Content delivery business

I like to see myself as a content creator. Some people don't want content delivered to them. That is why I always have my cloak turned on and have to be very stealthy, to make sure those people do not run away before content is delivered in full. Some people do want content delivered to them, but in those cases, it usually is delivered both ways. I'm more of a giver than receiver, so I tend to avoid those situations. Sometimes, however, I do make exceptions, when I feel I will provide more than receive.

It's been a couple of days since content has been delivered to wormhole miners. I stuck around to see if my content creating services may be used for one more time. It usually is a one time deal, but due to various circumstances, customers are opted for a premium, one for two package.

I had no luck. Besides system being clear of anomalies, with only few present, besides asteroid action, there was not much else going on. Mackinaws have not been replaced and now everyone was mining in cheap t1 hulls. My services are not cheap. In most cases there is a minimum fee of at least 50 mil for content to be delivered, and even that greatly depends in which area I am operating in. If there is potential for an expensive kill, fees will go up.

If not mining, they are gas mining, using cheap ventures. I am not interested in ganking ventures, but I am interested in ganking whoever clears the site's sleepers. I see a Tengu on scan and few sleeper wrecks. It is not in anomaly and non of my pre-scanned signatures, so it must be new. I do very careful d-scan analysis and mange to pinpoint his location. I warp off range and launch combat probes. I manage to get 60% with my first hit with 1AU set range. He was around 3.5 AU away from nearest celestial. It is not so easy to get a very good and precise hit. Unfortunately, 1 AU was not strong enough. Now, most people will just adjust probes to 0.5 and will finish scan. I do not do that. Once scan is complete I recall my probes the very same second. This way I spend minimum required time for probes to be on d-scan. I can tell from experience, that resizing probes and doing a second scan, will greatly increase possibility to get spotted. I even underlined important part. Probably only sentence I have ever underlined in my blog, so you know...serious business.

If I do not get warpable hit, I repeat whole process again. Warp off range, launch probes and adjust. With 60% it was a piece of cake and I got a hit. Tengu seems to be clearing gas site and has only 1 sentry tower left. I am at 50km. Unless there are more sleepers spawning, there's no chance I can make it in time. Plus, Tengu goes way above after 10mn burner speed, so he either mwd fit or 100mn ab fit. With no celestials, it is impossible to set a good warp in. All I can do is watch him warp off and Venture return for the gas. Sigh.

Next day I map the signatures and make bunch of tactical bookmarks at the only remaining gas site.

Come here Tengu, I am ready for you. I've been watching guys for the most part of the day. A lot of time has passed and I have not did any scouting. There should be very slim chance that I was spotted. Most likely gas site is not that lucrative or they just are not in the mood. To hell with it. I'm done, I'm gonna look for new home. Signatures spawn really slowly and there is really nothing going on. You have to avoid attaching to one seem-to-be good system for too long time.

Active neighborhood

I have finally did some scouting. While my system is quiet, there's a lot of life several jumps out. I found a new home, system that I will stalk. But besides that, there are neighboring wormholes that are very active. One of such systems is occupied by The Independent Legion of Wookies, a corporation that is a part of an alliance End of Life.

A very well known alliance within wormhole community. Killboard is quite active too, but it seems at this particular time, there's only 1 ship in system at the pos. Probably 10 more flying cloaked up, but sine I can't see them, I will pretend they are not there.

I scan their system and find a c4, that is also active. Bunch of wrecks on scan.

No ship wrecks though. It's also not an anomaly. I lurk around to see if there is a salvager coming in, but nothing happens. At the tower I see two Rattlesnakes sitting and few other scanning frigates. No activity, so my guess they know that they might not be alone. And alone they are not. I see Helios coming in from next door. I resolve the signatures and wait. I've seen ships on scan on and off. Something is going on.

Twenty minutes later, I see Buzzard on scan. I find him in a radar site, the same place where the wrecks are. This should be interesting. I am confident I'm not the only guy watching. Since I was sitting on the exit this whole time, I know Helios never came back. Plus there were scanner probes 20 minutes ago, so I guarantee this sited is scanned. Buzzard pilot is either pretty ballsy or very clueless. 

It doesn't take a psychic to tell what is about to happen. It would be ideal if I had any popcorn. Just sit back, relax, and watch EVE episode "what happens when you do site with hostiles in the system". Buzzard has at least 4 pilots active in his corp. At very least, one should be watching wormhole for incoming connections. Looks like it is going to be a short episode. It doesn't take long and I see company on grid.

Buzzard is not warping away, so I guess it is too late for him. 

What an unexpected turn of events. I must say, it was rather entertaining. I still need to move my fleet to new home. It does not go through EOL home, but it is very close - a jump out. I go back to their home system. I see a lot of nasty cloaky ships on scan and more people are logging in. There's also a downtime in an hour. If there's safest time to move, it's just before downtime. It should be quiet and safe. Nothing happens just before downtime, not in w-space at least, right?

To be continued...