Helping in my special way
25th January 2013 – 5.37 pm'I'm in the C6 with an Orca.' That sounds just like my daring and glorious leader. But Fin being in a class 6 w-space system in an industrial command ship raises more questions than it answers, particularly as I didn't ask anything. 'I've been here a while. I jumped in, had thirty seconds on my polarisation timer, and at twenty seconds an Anathema jumped in and started scanning. I've been hoping you'd come on-line.' Ah, the covert operations boat probably saw Fin jump and now Fin doesn't feel quite so safe returning. But I can scout and bring her home.
I warp to the K162 from class 6 w-space in our home system, and jump my Loki strategic cruiser through. As I do, Fin decloaks the Orca and returns home, and I hold on the wormhole until she confirms the whale is in warp to the tower. And with Fin safe, I explore. Or, rather, confirm that there are no changes since Fin explored a little earlier, and it's still just the Anathema scout that's new. So, what now?
'What would likely chase him back through the wormhole?' Hmm, probably only collapsing the wormhole, really. A tiny, agile ship that can warp cloaked is difficult to threaten, unless we take away his route home. But it all depends on him watching the wormhole. If he's elsewhere, he won't even notice. Then again, either we flush him out, or we collapse the wormhole with him in the C6. Or, I suppose, he calls for a fleet to follow the corporate bookmarks to our position. But let's not think about that.
I get an interceptor from our tower and stick it on the K162, ready for the cov-ops, as Fin swaps to a Widow black ops ship and jumps to and from the C6 to destabilise the wormhole to half-mass. There's no sign of the Anathema. Polarisation ends, and Fin gets back in to the Orca, making another jump, noting that her directional scanner is clear in C6a, without even any probes visible. And yet still nothing jumps back with her. The polarisation timer counts down to zero again, and one last jump with the Orca should kill the wormhole.
Oops. One last jump did indeed kill the wormhole. I realise my error when I calculated the remaining mass of the wormhole, and what would be safe to push through it, but I'm guessing it's a little late with Fin and the Orca stuck in the class 6 system. I thought I was getting wormhole collapsing down to an art, but recent events should force me to pay more attention. At least Fin, now with combat scanning probes looking for her, gets safe, and starts looking for the next static connection to class 4 w-space, in an Orca. I hope my glorious leader can see the funny side of my coming to rescue her from being cornered in a C6 by an Anathema ultimately leading to her being trapped in a C6 with the same Anathema.
I get myself in gear, heading through our static wormhole to the neighbouring C3, where I start scanning to hopefully find a route home for Fin, who I so callously stranded. A Phoenix and tower are visible on d-scan in the class 3 system, and finding the dreadnought floating unpiloted inside the tower's force field is the least surprising aspect of the night so far. Launching probes and performing a blanket scan of the system reveals nine anomalies and five signatures, and sifting through them gives me two wormholes and two gas pockets. Sadly, the wormholes are rather poor.
The static exit to low-sec is expected, but at the end of its life. It may last long enough for Fin to find her way to and through class 4 w-space, and then across empire space, but it's not likely. The second wormhole is no better, being a K162 also from low-sec and also EOL. I may as well check the exits, as there could be hours of life left in the connections, and almost certainly more than the ten seconds it will take to jump back, so head through the static exit to appear in a system in Metropolis. I bookmark the wormhole in low-sec and jump back to C3a, warping across to the similarly coloured K162, exiting to another system in Metropolis, five systems from the first. That doesn't give much option in a route home.
I think that's all I can do for now. And, let's be honest, I've probably done enough already. I am tempted to collapse our static connection and see if I can get a better entrance for Fin, perhaps just a healthy wormhole, but perhaps it's best to limit the potential for error for now. Having one Orca isolated in w-space is unfortunate. Having two would be careless. I sit and watch the local tower in C3a for a while, trying to entertain Fin occasionally as she plods through the many signatures the class 4 system she was thrown in to holds, but nothing happens. Even checking the two dying wormholes doesn't present any changes, with them still there, still wobbling away, each time I fly past. I can't do anything else today. I'll just have to try again tomorrow.
2 Responses to “Helping in my special way”
So Fins in the C6 stranded with the Orca and your in your C4 and scanning to find her a possible way back.
Now wondering how long will that take given all the various combination of WH's.
How hard can it be? I bet C6 systems connect to high-sec on an almost daily basis.