5H-SM2
I scanned it down in a system belonging to the Tau Ceti Federation. Cowardly frogs. I was understandably eager to get back to the beloved emptiness of w-space.
J124327
A reflexive warp off to a random planet yielded an idiot just sitting there, uncloaked, all fat and happy. In a Heron. He was the CEO of some random corp, AMUR was their ticker, I think. Made me wish I had some guns.
Instead, I left the half-wit to do my scanning free from his detestable ignorance.
Once at my safespot, a preliminary scan of the system for interlopers further reinforced my growing disgust at having my coveted w-space solitude disturbed.
At least four other ships, and two of their pilots gabbing in local. I scanned down a Raven, Dominix, and Nighthawk taking on some Sleepers. The Dominix warped off, I tracked him to a high-sec wormhole, which obviously was their way in. Now their childish antics and lack of a healthy paranoia made sense; these kinds of pilots couldn't have come in from the null-sec wormhole.
The Heron was obviously their prober. I scanned down the Raven again, sitting at a safespot with the (still uncloaked, idiot) Heron.
After a while, the larger ships left back through their high-sec wormhole, leaving the Heron behind. I decided to continue monitoring him while looking for another wormhole out, on the off-chance he found one before I did.
He didn't. So I decided that he sucked, and left through the new wormhole I found.
J101012
Almost instantly, the Greypoint's computer warned me of "Local Spatial Phenomena" having an effect on the ship's systems. A quick look at the surrounding starfield revealed why.
In the distance, there was this... bright thing. I still don't know what it was, but it was kinda pretty. So I snapped a picture:
Like I said. Pretty. But boring.
This system was much smaller than the last one. A cursory scan for ships came up empty, to my delight. Within minutes, I had a wormhole scanned down. Unfortunately, it led to low-sec. Ugh.
The whole "having guns" idea had been tossing around in my head for a while, accompanied by images of exploding Herons. I remembered the high-sec wormhole I'd found a few systems back, and decided a brief foray into Empire didn't seem so bad, if big boom-boom things were the end result.
Nani, Lonetrek
Back in K-space. And Empire. Yuck. Let's go get those guns.
Aikoro, The Citadel
With the Greypoint looking particularly fancy - two new turrets elegantly extending her silhouette, new electronic warfare systems complementing that extra bite - we were ready to head back into w-space. The wormhole I had just scanned down looked used; for once, I didn't mind. Much.
J125925
Immediately, I knew this system would be interesting. The wormhole spat me out amidst the wreckage of ingenuous suckers, juvenile in their expectations of w-space. Their gutted ships and floating corpses spoke to my lust for ruin and embitterment.
Some lucky bastards had formed a nice camp around the wormhole's exit, and were bringing righteous cruelty down on any whom came through.
Except me.
I activated the Greypoint's warp drive, with the nearest planet set as the destination. Two of the gankers tried to chase me; fortunately, the Greypoint's special Covert Ops cloaking system held through the warp, and my pursuers found nothing.
Safely cloaked, halfway between the planet and the wormhole, I started scanning. The system's current occupants were grouped mostly around the wormhole; one Heavy Assault Cruiser, one Interceptor, one Battlecruiser, and two Assault Frigates. I say mostly, because my scanners also picked up another Covert Ops signature elsewhere in the system. The signal was intermittent, and kept jumping randomly, which told me the pilot must have been using his cloaking systems liberally.
He was obviously working with the gank-team surrounding the wormhole. I revised my earlier opinion on this system, and abandoned my original enthusiasm. This was not going to be interesting. The gankers would sit around the wormhole, killing people, until it collapsed. Then they'd probably scan down another one and leave. Their prober, while not very good at staying cloaked, was competent enough to evade my scans. No fun. So I took a nap.
I woke up a few hours later to an empty system. The original high-sec wormhole had collapsed, and the gankers had gone.
I found a new wormhole almost instantly. It was stable and unused, but led to high-sec. I was getting tired of seeing that. I got comfy about 100km out, and sat back to see if anyone came through.
Just as I was considering leaving, the wormhole lit up, and out popped a Drake. He warped off to a nearby planet. I followed. To my surprise, he didn't even bother setting up a safespot; the idiot must think he's alone.
I watched him probe out a group of Sleepers, and hit upon an idea. He obviously hasn't considered the fact that there may be someone else here, and these solo-types aren't very proactive about collecting the loot from their Sleeper conquests.
So I decided to be a dirty thief.
I watched him chew through wave after wave of Sleepers, and I began bookmarking the locations of their wreckage. When I was certain he was sufficiently distracted, I warped in right on top of a lifeless Sleeper ship, that he had destroyed, and stole everything I could. Then I warped out. My cloaking systems were disengaged for less than a minute; I doubted he noticed me. And even if he did, there was nothing he could do. So I did it again. And again.
I was thoroughly enjoying myself.
Emboldened by my success as a dirty thieving bastard, I went after some of the larger Sleeper wrecks, which also happened to be closer to the still-active Sleepers.
Immediately after exiting warp, the Sleepers had a lock on the Greypoint. They burned through her shields and made a small dent in her armor in the few seconds it took for me to transfer the loot and warp out. The Greypoint's small signature radius was probably the only thing that kept me alive.
After that, I decided to call it a day. Leeching off idiots from Empire is only fun when huge scary Sleepers aren't shooting at you. And I've learned nothing if not to be overly cautious.
I'm now sitting at my safespot, cloaked, and getting ready to fall asleep. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to put those guns to use.
No comments:
Post a Comment