmarks and remove that scanned-down chain.

Over to the other.  I warp straight to it, since I instantiated it last night.  (This might not actually be true; I guess I was still sleepy.)  It is EOL, but I figure it must have just entered that state, and jump.  (See last parenthetical.  Lucky I did not get trapped out.)  Once in to C4b, I scan.  There's an Epithal on scan.

There was not an Epithal sitting out in this system last night.  Hunting time!  I did not bookmark the tower last night.  OK, I will dscan it out.  There it is, at a planet with one moon.  That is why I did not bookmark it.  I warp to the moon, landing on grid 180km from the tower.  So I warp to the tower to get eyes on the Epithal.  It is manned.  And better, it is not aligned with its tower.  That is, it has been sitting for no more than 15 minutes or so.  Will it attempt to planet-goo?

Epithal one.

I watch.  It does nothing for quite a while.  Boring.  I raise a browser on my second screen to read the web.  I half-watch some more.  One article read.  Then I half-watch some more.

It moves!  I focus on EVE.  I spin my view around behind the Epithal to see where it is headed.  Strangely, it's not headed anywhere, just out into black space.  No planet, not anything.  Is it trying to juke me by warping to a bookmark?  (Few take this basic precaution.)

It stops moving.  False alarm.  I look around and see that it is now aligned with its tower.  Ugh.  It was just auto-aligning.  So it has been idle here now for ... a while.  15 minutes?  Something like that.  Still, that's no reason to give up.  Back to my web surfing.

A while, later, there's a blip on EVE.  What is it?  Ah, new Epithal just warped in.  And my Epithal logs out.  Very likely it's one guy, doing his PI.  Well, there's still an Epithal to watch.  I'll watch this one.  It also does not do anything immediately, so I return to the web.

Epithal 2

After five minutes, it logs off.  But before I can be disappointed, a new Epithal warps in.  Groundhog day.  It does nothing, I return to the web.

Epithal 3

Then another.

Epithal 4

And another.

Epithal 5

And yet another.  This time, both Epithals stay logged in.  I hope this means something, but right now it does not.  I return to the web.

Epithal 6.

Movement.  I look over at EVE.  One of the Epithals is aligning, I think.  I look at it, and get behind it, and get its destination -- I think.  Not sure.  Now it warps off grid, and I am returned to viewing my cloaked Manticore.  I figure out which planet it went to again.  I think.  Then I warp to it at 10 km.

Why am I not cloaked?

I land on grid, but there is no Epithal here.  Rats!  Wrong planet!  But it is definitely out here, somewhere.  Dscan time.  I point dscan at planets, and I find him.  I warp to that CO still in map mode.  I land, and he's not there.  OK, one more try.  I find him, and warp.  This time I leave map mode, and am disappointed to see my Manticore.  See, as in: I am not cloaked.  Oops, must have not warped at 10km to that last CO?  Not sure.  Anyway, I land on grid with the Epithal just as I cloak.  He probably saw that.  I blew it.

I expect him to return to the tower, and he does.  I also return there.  Perhaps he's an idiot.  Or, just maybe, he was not paying attention and did not see me.

I am not at the tower more than a few moments, when a third Epithal logs on.  Man, this guy has a lot of alts.  I get all three in view.  Now they sit for a while.  Just as I am about to return to my web browser, one of them moves.

Epithal 7

It is aligning.  I do the standard thing, getting the CO he is aligning to, then warping behind at 10km.  I am a bit slow on that.  When I land on grid, he is already aligning out.  This guy is fast.  I am 10km off.  I move towards him, but before I get in scrambler range, he warps.

I watch the warp, and warp to the next CO at 10km again.  This time I am faster than last time.  I will have my shot at him.  I uncloak, and get my sebo on.  Then I lock him and get the other systems going, most particularly the warp scrambler.  He's locked; my torps scream out and smash into him.  I turn on my microwarp to try to bump him.

He warps.  I kind of expect it; with only one warp scrambler, not three, I should not usually be able to stop an Epithal.  (It is surprising how many are not fit properly.)  In any case, there is some hope.  I don't know how damaged he is, but I did hit him with a round of torps, and I can see where he warped.  He warped to another CO before he knew I was there, I guess.  I warp behind him, slowed in my turn by my microwarp.  The chase is on!  He knows I am here, so there is no point in cloaking.

In pursuit

While pursuing in warp, I think to photograph myself.  And I resolve this time to get a screenie in combat.

I land on grid.  My sebo is still on, so no need for fancy mousing.  Just lock on, then fire.  I hit, and he warps off again.

Take that, you warp-core stabbed monster!

Close

Incredibly, he does not warp home, but on to the next CO!  I warp, following him.  (You can see the damage on the screenie to the right; at the time I had no idea how much damage I had done.)

I land at the next CO.  I lock him, and get one more hit in.  He does not die.  He warps.  Again to a CO!  I warp to it.  But he has not gone to the CO.  He's not here.  Rather, this is the planet where their POS is.  I move away from the CO, so that I can cloak.  Then I warp out to the POS, and all three Epithals are there.

Well, I doubt I am going to get a kill here today.  I have tried, but they have decent Epithal fits.  I am guessing three stabs plus a damage control.  In any case, my mere one scrambler was inadequate, and my damage not quite enough even given three rounds.  Win some, lose some.  Good job, Oman Estemaire.