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.