Greetings pilots. As promised, I camped out in Skarkon since the Triglavians declared their victory or Totality. I’ve been monitoring the changes from the Final Liminality state into the new spatiotemporal configurations.
In the week leading up to the weaving of captured systems into Abyssal space, things were mostly as reported by other scouts in Final Liminality systems. The only notable difference were the trails leading from the gates’ wormhole apertures, stringing along as though agitated.
Upon first hooking back into the capsule today, I first noticed the stargates were missing from overview. They still showed up, but only as wrecked. Huge crystalline shards penetrate the former stargate’s wormhole aperture point. This isn’t the only place we’ll see crystalline shards near event horizons.
I then warped to an Upwell structure near the wrecked gate because I noticed Republic EDENCOM forces engaging Triglavians. I thought they were stragglers left behind, but I was wrong.
At this point I wanted to explore the new space while avoiding hostile Triglavian patrols, and noted that the new Triglavian conduits going to Raravoss and Nani were left unguarded by Triglavians or Werposts. However, the Triglavians only allow proven and loyal Kybernauts pass through these intra-Abyssal conduits.
At this point I busted out the scanner probes to look for wormholes. They had appeared normally in Final Liminality. And sure enough, there were three. This is where things get fascinating.
Upon landing on the first hole, the first thing of note were giant crystalline shards usually associated with Triglavians and Abyssal space. In my years of exploring Anoikis and different wormholes in the network, none had asteroids or anything of the like nearby. The second important difference from every wormhole I’ve seen was the presence of EDENCOM ships, seemingly coming through and fending off Triglavians on grid. In this case, Federation EDENCOM forces. A third difference was that this wormhole seemed to be in deadspace, as even warping to the bookmarked event horizon I would land at the signature some 70km off (also atypical of wormholes). This wormhole was a K162 from High Security space
Upon jumping to the other side to let allied scouts know about the entry, I noted Triglavians on the hisec side, armor beaten up as though they had tried to stop EDENCOM forces from coming in. This was a novel type of wormhole I had never encountered before, a C729 from Hisec to Triglavian space.
Slipping back into Skarkon, I headed to the next wormhole on the list. This one was also of the newer type, landing me at deadspace ranges and filled with the same crystals. This wormhole, however, was a K162 from C6. The forces dominating this field were Drifters and their newly-upgraded Sleeper drones.
Jumped to the other side after sneaking past Sleepers, and as I expected this too was a novel type of wormhole. The system was a typical Class 6 occupied by capsuleers with Upwells. This one was a Wormhole F216 from C6 to Triglavian space.
Back in Skarkon, the third hole was just a normal K162 from C3, no odd deadspace effects, nearby asteroids, or fleets. Jumping to the other side, it was a standard U210 static wormhole from C3 to Low Security space (which Skarkon was originally designated as).
Of course, it would be remiss not to mention Skarkon’s star. It has been designated in a new spectral class and now emits strange light. Skarkon II remains temperate by appearances, for the time being. Local communications channels are peer to peer and by broadcast only, former infrastructure has largely been trashed or reclaimed for the exclusive use of the Collective and loyal Kybernauts.
I’m still parsing all of this information, but I wanted to get photographic documentation of what I saw today. My best guess is that Drifters and/or EDENCOM have acquired some of way of creating “siege wormholes” with some sort of advanced filament technology, which accounts for the crystalline shards. These strange rocks are also seen on shattered stargates and within invasion conduits, so their appearance seems intertwined with spatiotemporal rifts or event horizons. These novel wormholes exhibit deadspace-like effects never seen before in Anoikis, feature fleets of EDENCOM or Drifters punching into Triglavian space who mean business.
Though I had a route out via the holes I scanned and was eager to leave after the better part of a fortnight camping in a covert frigate, I wanted to conduct one last navigational test in Triglavian space. As a last-ditch effort, could one use a needlejack filament to escape to known space?
You bet they work! While the road home is longer, I’m confident that EDENCOM has already seized on key navigational advantages with wormholes and filament technology based on what I saw today. The Drifters also have this capability, which makes me wonder where it came from. I have a feeling that while the hot war is seemingly over, a colder and longer one has set in.