It's definitely been an interesting week for Cascade Imminent, that's for sure.
No doubt, long since everyone has heard of Krysis' collapse. Contrary to popular belief, Krysis was not a Cascade pet at the end. They may have been at the beginning, but having shown their worth in Querious time and time again, they became permanent guests without being required to join our CTAs or fleets. They were literally given their own portion of Detorid to handle and defend.
That, unfortunately, didn't work out for them. I don't know how much or how little the supposed spy that brought Krysis down did, but I do know that they had been struggling for a while. At the end, they finally decided to disband the alliance because they got fifteen pilots for a CTA. Abysmal numbers, and the numbers had been steadily declining for a while.
With that done, all Krysis members were offered asylum in any Cascade corporation of their choice. UDEAD absorbed Circle of Power. From what I'm told, these were the more active combat pilots.
Around the time this happened, Initiative began playing around with our sovereignty in 3-L and ZLO3-. They don't seem particularly interested in taking the space, only in generating the fights. I question how badly they may want to generate the fights though. Honestly, if they want to generate fights, they needn't even bother with the sov. All they have to do is roam down around our home systems.
In addition to that, Black Nova Corp has left Cascade Imminent. I honestly can't remember seeing them on any CTAs, and can only vaguely remember one or two on a smattering of roams. Apparently, Initiative reinforcing a BNC tower triggered the evac, so it's just as well. I've heard that MARS has also left the alliance, though I don't remember them on CTAs or roams either.
There are rumors that another corporation is leaving the alliance as well. I know the corp in question, but I'm not allowed to say so at this point. Suffice to say that they've been of low actively in the alliance lately, have showed up to few CTAs if any except for the odd member that may want to stay in Cascade, and haven't had much roaming time. To be honest, I think it's their own fault for constantly segregating themselves from the rest of alliance and being elitist when they had no right to be.
With the bad out of the way, it's time for the good news.
Perhaps a week or two ago, Cascade picked up two new corps: Veni Vidi Vici Reloaded [V3R] and MODRO, a group who's corporate name I don't actually know. I haven't yet seen much of V3R, but MODRO has been extremely active and been a blast to fly with. I sincerely hope they stay with us for the long haul, as their members have excellent attitudes and their roams are extremely fun. The only downside is that the roams typically happen even past the time I want to be awake, and I'm on the latest USTZ.
Initiative continues to attack our space. It's clear they aren't serious about taking the sov, but they are doing it. Yesterday we saw more participation in our CTAs than normal, which was an excellent sign in my eyes that the health of the alliance is starting to recover. Essentially, we had fifty percent participation from the active alliance pilots, which is a huge deal. Normally, you'd expect a twenty or thirty percent participation rate. Fifty percent in massive, and I would love for the trend to continue.
Finally, on a personal note, I've finally gotten to start training Medium Blaster Spec, and soon Medium Rail Spec. I have quite a few Feroxes and Brutixes I'm itching to try out. I've got two versions of the Ferox I'm looking to field, and possibly three versions of the Brutix.
Question: for a shield Brutix, is it worth sacrificing a Neutron Blaster in order to fit a Nanofiber? Why or why not? I'm leaning towards the yes, if only for the added chance to catch a target...
Computer: terminate recording.