Nine Day Camping Trip in a Small Shattered Wormhole

The following is taken from a forum post by one of our members, Sone Eto, who went on a a weird adventure and was kind enough to share it with us in a forum post:

Friends and Enemies,

Gather around once again while a tell another tale of mystery, intrigue, danger, riches, and incompetence…

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Small Shattered Camping Trip

Long ago, the elder gods provided us wormholes..and they were good. These wonderfully unpredictable pockets of space were never meant to be settled..and yet capsuleers built homes there. Among these brave pioneers were Eve University’s own Wormhole Campus. Led by Azmo with his large innuendo, Conky Furnaceman, and once-legendary logistics pornographer Urban Oxide, this group shook their fists at the gods and screamed into the heavens “SCRAM ON IMICUS WWW!” Through months of procrastination and the ability to fill out a simple form, I proved my mettle to this elite group and joined the WHC.

Since joining, I learned of Small Ship Shattered Wormholes (C13). These are relatively rare wormhole systems that offer significant bonuses to armor, small weapons, and signature radius while also providing more cosmic signatures to scan down and exploit. The unique feature of these systems is that they only make connections that allow small ships (frigates and destroyers). Additionally, like all shattered wormholes, you cannot anchor structures there. That means that you can’t really live in one beyond a daytrip………right?

I decided to defy the gods as our forefathers did by taking a camping trip for around a week into one of these C13 holes. I don’t have any alts which meant that I got one ship. My goal was maximum flexibility in order to partake in as many activities as possible while inside. For me, this meant the Confessor:

The Fit
[Confessor, Little Camper]
Small Armor Repairer II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Heat Sink II
Heat Sink II
Small Armor Repairer II

Cap Recharger II
1MN Afterburner II
Warp Scrambler II

Dual Light Beam Laser II
Prototype Cloaking Device I
Dual Light Beam Laser II
Expanded Probe Launcher I
Dual Light Beam Laser II
Dual Light Beam Laser II

Small Nanobot Accelerator I
Small Capacitor Control Circuit II
Small Nanobot Accelerator I

Imperial Navy Standard S x16
Gleam S x16
Aurora S x16
Sisters Combat Scanner Probe x8
Sisters Core Scanner Probe x8
Nanite Repair Paste x47
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S x16
Relic Analyzer II x1
Salvager I x3
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II x1
Stasis Webifier II x1
Cap Recharger II x1
Core Probe Launcher I x1
Medium Inefficient Hull Repair Unit x1
Scan Rangefinding Array I x1
Data Analyzer I x1

Although I have no idea what I’m doing, this ship is perfectly suited to the Wolf-Rayet effects of a C13 and, being a T3 destroyer, it is very flexible thanks to its multiple operating modes (defense, sharpshooter, propulsion). The fit above depicts it’s pvp hunter mode for catching those pesky explorers and kicking them out of my swamp. In addition to this pvp fit, I also packed another cap recharger and energized nano plating for a cap stable sleeper site farming option. I brought along a rangefinder, relic analyzer, and data analyzer for running exploration sites along with some salvagers.

For utility while in the hole, I packed a mobile depot for changing fits, a mobile tractor unit for farming, nanite paste, and a hull repair unit. I brought along a secure container to hold my loot in case I overflowed the cargo hold as well.

Preparation (29MAY)
I saw that a small shattered hole (J000304) was scanned down in the WHC mapper so I filled my confessor’s cargo hold with the largest secure container I could find and dropped it at a safe inside. The idea was that I could deposit loot there but otherwise stay away from it; these containers are relatively safe because they cannot be combat probed. However, by combining dscan skills and autism, it is possible to manually scan down these containers. I decided to take the risk anyway. After dropping the container, I flew back to the WHC and filled up the confessor with the fits, utility items, and lots of laser crystals.

A New Home (29MAY)
The first thing that I tried was running some of the sleeper sites; I don’t normally fly confessors so I wanted to get a feel for it. Against a Perimeter Camp and Perimeter Checkpoint, it did great! Around this time, I noticed a Heron on dscan with scanner probes out. I warped to a safe, deployed the mobile depot, refit to pvp/gank/combatscan, and pulled the depot back into my cargo hold. A quick scan found him and I got a kill: https://zkillboard.com/kill/76989986/ along with his pod https://zkillboard.com/kill/76990012/ . He was double warp core stabbed but the sheer dps of a confessor in a C13 made this a non-issue.

Dude Where’s Your Container? (30MAY)
The next day, I notice that my secure container is no longer on dscan…hmmm. It turns out that if you want these things to stick around, you have to anchor them. I didn’t realize that you even could anchor them in shattered wormholes. Well, the connection to WHC had closed so I was stuck now; looks like I’ll be living completely out of the ship’s cargo hold. I scanned down all the signatures and started checking connections to see who my new neighbors were. I found a C5 that led to ANOTHER small ship shattered wormhole (J000186). Since I was completely free with no attachments, I moved into this hole and did a relic site (120m isk).

What? Another C13? (01JUN – 02JUN)
After doing two more relic sites the next day, I continued scanning and checking connection. To my surprise, I found yet another small shattered wormhole (J000652). This one was connected directly to my new home; I moved in once I had exhausted the content of my home. There, I ran 4 more relic sites and found a C1 connection…

Danger! (02JUN)
By this point I had around 400m in my cargo hold so I was hoping for a highsec connection to get rid of the loot. The C1 did not disappoint; I warped to the highsec hole that I had scanned down just in time to watch an explorer jump through it into highsec. I followed to see how close to a tradehub or WHC connection it was. The system’s proximity to useful places wasn’t spectacular and I had a change of heart…this was meant to be a camping trip not a sightseeing tour. I jumped my 400m of cargo back into the hole to head back home to the small shattered….BUBBLED…A Sabre decloaked, bubbled, and started engaging (with me polarized). I was no longer in a nice Wolf-Rayet effect system which meant that the confessor isn’t nearly as strong (I also am not familiar with it’s matchups/meta at all). I decide to engage back; it did not go well. I started to die and made a decision to attempt an escape. I aligned to the sun, switched to propulsion mode, overheated my afterburner, and prayed. The Sabre chased and bubbled again, I keep burning for the sun. I screamed at the ship to go faster so loud that my neighbors called the cops; once Concord arrived, I told them this is J-space and that they had no authority here. I made it out out the bubble and into warp. I limped home and assessed the damage: down to 33% hull and lots of modules heat damaged. I used the hull repairer that I brought and some nanite to get myself fixed.

Gas Sites Experiment (03JUN – 04JUN)
My home had tons of gas sites and I was curious if I could force more signatures to spawn somehow. I activated 18 of them by warping and then checked again the next day. Almost all of the sites had disappeared but that also included non-gas sites. Although I specifically activated these to see if I could force them to despawn (and maybe be replaced), I remain skeptical that my actions caused these sites to disappear. I ran a better sleeper site during this time: a Forgotten Frontier Stronghold (40m isk).

Killing Deployables (05JUN – 06JUN)
The next day, I found a nullsec connection and hopped into it to look around. I found 5 rattlesnakes on dscan then something interrupted me in real life; I cloaked up in the nullsec on the hole and dealt with it. Upon return, I was greeted by an Ares on dscan with scanning probes out looking for the only signature in system: my wormhole connection and me. I jumped back in and got out of there as quick as I could. After running another relic site and FFS sleeper site, I was looking for something to do. I had noticed a mobile depot in my home for a couple of days by now so I asked the diplos if we were allowed to kill them. After getting the clarification that even anchored mobile depots are fair game, I shot it into reinforcement and had to wait 2 days to finish it off. While waiting, I popped back into the nullsec, combat probed a Mobile Tractor Unit left by one of the ratters and killed it: https://zkillboard.com/kill/77150922/

Homecoming (07JUN)
Today, I found a nullsec connection that was 6 jumps from the Nullsec Campus. I considered asking for a scout to get there and then find a way back to WHC but decided to dive back into my shattered hole and continue the camping trip. Then…I found another C1 that led to a highsec that was 2 jumps from a WHC connection. I decided to take the hint and come back home to the WHC thus ending the trip.

Summary
Isk Earned: 464m (https://evepraisal.com/a/mjei4)
Isk Destroyed: 10m

Lessons Learned
I recommend that folks give this kind of trip a shot. I wasn’t able to be as active as usual due some real life events but it was a great time. Trips like this will teach you to prepare, be radically self-sufficient, and put you in situations that you weren’t expecting. Some lessons learned:
– You can anchor secure containers and mobile depots in shattered wormholes, do it.
– Always take a hull repair module on a trip like this
– Bring a large variety of fitting options even if its making your cargo hold bulge, relic sites ended up being my primary income source rather than the sleeper sites that I expected
– Make tons of safe spots and rotate them often. I found myself decloaked a lot changing fits and warping around; having good safes was very helpful
– Use a wormhole mapper! Being able to see what signatures are new between logoffs is great
– I found 3 small shattered wormholes in a week only scanning the chain mostly 1 level deep. This makes me wonder if small shattered have a higher-than-normal probability of being connected. Is it possible to nomad from small shattered to small shattered in a confessor to get even more content?
– Go have an adventure!

If you too want to go on weird, crazy adventures and tell your corp mates about them so they go “cool”, then Apply to Join EVE University today.

This post is pulled from a forum post by Sone Eto. See the original post here 

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