If the situation in Cloud Ring is stabilized, I'd hate to see what the Imperium considers complete chaos. Over the next two days, reinforcement timers will end for three stations. Brave Collective will have to begin defending two stations, in YI-8ZM and TN-T7T, within a 90 minute period on Tuesday. SpaceMonkey's Alliance sees the timer on its station in O-ZXUV end in the early morning hours on Wednesday. The wildcard is Exodus. [LOLGF], which dropped a Territorial Claim Unit in the system of F7C-H0 on Sunday. One of the better small gang PvP organizations in New Eden, Exodus. has the distinction of having 3 top three finishes in the Alliance Tournament over the past four years. I could see LOLGF farming SMA for a very long time in Cloud Ring.
The Imperium has conducted offensive operations in the low security space of the Black Rise and Placid regions of the Caldari/Gallente factional warfare zone. Over the four-day span of 26-29 November, Imperium forces destroyed 18 POS in Black Rise and 7 POS in Placid.
In Black Rise, 17 of the 18 POS destroyed resided in the north-western constellation of Urpiken. As stated in the recent State of the Goonion on 19 November, the Imperium struck at alliances that have fought Imperium forces and are probably a thorn in the Imperium's side. The list of losses by alliance are:
- WAFFLES. - 6
- Snuffed Out - 3
- Pandemic Legion - 2
- Project.Mayhem. - 1
- Spaceship Bebop - 1
- The Bloc - 1
- Unaffiliated corps - 4
Of the POS I could connect to destroyed moon harvesting arrays, 5 were equipped to mine R16 moons.
The activity in Placid is puzzling, given the stated goals of The Mittani in the latest SOTG. First, let's take a look at the list of those losing POS to the Imperium:
- Lestat's Clan (corp) - 4
- Intercom. - 2
- Cooperative Black Market (corp) - 1
Perhaps I am wrong, but I do not believe that any of the three entities listed above posed an existential threat or had a history of conflict with the Imperium. What's weirder is of the five POS which I could associate with a destroyed moon harvesting array, the moons were classed as:
- Platinum (R16) - 1
- Tritanium (R8) - 2
- Evaporite Deposits - 2
The Evaporite Deposits was so surprising that I actually probed the moons myself in order to ensure the accuracy of the reports. I'm not sure what surprised me more, that the Imperium attacked the POS or that Lestat's Clan was moon mining the gas by itself in the first place.
I do have one more anomaly that stuck out at me. Six of the seven POS destroyed were in the system of Mantenault, with the seventh in Alamel. I am not a internet spaceship strategist, but I found the fact that all six of the POS destroyed in Mantenault were parked next to moons orbiting the ninth planet in the system interesting. Perhaps someone could let me know if that is a standard practice in null sec warfare.
Finally, I have to admire the pluck of the 19-member Lestat's Clan. I visited the four moons where the Imperium destroyed POS around Mantenault IX on Saturday and Lestat's Clan had place four new small POS. Two of the POS located by a R16 and R8 moon were reinforced, but two of the POS were sitting unmolested. Not much of a speed bump, but when outnumbered 2000 to 1, at least they showed they will not go down without some struggle to maintain their position.
I doubt I will continue to do daily reports of the Imperium's punative expedition into low sec. Apparently the Imperium will soon announce a "viceroyalty" scheme that will effectively end phase 2 of The Kickstarter War. Whether the new conflicts that arise when the Imperium tries to impose galaxy-wide rule is declared a part of The Kickstarter War is a question for the future.
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