Not every Gnosis is bait…

As my remaining two readers may recall, most of my Wormhole posts start with “and then I opened our new connection“.  This post is no different.

The adventure starts when I jump into our newly-spawned C3 neighbor and to my dismay find that it is a “shattered hole”.   For you sad k-space dwellers, Shattered Systems have more variety of anomalies and signatures, ice belts but no moons to anchor a POS on and of course you can’t park a Citadel there either.  CCP went back to the whole concept that WH space was designed for transient occupation at best.  Its also a riskier hunting ground since they – generally – have more connections are are quite big, something can easily hide off-Dscan for example.

Duck Season

 

It is no secret to my last remaining pair of readers that our corporation (Z3ro Return Mining) lives in C4 space with an ever-changing C3 neighbor.  Life and wormholes are like boxes of chocolates, you never know what you find when you open one; C3s are quite popular actually since they always have a connection to K-space and hence allow the riches of Wormhole life with the added advantage of easy access to the markets.

Last Monday, Oreamnos Amric and myself find ourselves alone at home, Orea is our CEO, Alliance Boss, Supreme Commander and Dear Leader.  He also manages our corp payouts so I suck up to him.  While Orea is doing accounting things, I open our C3 with my scouting Proteus whilst having my alt in a Stratios on standby in our hole.  D-scan shows me 3 Tengus, a tractor unit and a mess of wrecks.  I quickly move, cloak and with narrow beam find out where these site runners are and within 10s, I have eyes on them from 100km.

Friends with benefits

As both of my remaining two readers may remember, I live in Wormhole Space, more specifically, a C4 with a static C5 and a static C3.  Just in case you don’t know what that is, this means that we have two connections at any given time plus whatever other holes spawn into us.  But it also means that every day we have new neighbors and since neighbors in Wormhole space are generally armed to the teeth we tend to fly with the assumption that everyone is out there to kills us.  And vice versa, of course.  But we do like our C3 connections since it is generally our supply line to empire space where fuel and sundries are brought in and PI and gas products are shipped out.  And thus, the other night we open a new connection and commence a little scouting before we commit the haulers when our scout reports a second set of Sisters probes and a T1 Imicus on D-scan. That generally indicates that a brand new player just had come in from High Security space and is looking for hacking sites which arguably are by far the most money a an Alpha clone can make / hour.

The gnats are swarming

Its Sunday night and I just spent my 1 1/2 hour game time to scan down the chain from our hole to K-space. Not sure why I bothered, I didn’t have anything to do there and virtually all holes that I encounter these days are devoid of people to trade shots with.  Except of course that C6 into which I stuck my CovOps nose (I now scout with a CovOps, there are so many signatures these days I am really tired of the unbonused T3 or bombers I normally use).  Anyway, the C6 was occupied – mining operation in full swing.  Of course.  If they were doing anything else (sleepers), they would have crushed the hole to our C4 neighbor.  I warped to the POS at range but some clever positioning of a bubble with lots of combat drones scattered decloaked me.  If I had been in my T3, it could have gotten ugly.  But my little Helios backed up nicely and I got away without issues.  The damage however was done, Legion, Legion, Proteus… spawned all around me.  I banked that they didnt know where I came from and warped to zero km onto the hole home, jumped on contact and went into slow, cloaky orbit.  And yes, there comes the scout, some Buzzard to check out where I went.  Cloaked, mate, I am a bad pilot but not that bad.

Skirmishes

With the departure of TXG to better and greener pastures, this blog will lose a great writer and connoisseur of fine story telling.  And while the EVE blogosphere is better for it, his departure will force my remaining two readers to learn about my smaller adventures, little skirmishes and mishaps on my way through New Eden.

So, lets see. What I have been up to?

I am cursed!

Unusually, I actually played EVE quite a bit this week – real life has been good to me and with crummy weather, outdoor activities were limited to shoveling snow.

My C4 crew is slowly growing, we have new members from Europe logging in at times when I don’t expect people and its always a nice surprise to chat with newbros. They are fun and experienced and are keen to get into WH life, after all its the least known area in New Eden and certainly has a “mystique” that attracts lone wolves from all over.  Its not rational but there is solace in knowing that nobody can see you until its too late.  Or – alternatively – that you don’t have to take a fight if you don’t feel comfortable with the tactical situation. For example, last week I spotted wrecks and and site runners in our C3 neighbor.  A quick D-scan round later and I had my cloaky Proteus on grid with a Legion and Drake who were busy mopping up sleepers.  Now thats not a lot of firepower for a C3, especially if the Legion was salvaging at the same time, thus eliminating the opportunity to blow up a salvaging boat.  It also implied that both ships are low in shield or armor from the engagement with the sleepers making them vulnerable to a headshot.  So, I maneuver into position when I spot a Tengu and a command ship on D-scan.  Ah, these two ships are not alone in this system.  1 v 4 are not good odds.  Come to think of it, they are TEST capsuleers, the same crew that was evicted from nullsec and thrown into Faction War where they fatten their wallet before they lose it again in the next war against the CFC.  4 pilots, all from TEST with a Low Sec WH likely crawling with their friends – no, I am not engaging.

New Player Training Session: Exploration Fleet!

CCP Gargant offered a newb course today in exploration with the promise to die gloriously in a wormhole.  The event was designed for newbs and I gingerly log my RvB toon in that has a total of 1.5mil SP, can fly a Gallente Frigate well and hit a barn door if it is really close and doesn’t move.  Only just.

Look, the time is about to be perfect for the fleet to form up and I gulp down a lunch sandwich like a snake swallows a rabbit, fill the glass, empty the bladder (TMI?  this stuff is important, newbs need to know all about the Battle Bottle) and tell the wife that I am working on something really important and that she should stay out of my way for a bit.  She kinda believes it since I am doing this on my laptop.  A misnomer.  If I actually had this thing on my lap while playing EVE, I’d been in hospital with 3rd degree burns to my private parts.  It pays to wear fire-proof Depends for more reasons than raiding.

Restoring my reputation

A word about my fellow corp (Z3R0 Return Mining) and Alliance (Illusion of Solitude) mates.  I have been (in jest, surely!) heckled about my pacifist tendencies and my total inability to send ammunition at anyone inexperienced, poor, helpless, dumb or in any other way disadvantaged.  My corpmates query the wisdom of sending me out on scouting parties since I more likely to bring back helpless kittens than killmails.  Since we are a stone-cold (if slightly anarchic) killer outfit, my attitudes are seen with amusement.  “Oh no, Epigene is out scouting.  Will he rescue a mining fleet again?”.

A new perspective – welcome TXG Sync

Edit: I just realized that this was post number 100. Hooray!

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When I log into the game now, I get greeted by our recruits with friendly but persistent hackling about my accidental shootout with TXG Sync – one of our newer pilots. He is an awesome guy, great pilot and has not succumbed to bitter vet status. Neither have I. When does that start btw, is that like midlife crisis?

Incredible Incompetence or Awesome Awoxing?

The After Action Report below was written by my fleet and corp mate TXG Sync after a memorable night out. It is reproduced here in full and with his blessing.

I will give my side of the story once my forehead is healed from hitting the keyboard hard and multiple times. Enjoy the cautionary tale….

Splatus / Epigene

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The Battle of Epigene

By TXG Sync

The night started simply. My Wife started a TV show and snuggled up beside me, happily working on some home-made jewelry. I grabbed my laptop for a little site-running in or around my corp’s home wormhole, and logged into our voice comms channel.