Almost two years after the now infamous declaration of war that unleashed World War Bee II (Beeitnam) on New Eden, it seems familiar faces are at it again but, this time, the shoe is on the other foot. Just in case you’re very new to the video game or have otherwise been living under a rock for the last few years, let me give you a recap.
WORLD WAR BEE II
In July of 2020, one of the main fleet commanders and leaders of the Legacy Coalition announced that they would align with the Pandemic Family (Pandemic Horde, Pandemic Legion, Northern Coalition, etc), Winter Coalition (Fraternity, etc.) to attack the Imperium (Goonswarm, Initiative, Bastion, etc.) and their holdings.
Over the course of 18 months, the PAPI coalition (as the attackers were called) whittled away at Imperium holdings until, finally, all that remained was a single constellation that the Imperium could call home. After a few college tries, the invasion was called off amidst unanchoring Keepstars and general confusion. As a matter of fact, you can read most of the story of World War Bee II on this very website.
SOUTH-EASTERN BORDER ZONES
Since the end of the war, null-security has been in a pretty consistent state of shift. Legacy shuttered its doors and Army of Mango, Ranger Regiment and the Bastion met similar fates. There has also been a fairly constant state of conflict around the galaxy with alliances attacking each other using space that neither live in as a battleground (or flood plain if your war terminology is up-to-date). Most recently has been the conflict in the southeast, involving the regions of Feythabolis, Omist and Tenerifis where the remnant forces of PAPI had been fighting the Imperium over control of the region for FI-RE Coalition.
When fighting in the region began, Goons deployed their primary special interest group, the Goon Expeditionary Force (playfully appropriated from Pandemic Horde’s Drone Expeditionary Force) and brought along their allies, the Initiative. Fighting had been pretty constant in the area as the Imperium sought to glass the regions of space held by FI-RE Coalition.
Unfortunately, after only getting 2/3 of the way through, the Imperium called it quits and headed back home, leaving a freshly deployed Pandemic Legion and Northern Coalition to clean up the scraps. This past weekend one rather large scrap was cleaned up. A Keepstar in 68FT, Impass, belonging to Dracarys, a member group of the Imperium was left undefended and subsequently destroyed.
STATE OF THE GOON
According to the State of the Goon address on June 19th, the destruction of this Keepstar was one final act of defiance from the PAPI Coalition, one the warlord Mittani will not take lying down. One of its opening paragraphs reads:
Less than three hours ago, almost 2000 Papis assembled and destroyed an Imperium Keepstar in 68FT in Impass. FIRE has allowed Horde and Panfam to stage in their space to continually harass our borders. Since the Beeitnam war ended, the enemy has made it clear that they will not respect our borders or our territory; the enemy feels us weak, and that they expect the game of Eve Online to be one of continual, reliable aggression against an Imperium on permanent defensive.
The entire address is available on the Imperium News website, should you choose to read it in its entirety. If you’d rather, I can provide some cliff notes. The general idea is that the Mittani sees the defense of FIRE space by its allies as an offense against the Imperium. Though it was their SIG that was on the offensive against an alliance who’s primary member base lives in a country going through sanction after sanction and requiring a great deal of effort to even log INTO the video game let along play it.
He continues by stating that, “after deep-dicking the PAPI staging system of 46-DP” (a fight they lost with Titans) “lancing PAPI fleets in their staging system, we thought that the enemy would get the message and [leave] for home.” That wasn’t the message that was received. Instead, PAPI has increased involvement in the area and even brought more friends down to play (even though some have already decided they’re leaving).
In either case, the big takeaway here is that the Mittani is mad and he’s coming for the PAPI menace– post haste. The Imperium as a whole hasn’t deployed since the Tribute/Vale campaign of 2019 (Desert Swarm as I call it) and its offensive deployments from SIGs (and its allies) hasn’t exactly gone according to plan. Now, every alliance, every capital, every supercapital and every Titan that the Imperium has access to will be heading over to GE-8JV where the Imperium’s staging Keepstar sits in wait for the oncoming storm.
WHY WAR, WHY NOW?
The Imperium has always approached EVE Online with a holier than thou attitude. When it came to bots and the “Pie Chart of Shame”, Goons were quick to shout about how they weren’t on the list. When it comes to renting, they share a similar view (in spite of a time in history where even Goons were the landlords of a little region called Period Basis) and the SOTG essentially lays out that PAPI’s proclivity to renting out regions for cash is the reason this is all happening.
The hard truth is that the [PAPIs] are fundamentally and compulsively a collection of would-be Slumlords and their followers are serfs, renters, and bootlickers… We are not anything like [PAPI], nor have we ever been. Our organizations are focused on fundamentally different goals, starting with the fact that we actually give a shit about our people.
The Mittani, State of the Goon Address, June 19, 2022
That about wraps it up. The rest of the address uses colorful language to paint the Imperium’s enemies as the bad guys and serves to hopefully drive up participation in fleets as the Imperium’s numbers have been on the decline as of late. Either way, keep your eyes peeled in the southeast theater as war comes our way. We’ll keep you updated on the latest.
