Shortly before 1900 UTC on October 16, members of the Imperium were greeted with a ping to All from The Mittani:
A thing happened – a quiet thing. Nothing to see here: https://goonfleet.com/index.php/topic/220280-the-slow-blade-pierces-the-shield-1-fountain/
~~~ This was a broadcast from the_mittani to all at 2017-10-16 18:37:22.674942 EVE ~~~
The announcement heralded the completion of a deal that had been in the works for some weeks: The-Culture, as part of their withdrawal from Fountain, sold off a network of strategic citadels, including the J5A Keepstar, to Goonswarm Federation. The-Culture’s Raknor Bile initiated the negotiations, which took place primarily between himself and the Mittani. The transfer was facilitated through Chribba, considered by many to be the most trusted man in EVE Online. Sources close to the agreement have told INN that the Mittani was forced to contact Chribba through Tweetfleet Slack. This has led to some speculation that Tweetfleet Slack may in fact be the next target of Goonswarm’s recent program of covert acquisitions.
Ths J5A Keepstar’s addition to the Imperium’s network brings the total number of Imp-owned Keepstars to thirteen. The Keepstar, fully fitted and gunned (but unrigged, just like the last Keepstar Goons bought—someone may be getting scammed there) is reported to have cost 250B ISK, with the Fortizars coming in at a somewhat lower price point. The full text of the announcement follows:
Over the next hour or so you’ll find that GSF owns a new Keepstar and 10+ new fortizars in Fountain and various other places. I’d like to thank Chribba for his assistance, as well as everyone who quietly went on stratops without any hurf, speeches, or loud noises; The Culture came to the table to sell these assets at discount prices because they were already losing sov and hubs, all because you glorious motherfuckers were willing and able to go on fleet ops despite this campaign never being mentioned on a fireside at all, never being in an INN article, and never being mentioned on a Metashow.
It”ll take a couple of weeks for the bridge network to be live, but it will be there.
Congratulations: you made this happen – the line, without any hurf, doing an unheralded, unsung, unknown campaign, putting pressure where it was needed and inducing a total sale of assets from a foe who has fought us (and batphoned the rest of eve, every time) for years.
We paid only 12b per fit Fort, and 250b for the fitted keep. Total cost: 382b for an entire region worth of online, gunned, and fitted citadels.
