First Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage: A long journey, especially a journey to a shrine or other sacred place.
Although I didn't realize it at the time, my first trip to New Eden and the original Eve gate was a pilgrimage. A round-trip of 46 hops through Empire and lowsec space certainly constitutes a long journey in Eve, and certainly the significance of New Eden to every inhabitant of Eve can be called sacred.
I guess I should start at the beginning. The date was September 25, and I was in Dantan, outfitting an Atron for speed and stealth. A few million later, and I had myself a permanent sustaining cloak, and a top speed of 3,200 m/s - sufficient to outrun most threats that I might encounter (short of a gank squad).
With my corporate comm channel open, and a number of LMPG members hanging with baited breath, I started out towards "the" gate. Along the way I encountered some very interesting landmarks that I had never seen before.
My first "find" was a couple hops into lowsec space - hovering just above a dust cloud near one of the many stargates - some "Pleasure Palace" of unknown origin (must return another day).
A second more startling discovery was a completely intact but derelict station of Amarr origin. It was located a mere 10km from my next stargate jump point (which I found very unusual), but more interesting were the clearly visible scorch marks and battle scars covering the station.
Clearly something dreadful had befallen this station, and yet somehow it's structure had endured along with its orbit around the nearby planet.
As the security level continued to drop the closer to New Eden I reached, the more numerous the amazing and frightful sightings I encountered.
Just outside one gate, a hollow asteroid was being swallowed by a dustcloud, both of which hovered a few thousand kilometres above a ringed planet. I peeked inside the 'roid on my way by, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
A couple systems further on, I came across a large collection of abandoned cargo containers. Since no one was in local at the time, I decided to open them up and grab the contents. A couple named pieces of equipment (plus a lot of Rat crap) were my reward, and my curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to make a trip into the one solitary asteroid belt in the system. Bad idea... as soon as I came out of warp, I was greeted by a couple of Blood Seers - evil and dangerous looking BCs. One happy cloak and a realignment to the stargate and I was out of there!
When I was one hop out of New Eden, suddenly the local channel jumped to 11 members, and a quick scan of them from my cloaked safe spot revealed six hard-core PVP pirates, and four unknown GEX corp members. I jumped to within 40km of the gate into New Eden and waited - wanting to ensure that I didn't find myself the target of a gank squad. Suddenly the four GEX members appeared and moved in unison to the gate - killing the four orbiting Blood Raiders. They jumped through, and I gave them a couple minutes before going through myself.
When I jumped through, I never expected what I saw before my eyes. Quickly I engaged my cloak, picked a direction and ensured I was constantly moving to avoid detection by the four GEX members. Then I sat back and took in what I saw.
Clearly, whatever disaster had befallen the Eve gate must have been massive. The gate was emanating massive energy and looked to have gone super-nova. It was brighter than the class-M sun in the system!
Turning on my scanner, my display was immediately swamped with dozens if not hundreds of anchored cargo containers - each labelled with a message.
I was also able to witness first hand, the placing of such a container by a member of the GEX gang. It seems as though this trek to the original Eve gate is taken very seriously by some (but not all as was evidenced by the many "I love you" messages).
A 300 km swath of space from the Promised Land star gate towards the Eve "star" was covered with containers. Many gave hommage to fallen commrades and family members who had passed on. It was quite a sobering moment to read through a few dozen of them - much thought had been put into the few sentences that could be configured on each.
As the GEX gang left the system, I prepared to leave, making a mental note to return in a larger ship, and place my own memorial in honor of my parents, who were murdered at the family estate so many years ago...
...long live the Lonely Maple.
Although I didn't realize it at the time, my first trip to New Eden and the original Eve gate was a pilgrimage. A round-trip of 46 hops through Empire and lowsec space certainly constitutes a long journey in Eve, and certainly the significance of New Eden to every inhabitant of Eve can be called sacred.
I guess I should start at the beginning. The date was September 25, and I was in Dantan, outfitting an Atron for speed and stealth. A few million later, and I had myself a permanent sustaining cloak, and a top speed of 3,200 m/s - sufficient to outrun most threats that I might encounter (short of a gank squad).
With my corporate comm channel open, and a number of LMPG members hanging with baited breath, I started out towards "the" gate. Along the way I encountered some very interesting landmarks that I had never seen before.My first "find" was a couple hops into lowsec space - hovering just above a dust cloud near one of the many stargates - some "Pleasure Palace" of unknown origin (must return another day).
A second more startling discovery was a completely intact but derelict station of Amarr origin. It was located a mere 10km from my next stargate jump point (which I found very unusual), but more interesting were the clearly visible scorch marks and battle scars covering the station.Clearly something dreadful had befallen this station, and yet somehow it's structure had endured along with its orbit around the nearby planet.
As the security level continued to drop the closer to New Eden I reached, the more numerous the amazing and frightful sightings I encountered.Just outside one gate, a hollow asteroid was being swallowed by a dustcloud, both of which hovered a few thousand kilometres above a ringed planet. I peeked inside the 'roid on my way by, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
A couple systems further on, I came across a large collection of abandoned cargo containers. Since no one was in local at the time, I decided to open them up and grab the contents. A couple named pieces of equipment (plus a lot of Rat crap) were my reward, and my curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to make a trip into the one solitary asteroid belt in the system. Bad idea... as soon as I came out of warp, I was greeted by a couple of Blood Seers - evil and dangerous looking BCs. One happy cloak and a realignment to the stargate and I was out of there!When I was one hop out of New Eden, suddenly the local channel jumped to 11 members, and a quick scan of them from my cloaked safe spot revealed six hard-core PVP pirates, and four unknown GEX corp members. I jumped to within 40km of the gate into New Eden and waited - wanting to ensure that I didn't find myself the target of a gank squad. Suddenly the four GEX members appeared and moved in unison to the gate - killing the four orbiting Blood Raiders. They jumped through, and I gave them a couple minutes before going through myself.When I jumped through, I never expected what I saw before my eyes. Quickly I engaged my cloak, picked a direction and ensured I was constantly moving to avoid detection by the four GEX members. Then I sat back and took in what I saw.Clearly, whatever disaster had befallen the Eve gate must have been massive. The gate was emanating massive energy and looked to have gone super-nova. It was brighter than the class-M sun in the system!
Turning on my scanner, my display was immediately swamped with dozens if not hundreds of anchored cargo containers - each labelled with a message.I was also able to witness first hand, the placing of such a container by a member of the GEX gang. It seems as though this trek to the original Eve gate is taken very seriously by some (but not all as was evidenced by the many "I love you
A 300 km swath of space from the Promised Land star gate towards the Eve "star" was covered with containers. Many gave hommage to fallen commrades and family members who had passed on. It was quite a sobering moment to read through a few dozen of them - much thought had been put into the few sentences that could be configured on each.
As the GEX gang left the system, I prepared to leave, making a mental note to return in a larger ship, and place my own memorial in honor of my parents, who were murdered at the family estate so many years ago...
...long live the Lonely Maple.
posted by Bart of the Lonely Maple at
5:00 AM
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