A Ganking, A Move Interupted and The Issue with High Sec Statics

Well, what an interesting day.

Logged off after a little multitask Mining while doing some work in the morning with just a little bit of mining left to do to complete our "Vacation" stay.  Not a bit too soon.  I am so sick of mining it is not funny.  I do not see how people choose to do this as a career.  A night of it is okay.  Eight straight nights of it gets sick.

Anyway, on the the rants.

I log on in the evening with an extended play time window and look forward to running ore out through 3-4 static B274 holes and get the process of leaving well under way.   Why is it everytime I am sure what I am going to do when I log on to EVE, I am never right.

As I am logging on, I check Evemaps to see whats going on with the hole.  Crap, spike in jumps, npc kills, and damn, a ship kill and pod kill.  That can't be good.  Sure enough 15 seconds later I am bombarded with messages in chat, we had a miner ganked and podded in a covetor (thankfully it wasn't a hulk).  The fact he got podded too suggests either panic or a little AFK-ness.  Both of which are normal for W-space mining in long stretches by people not used to the nature of w-space.

I am impressed though that the Corp was actually scanning down sigs to find the K162 and not waiting around.  So we find the K162 and its from a Class 6.  Great. So i pop in my scanning boat and wish I had the old "Hat on a Stick" to test the waters first.  But a quick scan shows no POS and no ships.  Get the Orca out and 15 minutes later the hole is closed.

By this time the corp has found the B static and we are starting to move stuff out.  Well about halfway through the first Static B mass wise, we get a Manticore popping into the system (thankfully the lookout was on his toes here).  Guy had been involved in the ganking and decided to make a Jita run I guess.  Well sorry dude, no way home this way now.  He stated in convo that we're "safe" from him and he was going to head back to Jita.   Good thing I was not born last night.  Hour later he was still popping randomly into the high sec system.  Guess the chance at an Orca kill warranted sticking around.

Well, finally he logs and I feel at least gutsy enough to warp the Orca (yes it obviously got caught on High Sec side), to the wormhole.  Sure enough the reason I hate High Sec Statics was sitting there staring back at me.  A Raven, Domi, Drake and Alton.  Quick fly around by my toon still in the hole shows two Imicus (are they Imici in groups) scanning down the system.  Great. They could sit there forever on the high sec side without a fear in the world while they decide if the want to run the anoms or work the system at all.  In the mean time I cannot do crap as a sure as hell am not jumping the Orca back through with them sitting there. 

So i log for the night hoping that 1) that was not the first wave of a POS busting party and 2) that they leave the hole open so I can sneak the Orca back in before it times out.

This all reinforced 4 lessons of W-Space living for me..

1) Mining in W-space is very dangerous.  You will eventually die when a higher class wormhole opens and the people that really know how to pew pew get to you.  Or that they will simply open your static to k-space and the people there who like to pew pew will find you.  LEsson is eventually someone with skills and bad intentions is going to find you, and you don't have local as your friend.

2) Trust no one.  Despite "assurances", this manticore pilot was more then willing to sit and wait for me despite the assurance I was free to go back about my business.  Either a lot of people are very trustworthy or gullible.  I tend to be neither when dealing with my $600M isk ship.  I know you are not supposed to fly what you can't afford to lose, but you aren't supposed to be jack ass stupid with your stuff either.

3) People have way too much time on their hands.  To sit at a wormhole for 2 hours for the chance to pop an Orca?  How is that fun?  I guess being "stuck" till his corp found him a new route home, he had nothing better to do?  But then to sit in a Raven, Drake and Domi outside a hole for 35-45 minutes, that takes either a lot of game time available, or a sheer desire to do nothing.  Maybe they were watching the Season Premier of Survivor at the same time.

4) High Sec Statics suck balls.  One, they are going to be found.  There is like no chance a K162 in high sec is not going to be found in the 24 hour life of the hole.  You can only hope its found by a little old lady who just likes to scan all day and is only going to fly around in a Zeypher and attempt to communicate with the Sleepers.  Higher class wormholes are going to open them when they find them, cause they need to get stuff to market and hate low sec like the rest of us too.  And people can congregate at the high sec side and there is not a damn thing you can do about it.  I am more determined then ever to minimize my time and assets I ever dedicate to a W-Space system with a High Sec Static.

So worst case at this point is that our Manticore "friend" has friends who love to bust POS's and we are in for a major loss.

A little better is the chance I will have to cool the hole for a day or two to make sure the baddies are gone and then fly the Orca over half of empire to the new hole.

Best case is they are gone and they left the hole open and I can slip the Orca in before it closes.

Hmm, I guess the worst is really that I think they have gone, warp the Orca in, Get ganked, and then the destroy the POS.  Maybe they can even get my Mother to come and say "she told me so" to add further insult to ever feeling safe with a High Sec Static.

Fly Safe,
Mick