Space was very quiet. I went out scanning and found very little. Frustrated, I ventured out a bit further. I came up empty except for one mag site. Mag sites are hit or miss. Sometimes it's like digging through the trash. Other times, it's like finding the holy grail. That's exploration for you and it's the hook that keeps people coming back. For every trash site I find when I find that one shiny thing that sells for 300 million I am hooked again.
This site rewarded me with a 5 run ASB BPC (blue print copy). I found that amusing because Nosy Gamer had just discussed finding and building that very same BPC the other day.
It was something at least. I was opening the rest of the cans when I saw local go up. I was in a stationless system. Fortunately, I had a few safe spots in it. I watched dscan and started to do my thing. A small fleet came in. Two were neutrals and one was a local anti-pirate. To me, that meant they were all members of that one group on neutral alts. Everyone that came in was cloaked. I waited and kept doing my thing. I was off the warp in point for the mag site. If they wanted to find me and get a warp in directly on me they would have to launch combat probes.
What they launched were core scanner probes. Core scanner probes are used to look for exploration sites, wormholes, DED sites, and combat sites. It was interesting. Now, they could have been innocently scanning for signatures. Or, they could be trying to scan down where I was and slide a cloaky ship in on me to get a warp while hoping I considered those probes 'harmless'. Also, they could be trying to flush me out of the site.
I went with them trying to find me. If I had been in a mission site they would have had to use combat scanners. But, because I was in one of the randomly occurring exploration sites they could find where I was quickly.
With the ASB BPC in my hold I decided to bail. I took Sugar off to a very deep safe and sent my scout to the gate and into the next system to see if a trap had been set for me. With the use of the core probes instead of combat probes I had a feeling that they might have wanted me to run towards home. I was alone and they know us well enough to know that we didn't have any serious numbers on that could come back me up.
I bounced my scout through the gate. She is in a CovOps. On the other side of the gate, two hurricanes are orbiting. Well, well, well. I warp her off the gate to a safe, and then return to the gate. As I do that they leave system and enter Sugar's system.
Okay.
My scout comes back through. The gate is clear. I take her down to a pounce, and send Sugar to the gate. Sugar exits the system and heads to a safe in the next system. The entire gang, five people now, are in the system I was scanning. I send my scout ahead but the rest of the way is clear.
Good.
What I did not want to do in that situation is panic. If I had and had just bolted for the 'safety' of home, I would have landed in their little pounce. I saw a tengu at one point so they had a hurricane, hurricane, and tengu. I know them well enough that they run ECM. One of the cloakies was probably a falcon. I had another way out as well. My goal had been to scout the other gate and decide where I was going to bail from.
And I scuttled away, off into the sunset.
Low sec is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to find. The point about the scanners is pretty interesting to know.
ReplyDeleteThat was very well played.
ReplyDelete