Death of a wormhole

Maybe we can get fuel. The K162 from class 4 w-space coming in to our home system has been collapsed, halting the passage of mostly uncatchable covert ships, but the connection to class 2 w-space remains healthy. Of course, ships have been coming and going from there too, but as they belong to the 20-Minuters maybe we can work out some kind of agreement.

'Are you suggesting WHEN and the 20-Minuters do not shoot each other tonight?', says Bjurn Akely, when asked if we can safely take an Orca industrial command ship through his system. I think he remembers our first meeting, when I accidentally tried to kill him. But he's cool with the idea, as we haven't tried to shoot them so far tonight, and as their exit is only two hops from Jita it would be churlish to deny another w-space corporation such convenience.

The only problem now with the exit to high-sec is that it is also dying. Fin thinks that perhaps we have a couple of hours left, confirmed at first by our new temporary allies, but that estimate gets dropped down to 'could die at any minute'. Yeah, we'll probably be okay. Fin heads out to high-sec to get some fuel, I turn the other way to see what's through our static wormhole to class 3 w-space.

My directional scanner is clear when I explore through the wormhole, and launching probes and blanketing the system reveals nine anomalies, ten signatures, and some drones. My last visit being only a month ago lets me warp directly to where the towers should be, and one tower has been torn down in the past few weeks, the other two remain. Obviously, there are no ships.

Sifting through the signatures gives me gas, a data site, and three wormholes, one skinny. A K162 from class 2 w-space is interesting, but before I can get too interested in it Fin tells me she's returning from Jita and needs some guidance getting back in to w-space. The bookmark to C2a's high-sec K162 is missing. That's not a problem, mostly because the wormhole isn't there any more. It's dead.

I'd better scan the replacement high-sec exit, although it's not guaranteed to get Fin home tonight. I also marvel at the 20-Minuters' home system. It's vast. There are also towers dotted everywhere, which, given that I've no need to be covert, I find using a more efficient method than d-scan. I clump my probes over a planet, zoom in close, and see what moon the structures are all on. But, yes, wormholes.

The only new wormhole in C2a is the re-spawned exit, this time leading out to a system in Khanid. 'Eighteen hops.' That's a lot of distance to cover in an industrial ship this late in the evening, and Fin decides to call it a night. We can get her back again soon enough. I turn around and return to reconnoitre the other wormholes in C3a, where warping to the static exit to low-sec sees the colours of The Forge rippling through. Well, damn.

Still, the wormhole leads to low-sec in The Forge, which isn't a great environment for industrial ships. I don't try to wake Fin up. Instead, I wonder who's woken up in C3a, as scanning probes that aren't mine are active. I doubt they belong to an Eris interdictor that blips on d-scan, and although I consider taking a peek in to C2b I decide against it when a Proteus strategic cruiser appears somewhere in the system. I'd rather not make a mistake because I'm tired, and decide to get myself safe in our home system, ready to get Fin home tomorrow.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: eris, eve online, mmorpg, orca, penny ibramovic, proteus, scanning, w-space