The Big Blue (expedition)

The Big Blue is an expedition which can be earned by destroying Pat Wead in Angel Vigil combat sites. The completion of each segment has a random chance of giving the next segment in the chain.

Popup: Scanning through Pat Wead's logs reveals that this druglord was surprisingly well connected, long lists of buyers and sellers throughout the neighboring regions would make this document a dream read of any law enforcement agent in the galaxy, if only all the vital parts were not in some completely alien code. No matter how much you let your central computer chew on this stuff, you get no feedback on any names or places, execpt perhaps one... this seems to be a hasty entry from almost a year back, not in code. At least the coordinates do reflect a true point in space.

The initial escallation from Angel Vigil is thought to be around 10%, but each stage escallating higher is thought to be around 75%. High level angel drops are possible at each stage.

The Big Blue (Stage 1)

Faction: Angel Cartel
Mission Type: Exploration - Escalation
Space Type: Normal
Damage Dealt: Explosive/Kinetic
Web/Scramble: Arch Gistii Outlaws
Extras: Domination Smasher - Target Paints
Recommended Damage Dealing: Explosive/Kinetic
Recommended Ships: Battlecruiser with robust T2 tank, Kinetic/Explosive resists over 60%

Loot:

• Total: +/- 3.0M
• Bounties 1.6M
• Loot 538K
• Salvage +/- 1.0M
• Loot from Commander drop (initial author) Implant Low-Grade Halo Alpha, 1000 faction ammo
• Loot from Commander drop (Dooobles rewrite, Sept 22, 2010) - No faction or implant, 1000 Angel ammo
• Structures drop no loot on multiple attempts - likely worthless.

Wave 1:- New spawns can target your drones.

• 6 Frigate (Angel Salvager - Gistii Nomad)
• 4 Destroyer (Gistior Seizer)
• 1 Destroyer (Gistior Trasher)

Wave 2: (About 30 seconds from warp in)

• 4 Elite Frigate (Arch Gistii Hijacker/Outlaw) - Web/ Scram
• 4 Battlecruiser (Gistatis Tribunus) - Trigger

Wave 3: (Trigger - Killing last Battlecruiser from Wave 2)

• 4 Elite Frigate (Arch Gistii Ambusher)
• 3 Cruiser (Gistum Liquidator)
• 1 Commander (Domination Smasher) - Target Paints

Destroying the Commander will either end the expedition (if unlucky) or give you a popup to the next escallation. Escalation popup: Among the debris of this old factory, you find a homing beacon next to a container bearing the Salvation Angel seal. It looks as if they have been going through the rubble, gathering whatever the attackers have spared. It seems the beacon is malfunctioning and periodically sending out some garbled messages, something that is not so remarkable in itself, but the messages are getting answered... your instruments quickly nail down the location of the responder.

The Big Blue (Stage 2)

Faction: Angel Cartel and Drone
Mission Type: Exploration - Escallation
Space Type: Normal
Damage Dealt: Explosive/ Kinetic
Web/ Scramble: None
Recommended Damage Dealing: Explosive/ Kinetic
Notes: New spawns can target your drones, structures drop no loot

Loot:
Total: +/- 3.8M
Bounties: 1.3M
Loot +/- 1.2M (Includes minerals from Drones)
Salvage: Widely variable based on commander slavage
Commander drops noted: Low-Grade Halo Delta, (2nd run - Low-grade Halo Omega)
Commander drops noted (25.07.2011): Cynabal BPC (~180mil), Arch Angel Nuclear M x1000, Domination Stasis Webifier (~100mil) and some T1 items

Pocket 1 (Only one pocket)

On arrival you get a message in local: Broken Message: Th* is *nder invegrrrrrrr rrrrrr rrrrr by DED. It seems someone has disabled the warning beacon.

Wave 1 (10 sec after warp-in)

• 3 Elite Frigate (Arch Gistii Raider)
• 3 Destroyer (Gistior Defacer)

Wave 2 (About 30 seconds after warp-in)

• 2 Elite Frigate (Arch Gistii Raider)
• 2 Cruiser (Gistum Defeater)
• 4 Drones (Drone Salvager - Atomizer Alvium)

Wave 3 (Destroying all non-drone ships in previous waves)

• 2 Frigate (Gistii Outlaw)
• 3 Frigate (Gistii Thug)

Wave 4 (Destroying all previous non-drone ships)

• 3 Elite Frigate (Arch Gistii Raider)
• 2 Battlecruiser (Gistatis Legatus)
• 1 Commander (Domination Crusher)

Destroying the second battlecruiser will either end the expedition (if unlucky) or give you a popup to the next escallation. Escallation popup : "Another Salvation Angels beacon and this time fully functional probably put here by a surveying ship. It gives directions to another location not far away."

The Big Blue (Stage 3)

EDIT: was in low-sec for me (25.07.2011)

Loot: (What it dropped for me)

• Total: 4.7M
• Bounties 2.5M
• Loot 521K
• Salvage 1.7M
• Plus 1000 Arch Angel Proton M

Faction: Angel Cartel

Mission Type: Exploration - Escallation

Space Type: Normal? (No warp in gate)

Damage Dealt: Explosive/ Kinetic (Need Confirmation)

Web/ Scramble: None

Extras: Arch Gistii Nomads target paint, Domination Crusher target paints

Recommended Damage Dealing: Explosive/ Kinetic (Need Confirmation)

Recommended Ships: Drake

Notes: New spawns can target your drones.

Pocket 1 (Only one pocket)

Spawn 1 (Warps in after about 15 seconds)

• 4 Elite Frigate (Arch Gistii Nomad) - Target Painters
• 4 Elite Cruiser (Arch Gistum Liquidator)

Arch Gistum Liquidator's shield/armor weak spot is explosive at 72% (EM is 90%, Kinetic is 79% and thermal is 85%).

Spawn 2 (Trigger - Timed - 30 seconds ?)

• 3 Battlecruiser (Gistatis Primus)

Spawn 3 (Trigger - Destroying the last Arch Gistum Liquidator ?)

• 2 Elite Frigate (Arch Gistii Ruffian)
• 3 Battlecruiser (Gistatis Praefectus)
• 1 Commander (Domination Crusher)

Destroying the Commander will either end the expedition (if unlucky) or give you a popup to the next escallation. Escallation popup : "Luckily your instruments got a lock on the escaping ships destination."

The Big Blue (Stage 4) LOW-SEC (Possible High-Sec

• Possible High Sec escalation confirmed (imgur) on 24/02/2017 by Zirio on the Mesybier system.

Loot: (What it dropped for me)

• Total: 2.25M
• Bounties 1.5M
• Loot 750k
• Salvage - I did not salvage since it was low sec
• 18 Blue Pill

Faction: Angel Cartel

Mission Type: Exploration - Escallation

Space Type: Normal? (No warp in gate)

Damage Dealt: Explosive/ Kinetic (Need Confirmation)

Web/ Scramble: Arch Gistii Hijacker

Extras: Arch Gistii Ruffians target paint

Recommended Damage Dealing: Explosive/ Kinetic (Need Confirmation)

Recommended Ships: Drake (PVP fit)

Notes: This takes place in low sec so a ship you are willing to lose and fit for pvp are reccommended. A clean jump clone might be wise. Destroying the web/ scramble ships quickly may be even more important in low sec systems (But that may be the trigger for the next spawn). New spawns can target your drones. Bring a lot of ammo for the Drug factory.

Pocket 1 (Only one pocket)

Upon warp in the 'Drug Factory - Angels in Heaven' and a few other structures are all that are visible.

Spawn 1 (Warps in after about 30 seconds)

• 4 Angel Heavy Missile Battery
• 4 Elite Frigate (Arch Gistii Hijacker/Rogue) - Web/Scramble
• 4 Elite Frigate (Arch Gistii Ruffian/Nomad) - Target Painters
• 3 Destroyer (Gistior Shatterer)
• 5 Battlecruiser (Gistatis Tribunus)

Spawn 3 (Possible spawn?)

• 2 Elite Frigate (Arch Gistii Impaler)
• 4 Battlecruiser (Gistatis Legatus)
• 3 Destroyer (Gistior Shatterer)

Spawn 4 (Taking the Drug factory 1/2 into structure - this takes a ton of damage to accomplish) (Took me 868 Scourge missiles doing 229 damage (to the structure) each.)

• 1 Angel Hauler

Spawn 5 (about 10 seconds after the Hauler spawns)

About 6 - 8 ships including one cargo vessel. These warp off quickly. (Before I could target one.)

Final Notes: Destroying the Angel Hauler drops the main loot and completes the expedition (18 Blue Pills for me, but I have heard up to a Dramiel BPC) Finish destroying the lab nets you a few T1 modules, items, and some ammo.

Since I was in low sec, I fitted a cloak - Using the cloak means losing all targets and your deployed drones become inactive and can not be returned to the drone bay (You can only scoop them to the cargohold).

You can leave the area and return if you have not triggered the Angel Hauler or your expedition timer has not expired.

Final completion popup : With all this Blue Pill out of circulation, you probably just sent some thousands of BP munches on a cold turkey. Then again, you could perhaps make nice profit selling it to them yourself. Choices...Choices...