Automaton has already scouted the Korma mission area, then ran down past Isanamo to Iidoken, and the long way back up to Uemisaisen stopping in every one off system on the way. But, hasn’t turned up anything worthy of mention. Just more ceptor/frig flutter. A Pademic Hord ceptor, a Astero frig from TEST, and so on.
With Lonetrek region coming up empty Automaton heads out down past Kino into the Citadel region wondering around aimlessly, before turning back towards Black Rise. The mission hub Piak along with my attention span once again comes up empty.
I’m loosing my mind. It has been hours with nothing to even encourage me to undock. I’m starting to see shapes on the inside of my eye lids as my imagination compensates for the lack of stimulus. I wonder if I should … do … something.
Automaton reports more frig flutter in Oipo, this time from a Circle of Two pilot. I ponder for the umpteenth time if I should setup a filter to ignore Automaton’s reports of frigs, given the fact that she blatantly refuses to stop sending them. At least that’s what I assume her silence in response to my suggestions implies. I guess that just fundamentally goes against her … her… goals? DNA? programming? purpose for life?
She’s now reporting a Merlin stationary on a system gate in Isinokka. Just floating there 15k off the jump point. Most likely they fell sleep in pod and just let their gate cloak fade. 8 systems away. What are the odds it is still there when I get there? Pretty good: Merlin (300k ISk – empty fit, empty cargo) Pod (empty). I guess it is still a kill mark, and I’m now successfully fighting off insanity from boredom. So, there is that.
Automaton’s silent stream of reports has a greater sense of smugness about it. Yes, fine I won’t filter out your frig-ing intel reports (pun intended). Happy? I’m pretty sure she is happy. She seem to oscillate between “sarcastic emo” and “smugly content”, but she never really seems unhappy. And no, I’m not just projecting.
A Test pilot (with mining barge losses on his KB) is docked bottom station in Uemi, and that kind leaves me hanging out at the gate if i don’t want to spook him. A ceptor from PH jumps through my modest little gate camp (that I of course don’t catch), and that gets me thinking. With all the ceptor flutter I’m bound to get buzzed by a Test pilot at some point, and so I power down to hide my presence from the local net.
I once again curse my imagination and the shapes on the back of my eyelids while attempting to will the pilot into undocking. “It’s ok, no one is watching. You can totally go mine in the middle of the trade pipe. Go for it.”
It works? He undocks in a Noctis (an industrial ship specialized in salvaging). Not, a skiff but far better than a Merlin. I power back on my systems and jerk to an alert state as my ship decelerates hard and I land on the gate. Damn, he executes a perfect cloak mwd and warp trick. I never even got to pretend to lock him up.
More ceptor flutter passed by me on their way into Uemi. And then some out of Uemi. Got a slasher, magnate, capsule, and ares.. all from the same corp. They are just kind of hanging around. I think I have a Hawk stashed somewhere near by, maybe I should fetch it?
My coms system alert me that one of them has invited me to a private intel channel, and the 5 of us have a laugh as it becomes clear he invited instead of reporting. They don’t feel like chatting, and switch channels when I don’t immediately leave.
I park up in a citadel to take a nap, hoping things are more lively when I wake. But, not surprisingly I’m once again flooded with reports of flutter as I travel to the Osmon area. Nothing to be done about it. For now. In passing through Josameto I run across a corp mate in local coms who has a suspect flag. My inquires remain unanswered as he appears to be taking his own nap, or at least feels no obligation to relieve my curiosity.
I continue out to the backwaters of Lonetrek when reports come in from the alliance intel of PIRATE forces hitting a custom office in Perimeter. One of our more aggressive individuals asks for a warp in beacon so he can try and do a run by snipe of some of their support. Sounds a bit risky to me, and I … will just stop right here as Automaton has just torn off towards Perimeter.
Kind of hard to hunt without a scout, and my snipping battleship isn’t anywhere near by. It would appear I’m sidelined for this engagement. I wait for Automaton to have her fun without me, and pretend I’m not bitter. It seems to be working.
PIRATE finishes up their bashing activities before everyone can get in position, so Automaton is free to go check out the mission hubs again. I let her know that one Merlin asleep at the controls isn’t going to get us to 50 kills. Her silence speaks volumes about her apathy, and reminds me that it isn’t “us” that set that goal.
A war target who winds up clone jumping out to null, reports of PIRAT moving around the Jita and New Cal area, and of course more ceptor flutter is all that I have to pursue. I call it a night, and power down. Rather slow night, but at least I didn’t have to jump all over the galaxy. Now Automaton? I think she easily hit triple digit number of gate jumps and all we have to show for it is an empty Merlin.
We’ll try again tomorrow night.
Day 3 Tally:
1 kill, 2 kill reports
1 Ships, 1 pods (empty)
1 kill mark
Running Tally: 8/50
8 kills, 17 kill reports
7 ships (1 rookie), 9 pods (8 empty), 1 MTU
5 kill marks