I Don’t Got It!

or

(Send in the Clowns)

YC113.09.24

Well, the wait’s finally over.  Not only have we found an opening to high-sec, but it’s Jufvitte - only 5 jumps from my beloved Nimes!  We just need to jump through a C2 system, no sweat with the chaps from Wormhole Engineers to help out.  There’s not gonna be a better time to get that Hulk in-system and hitting those belts.

A nice shuttle-jump out - ah, nice to be back in familiar space, I’ve missed those constellations - and before I know it the pod’s onlining systems and the sweet sweet feeling of a ship built solely to generate wealth is surrounding me again.

Only a skeleton crew on board, of course - all my top folks are already in-system figure out the new Tech II systems we’ll be fitting as soon as we’re back.  Most important thing to do now, of course - make sure the IFF is configured properly.  Last thing I want is to get popped by a friendly cause I’ve forgotten to broadcast the fleet and alliance signatures!

As I’m leaving the station, more welcome information - James has managed to get a transport in-system and is hauling out the ore.  It’s a great place to find the rocks, but not exactly a lot of customers in there...

Five easy jumps, and I’m staring at the wormhole entrance back in Jufvitte (those things are still awe-inspiring!)  Quick squawk over the fleet comms, confirm it’s safe to jump, and in I go.  Pop out, systems online - quick check and no threats showing, only nice friendly blues on the scopes.

Little hop across the system and there’s the hole back home.  (And yup, still weird calling the middle-of-nowhere home.)  Fleet’s got the system locked down, so a nice secure jump...

What the hell?!?  

Why am I in my pod?  Where’d my ship go?  What just happened?

Near as I’ve been able to piece together, the chap guarding the hole on our side had an IFF failure.  He’s claiming he set it up right and I must have been showing the wrong signal - he saw foe instead of friend, and fired away.

I just got one problem with that - everyone else in that C2 saw me clearly showing friendly; so unless that hole-jump scrambled my systems, something just ain’t right here.

Boss man’s covered my losses; I’ve already popped back out, picked up a new Hulk - Nimes II - and gotten this one safely back in-system.  He’s told me to drop it, considered it a closed issue.  But I dunno...  I get the feeling we’re the very junior partners in this alliance.

(And it was damned hard hiring a transit crew on short-notice - especially when they found out what happened to their predecessors.)

At least I finally got to meet James in the flesh...