[NEWCYC127 The Vidette Survey]

Fiction Portal Player Fiction
1

[A sterile chamber. Six judges sit in silence, watching as Fritte Cornelius stumbles forward, clutching a half-charged datapad. He clears his throat nervously.]

“G-good morning? Afternoon? I… uh, lost track in the Hive… Yes. Yes, the presentation, right here.”

[He taps the datapad. It instantly goes dark.]

“…oh. Oh no. Just a, low battery warning, nothing to worry about!”
[slaps side of the device; it flickers on again]

[He connect into the projector. A banner flares across the holo: “Wormhole Scanner v3.7 — Release Notes.”]

“…ah! N-no, no, that’s not… uh, not important, just a calibration patch, fourteen percent more accurate, actually quite fascinating, but! NOT what I came to show you!”

[Frantic menu-swiping. The patch notes vanish. A jittering 2D star map bursts into view, warping wildly before stabilizing.]

“Behold the Vidette Survey!!! I logged eight hundred and twenty-two wormholes from Sanctified Vidette over… forty-something days. Forty-seven? Forty-nine? The Hive warps your sense of time. Or maybe it’s just the lack of sleep. Anyway…numbers! You like numbers, yes?”

[He stabs at the datapad. A glowing table appears above him.]

Security Observed Expected Δ
Null-sec 491 ~525 −34
High-sec 199 ~170 +29
Low-sec 132 ~128 +4

“So! Null-sec is actually slightly underconnected. High-sec is too connected. Suspiciously connected. Not illegal suspicious, statistically suspicious! Yes. Low-sec? Practically perfect.”

[The datapad buzzes again. He ignores it.]

“And stranger still, some systems just keep coming back. Over and over. The same wormhole, respawning like it’s stuck on repeat.

High-sec: Eystur, Wysalan, Maire, Alles; four times each.
Low-sec: Bekirdod five times, Hasateem and Gallusiene four each.

Always the same link. Always the same Hive. Especially Conflux. It’s always Conflux!”

[His eyes twitch. The projector sputters.]

“And no one knows why! Nobody! We don’t know how these wormholes spawn in the systems where Jove observatories are. We don’t know if the Hive-side K162 works like a normal one. We don’t know if the destination is fixed at birth, or only when warp is initiated. What if some systems are… claimed? Permanently bound to one Hive? What if they’re… chosen?”

[He leans in, whispering.] “What if the wormhole chooses you?”

[An uncomfortable silence. He suddenly straightens, voice rising as the holo behind him spasms with names and numbers.]

“Derelik! Domain! Metropolis! Detorid! Tash-Murkon! Genesis! Fountain! Central, East, North, West, South! Vidette spits you out like a sneeze across reality! One jump you’re in Tenal, the next in Derelik, then Vale, then Khanid, scattered like dust in the cosmic wind!”

[The datapad emits a shrill tone: battery critical. The projector flickers violently, then cuts to black.]

“Ah ah… Well, that’s… that’s all the time I had. Thank you! Thank you for your… attention.”

[He bows too quickly, nearly drops the datapad, and scurries off as the judges exchange glances of disbelief.]

2 Likes
2

Thanks Fritte for the nice report on wormhole counts.

Very interesting! I found similar results, but attributed them simply to statistical deviations, as my sample was slightly less than half the size of yours. But also in my observations, there was a little less in nullsec and a little more in highsec, while low-sec was as expected.

3

Hello Theodosius o7,

Delighted to see our numbers converge.

At the start I was logging celestial, distance, and sig position relative to the celestial. After two weeks the overhead was… unhealthy, so I dropped the position vector. I kept celestial & distance for about a month and noticed a ring pocket: most spawns sat ~3–6 AU from the body.
That was mainly a self-validation step, so I dropped distance and continued with celestials only.
I may circle back and see if there’s a per-celestial signal (day-by-day) for predicting region/security outcomes.

The anomaly that keeps gnawing at me is recurrence: some systems spawn unidentified to the same Hive repeatedly; Conflux most of all.
I’ve seen two distinct connections to Conflux from the same system on the same day, and repeats across >16 hours.
That repetition could explain the mild HS overweight without implying broader accessibility.

I took a week off for my mental health and redacting this report, but I’m heading back to Vidette to keep collecting.

Fly safe o7

( Nice blog! I might go and read it on my spare time and between my 20projects ongoing hehe!
I have one on my own: https://evediscoverybyfritte.wordpress.com/ )

4

Hi Fritte. You’ve probably seen the recent new eden news report claiming that experiments in the Drifter wormhole systems are leading to “increasingly erratic hyperspace telemetry”.

I am not sure what that means, but it seems fair to assume that the conquered Drifter wormholes would be the focal point for such anomalies.

I plan to return to Sanctified Vidette to see if there is any difference with our previous observations, and I was wondering if you plan to do the same? In that case we could team up for science!

1 Like
5

Hello Theodosius,

Your message reached me clearly, thank you for the invitation.

I’ve taken note of the recent developments and discussed them internally with fellow Signaleers. Something is stirring out there. I’ve visited the Hives several times since the first reports surfaced, but a companion on this research path is always welcome and never in excess.

I have informed leadership and requested formal approval, as our Creed guides us even when the stars call urgently. Pending their acknowledgement, I fully intend to join you in Sentinel MZ and Sanctified Vidette, and contribute eyes, scanners, and notes to the effort.

And yes, Redoubt troubles me as well. The recent reports of communication silence…

“Triglavian forces ignore communication attempts over activities in Azdaja Redoubt.”

…suggest that whatever is coming is larger than a local fluctuation.

I look forward to standing alongside you in observation.

— Fritte Cornelius
Signal Cartel

6

After a little bit more than a week of joint observation, Theodosius Savnar and I have completed the final phase of the Vidette Survey and ran one last simulation to test the baseline model.

We projected a scenario of 5 Drifter Hives, each spawning 60 outbound connections, a total of 300 wormholes leading into the Jove Observatory allowed systems of New Eden.
The distribution that emerged from the model was almost identical to what we observed in the field:

  • NS: 60.7%
  • HS: 23.0%
  • LS: 16.3%

Out of 300 simulated connections:

  • 258 unique systems appeared
  • The rest were repeats

The match was uncanny, proof that the Drifters veil their movements behind perfectly shaped noise. No bias by celestial. No regional tilt. Only a pattern of deliberate randomness or perhaps a deliberate absence of one.

For the sake of transparency and future reference, we’ve archived our findings in a consolidated document, including the charts, distributions, and baseline model used for the final run. Any Signaleer, researcher, or passing explorer is welcome to review or reuse the material.

The silence continues, but at least now, it has shape.

— Fritte Cornelius
Signal Cartel

2 Likes