Earlier this month, weary wormholers faced off against the spreading Red Dot pandemic in EVE. Almost every capsuleer felt the effects of the Red Dots when they struck New Eden. One group, however, has remained resilient as ever. Wormholers remained unscathed, resolute in their J-space isolation, and seemingly protected from the Red Dot Plague. It seemed only a matter of time before it found its way into guarded holes. Despite this,J-spacers remained on-guard from potential bearers of the dreaded Red Dot even as rumors spread that the Dots have spread to Anoikis.
News spread quickly about the Red Dot Plague, with many j-space inhabitants rolling and critting all connections; guarding entrances to their solitary systems. Some reported keeping instalock, decloakers, and dcitors on watch at critted holes 23/7, taking shifts. “It’s taxing,” one holer said, “but we are pretty used to long hours of boredom. I usually play Synthetik on another monitor, but we have to keep travelers at bay if we don’t want the plague.”
We found another, appearing in local in a Lowsec border system and convo’d this apparently brave j-spacer. Surprisingly, he answered. He stated he was going about hunting miners. Soon enough he finds a few Hulks and an Orca in a belt, but chooses not to decloak his vessel. “These ones have the Red Dot Plague.” he states, and quickly retreats back to his hole, a Megathron briefly appearing on long scan after, with the signature disappearing immediately from overview.
Despite these extreme measures, it seemed inevitable the Red Dots found their way into J-space. Isolated as it is, the frequent connections to Highsec and necessity of supplies from crowded trade hubs made the quarantine a delay tactic. Some blame the humanitarian Servant Sisters of Eve for bringing the plague to Anoikis. The Sisters have been struggling to take on the afflicted and develop a vaccine since the Red Dots appeared. Others blame the Eve Scout Enclave who work so closely with lost explorers; their contact with travelers increasing their likelihood of exposure.
Sources in Thera report panic as a Capsuleer docked in XII – The Sanctuary Surveillance Observatory began seeing the Red Dots appearing in their inventory after a trip to Amarr. The station was quickly quarantined, and the thus-far unidentified pilot is on lockdown there, as well as anyone else that happened to be docked. The undock is camped heavily, though some doubt anyone would engage a ship undocking for fears of contracting the Red Dots.
Additionally there are some reports coming from various J-spacers that some of their pilots have been locked out of their home holes by corp-mates after the outbreak. One, wishing to remain anonymous, says they had gone to Jita to pick up abyssal damage mods they had won on Hypernet just before the outbreak. In a heartbreaking display of emotion from a J-spacer, the capsuleer was on the verge of tears when they said they found the connection rolled after picking up the mods, bookmarks deleted, and Pathfinder not updated. Nobody in corp would respond to desperate pleading for an update. “They told me they couldn’t risk it. I had bought contaminated mods, and the red dots appeared. How was I supposed to know?!”
