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.

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.

The fires are burning brightly I see.

So much has happened in a short time. After my ship loss, I re-shipped into a new fleet megathron but am running low on the isk. There has been very little time to collect bounties, dropped loot or mining in Fountain as the focus of IT had switched to securing Fountain and pushing into Delve to assist -AAA- and friends. The first attempt failed but we were to regroup in Sakht and wait for titan bridges.

I started to sell off even more of my assets to feed the war machine - I can see how easy it is to get bankrupt fighting this war, as enjoyable as it is. Am down to my last 100M isk and need to make some of it back soon. Am even running low on ammunition and the markets in null-sec are poor in most places.

However, a bombshell was dropped earlier this week. First it was a few isolated voices here and there on the 'net and forums. Then they grew louder and my IRC started to ping and the voices became a wave of sounds and from this cacophony, I could make out the following: 'The Goons have dropped sov in Delve!'

I tried to get confirmation and checked the various system maps and indeed, it looked like chunks of Delve had lost the Goon stranglehold. What was this? I asked myself, did fate have a sense of humour after all? Was it an IT spy or a disgruntled GOON? Already, leading elements of IT alliance were massing on the Sakht to 1-SMEB gate and their intent was clear: smash their way into Delve and kill GOONS. I even heard that there were plans to re-take NOL; that fabled station that the Band of Brothers alliance had retreated to as their last stand when all around them was falling apart. Where we really going to re-take NOL?

Then SirMolle updated everyone on the GalNet forums:

At about 04.30 this morning, about 80% of Goonswarm sov dropped due to what they claim, "a faulty game mechanic". It also claimed that that this is due to a "bug". Many are claiming that the sov loss for many alliances are due to "not enough money in the right division in wallet".

AAA + allies have been kind enough to help us with Querious, while all Goons tried hindering us from entering into Delve.

Regardless of which, Delve and Querious are now burning. NOL has fallen after a cap battle over control in NOL.

The battle continues, and will rage on for a long time. The enemy gate is down.

From all of us, to all of you...

Karma is a *****, aint it?

I sat back stunned and re-read the message a second time. Indeed, something monumental had shifted.

The IT fleet piled into Delve while -A- concentrated on Querious and Period Basis. The Goons wailed at the unfairness of their ineptitude (forgot to pay the bills!) and performed a full-scale retreat back to their spiritual home of the Syndicate Region. Goons didn't even want to bunker down and make IT and friends pay dearly for Delve - because it would have been bloody and costly for us and not a forgone conclusion.

There's still plenty to do for us and with Goons departing there's a while host of opportunity seeking corporations trying their luck.

Am relocating more of my ships to a closer Empire staging point and ready for a move into Delve. Ratting and other care bear activities in Fountain.

Fountain and Beyond

Due to operational security and the need to keep on top of various operations etc; I have been unable to post regularly. Nonetheless, with Fountain now more or less secure - I feel that I have more room to breath and therefore to post an update.

Since late November 2009; IT Alliance had targeted the Fountain region and engaged with the residents and their pets, namely Pandemic Legion and Sons of Tangra. There were lots of alarm clock ops due to time zone differences but the IT alliance steam rolled in.

PL and SOT provided a limited and at times, spirited defence but it was to no avail. IT Alliance was too much and too often. Assumed help from the Goons was not forthcoming and PL/SOT died. Of course, the usual forum shenanigans occurred where PL then said that IT would die horribly but had to hastily backtrack as system after system fell. Lots of tears and rage was to be had.

Anyway, it was fun if not a little exhausting.

I was simply a ship of the line captain in this entire time; flying the megathron as per standing orders and really enjoying it.

Once Fountain fell, it was time to consolidate and at the time of writing, systems are being parcelled out each of the main corps in IT Alliance. Dark-Rising has a nice couple of systems where we will call home and some awesome ratting areas too.

Of course, the drums of war continued to pound and most people assumed that we would turn our attention to Delve. -AAA- and friends had already sent in forces to contest the Goons for control and IT were asked to assist. So this week, I got titan bridged into 49-U in Querious (not Delve!) and got lost in the mayhem of the 1500+ pilots in the system.

I managed to get into a friendly POS and sat there until last night when Mitch Taylor organised us into a fleet and directed us out towards Sakht. IT alliance are not going for Delve at the moment; there's a lot of consolidation required in Fountain as well as taking a break. However, the attack by AAA and allies into Delve and Querious had presented a unique opportunity to us so we took it. Anyway, the node died and despite some frantic efforts by AAA to anchor a SBU, it failed. So, I was left there in 49-U until we could leave and that was with Mitch Taylor. Unfortunately, as I was literally only 500 metres from activating the Sahkt gate, after a 17+ jump journey from 49-U, a hostile bomber force came in and unloaded on us. I and a few others lost our ships and pods just metres from being able to jump.

Am now in Serpentis Prime and looking to move more of my assets to our new home. Am sure that eventually, we'll be back in Delve and Querious soon.

The Campaign for PNQY

The attack and the taking of some high-end moons from PL and GOONS was merely a prelude it would seem. With some secrecy, I was asked, no ordered, to fleet fit my megathron and pack plenty of ammunition and drones and to regroup at the friendly POS in 6-C. I arrived ten minutes early synching in with the rest of my alliance mates. Plenty from DARK as well as RKK, EVOL and others. There was an air of excitement and a buzz.

As I dropped out of warp; I arrived at the POS and the huge, awe-inspiring form an Erebus-class titan blotted out the sun. It was there, sitting just inside the shields with dozens of smaller ships zipping around it, finalising whatever it was doing. A large fleet of over two hundred ships had already gathered and it was obvious the titan was going to bridge us somewhere. Rumour had it that we were null-sec bound.

Our fleet commander came online and within moments we jumped to a system; largely empty except a large POS tower and the second titan of the night, this time the Amarr behemoth. We were jump bridged a second time to a third location with a third titan! The logistics back bone to set this up must have cost plenty of isk but we jumped again and this time landed at our destination: FOUNTAIN.

I was immediately put into a fleet of battleship class vessels with two more fleets made up of support and scouts. We then proceeded to attack the towers dotted all around this system. The towers were held by an alliance calling themselves 'Event Horizon' (EH), an alliance that rents this part of space from the bigger Pandemic Alliance (PL) or the Sons of Tangra (Sot); not too sure which one. Our orders for the week were finally revealed to us by SirMolle, the alliance leader. They read simple enough, we were going to take this system and for the first week we would knock down all hostile towers and place our own towers. First order of the day were three towers coming out of reinforced and we warped over to the moon and began destroying the shields and armour of the various modules and then finally the tower. After each tower was destroyed, we placed our own - the idea was to try and reuse all enemy towers if possible. The assault was quite relentless with more and more IT pilots becoming available, replacing the ones we had lost.

EH, PL and GOONS tried to mount a number of counter-attacks but they did not achieve the objective of stopping the system slowly slipping into sovereignty neutrality. Once this was achieved, IT, with it's own towers raised over the fallen EH towers, would take over the station and claim victory.

It was exhausting work, alarm clock ops for me on Sunday and Monday (22nd/23rd) had taken more out of me than I had expected. We killed every hostile tower coming out of reinforced, no matter what time zone; such was the number and dedication of the IT pilots. Quite inspiring to be honest. While the various forums would use kill board statistics to accuse IT of losing the battles, our objectives was to take the system and by the end of the second week - we were well on the way to this.

By the 23rd November 2009, IT had 14 towers up as opposed to the zero towers by Event Horizon. We took down their towers and raised our own in its place; we even decided to try and re-use as many of the pos modules as possible. However, the real prize was the outpost in the system - once the out-lying control towers were replaced, the outpost would become vulnerable and we could send our ships and soldiers to eventually capture it. The clock is ticking now and by the 28th November, the outpost (affectionately called 'Yoshimi' by ex-BoB members) will be held by IT alliance.

There's been plenty of drama notably the 'friendly fire' incident where PL destroyed a SoT titan that was piloted by an ex-BoB member. Under the false accusation of this pilot defecting to re-join his former BoB colleagues now in IT; the titan pilot was caught and destroyed. The irony was that IT alliance had a hate/hate relationship with this titan pilot and would never take him back, titan or no titan. More details are here: From EVE-ONLINE (http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1217733) - the dialogue is, well - fun.

Stuff

Been moving my stuff (again) to another system; been about three major relocations in as many months. While I have sold most of my stuff; I have had to buy and more much more as per corporation guidance. PvP ships in Stain all set up and then the order to relocate.

Oh well, no big deal, I just want to get back into the war. Plenty of ops now being arranged. Let's go.

What is IT?

Finally with some time to update this blog. I haven't dropped off the face of the earth but the last three months in New Eden has been very busy with change upon change. I joined Dark-Rising when I was with the Federal Defence Union and followed DR into Minmatar space and fought alongside the Matari against yet another bunch of fascists, the Amarr.

It went well but the corp had ideas and ambitions beyond just fighting for bunkers and factional warfare and with some secrecy, we were ordered to liquidate as much of our assets as possible and have big, fat wallets and make ready for a trip.

The relocation to Stain was leaked to the various forums but DR arrived into Stain and immediately started hostile actions against Brick-Squad. Most of us had thought that DR would be here to stay in Stain and there was much rejoicing.

Below I include the various jottings during this time, it was never released to the blog but here it is:

The blog has been quiet for a number of reasons of security: Dark-Rising left Faction Warfare and we were sworn to secrecy about our relocation and the organising around it. Suffice it to say, DR along with Rekeiko (RKK) left Minmater space and relocated to Stain. The movement of our ships and equipment was done with as much secrecy as possible using jump freighters from corporations not aligned with DR or RKK. One cannot underestimate the effort that the logistic team in moving millions of tonnes of equipment halfway around the universe.

The journey started with an order by Mitch Taylor to liquidate as much of our assets for isk. We were told to have fat wallets and skinny hangars. It was a good opportunity for spring cleaning and after a semi-fire sale (where most things had to go); I convened at Dabrid as ordered and waited for the first of many titan bridges to Stain.

On the day of the operation, DR pilots gathered together and waited. RKK would be performing the titan bridges and when the Erebus-class titan arrived most of the chatter on the comms went quiet. While the titan class was now a regular feature of most null-sec alliances; it was still something else to see such a magnificient vessel up front and close. Awe-inspiring.

The plan was for Dianabolic in his Erebus Titan to jump bridge us into a target system and then a final jump. However, there was a problem and eventually, the FC decided that the fleet of 60-odd ships was to travel towards 5-J in Stain, through the traditional method. It would be 58 jumps.

So we jumped and jumped; with scouts racing ahead and skirmishers on either side and behind the main fleet - the armada moved steadily through Empire space, then we bade a farewell to Concord and raced through low-sec. Another dozen or so jumps later; low-sec was waved a fond good-bye and we were in null-sec space. Vast, sprawling and lawless. Opportunities await. We still had to keep radio silence for the time being but we got stuck into this particular corner of the galaxy. Fights with BrickSquad and their friends started immediately. We were given a target system to take and we marshalled our resources as best as we could. It looked like a long-term home for us and we all made ready to stay.

However, we were wrong about the long-term stay. In the background, the scattered remnants of BoB/Kenzoku were coalescing and DR has a long history with RKK, one of the founders of BoB/KenZoku alliance. It was with some surprise that a little over two months later, we were given an update: DR was joining up with a new alliance. It had no name nor did we have any idea who were the members but in the following weeks, it was becoming obvious who the other members were. The alliance was christened 'IT' with a sinister looking clown(s) as our motif. i was initiailly unsure whether being associated with clowns is a good idea but with the rebranding and the lovely, eye-catching imagery - most of DR embraced IT.


IT alliance was born and counted Viborg Odyssey, Evolution, Dark-Rising, The Executives (the core from Executive Outcomes) & x13. RKK also joined and it began to look like BoB was back. A quick glance and the alliance pilot total was quite an impressive number - we've become a medium sized alliance quite quickly.

So, the last few missions I had to jump clone back down to Empire to assist with the new alliance mates in removing some troublesome POS. Our orders are to remain in Stain for the time being but there's a strong feeling that the alliance is building up its resources and energies for 'something'. Thank Goodness for jump clones...