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Catch War
 | |
| Event Title | Catch War |
| Location | Catch, Immensea, Providence Impass, Tenerifis, Feythabolis, Stain, Paragon Soul, Omist |
| Start Date | 2010.09.06 |
| End Date | 2011.03.16 |
| Attacking Forces | Pro-Initiative Forces: The Initiative.  Circle-Of-Two  Dead Terrorists Initiative Mercenaries  Anti-AAA Forces  Pandemic Legion White Noise.   Systematic-Chaos Nulli Secunda |
| Defending Forces | AAA and Allies  Ushra'Khan Stainwagon Coalition  Stain Empire C0Ven  New Providence NIP |
| Result | *
|
Overview
Starting as a mere standings reset between neighboring alliances Against ALL Authorities and The Initiative., what appeared at first to be another in a long line of victories for a veteran AAA over a weaker neighbor quickly turned into a one-sided drubbing as nearby alliances came to assist the upstart Initiative, forcing -A- along with the Stainwagon coalition completely into NPC space. However, Stainwagon/-A- managed to retain capsuleer membership and participation in the face of losing several regions and because of this went on to recover said space, forcing the Initiative and other usurpers from nullsec.
Contents |
Misplaced Trust
In the middle of the punitive MAX 2 campaign as the Southern Coalition waged a massive invasion against the Northern Coalition, AAA leader Manfred Sideous unexpectedly announced a standings reset. Included in the reset were IT Alliance, The Initiative, Systematic Chaos along with all of Atlas Alliance's expansive empire of renters and vassals (including the "Scalding Creek Coalition"), though not Atlas themselves.
Manfred's motivations for the reset can only be truly known to him, but the prevailing theory is that the brief justification provided was essentially true; that "It's not healthy to have everyone blue within 40 jumps." was an admission that the years of safety and prosperity that AAA enjoyed after the Second Great War and absorbing Goonswarm's vast eastern holdings had, over the years, atrophied AAA's abilities to wage wars as combat pilots moved on to more active alliances and were replaced by sedentary profiteers only interested in extracting what ISK they could from the alliance and its space. Manufacturing supercapitals for sale elsewhere was a very popular trade at the time for AAA industrialists.
Manfred's first attempt at forcing his alliance out of its corpulent death spiral was the Dominion Offensive, but this failed as AAA was unforseeably dragged into the Providence War. The task of evicting CVA from Providence had the exact opposite effect of what Manfred intended, the chore of grinding dozens upon dozens of inert station systems killing the enthusiasm of what few active combat pilots the alliance had left. It also killed one of AAA's last few options for offering casual PVP for its pilots. But by resetting everyone except for nearby powerhouses like Stainwagon and Atlas, perhaps enough combat pilots could be retained to defend the alliance when need be.
Whatever the case, AAA's effective resignation from the Southern Coalition, and the resulting opening of a flank on many SC alliances' boundaries, was soon followed by a retraction of SC forces from Northern Coalition space, MAX 2 fizzling out in failure.
In Flames
Other then the end of MAX 2, the immediate effects of the AAA reset were few other then the introduction of the occasional roaming gang of -A- pilots in neighboring space. Within two months however, great changes were coming from the East.
Red Alliance, exiled by Atlas to the Drone Regions years ago after the Second Great War had finally started to attempt to reclaim their "spiritual homeland" of Insmother. To do this they enlisted the aid of White Noise., Legion of XxDeathxX, Cursed Alliance (formed from TCF veteran corps) and the newly mercenary Pandemic Legion.
What would later solifidy into the DRF+PL partnership was completely overlooked, as the coalition that would one day go on to devastate 0.0 made its nascent beginning attacking Atlas' renters and vassals in Scalding Pass, Wicked Creek and Insmother. Their patron, Atlas, was indifferent to the fact their outlier colonies were fighting for survival against both this new threat and the AAA roaming gangs looking for easy pickings. Within a month ATLAS' subsidiaries were replaced by Red Alliance holdings as the DRF moved on to Atlas proper. Within 2 months Atlas died an ignoble death, its leadership surrendering everything they had and paying heavy ransoms so that ATLAS leaders could complete construction of dozens of supercapital ships for exclusive sale to the Drone Russians, leaving the rank and file to fend for themselves.
Almost immediately after their triumph over ATLAS, Pandemic Legion accepted another contract: the target was Against ALL Authorities on behalf of White Noise.
The Initiative
During the above activities in the east -A- was growing more decrepit by the day, despite the standings reset. Long standing corps began to break off in search of new opportunities, reaching the point where AAA was losing on average 2 corps a week by the time RA and PL had forced Atlas' surrender.
Manfred Sidious resigned as CEO of -A- in late August on grounds of "burning out" over the day to day duties of managing a large alliance, Kir Laeda from RAT stepping up to take the seat.
Friction grew with the recently reset Initiative in neighboring Immensea over a lone Dysprosium moon located in Initiative territory, but held by an AAA POS (established long before INIT moved into the region), despite multiple requests by INIT to remove it. Rumors grew that INIT (especially within The Initiative membership) was the next alliance to be invaded by AAA in order to shake off its malaise, after -A- was able to secure what systems they could from the defeated and now DRF-supplicant shell that was Atlas.
Pandemic Legion moved on to northern Catch within two weeks, spreading out across the region to hunt whatever errant capital ships they could find and targeting AAA CSAAs for destruction, their enormously expensive supercapital contents still building inside, held hostage in order to force AAA fleets to engage. In desperation, AAA and nearby Ushra'Khan press-ganged the New Providence NIP, who they allotted Providence to, into helping them defend AAA space against a common foe. The results however were dismal as the privilege of being -A-'s "kill farm" did not exactly endear NIP members to helping their patron in this moment of crisis. Being strongarmed into fighting Pandemic Legion's horde of supercarriers did not sound much like the "fun casual PVP" that was promised either.
Within a week of lopsided combat between PL and AAA, the battle was joined by The Initiative and NIP member Circle-of-Two fleets in KA6D-K as they met up with the defenders who were safely ensconced within their POS. Any sense of relief of the -A- pilots turned to horror as INIT and Co2, using the POS password to pass through the starbase's forcefield, began ejecting AAA capital ships from safety to be torn to shreds by the surrounding PL fleet.
The Initiative leadership had successfully negotiated an alliance with the Drone Russians, likely based off of common ground made fighting alongside one another in the Drone Regions War. As they felt, AAA threw any sort of good will away when they terminated their allegience in the middle of the war, that they were arrogant and bullying over AAA holding moons in Init-defended territory and that any common bond of being members of the Southern Coalition died when the organization was effectively killed, by AAA themselves no less.
Circle-of-Two for their part were a group of Serbian-led pilots that recently moved to Providence after MAX 2. They simply did not like AAA's tone when they demanded help fighting against White Noise. (who Co2 worked with during the Dominion Offensive in invading Pure Blind) and that their "landlords" were clearly on their last legs anyway. Co2, battlehardened after multiple wars against the Northern Coalition, were disproportionately more powerful and aggressive then their fledgling Providence neighbors. After a brief conversation with the executor of White Noise., Co2 switched sides and never looked back.
They were later joined by Dead Terrorists, a pirate alliance who was seduced by the promises of great wealth by power broker rmfHorus to join forces with the DRF and gain lucrative space.
Careless Lips
The situation grew increasingly bleak for AAA as White Noise. began deployment in Tenerifis. The buyers of the supercapitals that AAA profiteers had been manufacturing for years started to destroy the CSAAs they were birthed from, ensuring the supercapital arms gap that the Southern Coalition had so foolishly let happen. Now with Initiative and Co2 to add numbers and hold space that the both tactical and hardware superiority of PL/WN, Kir was left with few options.
With this in mind, AAA diplomat Blaster Worm contacted IT Alliance executor SirMolle in the hopes of forming a coalition between the two alliances to defeat the encroaching threat from the east. AAA was under new stewardship and that Manfred's decisions were a stain on the alliance, and that AAA and IT should renew old ties and defend their "home space" against a common foe.
Molle replied that he did not see any true change in the alliance that failed to live up to commitments that were made and that he held AAA's reset and fecklessness as responsible for the prime reason for MAX 2's failure. Whereas The Initiative. was a stalwart ally in the war; and thus IT Alliance would take a neutral stance in the war between the two.
Over the next few days Blaster Worm and, eventually, Kir Laeda himself would contact Molle trying to reason why it would be in his best interests to help defend Catch without actually requesting for his help. However, Molle would not budge from his embitterment over AAA's recent actions. Blaster Worm began to grow increasingly accusative in his correspondence, accusing Molle of secretly helping INIT as they invaded and captured AAA space, finally culminating in an abominable CAOD post that was so unbelievably bad that it changed the history of EVE (possibly the worst post of all time), it managed to finally end Molle's neutrality and issue a missive to his 7000+ man alliance thatFortress Stain
Unable to match the vast numbers of IT Alliance, unable to match Pandemic Legion's tactical superiority and unable to match the juggernaut of White Noise's host of supercaps, but unwilling to admit defeat Kir Laeda gave the order for -A- along with ReD.OverLord to evacuate all systems and rebase themselves in Stain (which is unconquerable NPC space). However Stain Empire, the unofficial rulers of the region, never broke allegiance with -A-. The majority of AAA members themselves did not show as much loyalty, as membership bled to half of what it was as the profitseekers left leaving many onlookers doubting the survival of the alliance.
While this happened, AAA's vast holdings were carved up among the victors: Dead Terrorists would receive Feythabolis from ROL, Circle-of-Two would receive Impass and the Initiative would add Catch and western Tenerifis to its holdings. Bereft of AAA leadership and military support, the New Providence NIP quickly fell upon itself between the predations of Circle-of-Two and a relentless CVA. Of the NIP, only En Garde and Imperial 0rder remained active through the war as AAA allies.
As the weeks went by and the new spaceholders secured their prize, Pandemic Legion (who had no desire to take space) felt their contract was completed and moved on to other offers. IT Alliance had no desire to take the fight to NPC space in any case, feeling as most did that AAA would inevitably implode on its own.
Now with valuable breathing room, the newly minted "Stain Coalition" (Stainwagon + AAA/R.OL) began to build an armada with the limited resources they had at their disposal.
Return of the Empire
The first target was Dead Terrorists for a number of reasons: Feythabolis was the most isolated region, the region in closest reach to Stain Coalition forces and with the smallest alliance holding space.
To do this, the Stain Coalition would place its faith in the humble, increasingly popular Drake. Easily trained and capable of absorbing tremendous punishment, the Drake itself became a rallying symbol to the alliance as hundreds upon hundreds of forces rolled out with the easily replaced T1 battlecruiser. Dead Terrorists folded fairly quickly, the majority of its rank and file wanting to return to their roots in piracy in the first place as the region was quickly returned to RED.OverLord.
The next target was Circle-of-Two who were occupying Impass. As IT and PL began to leave the south, AAA began to engage with its own surviving supercapital fleet that, while not as big as IT, PL or WN's respective fleets, was still considerably larger then the INIT/Co2/DT bloc's. Vicious fights raged non-stop within the closed off region over control of a small number of isolated systems that were held doggedly by Stain Coalition, preventing Co2 from walling off the one entrance point into Impass by allowing AAA and SE to titan bridge in fleets to contest space behind enemy lines.
As the war for Impass went on, The Initiative. and their leader Codin Planks deployed the experimental "Firewall" fleet to counter the ubiquitous Stain Coalition Drake fleets. The firewall fleet concept was an arcane combination of short-range battleships, smartbombs, remote repair modules and logistics shorts. Meeting with early success in blanketing the SC fleets with damage, the opponents eventually adapted by speeding away with MWDs, combining drake fleets with anti-BS bomber wings and increasing deployments of accompanying supercaps. The comparative expense of the firewall battleships combined with its convoluted positional requirements and inflexibility to multiple forms of attack meant that the INIT tactics of the day had led to a deadend, though Initiative leadership steadfastly refused to believe so.
Sieges for 68FT-6, the key system for control of Impass, grew increasingly common; the margins by which Co2 along with INIT and Ethereal Dawn held the system grew increasingly narrow. At this point IT Alliance along with Systematic-Chaos and newcomer Nulli Secunda returned to the warzone, to defend its allies and also not desiring a hostile Stain Coalition to return to full strength on its borders. The return of IT Alliance provided a much-needed increase in numbers and capital strength, but the Stain Coalition proved much more willing to wield its own capital and supercapital ships against just them. Unfortunately, at this point Circle-of-Two leadership was completely disenchanted with being a spaceholding entity. Indeed, during the most intense battles for Impass, Co2 executor corporation SRBI could be found in their old haunts up north in small-gang roaming fleets while Co2 rank and file looked to INIT completely for direction. With such an uninvolved leadership in charge of holding an entire region, Circle-of-Two eventually lost the 68FT siege to evacuate to its holdings in Providence, only to lose those as well before the considerable combined supercap fleet of Northern Coalition. and Ev0ke.
Falling back to Catch, IT, INIT and ED entrenched themselves in for a final siege but to the far west TEST forces started to take advantage of IT's distance from their own borders and began to pressure them by invading Fountain along with new alliance Cascade Imminent that was very successfully disrupting ally Systematic-Chaos' space in Period Basis, they slowly redeployed out of Catch in order to secure their own backyard. Alone against the Stain Coalition, The Initiative. found itself overmatched and soon lost all nullsec holdings.
Conclusion
External Accounts of War
2010.08.25 - Sins of a Solar Spymaster #50 - Atlas Routed
2010.09.05 - KB Record of the Initiative and CO2 aligning with Pandemic Legion
2010.11.05 - Video of an Initiative "Firewall" fleet.
2010.11.27 - Stain Coalition Siege on 68FT
2011.01.19 - Against ALL Authorities and Allies Retaking Former Territory In Catch
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