Hole Closing: The Long Way

It was EU op night and I was barely running on time. I'd just convinced my kids to go to sleep when jabber started pinging me about getting my arse online. We had a class 5 connection in addition to our class 3 static. Neither were interesting so needed rolled before we could get on with making ISK. Finally getting Teamspeak fired up and both clients logged in I was ready to roll, literally.

For once we had multiple Orca pilots so we could make short work of collapsing these unwanted connections. In an effort to spice things up a little (hole rolling is boring) I decided we would collapse both at the same time. Orca jumps in and out of the C5, warps to the C3 and jumps in and out of that before POSing up to wait out the polarisation timer. Things were going great and the C5 hole went critical exactly when I expected. I jumped Oreamnos back home in his Loki and then issued the command for the Orca to follow. Sadly this was not to be and I received an error that the wormhole no longer existed. "Ah crap guys, I rolled myself out" I announced on comms.

This C5 had a static C4. We were their old static so finding the new one is trivial. Well, would be if I could remember what I needed to offline to bring my probe launcher online. Ah, I remember now. I offline the EM resist and online the probe launcher only to find for some reason I had combat scanner probes. Just what I need - I'm in an unbonused ship with my weaker scanning character using combat probes to find wormhole sigs. On the plus side nobody expects the combat scanning Orca.

Scanning down the new C4 static I warped immediately to 0 and jumped through. Bob smiles on me as this C4 has a static C3. K-space was close. I had six sigs to go through and found only one additional wormhole to the C5 I just left. That must be the static C3 so again I warped to 0. Bob is less happy this time and dropped me out of warp at 8km. Slow Orca is slow and I crawled to the wormhole before jumping through and finding myself 900 metres from the exit hole, thus preventing me cloaking. Jeez, this is just unfair. I warped off, made a safe, launched probes and warped back to the safe. I'm in a C3 with a lowsec static. Ten sigs made scanning a bit tougher but I find six wormholes total. Here's hoping one is hisec.

Escape route and return path

Warping to each at range I find C3, C3, Lowsec. Then I see probes on d-scan. Only cores so they won't find my Orca, but what are the chances they'll warp to the next wormhole and catch me there? Probably slim but the thought was in my mind as I warped to the next signature. I landed 100 km away just to be safe and found a highsec exit. Bingo! I bounced back to my safe then on to the exit at 0. This time I landed close enough to jump out without any messing around and I found myself in Brapelille, 17 jumps from the k-space entrance to our static.

I had 17 jumps to cover in an Orca. As a nice bonus the home connection had been taken to mass critical. Oh yeah, did I mention the wardec we're currently under? So, 17 jumps is a walk in the park right? I feel more nervous than I did while scanning my route out of W-space. Death in w-space comes much like the dentist's needle - you know little about it until it stabs you in the face. In K-space the existence of local makes the inevitable happen in slow motion as death first appears as a little red flag in local long before becoming a little red flag in the overview. I jumped system after system, carefully scanned local for war targets on each jump with the hope that I can dock up before they found me. Each jump took me closer to home yet the nervousness increased as the jump count decreased.

Enjoy the ride; take the long way home

- "I'm three jumps out guys"

- "Quick, close the static", some wit quips.

- "Two jumps"

- "Close the hole"

- "It wasn't funny first time, Sajo", I retort.

I jumped into Engosi, and warped to the wormhole entrance of our static. We'd reduced our static so much that we couldn't even risk a scout jumping in to guide me to safety. It would be hysterical if I lost my Orca now given what the evening had thrown at me. I jumped into the 'safety' of "Unknown Space". Checking d-scan I see nothing, which made me feel safe. Engaging warp to the entrance to my home system I warned the guys on comms I was on the final hop home. Sighs of relief were emitted by my as I jumped home with my prop mod active to make sure I closed the hole behind me. "So, about these sites. Shall we run them?".