Recovering a ship from high-sec
3rd March 2010 – 5.31 pmThere is an exit out to New Eden, but not just any exit. It's the second day in a row that a high-sec exit to The Citadel has presented itself, the region of my manufacturing base and where Tigress III has been abandoned. Yesterday we fought Sleepers, today I'm taking advantage of the lull in activity and heading out. I would normally pilot my Crane out of w-space and as this isn't an option I ponder my choices.
I could fly out in my pod, its agility making the journey relatively safe, and plant myself in a ship at the first opportunity in k-space. But it seems awfully frail, particularly without first having travelled the route through w-space to see what activity is around. I could take another ship, but unless it can be hauled back in the Crane's hold I will only be swapping one abandoned ship for another, and any rigs will be destroyed when a ship is repackaged. However, the engineers have a shuttle or two sitting in the hangar, which provides an extra layer of protection over a pod, whilst being small enough to squeeze in to any reasonable cargo hold. I'll take the TIE Fighter.
The journey through w-space is quiet and straightforward and I am back in The Citadel soon enough. Sitting on the high-sec side of the wormhole feels like I'm hiding from everyone, present in the system but at a location no one will be warping to. If I could take care of everything here I would be happier, but some tasks need physical interaction. I head to my manufacturing base, delivering jobs over a fortnight old on the way. I have a slew of modules coming off the production line along with another colony of Badger Mk II industrial ships. I don't have the time this evening to deliver the Badger IIs to market, instead taking the simple option of putting them up for sale in the station they were built, but all the modules fit in to the Crane's hold and there are excellent gaps in the market within three jumps. Delivering useful modules to empty markets is worth a few minutes of my time.
Back in my Crane, shuttle in the hold, I once again feel speedy, fast enough to pop down to the high-sec corporate tower to refresh my overdue ME research jobs. 
I exit dock, point towards a stargate, and flick on the auto-pilot. I admit that it is a simple pleasure when returning to k-space to be able to use the static network of stargates to jump effortlessly between unchanging systems. But there are so many other people here. So much chatter on local, so many pilots lurking around stargates, so much activity at stations. Diverting briefly to pick up a couple of new skill books—the market being the other lure of k-space—the traffic around the station is unnerving.
This must be a common occurrence in high-sec, a couple of dozen ships loitering outside a station. I remember when I used to find it interesting, so many months ago, seeing the different hulls and racial technologies. Now I feel like I've seen so much more. More advanced and dangerous-looking ships have targeted and attacked me, I've lurked silently around Tech III strategic cruisers and confronted the bizzare alien technology of the Sleepers. As my Crane glides in to the docking perimeter I know that I must seem like just another pilot to the others, if they even notice me. Maybe it's good that they cannot see the scrapes on the hull from arkonor and bistot asteroids, the polarisation effects resulting from countless wormhole jumps. I can simply slip in, conduct my business, and disappear again. After all, I don't know how many of these pilots are on shore leave from a null-sec war either.
Skill books picked up, I continue to the corporation laboratories. The ME research is continued on my BPOs, some of it close to delivering a blueprint or two useful for production. And my trip down to Amarr space has brought me close to my Guardian, left out here when running from Tech III cruisers in w-space. As much as my Crane is adapted to moving around New Eden, the Guardian is a more useful ship to return to the w-space tower. With a cargo expander, it can even take the shuttle back with it. I wonder if I will have time to take the Guardian back and return the same evening for the Crane, but I think I know I won't. My priority now is to retrieve my fleet ship, and the journey through noisy high-sec is soon replaced by the deadly quiet of w-space. Sorry, Tigress III. I hope to be back for you soon.
3 Responses to “Recovering a ship from high-sec”
I know little of what it's like to live in W-Space...but I can say, I get roughly the same feelings when visiting high sec empire after being out in Nullsec for long periods of time. I'm sure the feelings are different in some ways but at the same time, what you wrote here felt very familiar. It's like if you spend enough time in the deepest, darkest places of Eve, where it's kill or be killed......going to the busy trade hubs in high sec just gives you the strangest feeling. It's as though YOU are the alien wearing a human mask. And you want nothing more than to get in and get out as quickly as possible. To get back to the comforts of your far away home.
It's a strange world where people can just float around casually in their ships in space. I once saw 6 hulks and 2 orcas out at a belt and they didn't even flinch when I flew near, launched drones and buzzed one of them. There are people actually lining up to use gates and calmly motoring into jump range from 15km out as if they had not a care in the world. It's nearly incomprehensible.
I think the unease is more a matter of the conditioning you put yourself through in order to survive in null-sec or the equivalent. I know that I have become much more alert to the presence of any other ship that isn't in my corporation. But the unease isn't just that.
I think I am worried that I will get used to the apparent safety of high-sec and forget to revert back to normal when I return to w-space. The danger is that high-sec reconditions me to accept other ships as normal, and I drop my guard when travelling in w-space.