== Pilot’s personal log extract ==
The plan for the day was simple: refuel the station. Before leaving, I ran a quick scan of the system — two wormholes, both our known statics, and two data sites I hadn’t seen before. The statics were untouched, which meant no one had come through. I was alone. I decided to check the sites before running logistics.
The first was unremarkable. I hacked it and moved on. The second was not.
Warpath: Strategic Infiltration.
The site contained acceleration gates — already unusual for a data site. I jumped through.
On the other side: a vast complex, dozens of structures scattered across the grid, and eight hackable containers rumoured to hold 10–20 million ISK each. The security layout was unlike anything I had encountered before.
I took a moment to map it. Four distinct node types.
- Sentinel Nodes act as motion detectors: approach too close and the alarm triggers immediately.
- Sentry Nodes are gun batteries that open fire on everything in range the moment the alert goes up.
- Confinement Nodes deploy warp-disruption bubbles, cutting off any possibility of escape.
- And Tripwire Nodes are exactly what they sound like — explosives that detonate when the alarm fires.
And one node to rule them all: a Master Security Node. Hack it after the alarm has already been raised, and it can deactivate the entire system.
Each defensive structure could also be hacked individually. The logic seemed clear enough: disable the guns, stay clear of the motion sensors, and the site becomes workable.
Getting to the Sentry Nodes turned out to be harder than expected. There was no clean warp-in, no safe approach vector. I had to navigate manually, threading between structures at low speed while constantly tracking my distance to every Sentinel on the grid. Not a skill a scanning frigate pilot gets much practice with. I am more accustomed to safe spots and instant warps than to delicate manual flying in the middle of a minefield. Still, I made it. Hacked the gun batteries, approached the first container. Success. Second container. Success again.
The third is where it ended.
A failed hack — and the alarm went live. What fired first, I genuinely do not know. The incoming damage was too heavy and too fast to identify the source. Bubbles went up. Shields and armour dropped quickly. I was in my capsule before I fully understood what had happened.
The capsule couldn’t warp either. The bubbles were still active. Then the Tripwire Nodes detonated — and the blast caught my pod. I came to in my home system, deep in high-sec, with no idea how to get back. I had deliberately left the statics unopened to keep visitors out, which meant I had no saved exit coordinates.
I switched to my second pilot and probed the statics out from that side. They came up inconveniently far, routing through low-sec. Before switching back, I jumped the second ship into the site to check its status — the alarm was still running. The moment I came out of the acceleration gate, the complex opened fire. Shields, armour, structure — all going fast. I barely got out, and the ship needed repairs afterward.
Back on my main, I made the run to Jita, picked up a new scanning frigate, cleared the low-sec route without incident, and returned home. By then the site signature had already despawned — the post-alarm timer had long since expired. I tried to find the wreck anyway, jumping through bookmarks, closing to within six thousand kilometres. Forty minutes on MWD. I decided to complete the single refueling run first before attempting that, but between all of that too much time had passed and the wreck was no longer there. The loot I had pulled from the first two containers had drifted away.
What exactly went wrong when the alarm triggered — I still do not know. A gun battery I missed? The blast radius of a Tripwire I misjudged? A fundamental misreading of how the system works? I have asked the analysis department to pull whatever documentation exists on this site. Next time will be different.
== End of pilot’s personal log extract. ==