Wormholes

The siege of Luxemburg (officially J112309) was destined to be a strange affair. SSC was contacted by a begrudged former member, who gave us some interesting intel on the system. Seduced by the offer of insider knowledge, we began making plans to lay siege, and gave the system a proper name. Sadly, our contact went quiet, but we now had scouts in place, and a system which was well stocked but not very well defended. Despite it being a C2 with C5/Null statics, we decided it would be worth sieging even without internal help. After sufficient observation, we attacked with a Proteii fleet which had been developed with the option of Black Ops insertion to wherever the nullsec static may be.

To our great surprise and delight, we found that their main POS had not been configured to shoot neutrals, even on aggression. The tower was brought down to 70% shield before POS gunners came online and slowed our progress. With heavy ECM, we stopped progress on the tower to incap one ECM battery after another, along with the token amount of guns. Finally subdued, we returned to the tower and pushed it in to RF.

While this was underway, I contacted my dear old friend Herrbert, and asked him if he wanted to come hang out and shoot a tower. After his initial indignation at such a question, he made the 15j to our kspace connection and...

Here's where things got interesting.

As Herrbert was coming out of warp on grid with the target tower, he was convoed by the locals, who had watched him come in. Mere moments from opening fire on the tower, he turned around and parked in a safe spot, curious as to what the locals had to say. Herrbert's TRI tag had marked him as a neutral party to the residents, and they asked him for assistance fighting back the invasion. Herrbert, previously under the banner of SSC, now struck his colors and raised a new banner, behind which he rallied the ghosts of thirty Ishtars, and the spectre of an Erebus willing to bridge the shadow fleet wherever it may be needed to save the occupants of Luxemburg. This was, sadly, a false flag, and there would never be "backup."

Together, Herrbert and the defenders made a plan of battle. At 17:00 the following day there would be a grand counter-attack, where the full force of two carriers, several dominixes, and bhaalgorns would be thrown against the invaders, and with the help of TRI they would be forced back to the dark hole whence they came. It's a rare occasion that a siege force has a time set for a fight, and we went happily to sleep, knowing exactly when we would be needed the next day.

Although delayed somewhat by efforts to purchase capital mods for their Archon, the schedule was followed, and SSC members we ready to log in as soon as the carriers were committed. Roughly half our forces set the noose, creating the need for carrier support, then once committed the remainder of our Proteii, now refitted to blasters, logged in and cut down defending fleet which has been led straight to our tower. We were anchoring and onlining neut batteries as they cried for "backup", but they were already dead, and Herrbert draped the black flag upon himself and revealed himself as their Reaper.

SSC has, for the most part, acted as a White Knight of wspace, often coming to aid others. This darker path was not one we sought, but Bob laid out carriers held captive in C2 space, and we did what was needed to free them of their prison. Still, our sense of compassion is not entirely lost, and we left the residents with their tower still standing, wounded as it may be. They have the tools to rebuild, and we hope that they do so. The next time we meet on the field of battle, may our fates be reversed.

Video report is available on Herrbert's youtube channel (because these forums hate links).

The stories told are what make eve great.

Congrats on outsmarting C2 dudes that dont tank their carriers.

That's fine then

For the official record, J112309 is formally known as Nulltown. Cheers.

Its why we love him, his bitterness is so cute.

doesnt everyone have SSC set -10?

I would hope so. If not, I'm failing at my job.