Mass panic grips New Eden

Image by crazykinux via Flickr

It seems that a hell of a lot has been happening in the world of EVE Online while I was out today. Over the last 12 hours, there has been over fifty news articles posted to the downtime news page. There are just so many events (and possibly more coming), there’s no way I can link to and talk about them all individually. So below is a timeline of sorts of the many events with the newest story at the top. I’ll keep an eye on the downtime news page and update the timeline as news events are posted.

• 9:07 EGT (EVE Game Time) – BREAKING NEWS: Minmatar-Thukker Fleet Reappears in Yulai – Stargates Shut Down
  Mysterious Minmatar-Thukker armada re-appears, seems to be at least twice as big as before. CONCORD shuts down all gates leading into Yulai
• 9:38 EGT – Eyewitness reports from inside Yulai
  Reports are filtering in to various news networks from eyewitnesses on the scene, who are now trapped inside the system of Yulai.
• 10:08 EGT – Mass panic in Yulai
  Mass Panic has taken hold in Yulai and waves of civilian ships have been spotted leaving stations in a bid to escape Yulai, ignoring CONCORD intructions to stay clear of the locked down stargates.
• 10:13 EGT – CONCORD BUREAU STATION UNDER ATTACK
  Dozens of Dreadnaughts from the Minmatar-Thukker fleet open fire on the CONCORD Bureau Station while smaller escort warships open fire on CONCORD vessels. Eye witnesses report massive casualties on both sides before transmissions are jammed.
• 10:58 EGT – First images of battle in Yulai
  Scope News manages to wire a compressed packet from Yulai through an independent local transmitter. Images are distorted but explosions can be seen ripping through the CONCORD Station. CONCORD reinforcements arrive at the fight with every passing minute.
• 11:10 EGT – Major CONCORD network outage reported; Yulai connections reopen
  CONCORD’s cluster-wide data network suffers a severe and unprecedented outage. Communications to Yulai re-established. Small engagements break out in the system between civilian ships and local law enforcement but CONCORD assistance is nowhere to be seen.
• 11:15 EGT – Servant Sisters of Eve urge calm
  Sister Elaya Selnaarei urges the the cluster not to panic amidst the pandemonium in Yulai.
• 11:18 EGT – BREAKING NEWS: CONCORD BUREAU STATION DESTROYED – CONCORD DISABLED
  Scope News confirms that the CONCORD Bureau Station has been destroyed and that all rapid defence capabilities of the police agency have been disabled.
• 11:45 EGT – Scope data recorder salvaged, images recovered
  An independant pilot finds the wreckage of Scope’s on-site media shuttle and salvages the data recorder. Images are found that show the horrific battle between CONCORD and the Minmatar-Thukker fleet unfolding.
• 11:50 EGT – Markets crash across the cluster
  SCC-run markets in stations across the cluster come to a grinding halt following the destruction of CONCORD Headquarters.
• 11:53 EGT – Trade hub turning into a warzone
  With CONCORD out of commission the Jita is struck hard by pirates trying to take advantage of the lack of defence for all traders now leaving the biggest trade hub in EVE.
• 12:01 EGT – Majority of CONCORD Assembly delegates accounted for
  After a frantic search of the Yulai system following the sudden and devastating assault from the combined Minmatar-Thukker fleet, multiple evacuation shuttles are secured by search and rescue teams.
• 12:17 EGT – REPORT: Minmatar-Thukker Armada Invades Ammatar Mandate
  Minmatar-Thukker warships engage and destroy several Ammatar Fleet patrols in Jarizza, a system in the Derelik Region. The unprovoked attack appears to have completely caught the Ammatar Fleet by surprise.
  

Getting closer to war…

Image via Wikipedia

Things, it seems, are getting worse between the Caldari State and the Gallente Federation. Racially motivated violence has been erupting all over Caldari Prime (which I wasn’t aware is under Gallente control) between the native Caldari and the Gallente since the Malkalen incident earlier last month. In addition to that, Tibus Heth (effectively the new leader of the Caldari) has imposed a Gallente quarantine in all Caldari controlled space. Leading to most, if not all, Gallante expatriates being unlawfully incarcerated or exiled from Caldari space.
These expatriates were being forced to leave a “donation” as they leave Caldari space, leaving them with no possessions whatsoever.

Earlier today, Tibus Heth declared a national draft, citing the Malkalen incident as evidence of the need for the Caldari people to defend themselves. This declaration follows a threat of martial law on Caldari Prime, made by the Gallente President, Souro Foiritan, on behalf of the Gallente expatriates attempting to leave Caldrai space quickly and safely.

Update:
Unfortunately for the Caldari on Caldari Prime, this declaration forced President Foiritan’s hand and while I’ve been writing this post, martial law has been declared on Caldari Prime. You can find the news arcile quoted below.

Stating that “all other options have failed”, President Foiritan declared a state of martial law on Caldari Prime. The order sets an enforceable curfew on all Caldari expatriates, requiring them to stay in their homes within established “expatriate zones”. Reports from the surface indicate that Federation municipal police have resorted to deadly force in “numerous” incidents already, with casualty numbers estimated to be “in the hundreds”. Police are also actively blockading Caldari neighborhoods in the metropolis cities of Tovil and Arcurio, surrounding them with barriers and effectively isolating the entire Caldari population of the planet into segregated pockets.

“We have exhausted all other means of quelling the violence,” President Foiritan stated. “Martial law is a last resort to protect those who want nothing to do with the bigotry plaguing our nations. But it appears there are some individuals who are determined to spread as much mayhem as possible, and I hold Tibus Heth directly responsible for inciting it. We have repeatedly stated that the Malkalen disaster was a rogue act. And though we may never know the reasons for Admiral Noir’s actions, what we do now will define how our nations move forward. I implore all of you on Caldari Prime, and indeed everywhere in both nations, to reconsider any acts of aggression. Our wounds will heal, but it is going to take time.”

I’m loving how this is all playing out, but I almost wish that I didn’t already know what is going to happen. I guess that’s the only bad thing about storyline events leading up to an expansion pack that I already know about. It would be a lot more interesting if I didn’t know that there would be an all out war between the Gallente and Caldari empires, and the Amarr and Minmatar empires. Not that it’s not interesting now, because believe me, it is.

In case you’re wondering why I have some random links in this post, I’m trying out a Firefox extension called Zemanta. Which come in the form of a nifty little sidebar next to the post input box, suggesting pictures, articles, links and tags that it thinks might relate to your post. If you want to check it out, it’s available as Firefox and Internet Explorer extensions, and WordPress and MovableType plugins. So far, the extensions work on blogs hosted with WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, LiveJournal and Movable Type.

Fly safe. Or, you know, don’t. 😉

Minmatar Armada in Yulai?!

As I’ve been quite busy over the last week or so (bar a couple days), I haven’t really been able to get into EVE for any great amount of time. But fortunately, I’ve been able to keep updated through my feeds on Google Reader; and from the looks of it, tensions are rising to huge levels these days.

Higher resolution video can be found here.

It seems that a huge (and I mean HUGE) Minmatar fleet, made up of ships from the Republic fleet and the Thukker Tribe jumped into Yulai and surrounded the CONCORD Bureau Station. As could be expected this resulted in a stand off between the Minmatar and CONCORD forces.
Fortunately, that’s all it was. No shots were fired and the Minmatar fleet left without incident. Although, that wasn’t quite the end of it all.

The sudden appearance of such a large fleet, and their ability to jump so many capital ships into secure space has baffled the CONCORD “higher ups” and has left them scrambling for answers. Also, the fact that the Thukker Tribe and the Republic fleet have never worked together before has left people confused.

While it seems that the armada’s appearance may have been intended to act as a show of force, a spokesman for the Minmatar Republic Prime Minister firmly denied any involvement with the mystery fleet. He also stated that the claims against the Minmatar Ambassador have “very serious implications for Mr. Yun which are yet to be verified”. The CONCORD Chief of Staff has stated that Keitan Yun has become a person of interest but as of yet his current whereabouts are unknown.

I can’t wait to see what kind of responses the other races will give to this incident. The only one I can really predict is the Amarr response, which will (as always) be pretty much calling the Minmatar savages. But I guess we’ll see. Fly safe, people.

CONCORD Gatecamp?!

Last night, I finally managed to join a new corporation. I’m now a member of the Skies Tis Moiras Corporation, who have just recently become a member of the Xenotech Celestial Coalition.

Anyway, while transporting a couple ships to my new home-system (Warouh), I came across a huge amount of CONCORD ships flying around the Kaaputanen stargate in Niarja. I’d never seen so many ships in one place, let alone CONCORD ones. There must have been at least 60 of them, just sitting there doing whatever it was they were doing. There must have been a hell of a fight there for that many to turn up, the most I’d seen turn up at one time was about 10.

On a side note, I’ve been reading some of the news on the EVE site and it seems that tensions between the four empires are getting worse. Recently the Gallente Federation Navy and the Minmatar Republic Fleet begun a joint military exercise in Metropolis. Even though the Federation Senate and the Republic Parliament delayed the military exercise by a few days, they still went ahead. Much to the aggravation of the Caldari State and the Amarr Empire.

A spokesman for the Caldari Navy said “It’s bad enough that they feel the need to rattle sabres. It’s alarming that they have the audacity to do it on the border of the State, but most of all, it’s disgusting that they feel they are able to conduct this exercise so soon after the atrocity at Malkalen.”

Personally, I can’t wait to see how this plays out while we’re waiting for the Empyrean Age release.

Fly Safe.

War Is Coming

CCP need to stop coming out with amazing teaser trailers like this one, otherwise I can see myself becoming a hardcore EVE player. The kind that spends every waking hour playing EVE and dreaming about playing it when asleep. Actually, on second thoughts, they need to bring out more. That’d be an awesome way to spend my days. Although I could see myself getting to the stage where I wouldn’t want to (or couldn’t) move from my computer.

Having a Gallente Mothership colliding with a Caldari station was pretty unexpected. If anyone I would have thought it’d be an Amarr or Minmatar capital ship, not a Gallente one. The Gallente are mostly portrayed as a peaceful and freedom-loving society but I guess there would be some bad apples. And there was the whole Gallente Caldari war that they were kind of winning. Okay, so maybe they do have a destructive side but still…
Unless it was hijacked by a Caldari or Amarr infiltrator, someone trying to start a war that everyone else seemed reluctant to start. Oooh, conspiracy!

Fly Safe.