The region of space known as the Drone Lands has stood peacefully for years at a time. The limited access to NPC stations and the local rat population has made it less desirable space and left the local population, which are NC. renters, undisturbed. That was until Imperium sigs and squads turned their attention to the region. It should also be noted that the Unspoken Alliance, Just A Game and Lazerhawks have been carrying out the heavy lifting, supporting in major entosis work as well as hitting structures of interest in the spire.
In an effort to both remove rental income from the region and to promote their own rental program in Period Basis, a full-scale assault has been coordinated across the region which over the last month has seen all of the Brother of Tangra-owned iHubs destroyed, all upgrades removed, and the majority of the TCUs taken. The Spire has been left in chaos, cut almost in half, with other groups claiming the sov as their own.
With the iHubs and upgrades removed, the ADM started to drop. With no real safe spaces to rat and mine, structures were soon targeted and the rental corps started to take heavy losses. With the month’s rent bill due, corporations were either removed from The Spire into Malpais or simply kicked for not paying. Leaked emails show that BOT leadership addressed this issue by giving plenty of notice and tried to work with groups to re-home them.
While players can be removed, their structures can’t be as easy. It’s these structures that have come under endless assault, with highlights includng two Sotiyos in the 5LAJ-8 and JL-ZUQ systems. There’s also been a number of Fortizar losses as well – a total of seven have been lost in The Spire, the most expensive being 16b ISK lost in the Y8K-5B system. While there has been some fighting to protect some of the structures, most have been lost without contest. Audio posted to Reddit shows BOT leadership unwilling to send in a fleet to support their allies in fighting for a Sotiyo, however, a few days later leadership agreed on the use of dreadnoughts in the defence of an iHub. The dreadnoughts were baited and killed, costing over 20b ISK alone. The question should be raised about why BOT leadership is unwilling to send in fleets to look after renters structures or having to rely on NC, PH or Skill Urself picking up the slack. But they’re happy to rush in and feed hard on an iHub being captured. Is it down to who owns the structures? Are renters being treated as a second class citizens when it comes to priority of defence? With a small collection of structures left in The Spire, we will see if and when BOT decides to defend its space, or if they leave all of their renters to burn.
Another interesting fact is that placing down a Fortizar under BOT requires a deposit of 15b to be paid and is refunded when it unanchors. Corporations must have approval via in-game mail from a listed Brother of Tangra manager before deployment. Deployment down-payment goes to BOT EXECS, and will be returned upon removal of the citadel under friendly terms. It is unclear if the deposit is refunded if it is destroyed by hostile forces. I reached out for comment but received none.
With NC. deployed to support, and the upcoming rent payments due in a week, we will soon see the next stage of the drone war.
