Moving out

Today could be the day, an exit to high-sec empire space is being scanned by scouts as I arrive at the tower. The exit system even turns out to be a few hops from The Citadel region, which sounds good to me. I'll make my escape tonight, with as many of my ships as I can take, and now with an accomplice in tow. Although I am told my motives are backwards, as apparently I am not leaving but being kicked out of the system and accompanied for my own safety. Either way, I wait for the scouts to finish scanning, return home, and drop the bookmarks to be copied. There are no reports of targets either, which will make transporting ships out to empire space less stressful.

My Crane transport ship is again the first ship I remove from w-space. I can carry the modules and skill books I plan to use one day, Kif, as well as being agile and stealthy as I take my first trip through the constellation. Our neighbouring class 5 system is empty, probably, the 113 AU journey between the two wormholes making any occupation statistically anomalous. The connections are clear, which is the main concern. The C5 holds a static connection to a class 2 w-space system, which itself holds a connection to a second C2, in which resides the exit to high-sec that we are going to use. There is some occupation in this second class 2 system, but no pilots seem to be awake. My Crane leaves w-space and docks in empire space, letting my pod return to the tower for a second ship.

I choose my Manticore stealth bomber to take out next, again being stealthy but also packing some firepower so that I can escort my accomplice in an Orca industrial command ship. The Orca carries some smaller ships in its hangars, which reduces the total number of trips we'll need to make, although moving the massive ship out of the system turns some heads. We equivocate about the manoeuvres and get on with our task, as I return to take out my Damnation command ship. I am careful to also take fittings for analysing and hacking in the Damnation's hold, as well as for a standard command configuration, so that it could continue to fulfil its main roles should I need it again.

We get lucky again, a fleet of currently active corporation pilots heading out to null-sec space to raid a site there, leaving the tower almost unmonitored. Our ship movements can continue without further questions, which is just what we need when two Onyx heavy interdictors and a second Orca later one of the connecting wormholes destabilises. The cumulative mass of all the ships we are pushing through the wormholes is having its effect. Rather than risk another Orca trip just yet we take our Tengu strategic cruisers out indvidually, which turns out to be a good decision when the wormhole ends up on the verge of collapse. We get our Tengus out and pods back in, with the plan now to collapse the wormhole with a final Orca trip and scan the new static connection. We'll get a new wormhole to a class 2 system, and from there we should get a fresh link to empire space.

Fin has a cunning plan, getting me in a Buzzard covert operations boat in the C5 before the Orca collapses the wormhole, so that I can perform a pre-emptive scan. Once the wormhole collapses a new scan will pick up only the new wormhole, neatly reducing the scanning effort. It's a good plan, and almost works, except the Orca doesn't collapse the wormhole. An ally brings home a Megathron battleship through the wormhole, collapsing it in the process, but that's fine. I have my initial scan and now I can find the new static wormhole, we just don't get the Orca out just yet. Only one scan is needed to find and resolve the wormhole, although a bit more time is required to continue in the new connecting C2.

The new class 2 system looks just like the previous one, holding static connections to low-sec empire space and a second C2. The second C2 also looks like the previous second C2, with an exit to high-sec empire space leading out to The Citadel. How wonderfully convenient! The new exit is only six jumps from the previous one, which will help us consolidate ships more easily. With pristine connections along the route, except for our home static wormhole, we can move the massive ships. The Orca is taken out, along with a battleship and my Widow black ops boat. But even these last few jumps shrinks the new C5-to-C2 connection, which is apparently rather less accommodating than other wormholes. It doesn't matter, though, as we have moved everything out.

Farewell then J111245, I barely knew you. But I am looking towards the future. I have lots to think about and no doubt plenty to do. But for now the busy night draws to a close, and for the first time in a long while I sleep docked inside a space station.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: buzzard, crane, damnation, eve online, manticore, megathron, mmorpg, onyx, orca, penny ibramovic, scanning, tengu, the citadel, w-space, widow