Another OP success!
For many others, the last couple of days were just any old weekend, but for us it was three days of structure grinding, jokes and starcraft videos (thanks odowan)!
Throughout the operation, questions were asked:
- Why are we here?
- Who are we killing?
- How did we find these guys?
How it all started: Once upon a time, in the domain of Bob
As with many other great events in history - it all began on reddit.
Jed Ellecon, Wormhole Campus member, avid scanner and prospective non-scrub, was perusing through the /r/EVE sub when he saw a post about WingspanTT killing some Tempest Legion guys in a wormhole. Further investigation proved that there were actually several TL kills/losses in this particular system, and some more sleuthing revealed that some TL members were also members of another corporation by the name of Straw Hat Industries, who'd also had killboard records in the wormhole. This was turning into something out of a police investigation board.
We decided we didn't have enough to take to the bosses at the time and wanted to gather more evidence before getting a director involved. Thus, we used the WHC mapper to mark the system saying "if found, contact Alex Robles or Jed Ellecon". I'd expected not to hear anything for a month at least, and was utterly stunned when I got a ping on slack telling me that a wormhole I was looking for had appeared in the chain.
Blood in the water: Call upon the hounds of war
Sadly, I was in college at the time and so Jed went in to scout - and what a find he stumbled onto. This was better than anything I could have asked for - irrefutable proof that war targets were living in this system. I took it to the directors and they approved the OP. Arimos and I were assigned to take command as the operation's Sky Marshals, and we also enlisted the help of our anime loving Director Titus Tallang to provide his wisdom since he had led the last successful POS bash in Operation GriefSeed. After weeks of #hype in corp mails and logistical preparation in the background, it was finally time to storm the beaches.
Invasion Day One: A tale of two caps
It was showtime - the fleet was briefed and the scouts were scouting. The WHC, with the assistance of the LSC, had been tasked to lead the charge into the target system by establishing hole control and planting the staging POS.
We started by chain collapsing our highsec connection out of Innuendo, the WHC home system, to find an exit not too far from the targets'. However, as we were finalizing fleet preparations, we received word that the enemy was rolling their connection! By the time we were out in highsec, the hole was gone and we had to wait while our scouts found the new location. Luckily, Bob smiled upon us, and the new static spawned only about 8 jumps from us. Everyone made best speed to the connection to try and get in before they tried to roll it again. We landed on the wormhole, jumped in and were greeted by a Megathron jumping through us into highsec. Stragglers that were left on the highsec side finished it off. First blood had been drawn.
Now that we had successfully made it into system, our next task was to establish hole control by setting up bubbles on all the exits. This was executed without issue, and we moved on to begin incapacitating POS modules and setting up the bubble wrap on the targets' towers while our own staging starbase was being set up. The inhabitants, perhaps having abandoned all hope, opted to begin the first of what would be many self-destructions by blowing up a pair of Chimera-class carriers.
We were joined shortly thereafter by the main bulk of the fleet, and by the end of day one, all the POSes and POCOs in the system had been knocked into reinforced mode. The OP was a rousing success.
Invasion Day Two: Music and guard duty
Because the towers wouldn't come out of reinforced mode until Sunday, there was very little to do on Saturday besides judge peoples' taste in music on the E-UNI plug.dj, stand picket duty on wormholes and towers, and watch our targets blow up their very own ships one after the other to preserve their immensely important killboard efficiency. Overall, the day was quiet, with plenty of sharing of knowledge with newbros and many answered questions.
Invasion Day Three: The grande finale
Finally, this was it - the final day before we could say goodbye to this system and return to our respective homes. After destroying the first towers in glorious explosions, we heard of an Arctic Light fleet outside the highsec hole. We waited on the inside, and after a few minutes of standoff, they jumped in. It was a massacre. Targets were dropping so fast Arimos could barely keep up with calling new ones. After the dust settled, we continued the cleanup unimpeded until all that was left in the system was dust and wrecks.
After that, we packed our things and left. It was done.
The Final Tally: No amount of duct tape will fix this
Thus, let us survey the results. Overall, 7.72 billion ISK worth of hulls were self-destructed by TL pilots, not including potentially expensive modules the ships were fitted with. A full log of self-destructions can be found below:
Spoiler
[ 2015.05.08 18:15:52 ] Chimera
[ 2015.05.08 18:18:31 ] Chimera
[ 2015.05.09 22:45:16 ] Iteron Mark V
[ 2015.05.09 22:48:15 ] Stratios
[ 2015.05.09 22:51:47 ] Capsule
[ 2015.05.10 07:06:38 ] Rattlesnake
[ 2015.05.10 07:06:48 ] Drake
[ 2015.05.10 07:11:04 ] Drake
[ 2015.05.10 07:12:10 ] Phantasm
[ 2015.05.10 07:13:53 ] Moa
[ 2015.05.10 07:14:46 ] Stabber Fleet Issue
[ 2015.05.10 07:17:25 ] Caracal
[ 2015.05.10 07:17:39 ] Megathron
[ 2015.05.10 07:20:47 ] Cormorant
[ 2015.05.10 07:21:30 ] Typhoon
[ 2015.05.10 07:23:50 ] Armageddon
[ 2015.05.10 07:23:56 ] Dominix
[ 2015.05.10 07:26:22 ] Apocalypse
[ 2015.05.10 07:26:24 ] Oracle
[ 2015.05.10 07:28:47 ] Dominix
[ 2015.05.10 07:28:54 ] Oracle
[ 2015.05.10 07:32:03 ] Harbinger
[ 2015.05.10 07:34:17 ] Dominix
[ 2015.05.10 07:34:37 ] Harbinger
[ 2015.05.10 07:37:06 ] Tempest
[ 2015.05.10 07:37:25 ] Hawk
[ 2015.05.10 07:39:35 ] Noctis
[ 2015.05.10 07:40:25 ] Drake
[ 2015.05.10 07:42:04 ] Noctis
[ 2015.05.10 07:45:12 ] Oracle
[ 2015.05.10 07:46:32 ] Buzzard
[ 2015.05.10 07:49:13 ] Buzzard
[ 2015.05.10 07:49:14 ] Hurricane
[ 2015.05.10 07:53:23 ] Tornado
[ 2015.05.10 07:55:51 ] Drake
[ 2015.05.10 07:56:47 ] Astero
[ 2015.05.10 07:58:23 ] Hurricane
[ 2015.05.10 07:59:43 ] Augoror
[ 2015.05.10 08:01:47 ] Hurricane
[ 2015.05.10 08:03:14 ] Augoror
[ 2015.05.10 08:04:45 ] Myrmidon
[ 2015.05.10 08:06:51 ] Augoror
[ 2015.05.10 08:07:11 ] Myrmidon
[ 2015.05.10 08:10:09 ] Myrmidon
[ 2015.05.10 08:10:41 ] Augoror
[ 2015.05.10 08:13:27 ] Prospect
[ 2015.05.10 08:13:50 ] Astero
[ 2015.05.10 08:16:04 ] Thorax
[ 2015.05.10 08:17:22 ] Phantasm
[ 2015.05.10 08:18:39 ] Stabber
[ 2015.05.10 08:21:58 ] Ishkur
[ 2015.05.10 08:23:04 ] Augoror
[ 2015.05.10 08:24:39 ] Ishkur
[ 2015.05.10 08:25:57 ] Augoror
[ 2015.05.10 08:27:10 ] Ishkur
[ 2015.05.10 08:30:21 ] Augoror
[ 2015.05.10 08:31:45 ] Helios
[ 2015.05.10 08:33:18 ] Maller
[ 2015.05.10 08:34:11 ] Exequror
[ 2015.05.10 08:37:00 ] Prospect
[ 2015.05.10 08:38:16 ] Moa
[ 2015.05.10 08:39:33 ] Myrmidon
[ 2015.05.10 08:40:45 ] Omen
[ 2015.05.10 08:41:58 ] Brutix
[ 2015.05.10 08:43:30 ] Moa
[ 2015.05.10 08:45:41 ] Brutix
[ 2015.05.10 08:46:03 ] Moa
[ 2015.05.10 08:48:14 ] Vexor
[ 2015.05.10 08:48:42 ] Moa
[ 2015.05.10 08:51:05 ] Nemesis
[ 2015.05.10 08:51:41 ] Moa
[ 2015.05.10 08:53:49 ] Falcon
[ 2015.05.10 08:56:38 ] Moa
[ 2015.05.10 08:57:19 ] Nemesis
[ 2015.05.10 08:59:05 ] Augoror
[ 2015.05.10 09:00:41 ] Confessor
[ 2015.05.10 09:01:29 ] Augoror
[ 2015.05.10 09:03:21 ] Svipul
[ 2015.05.10 09:05:02 ] Exequror
[ 2015.05.10 09:07:57 ] Manticore
[ 2015.05.10 09:09:11 ] Manticore
[ 2015.05.10 09:10:51 ] Thorax
[ 2015.05.10 09:14:06 ] Osprey
[ 2015.05.10 09:14:16 ] Myrmidon
[ 2015.05.10 09:17:41 ] Osprey
[ 2015.05.10 09:17:54 ] Cheetah
[ 2015.05.10 09:21:07 ] Anathema
[ 2015.05.10 09:21:56 ] Osprey
[ 2015.05.10 09:23:37 ] Buzzard
[ 2015.05.10 09:29:16 ] Osprey
[ 2015.05.10 09:31:27 ] Augoror
[ 2015.05.10 09:33:28 ] Osprey
[ 2015.05.10 09:35:54 ] Osprey
[ 2015.05.10 09:39:29 ] Osprey
[ 2015.05.10 09:40:39 ] Sabre
[ 2015.05.10 09:43:49 ] Purifier
[ 2015.05.10 09:46:24 ] Augoror
[ 2015.05.10 09:49:04 ] Augoror
[ 2015.05.10 09:52:43 ] Augoror
[ 2015.05.10 09:57:04 ] Astero
[ 2015.05.10 09:59:33 ] Crow
[ 2015.05.10 10:05:22 ] Bestower
[ 2015.05.10 10:12:33 ] Mammoth
[ 2015.05.10 10:17:02 ] Coercer
[ 2015.05.10 10:19:27 ] Bestower
[ 2015.05.10 10:19:55 ] Bestower
[ 2015.05.10 10:21:53 ] Coercer
[ 2015.05.10 10:22:18 ] Tayra
[ 2015.05.10 10:24:17 ] Coercer
[ 2015.05.10 10:24:54 ] Thrasher
[ 2015.05.10 10:26:41 ] Bestower
[ 2015.05.10 10:27:36 ] Crusader
[ 2015.05.10 10:30:06 ] Epithal
[ 2015.05.10 10:30:11 ] Catalyst
[ 2015.05.10 10:32:29 ] Tayra
[ 2015.05.10 10:32:34 ] Catalyst
[ 2015.05.10 10:35:05 ] Epithal
[ 2015.05.10 10:35:09 ] Coercer
[ 2015.05.10 10:37:58 ] Tristan
[ 2015.05.10 10:38:05 ] Maulus
[ 2015.05.10 10:40:31 ] Magnate
[ 2015.05.10 10:41:36 ] Thrasher
[ 2015.05.10 10:42:58 ] Incursus
[ 2015.05.10 10:45:24 ] Maulus
[ 2015.05.10 10:45:37 ] Executioner
[ 2015.05.10 10:47:59 ] Incursus
[ 2015.05.10 10:48:09 ] Magnate
[ 2015.05.10 10:50:47 ] Incursus
[ 2015.05.10 10:50:59 ] Incursus
[ 2015.05.10 10:55:05 ] Crucifier
[ 2015.05.10 10:55:26 ] Crucifier
[ 2015.05.10 10:57:39 ] Probe
[ 2015.05.10 10:57:43 ] Heron
Furthermore, third party Arctic Light, who owned the POCOs in the system, lost a grand total of 10.4 billion ISK in the process of attempting to secure a foothold on Sunday.
Thus, the carnage totals up to over 20 billion ISK in damages inflicted.
Conclusion: This went rather well
There was a lot riding on this OP. This was my first large scale operation in EVE, as well as the first POS bash for many Unistas - but for the most part, I couldn't have asked for a smoother operation. Everything went well and we even got a nice fight to top it all off. (And I got 7 corpses! Booyah!) Many thanks to everyone who helped out, big thanks to our leadership for making it all possible, lots of props to my co-Sky Marshal Arimos for his great work. I can't wait for the next op!
Special thanks to Alto Deraqwar, McCrumb, Drake zun, Alan Logrus, Jean de Trey, Goethian, Sayod Physulem, Ounar Zanok, Selni Tivianne, Peter Rotineque, and Che Galtor for sending me the logs needed to accurately count all the self destructed ships.