I've been busy. During one of my many times in the Bar I was chatting with another pod pilot who mentioned the corporation he was in. They seemed like an okay bunch of guys, with any luck they may drag me out of the mental rut I've been in for a while. So with little delay I joined up with them, moved my base of operations from Hurtoken to Cat so I can be closer to the new corporation hub.
Since then we have been running search and destroy operations in the more dangerous sections of space, something I'll write about at a later date.
Right now however I want to recount a recent episode where I had to rescue one of the corporation members from a Worm Hole. Worm Holes are a newly discovered phenomena that in many ways are poorly understood. One of our pilots decided to explore one, it didn't go well.
I was asleep in my new room in the Fed Intel station in Cat, dreaming about something quite carnal. The communicator goes off with an urgent tone.
"What the hell is the time and who the hell are you?", I blurt out not really thinking and still half asleep.
"Hey Yosagi. This is Nadir, we have a problem"
"It had better be a big problem to wake me while I'm in the arms of these lovely women"
"Yeah it is, Dunst is lost in a Worm Hole, he has no prober and we cannot locate the Worm Hole in system", explained Nadir.
"Hmmm, what is his ship worth?"
"About 100 million he says, the standard ten percent reward is being offered. I've tried to locate the Worm Hole but cannot get a one hundred percent lock. Now I'm calling you".
"Fine, I'll get my shit together and head out. Which system is the Worm Hole in?"
"Ommare, just next door to Cat so even you shouldn't get lost finding it", Nadir sniggered.
"Yeah, yeah, keep that up and I'll add you to my KOS list, add me to fleet and I'll warm up the Helios. I'll chat with you in fleet in a few minutes", I ended the communication.
Leaving the room, locking it on the way out, not that their is anything worth stealing but if I found somebody rifling through my belongings when I come back hiding their body is always a pain. Moving at a jog towards the hanger bay where I think the Helios is stored, I have to get rid of some ships! I have already sent through the code from my communicator to warm up the ship getting it ready for flight.
There she is, jogging up the ramp, enter the ship, climb into the pod, fire the engines.
"Docking control I am requesting an immediate undocking slot for a Helios, respond?"
"You are cleared for a slot in ten seconds, docking control out", a rather curt response from docking control.
Probably has something to do with my unadjusted security status being negative six point something with them, they'll get over it.
I take the undocking slot, I'm ejected from the station and align for warp to Ommare. This station is much busier than the Hurtoken station, many more ships hanging around the exit. They are probably looking for war targets or a fat freighter to hit and loot. I will have to remember that for the future.
Exiting the warp tunnel, go through the jump gate and arrive in Ommare, I can see I'm now in fleet chat. Nadir and others are chatting with Dunst who is concerned about the situation but not panicky at this stage. I warp the ship to a moon, eject six or seven probes and then cloak the ship just in case a ganker or a kill rights pilot decides to visit.
"So, lost in a Worm Hole Dunst?", I ask in fleet.
"Yar, because I'm a fucking idiot", replies Dunst.
"Heh okay, I'll get you out. Do you know the code of the Worm Hole you are in?"
"No I fail"
"Okay no worries, I'll start probing and give you a count up of the percentage once it begins"
"Sure, okay", says Dunst.
I set the probes in the usual pattern I use, typically four surrounding the desired target, one high, one low, and one in the middle. Move them around a bit until I get hits on two possible Worm Holes.
"Nadir, I've found two possible cosmic signatures, KYF-264 and VOX-234, which one are you working on?", I ask.
"I could not get KYF to one hundred percent so I've moved to VOX", replies Nadir.
"No worries, I'll work on KYF then, get that to one hundred percent and try VOX next if required"
So I centre the probes around the rough location of KYF-264, which is very rough as I only have it at around two percent at the moment. As the accuracy of the probes improve I relay that in fleet chat.
"Nineteen percent"
"Twenty four percent"
"What moon are you at Yos?", asks Nadir.
"I'm next to you, just look for the cloaked ship", I respond. This gets a laugh in an otherwise tense situation.
"Thirty seven percent"
"Forty four percent"
"Go! Go! Go!", Dunst yells over the comms.
"Fifty percent"
"Of course you may not be in the Worm Hole I'm scanning down", I mention with only a hint of malice.
"Defeatist. Please save me!", Dunst half pleads.
"Seventy seven percent"
"Yos, decloak and I'll go through with you, you fleeted up?", Nadir asks.
I hear the message but unintentionally ignore it as I'm focussed on finding this Worm Hole.
"Eighty seven percent"
"Ninety four percent"
"Nice", exclaims Nadir.
"One hundred percent", I yell quite loudly, very happy with myself.
A few of the fleet mates give me a well done and nice work but I'm concerned. Dunst may not be in this Worm Hole at all, this might be the wrong Worm Hole. Nadir wants to come into the Worm Hole also to have a look. I warn him to make sure he book marks the Worm Hole on the other side so he doesn't share the same fate that happened to Dunst.
We enter the Worm Hole. Worm Holes do have a local channel but it doesn't automatically show people in local, only those who speak in local, so nobody could be here or the biggest and worst fleet you have ever seen could be only ten seconds away.
"Warp to me now Dunst", I say in fleet chat.
No response. No ship appears, I hit the cloaker just in case something unfriendly is also sitting cloaked on this side of the worm hole. An eternity seems to pass, I'm seriously starting to wonder if this is the correct Worm Hole.
A ship appears. It is Dunst! Muscles I didn't know I'd tensed are suddenly relaxed.
"Thank god for that", Dunst breathes.
"I'm leaving before the Worm Hole collapses", and he left the hole.
With not much more for me to do in the Worm Hole I look at the pretty colours and the view into probably another Universe and also leave the hole and re-enter normal space.
Set the warp back to Cat, while in warp my wallet light starts blinking, ahh nice the reward, ten million ISK will pay some ammo bills at least.
Entering Cat space, head to the Fed Intel station, request a docking slot which is no worries, set the Helios down and head back to my room feeling pretty happy with myself.
Right now though, I have a dream to catch up with.
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