I have 5 filaments left. I was in a rush and grabbed two pochven to kspace filly’s instead of the right ones. I have 5 Noise-5’s left and each one, previously, has thrown me into hostile space. First it was Stain, then Etherium Reach, back to Stain, then Malpais and back to Stain again.
I used to exclusively explore Stain for ISK. Back in my first year, I learned the climate of Stain and have that second sense of where danger lies. Tonight, it seems Stain is asleep. A sleepy abstain does not equate to a safe one. But I’m getting low on filaments and 1.5B ISK in relic sleeper cache loot in my cargo. 15 minutes and 3 systems later, I take a filament.
Malpais this time, not ideal but not bad. A solid Rogue Drone relic site can hand out 100m. Scan, scan, scan. Bingo! Two Ishtars on dscan, two pilots in local, I’m going for that Crystal Quarry. I warp to 0km. Scan the cans, hack two for 45mil. Sig disappears and I’m back on the road. One gate, empty. Two gates, empty. Three gates, one combat sig. That’s too many gates. To many opportunities to be caught by Intel. 6mins left. The next system is a junction to two system branches. I’ll wait. 3 filaments left. I really need a wormhole.
I ask my Signal Cartel friend if they know of any good wormholes in nullsec. They look up the Thera connections and it’s a good 15j from me. “Too much risk, I’ll take another filly.” I end up in Paragon Soul. Not bad, this isn’t such a hostile region. I can run the loop and catch some sites while looking for a WH. 2 filaments left.
I start going clockwise around the Paragon Soul loop, nothing. No relics, no wormholes, just a couple combat sites and crappy LVL I data sites. Someone must’ve been through here already, I think. I double back, counterclockwise. 15 min timer is up. Pop another filly. This time… I land at 11 o’clock on the Paragon Soul loop. I didn’t go this far before as I didn’t want to cross the choke point of O4T-Z5, so I scan. 1 filament left.
Holy shit! A wormhole! Let’s gooooo! It’s a C5 and I’m headed in to find my way home! I splash through and immediately see 15 Redeemers, two Vexors, and a Catalyst Navy Issue on Dscan. My butthole puckers. But screw it, you don’t get rich being safe! “Never give up! Never surrender!” I warp to a moon, scan the system, there’s a static C5 and potential HS hole. Nothing but combat data sites another NS hole and that static C5.
I splash through the C5. How are there more Redeemers and Vexors and… Oh no, this is either their home or they’re camping holes. How did I miss them fall of Dscan in the previous hole?! I’m panicking. Again, I warp to a moon, scan the system, combat, data, combat, data, accidentally scan down a LVL III Data site. Jackpot! Superior Angel Covert Research Site. Ain’t nobody camping this thing. Warp to 0km. Scan one more sig. A wormhole. Nice that should be my C3 static I was looking for. Thank Bob for Anoikis. I decloak, scan the ghost cans. 10m, 15m, 10mil, 319mil! Microwarp Drive on, burning to the can, hack it as fast as I can. 319mil added to the loot piniata that is my Stratios.
I splash the C3 static, it’s full of sigs and not a pilot in sight. (Which means there’s 3 cloak Lokis here somewhere. There always is.) I scan and scan and scan. I find one Rogue Drone Relic Crystal Quarry again, and a lowsec WH! Do I risk it and go for the site? What about the inevitable Loki? Screw it. “Never give up! Never surrender!” I burn to the site, scan the cans, two cans have combined 100mil in them. Hack the cans as fast as possible. Hit the lowsec WH and come out 15j from Jita with 1j away from highsec.
I made it to a station a couple systems over. I wipe the sweat from my brow and take a deep breath. 1.5bil ISK in loot, 350mil in blueprints and 8 probes down because I got disconnect at some point while I was scanning. Not a bad haul, for two days out in the wilderness. 1 filament left.
