Rifter Drifter

Well, after the failed invasion of H-W9TY combat operations in the North dwindled to nothing more than a few roaming gangs. People were starting to ask why we were up there and what we were doing. While this was happening people were continuing to evacuate assets from H-W9TY and I’d gone AWOL for a while.

Now I’m back, though, and we just got word from Manfred that its time to pack our bags and move South. We weren’t prepared for the invasion of the North. Everything had been rushed, we didn’t have objectives, and we lacked the FCs to mount a serious campaign. On top of that we’d also been slowly shedding some of our better PvPers and small gang FCs. So we’re heading back to Catch to lick our wounds, learn our lessons, train some FCs, and reset all but our closest friends. Hopefully the future involves roaming, fun, and far less burnout.

For us the Northern campaign was a failure but then nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Anyway, after a couple of weeks away I’ve logged back in, undocked, got shot at, shot at people, and docked up in the same ship I started in. Maybe soon I’ll have some stories to tell.

So after a successful day on Monday it seems like we are now back to square one in H-W9TY. Despite winning control of the system we were unable to hold onto it an the Northern Coalition managed to get some serious numbers into the system. By the time our POSes were coming out of reinforced there were over 1600 people in local with the vast majority of them being hostiles. There was pretty much nothing we could do about it and it wasn’t long before the node crashed and gave up the ghost. After three hours of trying to log in (I gave up after one) the order was given to stand down and reform for another attempt today.

At least our allies were able to take advantage of the NC’s home defence effort to relieve them of sovereignty in 6GWE-A, E9KD-N, MI60-6, O-N8XZ, and C8-CHY as well as Ev0ke destroying the infrastructure hub in EC-P8R. So things could be far worse. Let’s see what we do next…

Well, well. No sooner do I complain that the war in the north is boring and that we don’t seem to be doing anything than we shift it up a couple of gears. The Southern Allies had, until recently, been operating as individual alliances and this allowed the Northern Coalition to bring their superior numbers and organisation to bear far too easily. About a week ago Against ALL Authorities began to work closely with Atlas, Gentleman’s Club, and Cult of War. We started to share communications channels and this definitely boosted our effectiveness. Joint fleets began to operate and things started to run more smoothly.

On Saturday morning I logged on and joined a fleet that had formed. We were taking battleships to a fight in KQK1-2 where we had a battle with the North at a POS. As downtime approached we made full speed back to X-7OMU, IT’s staging system in Pure Blind. At this point the weather outside was looking pretty nice and I decided to go and make the most of it while it lasted. We had an important CTA planned for Sunday and I wanted to be around for it if I could.

As it happened I was unable to log in on Sunday so it was Monday morning before I was able to think about getting Wensley home. Imagine my surprise when I logged into TeamSpeak to see Sir Molle leading our fleet and our Jabber channel to be full of IT Alliance. I was even more shocked to learn that instead of the slow drag of opportunistically hitting POSes and fleets where we could there had been a massive change in policy. Just like in Providence it had been decided that we were going to stop messing around and go straight for the jugular. H-W9TY is Morsus Mihi’s capital system. It lies at the heart of their empire and is also the de facto centre of the whole NC’s operations. Personally I think this was an excellent decision. We could have spent months chipping away at the edges of the NC’s territory while they slowly fell back to Tribute. The long, slow process would have drained our will and numbers until eventually the assault would have petered out just like the other invasions before it. This way we cut straight to the heart of the matter and both sides get to battle it out over key systems. The next few weeks should be full of amazing battles for both sides.

Enough of that, though. On to business. Wensley hitched a titan ride from Shrike (Sir Molle’s alt) and moved to 15W-GC where half of the allied fleet was holding. On Sunday the Southern allies had erected SBUs in H-W9TY and moved in a capital and supercapital fleet. The station and infrastructure hub were both reinforced and then the station was locked down to prevent the coalition from mounting a defence. At about 5am on Monday morning the NC had been able to break the station camp and had reinforced several of the South’s staging POSes. Our sub-captial fleet was split between H-W9TY and 15W-GC with a large (150ish) Northern fleet on the MSHD-4 gate keeping us from entering H-W9TY. By downtime on Monday our numbers were growing but we did not have sufficient firepower to attempt to break through the camp.

After downtime our numbers continued to grow as more titans ferried reinforcements from X-7OMU and Aunenen. At 1300 we got word that an NC support fleet was heading from H-W9TY towards 15W-GC. The order was given for our battleship fleet to adopt sniping positions and our tackle prepared itself at the gate. Twenty minutes later the hostile fleet jumped in and, from the safety of our snipe points, we were able to inflict large amounts of damage before they warped off. Some stragglers returned to the gate and we soon despatched them. It was a short but brutal fight and now the way to H-W9TY was clear.

Our fleet in H-W9TY warped to a snipe spot on the MSHD-4 gate and began to engage the Northern fleet. Both sides deployed capital ships and supercapitals. As the fight broke out we moved with best speed to lend a hand and jumped into H-W9TY to find the gate surrounded by large bubbles. The sheer number of people in the fight (about 600 or so in local at this point) meant that it took a long time for us to load grid but at least we got into system without any major mishaps. The hostile fleet was fully engaged and we were able to burn out of the bubbles and warp back in to join the main fleet. By now the numbers were starting to rise and the capital fleet had released its drones. Lag was beginning to really affect things and it took me several minutes to load grid each time I warped in. Both my modules and targeting systems suffered from huge activation delays (as did everyone else’s) and by the time we were able to get reasonable DPS onto a target they warped out more often than not. At one point I was primaried by the hostile fleet but a lack of bubbles and the inability to easily bring fire to bear meant I was able to warp off with more than half my armour still intact. The fight was long and bloody but eventually our capital fleet was able to gain the upper hand. At the same time we were beginning to take control of the battleship and support fights and forced the NC from the field.

With our fleet now united and with control of the system we began to resurrect our station camp and pick off any stragglers in safespots. Once the system was under control I logged off and went to go stretch my legs. When I came back later that evening our main battleship fleet was off killing the sovereignty structures in 4-ABS8. While they were away there was a brief flurry of NC action but our capital fleet warped to the station and kept the situation under control. At this point I logged off with the infrastructure hub due to come out of reinforced in a couple of hours but no way that I could stay awake that long.

This morning I logged into our Jabber channels to discover that the night hadn’t gone as well for us. Not only were the NC able to defend their infrastructure hub and kill our SBUs but they also bumped an Atlas titan out of the safety of its POS. Carriers were sent to aid the stricken Leviathan and with their shield transporters it was able to limp back into the POS shields. No sooner did it look like the titan had been saved than it was bumped out a second time and this time could not be rescued. (On a side note, what on Pator is that titan doing with a Capital Shield Booster?!)

As I write this the server is coming back up on the third day of the battle for H-W9TY. Our killboard suggests that not much is happening and that the allied forces are just repairing the damage of the previous night, establishing system control, and preparing to defend the POSes that come out of reinforced later today. Whatever happens next the battle for H-W9TY is not over and I think it will rage for a long time to come. Fun times ahead!

A few weeks ago Against All Authorities finished off our mission in Providence and began to prepare for our next campaign. This time we were going to the north to help IT alliance and the rest of the anti-Northern Coalition bloc. A move like this is something that -A- have never done before so there’s a lot of learning to do.

Once I’d read my alliance mails I went out shopping and gave Allii the money to buy a range of ships for use in all the upcoming fleet operations. While she was doing that Wensley began to move some key assets from GE-8JV to his new home in Nonni. The main move began with a heavy fleet setting out and making a series of jumps through low security space until we ended up in Aunenen. This is going to be our main staging system and the first couple of operations were based around getting capital and supercapital ships into the area. As you can imagine this was hardly an exciting time.

Since coming to the north I think its fairly safe to say that Against All Authorities have yet to make a real impact on the conflict. Our first few forays either met with no resistance or the NC responded with overwhelming force and we were driven from the field. In order to have a fighting chance we have teamed up closely with Atlas and Cult of War and will be operating in tandem with them. With a bit of luck this will help us start to make a real impact.

The number of scheduled operations has been surprisingly low. We have had good fun camping H-W9TY, the NC’s main staging system, in cloaking HACs. There was also a large fight in E-OGL4 that I was able to log on in time to take part in. My time has also been pretty limited so I have been missing out on things. Here’s hoping that we get some more good action soon, its not fair that IT seem to have all the fun.

I’ve not actually been doing that much solo and small gang roaming of late. This is mostly because when I moved in ships I only brought fleet and gang ships with me. By the time I’ve jumped around and fitted up a solo combat ship my time and patience is almost used up and I’ve been tending to go out and die in silly and frustrating ways, the latest of which was forgetting to switch from my battleships only overview and being ambushed by a Dramiel.

Lastly, the more observant among you might have noticed that I’ve changed corporations. Because most of the DKOD leadership is away from game at the moment the decision was made to put the corp into hibernation and the membership have moved to other -A- corporations. Most people went to Havoc but I followed some friends and moved to Rionnag Alba, a corporation full of drunken Scots and good times.

I’ve tried about half a dozen different ways to continue my analysis of the war in Providence. I can’t find a single way to do it that is interesting to me or to you. Suffice to say that after the massacre of D-GTMI the morale of CVA and the Holders was effectively completely broken. Genos Occidere joined Sev3rance and fought a guerilla campaign against -A- for a few weeks but soon got bored once the offensive took up again.

In the wake of the fall of D-GTMI and the failure of peace negotiations the allies turned their attention to 9UY4-H, the historical home of Ushra’Khan, which fell almost without a fight. There was another hiatus in hostilities during which time there was a series of scuffles over systems that dropped sovereignty due to corporations leaving Holder alliances. The next targets to fall were the Empire border systems of R3-K7K, Y-MPWL, KBP7-G, and G-5EN2. With these systems lost CVA had pretty much had their supply chain shut down. At this point a mass evacuation began.

With CVA effectively neutered and resistance limited to them incapacitating the services of unused stations and small gang scuffles it was time to decide the future of Providence. Not wanting to end its nature as an excellent place for small gang PvP and also with an eye on maintaining stability, Manfred Sidious and the rest of -A-’s leadership came up with a plan. Rather than installing renters into the systems and taking ISK from them for protection we would pursue a different approach. New Providence was to be a place where small alliances could come, hold some nullsec space, and develop until they were ready to move out and seize some space for themselves. They would not be blue to -A- and would not be expected to fight alongside -A- in times of danger. The only rule imposed on them was that there is to be no sovereignty warfare without -A-’s permission.

Before too long there were several interested alliances and the first proper purge of Holders began. The initial targets were Sev3rance and Cold Steel Alliance who, over the course of a week, were booted out and replaced by Daisho Syndicate and Soliditas XX. After a week’s rest the allies mustered for the final push. During a single “Hell Week” every single station system in Providence (except those belonging to LFA and Paxton) was captured and CVA was effectively removed from the arena of nullsec sovereignty. They still hold (and pay for) a couple of non station systems but the new Providence residents are able to clear those at their leisure and make use of the CVA-funded upgrades while they do. When we initially embarked upon this campaign most people assumed that we wouldn’t have the patience and focus to get through the grind of capturing all those stations but I hope we have proved them wrong.

Providence now looks very different with a bunch of small alliances occupying it. While they will band together when faced with a threat, such as aggression from Paxton Federation, there will no longer be huge defence blobs moving around via jump bridge. In short New Providence should be a very fun place indeed.

I know that this post doesn’t really compare with the first couple but the lack of fighting and the grind to capture all of the stations has sapped my will to write about it. I can now close this chronicle and move on to telling adventures of -A-’s part in the Northern War (or whatever people are going to call it).

All ceptor species have an aversion to doing anything slowly, yet are reluctant to be near anything faster.

Tacklin’ Ceptor pilots are cagey creatures loath to come within 15km of anything that may mess up their well-kept hair. They like wide orbits, long range weapons, longer range locks and showing up at the bottom of many, many KMs. They dislike seeing any red on their tank at all, as it not only makes the drawstring on their wallet pucker, washing bloodstains out of their shiny Gistii A-types and polys takes hours and makes them grumpy.

DPS Ceptor pilots (except for the Crow and missile Malediction, who are like the metrosexuals of the species), are rabid, fearless, bloodthirsty predators who use hullscars to attract mates. They like fast, tight orbits, rough sex, and feeling the heat of pretty explosions wash over their faces. They also think that dying builds character, you fucking pussies.

Six Strangelove (shamlessly stolen from a friend’s biography)

As seen on Scrapheap Challenge.