Editor’s note: This piece was submitted to us by Quendishir from Manifesto., and has been published as-is aside from minor grammar and spelling tweaks.
This is one of those pieces that simply comes out, because a narrative is attempting to be formed on one side, and the other decides to actually get its ducks in a row. To that end, Garst Tyrell has had his chance to create and try to control the narrative, and we’ve decided to counter it, showing how Manifesto. has acted in the best interest of our alliance. This is a no-holds-barred piece, and quite frankly it’s warranted.
Manifesto. moved into Wicked Creek a year ago, taking several systems from Rebel Alliance of New Eden (RANE) and Sock Puppet Federation (SOCKS). It was three months of fighting, culminating in RANE moving, and SOCKS becoming defunct. It was our first real sov war. By and large, we took the space with some help from Vanguard coalition. We had been friendly with Vanguard previously, working with them when we were based out of Great Wildlands, and more importantly when we worked alongside Memento Moriendo (MEMOM) and It’s Only Pixels (PIXEL) as MEMOM wanted Scalding Pass sovereignty. Triumvirate (TRI), the executor alliance of the coalition, made it clear they weren’t interested, and eventually, having been pushed back into Insmother by Feign Disorder (FEIGN), MEMOM would give up on the project. Manifesto. would crash on PIXEL’s couch, but eventually, we grew too large and decided to take our own sov. Vanguard helped, but as stated we did the majority of the heavy lifting. RANE and SOCKS would call FEIGN and Iron Armada (FLEEP) to help, and while annoying it eventually came to pass that we won. In the end, the area stabilized, and we showed that we may not be the best alliance, but we had the ability to fight.
In the aftermath, we established a friendly reset with Vanguard. A NIP was put in place between us, and we’d provide mutual content, and even work together for mutual benefit. At the time, the area was healthy, with several small alliances holding sov or cruising through the space providing roaming content for everyone involved. As we set our own policies, what came to be known as the Wicked Creek Cold War took effect: we thought FLEEP was an enemy, and vice versa the reverse was true. On our invitation, The Bastard Cartel (TBC) moved south and we allied with them. This action caused the cold war to heat up, as there was mutual animosity between FLEEP and TBC far beyond what we had known about. Fighting commenced again, grinding to a standstill. Vanguard had been on a deployment and now returned, and with Garst at the helm, FLEEP and FEIGN decided they didn’t want to risk poking the bear and stood down. However, the TRI-led coalition evicted FEIGN from the area and established a NIP with FLEEP as well as several other entities in the area, giving us permission to “make Wicked Creek Thunderdome or idk”.
In February, TRI deployed north to Venal, in an effort to ‘find content’ by attacking Sort Dragon’s coalition. During this time, TRI space was hounded and attacked, and oddly the defending forces consisted of Empyreus (PYRE), Manifesto., Hell’s Pirates (HADES), and Stella Nova (SNOVA), the latter two being Vanguard coalition members. After a time, they returned, having found themselves outnumbered more often than not. Garst Tyrell, executor of the Triumvirate alliance and leader of the coalition took a leave of absence, passing the reins to Cpt Patrick Archer. This is where things get odd in terms of overall presence.
NIPs were routinely violated by member alliances in Vanguard. In March, Stella Nova launched an attack on both Iron Armada and Bloodline. alliances in an attempt to secure more renting space. This violated the Garst-led NIPs established between Vanguard and these two entities, and Manifesto.’s official policy was one of semi-neutrality, in that NIPs would be recognized and we wouldn’t engage in sov warfare. However, we were unwilling to stay out of it, and said we would likely third-party for content. We would answer the occasional batphone for both sides, or show up to shoot everyone. We established in a meeting on March 9 with Ruune en Gravonere, executor of SNOVA, that we were uncomfortable with the entire eviction. She wanted renters, and tried to offer us half of the Iron Armada constellation if we ‘steered clear’ of third partying. We told her that we were against the entire invasion, because both groups provided content in our primary timezone. Ruune admitted she didn’t care about the US timezone content as her alliance (and, indeed, much of Vanguard) lacks a heavy US timezone presence, and she wanted to put EU timezone people in that pocket, specifically for her people to have content. Without having the response she wanted, she allowed the new corporation, Zero Fun Allowed (N0FUN) to begin using neutral alts to camp our systems. For three days we attempted diplomacy, only to be ignored by Ruune. We finally took the matter up with Cpt Patrick Archer, who admitted he hadn’t been able to get in touch with Ruune to find out what was going on. However, to quote him:
“Yeah, snova has repeatedly expressed the desire to get rid of the NIPs in the area. I’ve tried to get a hold of her today but couldn’t yet. as for TRI, I have no intention to break any NIPs. But it’s possible that I will give snova the freedom to cancel theirs. since they are living in the area and basically looking for content.”
Cpt Patrick Archer told us, point-blank, that he was willing to let Stella Nova—led by Ruune—ignore and scrap the Garst-negotiated NIPs; TRI and Vanguard proper wouldn’t violate them, but a member of the coalition was being given permission to scrap these NIPs. It was the beginning of us seeing Cpt Patrick Archer playing both sides of the fence: “Sure, I won’t violate it, but I can’t control the rest of the coalition!” It was disconcerting, to say the least, and we were not happy with this.
As stated, after three days of failing to be able to get Ruune to stop violating the NIP, leadership authorized retribution. I took my hunting Tengu into the heart of their rental empire and sat cloaked in Serrice Council’s primary mining and ratting system. They complained long and hard about us violating the NIP, but we ignored them. After an hour of this, Ruune sat down with Sean Blair to hash out the problem. Ruune admitted that she was aware of the situation, and used it to force us out of helping Bloodline. in any way. She attempted to say that cloaky camping wasn’t a violation of the NIP, which Sean countered that it was specifically mentioned. To be frank, after she believed she had an assurance that we wouldn’t interfere, she stated the following:
“So we don’t have a problem then if you won’t interfere with bloodline I’ll sort things out my end”
A clear violation of the NIP to achieve her goal of getting more renting space. A failure by TRI leadership to rein in a woman that was doing a better job of ruining diplomatic patches and talks than Cpt Patrick Archer at the time. It was clear that Manifesto. was not in a position to be able to defeat Vanguard, and we were attempting to do things diplomatically before resorting to aggressive measures and reciprocity.
We watched the content in the area dry up. Vanguard now controlled the space around us, formed a blue donut around us. We were the only content with-in jump range that was consistent, and even with the NIP in place, it wasn’t safe to rat, or to mine. Vanguard would simply show up and begin attacking. They even placed several Raitarus in our space, and when confronted on one of them anchoring, their response was to show up with a supercapital fleet and dare us to respond. NIP be damned! Archer and Ruune were throwing everything Garst had worked on under the bus in a short-sighted attempt to make their space larger and ‘safer’.
May is where things get crazy for Manifesto., and cause the most drama. The two alliances Just let it happen (FUM8) and Combat Wombat (WOMBO) had left the north, moving south after being accepted into Vanguard. Cpt Patrick Archer, in a series of meetings, offered up Manifesto.’s space to them when they joined. At the time, TBC was in talks to join Vanguard, something we knew of. Archer also stated that he was perfectly okay with WOMBO and FUM8 cloaky camping our space in violation of the NIP, because, “Manifesto. doesn’t know you’ve joined, so as long as your members can keep their mouths shut about joining, I don’t care.” He’d given them his blessing to violate the NIP flagrantly, with plausible deniability should it be found out. We were,’ of course, aware of the duplicity early on, and had turned to other entities to help us: Nullsechnaya Sholupen, Empyreus, FLEEP, FEIGN…we talked to everyone and were offered help. As I said, however, TBC was joining Vanguard. When they did, they—along with HADES—pushed for Cpt Patrick Archer to invite us into the coalition as well, arguing that we had worked closely for the better part of a year with Vanguard and helped protect their space when they deployed. It would be a shame, they said, to simply boot us from the area. SNOVA, FUM8, and WOMBO all disagreed vehemently with this, saying that they were either promised the space, or expected the space for their renters. TBC, at this time, was being attacked by other entities, and rather than risk opening a new front, Cpt Patrick Archer made the ultimatum: join Vanguard, or be evicted. Left with no choice that we could see to keep our space, we joined under duress.
However, once we realized what had gone on, we understood the precarious position we were in. We were active, even as they prepared a deployment to Great Wildlands, with TRI’s stated objectives being to lay waste to NSH and other entities in the area, to destroy their citadels, take their moons, and completely destroy them. We were active, despite losing several significant PvPers in the alliance who had grown bored. Realizing the position, we continued talking to people were had been conversing with previously. It was from this that Garst assumed we were taking a hostile approach to the coalition. However, to keep the peace we had given space up to WOMBO and FUM8, and if we were looking to fight, why would we have done that? The truth is, had Ruune and Archer handled the NIPs appropriately, there would literally be no reason to doubt the veracity of their diplomacy.
Then the big day happens. Reddit sees TRI leadership post that HADES has been kicked from the coalition, ostensibly for ‘lack of activity’. We got word from TBC that they were considering following, because they were close. Indeed, TBC and HADES have since joined Phoenix Federation together. This made our position even more untenable: our two allies in the coalition were leaving, and at that point Manifesto.’s continued inclusion was likely to be non-existent. We started speaking again to people, about declaring our independence once more because, quite frankly, we couldn’t trust that we would be given any time to do anything. Ruune was apparently uncontrollable and would do what she could, hiding behind the fact she was a woman and a ‘significant partner’ in the coalition’s existence. Cpt Patrick Archer had shown a willingness to ignore agreements to get what he wanted. Garst was just coming back, so we couldn’t trust he would be able to handle things and keep them from escalating. Eventually, we get to this point.
Garst confronts Piotr Engels, claiming that we were planning to attack Vanguard. Piotr attempted to explain our positioning, and Garst has all the evidence in his hands. He knows we had legitimate questions and worries, but he ignored them. Instead of trying to work with the alliance leadership, he decided that he “couldn’t speak for Patrick” while he had been gone, and that he couldn’t be held responsible. As a leader in real life, I know for a fact that the buck stops with me, no matter the excuse or reasoning. He chose Patrick to lead, and his decisions reflect on Garst. Garst must take responsibility for this. He refuses to. Manifesto. never made any plans to attack Vanguard coalition, even when they consistently harassed us and violated the diplomatic agreements we had. He recorded the conversation and ended up releasing it to Reddit to control the narrative. Unfortunately, we have evidence to back up what we say, and we can show a willingness to disregard everything in the furtherance of their own goals.
Because to Triumvirate leadership, ~valued allies~ can be thrown under the bus in a heartbeat.
I’m not talking about the leaks that have since come out, about Cpt Patrick Archer and the Vanguard directorship talking about violating the NIPs with Phoenix Federation, or how they plan to invade Phoenix Federation space prior to the launch of the outpost changes. I won’t talk about how they’ve insulted the Drone Regions, which have historically been close to Triumvirate: indeed, Vanguard owns space because the Drone Regions helped them take it. This is about Manifesto.’s position, and I hope I’ve helped to clear some of the air involved.
