With the war engines slowly starting to wear down in Detorid, it’s been reported on reddit that Winter Coalition leadership recently came to the negotiating table with Legacy Coalition, offering a deal regarding a number of Keepstars in the contested regions in exchange for the cessation of hostilities. It’s understood by INN that five Keepstars will be sold to Legacy at the price of 100 Billion ISK each, while an additional five will be allowed to be unanchored and scooped by WinterCo. For the sale of the five Keepstars, Pandemic Horde will act as a third party, and Horde has already been transferred the structures in question.
While the full list of Keepstars being sold has not been made public, the Keepstar in IAS-I5 has changed hands to Horde, and O3-4MN has been hinted as being another Keepstar traded. Generally speaking, the closer they are to Immensea, the more likely they are on the fire sale list. Now let’s break this deal down.
On one side, Legacy is getting five KS for only 500 Billion ISK, a small price to pay, and if the structures have rigs, then there is even more added value. Furthermore, they would already be online, allowing Legacy to do as they please and potentially use these structures as staging systems for Legacy alliances. Legacy also does not have to grind down the 10 Keepstars, which would often require supercapital or titan fleets and expose Legacy to some noticeable risks following the recent cynosural field changes. This is a grind-free and easy way to address the Keepstars.
WinterCo gets to walk away with five of their Keepstars as long as nothing goes wrong when the structures unanchor. They also receive payment for the sale of the other five, providing them with extra ISK and resources to set up operations away from Legacy in another region. This will give them a kick start with rebuilding efforts and getting members back on their feet, wherever they land.
It must not be forgotten that Pandemic Horde will act as the middleman here. They’ve been on the side of Winter Coalition previously, including during recent conflicts with Legacy. There is a possibility that they might look to back stab Legacy and keep the Keepstars for themselves. That said, we must remember that the Keepstars are effectively within the borders of Legacy space now, and they would quickly be sieged if Horde goes back on their word. Moreover, Horde are a member of the Tranquility Trading Consortium profit-sharing operation, and any act of betraying Horde will surely see those relations sour, and almost certainly swift nullsec military action in response. As a result, it is to everybody’s benefit to play along and follow the rules of this agreement.
These are just small parts in the twists coming out of the end of the war in the Southeast, so you can look forward to more stories coming soon on INN.
