Hug Amarr

Yesterday Signal Cartel [1420.] held a fleet to celebrate reaching the 400 member mark. Yes, 400 players exist in EVE Online whose idea of a good time is flying around dangerous space looking to explore and not kill. When Johnny Spunk, G8keeper, and Mynxee started the corp, I don't think they envisioned such a large amount of players would flock to their corp, even in their wildest dreams.

We formed up for the roam in Thera, where Mynxee handed out ships and skillbooks to anyone who needed them. Training a racial frigate skill takes eight minutes and our doctrine Griffin fits only require Caldari Frigate I. The fleet had a couple of slight wrinkles compared to our normal wartime Hugs fleets. First, the fleet consisted of a logistics wing of 15 ships and a 42-ship HPS (Hugs Per Second) wing consisting mainly of Griffins. Perhaps more amusingly, one of our squads consisted of Forsaken Asylum pilots led by Sahriah BloodStone. Yes, an alliance that wardec'd us not that long ago flew alongside us in a celebration fleet. Outsiders may scratch their heads, but our corp credo leads to some unusual personal interactions, at least for EVE.

Once the corp members cleaned out some goodies in containers located throughout Thera, we left the wormhole for our first destination, Titanomachy. The journey went without issues as the fleet traveled through the mostly desterted systems between our Thera exit and B-R5RB. I think 50 ship spikes in local led the few residents in space to dock up and hide.

The Titanomachy Monument in B-R5RB

We spent some time taking screenshots and listening to the stories of those in the fleet who took part in the battle. Johnny then made the decision to head for Jita via HED-GB. I think the veterans expected death, but off we went.

Departing for HED-GB

We could hear the scouts over Mumble as Johnny prepared us all for what to do in case we met a gate camp. But a strange thing happened. As we made our way to HED-GB, the gate camps melted away. The scouts started laughing, and I laughed along with them. I guess no one wanted to tangle with as much ECM as our fleet packed. Once we got to HED-GB, Johnny warped the fleet to the station.

Hug camping the station in HED-GB

With the way to high sec clear, we started looking for our war targets. Forsaken Asylum wardec'd Renegade Armada., our current targets, just in case we ran into them while fleeted up. Locator agents confirmed one war target located in Amarr, so we diverted to the system. At this point, most of the FA contingent left because they have rules about station camping, but Sahriah stuck around. A good thing too, because while in Amarr we received a wardec from ... Forsaken Asylum. Apparently someone with roles in FA saw us fill up local and automatically pushed the button.

Since we couldn't get any action in Amarr, we shifted to the next target: Apollo Tyrannos.

@noizygamer GET THOSE AWAY FROM ME UGHGHHHH

— Apollo Tyrannos (@apollotyrannos) June 14, 2015

Our scouts found four Drifter battleships camping a gate, so we decided to deliver some hugs to that old grump Apollo. We can confirm that, at least for now, fireworks and snowballs do not draw a violent response from the Drifters.

Drifters confused by hugs

The Drifters seemed confused by the snowballs and fireworks and spent their time scanning the party ammo. Perhaps one day the AI will figure out what to do, but for now the response gave us fodder for making fun of Apollo on Twitter.

Once we finished hugging Apollo, we headed back to Thera where most of the fleet hung out at our home station. I didn't quite make it. I misclicked in space and didn't warp off with the others. By the time I aligned, a Muninn one-shotted me and I entered warp without a ship. Oh well. I did get to the station and safely dock. I decided to log off for the day and wait until I could clone jump again.

All in all, I had a great time yesterday. Not only that, but I now have a jump clone in Thera, along with a Cheetah, just in case I need to fleet up again. That's right, I somehow never got around to installing a jump clone in Thera before. Now I'm ready for the 500 member celebration. I wonder how we'll top this fleet, though.