My last peak into W-space left me thirsty for more. There was something alluring about W-space. So virgin, unknown and unexplored. So empty, yet could be filled with people and you just wouldn’t know. The lack of subspace beacons to announce your precence made W-space something of an adventure in itself, and I was itching to go back.
So, seeing as I had a lot of CPU to spare on the Phantasm, I tossed on a Core Launcher and went looking for wormholes. I soon found that probing one down was much harder with the Phantasm than with my Anathema. I had to actually make an effort in order to find these elusive little buggers. Not that I was overly surprised. The Anathema was bristling with electronics and had state of the art sensory systems, while the Phantasm was more focused on strong shields (that tend to wreak havoc with sensitive sensor equipment) and heavy laser banks.
I eventually came across 6 different wormholes in just under an hour, and after having looked them all through I found nothing of interest except for the one in Misaba. It had another wormhole inside, leading even further into unknown realms of space. I was tempted, I have to admit. Most wormholes I’d found in W-space inevitably lead back to K-space. Probable due to the Seyllin incident, which in some way seem to have linked W-space and K-space together in mysterious ways.
I chose to toss carefullness out the window and willed the Sansha monstrosity towards the pulsating wormhole and passed through the event horizon. In a very strange sensation very different from gate travel, everything sort of remained the same. My sensory systems registered that unknown radiation in the new system caused some rather strange things to happen to my ship, but other than that it was no different than travelling from one point in a system to another. No nasuea, no disorientation, no sensor recalibration. Just…nothing. Yet my camera drones were blinded by a massive pulsar, and a new nebula covered the “sky”. I was clearly not in the same system anymore.
I quickly got to work and launched my probes, while watching my directional scanner. Several Sleeper complexes showed up on my first scan. Not hidden by any means at all, but I also had a lot of faint signatures that I turned my attention to. It was, to say the least, very frustrating working with a vessel not designed for this kind of work. The Phantasm’s readings were blurry, inaccurate and apparently had a lot of deviation which made my job a lot harder than I was used to.
In the end though I managed to find a massive asteroid belt, dotted with asteroids the size of small moons. It was remarkable to witness, but I didn’t have time to stay for too long before the Sleepers that were roaming the belt decided I’d overstayed my welcome.
Another signature was yet more elusive and I decided to focus on that one. I was rewarded with a slight “pling” sound when the sensors, finally, identified the signature as a possible wormhole and an approximate location. I warped to the location only to find the wormhole convulsing at a rather unsettling pace. It definately didn’t look safe, and indeed, some more close range scans verified that the wormhole was in the final stages of it’s lifetime and would collapse within the hour. I wasn’t too keen on getting stuck somewhere in unknown space, and therefor set out to find another wormhole.
I have now been through five wormholes deeper into W-space and back again, and in spite of not finding anything but the eerie Sleepers to shoot, I’m quite satisfied. This is something I’m sure to be doing more often.
Ancy Denaries