A Kill For Breakfast

The background to this post

Being slightly crazy, I am up at 07:00 to watch the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix. Being awake means my computer is switched on and I'm logged into the alliance jabber server. It isn't long (25 minutes and 10 seconds to be exact) before someone notices I'm there and asks me to take care of some administrivia. For once this particular administrivia requires logging into the EVE client which is probably not a good thing half an hour before the lights go off and the race starts. Tiny bit of work done for my alliance buddy so I settle down to watch the Grand Prix. Being at my computer I decide to continue the admin trend by going through my old emails and filing them appropriately, mostly in 'Trash'. I finish clearing out several pages of old mails then decide to clear out our old intel and start scanning. There is only one new sig to scan down - our static.

I can't just scan down the wormhole without jumping through to take a look at our new neighbour. Class 3 wormholes always have a static in K-space and this one leads to nullsec. Not my idea of an ideal hole to live in and many people must feel the same as C3 holes with a static null are often empty. With this in mind it doesn't surprise me that there are no online POSs showing on d-scan. With three planets over 14 AU away I warp to each of those in turn to make sure nobody lives here. On the final planet I discover an online POS, but more importantly I see drones, two Dominix and an Armageddon, and (the final tell-tale sign) wrecks on d-scan. Someone is running sites. Almost on cue one of the anoms disappears from my scanner interface to confirm this.

I warp to a safe spot within d-scan range of the remaining two anoms bookmarking both while in warp so I can be sure to find their locations later. I work out which site the ships are now in then sit watching d-scan while the sleeper wreck count creeps up. I count 11 wrecks then warp in to get a bookmark on their Mobile Tractor Unit. I'm slightly surprised to find the battleships still in site with two more sleepers to shoot. Maybe I miscounted, but anyway I bookmark the MTU and beat a hasty retreat before I get decloaked by one of the Sleepers who are worryingly close. I get myself to a nice distance where I can warp down onto the MTU while watching the battleships run the final site on d-scan.

Surprises in EVE are rarely pleasant

It's now a matter of playing the waiting game while watching the post-race interviews. I can see the battleships running the other site without an MTU gathering the wrecks. An age passes while waiting for the battleships to leave the final site and then for their salvager to reappear on d-scan. He isn't in my site though. A narrow d-scan shows him in the other site first. I contemplate warping there but I decide I should just wait here where I'm all set up. This should mean I get more loot in my killmail. At some point between d-scans the Noctis turns into another MTU. Confusingly the Noctis has warped somewhere other than my site leaving me puzzled. I start to worry if he has some plan involving downtime keeping him safe from ganking before deciding that is just silly. Finally d-scan and then the overview show a Noctis exactly where I expect it to be. I warp to the MTU, decloaking while in warp and activating all my modules. I land a mere 4km from the Noctis, point him and give a hefty bump just to make sure he's not going anywhere. He explodes and his pod flees the scene.

I scoop the loot, shoot the wreck, then retreat to my safe spot. Triumphantly I link my killmail in the Alliance channel only to receive a mouthful of sarcastic abuse for ruining the game for the poor innocent site runners. I then link a second killmail for the MTU in the other site and a corpmate pipes up that he's online and would I like a Noctis to come salvage the two dozen wrecks? Well, this sounds like a really dumb idea but given the chance to rub salt into the killmail wounds we do it anyway. Not a hint of any of the residents is seen until we warp back to the hole home with all our ill-gotten gains. There on our wormhole home is a Prorator who appears to have just launched a large warp bubble. He cloaks up and we decide to leave him be. Too late, mate, and thanks for the loot. Funnest 100 million ISK I made for a while.