A Failure to Scout Properly

The current home system is empty. Well, it is almost empty. The sleeper sites do not count as far as I am concerned. They aren't bothering me, so I see no reason to stir them up. According to the helpful notes of a corp mate, the static from last night should be dead.

I check the location for the static and sure enough there is no wormhole. Time to start scanning. I drop probes and locate the new static connection. I bookmark the new connection and jump in to see if any targets show up.

The initial d-scan reveals a tower with a force field and little else. I warp to the outer planet and find another tower. With no apparent pilots in the system, I drop probes and start scanning. While I am scanning, I periodically check d-scan and am surprised to find 2 Dominix in system. I warp to the observation post on their tower and sure enough, the pilots are sitting behind the shields.

While I finish scanning the system, a couple of corpmates show up. I notify them of situation and we continue watching. Since the Domis are just sitting behind the shields, I jump the connections to map out routes and see what is around us. After jumping back in from high sec, I find probes in system and return to the observation post. By this time we have a Devoter, Armageddon, Sleipnir, Drake and an Ishkur sitting on the wormhole.

Shortly after arriving back on station, the Dominix pilots start moving. Sure enough, the Dominix pilots align to our C5 and warp off. I instruct the Devoter pilot to cross jump the Domis and everyone else engage and then follow. The wormhole flares and our Devoter pilot jumps. The Domi pilots apparently want nothing to do with our welcoming committee and immediately jump back home to find our trap.

We follow and engage the polarized pilots. Volcano Vapors is called as primary simply because he is the closest to my Sleipnir. The pilots put up a fight but they are outnumbered and even with the strong tank, the first Dominix goes down. Our Ishkur pilot is forced to jump back through the wormhole to avoid losing a ship, while we move on to Cleopatrra in the second Dominix. Both ships were well tanked and took quite a beating before falling to our fleet. We announce good fight in local and then provide a free ticket back to the cloning vat for both Volcano Vapors and Cleopatrra.

Pro Tip: You should always scout the opposite side of a wormhole before attempting to close it.