Neighbours
I remember a theme song in an old holoreel I once watched that said "Everybody needs good neighbours". In wormholes nothing could be further from the truth, depending on your perspective. Recently we'd had lots of new neighbours, albiet temporary ones, and it seemed I wasn't the only capsuleer to notice a steep increase in the amount of wormhole-to-wormhole connections. Neighbouring wormhole systems can be as much of a blessing as a curse really; a blessing if you're looking for extra things to raid for profit or perhaps some combat action but a curse if you're on the receiving end of people with such goals.
Just recently we found ourselves with not one, not two, but three extra wormhole connections spawning in our little system. As usual my sister Dani scanned them down and proceeded to jump into each to scout out their layout and occupants. One of the connections proved of interest - J161628, a Class 2 system home to a group called Unternehmen Blau - Grau. Judging by their corporate datafile they didn't speak our language though and likely originated from a foreign part of space, possibly Gallente. The interesting part though was what Dani discovered on her D-scan; several pilots at a sleeper site, eagerly vanquishing the system's helpless natives.
"I've got a Hurricane, Noctis and Probe on scan. Lots of sleeper wrecks too, they're doing an anom." Relayed Dani over the comm as she sat cloaked 100km from the group's tower in her Manticore the Walking Dead.
Concern for the sleeper populace of J161628 filled my heart. Sitting in my Tengu back in our home system I knew I had to do whatever I could to aid them. Dani returned and shipped up to her Navy Drake, the Bitch Please and together we jumped into the C2 in search of these butchers. By the time we arrived though we found the scene had changed - the Noctis was too efficient and the sleeper's wrecks were all gone from scan. There was something new however, a retriever, busy mining in an ore site that had appeared in system. Pilot Matthew Valheru sat aligned to a celestial as his lasers blasted away at some arknor, completely unaware of the Lusty Wench cloaked a mere 15km from his position. Meanwhile Dani was observing their tower where the retriever pilot's brother, Myam Valheru, sat in an Orca under the shields providing boosts to the retriever's mining efforts. A Iteron transport sat unpiloted nearby, ready to be flown to the ore site to collect the containers Valheru was ejecting from his Retriever.
My fingers delicately caressed my flight controls as I pondered the situation. Should I decloak now and vanquish the Retriever? Or should I wait for his brother to arrive to collect the containers and possibly get a two-for-one?
On duty - Myam and Matthew Valheru, busy farming for their corporation
Not quite sure what it is with brothers and wormhole mining these days
Greedy, I decided to wait. Fate was shining on the elder Valheru brother ... for now. But my greedy decision would turn out to be the wrong one as shortly afterward the Retriever warped off to their tower, leaving the containers floating in space with no collection from the Itty.
"Damn!!" I groaned from within my pod. I'd let them slip through my dainty fingers. I wasn't sure why Valheru had suddenly left the ore site, abandoning his containers, but whatever it was had left both the brothers hiding under their tower's shields. And so began a waiting game. For over an hour they sat within the safety of their forcefield, during which time Dani shipped back into her Manticore and I sat around 100km from them, observing the whole time. As frustrated as I was at myself for letting the Retriever go, I had a sixth sense that I would get another chance if I waited long enough.
About 30 minutes into our stake-out Mikail awoke, sending a morning greeting in our intel channel. I filled him in with what was happening in the C2, one of the three connecting wormholes we had that day. "Want to have a play?" I asked. Mikail was keen and before long had shipped into Trolljegeren and warped to the C2 entry to join us. After jumping through and beginning to warp he suddenly caught sight of another ship landing at the hole and about to jump through into our C1. "Legion" He stated over the comm. After a database check we discovered it definetely didn't belong to the resident corporation in the C2 and quite possibly could even have been the ship that spooked them earlier, causing them to flee to their tower. As far as I was aware they were still completely oblivious to the presence of Mikail, Dani and myself. Around this time I also noticed another of their pilots waking up, Anton Steiner rolled forth from the tower in his pod and shipped into a Drake to join a Valheru brother who still sat in his Hurricane. The second brother, Myam, was busy warping to and from his tower repeatedly, checking the warmhole entries, launching probes several times, orbiting the tower. Bizarre and random flight patterns which at one point prompted me to ask the others "What the fuck is this guy doing??". They had no idea either, but regardless we didn't have to wait long before the trio began to feel more confident once again and I watched as the Drake and Hurricane warped off in unison to a sleeper site. Meanwhile Myam Valheru jumped into the Noctis and sat at the tower ready for salvage duty.
Anton Steiner - A more senior pilot from Unternehmen Blau - Grau
Dani was immediately in pursuit, following the ships to the site in her Manticore. Slightly more nimble under cloak than our Strategic Cruisers, Dani's task was to get Mikail and I a close warp-in point on Steiner and Valheru. We'd hopefully land right on top of them and manage to warp scramble both vessels. After watching both ships in action against the sleeper population we decided that, despite being the more experienced pilot in the trio, Steiner would be our secondary target as his Heavy Missile launcher fit Drake would posess the least damage per second. Myam Valheru in his 'cane would go first, and Dani began to creep ever close to the pair as they blasted away at sleepers.
Dani had reached about 30km from the pair when they finished killing all the sleepers at the location. The two battlecruisers sat motionless in space, surrounded by sleeper wrecks as Myam Valheru warped in with his Noctis ready to clean up the mess. Dani moved faster, time was of the essence now. Then suddenly the unthinkable ... my stomach tightened as I listened over the comms. Dani wasn't sure if it was a sleeper construction or possible one of their wrecks, but before she could get close enough to the targets for a warp in she was decloaked by a nearby object. "Ah shit!" Croaked Dani over the comm. Immediately the two battlecruisers began to target my sister, she immediately turned her ship, aligning for a celestial and engaging her micro-warp drive to pull out of Steiner's missile range as she prepared to jump to full warp. In the process of fleeing, she happened to notice by pure chance that Matthew Valheru in his Noctis was barely 30km from her position, still on grid and tractoring in wrecks fearlessly. Alarms began to ring in Dani's pod, the first volley of Steiner's scourge rage missiles slamming into her frigate's shields. Still aligning to warp, Dani quickly targetted the nearby Noctis, despite it being well out of her warp disruptors range and opened fire. She couldn't believe her luck, with barely two volleys of torpedos leaving their launchers the Noctis erupted in a white ball of explosive light. Dani's Manticore shot to warp speed, dust and debries from the salvage ship clattering over her hull as she passed through it.
Landing in a safe spot, Dani quickly cloaked and waited for her shield system to recharge to full. She appologized profusely for her screw up in getting decloaked, but we were simply glad she made it out ok. We watched the trio on d-scan, it seemed that Dani's appearence hadn't dissuaded them from their farming. Valheru immediately shipped into a new Noctis at their tower and the battle cruisers warped onto the next sleeper site to continue the slaughter. Brilliant!
Mikail was first of us to land at the next sleeper site, Dani followed, warping to 20km from him under cloak. We waited for them to finish the sleeper spawns while I remained drifting beside their tower, aligning to the site and awaiting the word to warp. At the completion of the site we were dismayed to watch Valheru in his Hurricane warp out, Steiner remained however, likely to cover the incoming Noctis. We made our move - Mikail decloaked directly beside the Drake and immediately scrambled his warp drive, webbed the wessel and began blasting away, Void M ripping into the Drake's considerable shield tank. Reacting instantly, Steiner began to return fire. A moment later I arrived, landing pretty much on top of both ships, immediately I joined Mikail in working on the Drake's shields also aided by Dani, orbiting at around 30km, painting our target for us while lobbing volley after volley of navy scourge torps. Suddenly a ship warps in ... it's Valheru in his Hurricane to aid his embattled comrade. Or is he? Valheru warps back out as quickly as he warps in. Then Dani comes over the comm, alarms blaring from her console, she's aligning to warp and has to bail. I notice Steiner's drones had reached her, the little Warrior IIs quickly stripping the Manticore's shields and beginning work on it's thin layer of armour. I watched on as thankfully she managed to leap into warp, her armour at 30% she had only just made it out in time.
This small show of resistance was ultimately futile though, we'd soon stripped away Steiner's shield tank, the Drake's armour proving little resistance as the hull implodes in a satisfying little ball of debries. The pod quickly warping out and to the safety of their tower.
After listening to some (less than complimentary) comments in their system's local commnet we set course for the wormhole leading home, and jumped back over the fence into our own system. Afterwards I docked the Wench back in our tower's array, then returned to the comforts of my quarters to ponder the day. I wasn't feeling bad about the day's events, goodness knows I've had the same thing done to me countless times before. It's just wormhole life.
