The official Imperium line is that the upcoming conflict, should it come to pass, is going to be called “World War Bee” in order to distinguish it/blur it with the “Casino War” of 2016. A write up of the Imperium’s narrative is over at INN. There is even a video.
Propaganda is always a big part of these wars, and r/eve is filling up with entries.
Meanwhile, out in null sec, things are in motion. As I mentioned on Monday, the weekend saw capital ships moving north.
That was in preparation for covering the unanchoring of several Keepstars that north of our Fountain frontier. Two in Pure Blind had already been taken down, with one destroyed along the way. This week the pull back has focused on the Keepstars in Cloud Ring. Those were timed to get the furthest, the one out in 6RCQ-V, first, then work back towards J5A-IX.
Kirkland Protein Star unanchoring
While the Pure Blind removals were attempts to slip in and yank the structures without raising any fuss, the Cloud Ring operations were to be marked with a complete lack of subtlety. These were to be maximum ship efforts, displays of power, so of course I had to go along for the ride. I am all about seeing the game at its extremes, and more than 2,000 ships in motion and sitting on a Keepstar certainly qualifies.
Fleets hanging on the Keepstar
I was also interested to see what happens when you take down a structure. I had never seen that before, so I tried to keep a close eye on things. However, it turns out that the structure just goes away without much in the way of fanfare. One moment it is there, the next it is gone.
And then we’re all just hanging in space
The only notice was a notification that popped up announcing that the Keepstar had been moved to asset safety, no doubt the quickest way to whisk it away.
That was all
So most of what I got to watch was the effort it takes to move 2,000 ships safely from J5A-IX to 6RCQ-V and back, which took about three hours to make the journey. It would probably take five minutes in an interceptor, but an interceptor doesn’t generate 10% tidi simply by taking a gate. It is an elaborate dance with subcaps going ahead a bit to shepherd the capitals through a gate, then the caps jumping by type, then the subcaps repositioning while the jump timer runs down for the caps so we can do it all again.
Kind of a pain in the butt, and all the more so when you have to count on at least 5% of the operation being distracted by something in real life at any given moment, so ships just sit there when told to jump or take a gate or align. And it is all the more comical when we are all in the same voice coms channel. It was a good day to be in the No Chatter sub-channel, where you can only hear FC commands… and swears when people aren’t paying attention at the wrong moment.
That was the longest of the ops.
Pulling the Keepstar from F7C-H0 went much more quickly, it being just a gate and a jump away from our staging, so there was no downtime during the trip, just lots of big ships moving in the same direction.
Colorful titans
That led again to a mass of ships sitting on the Keepstar while we waited for it to disappear and get carted off to safety.
Waiting on another Keepstar
Once it went away… and it belong to The Initiative, so if they used asset safety there was no notification for me… it was time to jump back. This time there were only 1,700 ships on grid for the final watch, more than a fleet less, which made things a little easier for somebody I am sure. Still, it was a lot of ships.
Faxes and dreads moving
That op only took about an hour to get through. Now only one Keepstar remains in Cloud Ring, and that will be going away soon. We shall see if it is another quiet op or if somebody tries to snatch it.
Meanwhile, back inside the perimeter, a different set of ops has been going on. In order to prepare for invasion the coalition has been working to raise the ADMs for systems up to level 4, which will prevent hostiles from dropping anything smaller than a Fortizar. The usual plan is to drop a bunch of small structures, Raitarus usually, to give your fleets a safe spot in the midst of enemy territory.
You do that by ratting and mining, so PvE fleets have been a thing. A gaggle of ratting and mining ships with some cover will blitz through a constellation taking down the anomalies in order to try and boost the ADMs. I’ve been out trying to do my part on that front.
Fighting the Blood Raider menace in my Myrmidon
It has been over a year since I last went out and ratted, but the fundamentals haven’t changed all that much. A fit Myrmidon with platinum insurance ran me just shy of 95 million ISK and I have collected 250 million ISK in bounties so far, so it will be a profitable venture for me at least when I eventually get caught and blown up. I haven’t joined in on the ADM fleets, even though they count as strategic ops for PAP credit. I have been just tooling around on my own in pipe systems that are often ignored, watching people come and go.
The war itself is not supposed to start until July 5th, the date that the non-invasion pact between Legacy Coalition and the Imperium is set to expire. With more than a week left to prepare, it seems to me that there is a distinct possibility that no war will come to us. We shall see if it comes to pass and what we will end up doing should it not.
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