Exploration

After I mined in WH space with Sab, I decided to learn a bit of Astrometrics myself, to see how it all worked. When I ran into trouble with my new fan, Sara, I had Astrometrics at level 3. After doing some missions, I decided -- as usual -- against common wisdom to try probing with only lvl 3 skill.

I bolted a probe launcher onto a heron and off I went, happlessly launching probes and trying to follow instrutions I found from youtube. I spent an hour, trying to scan down my first signature I found. I could not get the accuracy closer than 50%. Finally my probes expired and I was sure my skills just werent enough. I headed back to my base. On the way I decided to give it one more go. I got another signature, and to my surprise, I scanned it down in just few minutes! And t was a wormhole! I wasn't expecting that! You can sense my excitement:

I brawely entered the WH. Long story short: I probed around gleefully for the next several hours, running into new WH's headfast. Finally I found what I was looking for; a mining site. Luckiy I had got some advice how the mining sites work. Initially the belt is populated with rocks only. Then after 20 minutes, there will be a spawn of severa sleepers. After these are killed, the belt wil be safe. So, I visited the site and started fitting a fighting machine to put fear into the hearts of the sleepers! I bought a Ferox! Supposedly the best type of fighting ship I could fly. Soon I discovered I lacked the skills to use medium hybrid turrets, which would get bonus from the ship. So I fitted it with missile launchers. Heavy ones!

I headed back to the mining site to face the sleepers. Sure enough, there was spawn of 5 sleepers. Sooner than a bus arrives to the stop after you have lit a cigarette, I got my ass handed to me. Surprisingly my enemies were too small to really get any damage from heavy missiles. I told about my woes to the public channel of the corporation I am applying to. My mentor from the corp, whom we will call Jag from now on, replied with a quick

and told me several things that were wrong with my fitting. He was a bit sceptical about my ability to solo the sleepers. Being the stubborn ass I am, I decided to try again. This time with a Caracal, fitted with assault launchers and passive shield tank.

To everyones surprise, I managed to kill two of the sleepers on the first run and could have killed more but they magically warped 150km away from me in middle of the fight. I returned soon and dispatched the rest of the spawn.

At this point I weighted the risks of mining here. There were several unknows, but my scanner didn't show much of activity in the system. I decided to take my Rokh here. I know; you, my dear reader, are already cringing and expecting the worst...

I took the Rokh to the mining site and mined three full cans of crokite. Surprisingly, nothing interesting happened! I left the system and retuned with my hauler. Oops! There was a drake right next to the WH inside the system. I pondered my options while still cloaked after the jump. I "quickly" aligned to the WH and jumped out. I visited close-by Jita and replaced my cargo expanders with warp core stabilizers. I briefly entertained the idea of fitting a probe launcher to the hauler, but abandoned it. After jumping back into the WH I got greeted with a rather worrying message, telling me something about hauling masses through the hole and collapsing something -- trapping -- hmm.

SHIT! I was trapped. The 20k investement on the probe launcher would be invaluable now... I cautiously asked on the local if someone could show me the door, hoping the drake flying pilot could be persuaded with some cash. No answer. Bugger. I checked my scanner and saw the drake was gone. Double bugger. I had probably ruined his day too. The drake was there the whole time I was mining. This was probably his home system. I weighted my options briefly. Thinking about the 30M worth of crokite made my heart sink. But as you may already know, patience is not one of my virtues. I made a heroic decision I never had to do before: Suicide!

I would be an hero.

So, as a memento of my first solo expedition of WH space, there will be a Badger MKII full or crokite parked next to the sun J115347 I, accompanied by the frozen corpse of me and myself.

And what did I learn today?

• You can scan most anything with lvl 3 Astrometrics and cheap equipment.
• With low skills, it is slow, but the biggest factor is your own skill in using the scanner
• It is possibe to solo the mining site sleepers of Class 2 WH with Caracal missile boat
• Class 2 holes can't support battleships going in and out
• Always carry a probe launcher in WH space