On Saturday evening, December 12, 2020, at 19:30 EVE time, the Fortizar of Trigger Happy (TRIGG) in the HD-JVQ system, in the region of Venal,  exited its first reinforcement cycle.

That fort has been reinforced by Fraternity (FRT) forces many times, but this was the first time the second timer was contested.

As Trigger Happy and Toilet Paper (TP) alliances were getting ready to defend the Fortizar, scouts reported that  around 300 FRT support ships were moving towards HD-JVQ, with over 50 combined titans/supercarriers.

The Fight at the Gate

The decision was made by TRIGG and TP to meet the hostiles on the incoming gate, in order to bleed them some before engaging over the Fortizar.

Interdictors were cloaked on the MTO gate in HD-JVQ. Winterco jumped into HD-JVQ and immediately TRIGG/TP dictors decloaked and bubbled the Winterco subcaps and supercaps/titans, pinning them down. The fight started in earnest at the gate, while the Fortizar began to repair.

At that early point in the fight, Winterco outnumbered the defenders about 2 to 1, so the TRIGG/TP tactic of keeping supers tackled at the gate was a good choice. The Fortizar was repairing, and TRIGG/TP were bleeding Winterco ships, when suddenly TRIGG scouts received intel of a large Blue Donut group moving towards HD via wormholes.

The Fight Moves to the Fortizar

Pandemic Horde and Northern Coalition arrived at HD, increasing the size of the blue blob. On the defenders’ side, TRIGG and TP were joined by  Darkside and Volta, but the odds were still at least 2-1. Further fighting commenced on a Fortizar itself, with attackers and defenders trading ships. In the end, the massive numerical advantage, and the skill of NC. pilots, changed the course of the fight and the defenders made the decision to extract and let the hostiles reinforce the Fortizar. Here’s the BR from the fight.

Once the Fortizar was in its last reinforcement cycle, and the attackers started to leave the system, TRIGG/TP intercepted the departing Winterco fleet and, though still outnumbered, inflicted heavy losses.

The next day, Trigger Happy, in an unexpected move, dropped another Fortizar in the same system, but this fort was tackled by Winterco alarm clocking. The Blue Donut again came to support Winterco, telling their pilots to ignore Delve broadcasts. They took out the newly planted fort.

On the last Fortizar timer, the Blue Donut hyper-pinged for the timer, and managed to assemble over 400 pilots for the expected ”fight” at 23:30 UTC. But, no defenders showed up to give them ”goodfites,” so the attackers shot the Fort and headed back for Delve.

In total, this TRIGG/TP “poking back” campaign, launched from this Fortizar, inflicted staggering damage in less than three months, over 1.1t Blue Donut ISK destroyed while losing 248b ISK.  An amazing result from a small alliance. The members of TRIGG and TP were thankful for the support of Darkside and Volta, and felt they were saving EVE for the smaller alliances like their own.

The Skin of the Bear

During the final Fortizar shoot, local was alight with FRT and NC. members bragging about a future invasion of Tribute and Vale of Silent and the subsequent extermination of the TRIGG and TP alliances. With the recent Vily revelations about Legacy coalition’s hoped-for land grab of Goon space, these kind of aggressors don’t need to pretend anymore that they are valiant knights fighting to destroy the evil Goons and save the small guy. Rather, they are free to reveal themselves as a bunch of greedy opportunists, who fooled the EVE community for a time by flying the false flag of just crusade.

But in Mother Russia, they have a saying, “Don’t divide the skin of the bear you haven’t killed yet.”