The Anomaly

The Anomaly is a Level 4 mission consisting of three sub-missions. It involves combat with Rogue Drones.

Part 1

Level	4
Type	Encounter
Objective	Rescue Fajah Ateshi.
Extra	No active defenders, but weapons and tank are still required.

Mission briefing

Ever heard of The Anomaly? Lots of superstition around that name - it's one of our ships that vanished completely while testing an experimental jump drive. A trading vessel heard The Anomaly's signal last week and so we sent out a salvage crew, The Paryi, to investigate the site where it reappeared, but something went wrong. We received The Paryi's distress call yesterday and can't make sense of it. It seems some of them were killed in an explosion near The Anomaly, and the survivors escaped in life pods but are trapped there by gravity waves exuding from the ship. But the other things they said… well, some of them must have cracked under the stress. If there were any survivors from The Anomaly, they would've contacted us, after all. You need to rescue The Paryi's survivors, especially Dr. Fajah Ateshi. Once we learn what they uncovered, we'll have a better sense of how to proceed. The Anomaly was a very expensive project, and some very powerful people are invested in figuring out how it vanished.

Video: Raven Navy Issue

Blitz: This mission can be blitzed by bringing Oura Madusaari (kept from a past run of this mission) in your ship's cargo hold, which will allow players to bypass approaching the life pods and proceed immediately to the acceleration gate. Upon entering the second pocket, destroy the silo closest to The Anomaly, obtain Dr. Fajah Ateshi from the dropped cargo container, and return to the agent.

Tip:

• Fitting a Micro Warp Drive or Afterburner is recommended.
• Approaching the other four damaged Pods will also trigger a message and the Pod contains a Stranded Pilot (not needed to complete the mission).
• Using Combat Drones to kill the Debris Silo may kill them. Sentry Drones will take damage but survive.

Pocket 1

There are five Life Pods in this pocket, one of which will spawn a container with Oura Madusaari, who must be in your cargo hold to activate the acceleration gate. The description of the correct life pod (via "Show Info") is different from the others; it reads "A life pod from a long since destroyed ship". The other pods contain Stranded Pilots, which have no use.

Approaching the correct pod will trigger a message and spawn the cargo container with Oura Madusaari. The life pods themselves are actually structures, so they cannot be moved with a tractor beam. Loot the container, then proceed to the acceleration gate. Oura Madusaari is not consumed upon activation of the gate, so she can be brought on subsequent runs to bypass the life pods.

Message from Ooura Madusaari
Are you real? I turned off my radio because they keep trying to talk to us, I can hear them begging, pleading, scratching inside my head… look, I locked the gate behind us but now Fajah's trapped there, at their mercy, because of us. I'll open the gate so we can save her, but please, don't listen to the other voices, don't listen to anyone except Fajah.

Structures

		WD	EWAR	L
	4 x Life Pod
	1 x Life Pod
	1 x Acceleration Gate

2nd Pocket

Correct Silo

The mission objective item, Dr. Fajah Ateshi, can be obtained by destroying the Pressure Silo closest to The Anomaly (an  Orca situated in the middle of a non-functional wormhole object) which causes The Paryi to spawn, which spawns a cargo container with him in it (this can be tractor beamed) by flying close to it.

After proceeding ~5km toward The Anomaly, a damaging cloud will periodically deal 5 hits of 200-400 damage each, so it is best to proceed quickly. Though all Pressure Silos can be attacked and destroyed, only the one closest to The Anomaly must be destroyed. Pressure Silos will explode when destroyed, dealing ~800 damage to ships in close proximity. Because of this, it is best to avoid using combat drones to destroy the silos, as they may be destroyed themselves.

Structures

		WD	EWAR	L
	3 x Pressure Silo
	1 x Pressure Silo
	1 x The Paryi
	1 x The Anomaly

Transmissions

As silos are destroyed, players will receive the following transmissions:

Strange Transmission

They called me to identify the body, and I told them she divorced me last year but they didn't care because she had no friends, no family on the planet at all. I went in and they pulled back the sheet and she was there beautiful like she was asleep, and my full name was carved delicately into her left arm like calligraphy, the blood dried like rust on parchment. Every time I closed my eyes for a full year after I saw that. I still miss her.

Strange Transmission
"You have failed your family," he tells me with gentleness I know he's incapable of feeling. "You have dishonored us. You know what to do." And I know that the honorable thing is to fall on my sword like a good girl, so I take it out and push it through his chest and show him exactly what I think of his precious honor. I will never have to apologize again.

Transmission from the anomaly

He promised we would go to the beach on my birthday, so we went, even though it was raining, even though we didn't know where mom was again. I was collecting shells, and I found one that was perfect and round and smooth but then I looked back to the shore and saw him just standing there, the first time I'd ever seen him cry, and I wanted to say something but couldn't, just stood there, frozen, the shell crunching in my fist, and I looked down and my hand was bleeding but I didn't feel it at all.

Strange Transmission

//I'm naked and I'm walking the blue-painted halls at military academy, and it's okay because everyone gets hazed like this and I'm in better shape than all of them so I'm not ashamed, except this means they can see the scars twining from my back and down to my knees like snakes, and what starts as laughter turns into confused whispering and sounds of pity as they realize how recently I was a slave, and I want to kill them slowly just like I did the man who gave me the scars, but I just walk on, seeing only red.

Part 2

Level	4
Type	Encounter
Objective	Bring Neurowave Pattern Scanner to The Anomaly.
Damage to resist	EM
Ship suggestion	Fast ship with a good tank

Mission briefing

We've spoken with Fajah Ateshi about The Anomaly, and I'm afraid things look dire. Her readings were damaged from the explosion aboard The Paryi, and she needs to return to The Anomaly to get further information. Since the two of you are the only ones who've come near the ship and retained both your lives and sanity, we have to send you out again. We're still not entirely sure if anyone is alive aboard there, though Dr. Ateshi insists that she heard garbled transmissions from survivors disoriented from radiation sickness. I tell you, all this mystery doesn't make me comfortable, and it makes the people at the top very, very unhappy. If you find survivors, excellent, but your survival and Dr. Ateshi's readings are more important. You need to attach her Neurowave Pattern Scanner to The Anomaly.

Upon accepting the mission, a Neurowave Pattern Scanner will be placed in your hangar. Warp in and place the scanner in the cargo hold of The Anomaly to complete the mission. Remember to take the neurowave pattern scanner with you, the agent throws it into your hangar when you accept the mission. The Anomaly will then warp away.

When approaching The Anomaly, an Amarr Cruise Missile Battery will spawn. It does not need to be destroyed, as approaching further will deactivate it (accompanied by a pop-up message). An afterburner or microwarpdrive can be useful to expedite this part of the mission, and players should also ensure a minimal tank is fitted to survive the damage cloud while depositing the neurowave pattern scanner.

Hostile NPCs

		WD	EWAR	L
	1 x Sentry Amarr Cruise Missile Battery

Notable Structures

		WD	EWAR	L
	? x Presure Silo Debris
	1 x The Anomaly

Part 3

Level	4
Type	Encounter
Objective	Deliver The Anomaly.
Faction	Rogue Drones
Best damage to deal	EM Th
Damage to resist	Ex Kin Th
Warp disruption	Yes (Strain Render Alvi)
EWAR	Web (Strain Render Alvi)

Mission briefing

Dr. Ateshi has provided proof that The Anomaly is active and dangerous. The experimental warp drive successfully opened a wormhole, but it was unstable and the resulting radiation fried the crew's equipment, and their brains. They've been trapped in the darkest parts of space for two decades, slowly succumbing to the sickness - there's nothing human left about them. Now that they're back in our space, the radiation is a risk not just to us but everything for hundreds of kilometers around. My superiors have determined that it's not worth the risk of retrieving the warp drive; you need to destroy the ship entirely before the damage spreads. Fortunately, we know where they went: They jumped into the middle of a rogue drone hive. Dr. Ateshi thinks they're trying to feed off the rogue drones' power to recharge. If you can get her to one of the surrounding ships, she can jam their equipment and make them vulnerable.

Blitz: Destroy the two BCs in group 2 to "spawn" the acceleration gate. The gate is not locked, but warp scrambling frigates will prevent you from using it. Use an afterburner to make your way to the rogue drone ship and drop Fajah Ateshi into the can which completes the mission, no drones have to be killed.

Pocket 1

Group 1 will auto-aggro on warp-in. Attacking any other group will aggro all other ships present. Destroying the last ship in each group will spawn a wave of reinforcements.

The acceleration gate to the next pocket will become functional once the two battlecruisers (Striker Alvatis) in group 2 are destroyed. Note that the acceleration gate cannot be used while warp-scrambled.

Initial Defenders

		WD	EWAR	L
Group 1 ~30km Asteroid Station (auto-aggro)
	2 x Battleship Alvatus Creator/Ruler
Group 2 ~40km
	3 x Cruiser Violator Alvum
	2 x Battlecruiser Striker Alvatis
Group 3 ~35km
	1-2 x Elite Frigate Strain Render Alvi
	2-3 x Frigate Silverfish Alvi
	2 x Cruiser Devastator Alvum
Group 4 ~50km
	3 x Battleship Patriarch/Spearhead Alvus

Reinforcements ~55km Giant Snake-Shaped Asteroid

		WD	EWAR	L
Wave 1
	2 x Frigate Hunter/raider Alvi
	2 x Battleship Swarm Preserver Alvus
Wave 2
	2 x Frigate Devilfish Alvi
	2 x Battleship Alvus Controller/Spearhead Alvus
Wave 3
	3 x Frigate Decimator/Sunder Alvi
	0-3 x Cruiser Bomber Alvum
	2-3 x Battlecruiser Crippler/Defeater Alvatis

Pocket 2

The Anomaly (an  Orca) is 50 km away from the warp-in on a stable (but non-functional) wormhole, while the Rogue Drone ship is few kilometers further away. There are two options for completing this mission, determined by where the player places Dr. Fajah Ateshi:

• Placing Dr. Ateshi inside the Rogue Drone ship completes the mission and leads to the destruction of The Anomaly a few seconds later.
• Placing Dr. Ateshi inside The Anomaly will cause the ship to jump away, with Dr. Ateshi attempting to save the ship's crew.

Reinforcements will spawn upon attacking any frigate that is not capable of webbing/scrambling. They do not auto aggro and have a proximity trigger of about 30km. You can proximity trigger them separately to reduce the number of active hostiles. Unaggroed reinforcements will still shoot drones.

Initial Defenders ~5km

		WD	EWAR	L
	0-2 x Frigate Strain Render Alvi
	2-4 x Frigate Decimator/Hunter/Sunder Alvi
	1 x Battlecruiser Striker Alvatis

Reinforcements ~50km

		WD	EWAR	L
Group 1 "Left"
	2-3 x Cruiser Disintegrator/Violator Alvum
	1-2 x Battlecruiser Defeater/Enforcer/Striker Alvatis
	1 x Battleship Spearhead Alvus
Group 2 "Right"
	2-3 x Frigate Decimator/Render Alvi
	1-2 x Battlecruiser Defeater/Enforcer/Striker Alvatis
	2 x Battleship Supreme Alvus Parasite

Notable Structures

		WD	EWAR	L
	1 x The Anomaly
	1 x Rogue Drone Ship

Notes

It is possible that this mission cannot be obtained from Gallente or Minmatar agents.