This has been an odd week in null sec.
A wierd month. A wierd 12 months. A wierd no matter. Null sec drama is its personal unusual factor.
The PH Keepstar in R-AG7W final week
There’s a entire put up to be written to attempt to cowl the trail to led to the place we’re proper now, however I’ll get to that later… as a result of proper now one other chapter in null sec historical past is coming to an in depth as Pandemic Horde exits its present area within the drone areas for greener pastures… which might even be some place away from Goons I assume.
It’s at all times a little bit of a shock when a hostile group that talks huge, dares us to assault, dismisses our efforts, then immediately collapses simply because we took their bait and moved in subsequent door. One hesitates to get into historic analogies… I imply, keep in mind that time when anyone stated battle was over in null sec after the battle of B-R5RB, utilizing an inapt analogy concerning the Pacific Struggle… however there’s most likely some mileage in evaluating this to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Or perhaps the decay of the Austro-Hungary. Pandemic Horde isn’t disappearing. Few alliances do. And they’ll nonetheless have the heft to make offers and survive in null sec. However they won’t be a primary rank energy anymore.
And so, as soon as it grew to become clear what was occurring, the Imperium rushed into their area, usually aided by their betrayed allies… I used to be tethered up on a Solyaris Chtonium Fortizar on a transfer op to R-AG7W and I perceive that they and Northern Coalition have determined to spend a while incomes ISK and staying away from no matter is occurring in Perrigen Falls proper now… and setup store on the undock of their Keepstar, a transfer initially resisted then accepted and now we have stayed there ever since.
From the skin the entire Pandemic Horde plan was primarily based on daydreaming that everyone would behave in probably the most optimum manner to make sure its success. The Imperium dropping capitals and supers on their Keepstar was apparently unthinkable.
A mass of Zirns sitting on the Maintain
The concept that we’d arrange a camp and keep it up didn’t appear to enter their plan. Have they met us? If there’s one factor that Goons excel at, it’s a check of wills the place blind persistence and the power to out final an opponent are on the road. By no means go up in opposition to Goons when boredom is on the road… or one thing.
Alongside that was the obvious assumption that their allies… who that they had simply screwed over and left within the lurch… would come to their support, and that Fraternity would assist them alongside their manner, and that their new allies in The Initiative would be capable to rescue them, all of which turned out to be false. The allies had been pissed, Frat didn’t need an alliance allied with their enemy to enter their present battle with The Initiative, and INIT wasn’t going to have the ability to get there.
It was all an immense pipe dream, and the individuals paying the value are the PH line members… as a result of PH management received all their stuff out of the Keepstar earlier than the information broke.
All of which led us to yesterday. The sovereignty for R-AG7W had been flipped to Goons.
We now personal the system
That meant we had been capable of drop an Astrahus on grid with the Keepstar, so we had a spot the place caps and supers may tether safely… and people on the camp may dock up… although we had been doing fairly properly dwelling out of some POSes.
Outdated College POS dwelling… additionally, Caroline’s Star within the background
We additionally battle dec’s PH so we may safely shoot them in excessive sec in the event that they tried to get out by way of that path. That led to some odd updates, like when a PH corp determined to affix an Imperium alliance.
We might be at battle with ourselves!
That meant that a few Imperium alliances had been exhibiting up as battle targets, so there was some taking pictures of the incorrect individuals in the event you didn’t have your overview setup accurately. (I present the alliance ticker in my overview, so it was simple sufficient to not shoot allies.)
In the meantime the haphazard bubble and heavy interdictor camp of the primary 48 hours settled down right into a extra formidable barrier as extra individuals confirmed as much as assist with the siege.
The Bubble Maintain
By Saturday the bubble density was sufficient that flying alongside the undock was like flying by way of a fog.
My Flycatcher within the fog
It has been prompt that PH management might have appealed to CCP, complaining that we had been someway violating the TOS by bringing too many interdictors and heavy interdictors to the camp, however I’ll have to see some proof that they lacked that degree of self-awareness.
And, after all, anyone received on the market and put some further touches on the entire thing
Doesn’t have the identical really feel as with CO2
Recollections of the tip of CO2 in that, although that was a really completely different scenario.
Then Sunday night rolled round and we blew up the Keepstar. Not a lot else to say about that. It took practically 4 hours within the tidi, and there have been as many as 4,000 individuals in native at one level, with 3,753 getting on the kill mail.
Peak native quantity
The explosion took its time in coming… the tidi was hitting hardest at that second, and it needed to do the entire asset security calculations… but it surely slowly bloomed right into a fireball, permitting me to catch it at numerous phases of eruption.
The Keepstar lastly boiling over right into a wreck
Then we circled and completed off a Fortizar that was on grid… after which it was time to pack up. Cores had been scooped, capitals jumped out, mission completed.
Actually billions, if not trillions, of ISK that wasn’t already within the asset security queue was despatched that manner, whereas no matter remaining clones and implants and no matter had been immolated within the last fireball. Finish of story… or that exact a part of the story.
As with actual life occasions, in EVE On-line there’s usually no sharp finish. Occasions proceed to movement on, and there was a query as to what occurs subsequent.
The Imperium decided that was despatched to us and posted on Reddit by Asher Elias:
Right here is what will occur now with the Dronelands:
*Present drone infrastructure might be glassed
*Drones might be opened up for any alliance that believes they’ll take the area. Renting any area is not going to be allowed
*We are going to drop a handful of freeport constructions so teams who take area within the dronelands can have unbiased logistics to their area. These constructions might be defended in opposition to any attacker
*We gained’t let an invasion drive arrange subsequent door to us whereas they are saying “we’re just a bit man”.
*If a bunch/coalition takes management over many of the dronelands we are going to contemplate them “honest sport” to battle with severely and never somebody to skirmish with for enjoyable.
*Present residents are welcome to return in the event that they observe the foundations
The spirit of the settlement is we would like area for different teams in Eve to develop and we need to finish renting in Eve On-line. We don’t need to cope with guidelines legal professionals or enable individuals to stage an invasion “totally free” with out us with the ability to cope with it proactively.
I suppose there’s an preliminary query as to “What are the Drone Areas?” Over at DOTLAN you’ll be able to take a look at the areas web page and that corresponds to the next 8 areas the place the primary NPC drive are drones. This was the state of possession on Friday. It’s already altering.
| Area | Residents [systems] | Programs |
| Cobalt Edge | Pandemic Horde [69] | 69 |
| Etherium Attain | Solyaris Chtonium [76], Pandemic Horde [24] | 100 |
| The Kalevala Expanse | Pandemic Horde [63], Naval Defence Alliance [6] | 69 |
| Malpais | Northern Coalition. [102] | 102 |
| Oasa | Pandemic Horde [85] | 85 |
| Outer Passage | STAKAN UNIVERSE [46], Pandemic Horde [22] | 88 |
| Perrigen Falls | Pandemic Horde [104] | 104 |
| The Spire | Northern Coalition. [72] | 72 |
| Whole Programs | 689 |
These 8 areas are clumped collectively, separated from different sections of sov null by lengthy regional gates, so capitals can’t simply soar into that area… or haven’t been capable of since the large cap change that scale back soar ranges and launched soar fatigue… and the power for caps to take gates.
The Drone Areas
It’s not a simple place to get into and it lacks any NPC area, so you can not setup store and simply assail ratters and miners. However the bottlenecks to stepping into the area are additionally bottlenecks to getting out. PH’s plans to evac fell aside after a half hearted try and put down a Keepstar for members to maneuver to which led to it being blown up.
Now the Imperium has some work to do, glassing these eight areas and organising the promised freeport Keepstars to permit dependable entry to the deeper sections if the area. That is one other iteration of attempting to clear a few of null sec in order that smaller teams can coalesce and develop. The Imperium tried this with Querious Struggle Membership after which with the Southeastern Settlement. Asher says we’ve discovered from the errors made prior to now. We will see.
Fraternity, who sits on the different finish of the Drone Areas, has signed off on this plan. They actually don’t need the Imperium for neighbors and a big buffer area most likely seems to be fairly good whereas they’re combating with The Initiative (who’ve additionally given the plan a thumbs up). And the remainder of PanFam appears to have purchased in as properly, although the important thing alliances are headed to affix Fraternity and their WinterCo coalition for now. So the present residents are prepared to go away.
As a facet impact of this, each Fraternity and the remaining teams within the coalition as soon as referred to as PanFam have declared that they’ll finish their area rental applications. Renting in null sec has been round for a protracted, very long time and has been controversial. It may be spun as a manner for small teams to get into null sec, however additionally it is a type of passive earnings that encourage teams to carry as a lot area as attainable with the intention to lease it out. This has been fairly loopy prior to now, and even the Imperium tried to get in on the act for some time. I used to be parodying this example nearly a dozen years in the past.
Everlasting Struggle – 2014 model – Rental Empires Collide
That retains smaller teams from with the ability to personal area, maintaining them beholden to the owner and no matter they’re as much as. The Imperium stopped renting even earlier than the eviction from the north and the transfer to Delve and has be agitating in opposition to the thought on the idea of offering an ecosystem the place new alliances can kind and develop in null sec. Therefore, one other run at that experiment.
There are, after all, skeptics. “Grr Goons” runs robust in some, so there’s a little bit of hair on fireplace “Null sec is dying, Goons have gained the sport, EVE is dying” sentiment once more from individuals who ought to know higher however who’re emotionally invested in the concept that Goons doing something in New Eden, successful, dropping, or simply current, is killing the sport. Clowns going to clown… and cherry decide knowledge and ignore salient details and fake that they’ve been proper all alongside, even after a number of failed historic analogies.
And Pandemic Horde? They’re headed for Cloud Ring area to reform below their new allies in The Initiative. Or, no less than those that stick with the alliance are headed there. DOTLAN reveals they’re already down greater than 10K characters and I’m positive the bleed isn’t over but.
DOTLAN Alliance Motion – Nov 10, 2025
There was some hand waving by management, each new and outdated, about turning into a smaller, extra elite PvP group. Cloud Ring is actually a spot for that. There are a variety of methods to get in and lots of people passing by way of. It’s a tough place to attempt to accept good, however I think we’ll see the PH remnants getting new area relying how the Frat/INIT battle goes.
So we’ll see the way it performs out.
In the meanwhile, based on the large sov map, it seems to be like TEST is transferring to Geminate, a change after having stayed actually as far-off from the Imperium as attainable in null sec because the finish of World Struggle Bee and the destruction of the Legacy Coalition. I ponder what which may portend? There may be at all times a brand new story line brewing.
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