There is always a cloaky Proteus

I decide to take a break and take it easy for awhile. After stalking the c4, I find a nice quiet c2 with c3 and high-sec statics. My new home does not have any active towers and is uninhabited, but I do like c3 and hs connections. One of the reasons I choose this system is because I am too lazy to find a proper wormhole and my heart is just not into it. I park my cloaky Proteus on high-sec exit and go play some other games like Dota and XCOM. I have already played XCOM Enemy Unknown, but I was told Enemy Within expansion brings quite few changes. Game has huge replay value anyway. Once I'm done, perhaps I will try Long War mod too!

Sometimes I think I spend too much time focused on just EVE. Even though I afk stalk and claim to have minimum effort invested, I still pay attention when there is an active jump through the wormhole I have been watching or there is activity at the tower. Willingly or unwillingly I end up scanning some chains, trying to poke more than few jumps away and it all ads up. I also resumed my evening school to learn Swedish after work, so time goes by faster than I would like to and I know it's not going to get any better, so it was time to take it down a notch.

Good thing about system with high-sec static, you are bound to have some tourists. I am fine with that. I see nothing wrong in nabbing an occasional scanning frigate. But if you stay in the system for long enough, you can see many "interesting" things. Like a guy from null-sec bringing freshly bought Redeemer.

Or a surprise Megathron fleet trying to roll me out from the neighboring wormhole.

It would be really nice to have an extra hand. Unfortunately, my search for Partner was not that successful. I guess the play I do us very niche focused and most people desire a full functioning corp instead. People that joined me so far either had wrong timezone or haven't logged in awhile. Apparently, taking afk part all too literally.

I keep watching high-sec when a wild Astero drops in.

I don't think much of him at first and was waiting for him to start doing data/relic site, but something was off the way he acted. He  jumps to high-sec and then jumps back in. Goes in and out for a few times. Then out of nowhere Iteron, a transport ship, jumps in.

His corp appears to be the same as Astero pilot's. I watch him warp to a random planet and I follow. I watch it land and then approach the customs office. I don't know what's this guy's deal is. Don't you need to setup your space colonies first? I doubt he is collecting PI. I then watch him warp to another planet, then back to wormhole and then back to a planet, where I find him and Astero sitting close to each other.

I watch their every move in my cloaky Proteus. I don't know what's going on yet. Perhaps he wants to setup a tower, but does not know it has to be done at the moon? I am very interested in Astero. Perhaps I can have a shot at catching him. They are too far for me to make my move now, but I see they like to warp at 100 to every destination. I closely watch them align and warp to the next planet and I immediately follow. Luck would have it, I land 10k off them.

This is it. I set on collision course, but do not rush to decloak just yet. Astero likes to go invisible and he does just that. Only Iteron is left on the overview, but I have a feeling the frigate is still there. I patiently keep flying and decloak once I feel I moved around 7km. If Astero doesn't appear, I can still try my luck with Iteron. Bob smiles upon me today as I see Astero appear right on the spot.

I get a positive lock and put a scram on him. In addition, I disrupt Iteron, but he warps out without a hassle. Damn those warp core stabilizers. Well, at least faction frigate is without any wcs and meets a slow death.

Who knows what riches were inside that Iteron, but I am happy with the outcome nevertheless.