The Initiative <INIT> announced April 19 that The Deep Space Initiative <TDSIN> has accepted an offer to temporarily set down roots in their space after initial move ops had been completed around April 17. This followed a series of devastating evictions by a coalition calling itself the Wormhole Blue Donut of nearly every major wormhole group. INIT, and by extension the Imperium, have held a good working relationship with TDSIN following the sacking of Solaris.
Former CSM member, Meta Show host, and INIT line member Brisc Rubal made an initial statement alongside the partnership announcement.
“The people making hay out of the idea that Exookiz is now in the Imperium while on the CSM are just being stupid. TDSIN didn’t join the Imperium because they’re suddenly no longer interested in wormholes. They are temporarily joining INIT because we can provide them the safety they need to reorganize after being targeted by the Wormhole Blue Donut.
In the end, Exookiz is still a wormholer, that’s his experience, and that’s why he’s valuable on the CSM. Whether he ends up on someone’s CSM ballot, if he even chooses to run again, is anybody’s guess at this point. We’ve had, at best, cursory conversations about CSM elections at all at this point beyond speculation over who is running. Anybody trying to read anything political into this beyond current wormhole politics is drinking Drano.”
When approached about the announcement, Brisc did not indicate any discussions for an extended partnership. “This is a temporary thing – a couch for TDSIN to sleep on until they can get reorganized, the head from HK and the Wormhole Blue Donut dies down, and they can make some ISK and get back into a wormhole.” While INIT does have a wormhole sector alongside Goonswarm, Brisc said that those units are mostly “used to support our hunting and eviction efforts, not a group that actively lives there.”
When asked if the extension of aid was a common act in EVE politics, Brisc affirmed that it was in fact very common. “When a group is getting blobbed, it’s common for the folks being blobbed by one side to reach out to one of the other big groups for cover or help rebuilding.” However, Brisc noted that this gesture of kindness was not without criticism. “This is one of the self-fulfilling prophecies that people bitch about. ‘Why are there no medium sized alliances? Because the big guys stomp on them until they join one of the Big Three.’ ”
When asked what brought on this decision to partner with INIT, Exookiz confirmed that this was the result of the onslaught leveled against them. “We tried to fight a war, but severely over estimated our allies, and perhaps underestimated our opponents. We tried to surrender, but they declined. This all started with the eviction from Solaris (our home system) at the end of the March CSM Summit.” Exookiz confirmed alongside Brisc that while TDSIN and INIT didn’t have much of a professional relationship as entities, both had friends and/or former members that had transferred from one group to the other on good terms.
Exookiz expects the rebuilding process to last about three to six months, with an aim to be re-established in a wormhole sometime this year. However the recent and potential future changes have put a damper on these plans. “I expect it to take three to six months to rebuild the corp, heavily pending on how all of CCP’s changes to EVE impact things.”
The extermination that has been waged against TDSIN has had a staggering cost. Exookiz estimated that the current losses between assets and destroyed ships likely peaks at 1.8 trillion ISK. Based on April 18 average PLEX price, this equates to roughly 26,000 USD (see below for the math involved).
- 1x PLEX = 2716000 (April 18 Average Price)
- Est loss value = 1.8 trillion
- 1.8 trillion / 271600 = ~662739 individual PLEX
- 662739 / 500 (Amount of PLEX per 20 USD) = 1325 bundles of 500 PLEX
- 1325 * 20 USD = 26,509.57 USD total value.
Despite the excessive losses, Exookiz assured that the war was actually bolstering morale. “The corp was very gungho after the eviction to try and return the favor more, but we struggled to execute. We weren’t really prepared for a giant war, so it took some time to establish teams. Sadly, most of our allies were also not much help, so we found ourselves fighting the three largest wormhole corps almost alone.”
With the permanent eviction established for the time being, combined with the open hostility from the major WH groups, the concern for Exookiz’s CSM seat was brought up. Many wormholers have said that Exookiz’s presence on the CSM has brought to light many things that wormholers kept secret from the patches of EVE. Exookiz shared these concerns as well, but confirmed that he was in-fact planning to run for CSM again despite the hostilities. “I believe that some people blame me for wormhole changes made, and that is more fuel to the fire so to speak, but I don’t believe my CSM seat was a primary driver for any of the conflict. Regardless of whether I run or not, several other wormholers will. I am concerned that my lack of currently “living” in a wormhole will negatively impact my chances of winning.” Exookiz continued by saying that, while he knew he had some support, he was expecting major groups to contest his CSM bid. “Hard Knocks <HK> has publicly stated that they won’t run against me, but I don’t expect that to actually carry weight, once elections begin.”
According to Exookiz, the root cause is likely “a very contentious issue,” but the surrounding aggression towards TDSIN has been unique. “We have been evicted before, most wormhole corps have. The level of coordination and concerted effort to completely remove an entity from wormholes is new. Prior to (Wormhole Blue Donut) announcing they wanted to make us leave EVE, we were planning on simply getting up, dusting ourselves off, and rebuilding in a wormhole. Then came them announcing they wanted TDSIN gone entirely, which forced us into a rather unwinnable war,” Exookiz continued. “It boils down to HK and TDSIN having bad blood, and them acting on it. Why they took it this far I am really not sure. I believe part of it was our size and our possible threat to the ‘status quo’ as them at the top of the wormhole food chain.”
In previous interviews surrounding the first eviction, the Sacking of Solaris, Loroseco of HK stated that they joined forces with other wormhole groups that would normally battle against them. Exookiz added that the coalition that formed from to evict TDSIN doesn’t function like many might assume it does. “Wormhole corps form different coalitions then null do. These groups are mostly only blue for ops. Even during the war, some of them skirmished with each other. Wormhole space operates under a loose NIP, in the sense that we all want to blow each other ships up but have little interest in evictions… normally.” Exookiz elaborated further by saying, “It’s important to note that wormhole-space is everywhere. No one needs more space for the most part. No one wages wars or evictions for space really. TDSIN owned about 30 wormhole systems, but most weren’t claimed even after our structures burned. They just moved on. It’s never about resources or space.
Exookiz explained that the biggest challenge TDSIN had been facing in defending their systems was maintaining hole control. “In wormholes we have the ability to ‘seal up’ a system. We tried that approach, hitting lots of timers, but rather than need to form to defend/fight us, they (Wormhole Blue Donut) just made it so we couldn’t even come back. No fleet needed, just some rolling BSs so the only way to force further conflict was to log the fleet off and stay there to see it to hull.” In an attempt to balance the necessity to rebuild and keep members from stagnating, TDSIN opted to suspend all current war-related operations while maintaining wormhole operations, in addition to generating ISK and rebuilding assets. “Even out of Fountain, we’re mapping constellations constantly, diving down chains and trying to find routes, targets, etc., as we did when we lived in a wormhole.”
