Unlucky start in J104537

by Mica Breeze on Mar.27, 2009, under Apocrypha, EVE Online, Exploration

From Mica’s Diary:

Knowing from past experience, I quickly noted the wormhole location back to known space and proceeded to make safe spots so that I could get to work. Decided not to risk broadcasting my arrival but it seems my worries are unfounded as nothing is on scan.

The system locus signature reads as “J104537” which apparently is known for its black hole! Its a Class 5 system which is somewhat dangerous to be in and has the following effects :

Anomaly: Black Hole
Class: 5
Attributes:
Locking Range: -41%
Turret Fallof: -41%
Missile Velocity: -41%
Drone Control Range: -41%
Ship Velocity: +85%
Agility: +85%

My fast Helios is now zipping about at 800+ meters/second! After my safe spots are made, I decide to start probing out the system and see what treasures will unfold. The first two hits are easy enough with them being cosmic anomalies. Apparently they are “Core Strongholds”. Menacing sentry towers and Sleeper frigates roam the complex. I’m glad I have my covert ops cloak to keep me safe!

Half-way through the scans, I receive a communication from a corp mate. Apparently they were in the same system! I quickly told them about the Core Strongholds and they decided to make an attempt on it. I offered to get them a good warp in so that they could use their weapons at optimal ranges. My first mistake quickly came about as I had forgotten about a new “feature” the ship techs had recently implemented.

Warping to an encounter site at range will now work the first time you warp there. Previously your ship would land at 0km from the beacon no matter what range was set for the ‘warp to’ command.

I had set the ship to warp at range but as I exited warp, I stared in dismay at the wall of a Huge Veldspar rock that caused my cloak to fail. The sleepers were fast to react, with all 4 frigates quickly warp scrambling my engines and using stasis webifiers to slow me down. I furiously attempted to burn my way out of range but with sentry tower fire blazing on my shields, I could do little but save my pod.

My corp mates in a Dominix and Tempest decided to try their luck but unfortunately with no light guns to take care of the frigates, their drones quickly got chewed up and only luckily managed to escape to fight another day. I decided to reship and get back to what I had come for. To find out how long it would take to map a unknown system.