Blood Bath and Betrayal

As might be expected, tensions reached a breaking point yesterday as pilots faced the implementation of Inferno in less than 24 hours.

When I logged in about 15 hours before the early scheduled downtime, the Minmatar were giving the Amarr the runaround --plexing Minor and Standard plexes in Kamela. The Amarr had significant numbers, easily matching and even outnumbering the Minmatar at that point.

With all of our reships in Kourmonen, the hardest part of plexing one system over was getting through the Kourm/Kam gate.  The Amarr would frequently camp the gate, picking off many of our fleet as we tried to get into position in the various plexes.

At one point, they had nearly all but the highsec gate camped. We briefly discussed going around the backway through highsec in order to more easily get into the system.



Instead, Loryanna, who was currently FCing the main Minmatar fleet, had us all warp to Lamaa, which was a second entrance to Kamela. He ordered us to immediately reapproach the Kourmonen gate as soon as we loaded grid.

The Amarr, who had scouts in Lamaa, quickly warped their entire gate camp to Lamaa in Kamela, intending to cut us off. As they were in warp to the gate, Loryanna had us jump back through into Kourmonen, warp to Kamela, and jump. The Minmatar were practically peeing their pants from laughing so hard as we easily ran through their front door --especially while knowing the Amarr were desperately scrambling to get back to gate once they realized our bluff. Most in fleet considered it a 'brilliant' move by our FC.

Betrayal

However, the light hearted mood did not last long when it was discovered that Minmatar blues --Drunk'n'Disorderly of the Gallente empire had arrived, not to help us, but to help the Amarrian corp of Wolfsbrigade. With over 12 Guardians, they made it clear that they intended to keep their Minmatar blues from taking the system from their long standing friends. (You may remember that only a few months ago, Wolfsbrigade and Drunk'n'Disorderly killed a PL titan together in Amamake.)

Minmatar leadership was furious. While taking Kamela was more of a diversion then an actual objective for us, having blues step in and prevent the war effort was a huge dimplomatic fiasco. Annah Kitheran, not feeling that he could make any decision about the situation on his own, called together as many Minmatar leadership as he could find for a private pow wow.

The Minmatar, Gallente, and Amarr were in harsh diplomatic talks for quite a while before Annah finally addressed the fleet, sharing the outcome with us.

The Surrender

In an effort to keep their home system, Wolfsbrigade were essentially willing to concede the war --giving up their right to any offensive plexing prior to the Inferno release. In return, we would stop plexing in Kamela, and our blues from Gallente would remove themselves from the area.


Even though many considered this a surrender by Wolfsbrigade, many Minmatar were furious at the decision, claiming that they were not giving us anything that we did not already have --keeping them busy in Kamela was preventing them from plexing anyway. However, there was also the diplomatic issue of our blues --and I believe the decision was primarily made to keep the peace between the Gallente alliance and the Minmatar at large.

However, the agreement was short lived.

As soon as the agreement was made, an enormously furious Annah Kitheran instructed the fleet to head out to a constellation near Oyonata --to take it. Even though the Minmatar not agressively taking systems was not part of the agreement, FIRST GENERAL of Wolfsbrigade was furious, claiming we were breaking the treaty.

"FIRST GENERAL's tears are so big, he is somewhat drowning in them." said one of the Minmatar leadership who was keeping us aprised of the situation.

The agreement essentially crumbled before it had really begun. The Amarr demanded we stop offensive plexing, and the Minmatar responded in no uncertain terms that not only was that not the agreement, but we would agree to no such thing.

We soon became aware of the fact that Drunk'n'Disorderly had completely reset the entirety of Minmatar militia.

We responded in kind.


The Minmatar then broke into two contingents, one continuing the plexing efforts around Oyonata area, and one returning the Kourmonen to continue the slow push on Kamela.

Surrounded on multiple fronts, it was obvious that Wolfsbrigade was torn at which direction to take. Some attempts were made against the plexers in Kamela. Others came to defend the Oyonata area --however the Minmatar had split into small groups and were essentially plexing several systems out there at the same time.

The Amarr were chasing ghosts, while their home turf burned.

After essentially hours of this run around, the Minmatar began to focus more and more toward Kamela, as the Amarr also began to accumulate there. Not only did the hostile force consist of Gallente and Amarr, but CVA and other neutral groups had also joined the mix to defend the Amarr.

Blood Bath

All hell broke lose as both forces clashed inside a plex within Kamela. With no reships available in system to the Minmatar, the Amarr not only had the home front advantage, they were also accompanied by many neutral groups.

The Minmatar went on a slaughter-fest, killing Drunk'n'Disorderly, CVA, and Amarr in the bloodbath. FCs prioritized Gallente and CVA pilots, knowing it would be harder for them to reship. After both sides took heavy losses, Amarr&Company were forced from the field, and the Minmatar ultimately secured the location.

Things went downhill for the Amarr after that point. Their neutrals soon vacated the area, and the Amarr were left to deal with dwindling numbers that soon left them heavily outnumbered.

Several other skirmishes and battles happened during the rest of the day as the Minmatar continued to push Kamela. The Amarr continued to lose, throwing everything at us including blackbird fleets and Fweddit gangs. Also, a freighter attempting to leave the system was also destroyed by the Minmatar.

While it would have been hilarious to have taken the system, even taking all the plexes as soon as they spawned would not leave us with enough VP to take it before the early downtime. However, our primary objective for the day --of keeping the already held majority of the warzone relatively free of any major contestation going into Inferno, was complete.

Many Minmatar have indicated that Kamela will be used as farm land to support the nearby Minmatar controlled systems. With how eagerly the Amarr will defend it, it will not be hard to farm the plexes, and the locals that live there.