A re-birth of sorts

Been hibernating for a while but decided to re-engage and get back to being a capsuleer after an old friend from my days in Union Aerospace (UAERO) came back and asked if I could help with some hauling. I have been planet-bound for the last four years, having switched spaceships for mechanised robots (mechs) but once a pod pilot, always a pod pilot.

Since this was an old friend of mine, I said yes and with some excitement docked up at the nearest space station and shuttled to some old familiar haunts. I found that my hangars were still full, no-one had looted anything and that I was the sole holder of all the assets of the corporation.

I grabbed a ship, made sure it's engines and fuel were still viable and undocked.

That was it. I was now back in the black and what a thrill it was. There's been a massive improvement in the interface between the pod and the ship. As ever, there are new ships, new rules of engagement and new actors in all areas. However, just the simple joy of flying through space and drinking in the vistas of distant galaxies, gas clouds and jewel-like stars hanging in the night sky is intoxicating enough.

Should never have left though I did have the hindsight to keep my pilot's license active.

The corporation is slowly reviving as my mate, Walter Purple has brought in two more pals: Ian Beany and Varnock Black. I remember the original UAERO starting early with only two of us and we became one of the first corporations to build and field a carrier - as well as being one of the first ones to lose a carrier as well!

Right now, the plans for the re-awakening corporation is for short term plans: get our consumables sorted out, agents running and missions under our belts. Already, we're easily completing L4 missions as a group.

Good times for sure, I am now sure they are back.

Withdrawn from X-7

Despite no official announcement, the Southern Coalition has called a halt on the invasion of Northern Coalition space. With AAA and ATLAS both pulling out, it left the five prong attack strategy in tatters. With the Northern Coalition greatly re-energised, it was inevitable that the attack - already precarious and relying on too many uncontrollable factors, was to fail and fail hard it did.

So the order was given by Mitch Taylor, Dark-Rising's CEO to pull back to Fountain and re-group. There would be other corporation operations planned and the 'fun' put back into play. Hell, we were even going to go ratting! However, I still had ships stuck in X-7 and all spaces in between.

Certainly, Fountain has its squatters and Pandemic Legion are swinging back through Delve and Fountain to cause some trouble and therefore, I hope to be involved. Should be fun.

Our orders are to relax and fill our pockers with isk before we see what else is coming over the horizon. It may even be possible that the Northern Coalition decide to come south. That should be fun.

Gratuitous Space Battles

Me likey....

Gratuitous Space Battles

ATLAS leaves the front and we go back to X-7

ATLAS sent an alliance mail and within hours it was leaked.

As I sit in X-7 I shake my head at the news but it wasn't due to any surprise, rather it was with some resignation. Unlike the campaign to take Fountain and Delve, the NC campaign was not well formed at the beginning and chaotic on too many occasions. There was no clear idea of what our goals were and how to do it. 'Kicking NC in the nuts' wasn't going to cut it for me. Of course, operational security concerns aside, it didn't feel 'right' and that most operations were outside of my time zone and too few for the number of alliances we had.

Involving five different entities/alliances (of which not all were ready at the starting line on the 1st April), it would have been a mammoth task for anyone to organise but take a look at the egos/characters of the leaders on BOTH sides and it was only a matter of time before some slight was given or received and then all bets are off.

The attack on H-W failed in its tactical goal of holding NC inside H-W AND the strategic goal of gaining meaningful ground and holding it elsewhere. It is my opinion but am sure it is shared by many within the alliance. It certainly didn't dent NC's morale either. So the SC lost this one. Simple and no amount of spinning will change this. However, there isn't too much doom and gloom or recrimination at least inside -IT-; we're just getting on with the next part of the campaign. Logistical headaches and all that.  Unfortunately, I have no idea what this next stage might be. I am quietly confident that we've been re-grouping since the bulk of our forces pulled out of H-W last week and expect more ops this week. The NC is such a big beast, we should have attacked across multiple fronts, spreading their forces and not all ganged ourselves into H-W where numbers DO matter. Even if it was patiently snipping off outlying systems one by one over weeks and months of patient campaigning. Much more preferable than the monster cluster fuck that H-W turned out to be where pilots we're stuck logging in, the node crashed too many times, and no fun was had.  

Compounding this, we have PL and friends back in our home system running amok and I was disappointed with how our 'home front' alliances had been performing. In fact, RKK had to relocate back to Delve to properly deal with the situation.

So, as I sit in X-7 I read with interest on the various forums all predicting the imminent collapse of the Southern Coalition.

I am living in most interesting times.

Retreat from H-W

After losing my megathron, I raced back to X-7 to ship up but was then ordered to stand-down. The NC had rammed a massive number of pilots into the system and it made it impossible to log into the system. Over time, our beach-head POS towers were taken down one by one as well as losing a number of capitals as SirMolle ordered a breakout.

On a wider front, our allies had taken advantage of NC's home defence (distraction) by grabbing some other systems but the prize was going to be H-W as that was NC's staging system. Something tells me that they're not too bothered (yet) about the other losses.

Am back at X-7, morale is still high though most of us are bruised and battered. We're all eager to go in once more and after a few days, am sure I will.

Let's go.

Red Pen CTA

First station about to fall in PB.

NC and SC

The war versus the Northern Coalition (NC) started off well but then ground down to a slog. I was now based in X-7 and it appears that after a month, we made gains in terms of enemy POS towers killed but hadn't really moved out of X-7. The timezone for these operations is mainly US based so I am at work or asleep when the majority of operations are called. Still, like everyone else in IT, we're in it for the long run. Dark-Rising was informed that we would be at the front line for 12 months or more so we better get stuck in.

However, Pandemic Legion (PL) - after we kicked them out of fountain is now back harassing our space and Molle has ordered jump clones to be placed back in Delve / Fountain to allow us to respond properly to the PL attacks. Most of my main combat ships are now in X-7 as per orders so all I have is a HAC and a few other recons.

Gearing up for another war?

Dark had been given the Chimera constellation in Fountain - a rich area for miners and hunters alike. Our orders were to kick back, relax and to make isk. We've now put up our own outpost as well, in addition to the one that was already in place in the 7BX constellation and it was a good day to see it being constructed.

I ran back to Empire to check on my R&D agents, all four of them nestled deep inside their respective academic institutions. A quick email to them and when I visited the agents, they all had their latest research available for me. Tightly packed spools of data: tera-bytes of data, schematics and equations. This information is in high demand and I had buyers already lined up.

350M isk later, I jump cloned back to Fountain and joined up with a big Dark fleet and proceeded to run out into fountain to hunt down Serpentis ships. The bounty is rich and plentiful and my wallet started to grow. So did my boredom.

However, there's been persistent rumours that IT alliance and friends are to hit the Northern Coalition (NC), an alliance of alliances based in (surprise) the Galactic North. The Goons, renamed and rebranded have moved into Cloud Ring and right now, are of no relevance. So it is the North for us.

I can't wait but I reckon I will need more isk. Lots more isk to survive for howerver long the campaign will take. Not looking forward to the alarm clock ops or the lag or the ass-numbing waiting at a POS for something to start off.

EDIT:

I didn't post this as there were strong rumours about a new campaign. We had three weeks to make isk and then we would be on the front line for 12 months (?) - I tried to crack 1 billion isk in the time I had available but was unable to. I did have x3 fleet fitted megathrons available and other things. Instructions were sent out and I had to start re-locating most of my frontline ships to a staging area. I left my ratting and pvp ships behind in 7BX.

Looks like the NC is going to be the target and about time. Most of Dark-Rising are sick of the ratting and want to tear into our foe. I would have preferred to target what's left of the Goons, who have continued to break apart amidst tales of backstabbing, shady deals and hurt egos.

My next couple of posts will be from me en route to our target area.

May God have mercy on all of us.

Interesting MH Corp meeting minutes leaked.

TRI is failcascading and goons only ally now is mostly harmless

Someone leaked a corp meeting from Mostly Harmless.