CCP’s magic bullet may turn out to be the jawbone of an ass.
Hidden among the Aegis patch notes was this tiny nugget: “Bob has spoken: the spawn rate and lifetime of some wormhole connections to Nullsec space have changed.” That change has been attributed to concerns voiced by “some members of the CSM” regarding the use of Null-Null wormhole connections (such as S199 Wormholes) and Null-to-W-space connections (such as N432s) to move significant fleets of subcapitals across multiple regions of space.
Posts to the /r/eve sub-reddit were quick to point the finger at DARKNESS. leader and CSM member Sort Dragon as an obvious suspect. DARK., and their coalition the Guardians of the Galaxy, have been fighting a months-long war to secure all of Querious. During their eastern campaign against The Imperium’s Reavers Special Interest Group (SIG), the SIG called in reinforcements through wormholes, as well as bringing in non-Imperium allied fleets through the same mechanic. As the action shifted to the western campaign against the Confederation of xXPIZZAXx (<PIZZA>) and their Elite-Space Coalition, the use of wormholes by Pandemic Legion forces, who were hired by <PIZZA>, has continued.
In a recent twitter post, however, Sort Dragon instead blamed Pandemic Legion FC and fellow CSM member Manfred Sideous, saying, “Reddit ima let you finish but @evemanny championed the wormhole changes. Peace, Shat Dragon”. To say responses to the tweet have been skeptical would be rather like saying fire has been a little warm, with Manfred himself offering this reply: “It’s clear who cried every time a fleet came through a WH. But if dmg cntrl is support then Im guilty.”
What would otherwise be a spat and finger-pointing game between CSM members, however, is complicated by the very actions that may have caused it. Pandemic Legion has continued to be active in the fighting along the Delve/Querious border, and this incident may have spurred them to increase their committment to the war effort. In one /r/eve post, a d-scan of the HLW-HP system shows a force of 49 titans, 142 supercarriers, 176 carriers, 35 dreadnaughts, 2 jump freighters and a trio of Rorqual Capital Industrial Ships. Anonymous sources have indicated that this force is headed to NPC Delve in order to establish a staging system within striking distance of Querious. If so, it is likely that subcapital fleets will also be staging from NPC Delve, leaving the Guardians facing an aggressor force not unlike the one marshalled by the CFC during the Delve counter-invasion months earlier. In addition, Asher Elias, leader of the Reavers SIG, has indicated that Sort’s efforts have contributed to the Reavers’ return to the front lines in the final days of Dominion sov. But, even more troubling for the Guardians, is that sources have opined that this force of nearly 400 capitals and supercapitals is a fraction of the full firepower Pandemic Legion may bring to bear in this campaign.
Will Pandemic Legion commit fully to a purge of DARKNESS. from Querious, even as FozzieSov goes into effect in 5 days? It’s impossible to say at this time, but if so, then the first large-scale sov war of FozzieSov will have been started by a cause that goes back as far as Cain’s slaying of Abel with the jawbone of an ass: Two men in conflict.
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com.
