Murderous Intent.

Was it a coincidence? Who can really know, since all we saw is that the collective ranks of Providence came in full panoply of their Holder Masters to attack the Star Fraction’s towers in Kamela almost a week ago.

Did they come to end the lives of 38,000 Matari slaves freed in the name of love this season past? Did the truth of passion eclipsing the horror of their celibate worship drive them onwards? Could they no longer kneel in the ashes of shadowed Providence while hope was born in Sarum Prime?

It is likely we will never know or understand the true motives that brought so many willing bondslaves and evil madmen to array themselves against the cause of Freedom in Kamela that day, but past it all a legend was made there and the story must be told.

***

Some days before the Lady Revan Neferis had announced to the Star Cluster her intention to free 38,000 Matari slaves for the simple reason that her lover had asked for it. Perhaps not the greatest number of souls spared the Amarrian lash and a lifetime of slavery by a single gesture, indeed the Empress Sarum herself had freed hundreds of billions by mandate on her return. But it was a gesture of all significance to those released, these were not 9th generation workers, they were recent captured, those with the memory of their people intact, with the love of freedom still on their lips with their backs marked with wounds of shock-sticks and barbs, or hound-teeth and torments beyond number or reason. They had been marked for death but now they were free, bodies riddled with disease and chemical bondage albeit, but minds cleared and hopeful that life would come outshine the darkness of their taking.

But it takes time for 38,000 to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. Many had come from worlds lost to the State Crusade advance across Matari home worlds and others had been taken from the wrecks of starships, or torn skywards by slaver raids, left with nothing but their lives and no possessions and scarce kin to help them rebuild. The conditions aboard the Star Fraction freighter that delivered them from Sarum were spartan in the extreme, and it was vital they have a place to rest and recover before journey onwards to the Matari Republic and the government offices who promised them sanctuary “soon, soon, always soon”.

So they came to Kamela.

Once heartland of the 24th Crusade Militia, sworn to the reclaiming of words and projection of Amarrian might and now a graveyard to those base dreams shattered and broken in a year-long conflict with the Free Captains of the Star Fraction. 24th Fleet power had been driven from this system long ago and the Fraction used Kamela as staging system for a pair of Titan class supercapital ships and a pair of Starbases used by friends and allies alike to organize and muster for offensive operations against enemies deeper in the warzone.

“Space and Freedom II” had been raised within an hour after Garst Tyrell’s great folly during the “Siege of Kamela” when Amarrian’s ship casualties had near-bankrupted the militia and sent Tyrell himself to conducting campaigns of piracy and extortion against Amarrian-space civilian corporations simply to replace his own losses.

Fitting then that this starbase constructed from the rubble of a great victory with the aid of Matari fighters should be the temporary home of the 38,000 freed from slavery at the turning of the year while more permanent provisions could be made for later resettlement. But how those 38,000 most have considered themselves cursed when as snakes in the night the first strike came from Providence to assault the starbase shields and signal the intentions of nullsec slaveowners to seek the deaths of all free pilots in Kamela.

Only a skeleton crew of Fraction officers were aboard the stations; “Cassini Division” (which occupied a critical position for mustering Matari forces against the high-security State Crusade staging ground in Tuomota) and “Space and Freedom II” (where the 38,000 had refuge and the Star Fraction Titan’s used for jump-portalling vessels to distant space in dashing guerrilla raids against ideological foes) but even so the gunners inflicted significant harm upon the sneak-attackers from Providence, downing several expensive vessels and causing the aggressors to reassess their tactics for the secondary assaults to follow.

But critically the 38,000 were now trapped. For as the emergency reinforcement fields leapt up around Space and Freedom II the docking bays were closed and transit in and out of the refitted cargo and living centres was closed for a day and sixteen hours. Communications links were established, conditions inside were still good, but these Matari freed by the gift of love and brought so close to their own land and kinsmen were now denied the final steps by aggression from Amarrian Providence and those bloody-handed killers who took the Holder coin. Messages were recorded for home, farewells to loved one’s far removed, memorials for children, hopes and dreams and even dark poetry to whittle away the fragile hours passing.

Word came to Star Fraction command of the preparations that were being made in Providence. The holders had demanded a full call to arms of all slave warriors and evil lords of that benighted province. This was to be a demonstration of power. A crushing wave of obliteration of all that stood in their way, none were to be spared, no effort too great, no advantage to low or base to seize. This then was the true colour of Amarrian Province, hundreds of servile corporations, dozens of pet-alliances; a vast host chained beneath the command of wicked nullsec criminals and bandit Princelings mouthing religious platitudes they had abandoned long ago.

Our challenge was a simple one. We had to delay the Providence horde 30minutes beyond the reinforcement timer of “Space and Freedom II”. Our best estimates assessed that it was impossible to move the 38,000 through the docks and hangers of the endangered tower to the escape Freighter in less than 30minutes and since the vast scale of force the Amarrians were bringing from Providence could likely destroy the tower in less than 10 minutes we had a problem of mathematics that seemed insolvable.

But in our favour two things: first that the tactically important “Cassini Division” was due out of reinforcement 30minutes earlier than “Space and Freedom II” and second, not for nothing is the Star Fraction renowned for guerrilla tactics and unconventional war-making, we’d taken on the insane numerical superiority of the CVA before and bloodied their noses, indeed, we’d pushed the slave-lackey “sev3rance” to the edge of destruction with our tactics and pressure in the famous “terminus-est” campaign so had little fear of tactical innovation from these dull-eyed sycophants.

So the challenge was to make our stand at “Cassini Division” and hold the massed ranks of Providence for 60 minutes total. To do this with less than a fifth of their likely numbers, to achieve this feat with a mix of seasoned troops and raw recruits, a blend of anarchist, matari, free-gallente fighters rich with passion and courage but often lacking in resources and experience. We knew the Amarrians would come with a hundred battleships for ranged firepower, they had a 100 capital ships, dreadnaughts and carriers, they had 170 smaller vessels, cruisers, interceptors, battlecruisers and whatever hull the holders had whipped their servants to commanding on fear of torment and exclusion from Citadel.

To face these numbers we called for tech1 cruisers. We called on the Free Captains and our allies to bring Thorax, Rupture, Moas and Omens. Cheaply-fitted, skeleton crews, with many reships and replacements available from the Kamela station for the fighting would be long and bloody. We were counting on our superior manoeuvrability, of our courage in adversity, of the strength of our kinsmen and passion in our blood. We have toppled giants with ships of this class in times before and we will do so again. The important note is endurance. We had to fight for 60 minutes minimum. We had to present credible threat, we had to bring panic and frustration to the enemy ranks, and we had to fight, die, reship and fight again to the limits of bravery and courage. If we did this we thought it was just possible, somehow, that we might last the time required to save the 38,000 that were trapped at “Space and Freedom II”.

During our preparations we raised a third tower in Kamela Star System "Stone Canal" as a fallback position and staging point for our vessels when the first pair of towers were destroyed. It was important to demonstrate to our foes that nothing could stop the industry of the Fraction in adversity and as fast as these brigands and wolfshead slavers from Providence could destroy we could build.

The breath of heroes.

The day of battle came. The Free Captains and our allies formed up at “Cassini Division” we had at our peak some 50 heroic captains at the helm of our cruiser fleet across five squadrons. Each was armed and equipped as per the SF “annihilate” standard, short-ranged guns and passive armoured defence. Microwarp drives and offensive tackler gear. As many ecm-drones as possible in the submunition bays to confuse and confound the enemy targeting and prime reloads of faction ammunition often the most expensive things on the ships.

And we waited. Our crews sang songs of courage and defiance. Elsewhere in system neutrals asked questions of what was going to happen here? We answered, “men will die” “stories will be told”. On the Star Fraction towers gun crews nervously kept their station, elsewhere in system the rescue ships were prepared if we managed the miracle and held the Providence fleet for the hour we needed. The tension was growing but some even asked “will they come?”

That last was answered bluntly by the herald of the CVA come to declare KOS status to any who stood with Star Fraction that day in clear demonstration of standings-enclosure in outright mockery of prior claims to NRDS status from that dread power in Providence:

Ramruqai > Attention all citizens.All of you who are not approved allies of Amarrian Providence, should you be found at structures of The Star Fraction Alliance this day you will be considered as enemyes of Amarrian Providence and subsequently shot. This is your first and only warning.

Laughter and valorous mockery met this threat:

Mizhara Del'thul > Suck it up your exhaust port, scum.
dolmant > this is gonna be fun
Prozacxx > AM I RED YET?

Then the CVA arrived. Lickspittles, cringing worms, guttersnipe belly-crawlers and broken house slaves all of a hundred affiliations and debased entities, all driven before the Providence masters with lash and vitoc-barbed goads like a swarm of diseased insects to fill Kamela local with their vileness fresh from the gutter-stink miasma of fallen Providence. There could be no doubt now, the CVA had some to demonstrate their power at the expense of the free population of Kamela and was full-intent on murdering all who stood with the Fraction or was protected by the Fraction this day. At “Space and Freedom II” there was still 30 minutes to go till the reinforced shields dropped and though the free captains had prepared the evac ships there was nothing for the 38,000 thousand freed Matari to do except hope and call on their ancestors to strengthen their kinsmen and allies in the terrible battle to come.

The first CVA scouts appeared at “Cassini Division” and a final warning was offered to any neutrals in system:

Mizhara Del'thul > Ladies and gentlemen... this system is going to become a battlefield, this is certain. Star Fraction recommends all civilians and noncoms to evacuate the area, or dock somewhere safe for the duration.

And a lone No.Mercy brigand piped up to the laughter of his allies:

CDLoon > Star Fraction will be docking up for the duration of the battle.

What a fool. Buffoon in a company of clowns, doubtless bitterness at the fate of his own corporation made him say these things but his words hung false in the ether as the first wave of the CVA advance exited transluminal drives above Cassini and the Free Captains and their allies prepped their 50 cruisers for battle against such odds the ancient poets wrote songs about in legendary prehistory.

The CVA warped from their pounce-point to a sniper stand-off range off Cassini Division starbase within minutes of its exit from reinforced status and began attacking the guns with a battleship munitions. Immediately our 50 cruisers warped out from the tower to position ourselves correctly and then charged directly into the midst of the 100 enemy battleships beleaguering the tower.

Chaos reigned. We killed and killed again. Combining the tower gunnery targets with our close range firepower we slaughtered the slaver dogs and taught them the measure of our fury. Orbiting under gun range, confusing targeting with our drones, we held victims in place and obliterated expensively-fit Providence vassals at every turn. Enemy communications were chaotic now, shouts for “more guardians” “more support” “more firepower” echoed across their channels as we dived in and out of their formation, withdrawing to our prep-points and warping anew to transfix our prey with antimatter and emp rounds, with lasers and missiles and willing ourselves beyond endurance to harry this loathsome bloated enemy force to the limits of its senses.

And we won, at least for a time. The CVA commander called the retreat for his sniper group and tagging last fleeing curs for destruction we assayed the field, seeing enemy battleships in full rout while our scanners displayed near a hundred incoming support craft in smaller hulls descending on our position. But we had not yet feasted sufficiently on our chosen prey so we evaded these escorts and sought the sniper group as it fled hither and thither about the system, knowing that each minute that passed in this ridiculous pursuit was another minute closer to the rescue of the 38,000 at “Space and Freedom II”.

Now the CVA decided to up the ante and jumped in the first part of its capital wing; almost 50 carriers and dreadnaughts at attack range from “Cassini Division” with such firepower that it had no need to activate the siege modules on the dreads and simply fell to obliterating guns with fighters and battering the tower shield with ranged firepower in the mute fury of a giant denied pleasure in combating the heroic cruisers moving freely around the formation.

We continued to skirmish, killing targets where we found them; in the main groups, or scattered, we found cowardly Amarrians at planets and moons, we found and executed a No.Mercy Abaddon after he had lost his nerve and warped in disarray from the tower battle, we stayed for a while there feasting on CVA support craft and close range battleships before the main subcapital group disengaged from the tower to chase us off. We ranged from gate to gate, planet to planet, we even pursued a No.Mercy led force to the neighbouring star system of Kourmanen where it was our pleasure to hold Garst Tyrell helplessly jammed with ecm drones and webs while we annihilated his entire gang before his impotent eyes.

And every minute that passed was a minute closer to liberation and rescue for the 38,000.

But we were taking casualties as well. Do not doubt it for a moment. Against the forces we opposed it was impossible to avoid, the storm of firepower directed to our formation was beyond anything most pilots had experienced before. Thousands of missiles and drones, clouds of Fighters, dozens of interceptors, destroyers, escort craft, and lightning storms of directed laser fire wherever we approached the main Providence group, we were fighting in hell.

1st time I reshipped I saw the Amarrians laughing at us for “docking out”.
2nd time I reshipped I saw the Amarrians wondering if we had ships left.
3rd time I reshipped I saw Amarrians streaming back to the station in pods.
4th time I reshipped I saw them cursing about why we hadn't given up yet.
5th time I reshipped we humiliated Garst Tyrell again and made him stand quivering in his own underwear as we brutalized his entire gang.
6th time I reshipped we saw the Amarrians go home in capsules because many of them could no longer enter their own hisec in the battleships they still owned.

It was on both sides a terrible slaughter. Over the course of the main fighting the Star Fraction alone lost around 119 cruisers to enemy action while destroying upwards of 30 tech2-fitted battleships, heavy vessels and other priority targets. The TLF lost another sequence of ships but fared better on the exchange, and the FDU were also now arriving in system to target CVA vassals as they increasingly fled hither and thither in panic and disarray at the chaotic war environment.

"Cassini Division" finally exploded under the concentrated fire of the CVA dreadnaught fleet and we looked to our clocks to discover we’d done it. We’d achieved the near-impossible and had held these nullsec bandits and their slave armada for almost 65minutes. Word reached us from “Space and Freedom II” that the last of the 38,000 had escaped then tower and were onboard Star Fraction transports away from the fighting. All that was left on the tower was a skeleton force of SF gunners and support personnel determined to continue the fighting as cover for the civilian ships withdrawing.

Incredibly, against the gathered corrupt majesty of the all the murderers and villains of Providence, the Star Fraction and our freedom-fighter allies had prevailed and bought the time required to save these 38,000 from summary execution and made a mockery of the herald’s boast to kill everyone by our side that day.

Fighting continued of course for another hour.

Growing tired of the cowardice of its battleship wing (which was continually chased from the field by the free pilots harassing them in Kamela) CVA ordered the remainder of its capital force deployed against the now evacuated “Space and Freedom II” 100 carriers and dreadnaughts fired their weapons and deployed fighters and the shields were destroyed in minutes. So many enemy ships were crouched on that field like roaches in close formation our remaining attacks grew more costly yet, triage carriers and guardians beyond number were protecting their battleships now, and our victories became fewer, but until the end we flew into their midst, striking blows as our formation dwindled in need for frequent reships and local spatial disturbances. But still we killed.

At the last the CVA group moved on to the third Star Fraction tower in system “Stone Canal” and reduced its shields to towards reinforcement in a matter of minutes, its gunners tried their luck against a target dreadnaught but to no avail since the cowards of providence still did not dare to use siege modules and the target vessel received support from upwards of a dozen carriers to offset all incoming damage.

When reinforcement mode was triggered for the final tower the battle was largely over. Skirmishes continued around the system as criminally-flagged CVA vessels were killed by free-captains and our allies and other independents used the opportunity to plunge daggers of hate into the necks of the oppressors. Many CVA levies were forced to return home without ships even those not destroyed in the fighting, their criminal aggression had been rated too severe by Amarrian imperial or Concord rules in touching irony given such authorities usual favouritism for anarchist opponents.

Each of us that had fought that day had scores of kill-rights ourselves and these would be pursued and punished in the days to come. Such the brutality of the fighting I found I personally had 82 of these concord-law exclusions and that must tell a story of the epic nature of this conflict.

But when the CVA carrier fleet lit the cyno fields and departed what had really changed in Kamela? Truth be told, not much. The Star Fraction rebuilt the two destroyed towers, “Cassini Division II” and “Space and Freedom III” this time using Matari technology focusing on higher damage firepower. We repaired all the weapon systems disabled around “Stone Canal” and knew it was a possibility that tower would be lost if the CVA returned in the early hours of the new year when most would be celebrating with their comrades and loved ones. But space superiority had returned to the TLF and Fraction forces and Amarrian presence was scant and fleeting. Mere meaningless frothing in local and the ranting of mooncalf dupes and hirelings.

Aftermath.

Later we were told that while we’d been mounting the defence of Cassini and Space and Freedom II our allies in the Ushra’khan had attacked and destroyed a number of CVA bloc mining towers elsewhere in space and had used the distraction of the full slaver capital deployment in Kamela to plan and execute their own attacks to cut at the economic base of the brigand-lords in Providence. This brought a smile to our pilots of course, and additional humiliation to the CVA bloc so convincingly mocked in Kamela by the heroics of a bold few.

Loss of life was terrible however, and our own records show that around 40,000 free-anarchists and 10,000 Matari fighters had been lost from our crews in the fighting in Kamela, while we estimated around 150,000 slaves and bound workers of the CVA horde were consigned to icy death in the depths of space.

Afterwards I was asked by a young ensign on my seventh ship of the day – a thorax class cruiser -JFS- “Capoeira”:

“Was it really worth it Captain? I mean 50,000 to save 38,000? How do the sums add up? Did we really make a difference?”

And I answered him without hesitation, voice clear and resolved:

“Yes it was worth it. We lost 50,000 brothers and sisters here today to save human life. We sacrificed because it was right to do so. We fought against darkness and evil, imperialism and cruelty. We fought because not to fight would be consign living souls to death without hope. We lost 50,000 in the name of life and hope. Our enemies lost 150,000 in the name of death and hatred. We have drawn a clear line this day. Nobody can dispute it.”

And so it went. The day passed and then another; and it became clear the CVA had no stomach for a repeat of this slaughter on the first day of the New Year. Some scattered voices from their puling pet alliance satrapies’ made threats and lunatic prophesies in Kamela for days afterwards, but nobody really paid them any mind.

Will they come again?

The question on a young boys lips as I spoke to the tribal elders and representatives of the 38,000 in the days that follow. Strangely I recognized his features from the holovid propaganda of a loyalist agent in weeks before but the sight of the tattered metal star of the fraction worn as an amulet to ward off evil at his neck made me smile as I met those leaders and speakers of that liberated multitude.

But they will come again. Of that I have no doubt. Kamela has become a beacon of hope in a benighted region. It is so close to Providence that slave-workers and dissidents have already begun seeking sanctuary from the Holder lords at our towers and starbases and plans are drawn to strike back at the devils and brigands in their homeland. An entity of tyrants and base hierarchical maggots like the CVA cannot bear to see Free Captains and genuine Freespace ideology so close to its xenophobic borders so it must lash out – time and time again, it will bring the gathered fleets of Providence and crash upon the rocks of our resolve and honest ideologies. These slavers will bare their claws and lash at freedom, spitting their hatred and outrage that any would dare stand while others have knelt and bared their necks in times before. We will face many of these assaults and we will stand firm. Towers will be rebuilt, defences will be mended, we shall never submit to the evil men in Providence and their bandit-brethren eyeing the star-cluster with piratical glee.

But this battle is over. Space and Freedom II was destroyed but the 38,000 lived. We mourn our dead and honour them by raising Space and Freedom III, and may that story prove as bold in times to come. My toast to the brave 50 cruisers who stood down the might of Providence that day. We showed what heart and courage can achieve against all odds and vile opponents. Count yourself blessed if you were there. And if you were not? Well, friends there will always be another day to win your portion of glory and dance to freedom's driving song.

As ever, we dare to dream.