Eve Online
Lost… IN SPAAACCCEEE
by Askgar on Jul.05, 2010, under Eve Online, Gaming
2030: I log in after the GW Dragon Festival, mainly to sort out my PI, as it had just ran out. I do this then decide to go scanning, to kill some time and make some isk. I found a combat site and cleared it out quickly. At the same time I was advising the newest member of our motley crew on scanning in general.
2100: I scan down my next anomaly and get a wormhole, excellent, I put out a shout to our group and we start forming up however upon investigation I appear to have found an occupied class 2 wormhole. I found a couple of wrecks in it which disappeared but didn’t see any ships. We decided we didn’t have the manpower to cope if people were there so we left it.
2115: Our newest member had discovered a wormhole and I was dispatched to check it out, however he warped in and found a wormhole that I could identify remotely, it went straight into a class 1, perfect for us. We all grouped up and warped to the system and met up with our new player, who really seems to be getting the hang of scanning.
2130: I go in first to scout it out, I warp in, almost forget my exit bookmark, then go to a planet and scan. No occupants, just a mobile warp disruptor and control tower (burger king). I scan with my probes and… Whoa, probably 20-30 scanning sites and even more combat sites.
The rest of the fleet warp in, we set up various bookmarks and prepare to scan down our first site…
2200: A cane has come in behind is, he doesn’t do anything an leaves, however we did not expect what happened next, on voice I hear, “the wormholes collapsed.” None of us could believe it and a little bit of panic ensued, has it really gone, how do we get out… What now?
We formed a plan, we leave our cloaked scanning salvager and new player in a safespot, trying to find an exit, while the rest of us carry on as usual, clearing out combat sites and if some of our scanners find radar/other non mining sites we’ll tackle them as well.
2230: Still combatting and still scanning, quite slow as we only had 2 dps fits, but we found a few bits and also hacked our way through a radar site.
2300: We get a call from our primary scanning ship, he’d found a wormhole but couldn’t quite pinpoint it. We completed the current site and while I was salvaging the wrecks, anyone else who could scan got involved with tracking down the wh. Eventually we tracked it down and it was back to null-sec, not quite what we were hoping for.
2315: We sent through our cloaked scanner to find out where we would emerge, it turned out to be about 8 jumps out from the nearest hi-sec system, through some IT alliance space, former BOB space.
We regroup back in the wh and have a discussion about what to do, it’s getting late and most of us need to get going, having early starts the next day. Eventually after evaluating the route we decide it’s a quiet section of space at a quiet time of night so we’ll go for it, a quick briefing on aligning, staying in cloak for as long as possible, etc. And most importantly, keeping an eye on local to see other pilots in system and we’re off.
2330: We head off and in the most organised display of voice chat I have ever heard from us, barely anything said other than aligning, aligned and warping we go, system to system. We see about 6 or 7 people in about 3 of the systems on the way so we go via planets in those, avoiding possible bubbles. The final jump, the only lo-sec one was very anxious, expecting gankers, but we saw noone and got out safely.
0000: We’re out, everyone is exhausted ad we’re almost ready to call it a night. But first we get to the nearest station, dump the loot with our fc and leave it at that. I set my autopilot to my home system, about 30 jumps away, check the systems, only hi-sec and I let my autopilot guide me home while I sleep.
0715: I awake to find me floating in space at my home system, I dock up and end the ordeal.
Thanks to all the people who were on the trip, especially the fc who got us back in one piece through null-sec, which I had never experienced before and kept is calm during the ordeal. Our new member, who scanned down the wormhole and performed amazingly given it was only his 4th day in game I believe. The cloaked scanner who found the way home and the pair of ships who bend time and space, just to keep us supplied with cap and armour.
And the lesson I learnt from this, pay attention to the mass that a wh can handle, we didn’t and that cane that closed the wormhole on us did us a favour, if it hadn’t been for him we would have probably closed it while leaving and left behind some of our members in wh space, making it even more difficult to scan a way home.
One final request, if you read the whole story and like what you read please leave a comment, I enjoyed writing it and if people enjoyed reading it then it might cause me to be less lazy and write more!