Rescue from J153449: Double Your Fun!

Check one more and then to bed! I was in J113950 and was doing a last quick check for SAR systems in the wormholes I had scanned down. There was one left, a C5, and the moment I went through I saw the mark in my display saying I’d landed in a SAR system, J153449 to be exact, and the pilot reported it was a capital ship. The hour was late and if I’d had any easy routes to k-space I might have emailed the pilot saying we’d found their system and I’d be back in the morning but I had no routes to k-space other than some unexplored null holes a few jumps away. I put the word out and started scanning to see what I could find to bring in backup.

I found a route through to a C2 and figured that was a good bet as all my other paths went through c4-6’s and had few k-space possibilities and then mostly null sec. A C2 had a much better bet of a high or low sec connection. However J122638, while a c2, had only a NS static and C5 static (and I had come through that). I had seen a couple Astero’s headed through the way I came but they were no particular threat so I scanned on. I found my way to J131852 which had a nice HS static to Bawilan. Score! 

The word went out and Chaim Achasse was 12 jumps out and burned hard to get there while I retraced my path back to the SAR. Much to my surprise when I arrived at the hole in J122638 I found Devoter sitting on top of it. I quickly checked the info and sure enough it was mass critical. Still cloaked I warped to the hole and pounded the jump button, slipping past the roller and back. I warped to a safe then back to the hole to check on it and it was gone. I was alone in the system again with no routes for backup. I was also exhausted so I decided to call it a night. I had been in convo with the pilot so they knew I was there and we were working a route but that it might be a day or two so I headed for bed. He also added he had not one, but two capitals to extract.

Six hour of restless sleep dreaming of wormholes and scanning and I was back up hunting a route. My entrance was still stable so I backtracked through there and started scanning, ultimately finding a route through Etherium Reach. I headed back as I need to log off and get to work but while I was off Captain Crinkle made it in followed by Chaim and Scarsan Stripes. Backup was here and I could relax a bit. 

Throughout the next day we scanned down routes to take. With two capitals this could be interesting. We found some routes but our pilot wasn’t available and some of the systems were pretty active. Plus all the routes were at least two to three jumps to get to k-space. On the upside our locals appeared to be quiet.

Our likely exit was the system’s only static, a C6. That night it got rolled and opened up into a Hard Knocks farm system. More fun! I managed to get in touch with our pilot and determined the times he could be available. It was either going to be very late or very early for most of our crew although Captain Crinkle was well positioned time zone wise.

The next night Chaim, Scars, and I sat outside the static C6 waiting for it to collapse… which it decided to do over an hour late, so while we waited we watched @Johnny-Splunk ‘s stream as he bid farewell to the Raptor. Once it went it down we quickly scanned routes and found a few exits only a couple jumps out. Things were looking good. No response from our guy and I was running out of steam. Two long nights and some illness had taken their toll. I crashed and left things to the rest of the crew.

The rest of the rescue I got from Chaim afterwords, who apparently couldn’t sleep so was up:

The lost pilot made contact with the rescue team slightly before downtime. Chaim messaged to advise that he and Captain Crinkle be in contact after down time to effect the rescue. Once the server came back up, Chaim logged in, followed shortly after by Captain Crinkle and formed a fleet. After scanning the route, the lost pilot was contacted, and told that we were ready.

Once the pilot logged in, Chaim invited both of his pilots to the fleet and warped to them to drop off the exit route bookmarks incase of any issues with hole stability. With two capitals (a Naglfar and an Apostle) we were crossing our fingers we wouldn’t collapse any holes on the way. Captain Crinkle proceeded to scout the next system, and on the “all clear” Chaim fleet-warped himself and the lost pilots to the system exit.

Chaim held position while the pilot jumped through to ensure hole stability for the two capital ships. Once the pilots were through Chaim followed after and Captain Crinkle moved to scout the next system. Again on Captain Crinkle’s “all clear” Chaim fleet-warped the pilots to the next exit and held position while the capital ships went through, following after. This process was followed for one more system, where the pilot was told to warp to Captain Crinkle upon splashing through as he was sitting on the Low Sec exit hole. 

Captain Crinkle scouted the Low Sec system and it was anything but quiet! A titan had been lost there just a week before, which was making Crinkle very nervous about the whole endeavour. But we told our pilot this beforehand, and they agreed to take the risk. As Chaim described, the route until lowsec was as quiet as could be hoped. That all changed when we warped in, with 15 in Local and a dreadnought on dscan. Luckily Crinkle was able to pinpoint it’s position using narrow cone scanning before the rescuee ships arrived, and found a potential NPC station with a clear undock.

Well done to all involved! Captain Crinkle , Scarsan Stripes , Chaim Achasse , and, while he didn’t see any action, Angel Lafisques was there as further backup. We have rescued a few capitals over the last year and half but I believe the is the first double cap!

Rescue in J101129: Everyday Hero

A request for help came across the EvE-Scout channel. The stranded pilot (who has asked to remain anonymous) knew the HS/C1 chain to his wormhole. The problem was that the only hole he had bookmarked was the C1/C4 and it would only allow medium-sized ships through it. The only other hole out was a large one to a C3, but its mass was critically destabilized and he had two large ships that needed an exit. He had a way to refit but had no probes or launcher currently fitted and the system did not contain a rescue cache.

Using the known HS/C1 connection, Expert Rescue Pilot Luci Mari-Ni was able to easily locate and enter the stranded pilot’s system. But she was concerned the stranded pilot would be stuck even worse if she went through the destabilized wormhole and collapsed it. The Search and Rescue effort would be considerably more challenging if that occurred.

At the stranded pilot’s request, they rolled the dice, and Luci went through into the C3. The stranded pilot brought one of his large ships through then went back to retrieve the second. It was a tense moment as Luci waited for him to re-emerge from the wormhole before it collapsed. And then the second ship appeared. Hooray!

In the C3 system, there was a rescue cache, from which Luci was able to retrieve a probe launcher and scanner probes. She jettisoned a can with with these items into space for the stranded pilot to pick up. As he did so, she scanned down the system’s LS exit and began scouting in it to see if would be safe. But the stranded pilot soon waved her off; now that he had probes and a launcher, he was no longer stranded and able to scan his own way out to known space. Mission accomplished!

When I learned of the events the next day, I reached out to the rescued pilot for feedback on how the rescue went, as we do on all rescues. Many times we hear nothing back, but this pilot went out of his way to send the following note:

Luci Mari-Ni did not just help, but went above and beyond what I was expecting them to. Great person, great pilot, and helped me out greatly. I can’t begin to thank them enough. Through their service I even donated to your guy’s cause, which is an odd thing for me to do.

To start, I want to say I was skeptical of calling on you folk to help. In a game where trust is rare because anyone can be willing and ready to stab you in the back for the lolz, you hold true to honor and integrity. I heard good things about you, but figured it was old tales of a group that used to help others out and now just uses people to cleverly hunt others. I was wrong. Not only was I helped with saving my two rattles, but the pilot who helped went beyond what they needed to do to make sure I got out safe. They even offered to scout me through LS to HS, but I declined, for their job was done and it was time for me to own up to any potential mistakes that may or may not happen. This one pilot’s actions has now convinced me to not engage knowingly with Signal Cartel. Which is saying something, since everyone is a target or future target.

This is just a day in the life of a Signal Cartel Rescue Pilot. Every rescue is different, and every rescue matters. We have rescue caches in approximately 60% of wormholes, waiting to assist you should you need a launcher and scanner probes. If that won’t help you, we have pilots in space, 24/7 in every time zone, ready to assist you should you become stranded in a wormhole.

Sound like something you’d like to be a part of? Then consider joining with Luci Mari-Ni and our scores of other Rescue Pilots. Start your rescue adventure today!

The Short Life and Triumphant Death of Rescue Cache J154733

Author: Lucas Ballard

YC109-Dec-15 was a remarkable day for one Small Secure Container floating in Anoikis, illustrating in just a few short hours the full lifespan of a Eve Scout Rescue Cache that was very well used.

Rescue Cache J154733 started its life being anchored by Signal Cartel pilot Rover Dog.  Just a box floating out in the black of Anoikis, waiting to be opened.

A few hours later a call came into the EvE-Scout Public channel from a pilot named <redacted> who had apparently become stranded within the system.  Signaleer and regular corporate fixture pris Naari played the role of Agent and assisted <redacted> in finding the Rescue Cache and availing himself of the equipment stored within.  <redacted> soon found his way out of Anoikis and out of danger, having used 5 Core Scanner Probes out of the 8 that had been placed there by Rover Dog.

Lucas Ballard came online from the captain’s lounge aboard Rescue Five, his brand new Enforcer Force Recon Cruiser, having received word of <redacted> predicament a short time earlier.  However he soon learned of pris Naari’s handling of the situation moments before.  So he made preparations for a long roam through the ever-changing paths through Anoikis, to begin searching for other pilots who were waiting for their chance to escape their own J-Space prisons.

Not 10 minutes later, a pilot by the name of <redacted2> reached out on the Public channel, looking for assistance.  He had become stranded in Anoikis while piloting his brand new (and freakishly expensive) Caiman, a Guristas Dreadnought.  Lucas stepped in to help, and learned that the pilot was stranded in J154733, the very system that <redacted> had just escaped from less than one hour before.  Lucas directed him to the Rescue Cache, and 15 minutes later, <redacted2> sent a terse message simply stating that he had gotten out of Anoikis.

Less than 15 minutes after that, <redacted> reached out again in the EvE-Scout Public Channel.  Grateful for the assistance he had received an hour earlier, he had decided to fly back into J154733 to return the Core Scanner Probes he had borrowed.  But upon arriving at the location of the Cache, he discovered that it was no longer there.  Someone had destroyed the container!  So Lucas sent a secure message to <redacted2>, to get more information about just what had happened, and 2 hours later, <redacted2> responded.  Shortly after getting the probes from the Rescue Cache, it turned out that he had been jumped by a Sabre pilot who tried to keep him from getting away.  However quick reflexes and some savvy flying kept <redacted2> from being pinned down by the Interdictor, and he managed to escape.  In their frustration over missing such a valuable target, the Sabre pilot and/or his friends apparently destroyed the Rescue Cache.

Thus ended the short life of Rescue Cache J154733.  But what a life it had!  The little box was a light in the darkness for not one but TWO pilots, before being destroyed less than 12 hours after having been anchored.  A short but triumphant existence to be sure.

That Small Secure Container manifested the Eve Scout Rescue motto perfectly:  Hope Comes In A Box.

Rescue Thanks in J164218

This one goes back to Jul-26, but it is such a nice thank you from one of our rescuees I wanted to draw attention to it here. Special thanks go out to Bill Kills for the great job he did as a Rescue Agent on this one! 🙂

I’m very glad to hear from you, because I sincerely wanted you and your corp to know how much I appreciated the extreme generosity I was shown when I had gotten stuck in a wormhole after logging off without first reloading my probe launcher. I am a returning player currently on an alpha clone and my wormhole know-how is still limited. Safe to say on 26 July I learned the basic lesson of keeping an extra set of probes in my cargo.

At the time I had actually had a fairly successful run hacking data and relic sites, so my Heron was almost at full capacity when I had to quickly log off due to IRL stuff – only to return later and find out that I had lost contact and could not reconnect to my probes. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if I had had to abandon ship and clone, but during my scanning of the system I had spotted a can that said something about “EvE-Scout”… I thought I should give it a try, although I also thought it could just as well be a trap — this is EVE after all. In this case, however, it turned out to be the perfect rescue.

Following the note on the can, I quickly got in touch with friendly people in the chat, confirmed via the website, got directions for how to locate the can, got the password and got the probes. I couldn’t play more that day so I loaded the probes into my launcher and logger out. It felt almost unbelievable. Like a lifebuoy being thrown out to a person at sea. And I was that lucky recipient! If anything, EVE succeeds in making the player feel the vastness of space. Even more so in W-space, where there are no “roads”, only faint trails in the tall waves…

The next day, I logged in and resumed the scanning routine with the new probes. To see the probes flash felt like being able to breathe fresh air again after having been near suffocation. A small thing, really, if you think about it, but for a moment I felt something very real.

Eventually I found my way back to a station in high-sec space. I wanted to go back and restock the can with probes, but the path had closed by the time I could reach high-sec shops.

I have to say, there can’t be many cases of such altruism taking place in MMO games, let alone in the world. It was a really cool experience and yet another thing that makes EVE a very special game.

I saw the testimonials on your website and I would gladly let you share mine there. No need for anonymity – I want people to know how awesome you guys are!

I’m currently taking dives into W-space in between high-sec dabbling, so for now I’m not looking to join a player corp which gets wardecked a lot, but some day I would definitely like to try joining a friendly exploration-focused corp such as yours some day, if alphas are allowed.

Once again, thank you very much!!

Kind regards,
Ilska

Anatomy of a Rescue

It was a quiet night at ESR Central Command. And before you get any false ideas in your mind about what that is, it’s basically a few small desks in a tiny, cluttered office buried deep somewhere within Paleo station. Even though the space has been mine for close to a year now, I still get turned around sometimes when trying to find it. “Labyrinthine” is a pretty word that comes to mind.

At any rate, it was quiet. A Dead Parrot and I were just sitting around chatting. While not an “official” member of the SAR crew, Parrot’s work with Allison has made him an integral part of what we do, and he’ll often be found in the SAR office, working on one thing or another. It was getting late on this evening, and we were done working and had turned to discussing how to encourage our rescue pilots to keep at it, brainstorming ways to keep the heart fires lit and to help keep enthusiasm high. Parrot was right in the middle of saying something about Allison’s role in all of this, when the stillness of the office was disturbed.

It was the chime that we both love (a chance to help!) and dread (what if we can’t?), the alert we get from Allison any time a rescue pilot enters a system with an active SAR request: “ESR Team, I just flew into J111629 (An active SAR system) with Holphi Kord.”

Parrot was startled out of his reverie. “Holee cow poop! Now I have to stay awake.”

“Wow,” I replied. “How’s that for timing?”

“Amazing.” Parrot was already springing into action to check on Allison’s logs.

Allison’s alert had gone out over the network to all of our Coordinators. We got a reply right away from Triff: “One of you two got this? I’m out and didn’t want to have to remote in.”

From some remote corner of Anoikis, Igaze chimed in: “I can get in and message Holphi. There’s not a Tripwire chain, though.” Igaze was out sowing and tending rescue caches.

Parrot was already on it, spooling back up the main systems that we had just put to sleep for the night. “Iggy, are you in touch? I can check Allison’s logs if you need me to. Maybe find the kspace connection.”

“That would be great. He’s not sure the exact route he took in. Looks like he came from null. He’s scouting connections now.”

With Igaze in touch with the rescue pilot, Triffton was off the hook, so he rang off. (We do like to give our Coordinators a break ever now and then!) Parrot realized pretty quickly that we did not have any recent intel on the system Holphi had discovered, and we communicated all of this through Igaze so everyone was on the same page.

After a few minutes of discussion, Igaze got back to us: “I’m letting Holphi map. I’ll be off for 30 minutes or so.” And than about 15 minutes later we received an update: “He found a null exit. I’ll be available again in an hour.”

After another 30 minutes, Allison notified us that Angel Lafisques had flown into the same system with Holphi. The two of them did their thing, and got every connection to this system scanned down and noted in Tripwire.

Igaze came back on: “I’m going to try and get back to Thera and then see if I can get there. The null connection is 38 jumps out though. I, of course, am buried as far from k-space as I can get, I think.”

“Don’t kill yourself to get there,” I told him. “Especially since we have other pilots in system. Have we heard from the stranded pilot yet?”

“No. Been mailed, though.”

About 30 minutes later, we heard from Igaze again: “Ran out of time. Sitting in a C1 with low static. Angel is scanning routes but won’t be on until again until 20+ hours from now. I’ll be back in 8 or 9 hours to see what’s been scanned down.”

So that was the end of it for the night. Until the stranded pilot replied, there was little more we could do but wait.

Then, early the next morning, Igaze provided a status update: “Angel has things mapped out. Pilot just responded and will be available in several hours. I can’t be on then, but I think Angel has it in hand.”

So we each went about our business, always mindful of this stranded fellow capsuleer, anxious for the next update, eyes unconsciously darting to the clock every few minutes. Several hours later, we received a notice from Allison that Holphi was remapping the system, updating it with the most recent connections.

Igaze had been in touch with the stranded pilot and was hopeful. “We might get this guy tonight. He’s online now and Holphi is talking to him. We’ll see what they figure out.” We all sent our best wishes to him, Holphi, and Angel.

About five hours later we received final confirmation: “Looks like the rescue was completed!” There was much rejoicing, a little bit of paperwork got filled out, and we all went back into waiting mode — ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice when our services were once again required by some poor, lost soul.

This is not an atypical rescue. They are each different. Each comes with its own unique challenges and each requires a team of dedicated pilots and office personnel. If what you just read sounds like something you’d like to be a part of, consider joining Signal Cartel, and get ready for the first time our copilot AI, Allison, tells you: “Captain, this system has an active Search & Rescue request.” It’s a completely new way to get your heart pumping and your adrenaline surging, as you become a vital part of the EvE-Scout Rescue team.