Intergalactic Summit

Today in a brief statement Gobbins, the leader of Pandemic Horde Inc, Horde declared war on the Capsuleer group Co2.

In his statement Gobbins made it clear that Co2 is "a fantastic group of guys...[and]...great neigbors." He emphasised that it is not a war of hatred or of retribution.

That is all I can say at this point due to operational security.

Reporting today for TL;DR is Karina Ivanovich.

Update: I have been cleared to say that the War Declaration on Co2 is one of territorial aquasition. Exact locations to stay undisclosed. It is also at least partially to expand current HORDE operations against the Gurista's Pirate Group. Horde has shifted it's focus from Serpentis operatives after rumors of peace talks have started to spread. The Gurista's are "still quite a problem for many new capsuleers and the civilians living in Horde space." Says an unidentified Pandemic HORDE Director.

I can't think of a better group of people to kill than Co2.

Let me get this right. You just launched a war for territorial acquisition, unprovoked, but you'd like to assure the international and capsuleer community that Co2 are a group of great neighbors... and overall great people.

I mean, I don't doubt that but would that make you and the rest of Horde the proverbial bad neighbors in this? Have you considered, even for a moment, that you lot might be the baddies in this situation?

I agree with Ruil, these we should have broken up these hordlings when they were a pissant coalition of troglodytes and rejects.

Hat horde.

That sounds like the incredibly weak justification of a wannabe cartoon villain, honestly. Face it, you have no casus belli in this situation other than you want something that someone else has and you can't keep your squabbling band of clods together unless you give them a war to fight.

Relative to other alliances that have actually tried to make something of their efforts like CVA or the Imperium, Pandemic Horde is a joke. Your alliance can't produce, it can't build a stable government, and it can't find any way to make itself relevant other than by senselessly attacking their neighbors in an effort to avoid coming to grips with the fact that none of you are fit for owning the space that you occupy. You're a band of daft savages that's only grown as large as it is because you offered a convenient organization for the warmongers and anarchists of the cluster to join in on the war against the Imperium without actually having a personal stake in the outcome. Maybe you all served a purpose when the North needed to be liberated, but I think this act of aggression against your neighbors just proves that time is long past and it would be better off if the Horde was wiped off the map.

I for one wish Co2 the best of luck in surgically ramming a boot up your rear.

Speaking entirely for myself and not for my corporation. Yes, we are the "bad guys" and I think it would be foolish to assume otherwise. This war is one of convenience for us, and yes we are nomadic. But at the end of the day Pandemic Horde lives and dies by the sword. We protect any that would call us family. And we care not for anyone else. Yet there is still value in acknowledging worthy allies, even when we turn them into worthy oponants.

a)Acquisition. Aquasition would be some weird 'we're turning them into water' goal.

b)Pandemic Legion and Nothern Coalition. have already made clear this is a war of eviction to secure the prime access from Tribute to Jita, weaken TEST's position by depriving them of the only friend in the area dumb enough to try to get into a supercapital brawl with NC/PL, and basically just push Gigx's teeth in.

c)Gobbins' reasons are 'The Masters told me to'. Any claims that this is about pirate-hunting operations is purely a smokescreen.

Well, you know what they say.

If you Want to Get Ahead, Get a Hat.

Meh.

So here's the thing with nullsec.. when someone says they have a good neighbor, it means they're able to consistently fight and kill that neighbor in interesting, Valhalla-worthy fights, and perhaps that the neighbor has honored some limited agreements.

We don't go shopping together and finish each others' sentences. CO2 were just circumstantial allies, we never had them set to blue nor did we have any sort of alliance in place.

As for the rationale of the war... from what I've seen, Horde is at the vanguard, and eager (and this has made morale very, very high, for Horde, and very, very low, for everyone else in PanFam, as we will surely along the way decloak blues and dictor our own fleets in), but by the way Gobbins' worded this, it would seem that PL and/or NC orchestrated the war, and Horde is joining in, in order to secure some territory and assist their allies.

This is Horde, everyone will know this in like 6 hours (edit: it's already released, took spais a whole 6 hours. Getting slow, fellas) regardless of whether I say it or not. Gobbins' stated reason for the war is the acquisition of nullsec space with a direct connection to empire space, within jump freighter distance of Jita (hugely important for cheaper/easier shipping logistics), and generally as a preparation for the expected passing of new legislation regarding the Alpha clones in November, which Horde expects to disproportionally benefit new capsuleer alliances, particularly those who are easy for these new capsuleers to reach. As it stands, 7RM is difficult to get to, too far from trade hubs, and just generally is not good space for newer pilots to learn basic piloting mechanics and get started in New Eden. Tribute works better for Horde's stated goals. Knowing Gobbins and the rest of PanFam, I'm sure they offered a relatively fair swapping of sov or other arrangement, and it must've been rejected. As such, Horde is taking direct action to ensure it is prepared for the Alpha clone and fully able to capitalize on its affect on human capital.

TL;DR: it's a nullsec war, it's happening because one or more sides believe they can get themselves into a better setup. Few, if any, nullsec entities have ever claimed to be led by selfless crusaders, and no large alliance is innocent of doing exactly what PanFam Coalition is doing now. This is nothing particularly unusual if you follow the goings-on of nullsec.

I'll close with the following. Horde is a warlike, semi-nomadic alliance, and it pretty much always has been. Morale was very low in Horde just a week ago, with the fleet taking to extremely boring tasks like clearing out pirates. The declaration of war has already made a huge difference on the espirit de corps; we don't like sitting dormant like this. Our own coalition is going to war against enemies that we know to give good fights, and some of you expect us to sit it out. How 'bout no? It's like telling an industrialist corporation not to accept dozens of rare BPOs. This is a core part of what we are, just as industrialists need blueprints to grow, we need something, or someone, to melee against, to train the newbeans to fight against. There is no "good guy bad guy" in nullsec war, that dichotomy is childish. It is entirely territorial and everyone is open about that. Everyone, for the most part, agrees to that when they come build an empire out here. Hell, the MBC members specifically wanted the cluster to return to smaller, more decentralized groups. Territorial disputes like these are the result of that. CO2 and TEST knew this would come eventually, whether it was us, GoG, Drone Walkers, Legion of Death, PBC, Mordu, Newbies, etc.

I doubt even they are as offended by this as some of you seem to be. Mr. Kinnison understands Horde well. We need a wall to ram, a foe to fight, and we've been asked to fight a foe most of us have wanted to fight seriously for a long, long time.

Best of luck to our respectable foes, and may the best coalition come out on top.

No, that's what you mean when you say you have a good neighbor.



In fact, PL's already been fighting this war for some time, and Horde is being mobilized now because NC has 'deployed' all of half a dozen systems away from home to hit the other end of Tribute at the same time.



Or, you know, they've already been pushing Gigx's teeth in for the last two to three months, and finally decided to evict him, exactly like everyone knew they'd do after SH1.



Exactly right, but any benefit to Horde is an afterthought, not the motive.



Likely will be next, as Sort Dragon continues to make his coalition weaker. I wouldn't be at all surprised if, by summer, Pandemic Horde and NCdot hold everything from Branch to Fade, and continue farming the MOA portions of Pure Blind, all while claiming they want 'smaller, more decentralized' groups in null.

Don't forget, NC/PL were the other half of the supposed 'blue donut', with over 40% of conquerable null held by Northern Associates at one time. Horde is just the latest tool.