tl:dr : when the wrath of wormholespace decend upon you
<< Last chapter
AMA. Thats what they call it. Ask me anything. Pell. The selfproclaimed king of wormholespace had for a long time been mocking every other leader in wormholespace through the Overlords channel. With a thousand men at your back it is not a difficult thing to do either. Taking on wh merc contracts, it was often enough to just send a scout in to scatter the enemies to the wind. Ofc the would be invaders would often be small on numbers themself. But when it happens enough times you get tired of it. And you start complaining about it. This did not sit well with those who considered themself the big forces of wormholespace. And when the AMA hit reddit it was for many the last drop that flooded the cup.
For us, the writing was on the wall. It had been there for some time. Increasing in strength. We knew something could happen. But not when or if. Nevertheless the desicion had been made. We were moving the corp out of Bastion at least. And we intended to do so on a friendly term and stay a part of SYJ for now. Alliance leadership had been informed and the move was scheduled. Deathly moved his stuff out before the weekend even. As I remember it the weekend itself was rather quiet. Calm even. Come Monday a last anom farming op was set up. A nice finish to this chapter I thought to myself. The blood red sky of Bastion had always been there with its warmth to greet us the last months. A different road laid ahead of us now. As my Archon launched from the bay it reflected the sun. I can not recall the sparkle of the blood red reflections in the golden hull anymore. And little did I know that this would be the last time it would ever fly again. The crewmembers signed up for this. They knew they would never return to empire. But they did not know that this would be their final end.
Running anomalies in wormholespace is a very routine thing when you first master it. Some of you might remember our first attempt in an earlier chapter and how wrong it went. But togeather with TWSL we had it mastered down to seconds for efficiency and lazyness. And with that mentality we set out to start the grind. The routine. I was third archon that monday evening. Mostly because I didnt have a loki at hand. A third archon doesnt really fulfill any role. Its just there. Pointless. But gets a share. During the last weeks the life in a 6-6 had been pretty dry and several members complained. Ragerolling brought little to nothing and we were looking at finding a different wormhole to live in for a while. But we had planned to stay in alliance. So we struck up a convo with some new friends in this corp called Imperial Collective and had a chat with them about the future, while running sites. As we progressed through sites one of the others had to drop out so we were down to two archons. But we had the routine.
A bit into it a sabre was spotted on scan. At that moment, as time struck 22:24on the 10th of february, we all knew what was coming. It had the Blood Union tag. What followed however left us breathless. As the bubbles went up the rest of the hostile fleet started showing up on dscan. One after another both capitals and smaller ships showed up on scan. Different tags. Several different tags. As they landed on grid I think we all realised what was happening. Accepting it was harder. Having this happen just days before our planned pulling down of towers was slightly bitter. As they landed they were listed up on mumble. Hard Knocks inc. Verge of Collapse. Sleeper Social Club. Blood Union. These corps and alliances do not gather for just ganking a Capital fleet. This force had but one purpose. And before our first ship died we all knew: The horde had come to Bastion. Everything would burn.
As our site fleet quickly died to overwhelming forces we knew that, after looting, the towers were next in line. First thing to do is always pull valuable assets out of assambly array and hangars. Once the towers hit reinforced that stuff is gone forever. Only ships are avaiable in reinfored mode. Luckily for my corp they started with the towers of Lycosa. Not so lucky for Lycosa. After we saved what we could it had become late evening. Spare pilots in ORLY were sent to TWSL to aid stuff up their archon aswell. Then as the US tz leaders logged on the question was raised. What happen now? The answer from Pell was not very uplifting. They had towertimers in khanid coming out next evening so they couldn't come. There are few words to describe the feeling most of our corp members were left with after that reply. At that moment most of us in ORLY agreed silently that this alliance was not something we wanted to stay with. To set the mood the alliance meeting ended in a big troll.
During the night more corps/alliances trickled in to put their name on killmails. Whale Girth, Sky Fighters, Ragnarok among them.
The next day went pretty much into logging caps at safespots and then the mandatory diplomatic talks. Now I will do something very out of the ordinary. I will give you the copy of the entire diplomatic talk (cut slightly at end and beginning). Its not much really and it is with the deepest respect I do this towards the participants of this chat. Most were marked by the moment aswell as being a political debate it does not reflect how people are as persons. I will throw in some commentaries aswell to let you know our standing point. So set the stage, pull down your curtains and light that cigar. Gloves off and eyes straight forward.
During the night more corps/alliances trickled in to put their name on killmails. Whale Girth, Sky Fighters, Ragnarok among them.
The next day went pretty much into logging caps at safespots and then the mandatory diplomatic talks. Now I will do something very out of the ordinary. I will give you the copy of the entire diplomatic talk (cut slightly at end and beginning). Its not much really and it is with the deepest respect I do this towards the participants of this chat. Most were marked by the moment aswell as being a political debate it does not reflect how people are as persons. I will throw in some commentaries aswell to let you know our standing point. So set the stage, pull down your curtains and light that cigar. Gloves off and eyes straight forward.
[ 2014.02.11 17:30:58 ] Axloth Okiah > ill invite some other peeps from our side, is that ok?
[ 2014.02.11 17:31:52 ] calaretu > ofcourse
[ 2014.02.11 17:32:22 ] James Arget > hello space friends!
[ 2014.02.11 17:32:29 ] calaretu > hello :)
[ 2014.02.11 17:32:40 ] Cheung Fu > evening :)
[ 2014.02.11 17:32:44 ] Lamhoofd Hashur > o/
[ 2014.02.11 17:32:53 ] Axloth Okiah > we have CSM here, just to type it all down, notary of sorts
[ 2014.02.11 17:32:57 ] James Arget > hathrul was talking with me but i guess he's got some connection issues
[ 2014.02.11 17:33:17 ] calaretu > yeah he pulled me on ts and then dropped
[ 2014.02.11 17:33:32 ] Axloth Okiah > he did the same
[ 2014.02.11 17:35:02 ] James Arget > So, hathrul was telling me that you guys would like to drop SYJ
[ 2014.02.11 17:35:31 ] James Arget > what kind of assets do you have in J133906 right now?
[ 2014.02.11 17:35:56 ] Cheung Fu > ive no idea what im doing, and wasnt gonna think about it for a couple of weeks really
[ 2014.02.11 17:36:04 ] Cheung Fu > but dont really have much left so pretty irrelevant :)
[ 2014.02.11 17:36:45 ] James Arget > are any of the towers yours?Getting right down to business and making us feel somewhat welcome.
[ 2014.02.11 17:36:52 ] Cheung Fu > well ye the 3 TWSL ones
[ 2014.02.11 17:36:55 ] calaretu > 6 towers belong to my corp
[ 2014.02.11 17:36:59 ] calaretu > rest are lycosa
[ 2014.02.11 17:37:46 ] calaretu > o/ Hathrul
[ 2014.02.11 17:37:47 ] Hathrul > :)
[ 2014.02.11 17:37:49 ] Hathrul > moar chats
[ 2014.02.11 17:37:57 ] Cheung Fu > lol hey hathrul
[ 2014.02.11 17:38:17 ] Axloth Okiah > i have half my screen covered in chats
[ 2014.02.11 17:38:41 ] Axloth Okiah > any luck with lycosa?
[ 2014.02.11 17:38:53 ] calaretu > no answer on ping yet sadly. will try som others
[ 2014.02.11 17:39:02 ] Axloth Okiah > thank you
[ 2014.02.11 17:41:27 ] Axloth Okiah > the baseline is, our quarrel is with Pell and his "ways", so we see not much sense in hurting WH corps beyong making our point clear
[ 2014.02.11 17:42:07 ] Axloth Okiah > esp. since he kinda sacrificed these corporations for his egoStrategy of the night: divide and conquor
[ 2014.02.11 17:44:09 ] StarConquer212 > o/As we already had made our decission about course of action we wanted to explore what options we were given. Many of these corps were people we would run into from time to time in wormholespace
[ 2014.02.11 17:44:12 ] StarConquer212 > Good morning
[ 2014.02.11 17:44:16 ] Lamhoofd Hashur > at least we're complete now it seems
[ 2014.02.11 17:44:25 ] Axloth Okiah > except someone from lycosa
[ 2014.02.11 17:45:12 ] calaretu > its the middle of the night in australia so might be difficult to get them on atm
[ 2014.02.11 17:45:46 ] StarConquer212 > playing a bit of catch up
[ 2014.02.11 17:48:29 ] Axloth Okiah > so, how would you two Cheung Fu calaretu see this ending?
[ 2014.02.11 17:48:53 ] calaretu > preferably with as much assets intact as possible I'd say :P
[ 2014.02.11 17:49:54 ] Axloth Okiah > you already have carriers logged off right?Please? Pretty please?
[ 2014.02.11 17:50:01 ] Axloth Okiah > in deepsafes
[ 2014.02.11 17:50:16 ] calaretu > we got most logged off.
[ 2014.02.11 17:51:19 ] Axloth Okiah > Cheung Fu ?
[ 2014.02.11 17:51:29 ] Cheung Fu > i mostly have towers at this point tbh
[ 2014.02.11 17:51:39 ] Cheung Fu > most of my caps died yesterday :)
[ 2014.02.11 17:51:43 ] Axloth Okiah > lol
[ 2014.02.11 17:53:03 ] Axloth Okiah > ok, heres a suggestion, you leave SYJ, do your own thing and we let you leave with your pods and a ship around each pod, and we keep whatever it is you cant fly out
[ 2014.02.11 17:55:12 ] Axloth Okiah > because you can do better than being punching bags for whenever he pisses off everyone in wspace again
[ 2014.02.11 17:58:06 ] calaretu > when you say ship, does that include every kind of ship? If we lets say want to bring out capitals?
[ 2014.02.11 18:00:11 ] Axloth Okiah > you can use one C6 massMoving in with the classic stance for argument. They offer us to keep no capitals. We offer to give no capitals
[ 2014.02.11 18:02:50 ] Axloth Okiah > and of course we keep every single T2 BPO you have here :)
[ 2014.02.11 18:03:01 ] Lamhoofd Hashur > lol
[ 2014.02.11 18:03:09 ] StarConquer212 > lolo
[ 2014.02.11 18:03:11 ] calaretu > hehe. oh yes those..
[ 2014.02.11 18:04:09 ] Cheung Fu > they definitely exist
[ 2014.02.11 18:04:24 ] calaretu > I really appreciate the offer, but wouldnt we be better off just staying logged for some weeks and bring ships out at a later time?
[ 2014.02.11 18:04:40 ] StarConquer212 > lol noFarming 101 from Hathrul right there :P But them having a humor between themself is a good sign. Means they have a good mood in their fleet and enjoying themself. For now. That reduces the risk for long time grudges to be born
[ 2014.02.11 18:04:43 ] StarConquer212 > we are seling this wormhole
[ 2014.02.11 18:04:47 ] StarConquer212 > to another pvp group
[ 2014.02.11 18:04:58 ] StarConquer212 > this is coming to come a very active hole for what will be quiet awile
[ 2014.02.11 18:05:04 ] StarConquer212 > *this is going
[ 2014.02.11 18:08:20 ] Axloth Okiah > at any rate, you'd probably be better off using these toons right away, instead of waiting here to maybe get out some weeks from now and sacrificing everyone else's stuff in the process
[ 2014.02.11 18:09:30 ] StarConquer212 > Pell didn't make any of the big boy wormhole groups happy by saying things such as "we could invade every C6 in the game and no one could stop us" or "we are the most fear and powerful group in w space"
[ 2014.02.11 18:09:50 ] StarConquer212 > our issue is with him not you, this place will be burned and salted because of his public statements
[ 2014.02.11 18:10:06 ] StarConquer212 > and new fields shall be tended for growth
[ 2014.02.11 18:11:16 ] Hathrul > if you salt the fields nothing will grow for about a century
[ 2014.02.11 18:11:22 ] Hathrul > depending on the rainfall
[ 2014.02.11 18:11:34 ] Axloth Okiah > its GM salt-resistant cropsBeside from being true this gives them the upper hand as the tactic they approached with for divide and conquor is partly confirmed to be working
[ 2014.02.11 18:11:43 ] StarConquer212 > this is space i can't hear your opinion
[ 2014.02.11 18:11:45 ] StarConquer212 > here
[ 2014.02.11 18:11:49 ] StarConquer212 > =)
[ 2014.02.11 18:11:59 ] calaretu > I believe you. As far as SYJ goes my corp is leaving anyway. The question for us now is what we got avaiable to rebuild with when moving back out as a new entity
[ 2014.02.11 18:12:31 ] StarConquer212 > well we are reasonible people, we can come a accord that works for both partys my good sirI am trying to strech the goal here. Well to be honest we did in fact have those numbers in capitals and orcas. Lycosa had 14 capitals and ORLY had 7. TWSL had 2-3 left or something close to that.
[ 2014.02.11 18:12:50 ] calaretu > I like the sound of that
[ 2014.02.11 18:13:41 ] Lamhoofd Hashur > so tell us, what do you have in this hole (mostly ship wise) and maybe we can start working together to figure out exit strategies
[ 2014.02.11 18:15:22 ] Axloth Okiah > ok, let me sweeten the pot: you can take one T2 BPO out
[ 2014.02.11 18:26:04 ] StarConquer212 > alright so lets do this
[ 2014.02.11 18:26:10 ] StarConquer212 > what would you like to remove
[ 2014.02.11 18:27:55 ] calaretu > as you surely understand we dont want to give exact numbers of our ships. in regards to mass needed would you be willing to go up to 10 c6 masses?
[ 2014.02.11 18:29:04 ] StarConquer212 > 30 caps worth?We had the patience to wait out the invasion so this was not really an option for us
[ 2014.02.11 18:29:14 ] StarConquer212 > No
[ 2014.02.11 18:31:27 ] calaretu > hm. thats a bit high maybe. As I dont have lycosa's overview either. What would you be willing to go up to?
[ 2014.02.11 18:33:55 ] Lamhoofd Hashur > ok, next idea, we'll split the caps 1:1 and everybody who doesn't fly a cap can bring out a subcap on their own
[ 2014.02.11 18:34:20 ] StarConquer212 > so give us 1 cap take 1 cap out
[ 2014.02.11 18:34:37 ] StarConquer212 > orca's and freighters fall into cap department
[ 2014.02.11 18:34:51 ] StarConquer212 > think that is fair
[ 2014.02.11 18:35:07 ] Axloth Okiah > and we get half of T2 BPOsTrying to either round off or see if they are willing to budge above the 50:50. A 75:25 in our favour would be something at least my corp could possibly agree to
[ 2014.02.11 18:36:33 ] calaretu > hmmm.. must admit I still favour being logged off if so
[ 2014.02.11 18:36:58 ] StarConquer212 > your decision, but do you really want to play for eve to be logged off for weeks or months at a time
[ 2014.02.11 18:37:11 ] StarConquer212 > its only a game, we will meet you half way and let you go on your way
[ 2014.02.11 18:37:16 ] StarConquer212 > Fight us
[ 2014.02.11 18:37:18 ] calaretu > oh we got enough accounts on each person
[ 2014.02.11 18:37:21 ] StarConquer212 > and we will follow you
[ 2014.02.11 18:37:49 ] StarConquer212 > SSC, Kill, VoC, BU. Can pretty effectively find people when we need to
[ 2014.02.11 18:38:05 ] Lamhoofd Hashur > you heard our deal, come with a counter offer which might get us a bit closer
[ 2014.02.11 18:42:12 ] calaretu > we dont wish to start any future bad relationship between us as you came to hurt Pell. which I fully understand. For our sake we made our peace with all the loss of assets yesterday and just wish to let our pilots who are logged of stay that way as long
[ 2014.02.11 18:42:14 ] calaretu > as needed
[ 2014.02.11 18:42:34 ] calaretu > and then move out and start over
[ 2014.02.11 18:42:58 ] James Arget > 1:1, move out now, what's not to like?Typical. Happens in fleets aswell. I guess its just the age
[ 2014.02.11 18:44:50 ] calaretu > brb. kid woke up
[ 2014.02.11 18:44:57 ] Axloth Okiah > so you'd rather stay logged off than not stay logged off? that makes no sense at allThis is the core of why they would agree to this talk. To increase their own gain from this endavour. Which tbh is very natural.
[ 2014.02.11 18:45:32 ] Lamhoofd Hashur > so, would you suggest that you will be unable to start over if we only let half of your caps out (through the 1:1 deal)?
[ 2014.02.11 18:45:34 ] Axloth Okiah > let us hear your suggestion then
[ 2014.02.11 18:50:29 ] calaretu > oh everyone logged off are 2nd and third accounts. Our main accounts was promptly podded out yesterday mostly :P
[ 2014.02.11 18:51:22 ] StarConquer212 > i think you have a large amount of assets to move out, meet us half way
[ 2014.02.11 18:51:46 ] StarConquer212 > if we seeded caps in Russia tz we will set up towers and put a active group in here
[ 2014.02.11 18:51:57 ] StarConquer212 > you won't be getting caps out in that senerio
[ 2014.02.11 18:52:04 ] StarConquer212 > be more messy
[ 2014.02.11 18:52:10 ] StarConquer212 > we have to provide content to our guys
[ 2014.02.11 18:52:35 ] StarConquer212 > rob us of a fair deal and content for our pilots you risk souring our new relationship after you leave SYJAlright so we strained them for too long. Better to just close of now. We came into this conversation expecting to save 90% of our stuff by just logging it off. We didnt get a better option so are leaving with what we came with
[ 2014.02.11 18:53:03 ] calaretu > would you be willing to let our pilots back in for said content?
[ 2014.02.11 18:53:44 ] StarConquer212 > to log off more things? you have more caps then pilots
[ 2014.02.11 18:53:57 ] StarConquer212 > i think you will have to give us some caps
[ 2014.02.11 18:54:03 ] StarConquer212 > first to show your intentions
[ 2014.02.11 18:55:09 ] StarConquer212 > TLC already wants to move in here
[ 2014.02.11 18:55:14 ] StarConquer212 > a little burning of there system
[ 2014.02.11 18:55:22 ] StarConquer212 > makes for be relations
[ 2014.02.11 18:55:31 ] StarConquer212 > and a willingness to hunt every one left in here when we leave
[ 2014.02.11 18:55:44 ] StarConquer212 > *makes for a bad relation
[ 2014.02.11 18:56:09 ] Axloth Okiah > we already made several offers to you, if youre trying to stall we have no trouble just keep on bashing and then help TLC to set up here
[ 2014.02.11 18:56:13 ] calaretu > TLC moving in? That may actually make Pell convert to wspace again :D
[ 2014.02.11 18:56:26 ] Axloth Okiah > that would be swell
[ 2014.02.11 18:56:32 ] calaretu > that would be content
[ 2014.02.11 18:56:38 ] StarConquer212 > good then we can come aswell
[ 2014.02.11 18:56:39 ] Axloth Okiah > we are all for content
[ 2014.02.11 18:57:35 ] StarConquer212 > i think Pell has left your w space groups high and dry
[ 2014.02.11 18:57:51 ] StarConquer212 > i hightly dought he wants to fight our blob
[ 2014.02.11 18:57:57 ] Axloth Okiah > if you dont want to make deal just tell us now so we are not wasting everyone's time
[ 2014.02.11 18:58:10 ] StarConquer212 > ya we are like two seconds away from leaving comvo and you get nothing
[ 2014.02.11 18:58:15 ] StarConquer212 > and a bad realtion shiopImportant. Always be polite as much as you can :P Especially when having a knife to your throat. What we want now is for them to just finish of towers. Get complacent and not bother guarding the wh for another week and we will have loads of opportunity to move out ships
[ 2014.02.11 18:58:16 ] StarConquer212 > for the future
[ 2014.02.11 18:58:26 ] StarConquer212 > good luck every living in w space again
[ 2014.02.11 18:58:26 ] calaretu > yeah I think we might aswell call it. I wont get my people to agree to a 1:1
[ 2014.02.11 18:58:38 ] Axloth Okiah > same for Cheung Fu ?
[ 2014.02.11 18:58:40 ] StarConquer212 > good by enjoy loving everything
[ 2014.02.11 18:58:49 ] James Arget > that's regretable. :/
[ 2014.02.11 18:58:50 ] Lamhoofd Hashur > you haven't suggested anything else, so that doesn't help either
[ 2014.02.11 18:58:56 ] Cheung Fu > i have nothing of value to move anymore, i was being serious lol
[ 2014.02.11 18:59:04 ] Cheung Fu > my corp was very cap light
[ 2014.02.11 18:59:05 ] Axloth Okiah > i meant your whole corp
[ 2014.02.11 18:59:22 ] Axloth Okiah > well ok then, convo some of us if you happen to change your mind
[ 2014.02.11 18:59:36 ] calaretu > thank you for offer tho
[ 2014.02.11 18:59:37 ] Cheung Fu > ya in my public anyways :)
[ 2014.02.11 18:59:53 ] Axloth Okiah > perhaps Pell letting you hang over US tz will help with thatThis is a true point. As a ceo your responsibility towards the morale of your members is a vital area to pay attention to. I noticed a big difference myself in our members in regards to how we dealt with the two prior invasions.
[ 2014.02.11 19:01:20 ] calaretu > as said. we're leaving SYJ anyway so what Pell decide to do really doesnt matter much at this stage. He already brought this on us
[ 2014.02.11 19:03:28 ] calaretu > so apparently we're going off with a great start already trying to recover from what SYJ has cost us.
[ 2014.02.11 19:04:05 ] calaretu > but giving away capitals for free would demolish my members. I cant go down that road sadly
[ 2014.02.11 19:05:55 ] Axloth Okiah > we let you leave with all your stuff either
[ 2014.02.11 19:06:05 ] Axloth Okiah > *cannot
[ 2014.02.11 19:06:23 ] calaretu > Ofc not. That would make your members furious
[ 2014.02.11 19:06:44 ] Axloth Okiah > yeah, we had people lined up to see SYJ's "blood"
[ 2014.02.11 19:06:55 ] Cheung Fu > tbh i think you guys were lied to about whats in here
[ 2014.02.11 19:07:12 ] Axloth Okiah > you mean those "trilions"?
[ 2014.02.11 19:07:26 ] calaretu > So imo its better you get to burn our towers and sma's. Let your members have the rage over Pell they wanted. then we just fade away as insignificant again
At the end of the day we just logged off everything we wanted to save. What did we loose in the end? One dread. That was all. And a few smaller ships left in sma's. (My Sin being the most notable of them.) Everything else we could scoop into carriers and orcas we managed to get out. "How can that be?" you may ask. Well patience is a virtue stronger than any invading force. Patience and endurance are such a strong force they can break a camel's back. Even while moving in TLC had no consistent control on the wormhole and even the day after the eviction we moved out several caps and orcas. Through the static. A single pilot from Whale Girth was all that was there to try and stop us. He managed to tackle a moros and batphone NOHO who was down the chain (Whale Girth pilot was not allowed to be on killmail as he himself became a target for NOHO's fleet). More followed the following days. Everything was moved out. TLC did not even make a serious attempt at stopping the evacuation. And so it came to pass our days with SYJ was numbered. And we left in peace, or well not really. But this affected corp deeply. Every one of our pilots who had now been in lowsec for months and not been in leadership had a very different experience than the bunch of guys in wormholespace. So the guys from lowsec split out and reformed under Axial Tilt. A few members went over to TWSL to stay with SYJ. And a few were just completely burnt out at this stage. And so a mere shadow of the corp remained. Battered and beaten. Scrambling togeather what stuff we had, supporting our weight on the broken spear as we staggered our feet back under ourself. Lifitng the visir, and as the blood trickled down our cheek from the crushing defeat we had been dragged through we once again grasped for what strength was left and dared to open our eyes and look at the sun. The sun in all its glory and splendour. Every day it rises up from darkness. A beacon of hope, of a better tomorrow. It light up your path and turns the slippery shades into firm fields of grass. Maybe, just maybe, tomorrow would be better. Maybe.
