It didn't happen at NOL-

Entry: six hundred eighty-seven.

About six hours ago, while I was setting up tactical bookmarks in NOL- for a large scale conflict I anticipate in the future, I saw Suleimain Shouaa in local. What a rare chance to speak with someone whose public logs I follow! But it was a curious situation: The Tuskers were several hours late for the party with nothing left but preparation for the next conflict. Computer: play back private chat stream with Suleiman Shouaa.

Computer: "Confirmed."

*****

 

Suleiman Shouaa > o/
Truen1ght > nol should be dead for quite a while 
                > good luck huntin
Suleiman Shouaa > ah cheers
                           > we saw many kills on dotlan
                           > ::(
Truen1ght > 1300 in sys about 5 hours ago
                > station timer
Suleiman Shouaa > ah lol sov war
Truen1ght > evoke ddos'ed goons comms
                > and goon's backup comms
                > so, that didn't work out
Suleiman Shouaa > lolsov
                           > ty for heads up
Truen1ght > yup
                > lol sov
                > was there a wh to here from gallente low-sec?
Suleiman Shouaa > nope
                           > just roamed from hev
Truen1ght > ah
Suleiman Shouaa > hoping for :thunderdome:
Truen1ght > 1dh is probably best bet
                > black legion should be aroudn 1-smeb
                > my delve intel channel is dark though, so I don't think much is going on right now
                > KFIE is where you'd have the best chance of finding evoke
Suleiman Shouaa > we're heading back soon
                           > and in a "dram is OP fleet
Truen1ght > you were the only one i saw in a dram lol
                > saw a flicker of scimis and some other stuff, wasn't really paying attention
                > oh, derp, I think 1dh has a gatecamp
                > probably on the pr-gate
                > but, have a good trip back, gl on the kills
Suleiman Shouaa > nope
Truen1ght > weird
Suleiman Shouaa > on other gate
Truen1ght > a-e?
Suleiman Shouaa > y
Truen1ght > alright, i'll let you be
                > o7
 

*****

 

Quite strange to see pirates from Gallente low-sec all the way down in Delve, but interesting. Black Legion are the resident pirates in nearby low-sec. I didn't think anyone else would bother.

It was after this conversation that I realized that I haven't done much to explain the way things are around here much, however, and that perhaps I should do that. It would be best to explain why The Tuskers bothered to take a roam down to Delve in the first place though.

The Tuskers were four hours late for the major conflict in NOL-. Goons on one side, the DRF on the other, both vying for control of that system. Sovereignty Blockade units had been deployed by Goons, the station about to become vulnerable once the reinforcement timer expired, and the IHUB in line for reinforcement immediately after the station. Evoke was facing a serious threat of losing NOL-, a system that Goons seem to desire above all others at the present time.

It wasn't long after I logged in, activating my ship in the depths of space, that a bomber fleet was posted. It was difficult to understand the situation, as comms were constantly active. "Polaris fleet" was the keyword of the hour, and the only fleet I could think of to match that description is one similar in vein to the one destroyed in Tama not long ago.

This was not that type of fleet.

After joining fleet, I made best speed for NOL-, managing to stay one very small step ahead of the Evoke tackle wing in 1DH-, PR-, and NOL-. They were diligent about trying to catch anything making its way towards NOL-. I only managed to get in because of the rush they were in to get into position.

After escaping the clutches of the tackle wing, I notified my fleet of the local population: thirteen hundred. A population that size in null sec is all but unheard of except in the largest battles in null, such as one in Teneferis a few months back and a battle in Uemon nearly a year ago. The hell camp of 6VDT-H was only six hundred, and the major battles at HED-GP and GE-8JV never crested nine hundred.

The scope of the conflict to be had was quite clear to me immediately. "Epic" is only the frosting on the cake for what I expected to happen. I was sadly disappointed, however.

My fleet came into NOL- through a detour via HM-. Once in system, we all set up at the edge of the station grid, where we expected the fight to take place via our communication with Goons. Evoke had several triage carriers repairing the station, and it didn't take too much longer before the Goon fleet warped in to the station at zero and started attacking.

And almost as soon as they arrived, they left. Reports came through that Goon comms, both primary and backup, had been DDOSed by the enemy, preventing any sort of coordinated attack. The Evoke carriers were free to repair the station as local dropped from thirteen hundred to eight hundred and the Evoke subcapital fleet, consisting of a ridiculous number of Drakes and Scimitars, destroyed all four Sovereignty Blockade units within twenty minutes of starting the task. That feat is equal to using several Motherships in conjunction with a Battleship fleet of size seventy, per SBU.

The Initiative stopped by to try and ninja a few kills, but ended up being sent home with their tails between their legs.

My biggest issue with this entire conflict is simply that I was unable to participate. Our FC was someone I had never heard of, and while he knew the concepts and understood patience, did not have the brass balls to make an attack happen. I saw several opportunities to simply warp in and launch bombs, bombs which would have destroyed the large majority of the clumped up Evoke Drake-Scimitar fleet, both at the station and at SBUs. Our FC was overly concerned with not losing bombers and not concerned enough about destroying billions worth of ISK in ships and modules in thirty seconds of kinetic hell. Fourteen bombers, totaling approximately four hundred million ISK in trade for billions of ISK? It's a no brainer.

Pilots were chomping at the bit so fiercely that they began engaging Interceptors at the PR- gate once the fight was over with torpedoes and bombs. I logged out, frustrated, unwilling to give in and become a mindless idiot and lose my bomber needlessly.

After that break and cooling my emotions, I logged back in and set up tactical points all around stargates and the station for a future conflict in NOL-, one which I am certain will happen. It was during this time that I saw the Tuskers.

It's hard to blame them for not knowing the area, it's not like they live here after all. I didn't want to leave them with the bad taste of fruitless searching, however, so I offered some of my knowledge of the area, but perhaps not as much as I should have.
 
Goons live near JP4- right now, more accurately at and next door to Y-2ANO. Evoke in the area populate NOL-, Z3V-, and KFIE- for the most part, and roams from deeper regions of their space in Delve enter into upper Delve from those systems more often than not. 

Cascade Imminent makes its home in 1DH- with easy access to its controlled systems in Querious via F20Y-, but also patrols within a few systems of 1DH- in addition to roams towards Raiden in L-6BE1 or its former home of CZK-, which is currently occupied by DRF pets. Occasionally, White Noise, Against All Authorities, or Nulli Secunda will travel down to 1DH- when they are really bored, but those are only rare occurrences. 

Nulli Secunda lives not far from 1DH- in the region called Period Basis, and while easy to reach, are often out of the way for forces hostile to them. As for the final major player in Delve, Black Legion makes its home somewhere in nearby low-sec. I suspect Kaira personally, as they usually come into Delve via 1-SMEB. 


With the Goon freeporting mission in Delve nearly complete, I wonder what they will do once they are done with that, and how diligently they'll need to defend their assets in Delve from Evoke and Ewoks.
 
More importantly, I wonder if the pirates had much fun beyond wasting a Cynabal whilst in Delve.
  
Computer terminate recording.

Re-Deployment Number Four

Entry: six hundred sixteen.

Computer: play back mail.

"Playing back redacted Alliance mail." 
 

***** 

 

From: ----------------
Sent: 2011.09.18 00:39 ----------------,  --------,  --------------, ---------
To: Cascade Imminent, ----------------,  --------,  --------------, ---------

So, I'm extremely sorry but also happy to say, as of right now, we are not going to be living out of Stain.

After many talks and the recent --------- ------------- and ---- -- -------, we (the leadership) have decided that it is in our best interest to move the alliance ---- -- ----- --- system ---. Whilst there we will be "modifying" the -- ------ so that you guys can have quick access to the --- ------ to carebear,

Yes this means that our resident neutral friends will no longer be so neutral.

Those of you that need help moving ships, etc, speak to corp leadership, as much of the fuel cost will be covered by alliance by fuel given/paid for by your corps.

I recommend that you sell/self destruct remaining battleships, sell spare mods, etc. Travel as light as possible. Once there we will be using ------ --, specifically the --------- ----- fit which will be posted on the forums shortly.

Please note, Blue standings will be sorted by 18:00 tomorrow, so don't jump into --- just yet. If you have any further questions about why, etc, please go to either you corp leadership or myself, -----, or ------ directly and we will be happy to explain the reasoning.

Again I'm sorry to make you guys move again, but I promise this will be the last I will be moving my shit for the next forever. At least until the Q and D sov is secure and we can relocate to a new system to call home.

-------

P.S.: Guys, please understand that it isn't lightly we make the decision, we want what is best for this alliance and although we all hate moving including me, once this is over and done with we can settle down and get back to business, which after all is what we're here for, I'm afraid I couldn't sit around any longer and watch my friends leaving this alliance because they didn't want to be in Stain. ---- ----- we will build on what we have and grow again like we were before.

P.P.S.: Please don't hate me.
 

*****

 

"Playback terminated."

 

Suffice to say, it's annoying as hell what the current situation is. Still, since I don't want to change alliances/corporations, I made an effort to move my stuff down to the new staging system. I took my Claw around the back route, and about halfway through I ran into a Dramiel gatecamp with a cloaky Eris. Obviously I didn't make it and got sent back to FV-.

I took the back route because the other day the DRF took CZK-, and there's a timer today for 4-07, which is camped pretty heavily by the DRF as well for the next few hours at minimum.

Doesn't matter what alliance orders are. You can't redeploy if you can't get to the redeployment system.

Computer: terminate recording.

How the Battle Really Went

Entry: six hundred nine.

Evenews24 put out an article within twenty-four hours of the battle at CNC- yesterday. The two forces were the DRF and Southern Coalition, the second of which is more commonly known these days as the conglomerate of Against All Authorities, Cascade, Atlas, Nulli Secunda, Warped Aggression, Red Overlord (deployed in Tribute and Venal), Imperial Order (now disbanded via DRF spy), and Legio Astartes (I think, I only know them as Legio).

Computer, link the news report.

Before I continue, it is my duty to note that I was not actually part of the first part of the fight. I was a scout planted in FAT- nextdoor to CNC-.

I read the news story, and it smacks of ignorance and bluster from the story submitter. Not only did he not have a clue what the objective was, his details on the fight are shady at best, and his claim that the battlereport proves NCdot can fight with subcaps is a blatant lie.

Here's how it really went.

-A- formed its own fleet, Cascade/Atlas/WA (Warped Aggression) formed its own fleet, AHAC by composition. Cascade's fleet bridged into CZK- and immediately jumped into CNC-. Archie, the FC, ordered scouts into all adjacent systems. I volunteered for FAT-GP duty. I was told Morsus Mihi would be coming to join the battle and to ignore them when they made their way to CNC-.

What the Cascade fleet did, I can't be sure, but given that this was a CTA fleet, it's a sure bet they were shooting SBUs, attempting to destroy them and thus save CNC- from DRF control.

NCdot formed up an Abaddon fleet, bridged either into CZK- or very close by, and jumped into CNC- to engage the Cascade fleet. NCdot warped in at range on Cascade, Cascade immediately warped away to a safe POS. Archie asked a cloaked scout for a warp-in.

Approximately five minutes after asking for the warp-in, a cloaked scout reported having a warp-in seven kilometers from the NCdot fleet. Archie fleet warped the Cascade AHAC fleet to the warp-in and landed forty kilometers away from most of the NCdot Abaddon fleet.

Suffice to say, the Abaddons took that battle. AHACs are afterburner fitted, and at forty kilometers, have zero chance of catching and killing an Abaddon fleet fitted with microwarpdrives. Archie did what he could to kill what was there on the field while attempting to drive the AHACs out of the dictor bubbles that were dropped on the Cascade fleet, and eventually managed to get most of what was left of the AHAC fleet away after taking extreme losses.

Archie ordered an immediate reship to Geddons. While this took place, -A- bridged in via Jumpbridge from K717- into CNC- while Morsus Mihi jumped a group of approximately thirty bombers from FAT- into CNC-. Morsus Mihi bombed the Abaddon fleet while it was engaged at the IHUB on planet five, losing most of their bombers in the process, most likely to drag bubbles placed pre-emptively by NCdot and undoubtedly some to delayed bubbled placed at the determined warp-in point.

While the bombing runs were commenced, Morsus Mihi also cyno'd into a fleet of forty Dominix battleships. It's unclear to me if the force was cyno'd in directly, or next door in K717-, CZK- or whatever the other system is aside from FAT-, but they were there. 

-A- and Morsus engaged NCdot together, but at some point -A- abandoned the Morsus Domi fleet, leaving Morsus Mihi's forces to be pretty much obliterated with but a few survivors. NCdot had taken heavy losses at this point, but the composition of the -A- fleet was and is unknown to me. It seems probable that, given the losses, Morsus Mihi's plan of forty Dominix's was a bad idea and that a suitable warp-in could not be obtained by either -A- or Morsus Mihi.

As Morsus Mihi left CNC-, Cascade/Atlas/WA had reshipped to Hellgeddons, and joined forces with the -A- fleet, and at this point it seems likely that -A- was also running a Hellgeddon fleet. The previous desertion of the field can then easily be explained by a bad warp-in on the NCdot fleet, as the Hellgeddons have a short range of engagement compared to artillery Abaddons.

Cascade/Atlas/WA bridged to LGK-, then bridged with -A- into FAT- and jumped into CNC-, at which point I joined the fleet in CNC-. Once in CNC the Geddon fleet warped to the sun, only to learn a few seconds later that the NCdot fleet was landing at the FAT- gate, trying to escape but landing in the heavily bubbled portion of the area some twenty kilometers off the gate. The Geddon fleet obtained a ping three hundred above the gate, warped there, then warped to the gate, annihilating any of the NCdot fleet foolish enough not to abandon the field and retreat through FAT-.

Having taken the field, -A-/Cascade/Atlas/WA warped to and destroyed two of the SBUs in CNC before bridging to LGK- from CNC- (I'm certain the cyno-jammer was cycled for this very purpose).

As for using supers/titans in the battle, not that many were used. Compared to the number DRF members use, our hotdrop was a breeze compared to the power overwhelming they typically field. Yes, it was an "I Win" button, but by then the fight was already won. NCdot was finished the minute the Geddon fleet got a good warp-in.

After bridging back to LGK-, Cascade/Atlas formed another fleet and destroyed two more SBUs in a system I'm not familiar with, a small fleet of approximately sixty accomplishing this task over two hours, and burned back to FV- via LGK-.

I hope this play by play clears up the copious errors in the evenews24 report. Bad warp-ins were the reason my side lost so many ships. It had nothing to do with NCdot's "prowess" at subcapital combat. 

I also feel the need to note that what seems like ninety-nine percent of the people who commented on the battle and battle-report were not there, have no clue what really happened, have no idea how to read a battle-report aside from "x lost more than b", and from what I can gather, have no real idea how large scale battles work, why long range battleships kills close range cruisers, and that interdictor bubbles catch bombers. The incompetence is staggering and inexcusable, matched only by the sheer arrogance of those commentors and the submitter of the battle report.
 
Computer: terminate recording.

Revenge, Domination, Starvation, and Acquistion

Entry: six hundred six.

The last few days have been incredibly busy.

Three days ago there was, as always, a CTA fleet, or more properly put, a Revenge Fleet. One of my alliances junior FC's gave his recounting for evenews24, but I'll replay the log here as well from his perspective.

I don’t really know what happened prior to Fatlas Agression forming an emergency CTA fleet, but what I do know follows:
I joined this fleet among shouts of “SAVE AN AEON” etc, but by the time I really knew what was going on -A-’s Aeon got killed and this fleet became a revenge fleet.

[21:54:10] Vince Draken > http://www.northern-coalition.co.uk/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=82024
[21:54:31] Vince Draken > never log as SS
Welp.
Anyways, our glorious FAIL FC shouted words of encouragement to us over comms, “WE WILL AVENGE THIS KILL (etc etc)” We formed up into the coalition standard hellgeddons (which didn’t really include -A- this time. Funny how they’re the ones who lost the super and they don’t even form up to save it?) We warped to a pos and sat on a titan, while scouts were relaying where NCdot’s gang was.
After much screwing around, NCdot jumped into V-3YG7 seemingly to spring our cyno trap. Eventually, they warped to the B-3QPD gate and FC ordered cyno up. Our massive blob of golden penises entered the system with very little lag (yay CCP) and approached the V-3 gate. The fight, it seemed, was imminent.
NCdot jumped a flycatcher through and proceeded to bubble us, while we had a sabre go through and bubble them. A tense Mexican Standoff existed for about 30 seconds, at which point NCdot put on their big boy boots and jumped into us. Primaries were called and drones were deployed and NCdot’s Abaddon fleet was melting to the might of our FAIL Penises.
However, about 2 or 3 minutes into the fight, NCdot lit a cyno and while only 3 titans and 3 carriers came in at first, there was going to be a grand total of 7 titans on the gate fighting us. This surely would scare us Stain refugees away wouldn’t it?
Yep, it did.
FC calmly ordered us to disengage and jump through back into V-3.
However, we would stand and fight on this side as surely no more titans would be available to fight us, and the ones on the other side had to cap up still, right? Basically, we were wrong. But this time it was only 3 titans that came through, and they did little to stop the annihilation of the mighty NCdot Abaddons. Several more titans came through and our FC got doomsdayed, so we de-aggressed and jumped out, losing some of our fleet at the same time.
But during this point and time, with next to no subcap fleet left, NCdot must have shit their pants with, “OH MY GOD WE HAVE TITANS TACKLED ZOMGGGGGGG,” for they proceeded to log on their entire supercap fleet lul.
Fatlas Aggression did the only honorable thing we could do: we ran. But while we were running, we were laughing our bums off at the thought that we very nearly wiped the floor with not only NCdot’s Abaddons, but also their titans.
GF NCDOT THANKS FOR THE FUN!!!! Next time don’t press the “I-Win” button and learn to fight with subcaps
-Nitor1013Z

I feel that his perspective pretty closely matches my own, however, I had the honor of making the fleet hate Rifters for the next few days, as I got called out repeatedly after that battle when flying a Rifter, and being told to never broadcast for reps while in a Rifter. Clearly, my usual gang, the Logistics portion of any CTA fleet, doesn't feel tacklers are important for things like webbing, scramming, and killing enemy tacklers. Sure, the Geddons are important, but so are the tacklers. Let's also keep in mind that the battlereport shows that we did not, in fact, have much of a fleet left to fight with. We were however reshipping at LGK, a mere five or six jumps from V-3.
 
Two days ago, there was, as always a CTA fleet, but this time it wasn't a revenge fleet. It was a proper fleet to disrupt DRF acquistion of null-sec territory. We formed up in LGK-, bridged in GJ0-, burned twenty jumps to another titan in R-XDKM, and bridged onto a DRF fleet in G-DON3. I was, as per usual, a guardian pilot.

Before jumping in, Archie told the dictor pilots to warp in, bubble the fleet, and get out, repeating as many times as possible during the fight. Once we bridged in, he called out target after target, sporadically asking us how the Guardians were doing. After a few minutes, when he next asked, someone mentioned that the Scorpions were jamming out the logis pretty hard. Archie then called all the Scorpions and had the fleet melt them. Once that was complete, our HellGeddons laid waste to the enemy fleet, taking very few losses from that point on. I got jammed out by ECM drones from time to time, but every time I did, I activated my smartbomb. I almost never ended up jammed for more than one cycle that way, as I either killed the ECM drones or they were assigned to jam out a different Guardian pilot.

After ten minutes of frantic target calling by Archie and frantic remote-repping by the Guardians, the enemy fleet started to disengage, trying to get away. The dictors continually swooped in and out, dropping bubbles, allowing even more carnage to litter the field in our favor. It was only when the enemy fleet was routed that Maka called in the hotdrop. Quite a few capital class ships jumped in to whore in on the fun.

With the objective achieved, a wonderful fight had, we bridged out of G-DON3 to R-X, docked in DZ6- next door for a break, then burned back to GJ0- where we bridged back to LGK- and called it a day.

Yesterday I was on fleets on all day, from when I woke up in my new quarters in FV- to when I went to sleep there. Despite being on four fleets that day, one of which was a CTA fleet against the DRF forces in what was just a few moments prior to and the first two hours of Imperial Order having lost all of their space, all I got to show for it was "blueballs" and a Sabre kill. Computer: link evenews24 report on Imperial Order's loss of space.

Today I wasn't able to make it out of station until very late. No immediate fleets in the area were up, so I decided to see about my ISK situation, and I scanned down a Pristine Sansha Abandoned Colony. I immediately went a known log of a former Stain resident for consultation, but didn't find any notes on what I would find in terms of opposition. I did however learn that there were five intact armor plates waiting to be had.

Jita puts five intact armor plates at one fifty-million isk. I was not going to pass that up.

Upon immediate warp-in, I burned away from the Drone horde to make a warp-out still on grid, some two hundred twenty meters from the main cluster. Once that was completed, it took some time to figure out how best to deal with the Drones, as there were five to seven Battleship class, about as many cruiser class, and about as many frigate class. My typical tactic, since I was piloting a standard nano cane was to warp-in, nuke a ship or two, and warp-out on grid to recharge. Eventually, I docked, got a sniper cane, and used that to draw a second deadlier spawn which showed up away from the main cluster, killing several of the deadlier drone frigates in the process. 

Once that was complete, I reshipped into the nano-cane, and destroyed the main cluster of drones rather quickly, warped out for a recharge, then destroyed the second cluster of drones about as quickly. It took about one and a half hours to complete this site with all the fumbling I'd done, so my ISK per hour ratio is quite high. On top of the armor plates, I gained approximately six million in minerals on insta-sell, various tech one salvage worth another few million, and some various tech two loot. 

All told, that site was worth about one hundred seventy million ISK. That can easily replace my previous Munnin loss, although I think it more likely I will invest said ISK into a second Guardian, as my first was destroyed in a failed AHAC fleet in A-E several days ago.

That's what I love about null-sec: it's a rollercoaster of all sorts. Politics, war, emotion, poverty, wealth, and friends, the whole situation one big mess that gives and takes just enough to leave you hopelessly addicted. I can never go back to empire after coming out here.

Computer: terminate recording.

How Things Seem

Entry: five hundred ninety-nine.

Things in Stain have mostly been rather quiet. CTAs have been few, roams have been frequent, almost matching that of our "move home" portions during our normal campaigning.

Our normal MO is to deploy for a few weeks to a few months, mess up whoever the enemy is, come home for a month to recoup ISK. During the 'staycation', we normally experience a large number of roams and very few CTAs.

You know what this looks like to me? That we've given up. Red Overlord on the other hand has deployed north and is constantly assaulting DRF assets. This has taken much of the pressure off of us in the South, but we're not doing anything with it. We're not SBUing DRF systems, we're not raiding their systems, we're not doing anything but sitting back and waiting for the DRF to come at us.

Hakawu spoke with me and a few others late last night about this, and he wants to try something. He wants to form up as many bombers as possible and attack the HED-GP station. Question is, how long will it take one hundred fifty bombers to reinforce a station? How long for one hundred? How about two hundred?

If he manages to get that fleet together, we'll find out.

Computer: terminate recording.

White Noise Defense

Entry: five hundred ninety-six.
 

Time: 19:06
System:  MB4D-4
Region: Stain
Sovereignty: Sansha's Nation
 

[ 19:06:50 ] Me to Intel: Eggnaug  MB4D-4 Solar System nv
[ 19:07:23 ] Me to Intel: 16 man red gang coming from  MB4D-4 Solar System
[ 19:07:29 ] Me to Intel: BaltickMan +15
[ 19:07:39 ] Me to Intel: looks like a nano BC gang
[ 19:07:43 ] Me to Intel: drakes, canes, scimis
[ 19:09:44 ] Me to Intel > red gang left  MB4D-4 Solar System
[ 19:09:56 ] Batttlekiller to Intel: they in lgk
[ 19:10:57 ] Me to Intel: vaga tengu x2 scimi cane x3 drake x6 dramiel harbi sabre = red gang in lgk now
 

*****
 

[ 19:13:34 ] Nitor1013Z to Alliance: OK LOOK
[ 19:13:41 ] Nitor1013Z to Alliance: there are 15 baddies heading this way in battlecruisers, and right now we have a chance to form. Are u people really going to wait until they are in fv?!
 

*****

Time: 19:32
System: FV-SE8
Region: Stain
Sovereignty: Sansha's Nation
 

Nitor: "When you undock, warp to me. Warp to me guys, before they bubble the undock. We don't have a lot of time."
Computer: "Warp drive active. Warping to Nitor's location."
Nitor: "Alright, everyone align station...everyone warp station, warp station."
Computer: "Warp bubble collapsing...aligning to station...warp drive active. Loading Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M; this will take approximately 10 seconds."
Nitor: "Microwarpdrives on, burn at them out of the bubbles."
Computer: "Warp bubble collapsing."
[ 19:33:34 ] (notify) Nitor1013Z has started trying to warp scramble "Sirlene Akaro"
[ 19:33:40 ] (notify) bassie12bf1 has started trying to warp scramble "BaltickMan"
Nitor:  "Come on microwarpdrives ON guys. BURN OUT OF THE BUBBLES MICROWARPDRIVES ON! Align planet one, burn out of the bubbles align planet one!"
[ 19:34:05 ] (notify) Aligning to FV-SE8 I
Nitor: "Warp planet one!...everyone make it out?"
Darius Ringhal: "Lost a Scimitar."
Nitor: "Everyone with me align back to station."
???: "They've left into FZ."
Nitor: "Everyone warp FZ."

*****

Time: 19:43
System: UF-KKH
Region: Stain
Sovereignty: Sansha's Nation
 
Nitor: "Everyone warp to the bounce on the O5Y3-W gate."
Computer: "Warp drive active...warp bubbling collapsing. Enemy targets approximately two hundred kilometers Z negative."
Nitor: "Align...planet six customs...warp at fifty."
Computer: "Warp drive active...warp bubble collapsing."
Nitor: "Align back to the O5 gate guys."
???: "They're landing."
???: "We're right on them!"
Nitor: "Primary is the Harbinger! Get points and neuts! Take him down!"
???: "He's down!"
Nitor: "Dark Eirlys in a Drake! Get the Drake!"
[ 19:47:15 ] (notify) You failed to target nothing.
???: Grid crash!
???: "Where'd they go?"
Nitor: "Keep burning! There they are, get that Drake!"
[ 19:47:19 ] (notify) You failed to target nothing.
???: "What's going on?!"
Nitor: "Keep burning and get that Drake!"
???: "There he is!"
[ 19:47:38 ] (notify) You are already managing 0 targets, as many as your ship's electronics are capable of.
Computer: "Warning: ECM drones are jamming your ship."
Nitor: "Come on take that Drake out!"
Computer: "Warning: Shields succumbing to heavy fire."
Me: "Random warp out."
[ 19:47:56 ] (notify) External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command. Warning: Ship is out of control.
Computer: "Warping to Stargate FZSW-Y...warp bubble collapsing...jumping."
 

*****

 Time: 19:51
System: FV-SE8
Region: Stain
Sovereignty: Sansha's Nation
 
Nitor: "Well guys, that sucks, we should have had that."
FurionSavage: "The grid kept crashing, which was why we couldn't kill them. If that hadn't happened we would have crushed them, we were right on top of them.
Nitor: "I'm in a chat with their FC, and they said they were getting grid crashes also."
FurionSavage: "It's bullshit...that should never have happened...we would have destroyed them."

Hold the Line Once More

Entry: five hundred ninety-three.

Turns out there's been a discrepancy in my logging. Some clerical errors were made, they'll be resolved. Today is my five hundred nintieth day as a capsuleer.

I've not been as active as I would like, but circumstance at current forbid me from being so. To top it off, it seems the galaxy has been quieter these days. I find myself if many other capsuleers are in the same boat as me in terms of time management, or if they're planetside on vacation. I'm doing what I can to sort out some of these issues to give more time for killing and less for admiring my ass in the mirror.

We had a small op today, nothing serious. We dropped some SBUs in GE-8JV, recently taken over by the DRF, then proceed to push the IHUB and Station into reinforce. It was a small CTA, maybe seventy members in total with a little under half being supers. Total operation timer was about thirty minutes before we burned back to GE-8JV.

Hopefully, once I get things in order and my ships moved, I can get back to killing on top of CTA fleets.

Computer: terminate recording.

GE- Station Reinforce

Entry: four hundred seventy-nine.
 
Last night Maka called for a pre-timer op at the GE-8JV station. Basically the job was to repair the station before the DRF showed up. The op started thirty minutes before the station was to come out of reinforced mode.

Not long into the repair operation, the DRF dropped fifteen caps, consisting of titans and supers. The repair operation was obviously cancelled. At some point, the cap fleet jumped out.

An hour later, the full CTA fleet of about one hundred sixty for the -A- team had formed up on the titan and bridged into GE-.  Our immediate target was the DRF SBU, but when someone called out that there was a neutral hound at the station lighting a cyno, Maka ordered us to that cyno at zero and to open up on the NCdot forces that had bridged in.

It seemed that NCdot actually wanted a fight. No capitals of theirs had bridged in, just their subcapital fleet.

With our at zero warp-in on the enemy fleet, our Hellgeddon fleet seemed to be destroying the enemy arty Abaddon fleet. As a Logistics, I got the sense that we were doing ok in keeping the Geddons alive.

With that, Raiden dropped supers, and according to Maka, NCdot was not happy. Maka ordered us to withdraw. Those in fleet foolish and greedy enough to fit sensor boosters instead of cap boosters and microwarpdrives were destroyed as the fleet burned out of the bubbles.

Unable to fight supers, the -A- team withdrew from the field, the DRF putting the station in GE-8JV into reinforcement. I'm not clear if it was shield reinforce or armor reinforce, but I've been hearing that the next timer in GE-8JV for the station is the final one in two days.

Unless things change, GE-8JV is gone.
 
Computer: terminate recording.

EXTRA! EXTRA! -A- falls back to Stain!

Entry: four hundred seventy-four.

Shortly after the DRF receeded from GE-8JV, redeployment orders were given. Against All Authorities and Cascade Imminent were to redeploy to LGK-, five jumps from GE-8JV. LGK- is Sansha controlled space in Stain. Shortly after that, Cascade was given new redeployment orders to P-Z, two jumps from 9CG6-H.

From the standpoint of a grunt sub-capital pilot, this move by Against All Authorities is signalling the end of real resistance against the DRF. At the same time, the move by Cascade is signalling the end of aiding -A-, changing strategies to support Morsus, RAZOR, and Brick.

As I lack leadership roles, or the ability to use capitals, I can't provide those standpoints.

-A- claims that it will keep up the pressure, that it will continue the war, but I myself find this a little skeptical since the staging system chosen by -A- leadership has no cloning services. On the other hand, I find this believable, as Morsus and RAZOR continue to exist, and will soon be fighting the DRF the way things are going. To further support my belief that they will continue the fight, if -A- doesn't get it's space back, they'll have no renters to fund the combat they want to engage in.

It's a confusing situation, time will tell the truth of the matter soon enough I suppose. I just wonder what is in store for Cascade at this point however, as it's been discussed that we ourselves might need to pull back to Stain to reclaim our space.

Computer: terminate recording.

HED-GP falls, GE-8JV under siege

Entry: four hundred seventy-three.

HED-GP fell today to the DRF. It was a no-contest takeover. GE- is also currently under siege. It seems that the whole of the DRF have turned their ire towards us, as opposed to only NCdot and White Noise.

Honestly, I didn't see it coming, even though I should have. Ever since taking their first timer, they steamrolled the remaining timers by simply outblobbing us. After taking the timer, they began bringing six hundred and eight hundred man fleets. Simply put, we do not have the manpower to deal with it.

This could change, if the entire south bands together. Right now, Against All Authorities and Cascade are the most of the allied forces. Remaining forces that could be deployed are Atlas, Red Overlord, and Nulli. With Evoke and Ewoks attacking Morsus, RAZOR, and Brick, they are not really able to leave their space to help push back the DRF.

GE- has been sieged for four hours now, the station in GE- just being put into shield reinforcement a few minutes ago. While six hundred of their pilots sieged GE-, the DRF took HED.

So much for conservative estimates about holding off the DRF for another month. They're already in GE-. We'll just have to see if we can hold the line at GE-, but firesale spikes in the market seem to indicate a loss of faith by residents. Given that, I'd say it'll be a short wait before the DRF sieges CZK-.
  
I think we'll still be trying to retake HED and hold the line at GE- despite these rather major setbacks.
  
Computer: terminate recording.