[Eve Online] Tale of Two Alliances (Part Two): Brink of Chaos

(Note: A universe map can be found [here] to help unfamiliar readers with locations and general movement in the story)

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Spoiling for a fight after an unexciting recent campaign and hoping to settle some bad blood with Against All Authorities, the CFC was all too happy to help fight a war in Delve for their best friends. They had been there four times previously, so they had particular knowledge about the region and how to attack and defend it. In a single weekend the entire coalition migrated it's war machine south and in an overwhelming show of power even dropped 60 billion ISK to construct their own outpost station in F2OY-X to base out of, rather than using the station in a next door system.



The arrival of the CFC shattered the Southern Coalition's morale, and the next few weeks were an orgy of destruction as supercapital fleets rampaged across the region unabated while SoCo fleets sat camped in a station, unable to do anything. Delve and Querious fell with next to zero resistance. The CFC decided that their obligation was complete and began to withdraw and let Test and PL finish mopping up what was left and sort the spoils amongst themselves.



Part of the agreement for CFC assistance was that Goonswarm would maintain a handful of embassy systems in the area. The reason for this was to show the CFC's determination to keep SoCo out of Delve and act as a deterrant. If SoCo got rebellious and tried pushing any boundaries, the CFC would bring down the hammer. Unfortunately there was miscommunication about this to the line members in Test, and fueled by enemy propoganda, the average member took this as Goonswarm trying to keep Test on a short leash.

Eventually Goonswarm gave in to Test requests for independence and left the region completely to stand or fall on it's own. Both leadership and line members were left feeling unappreciated after being asked to leave mere weeks after help was requested of them.

In the following months, Test and PL began forming their own coalition, called the Honey Badger Coalition, with their own allies and with their own goals. They continued the fight against SoCo, pushing through Querious to Catch, Against All Authorities' long-time home region. Goonswarm and the CFC had their own business of clearing out the north and making room for allies who had spent years living in some of the poorest regions in the game. With the new separation of interests, and wanting to respect Test's request for independance, many alliances in the CFC mutually reset their standings with Test, however Goonswarm and Test remained blue to each other.

Throughout January 2013, tensions started simmering between Test and an alliance in the CFC called Fatal Ascension. They accused each other of breaking Non-Infrastructure-Pacts by attacking jump bridges and camping station undocks. The two organizations had previous spats at various intervals and it had become a running joke within the CFC. Hardly anyone remembers or cares how the bad blood started, at this point it's simply a matter of he said/she said over which alliance is more terrible, but this time was different.



Test's CFC diplomat mentioned in a CFC diplomat chat channel that Test's CEO, Montolio, was planning to trick FA into attacking Test sovereignty so that Test could go to war with FA while still remaining blue to Goonswarm. Naturally this didn't sit well with Goonswarm, so they quietly removed Test's access privileges to the diplo channel in order to cut off any further discussion of the subject and hopefully diffuse the situation. Over the next few days Montolio removed all CFC access to Test's chat network and made several public announcements and broadcasts related to the incident, even going as far as to imply that he was opening lines of communication with alliances opposed to Goonswarm in preperation for a potential conflict.

As of January 22nd Goonswarm hasn't taken any further action, but The Mittani, Goonswarm's CEO, released an alliance update candidly informing everyone of the situation. Goonswarm leadership's official stance on the situation is that the entire problem stems from Montolio being an impetulent child and whether or not the situation escelates is up to his ego. He stated that Goonswarm has no problem with Test's line members or a majority of Test leadership.

A notional war between the CFC and the HBC could potentially be the single largest conflict in the history of Eve Online. Goonswarm and Test alone have over 20,000 characters between them, and estimations for the size of either coalition range anywhere from 15,000-30,000 apiece. Both coalitions command massive supercapital fleets and scores of titans, along with trillions of ISK worth of ships and war material. If both sides fully commited to a war, then the levels of destruction would be unheard of. Unrelated parties would likely try to get in on the action since both coalitions have plenty of enemies that would leap at the opportunity to get revenge.

So where does that leave the two alliances? Both are staring each other down with a hand resting on their gun while the two respective coalition's stand by, watch, and wait. How will the story end? Will the whole situation blow over as egos cool and reason prevails, or will it be galaxy-altering conclusion to a three-year friendship?