Greetings, fellow Capsuleers. My name is CaseyLP, and I’m a humble member of Mecha Enterprises Fleet: a corporation within the Federation Uprising alliance, a Lowsec Faction Warfare alliance, as well as a sov holding alliance, owning six systems in the Cloud Ring constellation of Assilot. This is an account of my experience from the Battle of X47, as well as the events leading up to it.
Setting the Stage
Less than two months before X47, we deployed to Oicx and Eha, the home systems under the control of The Bloc, a prominent Caldari alliance. For two and a half weeks, these forces battled each other for control of the systems. Eventually the Gallente Militia won out, and both these systems fell to the Gallente, as well as several Bloc structures.
Following this long and drawn out siege, Federation Uprising looked for the next place it would find its content. With the war escalating in the North, we saw an opportunity for that content, as well as revenge against old enemies, since the Guardians of the Galaxy coalition (and Pandemic Horde) have been unfriendly to Federation Uprising and Galmilistan in the past.
As well as deploying back to Nullsec, we also temporarily set the Imperium blue, as both shared their common enemies. One important thing to note is that the Imperium’s forward staging Keepstar was placed in 6RCQ-V, a FEDUP system on the border between Federation Uprising and Circle-of-Two Sovereignty.
For the next couple weeks, Federation Uprising would engage in small skirmishes with Northern forces on a regular basis, from structure bashes to sovereignty timers. In fact, at the original shield reinforcing of the X47 Keepstar, FEDUP had a fleet on the way there, but as soon as we entered system we received information on a Caldari Militia fleet engaging one of our structures in Fade. Our structure was in its armor timer, we believed it would go uncontested due to most of the North being engaged in X47, but we were not expecting the surprise Calmil fleet. We saved the structure, but at the cost of much of our fleet due to the Caldari having the upper hand in terms of doctrine choice, as well as superb logi play on their side.
Enter the Little Guy
This is where my story of X47 comes in. I’ve always known of B-R5B, and always wondered when the next B-R would happen. What I didn’t know is that I would be flying in the middle of it. We sent a small Jackdaw/sniper Cormorant fleet to X47, killing a couple things on the way, including a Lachesis that was gatecamping the X47 gate in J-CIJV with a Northern Cerberus fleet. We entered the system, and immediately felt the full weight of TIDI and its effect.
I didn’t know what I was expecting when we finally warped on grid with the Keepstar, but I wasn’t expecting to see the hundreds of titans facing off against each other, each in their respective blobs. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. Now, I have been in TIDI-fests before—I was in Goonswarm during the Battle of the Auga Keepstar, as well as in M-OEE8—but I have never felt anything except boredom at the slow-paced action that TIDI induced.
When I landed on grid though, I was in awe at the forces at play, at the many titans and titan wrecks scattering the battlefield. I spent much of the morning shooting Pandemic Horde Retributions and Punishers, and got a few killmails for my effort. I dared to turn turret graphics on and saw a volley between the two Supercapital forces. I immediately turned it back off after it lagged out my game too much; one of the many downsides to playing EVE on a laptop.
And did those Supercarriers just warp in at 0 on the enemy titan fleet?! So many things happening at such a slow speed that allowed me to appreciate the full magnitude of EVE in slow motion.
Mostly, I thought to myself, that the EVE trailer, “The Butterfly Effect,” was entirely true. Small actions I took in the past led me to this moment. Little steps led me to flying with the group I currently fly with, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. When I started playing EVE, I was the CEO of a small corp in Molden Heath. The only action we got was from Spectre Fleet and the occasional roam, we mostly did missions and mining. And from there I started my journey to where I am now.
This is my story.
