EVE Fiction

The Jita incident

Genesis region - Sanctum constellation
Yulai system - Inner Circle Tribunal station
Sovereignty of the CONCORD Assembly

Inner Circle Director Irhes Angireh paced back and forth on luxurious carpets, pondering the thousands of images of destruction shown on screens in front of her. Thousands of cameras showed the exact moment that the Charon-class freighter's hull ruptured, exposing goods and crew alike to the icy embrace of space. CONCORD cruisers scrambled to the scene, establishing battlefield dominance and destroying the fleet of Thrasher-class destroyers that had launched the attack, but the damage was done.

A billion credit freighter lost with all hands and all contents - the thirty-seventh in just a single day. This was not in the lawless lands known as nullsec, where informal groupings of capsuleers held power, or even in the lowsec systems where the Empires held partial sway. This was happening in Jita, the economic centre of the galaxy, and Irhes was powerless to prevent it.

Of course she could retaliate, and in this case her forces already had. Irhes watched with muted satisfaction as the Thrasher fleet was disassembled with extreme prejudice. CONCORD would hold the field at the end of this skirmish. But could they win this war?

Irhes looked at the other members of the Inner Circle, and spoke.


"Make no mistake, what we are witnessing here is a much more serious threat than even these rogue capsuleers understand. Tara, repeat your report for the others."

Tara Rushi opened her mouth, and at the same time the screens in the room disappeared, replaced by a holographic projection of several dozen battleships and a larger number of cruisers, surrounding a small number of capital ships, including one - the Hydra-class supercarrier - that very few outside this room had ever seen before. Every one of these ships was Jove produced, every one irreplaceable.

"As you all know, our power - our very existence - is predicated upon a lie."

"The empires believe we are omniscient, and in this they are almost correct. Every time a capsuleer defecates, not only do we know about it, but we can tell what they ate for breakfast three days ago."

"The empires also believe us omnipotent - and in this - they err."

"This shows the force that we can muster within empire space. Our advanced covert cynosural network allows our small force unparalleled power to move, creating the illusion that we are everywhere at once. It is this illusion alone that has prevented the Empires from disregarding our mandate and attaching us - except, of course, for one incident we shall discuss no further." Tara shuddered, thinking back the day CONCORD headquarters had been destroyed - she herself was fortunate have survived. Since that day, all indispensable CONCORD personnel had had clones installed in medical facilities on planets as well as in stations.

Irhes nodded, before speaking herself.

"Tara is right. These rogue capsuleers in Jita do not threaten the economy - the carnage will be an opportunity that will stimulate new production. Nor do they appear at risk of allying with traditional rogue entities like the Serpentis - my intelligence sources indicate that this 'Goonswarm Alliance' leading the attacks is in a state of perpetual war with the Serpentis and seem to continually lose Ishtar-class Heavy Assault Cruisers attacking Serpentis positions in the furthest regions of known space."

"The threat, however, is that they may expose our limits - our weaknesses - our omniscience without omnipotence - to the Empires."

"Our forces are stretched. The instant that we fail to respond with our traditional levels of force to violence like this, the Empires will sense our weakness."

As Irhes continued, the holograms disappeared and were replaced by a three dimensional hologram of the earlier scene of the doomed freighter.

"You can see at this very moment that we had only eight percent of our forces in reserve. If these alliances get any bigger, or any more capable or willing to encroach into our space, our time will end. Without the Jove we cannot expand our force within empire space. But we can produce fleets without the same access to the covert cynosural network - fleets that can project force into lawless regions, and launch incursions right into the heart of hostile territory."

"I have a proposal to bring to the Circle."

"First, we unveil the Hydra in Yulai, as a permanent symbol of CONCORD might."

"Secondly, I have had teams covertly hunting for disused deadspace pockets deep in Goonswarm controlled space, masquerading as non-communicative cloaked capsuleers, and I have had others reverse-engineering the original Jove blueprints for our mothership. I now have thirty replica Hydra class supercarriers in the advanced stages of production, and fleets of replica CONCORD combat ships with both logistics and EWAR support ready, as well as our advanced heavy interdiction battleship technology, which none of the capsuleers can duplicate yet. We have access to the best technology of all of the Empires, confiscated pirate tech, and what little Jove tech we can reproduce."

"Let us take a leaf out of Sansha Kuvakei's book, and lay siege to the heart of the rogue capsuleer territory, the station they call Mittanigrad in the lawless VFK-IV."

"Let us make a statement that strikes terror into the hearts of rogue capsuleers everywhere. When we are at our weakest, we must appear stronger than ever."


Irhes looked at the other members of the Inner Circle. She hadn't convinced them all yet, but she had sowed the seeds of an idea. It might take days, weeks or even months, but she was confident she would bring them around.