Captain Crinkle and Xalyar Reach 100 Rescues Together!

Editor’s Note: There are as many measures of success as there are corporations in New Eden. Some measure in profits, some measure in kills, but for me there is no greater measure than service to the community. I’m honored to fly with a corporation that measures success in Capsuleers rescued. – Katia Sae

The following is an AAR (After Action Report) submitted by Signaleer Sydney Selket.

Today I got to unwittingly participate in an historic event in the Eve-Scout Rescue program. Long-time Rescue Coordinators Xalyar and Captain Crinkle have been racing each other to 100 rescues for a while now, and when they recently both landed at 99, we started to think, “Wouldn’t it be cool if they happened to do their next rescue together so they both won the race?”

I had forgotten all about this, and maybe they had too, when we received a ping that a Search and Rescue system (J103924) had been located by Renek Dallocort. Xalyar was first to answer the call. I was trying to step away for a shower, but mentioned that I was available if needed. The chain provided to us by ALLISON was what we would call “ugly”: many jumps through a web of C4s and C5s before any high-sec or low-sec exit. The system itself, that Renek was just beginning to scan, had only a null static. With this challenge in mind, Xalyar asked for backup and I began logging in, with Captain Crinkle also chiming in that he was coming.

Xalyar had actually been the 911 dispatcher on this rescue when the call came in 3 days earlier, so he was the obvious person to reach out to the pilot. Normally we won’t contact the pilot until the system is secured by rescue personnel and we have a way out, because we don’t want an over-anxious pilot to log in before the system is safe and ready for quick rescue. However in this case Xalyar’s notes from the dispatch indicated that the pilot was wavering on whether it was worth waiting for rescue, so we made an exception just to make sure they didn’t choose the next half hour or so to give up. Xaylar was able to reach the pilot on Discord before we even made it to the system, and we knew the pilot would be available for immediate rescue when we were ready.

We entered the chain from different directions and eventually met up in the middle where the chains converged, providing bookmarks for each other to follow, while Renek fed us the next sig in the chain to speed our scanning. Once I got into the SAR system, Renek was able to take off to continue exploring, and I held the system while Xalyar and Crinkle split off scanning more promising routes out, as the way we came in was very long and unstable.

Now that enough time has passed for this not to be active intel, here’s a pic of the chain as it looked as we were arriving (the SAR system is in green). I came from Pelkia, Xalyar came from New Caldari, and after checking out some options from Thera, Crinkle also came from New Caldari.

Xalyar and Crinkle ended up finding a C1 and a C3 which each had a low-sec static and either would make a better exit than the way we came in. Crinkle, with his 99 rescues of wisdom, was the first to point out that depending on what kind of ship the pilot had, a C1 could only take up to medium ships, and might be too small (we knew based on the fact that the pilot was lost in a C2, they couldn’t have a capital, but it could be a battleship). Xalyar reached out to the pilot to confirm, and found out it was a Drake. A C1 is indeed one of the places you can bring your Drake, so we decided on that as the first option for exit, with the C3 as a backup in case the end-of-life hole to the C1 collapsed.

We organized ourselves for a 4-jump exit to low sec. I would be the warp-in point for the pilot to the wormhole out of the SAR system, as I was already there, and then I would sprint ahead to get what I thought was the final exit to low sec, but we ended up improvising on the way and I held up to take the 3rd jump instead, as Crinkle took the 2nd jump and Xalyar followed with the pilot. After the pilot made the jump past me into the C1 I ran ahead again into low sec to see what things looked like in local. Crinkle had found 2 in local a few minutes earlier, but when I splashed in it was deserted. Xalyar, with his 99 rescues of wisdom, immediately asked if there was a station there for the pilot to dock in, which there was not. I quickly checked that the next system in the direction of high sec had a station, and that’s the direction we pointed our pilot in when he reached the safety of K-space.

It was at this point after we waved o7 to the pilot, and were commenting on how smoothly that extraction had gone, when we realized Xalyar and Crinkle had done their 100th rescue together. And I was overcome with honor to have accompanied them, especially on a rescue that had benefited so much from teamwork and experience. Surely this deserved some more acknowledgement beyond the glittering Beacon of Anoikis Medal they will be receiving for their incredible achievement, so here I am to tell you more about them.

From the time I joined Signal Cartel it was my dream to be a rescuer, and Xalyar and Crinkle took me under their respective wings and answered my questions and included me when my explorations crossed paths with rescues. Crinkle taught the class I took on rescue cache placement shortly after I joined the corp, and while he didn’t teach my class, I have had the privilege to sit in on Xalyar’s 911 operator training course to see the guidance he gives our new trainees. During my time as a 911 operator Crinkle and Xalyar were always around to provide guidance on those trickier calls, and to make sure rescues were running smoothly. Even when I became a rescue coordinator with them, I’ve always looked to them to have the definitive answer to the even trickier questions. They’ve just recently been promoted to the title of ESR Manager, to reflect their seniority among the coordinators and the special role they’ve taken over time to help ESR Director Igaze handle the increasing workload as our rescue program grows.

How fitting that despite their constant friendly competitiveness to one-up each other, they arrive at the most prestigious of rescue milestones at exactly the same time. Congratulations to two amazing mentors! I’m sure the race to 200 has already begun!