Those words so full of hope and vigour, of our promise to endure, to strive and overcome all obstacles and challenges, to remain true to the vision of our own sovereign individuality remain as strong and pertinent today as they were then and when I see reflected in the eyes of my comrades who have remained as devoted as I to this cause I feel nothing but pride and love in that camaraderie and know we have achieved a wonder and changed the universe for the better:

“The Star Fraction is our hope and our future; a union of disparate post-humans brought close by their very disparity and individual dreams for tomorrow. This is not a futurist utopian march or tyranny of conformity in perfection, no; it is instead the expression of freedom on a vital and personal level, a messy and inexact freedom, a freedom to struggle and strive and freedom to suffer, but at the last a freedom to experience and make of individual destiny the room to manoeuvre in the culture of memetic evolution that is so poisonous elsewhere to the very spirit of man and human endeavour both.

We finally have the chance to make of our own future a blank and unknown slate of wild possibility, and surely there can be no finer promise than a future society will deny nothing, control nothing, and merely facilitate the triumph or failings of human creativity without the dead hand of colonial control and bureaucratic imperialism to detriment of change and sweet potential. Freedom is the freedom to make a choice from a broader cross section of possibility. Star Fraction is an expression of rebellious vision and stubborn reckless chutzpah in the face of authority. Trust nothing beyond the outcome of healthy cynicism and eccentric individualism combined with reckless passion and the courage to dream.

If we fail, let’s fail because we set our sights too high and not because we did not dare to dream.”

Well, we dared to dream. And we have kept on dreaming through the years rolling past. And now that the fifth anniversary of our founding it is right to remember the history and achievements of this great alliance and the impact we have made on the Star Cluster.

We founded on the principles expressed we honour today, a union of freespacers and political anarchists, non-conformists and visionaries and at the beginning the CEO’s of Jericho Fraction, Omerta Syndicate, Azrael's Diciples, Tenax Inc, Glamour Bunnies, Freelance Council, Tarsis Shriners and Throne Worlds Church of Sin and Absolution made arrangements and normalized standings across each corporation as we established the Alliance structure and council to run diplomatic and military affairs. It was as you can imagine a chaotic and confused time; there were still ideological disputes between member corps, differences in opinion on justified use of military force. Yet we were NRDS from the founding and operated then as we do now on the principle of assuming respect from neutrals and conducting ourselves honourably in all grades of frontier space.

And our first crisis wasn’t long in coming. The growing Amarrian loyalist power block naming itself Curatores Veritatis Alliance had been awarded possession of 500 “house slaves” by a corrupt holder of the Amarrian empire for services to imperialism and corruption and we took a vote in the Star Fraction to condemn and threaten direct action unless these slaves were freed and given leave to return to their people rather being paraded as trophies for cowardly nationalists. The deadline approached and passed and CVA (then an empire alliance including PIE.) refused to release these unfortunates and left us with the decision either to back down from our stated position like faithless blowhards or declare war.

A further vote amongst the owner captains was for war, but even before the first blows were struck there were casualties. Two of our founder corporations decided they couldn’t sanction the decision: Glamour Bunnies were opposed to all notion of outgoing military action and declared pacifism their ongoing position, and Throne Worlds Church of Sin and Absolution declared their own demand to be allowed to keep slaves as their chosen right and felt it wrong to condemn others for their own pleasures. Needless to say both of these corporations left the Star Fraction on the ideological gulf clearly expressed.

So battle came and destruction raged, the forces of the Fraction hunted the Amarrian loyalists mercilessly and for almost six weeks the tide of war turned this way and that and neither side had advantage. It was a test on the anvil of commitment for some though, and while the Great Northern War veterans of Jericho Fraction had experienced such fighting before, many of the other alliance pilots come fresh to the conflict found the continual loss of material and life disheartening and we were finding it difficult to gain sustained superiority in space over the Amarrian crusaders and their implacable allies. Mercenaries were hired against us and despatched, dirty tricks were employed, manipulation and propaganda, and more ceaseless slaughter as the war continued and at the last the Star Fraction itself shattered as all four remaining corporations besides Jericho announced themselves unable to continue with warfare at this magnitude and needed pause for refits and economic recovery.

With reluctance I withdrew the war declaration against Curatores Veritatis Alliance and noted that while we were near to 50/50 on weight of destruction and casualties inflicted we had not broken their morale while they in turn at seriously impacted the internal stability of the Fraction itself. Still, they obviously hadn’t faired too well themselves because no counter declaration was made and for a time an uneasy silence would reign between the remaining Free Captains of the Star Fraction and the Amarrian loyalists. I told myself the time would come when we’d see the Golden Fleet burning in the Skies of Amarr Prime at the hands of the Star Fraction and in time ... it did.

But this period we refer to inside the Fraction as SF MK1. It was a bright beginning, with much idealism and the same core philosophies we honour today, but it was fragile, we’d made the mistake of binding our cause with those entities not fully capable of the revolutionary fervour and enduring commitment needed to fight the implacable enemies of freedom we knew in our hearts stood jailor to the future of humanity against the distant stars. But those who dare must take risks and chances and we would continue again and again to reach our hands out to comrades, rejoice when strength and fellow-feeling was found, shrug and strive again when disappointments arose. The history of anarchist rebellion is a tapestry of defeats woven from a shining unbroken thread of glorious possibility, while we live the dream remains and that gleaming cord shows us way to the future.

So a time in the wilderness of Pureblind, Curse, and even the Drone regions saw Jericho Fraction recover its poise and find new friends and revolutionary heroes as we planned a grand scouring of capsuleer nationalism from the inner worlds (for we’d seen the contagion of imperialism carried by such vectors and used to justify the closed-border xenophobia of the bandit kingdoms of nullsec.)

For like children aping the criminal violence of abusive parents, the brigand-settlers of the frontier were increasingly seeing themselves as justified in road-blocking and murder as “legal” sons and daughters of the imperialists in Caldari, Amarr, Gallente and even Republican Matari colours. We condemned nationalism and brought a wave of destruction and burning liberation against all the scions of imperialist delusion across the capsuleer nationalism movement – all who used their immortality to chain their fellow humans to wage-slavery, industrial serfdom, bondage and petty bureaucratic cruelties would be potential targets while the revolutionary heroes of the Star Fraction brought fire and fury to the villains in dramatic obliteration of nationalist pride.

The Kimotoro Directive was annihilated completely with a brilliant campaign from a revitalized Star Fraction over the course of a brutal six weeks of fighting. The Amarrian bloc deployed desperately to prop up this Caldari Nationalist alliance to no avail and its expeditionary forces were routed and chased from the warzone in good measure. Again we were countered by some mercenary intervention but no significant distraction was scored. During the campaign we cooperated with Gurista and Sani Sabik elements in lowsec where appropriate against our nationalist targets and the brutality of the ultimate victory sent shockwaves across capsuleer nationalism across the Star Cluster. This was a wakeup call to those who had discounted anarchist activity and propaganda-of-the-deed. There were consequences now to standing jailor to baseline liberation.

The Cyrene Initiative was next. Gallente nationalism was close to the Caldari bureaucracy in its capacity to stifle individual sovereignty, and we’d long supported the true aspirations of the Intaki people to be free to choose their own destiny. This campaign was even quicker. It took just 34 days to obliterate the Gallente Nationalist entity Cyrene, to destroy their defence towers in lowsec and drive their combat fleets to humiliating and total collapse. On occasion we cooperated with the Intaki Union where appropriate to both entities And it gives me a lot of pleasure to know that many of those Intaki fighters from that war have become Free Captains of the Star Fraction today.

But while we worked the CVA itself hadn’t been idle and using trickery and base betrayals they intended to steal the freespace outposts erected in Providence by our allies in the Ushra’khan and we sent ships and relief to the battle of Karishal’s Defiance to stand with our brothers in their darkest hour. Over four days of intense fighting the CVA managed to seize their objectives and our losses were heavy. At last the Ushra’khan signalled an end to the fighting and the battle had been lost. But the war would continue and we had plans of our own to punish the Amarrian loyalists who had chosen to remain in empire space to preach nationalism in the heart of the Amarr Empire.

PIE was our target. We planned a sequence of operations (Judas Goat, Slaughterhouse, and Daisy Cutter) where we would target PIE specifically in Amarr system and surrounding hisec and peg them out as the “judas goat” of legend to draw victims for the slaughter to come. It only took 12 days to so completely suppress and demoralize PIE Inc before their cries for help were plaintive and demeaning across all Amarrian nationalist channels. Aegis Militia and Vigillia Valeria rushed to their aid but were cut down like fields of summer wheat and the slaughter was terrible. Judas Goat moved to Slaughterhouse and now the CVA felt obliged to protect its bleeding kinsmen, Caldari Nationalists CAIN (remnants driven to exile in the Kimotoro Directive campaign) also rushed to PIE’s aid but all was to no avail.

Over the month of “slaughterhouse” we annihilated PIE’s capability to field battleship fleets and crushed their allies, teaching CVA hard lessons about the difficulty in fighting away from their Towers and allies in nullsec and revenged ourselves near completely on the failings of SF mk1 and we burned their pride away until they were forced into a humiliating retraction of the wardec and admission that we had gained full space superiority in the Amarrian capital systems PIE Inc. once called their home.

“Daisy Cutter” followed “Slaughterhouse” and we enlarged our patrol area, again working with fellow opponents to the CVA regime in lowsec Misaba and approaches to Empire on the Providence Supply routes. We pursued PIE Inc. wherever they hid from us, we punished the vassals of the CVA that followed their idiot KOS list religiously and further demonstrated the power of free independents moving quickly and striking at the underbelly of imperialist rot wherever it tried to spread.

The climax of this campaign occurred at the occasion of the Amarrian Nationalist “Pride March” vigil of memorial for Doriam II held by PIE Inc. in Amarr 5/7/ YC109. PIE Inc. was so terrified by SF presence around Amarr in the build up they decided to move their memorial celebrations inside the Emperor Station and had CVA wardec the Free Captains again. This led to an embarrassing standoff where PIE needed to wait inside the docking bay preaching while waiting for the CVA war to go live before they could undock to join the march.

Perhaps they were expecting the full strength of the CVA to stand down the Fraction and allow them to have their vigil in peace but this was not to be. We attacked the unified Amarrian formation full on and over an hour’s fighting destroyed the nationalist fleet and scattered its remnants widely around the system as cowards fled and were caught by our free captains wherever they tried to hide. This was an epic humiliation of Amarrian nationalist power in the Throne worlds and marks the last time we have ever seen a large scale PIE Inc. battleship fleet in space.

For a time our task in empire space was done.

The Star Fraction moved onto guerrilla acts of revolutionary violence against the enclosurists in Pureblind and Syndicate, scoring great victories and refining our arts of warfare and deployment. We won new allies and steadily increased our confidence through a long period of refinement and fleet practise against NBSI holders and various criminal psychopaths on the frontier.

A bright note at the close of this time in the Fraction was our now famous Alliance Tournament victory over Band of Brothers, where in the eyes of the whole cluster my cousin Jasmine and nine fellow Free Captains flew a squadron of ten Thorax class cruisers against the previously unbeaten and massively confident team that had won all previous tournaments with decisive and crushing finality.

What a beautiful image.

Ten simple cruisers microwarpdriving across a hundred kilometres of space using makeshift loadouts and ecm drones to confront the immortal spectre of imperial accomplishment in the Star Cluster at that time. It truly encompasses what the Star Fraction stands for and I salute my comrades that flew that day, Jasmine, Vardemis, Jekaterine, Pharuan, Sable Schroedinger, Backalley Anna, Neurotica, Atandros, Zudari and Bacchanalian. Six of our comrades are still with the Star Fraction; four have since gone on to other paths and choices of their own. But I imagine none of them who flew that day will ever forget what we achieved there and how it felt to fly in the face of a billion minds expecting us to fail against the raw power of our territorial opponents only to snatch the most famous victory of our times by chutzpah, talent and simply daring to dream.

And then back to war.

We set our sights next on Sev3rance alliance in Providence. A holder “pet” of the CVA, their task was set at holding the gates to Providence in the name of the slavers and corrupt crime-lords operating the central standings protection racket of the Citadel channel.

These were disgusting people. Not Amarrians themselves in the main, but they had chosen to align themselves with the self-proclaimed “masters” of Providence and promoted a sick nullsec reservation where capsule-pilots traded their independence and individual ethics for a sense of “safety” gained at the price of the suffering populations of the concentration and extermination camps on the worlds below.

This time the odds against us were truly incredible. CVA had bolstered its numbers with hundreds of non-amarrian auxiliaries in dozens of subsidiary corporations and alliances all controlled by the ubiquitous “red list” that was in practise the greatest protection racket in the star cluster. Sev3rance were practised in the art of sitting behind their Tower Shields and Cyno Jammers and refusing to fight unless the overwhelming forces of the CVA levies were jump-bridged into to support them and so the scene was set for an asymmetric conflict of many months.

Star Fraction worked closely with our allies in the Ushra’Khan and other anti-CVA forces in theatre. We perfected the use of cloaked patrols, recon vessels, stand-off “nano” cruisers, skirmish forces capable of hitting static targets and fading from the inevitable Providence response fleets that often outnumbered us 10-1 and more. But our tactics were working. Sev3rance grew desperate as its industrial backbone suffered the loss of multiple freighters, routes were interdicted and always they were hunted.

Ushra’khan at the last decided to push into Sev3rance space with towers and for a time our allies took sovereignty from the opposition and it looked increasing grim for these slaver pets as the cyno jammer went down and all sides could move capital ships into place. Round the clock patrols picked off their unwary movements and Fraction and Matari pilots were everywhere but eventually the CVA itself sent its prime commanders and defensive experts to KBP with their own towers setting up an inevitable confrontation of main capital strength to decide the fate of the system.

There were a series of siege actions, the Fraction deployed heavy battleship groups, carriers and even our first mothership into the fray with Ushra’khan and Cry Havoc supporting us against the weight of the Providence levies and CVA command group in vast clashes that challenged the integrity of on board ship systems and even had measurable impact on gravitational and atomic readings at the height of the conflict. We were moving towards a final battle though. And we had a trump card at our sleeve to play.

A critical Ushra’khan tower was timed out of reinforcement and CVA had brought a full Call to Arms of every loyalist resident of Providence to attack it. We had prepared with Battleships and carriers of our own, the Ushra’khan stood by with more than a dozen capital ships and I was in direct communications with the leaders of Triumvirate alliance who had almost a hundred of their own capital ships prepared to drop the moment the CVA capital fleet committed the siege – this was a temporary alliance of convenience, we all wanted the slavers dead. The tension was incredible, this campaign of months would come to fruition in single shining moments at the target tower and if all went to plan the Amarrian nationalist would suffer their single biggest low in the history of their alliance.

But they didn’t come. The standoff continued. The CVA forces continued to grow out system but it appeared they were waiting for something. They clearly knew of the presence of Triumvirate jump-prepped and ready but our spies were informing us they wanted the TRI caps on the field first. And then our scouts found the Goonswarm fleet and everything became plain.

CVA had put aside any notional opposition to the Goons and asked for their help to defend Providence. The Goons had agreed. This new factor in the situation was sufficient to convince Triumvirate Alliance not to commit its forces and gained CVA the room for manoeuvre it needed to demolish the remaining Ushra’khan towers with the whole of the Providence bloc supporting against only those forces we and UK could personally commit. It was a salutary lesson, we learned that day how far the slavers of Providence would go to defend their stolen territory – they had made a pact with Goonswarm to protect them against almost any credible threat.

For our part with the fall of the Ushra’khan towers and regaining of Sev3rance sovereignty in KBP we felt our bid to destabilize them had failed. It had been a close run thing but there comes a time in any military plan then further effort becomes meaningless and we chose to end our involvement with a spectacular demonstration of the new black ops technology we’d acquired a few weeks before. Working alongside the Ushra’khan fighters and other allies we assembled a sizable fleet of stealth bombers that we intended to project through covert cynosaural fields bypassing the jammers directly into KBP to assassinate ships amongst the CVA’s tower destruction armada.

It was grand gesture and excellent test of the new technology, and the deployment and logistics worked perfectly. Though we failed to kill a target dreadnaught (narrowly) we destroyed a great many auxiliary ships and served warning that though Sev3rance was once again protected by cyno-jammers we still had the ability to strike from the darkness, with blows deadly and earnest and one day, we’d come back.

Meanwhile in the inner sphere Nationalism was again on the rise, as with the beating of war drums the four empires called for the listing of capsule-pilots to auxiliary militias serving the interests of the hierarchy and statist pomp, to fight for ranks and medals and ensure the oppression of those driven to work as serfs in the armament factions across the thousand worlds of the old empires. The Caldari had fallen to fascism pure and simple, with a tyrant rising to drive them to conflict for hate and spite and racial purity. The Gallente had reacted with their own dogmatic descent to nationalist folly while the slave-masters of the Amarr talked new crusades and reclaiming and talked of the glories of god and vast submission to the will of the imaginary infinite. Only in the Republic did some measure of sanity remain with the reintegration of devolved government and Thukker Tribe vitality from reunification leading to a direct and courageous effort to liberate whole populations from the Amarrian yoke.

We chose to strike first against the Caldari nationalist war-machine and moved our operations to Tama and the heart of the State Protectorate militia on the Black Rise front and there we devastated all opposition for a six month period. Scattering 17 capsule-pilot corporations and causing billions of isk worth of financial damage on the would-be fascists and their playboy endeavours. Focusing on “command and control” corporations in the Militia we fell like birds of prey on any militia fleet formation that left the docks and assassinated leaders and commissars, scouts, sergeants and strategists and we were hailed by our enemies as a scourge on the warzone amidst direct appeals to Tibus Heth himself to empower the Caldari regular navy to protect the capsuleer “elite” from our assaults. It was a very successful campaign that certainly blunted State Protectorate expansion and sowed the seeds of revolutionary potential across a hundred planets and colonies in this disputed region.

And then to the Amarrian front. Our year-long “Operation Castrato” was aimed at cutting the manhood from the 24th Crusade just as we’d emasculated the State Protectors the season before. Here we actively supported the Matari efforts, we sought to befriend and seek allies amongst the Tribal Liberation Front and we signalled our shift of political stance towards the republic at the beginning of the campaign. For us it was a simple choice. A 24th Crusade controlled world is a concentration camp of horror and slavery, a place of inhumanity and malicious evil. A TLF controlled world is a place of hope and possibility and those liberated populations may have the chance to evolve however they choose, from tribal affiliations, to space movements and the opportunity of the frontier itself. We chose chaotic possibility over closed status quo and the evil of totalitarian imperialism. I think none of us regret that choice.

In twelve months of war we obliterated the pride of the 24th Crusade, destroyed their brightest and best fleet commanders and “elite” combat forces and drove them from their capital-system in Kamela to bare exile hunkered down in the mining base station in Tuomota. We slaughtered near a hundred billion isk worth of Amarrian loyalist shipping and suppressed fleet after fleet with our tactics and deployment expertise. During the fighting we established a semi-permanent base for the Star Fraction’s first Titan class vessel “the black plan” and used its jump portal rift generators extensively to propel entire fleets of Free Captains against Amarrian loyalists and other rabble in the warzone. We extinguished several pirate corporations and alliances almost as a by-blow while maintaining high levels of suppression against our declared enemies.

Yet for all the military success, “Castrato” was not without its drawbacks, we suffered significant losses ourselves in several critical battles and found ourselves drawing on the Fraction movement’s legendary endurance and instinct for recovery to bring us through the darkest times. The CVA and Sev3rance alliance moved against us, we came under attack from several corporations and alliances of external mercenaries, we were hit by Veto, by Privateers, by sundry other nere-do-wells presumably at the employ of 24th Crusaders but through it all we maintained our strength and vision and pursued our objectives with all the power at our command.

At the last though we publicly announced a close to the operation after a year because it had become apparent there were limitations in just what more we could achieve in the realm of fighting when the Crusaders were refusing to put actual fleets of their own in space and were relying on Caldari State auxiliaries to do their “hacking” and “infiltration” the smallest complexes. We had done what we could, but now was time for the Matari to look to their own defence and counter this threat and they rose to the challenge admirably with Electus Matari corporations choosing to quit their own alliance temporally and list with the TLF to oppose the State Protectorate agents betraying their way to false victories across the warzone.

We wished them well and supported when we could, and together we achieved some notable strikes against resurgent pirate entities who had sought to take advantage of the power vacuum in Amamake. One such operation involved the “black plan” bridging 118 allied vessels into battle and victory in the warzone and it was a proud moment for fraction personnel to see the rift engines serve the cause of freedom with such impressive grandeur.

So to the today and the future beyond:

The Star Fraction has grown in maturity, capability and strength over the years. Today we have excellent corporations and superb leadership at all levels of the organization.

Jericho Fraction remains vibrant as it always has through thick and thin, triumphs and disasters, the old comrades of the wars in Venal and Pure Blind rubbing shoulders with new recruits and passionate visionaries from the length and breadth of the Star Cluster.
Lyrus Associates are veterans of the ISS project, large scale industrialists and freespacers in their blood, their capital ship yards working overtime to supply replacements for some of our follies!
Scrap Iron Flotilla are pirate hunters and black operations specialists, masters of info-warfare and finesse.
Daedalus X is a superb community of heroic skirmishers and cheeky freedom-fighters; striking fabulous fear into the hearts of territorialist dogs wherever they try to hide.
While our support corporations Hebog Y Tan and Newton’s Wake provide tower logistics, gunnery and heavy freight and w-space operations and manufacture respectively.

As an alliance we have achieved so much these past years. Success in wars, achievement in commerce, notoriety and fame in politics and intrigue it is almost too difficult to list my favourite moments of pride against the backdrop of affection and loyalty I have to my comrades of the Fraction:

Destroying Archbishop’s Apocalypse with a pair of Matari Frigates in the Mamet500 war?
Obliterating the Caldari Nationalists in Mito in six weeks?
Assassinating Caldari Nationalist Speakers at Caldari Prime?
Victory in the skies of Amarr where we routed the CVA at Doriam II’s vigil?
The ten thorax charge against Band of Brothers?
Huge fights in KBP risking a Mothership against the hordes of Providence?
The audacious Operation Fedaykin in the final hours of a doomed campaign?
Becoming the scourge of Black Rise, confronting hundreds with our handful of ships?
Building a Titan under the noses of territorialists and using her to further the cause of freedom?
Exploiting tech3 from the earliest days of w-space exploration of the wild frontier?
Cutting the manhood from the Amarrian Loyalists in Kamela and exposing god as a fraud?
The battles of Space and Freedom?
Operation “annoyance”?

The list could go forever.

Or simply knowing that five years on we are as vigorous and imaginative today as we were then and that the future beckons with all the promise of the new against the vast tapestry of stars and as we enter our campaign “Operation Black Lustrum” we have again redefined the paradigm of warfare in the star cluster setting our efforts against the evil men profiting from industrial development in the slaver pocket of KBP and neighbouring systems. We have set a milestone for assessment that cannot be doubted and as the months roll by we will see if our enemies can rise to the challenge of confronting the threat of black ops technology and covert cynosaural fields to protect their income streams and base profiteering from the backs of the prison-population in Providence.

So finally I end this celebration of five years of the Star Fraction by toasting all pilots who have flown with us over this time however brief that camaraderie might have been. You have tasted freedom and the breath of possibility. We are the vanguard of post-humanity and the expression of all our culture can achieve on its wild expansion and adventure into the unknown stars of the frontier. We have broken the barriers and restrictions on our physical bodies and we travel in moments across a thousand lightyears and process in a heat-beat the impressions of the most complex strategic situations. We stand immortal by science and technology, our only limitation is our capacity to dream those dreams beyond the status quo and reach always for the impossible star at the limits of our vision.

I bow my head in respect for those who have taken this journey at my side. Without you I am nothing. But with your friendship and camaraderie and love there is nothing we cannot accomplish in the next five years. No system we cannot transverse, no mystery we cannot solve, no foe we cannot defeat, no pleasure we cannot experience and no dream we should not dare to dream.

Ladies and gentlemen I give you the Star Fraction.

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.

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.

The Star Fraction was legally declaring war to Amarr Militia corporations. This is no "third party support". This is direct action but not under the command of the Minmatar Government but by CONCORD laws. Their engagement was successful. The Amarr Militia was unable to field battleships for a long time. Until they started to evade Kamela and have given up the system. We seldom were finding larger groups of Militia fleets in that system anymore. I call that a success.

Very few pilots were standing against many. And while most of the Amarr Militia only were daring very little for their Empress -you may see so many cheap stuff for a few millions on the battlefield- the Star Fraction pilots were daring billions of isk with every ship they fielded. There is no shame in fielding small ships, I do that myself often enough. But who is daring and fighting for so long against the Amarr Militia, so few against so many, has to accept some losses. That is natural and I don't see any Star Fraction pilot complaining about this.

They are taking their losses with greatness and I'm sure the next capitals are already ready for fielding.

So there is no breach in the fortress Kamela. Never have been so few how have done so much for so many. Accepting losses and dangers for the cause of freedom, for the fight against slavery and false gods. Against a monstrous Empire that wants to swallow New Eden and destroy the diversity of religion, culture, individualism and freedom.

There have never been an enemy worth fighting that much as the Amarr Imperial idea. Never been a sole ideology that has shedded more blood and has seeded more suffering among the people of the universe. Huge parts of the Amarr Militia was breaking the laws of CONCORD and have been punished with big losses of standing by this fight. They have proven to be pirates. Just take a look at the standings. And many were killing off very few ships but were on all capital kills. Without losing much of their own ever. I take a look at the statistics of those pilots. Not that I give much on statistics, I don't give fedo excrement on mine, but they are now poisoned. By acts of piracy. I just checked the statistics of some of the pilots.

Let's just take one of the pilots of Amarr Miliita that I respect most: Veshta Yoshida. For I know she is one of the pilots that updates her losses honestly. She is on an efficiency of 88% with those capkills. But she only lost nine battleships her own. I know that fighting the factional warfare is mostly done in frigate class vessels. But as a warrior she never dared to bring into the war at least a fraction of what she destroyed this one day. I call her a great warrior and don't doubt this. But if I compare her involvement and daring for her Empress with the daring of the Star Fraction pilots, the only thing I can do is to bow my head in shame. For I feel so deep respect for their fight and daring and it is for me like someone has put gasoline into the fire of freedom that is burning in my heart.

Sorrow for the thousands of crewmembers that were lost. A raising fist for those who went into the enslavement under the Amarrian knute which is worse than death.

We will come for our people. We will come for them and free them. When the flag of the Empire is burning on the capital of Amarr Prime. A salute for the brave battle of the Star Fraction. Many forget what it means to dare such values for the fight of freedom.

I do not. Even if I find myself still unworthy for the scale of their fight, it is inspiring. This may have been a defeat on the field, but for me it is a win in the hearts. A win in respect. Freedom has it's price. And I hope I'm wiling and daring to pay one that high like these heros of freedom.

Free Captains! Never give up, never surrender. Always Freedom!

-Alica Wildfire

Days later I read these words from an independent Matari fighter who I have watched evolve from a fledgling Rifter pilot to a seasoned campaigner and well-respected commentator on current political climate of the Republic and I feel pride in my heart and feel obliged now to tell the true story of the battle of the Sosala gate and remind the IGS public of the value of sacrifice and camaraderie and of battlefield kinship the like of which Garst Tyrell and his Caldari Jackals will never know.

***

It was a Friday evening like any other. The 24th Crusade fleet had been detected by our Matari allies ranging fitfully into Auga and surrounding systems, sticking closely to Stargates and well protected by a significant number of Guardian-class logistics cruisers. This tactic much favoured by the 24th Crusade high command would allow them to engage smaller groups with Matari fighters with very little risk of individual ship loss since the Guardian’s were able to project their battlefield-altering repair beams without triggering aggression that would delay their immediate jump-out through Star gates if they were themselves attacked. Each Crusader warship was heavily armour tanked and would add its fire to engagement only so long as the protection of logistics ships could be counted upon to maintain structural integrity and would itself jump out and flee within a minute of incoming aggression should its position be threatened.

The Matari acknowledged the efficacy of the strategy while disdaining the cowardly role of the many logistics pilots who risked little in battle and could generally be counted on to flee immediately rather than stand with their brothers if threatened.

Gate to gate the Amarrian fleet moved, never risking themselves unnecessarily, never leaving the sanctuary of deagression and flight all the while calling out harsh challenges and carping complaints in local channels demanding their enemies fight them in smaller ships and suicidal charges while boasting of their “kill-death-ratios” and record of accomplishment in scoring vestigial “touches” with frigate laser fire on the hulls of doomed combatants as proofs and sureties of their martial prowess.

As I said, it was a Friday night like so many others.

The Matari war council was attempting to raise a fleet to fight these 24 Crusaders but having difficulty planning against the remote repair superiority provided by the multiple Guardian hulls present and their representatives contacted Star Fraction officers inquiring of our status and availability for a joint operation.

In truth we had few ready for duty and combat but saw an opportunity to provide significant fleet support nonetheless and quickly hatched a plan for us to deploy a small mixed Carrier and Battleship group into the midst of the Amarrian fleet where we’d concentrate on hitting the No.Mercy flagged battleships and guardian backbone while the Matari would sweep in to carry the field against those targets we were able to tackle and hold on the field.

It is always a risk to consider such a deployment (this was 10 vs 40 at the outset) but when one pledges support on the field of battle with allies then sacrifice and risk is required, the interests of camaraderie and blood demand no less.

The Matari begin to rouse their fleet and prepared their own capital ships as we brought 4 carrier class vessels to the Space and Freedom tower in Kamela beside 5 battleship grade hulls to match the single scout Pilgrim I was commanding with direct visual feeds on the enemy numbers. I checked the status of my on board cynosaural generators and gave the signal for the Star Fraction Erebus rift engines to power up and prepare to bridge our nine vessels to join me via jump drive if the Amarrians could be brought to battle. The plan was set.

Almost immediately the presence of the “Black Plan” was detected in Kamela and the 24th Crusade battlegroup began to move quickly towards Amarrian high security space as they had countless times before. Typically this ends in a single 24th battleship being tagged in the pursuit and held behind his fellows, to be killed while the rest flee like dogs and hunker down in their hisec nests and we saw no reason to doubt this would be the outcome this time either.

Events moved quickly, the Amarrians fled from Auga to Kourmomen, to Kamela, to Sosola – I was relaying their fleet disposition all the time from the command bridge of my Recon class vessel and we got ready to jump in the fleet if a tackle could be made. The Matari were still preparing their fleet and were several jumps out but their trusted command was in Kamela relaying situation to their fighters and we were confident the battle would be grand and bloody if only we could prevent Garst from fleeing entirely into high security space where the TLF could not pursue.

But pride does sometimes go before a fall, and we had been betrayed. Garst and the Caldari had an agent in our shared communications with the Matari fighters. Our planning and intentions were known to our enemies, our disposition and capabilities were reported and unbeknownst to the tens of thousand Fraction crewmen on the ready decks and weapon stations of our warships their doom had already been decided by a trap being readied that would project the entirety of waiting 24th Crusade and hidden State Protectorate fleet power onto a force they outnumbered at least 10 to 1.

I followed Garst’s group into Sosala and went for the tackle as we powered up the jump portal preparations and checked the status of the TLF fleet – “still forming” was the response but this was now or never. Sometimes a warrior needs to take a chance and I decided to fight and hold the field long enough for our allies to arrive and carry the battle. I targeted and killed the translight engines of one of the Amarrian Battleships and prepped for the cynosaural field and was fired on in return by a single battleship from their group.

Not enough. Because the rest could immediately flee when we jumped through the portal, I held position for half a minute while the lone vessel ineffectually played laser fire over the resistance plating of my Pilgrim and then decided to reposition with a quick warp and bounce back to the gate to see if I could attract a better quality of victim.

No such luck, they were holding fire as some of their number jumped back to Kamela. I pursued and jumped through back to “Fortress Kamela” (in Garst’s words) the object of his near-obsessive fixation in recent secure briefings inside 24th Crusade leadership councils.

Again targeting a No.Mercy battleship I deactivated its translight engines and this time called a direct in-system warp of all available ships capital and sub-capital to the Sosala gate to engage the tackled Battleship and any of its fellows that decided to remain on the field. We knew it would be a hard business to overcome the remote repping of so many Amarrian logistics ships and various out-of-militia auxiliaries pretending neutrality in the false flag of training schools and starter academies but as I said, sometimes a warrior needs to strike a blow and worry about the outcome afterwards.

Our vessels began to arrive on the field and apply their fighter drones and direct fire weaponry to the primary target immediately but from seeming nowhere more Amarrians were boiling into system – the numbers of logistics ships soared from a mere four, to eight, to a full dozen. Repair beams criss-crossed the fighting as the entire damage output of four carriers and five battleships were neutralized by gate-hugging Amarrian repair cruisers as more and more combat ships arrived to bolster their number.

My Pilgrim was destroyed when the incoming firepower rose above the ability for our own remote repair to keep up with the damage and I immediately angled my capsule for warp to the Kamela station intent on bringing the best reinforcement I could to a fight that was turning to a very bad situation indeed. Our battleships were being eliminated one by one by the immense forces the Amarrians were conjuring as if from thin air and then reports of Caldari joined the field as the State Protectorate Drake hulls blotted out the overview even as their waves of heavy missiles shaded us from the sun.

Suddenly a dozen logistics ships looked a very conservative estimate; I counted thirteen, others of our formation counted 16 or more. It seemed this trap had been planned long before and Garst confirmed the suspicion by announcing loudly in local that this was the day of reckoning and Fortress Kamela was breached by the conquering firepower of the Amarrian fist (on the Caldari arm).

Reports from our combined intel channels became scant, Star Fraction vessels were being overcome by the incredible odds we faced 100 to 10 became 100+ to 5 – as quickly as our ships burned we rushed back to board replacements. My cousin’s Thanatos class carrier the –JFS- Tarrantula was going down fast under the bulk of the enemy fleet’s firepower and our fighter drones were ineffective against the coruscating gleam of nano repair beams in the night. A phalanx of Guardians, a cluster of Basilisk, a full skirmish group of Scimitars – they enemy had raided the larders this night!

What we needed more than anything was time though. Time for the Matari to bring their fleet and even the field and time for our primary cycling to cheat the enemy logistics cover, time to reship to counter the enemy remote repair ... time ... time we didn’t have.

I ordered my reship the –JFS- “Shining Path” an Archon Class Carrier to the gate just as my cousin’s Thanatos was about to enter structure but here matters took another turn as the Scrap Iron Flotilla pilot Karum Korinth swore out his frustration at the cloud of cowardly dogs clustered around his Nidhoggur’s hull and ordered triage mode established on the carrier logistics station. This is the equivalent of a proud warrior setting his back to the wall and weapons at his side and resolving not to move from the spot as he holds the shield line.

Quickly this enhanced capability stemmed the tide against all incoming firepower and restored stability to Jasmine’s armour integrity.

Suddenly we had some hope. Well, for about a minute at least.

“Where is the Matari fleet?” We asked.

“It’s not ready” The answer came back.

“How long?”

“Jade, I have to tell you we have very little, the fleet - it’s not coming.”

The combined might of the Amarrian and Caldari Militias had turned their fury on Karum’s Nidhoggur now and were wearing down its defences as this brave pilot overheated repair modules and ordered his crew to prepare escape pods as the skeleton command staff remained at their stations providing what support they could to reshipped Free Captains still plunging lone battleships into the 100+ enemy ships at the Sosala gate.

Private communications – coded frequency:

“Jade, I’m going to warp my Moros to the gate.”

“I’m not sure it’ll make a difference.”

“You are here for us its fitting we die with you.”

I didn't have a reply.

Our Nidhoggur’s hull breached explosively as a counterpoint to the words and the entire enemy fleet moved its focus onto a second Nidhoggur under the command of Liisa of Jericho Fraction.

Confusion reigned for long moments and the sheer number of enemy ships made fine targeting and manouver near impossible and I ordered all remaining unsieged Carriers to make distance from the gate to try to reduce the incoming firepower from the stubbornly gate-humping Amarrian battleships as the Matari Moros class Dreadnaught arrived on the battleship and without hesitation engaged its siege mode and declared by local communications...

“I spit in the face of the slavers and scum, I come for my people!”

I was moved and astonished. What a gesture, how can this people who spawn such courage and bloody-minded commitment to their freedom from oppression ever lose?

Here came 10,000 Matari crewmen willing to warp a single Moros class Dreadnaught into 100+ enemy ships simply to die with their allies and laugh in the face of the tyrant spitting blood and derision even with their dying breath.

I heard the singing from their vessel as they manned the guns and drone decks, I heard them calling out to their ancestors to welcome them in the otherworld and prepare their mead flasks and feasting robes, I saw them firing weaponry to the void at the cloud of insects that surrounded us all drawn like carrion flies to the massacre and I knew in that single shining moment this was all meant to be – sometimes a sacrifice must be made in blood between comrades on the battlefield that vows be made and kinship joined and nothing in this universe is more important than a man’s pride and freedom of action and laughing in the face of death.

Another explosion, Liisa’s carrier had buckled under the firepower of the nationalist lackeys and was tumbling without power as its superstructure vented gas and atomics in a dramatic death spasm amongst the throng.

Our last remaining battleships were also destroyed, succumbing quickly to the tide of laser and missile fire soaking from all directions in an endless tapestry of destruction.

Now the Archon class vessel of Karol Kei was in trouble – I was close; our ships in formation as they struggled to make range from the Sosala gate while urging our fighters against targets stubbornly protected by the vast weight of logistic energy amongst the opposition ranks. Karol’s ship began to dip dangerously to low armour and I devoted all my own remaining power reserves to strengthen its integrity in the futile effort to preserve a wounded comrade in the fray.

The Matari Dreadnaught all the while was screaming challenge and imprecations to the spindly bloodlines of the starved offal-sniffing dogs surrounding the field and I saw it obliterate an enemy Raven in a volley even as Karol’s Archon was descending into structure and losing the fight for its own life.

I was next, My archon was practically cap dead by this point – many minutes of maximum remote repair against enemy firepower had compromised the capacitor stores and many enemy battleships appeared to have been specifically configured for a neutralizer role as the energy-damping beams destabilized the reactor and off-lined all active functionality from the ship. Even so crippled the “Shining Path” fought to the last, stubbornly giving up its existence in the face of feral aggression and spite writ large on the faces of the hungry crusaders and their state handlers around the field.

I saw numbers of Matari vessels arriving on the field now, few in number and light of ship class but they had heard the death song of the heroic Moros and had come to join its chorus and show respect for fallen friends and allies writ in blood. Outnumbered and outclassed, tiny and fragile in contrast to the vast array of imperialist dogs gathered at Garst’s urging they still fought, they knew they couldn’t save us but they gave up their own lives and fighting spirit to take their shot at the tyrant’s face.

I saw Jasmine’s Carrier last of our forces on the field, all Star Fraction vessels were wrecked and lost. Our ten pilots had reshipped many times and refused to abandon the field and were even now preparing to come back in another wave of battleships with several dreadnaughts powering up and laying navigation course for the Sosala gate.

“Can you make it out Jasmine?”

“Not in a million years.”

“See you on the other side.”

My ship gave up its last with the reactors exploding in a rush of furious energy casting a thousand shadows on the battlefield from the motes of enemy ships and submunitions scattered round the drifting wreck.

“No more.” I ordered. “No more ships to the gate.”

Elsewhere the valiant Matari Moros had ended its first siege cycle and had found itself ignored as the entirety of the enemy fleet was focused on the last remaining Star Fraction capital as Jasmine finally outranged the cowardly logistics flotilla that refused to leave insta-jump range of the Sosala gate and was now engaging with more success even as her vessel touched structure.

Three vessels exploded in quick succession around the “Tarrantula” as the Matari captain laughed out loud and ordered his crew to initiate a second siege cycle with few remaining Matari fighters on the field and the last remaining SF carrier dwindling to burning wreck to the carping jeers of Garst Tyrell and his imperial dogs.

As Jasmine’s Carrier gave up its structural integrity seconds after it claimed the final destruction of a foolish Ishtar that had gotten too close, the Matari hero turned his guns on the pack now approaching his position and declared the fulfilment of the blood oath our kinship demanded.

“Free Captains first on the field of death and bones, it’s fitting the light of Matar is last to leave.”

And that was the last we saw of him and that ship.

In the days past we’ve had a lot of talk from Garst about his victory in Kamela. The early claims of “Breaching the Fortress” that he was ordered to remove by his fellow Crusader captains on the grounds it might suggest they actually had to fight in Kamela rather than simply lurk in Ohide whenever danger threatened.

We saw opportunistic wardecs incoming and a resurgent 24th Crusade for 24 hours following their victory (though truth to tell usually with significant State Protectorate backup it must be said).

But what has really changed? After the fight on the Sosala gate Garth was still downshipping his forces to frigates to travel freely. He still lacks the ability to “breach” Star Fraction occupation of Kamela. He’s still ordering his fighters to remain docked in Ohide through the majority of the day.

Undoubtedly there has been a strategic shift in the overall campaign with the near total collapse of organized FDU resistance on that front allowing State Protectorate forces to act as a hand-holding role for the previously underperforming 24th Crusade and these numbers will allow the Amarrians to be more bold when they can count on Caldari aid.

But this is politics. This is warfare in New Eden. The weak will always seek the protection of numbers above talent and courage and to a degree they are right to do so. But against that backdrop of motley accomplishment and logistics poltroonery and the great howling mob of opportunistic kill/death ratio misers desperately seeking “laser touches” to massage their egos is the true picture of legend in New Eden.

In five years time when we speak of the battle of Sosala gate in the Operation Castrato campaign we will not remember Garst and his boasts. We won’t remember the clouds of opportunistic Caldari, we won’t recall the trap and circumstances of battle. We won’t remember the logistics ships and the boasts of puling crusaders in local.

We will only remember that few fought against many.

And that when the day was darkest and our few ships were surrounded and alone, hounded by vast assemblage of faceless drones chittering and gnawing at our hulls as they bleated their success in the local comms channel.

When the hour was bleak and there was no hope then an insane-brave-heroic Matari Captain brought his ship into harm’s way to die with us to show he meant the things he’d said about camaraderie and alliance and his people knew precisely how to find a good way to die.

My salute to the captain and crew of that bold ship: the battle of the Sosala gate will always be your story.

My respect is with the Matari people.
Your cause is just.
Freedom or Death.
We must Rise.