High-sec is closer than you think
3rd February 2014 – 5.14 pmStuck in class 5 w-space. The wormhole home collapsed. Pilots looking to hunt me. It's looking to be an interesting evening. On my side, I have scanning probes already launched, whereas I don't see any from the home fleet on my directional scanner. That should give me a head start on resolving the new static wormhole when it appears. And that will be it, the new signature popping on to my scanning interface. Here I go!
Bah, in my rush to resolve the signature with enough time to jump through and get clear before the locals, I bodge one of the scans and have to take a step backwards. It's no bother, though, and I'm soon back on track. I identify the wormhole, resolve it, and am in warp in seconds. Unusually for me, I am aiming to drop as close to the wormhole as possible, wanting to jump immediately rather than approach under cloak. I'm feeling some kind of urgency from the hostile fleet. That I end up on a K162 from null-sec instead of a static connection to class 4 w-space is a little confusing.
I falter for a second. I'm not quite sure what to do. When I made that false move with the scanning I must have picked the wrong signature on the step back, which just happened to turn out to be another wormhole. I kinda didn't ignore all but the new signature in the system just in case there was a second wormhole, I just never expected to find one. That's obvious as indicated by my having recalled my probes already.
Re-launching my probes and scanning for the new static connection may be a bad idea. The locals should clearly get there before me now. And my intent to drop on top of the wormhole I scanned has worked, my Loki strategic cruiser's cloak having dropped and making it visible in the system to the directional scanner. I think I should just jump through and call this a success.
And it is a success. I've escaped the interests of fleet and exited class 5 w-space in one jump. The alternative would be diving down a w-space chain starting with class 4 w-space, and those have a tendency not to end too quickly. The only problem is that I'm in the Geminate region of null-sec, rather far from any kind of institutionalised security. Out of the frying pan and in to another frying pan.
There are pilots in this null-sec system and no signatures, so my choice to move on is easy to make. The first hop lands me in a system with four signatures. Scanning for convenient wormholes is a good way to lose significant amounts of time and sanity, but this is the first system. It's worth a shot. I launch probes and see what the signatures are. Two combat sites, one wormhole with a frigate on it, and—hold on, what was that third one again?
Resolving the wormhole first resolves what turns out to be a Venture. I warp directly to the frigate, expecting to reach the wormhole. My lack of hope in catching the agile frigate unawares is encapsulated by my staying in the system map to resolve the final signature whilst in warp. It's a data site. And the Venture is still sitting near the wormhole when I drop next to it, recalling my probes as I do.
Nice to meet you, Mr Venture. Let me introduce you to my autocannons. I gain a positive lock and my guns rip the mining frigate apart in one volley. It's quite a satisfying explosion, and only in part because it looks like Superman's starship. And, would you look at that, we're in null-sec. I aim for the pod, catch it, and not for the first time have my puny knowledge about guns let me down. Four volleys miss cracking the pod open when one normally does the job, and pilot wakes up to jump back through the wormhole to low-sec. Damn.
Hold on. Low-sec? Yes, Penny. Low-sec. This evening just gets better. I loot and shoot the wreck of the Venture, and jump through the wormhole to appear in the Derelik region. That was easy, and I got a kill out of it. The pilot of pod I didn't want to let escape is here somewhere, but only for a few second. He leaves the system, making me alone. Nice, I can find a rat to pop whilst I get my bearings. And how about that, I'm just one hop from high-sec. I make the hop, and a handful more to get to a slightly more central location, and dock to catch my breath. Running away doesn't get much easier.
2 Responses to “High-sec is closer than you think”
I've idly wondered before how close highsec is to the average wspace system, in terms of number of jumps (gate or wormhole), if you had perfect knowledge of all wormholes. My guess is, the number is not large. Perhaps 5 on average.
No, it's probably not large, and I imagine your guess is pretty good. However, the number would obviously be skewed by all the low-class systems that have high-sec static wormholes, and the systems that connect to low-class systems with high-sec wormholes.
The higher-class wormholes with high-class static wormholes can have hellish routes before even exiting w-space, of course, and even then that may be just to null-sec.
It's an interesting question to ponder in abstract, but because of the difference between low- and high-class w-space routes I don't think knowing the average distance to high-sec could present any kind of realistic expectation.