The Happy Bees Alliance is the EVE Echoes counterpart of Goonswarm and one of the largest alliances in Echoes. Many Happy Bees are current or former Goons, and it shows in our organization, values, and tenacity. The Happy Bees are also one of the founding members of the Pantheon Coalition, the Echoes version of the Imperium. This coalition holds the largest amount of sovereignty in the game, double our closest allies or rivals. We currently control Delve, Fountain, and some parts of Querious. This territory was not simply claimed, but earned through diplomacy and war, much the same way that the Imperium was built in EVE Online (EO).
While EVE Echoes is a recent game, having been released just over eight months ago, it has already seen its fair share of conflicts and the Happy Bees alliance has been involved in nearly all of those wars as either one of the main participants or as a supporting ally for those who asked for help. But, three main wars stand out and have forged the Happy Bees and Pantheon Coalition into the powerhouses they are.
The First Anti-Botting War
Early in the game’s history, Delve had several independent alliances and corporations, all raiding and fighting against each other and Happy Bees was one of those. But another alliance was growing extremely rapidly and its members exhibited some very odd behaviors, especially when mining. This alliance was Pan Intergalactic Business (PIBC) – the very same group that was present on the now infamous Serenity server in EO. The behaviors seen and recorded were clearly large numbers of botting accounts. Also, PIBC wanted everyone to be subservient to them. They were trying to create another Serenity, with them as everyone’s master.
This evidence of rampant botting, and the accompanying failure of Netease to curb it, created clear diplomatic issues. These factors resulted in the creation of the Pantheon Coalition, with Happy Bees, The Cosmos, The Collective, Pandemonium, Shadow Syndicate, and Rekium, all banding together to form Pantheon, which also enlisted some external aid from the Mercenary Coalition, to do what Netease failed to do – end the attempt to create a Serenity situation in Echoes.
The speed and ferocity of the attack unleashed on PIBC was astounding and Delve was soon on fire. No part of Delve was safe. Small frigate gangs and larger fleets made up of cruisers (the largest ship available in the game at that time) and destroyers were wiped out without mercy. PIBC tried to resist, but with each passing day mining fleets in null and lowsec were destroyed and supply lines were disrupted.
New life filled PIBC when REKIUM switched sides, betraying those that thought of them as friends. This betrayal, while a demoralizing blow, didn’t stop the destruction. REKIUM was sent fleeing and PIBC was relegated to highsec and are now a shadow of what they once were.
With Delve securely under Pantheon control, we started building, making a strong self sufficient alliance encompassing all aspects of the game. This self-sufficiency turned Happy Bees and Pantheon from a slightly disorganized group into a powerful force. We also started producing ships of all kinds by the hundreds. While Delve had been secured for the time, we knew that holding it was going to take resolve and cooperation from everyone.
The War for Fountain
While the war against PIBC was slowing down, an alliance from Fountain – Terran Federation – were harassing us from the north. They had been allies of PIBC but hadn’t been a real target during the war. However, after the war they increasingly harassed fleets of miners and others in Delve. We responded by sending our own raiding and harassing fleets and for a time these skirmishes were enough: raids back and forth for good content.
However, this changed when a Happy Bees pilot named Gengar found a Terran Federation Capsuleer Outpost, which was at the time the only structure that could be built in the game, costing several billion ISK. In a Purifier Stealth Bomber he soloed the shields and put it in armor timer. This caused the outpost’s owner to panic and unanchor it to start the process of relocation. In a secret mission, with a small fleet led by Stj, we attacked just as the unanchoring timer was running out. The fleet killed the transport ship that was going to pick up the station and the Nightmare battleship (an extremely rare ship at the time). We scooped up the station, stealing it away from Terran Federation. Two days after this they officially declared war against us. Our response, in true Goon fashion, was to amass a fleet with the sole intention of flying into the heart of Fountain and “giving them the station back” by anchoring it in their capital system. We successfully made it to our anchoring location and started the process. Unfortunately, our fleet had been slowly whittled down and was unable to protect the outpost during the anchoring timer. Terran Federation still had to blow up their own station, producing much fun content. These were only the opening shots of the war, which raged back and forth for three weeks.
Then, during Christmas we agreed to not call any large scale CTAs during the Christmas break to allow our members to spend time with families and friends. However, this didn’t mean the war stopped. Happy Bees decided to have a holiday tournament for those who wished to participate. The pilot who killed the most ISK value of enemies would win several billion ISK. This led to an unprecedented amount of single gankers and small gangs running rampant through Fountain killing over 50 billion ISK of ships in just three days (at the time, Nightmares were valued around 10 to 15 billion). This unexpected participation among our pilots and our allies, who were holding their own holiday tournaments, caused extreme pressure on Terran Federation pilots and leadership. Less than a week later, internal fighting caused them to implode, allowing Pantheon to absorb several corporations and alliances that were part of Terran Federation while sending the rest fleeing. Now stronger than ever, we started to secure and fortify Delve and Fountain.
The War of Southern Coalition Aggression
Our longtime allies, Genesis Federation, probably the largest alliance in the game at the time, had been spearheading their own series of anti-botting wars in the east and south of New Eden, with occasional support from us. While fighting an alliance called Death Phantom, several other alliances banded together in opposition to what they saw as Genesis Federation overstepping their bounds. Being long time allies, and with our war against Terran Federation over, Genesis Federation asked for more help from us. We agreed and threw our support behind them fully. We had several setbacks in the initial stages, but once our FC’s got integrated into the fleet command structure, the tables started to turn dramatically.
This current war has drawn in most of the major powers in nullsec. Pantheon, Genesis Federation, and Silent Alliance are the major groups on our side, along with with dozens of smaller alliances and corps. The Southern Coalition consists of F1, Fireflies, Golden Horde, and Void, with their smaller supporting alliances and corps. Now we are consistently burning fleets and structures at great speed. In the last seven days we have destroyed six corporation Citadels. Now, unless the Southern Coalition has a 3 to 1 numbers advantage they will just sit at a distance and watch us destroy their structures. This is still an ongoing conflict, but as the Southern Coalition has more and more trouble getting numbers to fight against us. we will see how much longer this war will continue as we burn what they have built to the ground.
