Breathe in the Light
by Katia Sae IC Fiction, OOC

“Breathe in the light and say goodbye.” – Oblivion, M83

Banner image credit CCP

14.06.yc121 Saisio < Okomon < The Forge

Suspended in my pod in goo aboard Voyager off the Abagawa gate in Saisio, I gaze or rather technically my camera drones focus in on the statue before me. Like the Astero in the palm of her hand, I too, or technically my ship, is cloaked silently drifting in the darkness. ‘Who is she? Where has she been?’ I think to myself, even though I know the answer to those questions. She is after all, me.

It’s hard to explain, it’s rather surreal, gazing on a monumental construction as large as the highest mountains on Achura, my home world, with its likeness as your own. She’s returned home a different person than when she left those many years ago, but much like how she’s anchored here in Saisio, I’m grounded by the memory of my ancestors. When it was time to find home, I knew my way.

‘Ehara taku toa, he takitahi, he toa takitini.’ I think of the old Achurian (Māori) proverb.

“I’m sorry Captain Sae, I’m unable to translate that language.” Allison points out.

I smile and reply with my thoughts, ‘I know, it’s an Achurian proverb basically meaning my success shouldn’t be given to me alone, as it wasn’t an individual success, but rather the success of a group effort – Signal Cartel.’

I waited to come here after the celebrations and visitations had faded. Local traffic in Saisio still had a fair amount of activity, but now it was mostly folks going about with their daily business rather than touring the monument. The time was right for a visit of my own, but what now? Where do I go from here?

‘He kākano ahau i ruia mai i Rangiātea.’ I am a seed which was sown in the heavens of Rangiatea. ‘Aue, I am a dreamer like my Grandfather before me. Perhaps I’ll stargaze a little while longer, breathe in the light, and say goodbye.’

Whakaaria mai Tōu r peka ki au.
Tiaho mai ra roto i te pō.
Hei kona au titiro atu ai.
Ora, mate hei au koe noho ai.

OOC: So what will I do with Katia now? I created her with the sole purpose to visit all of New Eden, that was her story, that was her arch, and now she is done. I’m happy, she’s happy, we’re both content. I’ve jokingly said she’s selling memorial snow globes at the gift shop. For now she’s retired in Saisio, but who knows what the future may hold.

As for this blog, I’ll keep it online, but not active, this will be my last post. Even if she should become an active character again, I doubt I would restart the blog. However, I have taken on the role of editor of Signal Cartel’s Group Blog, so I’ll be tending to that, encouraging others to write and post, and when I do get that itch to write, I’ll do so there instead.

And as a player? Well, it just so happens, if you’ve read my blog you’ll know, I do have another character in Signal Cartel, so I’m still playing. I also have an alt in Lucifer’s Hammer, A Band Apart. Huge shoutout to Rixx Javix and the gang. Great group of folks who’s ideology, excluding PvP, is similar to Signal’s with the be respectful of others and always say good fight in local. So, if you’re interested in the wolf pack PvP Low Sec pirate life or just want to hammer out some industry or other areas of PvP like wormhole space, they have several different corps to choose from. Click on the Stay Frosty link.

Signal Cartel

Of course, if you’re an explorer, I’m sure you can figure out what corporation I would recommend, Signal Cartel, Can’t Stop the Signal. To join follow this link and be sure to check out our Credo. Oh, and one other thing, it’s a common misconception that we’re pacifist. Some of us are, Katia became one over the course of her journey, but through her Null Sec leg she was prepared to defend herself. There have been many that have attacked my fellow Signaleers and were quite surprised to find themselves in their pods. Of course, we don’t pod, but be sure you’re flying what you can afford to lose. 😉

For this final post, I wanted to index some of my blog site with links to some favorite entries. So, if you want to check those out and other highlights, see below. Oh! Check out the video at the end too. I finally did get to see the Disney movie Moana and sure enough, Katia’s story is similar. Katia became a Stargazer like her ancestors before her much like Moana became a Wayfinder like her ancestors who sailed before her, among other similarities. Yeah, yeah, I’m gonna catch a lot of flak for that, it’s Disney, lots of songs, etc, but good stuff and I enjoyed it. 😉

Thanks to you, my followers, you encouraged me to keep at it, to not give up, to see this journey to its end. To all of those I have thanked so far, again thanks so much and to you my readers and followers, I thank you most of all. ❤❤❤

Always fly clever!

About Katia Sae

The Journey

Stories

Favorite Sights

Ships Flown

Signal Cartel

Guides

Research Project “W”

The Journey of Katia Sae Memorial

Press Releases

Guinness World Records

Media Mentions

EVE Online Videos & Articles

Galactic Hour News Roundup (Lore)

Online Gaming Articles

  • Kotaku – EVE Online Player Is The First To Visit Every Star System In The Game
  • Polygon – One player spent 10 years exploring every corner of Eve Online
  • Den of Geek – EVE Online: 15 Most Beautiful Places and Sights in New Eden
  • Den of Geek Video – The Must-See Sights of EVE Online
  • MMORPG – One Intrepid EVE Online Capsuleer Has Explored Every Reachable System
  • MMORPG – EVE Online Celebrates Katia Sae With a Monument in the Saisio System
  • MMORPG – First Capsuleer to Explore All EVE Online Systems Awarded World Record
  • Massively OP – EVE Evolved: Chatting up EVE Online world record holder
  • MMORPG – EVE Vegas 2019: Creating Katia Sae
  • PC Gamer – The 9-year journey to explore each of EVE Online’s 7,805 systems
  • gameranx – 10 Gamers Who Achieved The IMPOSSIBLE (Video)
  • Massively OP – Katia Sae’s record-breaking journey is charted in a video

Podcast and Talks

Blogs

Pictures & Videos

The Journey of Katia Sae by Mynxee
The Journey of Katia Sae Memorial Plaque
We are explorers reading every sign, we tell the stories of our elders in a never-ending chain.

Whakaaria Mai – Māori hymn (prayer)
Show your cross to me.
Let it shine there in the darkness.
To there I will be looking.
In life, in death let me rest in thee.


An Effective Team
by Katia Sae OOC

“We are an effective team.” – Victoria, Oblivion

My last three blog post were a behind the scenes look at the Great Hunt, the Signal Cartel corporate event that helped me to complete my journey. The more I wrote, the more I realized I just couldn’t say everything that I wanted to or thank all of those who participated. But, there is one last thing that I wanted to do before wrapping it all up and that was to review my goals, see how we did, and give my sincerest thanks once more to my fellow corp mates who made this all happen. I hope and I believe most of my corp mates realized why we kept it all OPSEC. I know there were some areas I could’ve done better, communication, and understanding of the event and rewards for one, and I’m sure there are other areas too. I think there may have been some misunderstandings on some things, I’m truly sorry and apologize for that if there were. I had several big goals and one of the main ones was to try and make sure anyone that wanted to participate could, no matter their level of experience or time in corp as well as spreading out the rewards to as many as we could. For an event this big and for as many people that participated, overall, I believe it was a great success.

How’d we do on the goals? Well let’s see, obviously we met some of them like keeping me alive, locating the last 600 systems, corporate wide participation from newbies to veterans alike, but what I’d like to focus on in this post is what impact the event had on our EvE Scout Rescue Cache deployment program (ESRC).

Let’s look at some numbers and graph as it wouldn’t be EvE without them! 😉 You can see in the yellow box in the graph below the timeframe of the Great Hunt. It’s easy and clear to see the increase of ESRC caches tended. Also, we ended up setting an all time corporate record of active caches of 2,174 on February 12th, 2019. That’s 83% of all wormholes that contained a rescue cache container.

I’m absolutely thrilled and happy with the levels of participation we had in ESRC program during the event. So glad to see my fellow corp mates step up to the challenge of not only finding wormholes for the Great Hunt, but also taking the time to deploy containers for ESRC along the way. Fantastic and great job!!! I hope everyone learned something from the experience and hope they continue to participate in our ESRC program. I think it shows that individually we can participate in something that together as a team becomes bigger than all of us. Check out our ESRC and SAR heroes!!!

There’s really only one goal I felt that fell short and that was encouraging the use of Tripwire (TW) and our corp mask. Signaleers, if you felt not many of your systems were verified during the Great Hunt, this is likely why. Not only was the Great Hunt dependent on a filled in TW chain, our SAR programs life blood is dependent on it as well. I hear in Alliance chat all the time from new members, what can I do to serve the corp, is there a place I can jump right in, and get started with rescues. Yes! Yes there is! I would encourage you to go out and explore wormhole space, take some ESRC supplies with you, crank up Allison and Tripwire. Map out your chains and fill in all of the details you possibly can on connections in the corp mask. By doing this, when you locate a SAR system, our SAR team is notified by Allison, they will then look at Tripwire and if all of the connection details are there with a chain that connects back to known space, guess what? They can get a SAR pilot in there ASAP to assist in holding the system until the stranded pilot can be safely lead out.

The Great Hunt worked much like our SAR team does. When a system was located, my team was notified, and we’d check Tripwire. If the chains and details were there, we could get to them in no time and secure the system. For me personally, when I logged in, I prioritized the systems I would go after based on the amount of details that were in TW and how close they were to my current location. I’d work those systems secured by my mates first, then the TW filled out systems from closest to furthest, then TW systems that had chains but lacked connection details, and lastly those systems that had no TW information. Fortunately for those last ones, Allison had chain information, but even she lacked the connection details. Those last ones were the hardest ones to work and took the longest. So, it was the best use of my time that allowed me to get the most systems verified in a gaming session. Thank Bob to each and everyone of my fellow Signaleers who took the time and filled out the TW details. I’ve no doubt you were the ones who were rewarded the most in The Great Hunt, at least I hope so because you definitely put in the effort and earned it. For the others, I would strongly encourage you to start using and filling in the TW details, especially if you’re one of the ones who ask the question, what can you do to help the corp. The SAR team will thank you!

This will be my last post on behind the scenes of The Great Hunt. So, I wanted to end it by thanking those who participated in the event as well as those who flew in The Great Fleet. My sincerest and deepest thanks to you all. I reached out for help, you didn’t disappoint, and I couldn’t have done it without you.

The Great Hunt Signaleers
The Great Fleet Signaleers
Behind the Great Hunt – Show Time
by Katia Sae OOC

Show Time – Aknot, The Fifth Element

I can only give you my word, on my honor, (and believe me, like Signal Cartel’s reputation, mine is everything to me as well), up until those last 600 systems, I hadn’t utilized an alternate character or any other player to scout ahead for me during my journey. However, as you know for those last 600 systems, I did have the support and help of my 3 Explorer Mates, 100+ of my corp mates that participated in the Great Hunt, and an alternate character of mine. Even though it wasn’t a goal in the beginning of not losing a ship, by the time I got down to those last 600 and I still hadn’t lost a ship, it became a higher priority than actually finding the last systems. The pressure I put on myself at this point was unbelievable, I mean, to visit all the systems of New Eden was one thing, but to do it and not lose a ship? That would be epic and certainly something I couldn’t do alone at this point.

Talon Commander Fedi kicks off the Great Hunt (click to enlarge)

“You wanna play it soft. We’ll play it soft. You wanna play it hard. Let’s play it hard.” – Korben Dallas, Fifth Element

Now, that’s not to say I didn’t take any chances during those last 600 systems, I did. There were plenty of times I just went for them as they were found and I didn’t wait for one of my mates to secure them. Several times I ploughed through low sec on my way to a chain, not giving it a thought at all to use my alt to scout or hold for a mate to find a safer route. Once, I had completely forgotten that our corp was under a war dec and my alt (also in Signal Cartel) was caught on a trade hub gate camp and lost her ship (but not her pod! 😉 ) Whew! If I had been in one of my gutsy moods with Katia, that would have been it, game over!

Added later in the Great Hunt – Allision alert to Signaleer when finding a system

“Big ba-da boom.” – Leeloo, Fifth Element

Before the official start of the Great Hunt, I was struggling to get down to the last 600 systems. The target date was based on my ability to maintain an average of finding 3 systems per day, which was becoming more and more difficult as I continued to find systems I had already been to. Such is the difficulty of wormhole space and not knowing what system was on the other side of the hole you had just scanned down. So, I was having to increase the amount of my daily playtime to scan down more systems in order to find the minimum number of previously unfound systems. Thankfully, working with AD Parrot, to test the new features that were being added to Allison to track the Great Hunt, he enabled her for a limited time in October so we could make sure it was working as intended. And Wow! Was it ever! In that limited trial, I hit 10 systems per day with ease which quickly made up the gap. With Allison’s feature enabled in a test mode, I was able to get down to the last 600 in a couple of weeks before the official kickoff, which gave me some time to take a break and get ready for the big push.

Allision alert to me when I verified a needed system

Firmly written into the “Vacant Spectrum” storyline as Chapter 5, The Great Hunt, our OPSEC team created an NPC by the name of Talon Commander Fedi to “lead” the efforts with a target start date of November 1st, 2018. I had something of an idea of what day one would look like, but even then, over the course of that first week in November, I was blown away by the shear numbers of systems that were found. I couldn’t keep up, many systems were missed completely as my Mates and I weren’t able to secure them fast enough before chains would break. That first day was a short session for me as it was a normal work day, but even still, I managed to visit 7 systems. Friday, November 2nd I had taken a vacation day so I could tackle this effort completely, and wow, 20 systems visited! Here’s how it ended up playing out:

  • November – 341 systems visited (Average of 11/day)
  • December – 187 ( 6/day)
  • January – 61 ( 2/day)
  • February – 10 (.7/day) (Through February 15th, half of the month)
Redoubt, celebrating with my Mates

Officially, Chapter 5, The Great Hunt was over, but there was still 1 system left for me to get and that was the Drifter system of Redoubt. Was this on purpose? You bet it was. 😉 For the last system, I wanted to include my corp by inviting them along (still not knowing what it was truly all about) on a fleet. When thinking about what would be easy for a fleet to get to yet still be a wormhole system that I needed, we knew one of the Drifter holes would be ideal. Each one has a bunch of connections to all areas of space, we knew it would be easy to find one when we needed it from High Sec space, so no wormhole chains would have to be navigated with fear of connections closing. The connections to them are via beacons and don’t have to be scanned down, so from a High Sec system it’s as easy as right-click and jump, ideal for even our inexperienced members to come along. It would be a treat for those who’ve not been to one before and do some sight seeing as well by visiting the Sisters Fleet while there. Best of all, we could schedule the fleet any time we wanted.

The Great Fleet. We scheduled the fleet for March 9th which gave me some much needed time off after that hectic 3 and a half month marathon. During that time a lot of work behind the scenes was going on to make sure we could pull it off successfully, from trying to schedule the best time for folks to be able to make it if they wanted and adding two more corp mates to the event team.

Theana Gaterau

First up, I feel so very lucky to have Theana Gaterau as the Great Fleet FC. She absolutely rocks and I hope she has forgiven me for my chattiness after the Big Reveal. She’s a wonderful FC, taking corp fleets out all the time that are great for first timers and veterans alike. I had the pleasure of being in fleet with her for the first time during our 4th Signal Cartel Birthday fleet and it was her first time to FC a hugs fleet too, what great fun! She did a great job and I knew I wanted her for the Great Hunt Fleet, so huge thanks for accepting and making the fleet an enjoyable experience for all involved.

Last, but certainly not least, Razorien was our official fleet photographer. If you’re not aware of Razorien’s work, then you’ve certainly been hiding under an asteroid. What an amazing and talented photographer he is and super glad he accepted the offer to be the one to take pictures during the fleet. He certainly didn’t disappoint as you can see from the album of the fleet which you can see here as well as the Banner and Trailer of this blog post. Thanks so much!

Razorien

By the time the date rolled up, my fears of getting caught and popped increased until I lost my nerve to go with the fleet, but I think it was for the best and I loved the way it played out anyway. An hour before fleet time, my Mates secured Redoubt and I joined them for a mini celebration. That was it, my last system! I was done, but it wasn’t official yet, we wanted to have the Big Reveal of what it was actually all about during the Great Fleet. So, we were still rolling with the storyline and as the story went, our fleet was a diversion for something else going on. I took my other Signal Cartel alt character along with the fleet which you can listen to here. After visiting the Sisters Flotilla and firing off fireworks and hugs, we exited Redoubt and made for Saisio, my home system. While the fleet made their way there, I dropped and swapped out characters. Katia was waiting for them. At about the 28 minute time mark in the fleet recording, you can hear how the Great Reveal played out. Still gives me chills. 🙂

The Great Fleet and the Big Reveal

“BRAVO! Bravo! My compliments, little lady.” – Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, Fifth Element

So, that’s it, that’s how the final 600 systems played out. In total there was over 22 billion isk in payouts and 100+ challenge coins awarded for locating systems as part of the corp event. We had over 100 individual Signaleers participate in locating systems during the hunt and we had over 70 for the fleet, our largest fleet ever. For not knowing what was really going on, the corp really stepped up and came out for what I hope was a fun and memorable event for all. I know it was for me. Definitely something I’ll never forget. The great show of support afterwards truly has touched me and I can’t thank everyone enough for everything.

Angel Lafisques

“I had a suspicion that locating Katia Sae’s systems was somehow related to the Great Hunt … When I saw the big lists of WHs I thought this may be the final push. Great job to all involved to set this up in such a fantastic way, such that 75 people could participate today, as well as however many flipped on the Great Hunt in Allison!” – Angel Lafisques

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Mako Koskanaiken

“I had no idea that what we were doing was somehow related to anything, and I’m proud that we did some good work to help get something as unbelievable as this done. I’d be used like this again in a heartbeat – thank you to all involved by making it so entertaining!” – Mako Koskanaiken

Great Fleet Celebrations by Razorien
Behind the Great Hunt Part 2
by Katia Sae OOC

With A Little Help From My Friends – The Beatles

Thrice Hapus

Seeing where this was going, Mynxee got me in touch with Thrice Hapus, our COO, and he asked if I was interested in turning my event into a story/roleplay event. As someone who used to love to RP, I immediately said yes, Thrice reached out to our OPSEC division (Operation and Planning of Special Events for the Corporation), and they agreed to make that happen. Our OPSEC division is a group of Signaleers that only leadership knows who they are behind the scenes. They’re our story crafters, a group of talented writers and corp event coordinators, who were also the ones that worked with Sky Diamond on her event. Sky’s event became the kickoff of our in corp storyline that’s been running for over a year now titled “Vacant Spectrum”. Let me just say this now, I shot high, but was astounded when OPSEC lifted me up, and together we shot higher. OPSEC, you rock! Not only did they meet my original goals, they added a couple of more, and they were huge additions: Allison, storyline, and remaining anonymous.

“He takes his drinking very seriously. Not to worry; he’ll be his usual charming self by morning.” – Aramis, The Three Musketeers (1993)

AD Parrot

Each addition in its own right was huge. AD Parrot, as Allison’s creator, was included in the event team as he incorporated some added functionality to help us track the Great Hunt. I can’t say enough about Parrot, he’s awesome and a pleasure to work with and what an amazing talent. Allison is amazing bit of code that really comes to life as a pilot assist AI. She has a lot of functionality to help our Signaleers as they travel around New Eden as well as providing guidance with our EvE Scout Rescue Cache program (ESRC), and our Search and Rescue operations (SAR) by alerting the SAR team when a system has been located. It was the SAR aspect of Allison that was tweaked for the Great Hunt by adding capabilities to alert my team (my mates and I which I’ll talk about soon) when systems I needed were found.

“Only the wrong words are a complete waste of time. The right words can leave a more lasting impression than a thousand of Porthos’ kisses.” – Aramis, The Three Musketeers (1993)

Holiday Greetings from OPSEC

Next, the OPSEC team wrote the event as a chapter in the “Vacant Spectrum”, Chapter 5: The Great Hunt. The story provided the cover I needed for the last part which I didn’t think was possible, keeping me anonymous and behind the scenes during the event. Up to that point I had not suffered a ship loss and the OPSEC team wanted to keep it that way. Just as I had when I set out 9 years ago, I accepted the fact I would lose ships along the way, so I figured here at the end game, when everyone would know this event was to help me finish my journey, I would suffer my first loss for sure. We know there are corp spies, that as soon as someone figured out what was really going on, it would get out, an ambush would be setup, and I’d get popped. During the planning process, working with the OPSEC team, I was simply amazed at the talent at hand, as we figured out how to pull this off, keeping me in the shadows, writing the chapter that explained why, and fit perfectly in the overall story arch.

“A lively tune… I’m inspired to dance!” – Porthos, The Three Musketeers (1993)

The Three Musketeers (1993)

There was one last piece that I needed to nail down and that was expanding the event team to include several Explorer Mates. I wanted three Signaleers to help me during the end game with locating and securing systems as our fellow scouts found them. My Mates would be the ones to take the risk for me, by scouting me into systems as needed, sitting in systems to hold them until I could get there, and help keep the corp motivated during the hunt as well. They would, of course, know the event was to help me complete my journey. Risky, I know, the team was already more than a few and it only increased the odds that word would get out as to what was really going on. Since OPSEC worked out keeping me in the shadows with the event storyline, I had to find these mates behind the scenes, so I went through a process of selecting them based on many factors including things like, tenure in corp, activity in corp, exemplified the credo, forum participation, etc. Starting with the entire corp roster, I cut the list down to my top ten and presented them to leadership and the OPSEC team. Based on their recommendations I choose, Captain Crinkle, Igaze, and Tamayo.

Tamayo
Igaze
Captain Crinkle

Let me tell you, my mates were my lifeblood. Some of my fears were, the real story of the event would get out, my mates would become bored, etc, but my fears were unfounded. We had a blast, they kept me motivated, and we made a great team. I couldn’t have asked for better mates, they often went above and beyond my expectations. We had a great time and it’s an experience that I’ll always remember. Can’t say enough about them. Each one brought their own unique approach to the end game. Igaze and I were joking around one day in our Discord channel, calling ourselves the Muskteteers. Igaze quickly pointed out he was Porthos, I gathered because he was most like that character, so I figured that made me Athos as the unofficial leader of the group. So, Crinkle and Tamayo, you’ll have to figure out who’s Aramis and D’Artagnan. 😉

The plans made, it was now – show time.

The Journey of Katia Sae by Mynxee

BONUS: If you’re still reading, here is an excerpt from document I sent to my Explorer Mates filling them in on their role.

5.10.yc120 Zoohen III – Theology Council Tribunal Station, Signal Cartel Executive Briefing Room

Running late, she entered the briefing room to find Igaze, Tamayo, and Crinkle seated around the small, but rather ornate conference room table. There was room to seat six with two on each side and one at each end. The ends were open, obviously for whomever was leading the meeting, so she took the only remaining side seat. She glanced around at her fellow scouts, her posture one of pride to be among them, her face revealed a hint of a smile, her eyes bright and warm, revealing her explorer’s heart.

It had been years since she had spent any amount of significant time in known space, let alone docked in a station. The air seemed fresher, which was silly, but having spent the majority of her time aboard ship, in a capsule, submersed in what was affectionately known as goo, the change was a welcomed one.

“Wonder what this is all about?” Katia finally said, breaking the silence, looking at each scout in turn, but she couldn’t hold her serious face on any longer and finally broke out in a huge smile. “I guess I should fill you all in.”

Welcome to the Great Hunt.