SIRadio operation reports
Codename: Bring on the Night
Objective: Claim blueprints of Noctis
Report from 2010-11-30 by Archentar Symonia

It was a freezing cold day where I live and blazing hot in 4C-B7X, solar system in Outer Ring where Noctis BPOs sale have just started. There was another solar system with sale offers, NM-OEA but it had two major disadvantages that disqualified it as operation target:

1. It has only one stargate connection which makes it easy to lock out.
2. It lacks stations with medical services that are essential for using an expendable scout pilot.

Before even ORE released their new blueprint, 3 pilots were positioned within target system. Those pilots were:

• Dee – a fresh capsuleer with cloning service in 4C-B7X – initially floating in a safe spot.
• Rut – CovOps scout, also in safe spot.
• Archentar – operation leader in Legion, docked in VI 1 station.

Main burden of transporting was to be laid on Strategic Cruiser, due to its adaptability to harsh Null Sec conditions. Here is detailed specification:

[Legion, Null Sec Transport]
Legion Offensive - Covert Reconfiguration
Legion Defensive - Augmented Plating
Legion Electronics - Emergent Locus Analyzer
Legion Engineering - Capacitor Regeneration Matrix
Legion Propulsion - Interdiction Nullifier

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Sisters Core Probe Launcher (Sisters Core Scanner Probe)
4x Medium Energy Neutralizer II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
3x Large Shield Extender II
Inertia Stabilizers II
3x 'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I
Damage Control II

2x Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I
Medium Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I

As you can see, it is covert, has pretty strong warp drive, decent tank (45k EHP), scanning capabilities (if only feasible route leads through wormholes) and if all fails, 4 medium energy neutralizers that give a chance of shutting down one or two tacklers.

Due to external reasons, operation started three hours after the release. Rut performed initial recon, and discovered a significant station camp at VI 1. There were more than 20 combat ships and several warp disruption bubbles around it. On the other hand, surroundings of the second station with blueprints were peaceful (at least peaceful for a system that suffered over 1000 ship loses in 24 hours). VI 1 station was selected as primary because when Rut got to 4C-B7X month ago this station was least populated. Even though Archentar had Interdiction Nullifier and safe undock bookmark I have decided to wait till the station clears before undocking.

In the mean time I have checked Jita prices for the merchandise and found out that it is still profitable. It was 600 MISK at that time, so the operation was still in “go”. Dee took the duty of patrolling vicinity of the VI 1. Since she was in Reaper, she was jumping between bookmarks at 100-300 km from the camp. It wasn’t long before hostile fleet moved to the second station leaving one Drake and two bubbles behind. This was a sign for Archentar, who quickly made his way to a safe spot with batch of precious BPOs.

First part of the plan was complete. The easy part. Hard one was to actually get the stuff to Jita. The shortest route from Outer Ring to High Sec leads through Syndicate. Various killboard entries from that day show that it leads through various cloning facilities as well. Given that, I picked following route: http://evemaps.dotlan.net/route/4C-B7X: … ma:-3KNK-A

The idea was to have Dee leading the way with Archentar one system behind. Well, all went pretty smooth, systems on the route were pretty empty, at least to the point then Dee crashed into gatecamp in DY-F70. Thanks to tactical bookmarks, Archentar managed to go further, to FD53-H, but intel suggested that O-ZXUV may contain another gate camp. Jumping further without scout was assessed as too risky, so Dee was ordered to get back. She resurrected in 4C-B7X, but it occurred that she will be able to reach Archentar faster if she starts from one of High Sec stations. But the only way to get there was to die again.

Dee undocked from her cloning facility in 4C-B7X in fully armed Reaper with truly suicidal intentions. There were several combat ships around, so she targeted nearest Hurricane, set orbit at 1 km and opened fire with Civilian Autocannon. Overview reported several ongoing target locks on her rookie ship and first energy bursts impacted her shields. Then, out of the blue, whole hostile fleet disengaged and warped away. I guess the sheer determination of young pilot scarred them off. She had to warp to VI 1 station to finally get podded.

Once back in High Sec and in fresh Reaper, she scouted the rest of the way to FD53-H and to my surprise there was no camp at all. Without any further adventures, Archentar made it to Jita.

Later that day, once enough ISK returned from market, Rut tried his luck with BPO run. Dee went back as forward scout. This time VIII 1 station provided the plans, as no pirates cared to guard it. In order to avoid dangerous DY-F70 neighborhood, Rut went bit longer route: http://evemaps.dotlan.net/route/4C-B7X: … YQ:-X-M2LR This time, no-one even attempted to disrupt the operation.

In the end, whole operation, including both runs and waiting for window of opportunity, took about 4 hours and provided a lot of fun and profit in “dare to be bold” spirit. Of course there were many hours of planning and preparation before that but it was well worth it. After all such opportunity is not a common thing in New Eden.

Fly like you’ve never flown before,
Archentar Symonia