Ave, pilots.
So, it’s been a while since I really tried to do something like this. I really used to enjoy travel writing and all that kind of thing. My last effort was kind of recording adventures and misadventures in the Abyss, but, now the Collective’s coming to visit us instead and … some familiar places are starting to feel pretty alien.
So … Raravoss (aftermath):
I spent a couple of hours just now poking around in the conquered system of Raravoss. Now that the excitement’s died down, the place is looking pretty abandoned. Pilot count in local’s … modest, like three to eleven people at any given time, and only a very few staying for long. Pretty much a typical lowsec system that way, though apparently the local sec status is functionally -1.0, which is so far past merely “nullsec” I have to wonder what it actually means.
So … a few things.
“Hi! I’m Raravoss! I used to be blue, but now something so dramatic is being done to me that you can literally see shreds of black in my corona. This probably doesn’t mean anything good for the greenhouses on local colonies, but I can’t help it. Sorry!”
Harvesting (or whatever) continues. I can’t help noticing the color of the plume. Maybe that’s what’s happening to the “blue?”
I do not have shots of the stellar harvesting “transmuter,” and this thing is why. The transmuter still has a signature you can see and warp to from anywhere in the system, but it doesn’t take you to it anymore. Looks like it (or something) is now broadcasting a zone of deadspace, defended by this gate. The gate itself wasn’t all that defended, just two ships: a Hospodar damavik and vedmak-- easy. But, probably they can call for help, and considering all the ships they casually throw around the Triglavians must be feeling pretty confident if that’s all they’ve set to guard duty.
Speaking of which …
A curiously inactive extractor super-nexus at planet 5, belt 2. I found three others, at 7-1, 7-2, and 9-1, all just hanging there with the collars on their disintegrator mining arrays spinning quietly-- awake, but still, and mostly undefended.
Not completely, though.
A Triglavian werpost at 5-2. Pretty sure this thing would have cut my Hound in two in an instant if I’d uncloaked, and my pod a moment later. They didn’t seem to be placed around the system with any real consistency; this one was at a belt, but I saw three other ESN’s undefended and one werpost apparently placed at a planet.
That’s not to say nobody was mining.
Blood Raiders. I saw more Blooders than Triglavians-- mining, hauling, shooting at random structures; there’s definitely an FOB in system. Whether they’ve worked out some kind of deal with the invaders or they’ve just opportunistically dropped in, they’re definitely enjoying the benefits. It makes me wonder if maybe some of the reports we’ve heard of colonies going silent might not even be the Triglavians.
Probably most of them are, though. And speaking of colonies, remember those markings the Collective’s been setting up around facilities in systems it invades?
Yeah …
… still there.
Oh, and here’s a thing …
That’s the TEST fortizar. As you can see, despite TEST having sided fully with the Collective at Raravoss, the Triglavian markings are still present. If they’re lucky, those lights never meant anything very sinister: just sort of the Triglavian equivalent of posting translated versions of local navigational signals to guide their own pilots, or maybe sort of a border fence.
“Now entering Triglavian sovereign territory. Please esotericize your diction with words like ‘liminality,’ ‘forward-time,’ and ‘noema.’ Violators will be extirpated.”
If they’re not, well, the Triglavians’ gratitude might not extend as far as TEST might have expected. Is it petty of me to kind of hope it’s that one?
Either way, it’s probably not going to help Raravoss much. Or Vale for that matter. For the record, this is the photosphere as seen, unfiltered, from Raravoss I, about 0.33 AU from the star.
Gods, I hope we get to come back for this place.
