During an official ceremony decreed by the Empress of the Amarr Empire herself, a Drifter Armada consisting of at least 100 Drifter ships entered the system Sarum Prime on 27 June 2015 at approximately 16:54 EVE Time.
The timeline of events comes from Curatores Veritatis Alliance member Rythia Main and diplomats Vaari, Kahar Dex.
The events of that fateful day started at around 15:30 EVE time as forces from Providence Bloc and other allies to the Amarr empire formed up to heed the call of the Empress Jamyl Sarum of the Amarr Empire. The festivities began at 16:00 EVE time, according to Kahar Dex, who says that the first sign of trouble came after Admiral Ren Karetta gave his speech, followed by JedsZero, executor of Apocalypse Now.
According to Kahar Dex, who planned and attended the festivities, the Drifter armada arrived at approximately 16:54 to the shock of everyone attending.
It was at this point that the proximity alarm klaxons began wildly, and the Divine Commodre Taidis Rolti interrupted the Executor to say “DEFEND THE EMPIRE”… at which point all capsuleers could see an armada of 100 Drifter Battleships warping on top of the loyalist gathering.
At this point aggression began, as Admiral Ren Karetta’s ship began taking fire. He gave the order to all local pilots: Ren Karetta > ALL IMPERIAL VESSELS, BREAK! BREAK! CONTACT! CONTACT! BEARING 336, ELEVATION 401.663! FREE FIRE! FIRE AT WILL!
The fight was savage from the start as both Imperial Navy Fleet and Provibloc began fighting the Drifter menace. Warp was engaged as CVA scrambled to reorganize after being caught completely off guard. Lord Vaari gave an account of some of the confusion during this event, where a fellow capsuleer led a unity fleet to the star.
While [our] well loved leader of the Apocalypse Now alliance held his speech, Hellspawns known as Drifters drifted upon us. Protostrator of the security Sir vyshnegradsky quickly rallied the unity fleet into fleet warp to the close orbit of the star and then back. This fleet [warp] was made because fleet was in celebration line and unable to work coordinately.
However, this scramble led to a coordinated spearhead into the Drifter fleet, and the two traded blows.
Although it took maximum at one minute us to warp to the star and back, [the] Imperial Navy has already fired [its] superweapon weakening the Drifters. Sadly Drifters retaliated and we lost some dignitaries from the Imperial Navy, who were guests of honor…
The Caldari Navy later joined the fray, assisting the Amarr and CVA forces with the Drifters.
Rytha Main, one of the capsuleers on the field, saw first hand the unnerving brutality and efficiency of the Drifters. Her account also noted the use of an unknown Amarrian superweapon, which decimated the the Drifter presence on the field.
…After finishing delivering orders to delegates to ensure their safety, I was blinded by a huge explosion. At first, I thought it was one of the Drifter battleships deploying their known super weapon.
However it happened again, and this time with my eyes on the battlefield… I can attest that this was no Drifter Superweapon discharge. It started as a flash of yellow light, which then expanded across the whole battlefield to pure white light. I was pure blinding light. There were sounds of monstrous discharges which shook the entirety of my Crusader classed interceptor.
…Burning to the target, with overheated lasers equipped with Conflagration crystals, I engaged the enemy. And much to my surprise, they were weakened. Single-handedly destroying one [Drifter] battleship.
This weapon, despite sealing the fate of the Drifters on the field, did not destroy them all. According to Dex, the weapon only weakened the Drifters.
Regarding their experience fighting the Drifters, one source claimed that they were difficult foes.
Combat against Drifters is extremely dangerous, because their ships emit strong EM bursts that break the lock and their main weapon is able to destroy any ships we can use in high security space in one shot. Although we were cutting those abominations down, so they did to us too. During the entire conflict we lost mighty Navy Issue Apocalypses at one shot of the drifters main weapon.
During this, pirates began to pollute the festivities by killing the attendees. According to another commenter, “Such heresy was rare to see”. Because of the nature of the fighting and the conditions of the ships they were flying, CVA was forced to withdraw from the area, but not before the speech by JedsZero was finished in the safety of a POS within the area.
In the end, CVA was victorious, but still suffered severe losses at the hands of this new and growing threat. However, it isn’t something capsuleers haven’t seen before, and it is expected that CVA will recover completely from their losses.
To end the ceremony, Vaari commissioned a new piece of artwork to inspire the miners, builders, and hunters of Providence.
UPDATE: The original version of this article indicated Rythia Main is a CVA diplo, and that the artwork was commissioned by Kahar Dex. These errors have been corrected.
UPDATE II: A pair of quotes were misattributed to Kahar Dex, and the time of the Drifter incursion was erroneously reported as 16:00, not 16:54. These errors have also been corrected.
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Vos.
