Sindel’s search for Eyjafjallajökull continues after some close misses and mishaps…

Oh, man. This week has been a mess filled with all kinds of ups and downs. No, not real life. I mean in Eve Online. Dramatic, huh?

You’ll remember from the last part of this series that I had all but given up, but was thrown a life line. I was pretty vague at the time, mainly because I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up– primarily mine. I can afford to be more specific now, so I’ll briefly summarize what happened. When I announced my search for Eyjafjallajökull and wrote the first part of the series, I was approached by a friend of The Angel Project, Laurici, who told me that randomly searching for a hole leading from Empire to the hole I needed (J102834) would be a ridiculous waste of time. Being a member of No Holes Barred, he knows a thing or two about wormholes. He helped me get into a C5 with a C6 static and told me to check the static every day; maybe I’d get lucky. I did this for a couple of weeks but it was getting me nowhere but frustrated, and if there’s one thing a girl hates, it’s being frustrated.

I was then approached by a different gentleman in the same alliance by the name of Corbexx. He suggested that I camp in NoHo’s home system and they would let me know when they had rolling ops. They live in a C6 with a C6 static, and had seen Eyjafjallajökull many times, so this seemed waaaaaaaaaay more promising than what I was doing. I was pulled into a TS conference with NoHo leadership and terms were discussed. Per their terms, I could stay there, but I wouldn’t be set to blue, I wasn’t allowed to use probes, and I was supposed to announce in local every time I logged in, so they knew I was there. I also had to sing for them when the day of reckoning occurred.

O-kay?

This seemed a bit extreme, but I agreed. I would probably have agreed to just about anything if it got me closer to that planet. On January 14th, I arrived in their home system. I didn’t want to log in to Cae every day, though, and run the risk of losing the Tengu, so I decided to train a long skill and not log in until they told me to. Good plan, right?

I chose Astrometric Pinpointing IV… then V. They both finished. It was February 10th and I was still in their hole. No one had really talked to me since.

To quote my friend HVAC, “It’s a scam. You got duped.”

I thought he was right. I thought they had betrayed me and my damn overly-optimistic and trusting nature– just to see how long it would take to break me– and would kill me when I tried to leave. I was aggravated and sorely disappointed, so I broke our agreement and dropped some probes. I didn’t want to get caught before I found a way out, though, so I changed the name of my ship to match theirs– leaving a couple of clues, though, so they’d know it wasn’t actually one of their people.

Then, I found an exit and broke out of jail. The C6 I jumped to had a low sec exit that dropped me 15 jumps from home. I docked, happy to be in a place I knew, to be in a station.

…

It can’t end there, Sin!!! This story sucks!!!

Yes, this story does suck. Had I turned in the story I had originally written, it would have ended there, and I would have given up my search.

Re-enter my friend Laurici. He knew I had left Monday and I knew he felt bad about it. Imagine my surprise when he came into The Angel Project channel and said, “Guess what I found?!?!!?” Luckily, they happened upon it and their leader remembered me. I acted like I didn’t care (at first), but this is Eyjafjallajökull and I am weak. I agreed to come. They had found an entrance for me in– of all places– low sec. I met my escort in the entrance system, jumped in, warped to the planet and… teared up. It isn’t the largest planet I’ve seen. It isn’t even the prettiest lava planet in the game. But it’s something that not a lot of people have seen, not a lot of people will ever get to see. It was important for me to see it and that goal was realized today. That’s pretty cool.

As soon as I got into J102834, my NoHo escort and everyone in the fleet left me. It was just me and my planet. I thought this whole thing was over.

But this is NoHo. Anyone who has played this game long enough knows that No Holes Barred are famous for one excruciatingly humiliating thing in particular: ransoming for songs. They had the ultimate hostage and they KNEW I owed them big. I don’t want it to ever be said that I am a person who goes back on her word, so I came onto their comms and sang a slightly doctored version of “In the Jungle”. My only stipulation was that they joined me at the chorus. It was a blast.

Off-key. Awful as hell.

But a giant pile of fun. One of those moments I’ll remember about this silly little game.

I enjoyed hanging out with them so much that I took up a small collection to The Angel Project in exchange for another poorly executed song. Why not? I’m sure someone will come forward with a recording of those songs. I haven’t seen one yet, but with a dozen people recording, I know one will turn up eventually.

To the gentlemen who made this happen for me, I tip my hat. Thank you for remembering me and for taking the time to help me realize this goal. I am forever grateful for your help, and I cannot apologize enough for doubting you and your motives. If you ever invite me back onto your comms to embarrass myself some more, I would be honored. And, no, I don’t need any donations or favors to do so. You gave me the chance of a lifetime. This clone’s lifetime, anyway.

The complete gallery of Eyjafjallajökull and J102834 can be found here.