... Where to begin? It's been so, so long. I don't know where to start. It's all become such a blur in many ways. A blur of mining asteroids, of exploding spaceships, of bitter losses and sweet, sweet victories. I can't determine the proper way to explain to you, my readers, what has happened in my silence on the world of EVE Online.
Perhaps I should start at the beginning of it all.
We were approached by our allies in null security space a while ago. They offered us a safe haven and a place to go; they wanted us to join their alliance and leave our current one behind. We'd been long dissatisfied with our current alliance and recently our suspicions had been running high. One of the members, an Alliance Director that will go unnamed, had been drawing our attention more and more. They never spoke over microphone to us or anyone, only listened and responded through typing. Despite this, they held the ear of the Alliance Head in almost every case. They spoke, the Alliance leader jumped. When we first joined, we could see that the Alliance leader was but a puppet, but we couldn't find the strings. Now we could see not only the strings, but the puppeteer.
Through conversations with other alliance members and corporation heads as well as conversations our members had with the individual, we discovered that the puppeteer was rather... odd. They were extremely secretive in almost every way in game. They didn't like sharing information they'd found, such as moon analysis or various types of data, which was normal. However, they often demanded such information from us. Where our assets were, where our Player Owned Stations (POS) were, what we produced, what our corporation income levels were, etc. On top of this, we discovered the individual had ties with many, many big names in the game. Pandemic Legion, Black Legion, Goonswarm, CFC, NC, N3Bloc, the list goes on and on. Could they be rumors? Possibly. Possibly not. The end result, however, was our suspicions seemed correct. They were a spy, but the question was who's?
The last straw came when we discovered that the Alliance Leader and this unnamed director approached the low sec pirates we'd been avidly fighting. Our CEO and corporation were not informed of the incident and found out later. We don't know fully what went on in the conversation, but the results were that the alliance left us out to dry more so than they had before in our fight in low sec. We lost no ground, but the abandonment was keenly felt.
As a result, some of our leadership approached the alliance leadership and stated that we were leaving the alliance for better pastures, namely to take up the offer given to us by our null security space friends. I was not present, but saw the transcripts of the conversation. They were not... pleasant.
The unnamed Director blatantly stated that if our corporation was to leave the alliance, our corporation, our pilots, and our assets could and would be viewed as legitimate targets by their combat pilots. We pointed out that we were the bulk of their combat effective pilots and, out of the rest of the alliance, had the most efficient and effective killboard. When they scoffed and threatened once more, our CEO linked them a screenshot of our allies mobilized a mere cynosaural jump or two away as they prepped for an attack on their enemies that happened to be nearby. When the numerous dreadnoughts, carriers, and capital ships along with a sizable sub-capital fleet were seen arrayed and ready for the ensuing combat, the threats ceased.
They had a single carrier. We now had dozens.
From there, we parted ways. Alliance members we had forged friendships with were set blue individually and we cleaned up what we didn't need. We shoved enough fuel for multiple months in the POSes we had set up in the Gamis area and began our trickle into null sec space.
We came through the wormholes and dropped into a war zone. Every day was a potential attack. Black Ops Battleships, capable of jumping into systems without cynosaural fields and able to activate the same fields they didn't need would come into our two systems and drop capital ships on our mining and ratting fleets. Enemy roams would venture down into the pocket to attack us and kill our pilots. Even the NPC rats viciously assaulted our fleets, meaning ships had to self repair or have logistic ships on site at all times just to survive. It was the most hellish place I'd ever been in within the EVE universe.
It was amazing.
The head of our new alliance basically ran what was essentially an industrial alliance. They made ships and sold them to the various alliances and corporations nearby in the rental space they occupied. They chewed the asteroid belts and ran the anomalies for money to feed their production, only to make even more money by selling the items they produced. In null sec, there are no corner stores, no trading hubs to stop by and pick up a new ship or fit one. You produce what you need or have it shipped in through bulk freighters. For a short time, we started getting settled. And then the war started.
We saw an opportunity to expand and leave renter's space. The constellation next door was held by an alliance that had seen better days and, being the strongest we'd ever been as an alliance and with a new band of "cutthroats" as the Alliance Leader called us, we struck.
In a few weeks we smashed entire fleets, ravaged capital ships, and conquered entire systems. When the smoke cleared we held eleven systems. We weren't renting them, we owned them. They were ours. We immediately set up shop and got everything going again, shipping all of our things from our former systems into the new ones. Now, a little over a month later, we've driven out the enemy and have a tight hold on our little home in null sec.
Occasionally, we're raided and repel the enemy. Sometimes an enemy gang appears through a wormhole and hits us. Sometimes someone attacks us with black ops ships as they did in the old space. But these systems are ours and I've never fought so fiercely nor seen others fight so fiercely to hold territory.
In the grim darkness of the far flung future, there is only War.
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Perhaps I should start at the beginning of it all.
We were approached by our allies in null security space a while ago. They offered us a safe haven and a place to go; they wanted us to join their alliance and leave our current one behind. We'd been long dissatisfied with our current alliance and recently our suspicions had been running high. One of the members, an Alliance Director that will go unnamed, had been drawing our attention more and more. They never spoke over microphone to us or anyone, only listened and responded through typing. Despite this, they held the ear of the Alliance Head in almost every case. They spoke, the Alliance leader jumped. When we first joined, we could see that the Alliance leader was but a puppet, but we couldn't find the strings. Now we could see not only the strings, but the puppeteer.
Through conversations with other alliance members and corporation heads as well as conversations our members had with the individual, we discovered that the puppeteer was rather... odd. They were extremely secretive in almost every way in game. They didn't like sharing information they'd found, such as moon analysis or various types of data, which was normal. However, they often demanded such information from us. Where our assets were, where our Player Owned Stations (POS) were, what we produced, what our corporation income levels were, etc. On top of this, we discovered the individual had ties with many, many big names in the game. Pandemic Legion, Black Legion, Goonswarm, CFC, NC, N3Bloc, the list goes on and on. Could they be rumors? Possibly. Possibly not. The end result, however, was our suspicions seemed correct. They were a spy, but the question was who's?
The last straw came when we discovered that the Alliance Leader and this unnamed director approached the low sec pirates we'd been avidly fighting. Our CEO and corporation were not informed of the incident and found out later. We don't know fully what went on in the conversation, but the results were that the alliance left us out to dry more so than they had before in our fight in low sec. We lost no ground, but the abandonment was keenly felt.
As a result, some of our leadership approached the alliance leadership and stated that we were leaving the alliance for better pastures, namely to take up the offer given to us by our null security space friends. I was not present, but saw the transcripts of the conversation. They were not... pleasant.
The unnamed Director blatantly stated that if our corporation was to leave the alliance, our corporation, our pilots, and our assets could and would be viewed as legitimate targets by their combat pilots. We pointed out that we were the bulk of their combat effective pilots and, out of the rest of the alliance, had the most efficient and effective killboard. When they scoffed and threatened once more, our CEO linked them a screenshot of our allies mobilized a mere cynosaural jump or two away as they prepped for an attack on their enemies that happened to be nearby. When the numerous dreadnoughts, carriers, and capital ships along with a sizable sub-capital fleet were seen arrayed and ready for the ensuing combat, the threats ceased.
They had a single carrier. We now had dozens.
From there, we parted ways. Alliance members we had forged friendships with were set blue individually and we cleaned up what we didn't need. We shoved enough fuel for multiple months in the POSes we had set up in the Gamis area and began our trickle into null sec space.
We came through the wormholes and dropped into a war zone. Every day was a potential attack. Black Ops Battleships, capable of jumping into systems without cynosaural fields and able to activate the same fields they didn't need would come into our two systems and drop capital ships on our mining and ratting fleets. Enemy roams would venture down into the pocket to attack us and kill our pilots. Even the NPC rats viciously assaulted our fleets, meaning ships had to self repair or have logistic ships on site at all times just to survive. It was the most hellish place I'd ever been in within the EVE universe.
It was amazing.
The head of our new alliance basically ran what was essentially an industrial alliance. They made ships and sold them to the various alliances and corporations nearby in the rental space they occupied. They chewed the asteroid belts and ran the anomalies for money to feed their production, only to make even more money by selling the items they produced. In null sec, there are no corner stores, no trading hubs to stop by and pick up a new ship or fit one. You produce what you need or have it shipped in through bulk freighters. For a short time, we started getting settled. And then the war started.
We saw an opportunity to expand and leave renter's space. The constellation next door was held by an alliance that had seen better days and, being the strongest we'd ever been as an alliance and with a new band of "cutthroats" as the Alliance Leader called us, we struck.
In a few weeks we smashed entire fleets, ravaged capital ships, and conquered entire systems. When the smoke cleared we held eleven systems. We weren't renting them, we owned them. They were ours. We immediately set up shop and got everything going again, shipping all of our things from our former systems into the new ones. Now, a little over a month later, we've driven out the enemy and have a tight hold on our little home in null sec.
Occasionally, we're raided and repel the enemy. Sometimes an enemy gang appears through a wormhole and hits us. Sometimes someone attacks us with black ops ships as they did in the old space. But these systems are ours and I've never fought so fiercely nor seen others fight so fiercely to hold territory.
In the grim darkness of the far flung future, there is only War.
