Storytime 7: Ouroboros

tl:dr new wh, new invasion

<<Last chapter

That was the name we chose. A new wormhole. A new corp. A new hope. But most of the same people. A rather cumbersome name to pronounce on ts tho. But the new wormhole was empty so we could live with that. Once we bought the route to the wormhole we set up towers first thing. To mark our territory. Piss on the fence so to speak. To tell the world that we make claim to this system. We called this new home Ouruboros. I think that was Deathly's idea. The name that is. After wasting two days on choosing a name for the new corp we didnt bother that much with the name of our new home

  We did try a short attempt at faction warfare inbetween. It has been a part of the game that I never really tried out before even tho many people love it and take part in it all the time. I must admit I never really got the love for FW. Even when I tried it. My heart went back to wspace. The draw and allure of the unknown. Where you can hunt without the local intel. Such a small thing makes such a big difference. 

  

Ouroboros. The serpent that bite its own tail. Maybe there was a deeper meaning there that escaped us. A quote from the books by R. Jordan comes to mind as I write this:

“The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.”

And as we set out to again to settle in a new system history itself cought up to us. What had been would be again and as the dust settled in our old home (now baptised "Max" by the new inhabitants) the dust would now be stirred in our new home, a wolf rayet c5 with c3 static.

Soon after anchoring the first towers I was convoed by a leading member in Verge of Collapse. He was also trying to sell the same wormhole to a different person. Oh joy. Soon thereafter we got a application from NCC 1701E. His API revealed one of his alts already inside our new home. So this was the second buyer. His mails revealed they had already named our system so apparently an invasion was planned. After a short discussion we decided we would benefit more by offering them a friendly solution. So we accepted his app under the condition he kept his api active.

He spent his time with us soloing in lowsec and telling us how good he was. Not very impressive. One morning we were "informed" he had started moving capitals inside our wormhole. The lack of a certain direct lowsec that spawned the evening before confirmed this. So we stripped his roles and told him he would be booted. We also started making preparations for the invasion that was coming soon. Unlike last time these guys didnt look like having any proper way of calling reinforcements. He kept bragging about having been in Verge of Collapse, but when they connected to Ouroboros and closed again without seeding anything it didnt seem likely they would bother.

And true enough. One morning we woke up to one tower in RF. They didnt manage to RF the other tower due to neuting power. Really they did not have the manpower for this. Their corp Criterion was part of a c6 alliance called Laughing Men. Alliance killboard was anything but active. But we called in mercs anyway. The chosen merc to aid us was Surely Your Joking. At the possability of cap kills our friends in eve ryuken brought a 20 man fleet from ixtab aswell. Even SSC, through Chitsa, offered to bring people in to aid. But we kindly told them it might get a bit crowded with that many entities. We already had superior cap power initially and now also vastly superior manpower with both SYJ and ixtab. present aswell. It was no longer a question about if we could win but what way to destroy them would be best. 

 Leader of SYJ, Pell Helix, wanted to preferably do a pure blitz attack on the invasion fleet to wipe their capitals. But sensing a somewhat unrest in our corp due to the recent batphone to KILL turned up empty I asked for a controlled repulshion of the hostile forces.

On a spur I jumped into the Laughing men public channel and made insinuation that having Criterion in their members list could be a bad desicion. Told Bradford Clear what I did (he was our main contact in SYJ for this contract) and he did the same. No direct threats, just suggestions. But one thing you can always count on in wormholespace is peoples paranoia and stupidity. NCC had left his api on an alt active. We had access to all their corp and alliance mail. and the hilarity that assumed when Laughing Mens paranoia kicked in was worth every isk we payed for the merc contract. I will just say that moving all capitals to one tower when excpecting someone to rageroll and invade you is not a good strategy.

In Ouroboros however, Criterions tower was put into reinforced the very same day. They attempted to bump us but end result was still the same. They did not dare to attempt to reinforce our second tower. But when the timer on our first approached they made an attempt. Following Pells instruction we had set the timer to exit in us tz. Us having noone online made criterion risk it and put out capitals to kill our tower. The logged of SYJ fleet made quick work of one their Moros. A shame the others escaped. But this blow put them on the defensive. And accounting for offline fleets ready to log on gives their courage a push down. (Except for NCC who apparently still thought he could win this. Or so the rumors say). Criterion set up a new tower to delay us and make the contract more expensive, but we dealt with it on our own. Reinforce and bubble. As the day passed they anchored guns and shot down the bubbles. 

(In the middle of nowhere we suddenly get a whisper that TLC are on their way. We roll the entrance for safety but never get to verify if this was actually happening)

As the evening approaches we make ready the nightshift that will, togeather with SYJ, wipe away Criterions towers. And so it does. Criterion attempt to launch more towers but they die before they online.

The following day we rebubble the last tower and incap all their modules. As they start to selfdestruct stuff our victory for this round are confirmed. Tower is killed and as a final finish we set up flycatchers (towers without forcefield but online guns and bubbles around) where they logged off capitals.

Epilogue: 
Apparently SYJ liked flying with us and conversations about us joining them started up. We all wanted a somewhat easier life after the rollercoster of the last months. Being invited as a corp to join alliance let us stay togeather as a group aswell. We decided to accept the invitation and began the process of joining. As a nice finish to the conflict with Criterion we offered them to buy the wormhole from us. I think NCC didnt like to buy the wormhole he tried to take by force but after internal pressure they accepted the offer. Assets was transfered to them, and we joined SYJ and moved into their C6. Just to find that the majority of their alliance just moved out of it. Interesting. Not what we expected.

Next chapter >>

Storytime 6: Dreams fade as steel burn

<< Last chapter

There is something beautiful about the autumn. The evening gets darker. The leaves start loosing their green colour of summer. A chill wind tell the story of a winter coming.

For me August the 16th started off like any other day. Waking up early and putting on the coffee. No work so when coffee was done I turned on my computer and launched Eve. As my ship is landing inside forcefield I am greated by the sense of panic. The frantic eyes of our few US people and our token aussie scream at me through corp chat. Their hands must still be shaking of the adrenalin that have kept them awake. Ingame mail was blinking red of desperation. A group of capitals was working on reinforcing our last tower. We were being invaded. And this time it was no half hearted attempt either. First thing first. Who was invading us? Semper Ubi Sub Ubi. A us tz c4 pvp corp.

Not even two weeks prior had we taken on one of their members. Hawk Crimson (or better known as Vimple). His claim of boredom in the c4 was to our ears very believable having come from the same class ourself in the spring. His purpose of infiltration was now too obvious but too late to change. Anyway. Removed his roles but he had already deleted all our corp bookmarks. Didnt take long to remake for towers tho. Next thing. Make a custom chat channel as he had access to anything written in corp channel. Time to survey the situation. Now Deathly and the others who had been up during the night had made a good job of noting down the pilots involved. Aprox 20 chars was counted. A quick check on eve-kill revealed them usually flying with only about 10 in fleet. This is not the usual burn and pillage then. They called out every bit of manpower they had. They came to this wormhole to live here.

Now I had been listening to the dtp podcast for some time but never read the blog of their ceo. While researching them tho their battleplan was written in black. They planned to throw all their effort into this operation.As MD74, jeraadt, grimch and manira logged on we started to evaluate what our options were.

Scenario 1
We batphone friends and try to get them in for defense. A full on attack in our prime could break their wormholecontrol and get reinforcement in. They would however be able to return the favor in their primetime and get in reinforcement themself. Furthermore, their connections could probably make our connections want to stay out of the conflict

Scenario 2
We wait for RF timer and go all out attack on their main fleet. However none of us has ever flown a capital in pvp and come out victorious. SUSU have however experienced pilots in this aspect.

Scenario 3
We call it a loss and just move on.

 Think we spent less than an hour debating and decided in the end to go with option 1 and 3. We had the ships and pilots needed to take them on. But the players behind the pilots did for the most part not have the spirit to take the fight. Among them some key members. But if we could get reinforcements that could change. (At the same time I sat with the feeling that every time we got invaded we called reinforcement.) However we contacted some friends in Lead Farmers [KILL] and asked if they would be willing to come. They were very positive and said they would try to rally alliance (possible 100 man fleet. That is huge for wormholespace) but needed a ok from leadership first. Knowing that SUSU had a member that was former diplo in SSC (it was a very known fact at the time that KILL and SSC were best of buddies) made us unsure however if this would work. As the invading force start logging of part of their fleet and move the rest to guarding our entrance we start moving our capitals and orcas to safespots and log them off. And then we start the diplomatic talks.

Out of the blue suddenly a k162 to Exhale (big merc alliance, decendants of the Narwhals empire) open up. We turn around and try to get hold of them. No response. Not in public chat and not to convos. And here comes SUSU closing party. Orca+Moros and the wormhole is gone. So much for that opportunity.

Anyway. The night dwindle away and we just tell people to go to sleep. Nothing will happen for us in their primetime. The next day we get ready for either a slaughter or reinforcement. Some members who lost their will to "live" starts self destructing ships. This spurs a request to buy ships by SUSU. Some members jump on this option. Some just keep selfdestructing.

During the day we get word back from from Lead Farmers. They want to stay out of the conflict. Sooner or later this means the wormhole is lost. No matter what we do. On coms the mood turn to resignation. Some are tired of the situation. Some are tired of the game as a whole. Some want to fight but dont even wish to argue the point when faced with this. So we call it a loss and decide to start looking ahead. To what we will do next. Reinforce timer is still several hours ahead. We start up diplo talks again and arrange a deal for people to move out one ship and firesale the rest.

As we are taking stock of what will be lost of assets we realise the t3 production we had going had been stockpiling assets. Too much assets. In addition to the ships being sold off this will be a huge loss. We try to negotiate for letting towers regen shield to online and take out assets but this is turned down by the attacking party. (They dont fully trust us :o. Who would imagine ) However the deal we get to get out ships let most people leave the wormhole with most of their assets intact, but some of their battlespirit is left behind. I think that goes for all of us. But we were still new to c5 space and we knew this could happen. The loss was accepted and we were planning for the road ahead.

And so it goes. One by one people are escorted out. As reinforcement timer approaches we finalize the agreements. I offer to take down forcefield of the first POS but some misunderstanding happens and I wake up in HS :)

In the end change come to us all. Either willing or forced upon us. You either accept the tide of change or you try to fight it. But in the end change happen anyway. Some things are just beyond your control. And the man who welcome change and learn to live with it goes away the wiser. 

~unknown

And so we decided to call upon the waves of change, as our home was no longer ours. And so ends the story of the corporation known as No Self Esteem. As the leaves of autumn fell to the ground and the sun rose anew we formed a new corporation (after two days of debating the name) known as "Honestly We didnt know" [.ORLY] and again set our eyes upon the promised lands of unknown space. This time we would just get a wormhole where noone lived so we could establish in peace and learn to be better at pvp. At least that was our hope. Thats not how it turned out.


(Read this story from the invaders point of view here and watch here )

Continue to Part 7 >>

Incoming transmission

Capsuleers log 060714 1216

//Entry 003

>Activation from dorment state without detection success
>Scanner detect no ships in central position in solarsystem
>Visual of target structures aquired
>All ships unpiloted
>No lifesign detected

//Active: dorment state
>...
>...
>...
//dorment state aquired

<You have been disconnected>