When the call came through on the corporation channel, I was doing my now-regular mineral run from my home station in Andrub, to the trade hub in Amarr space… and bored out of my mind. The message was simple and to the point – “Help, stuck in Wormhole Space, need assistance…”. It was from an old war-buddy of mine from the north who, until recently, had been a hard-core alliance combat pilot. An unwanted retirement had followed some intense (and ultimately pointless) fighting for the last vestiges of our old alliance. We had been thrown back into Empire-controlled space, and neither of us were taking it very well.
What do you do if you are a long-term alliance pilot, suddenly thrust into the faux-peace of Empire space? The standard missions you get from Empire agents are nothing compared to the intricate machinations of flying within a thousand-strong alliance. And mining is, not to put too fine a point on it, boring as hell.
I had resorted to simple cash-hoarding; doing anything and everything I could to keep the credits coming in, with a vague intention of using my stash to dig out a comfortable living in high-security space. Xan, however, had decided to blow up as much as he possibly could. A wavering security status didn’t deter him in the slightest and now he had gone after some rather large prey – he wanted to bag a “Sleeper” – an uncommonly clever and dangerous enemy that dwelt within the un-knowable reaches of Wormhole Space. And failed, it seems. “On my way, bud.”
Grabbing my dedicated exploration vessel – an Amarr “Magnate” class frigate called New Horizons – I loaded a few scan probes and set off. Xan’s entry-point wormhole was only a few jumps away, and through babbled and angry com-chatter, I slowly pieced together what had happened. The same thing that always happens to my slightly over-inflated wing-mate: impatience. He had found a small cluster of Sleepers on his initial scans of the Unknown system, and warped to intercept – forgetting the first rule of Wormhole exploration: Bookmark your entry point.
Tracking down the wormhole was fairly easy, but there were other issues developing. Xan had warped to his quarry before bookmarking his entry wormhole – meaning he couldn’t warp back to it without scanning it again. Sadly, his combat ship wasn’t equipped with scanning probes. That’s where I come in – if I could get to the system, he could warp to my signature and escape. But of course, things are never as easy as they ought to be…
“Two battleships and a recon… I think they are trying to scan me out.” Xan chirps, fully aware he has just turned my job into a race against time. “Where are they?” I reply, considering my options – a Frigate-class ship is small, manoeuvrable, but utterly out-gunned against most larger ships. And a Recon Cruiser is an invisible killer, silent and deadly. There was no hope whatsoever of surviving any combat against these chaps, and we both knew it.
“Not sure, directional scanner isn’t giving me much to work on… wait, they’re moving… oh shit, I think they’ve found me…”
It was now or never. I jump through the wormhole…
…and before me sit two rather large battleships, and a recon cruiser. “Uh, Xan, they didn’t find you…”
As a profession within Eve Online, exploration has slowly become a viable alternative to the usual fare of missioning and mining. Sites are now fairly numerous and offer a far more lucrative pay-out for those willing to invest a bit of time and effort to the pursuit. A collection of archaeology, salvaging and hacking skills and modules allow you to break into secure cargo containers within these isolated areas, or break down rusted debris into useful components to use or sell. And of course there are the inevitable NPC pirate ships buzzing around, just waiting for a proper kicking.
Between bounties and loot, and the euphoric satisfaction of finding a site teeming with shiny stuff just begging to be sold for ridiculous amounts of cash, exploration is probably one of Eve Online’s great-but-ignored career options. It causes such a shift in pace sometimes: one moment you are quietly mining a discreet corner of an asteroid belt, the next, running for your life in wormhole-space. And the first time you find something of real value (my first big find was something called a “Decryptor”, worth almost 30 million ISK), it makes the effort feel justified, and the time well-spent.
So consider this a suggestion. I have played Eve Online for over six years, on and off. When things are happening - wars, adventure, boldly going somewhere etc. – the game is unrivalled in scope and sheer depth. When things calm down, it can be one of the most boring games in existence. I honestly have had some evenings, while sitting in a kilometre-long spaceship, bristling with guns and with a bank balance to fill every deficit on earth… and been utterly bored. The true joy of Eve is the player interaction, without that it all becomes a bit pointless. Missions are dull, even mining alone is dangerous these days, and boring. I think I’ve already said that…
But exploration injects new life into those quiet evenings when all your corp-mates are offline. When you’re sat in an empty solar system with nothing better to do. Go grab a few probes and go fishing. You never know what you might find.
A flash kicks my attention back to my screen, they are locking weapons. A few thousand things cross my mind at once, each and every one yelling “JUMP BACK THROUGH, YOU TIT!!” – of course, if I do, I am stranding Xan here with no hope of escape… why must things always be so bloody difficult?“Xan, warp to me, NOW!” I hit send as the first laser-beams find my shields and start cracking at them. A little frigate-fact: a frigate may not be able to kill a battleship very easily, but a MOVING frigate is a very tough target for those big, ponderous battleship-guns to track. I hit the afterburner and start my manoeuvres, orbiting the nearest ship as close as I can, and the fire burning through my shields halts abruptly.“Xan…?”“Warping now, Ordo. Chill dude.” He has no idea what’s going on, I deliberately avoid giving too much detail – he likes a bit of a scrap, but I wanted us out of here in one piece if possible. The battleships are one thing, easily avoided, but the real threat, the recon cruiser, cloaked almost as soon as I jumped through the wormhole, anticipating backup that simply didn’t exist. I was banking on him taking just a little while longer to figure that out, as a cruiser has far less trouble hitting even a fast-moving frigate like mine…The recon cruiser then de-cloaked of my starboard bow, and started locking weapons… oh well.Xan warps into a scene of madness; a pyrotechnic display of death-beams, all focused on my little frigate, which in turn was frantically buzzing in circles around the largest of the ships trying to swat me… I could almost feel him raise an eyebrow. “Do you need…?”“NO, GET THROUGH THE FUCKING WH!”“Ah, but…”“NOW!!!!!” He eventually complies, and disappears with a flash. A few seconds later, so do I, but with a little more noise… Ah well, at least my ship was insured.
