Only He Didn’t Use Fricken
The Guardians of the Galaxy were a coalition I had not heard of until the battles of Hakonen. I’ll admit I had taken a few years away from this game. So while I had the SP, the experience, and the style of a vet, I no longer knew the who’s who of New Eden. During one of the battles in Hak, someone linked a meme of the Guardians of the Galaxy jail lineup. Pasted over each of the faces was one of the alliance emblems. It was then I asked around the campfire, as it were, who the GotG coalition was and what they were about.
I’m going to tell you all something I’ve danced around since I wrote this article a month ago before erasing the whole thing and starting anew today. Hell, I didn’t even tell my editors this when they inquired about this article in particular. Believe me, they did many times. I made up some nonsense about ‘the ride’ and this and that as I didn’t want to be critical of the Imperium, to INN. I didn’t want to bite the hand that feeds as it were, but the plain truth of the matter is, I wrote this article on you Guardians -because- of the Imperium. The answer I received from my peers and friends, I’ll admit I didn’t like. The answer I got was ‘Darkness and Pets.’ as for what the Guardians were about all. I was told was krabbing, endless krabbing. I said surely there must be something else. “Not really” was the response from my peers. Honestly, the answer bothered me, and take it from me I’m not the thin-skinned bleeding heart, give a damn type.
I’ll happily shift-click on a rack of hybrids packing void, barrel down on you in a Serp-skinned Hecate, and try to slag each and every one of you if I can. War is war. What I’m not going to do is let you get bust down to the status of Fido, collar and all, without so much as taking my own glance at you. If you are garbage, I’ll gladly tell you so, but I’m not going to just take someone else’s word for it. I wonder how many more people like me were curious, but because of politics or history or spin would never really get a glimpse behind the curtain of this group of EVE players. I feel obligated to get the spinless answers I really can’t find anywhere else, believe me, I’ve looked. At this point I had never met anyone from the GotG coalition, I wasn’t certain how they would react to an enemy pilot, flashing red, whilst sitting in their public channels. Tensions were thick and heavy in Hakonen, peoples tempers were flaring a bit. Even though my peers told me Darkness and Sort Dragon would never deal with me, I decided I’d try anyway. I should have known I shouldn’t start with Darkness.
My first interview was with Kenshin. I was passing through OK-FEM and when someone from Kenshin answered me. I’ll admit I caught some super krabs attention lingering in the system too long and not wanting to risk his ‘dank ticks’ I was asked to leave, which really put a damper on my concentration during my interview with the source from Kenshin. Fortunately for me, he still advanced the plot. As I said I was a bit distracted and the man seemed very adverse to putting the cart before the horse as Sort Dragon does not give interviews, nor does he want his pilots to from what I hear. He was very adamant he’d be sending up our interview to Sort himself and alliance leadership and that he didn’t want to be quoted. I too know the eggshell walk friend. I did glean one thing from Kenshin, the composition of the Guardians of the Galaxy. even though he left out Caladrius Alliance by accident or by their relatively short time within the coalition? Regardless, I had a list to start from.
I give you the current Guardians of the Galaxy: DARKNESS, MOA, KOS, -000-, Blades, Slyce, and TMA in no order of importance.
I went to Slyce next, and it was a great choice. Slyce competed in this year’s Alliance Tournament, losing to PL in one of the elimination rounds. For those of you not in the know, Slyce is the Solyaris Chtonium. Slyce to me was an unknown alliance, having cut my teeth in j-space for most of my characters life I wasn’t too familiar with alliances from those times. The few I knew were merely from experiences I had peeking out of my hole, or from invaders coming in it. Slyce was created in 2009 by the corporation Etoilles Mortant Ltd. or EML. The corporation that founded the alliance did so because as they quickly found, most alliances wanted their “pound of flesh” whereas EML wanted to have like-minded buddies to play Eve with, share their experiences and create new content for themselves rather than be dictated to and have restrictions to their play. The Alliance had just one main corp and a few shell corporations for its first few years and it did well and then after EML’s former CEO left the game, SoHo White took over the as CEO of EML and an expansion began. The alliance attracted a number of corps that shared a similar relaxed ethos based on “industry with a bit of fight in them” and before too long the alliance had grown, with several corps taking a prominent role in shaping content for all the members of the alliance; with over 20 corps and only continuing to grow Slyce seemed to be destined for greater things.
In March 2014, a young corp called Alpha Republic joined SLYCE. Originally composed of a dozen or so members of the Alpha Republic guild from Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR), this new corp formed a strong PVP core that brought SLYCE’s 10% monthly ISK efficiency to 93.72% the next month after. It was these guys who helped form the alliance into the one it is today. It was them who found the wormhole that led the alliance into the Curse region. From there they developed sov, had some great battles, and eventually grew into the entity they are today. I’m truly glad I got to speak to Slyce, they had great media, it was here I started getting the first tastes of their propaganda. Slyce had a great team making videos and they shared some with me, even giving me the thumbs up to share them with you all.
I continued to swim through the sea of reds, my next stop was with KOS. For those of you not familiar with KOS, they are Chaos Theory. Chaos Theory was a funny bunch of dudes I’ll admit. They didn’t quite give me the interview I was looking for, but I did spend a great few hours in there listening to jokes and watching the general scenery of their public space. When asked what defined KOS, I was linked a meme, short and simple. I’m left to assume that KOS is about the fight, The thing about interviewing war targets is, even though you’re being extremely sincere, you’re definitely still flashing red at them.
Blades of Grass are, by far, my favorite bunch from the Guardians coalition. They were friendly but up front that would not be disclosing anything they remotely felt was a danger to OpSec. You’ll find little historical details but nothing about the formation nor the general day to day of the Blades of Grass. I received an Evemail from an actually high member of Blades of Grass, not naming any names and I’m going to say it. They really didn’t want to do an interview with me. They were friendly and chatted with me, but they were not planning on doing one, truthfully when you feel attacked by avenues like the Meta Show and even the very man who pays my space bills you go to other sources. I was told in the politest Evemail ever why they would not do it, they even went so far as to tell me it wasn’t me, and to wish me luck on all my future endeavors. Even with them refusing, at least they had the balls to tell me why; balls mean something in my book. Blades of Groot definitely my favorite, even though we couldn’t have the sit-down I wanted.
Yeah, I get it guys, I’m sort of a villain.
After they got that out of the way, they were very inclined to chat and I noticed something different from most groups in the entirety of New Eden, not just my own coalition. They had a different set of standards. We judge people by killboards, or forum posts, or Reddit posts, or how much they mine, by some other fiscally measurable statistic. They judge someone by the very strength of their character. They have their own set of morals, promoting a very family friendly and PG way to play the game—which let me tell you is something most of us in New Eden are not accustomed to. Unfortunately for all you who would go there, do take note, swearing and such on the forums is a big no-no. Swearing is on the rare side, really. It was a different experience talking to the Blades of Grass guys. Blades of Grass were formed from corps that left the LAWN alliance. To simplify, without all of the history, when CFC pulled out of Fountain, the corporations that founded Blades of Grass did not want to go with them. Blades itself is a PVP corporation with a strong industrial backbone. Blades of Grass competed in this year’s alliance tournament as well going out in an elimination round to GSF.
It was Blades of Groot that told me about TMA. I left them in my list of current Guardians of the Galaxy out of respect, but this is not factually accurate as they are dormant. I had spent the better part of a few days searching for someone from the Methodical Alliance to interview before I had talked to Blades of Grass, now I know why I found no one to speak with. TMA was in the middle of a merger when their longtime alliance head, and I believe founder died. To be honest, I didn’t want to bring this up as I didn’t have all the facts or info behind it, but I was convinced otherwise. No one should leave out a major point in the story out of fear of digging up old and likely painful memories. My only hope is that it does the opposite, and reminds the GotG coalition about the fun times they had with their old friend TMA. There is one station and one true member left in TMA at this time, the station is forever maintained and left as a memorial.
It’s funny, when I started doing this article, one of the editors told me Mordus Angels would be the hardest to speak to. I’m not sure why. I never asked but as time passed I would have to agree with that statement. 10/10 MOA least favorite Guardian alliance. I tried Mordus Angels, over multiple weeks. I found myself in many public channels, discord channels. Each and every one of them I was met with silence, some I even found myself silently shown the door. I’d like to write something nice about Mordus Angels, or even at the very least tell you who they are but they were the only alliance within the coalition that did not care to speak to me so I did not care to learn about them. Oh well, screw ’em. If I had written something nice about Mordus Angels people wouldn’t be able to complain about the article. I wanted this article to be unbiased but I’ll say this, even the Japanese bros that barely spoke English were willing to talk. The hell is wrong with you MOA. There was only -one- of you that even greeted me in all of my days lurking your stupid avenues of communication. Unfortunately, he was new and said he wouldn’t or shouldn’t be the one to break the silence if no one else would step up as well. I mean at least that was something, you’re a good guy little Angel, never change and a pubbie wave back at you. At least now there is a point of contention for everyone. It’s a rather sad story, but we’ll move on to Caladrius Alliance.
When I first wrote this article, I was unable to get a hold of -000- or Caladrius Alliance. Our time zones were off, and the use of google translate to speak to their members hindered my ability to effectively communicate with them. I received a message from their main diplo saying he would be willing to answer a few questions about his alliance but we never were able to get back to one another. Recently I was given the honor of meeting with Dexsar. The leader of the Caladrius Alliance. He was very adamant about speaking with Sort to make sure everything was ok. I assured him I wouldn’t be writing anything that would get them in trouble. The alliance head gave me a page, with information on the alliance. It took me a while to translate it, what I could of it anyway, but from the looks of it. -000- is the token Samurai sword of the Guardians of the Galaxy. PVP, PVE, SRP, their website looked like something I would see from any major alliance I was considering joining. Their site was filled with propaganda, newbie information, dope pictures of Samurai, funny quips about losses and such. It was like looking on our beloved helldump thread. I found that -000- was alpha clone friendly and had much of the same logistics we employ. As for their history, I’ll admit finding that was a bit more difficult. Translating with Google is easier than it ever has been, that said, translating buttons definitely sucks.
Putting the language barrier aside, -000- seemed like some cool dudes I wouldn’t mind flying with(if I spoke any Japanese.)
As it stands, I am weary of the hunt for truth and knowledge, this pursuit has led me through a sea of reds. I feel after this, I have a better understanding of the coalition, at least now I know who they are. I also got to watch some great propaganda videos from other sources. All in all, I am glad I took the time to check out the coalition. I wish I would have got to interview Sort Dragon himself, or some of the higher-ups in Darkness but I get it, history is history. If you ever wish to break your habit of not speaking to media Sort Dragon, do let me know. I promise to portray you fairly. There is only one true way to finish this article, so I’m just going to say it.
Welcome to the fricking Guardians of the Galaxy.
