Deep in EVE: A Waste of Frigates

It's the weekend, and I am exploring in my Buzzard. C4b had a lot of sigs, and nobody around after the initial occupant fled from me. I scan down C4b. There are three wormholes incident: my static, another C4, and a C5. I elect to go with C5a.

Upon jumping, I see an interesting dscan: Archon, two Revelations, two Lokis, two Damnations and an Anathema (?). There is also a tower. This looks like a escalation fleet if anything does. But there are no wrecks. I move off the wormhole, bookmark it, and get cloaked. Then I work dscan. One Damnation and a Revelation are at the tower. The others are out in space somewhere. I bookmark the two combat anoms, but they are not there. They are out in space somewhere I cannot trivially fly to. I'll have to probe. The system has eight sigs. Are they perhaps running a data site?

My guess is confirmed a moment later when a Sleeper large advanced wreck appears. OK, they must have just started on a site. There is an outer planet about 15AU out. I warp out to launch combat probes. Fortunately they are off scan. I launch probes then throw them out of the system. Now I warp back in to find their tower. This takes just a moment, as it is at a planet with just one moon.

Now I sit at the tower and get range to the wrecks and ships: it's about 5.3 AU. That's convenient; I use the 4 AU scan distance and I place the bubble edges on me. Now I start pointing dscan, in ever smaller angles, then searching for the group. Finally I have it down to a five degree arc. This is as good as I can do without getting closer. But it should be good enough. Capitals are huge. I bring the probe distance down to 1AU, then I scan. 100% on several ships, and I throw the probes out of the system as fast as I can. (While the probes warp and start their scan I remember to warp to the Archon at 100km.) Did they see?

I get to watch a C5 site be run. First!

Either they do not see, or they do not care. Huh. Bad opsec. I wish I had a fleet to drop on them, but I don't. Maybe they feel safe running with C4s open because we can't drop carriers? Dunno. Anyway, I am in the site, and now I sit. I can't do anything with a Buzzard, except make a perch. So I start slowboating away from them. Once I get far enough out, I bookmark the position and then warp off towards home. A Manticore is just as impotent as an unarmed Buzzard against capital reps, but they might make a mistake.

Hop, hop, and home. Reship. Then hop, and back to C4b. Now I think about polarization and decide to wait two minutes for it to abate on the C5 wormhole. That done, I warp to the wormhole and jump. Then I burn off the hole, hoping they don't see me. And I warp to my perch.

Eight more Sleeper battleships

The fleet is still there, still slowly killing sleeper battleships. So, now I sit and watch. This goes on for a very long time. They kill all the battleships, then they escalate with a Moros. Eight more sleepers. More waiting.

I am wondering what they will do for salvage. If they make a mistake, maybe I can slip in and gank something. But so far, nothing. Finally, they deploy a tractor unit. (Guys: do when first in the site.) So, that is one question answered. I bookmark it and keep watching.

Eventually they get down to four sleeper frigates and one cruiser. My guess is that this is the minimum level to keep the site around so they can milk it. Anyway, they have left these guys alive for 20 minutes now. And I see a Noctis on scan. Then it enters the site.

Strangely, the Noctis does not seem to have tractors, or it's not using them. Ever so slowly the tractor collects wrecks, and the Noctis grinds them. Some of the ships leave, but the Archon and a Loki are still present. So I cannot gank. I keep watching.

Finally the Noctis seems to have realized it has tractors. I see lots of wrecks moving. They are rapidly sucked in and salvaged. And the Noctis warps, leaving just the Loki and Archon.

At this point I expect them to bring in jammers to jam out the peskies and spring everyone free from their warp scrambling. But this does not happen. Instead, they bring in a Merlin. What? Maybe they can draw fire with it, freeing up the Loki or Archon? It zooms off on microwarp, but before long it warps. Well, that was about what I expected.

Finally the carrier gets free and warps. Now it's just the Loki. Since I am not going to get any action myself, I warp in closer to get a better look at what's going on. How will they spring their Loki free of five sleeper scramblers?

Sucks to be him.

Again I expect jammers, but no. Instead they warp in another Merlin. It starts zooming off, and then boom. Dead. Ha ha ha! This is funny. What else will they try?