Scanning the Orca home

Empty systems often lead to uninteresting times, but we probably didn't need to lose an Orca to make the evening more exciting. Collapsing our static wormhole to look for a better w-space constellation goes slightly awry when our industrial command ship exits and drags the wormhole with it. The pilot has an exit to k-space that passes through a couple of quiet w-space systems, but the exit leads to a null-sec system.

Parking the big and expensive ship out in null-sec is bound to make our man nervous and the better option seems to be to leave the Orca in the class 3 w-space system for now. The C3 holds the static exit to null-sec and the Orca can hopefully wait for a suitable connecting route to open between that exit and one we find from our home system. And the search begins now.

I join a couple of other scouts out scanning, passing through our uninhabited neighbouring class 4 system to the C5 beyond. The class 5 system is also unoccupied yet holds no anomalies and only four signatures. A K162 wormhole leading in from a null-sec system perhaps explains the lack of sites, the null-sec visitors sweeping the system clean of Sleepers. The C5's static connection leads to another class 5 system, my first attempt to jump announcing a lack of activity as the wormhole stabilises before letting me through.

There are few signatures in this C5 too, allowing me to find a wormhole quickly. An outbound connection to null-sec is promising, maybe allowing the Orca safe journey home whilst still meaning a static wormhole can be found for other activity. But the scout behind me checks both null-sec exits and finds them to be fifty-five and seventy jumps away from the the Orca's exit. Null-sec is not only big but it encircles the whole of empire space, and it should be unsurprising that wormholes can lead to completely opposite ends of New Eden. In fact, I'm positive it is unsurprising, but that doesn't stop it being disappointing.

The static connection in the second class 5 system leads to a third, this one occupied. There are no ships on the same directional scanner reading that shows the tower but the system is big. Warping across the C5 reveals a Viator transport ship somewhere, as well as a second tower, but the ship disappears and neither warping around nor checking the towers allows me to find it a second time. A scout who isn't wasting time joyriding finds a K162 wormhole coming in from low-sec empire space, then two more wormholes. The second K162 enters from another null-sec system, but the static connection to the fourth C5 in a row is too much for my delicate constitution to want to continue heading away from home tonight.

A rescue operation to retrieve the Orca gets underway, although I'm unsure if the plan is to get it back through low-sec or the third null-sec system we find. I end my evening by visiting each null-sec system for more red dots of exploration on my star map. SNFV-I in Catch is uninteresting, the sixteen capsuleers in the local channel of R-6KYM in Etherium Reach may wonder briefly where I come from, and QRFJ-Q in Detorid is an empty and dead-end system. Curiosity sated, I return homewards to get some sleep at the tower.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: eve online, mmorpg, null-sec, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, viator, w-space