Withdrawn from X-7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.

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.

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.

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...