Beaten to It

It's getting late tonight.  Almost bedtime... but there is still a bit more time, and there is my static C4 to explore through.  I've explored our static C5: nothing.  Also a K162 to C4: more nothing.  It had statics to C4 (my system), and C5b: nothing there either.  Seems like a lot of nothing tonight.  But you cannot find something without looking.  And so, into C4a.

C4a itself appears like more nothing.  It's a small system, scannable from my wormhole.  There's one live tower, but nothing else of interest.  No ships.  No wrecks.  Not even a stray drone.  At this point I might turn around.  Or I might not.  Let's see what statics this system has.

I consult Tripwire, incidentally updating my wormhole sig since my wormhole is out all by itself.  Aha.  This system has statics to C2 and C3.  Both of those are interesting possibilities.  Good enough for me to keep going, and good enough for me to scan through seven sigs (six, really because minus one for my wormhole).  So I move out from the wormhole, fire probes, and cloak.

A few minutes later, I have the system fully scanned.  In addition to the two static wormholes, there is some gas, a data site, and a relic site.  OK, shall I go to C2a first, or to C3a?  Easy decision, really.  C2s have dual statics, and so are often occupied by people who intend to use the second static to find people to kill.  Thus they tend to have more alert occupants.  So I like C3a.  I warp over, and jump in.

C3a is large enough that I have to warp around.  In the inner system there are two basic sleeper cruiser wrecks on scan.  Ooh, maybe a salvager will come.  But I cannot find the wrecks.  From the look of them, they are probably in a gas site.  There are several sigs.  Shall I scan?   Let me check the outer system first.

I find a Venture at a tower in the outer system.  After some dscanning, I get on grid with it.  It is manned.  Hmm.  I am not in my Venture killing fit, but I am not sure what this guy plans to do.  Being in a Venture at all suggests he has been mining; perhaps he saw the new sig and skedaddled.  On the other hand, he might just be taking a break.  I cannot tell.  But I can tell I'd like to know where the gas site is.  All the sigs in this system are in the inner system, 25AU from where I am.  So this guy cannot dscan to there.  I figure I will go in and scan as fast as possible, so that at least I have the gas site(s) in case this guy tries something.

I warp to the inner system, and after a quick dscan check, fire probes.  Then I quickly scan down the few sigs.  There is indeed a gas site, and it does indeed hold the sleeper wrecks.  I still see nothing on dscan, so maybe my scanning has not been noticed.

I warp to the gas site.  Both clouds are there, including a C72 cloud.  (C72 is worth mining; C70 -- the other cloud -- isn't.)  The sleeper wrecks have not been looted yet.  Hmm.  Nothing on scan.

I move off to a perch 150km+ from both gas clouds and the two wrecks.  Now, I wait.

I wait some more.

Tick.

Tock.

Damn, I am short on time here.   I might wait longer if it was earlier in the evening, but it's not.  I warp to the sleeper wrecks, grab their blue loot, and warp out.

Shall I call it a night?  Not quite yet... just one more system.  I'll check out C2a.  I warp across C4b, then jump in.

My dscan from the wormhole tells a story.  There are two mining barge wrecks on scan, as well as a corpse, a Manticore and a Stratios.  Some miners got ganked here.  There are also a Basilisk and an Epithal, which I expect are not part of it.

I check the scanner, and sure enough there is one ore site in the system.  It's 13 AU from me, and a quick narrow beam dscan confirms that the wrecks are there, as well as the bomber and the Stratios.  I warp over, but I am pretty sure I am too late.

I am too late.  In the site, I land on grid about 25km from where the action was.  The Stratios warps off just as I land.  Then the Manticore, piloted by Indecorous, grabs a last bit of loot, and also turns and warps.  Both ships disappear from dscan, which of course means pretty much nothing.  (Here are the kills: a Covetor, a Procurer, and a mobile tractor.)

Well done.

Strangely, the corpse is not on grid here.  Where is it?  I almost start looking, but then I recall the time.  It's not my corpse so I don't want it for my collection, and surely whatever locals there may be left here in the ships which I can see are not going to be doing anything stupid again tonight.  At least not for a few hours, and I don't have that much time.  So, goodbye C2a.  I warp home for PI and logoff.

That's EVE.  Earlier, had I chosen to enter C2a first and not C3a, it seems nearly certain that I would have gotten at least one of those two barges.  Possibly both, if they were less than fully alert.  I was beaten to them by only a minute or two.