The War in Delve Ends… For Some of Us

I didn’t lose my job.  It is still there.  Just when I go to the office now, there is somebody else doing it.

-Some comic in the 80s

There is still a war going on in Delve against the remains of SoCo.  Just when I go there now, somebody else is fighting it.

The news last night was that TEST asked its friends from the north to… well… go back to the north.

Endie, the chief spokesman for Goonswarm, a man with a gift for turning a phrase, put up a post reviewing the relationship between Goonswarm and TEST and how TEST, now the biggest holder of sovereignty in the game, wants to stand on its own two feet.  Look at all those systems TEST now owns.

How TEST stands compared to other alliances.

Alliance with 100 or more systems

This 150% jump in sovereignty came about after TEST blew the Horn of Gondor and brought down the legions of the north to drive SoCo out of Delve and Querious.  (And, effectively, Period Basis.)

And we came.  We came and we did our very special blob-tastic thing with relish and enthusiasm and blatant disregard for losses, driving the enemy before us in despair and causing them dock up and decline battle more often than not.

But now that we have accomplished that particular mission, TEST would like to take over.  They would like to play in their new domain, tend their garden, have good fights, and generally not have our Hodor fleet op style scaring off all of the game in their new preserve.

As Endie put it, “The Boatman… has no “medium” setting.”

TEST is not ungrateful.  They have their own public statement, posted by DurrHurrDurr, that also reviews the history of their relationship with Goonswarm. (This is one of those great things about EVE, history is held close, cherished and remembered. It isn’t something that falls away with new expansions or the long wait in between them.)

We will secure our legacy. We’ll start our own foreverwar with the mouthbreathing peasants of the South and the cockroaches of -A-. We’ll start our own family with our Honey Badger bros, and though this means we might spend more time with our waifu PL and adorable little children 99 and Tasha (now known as Tribal Band) we will not forget the lessons and support given to us by our GSF brethren. Though she might fret from afar and worry herself sick about our future, Mother Goon understands that this is something we need to do.

And so we are done, for now, in Delve.

There is, naturally, some disappointment at this turn of events.  I count myself among those letting out a wistful sigh at the thought of all those potential battles we will be missing.

Like others, I was looking forward to pushing operations into Catch in the hope that -A- would put up a fight to defend those systems in a way that they failed to do in Delve and Querilous.  I like fleet battles and going on operations to take systems or save towers.  I like to be part of a mission with a purpose beyond getting a few kills. (Though I do love me some kills… or at least enough to demonstrate I was there.)  I would have gladly gone along with an epic, night after night meatgrinder operational tempo, win or lose.

But according to The Mittani, who apparently shopped the region around to both friend and foe, nobody would want to take Catch off our hands and live there if we conquered it.  Something about never being able to get the old -A- smell out of the place.  And we are not going to take Catch simply to hand it back.

So it is back to the north.  Back to occasional roams and gate camps.  Back to the rare moments of excitement when a homeland defense fleet is called or one of the OTEC techmoons needs to be defended. (Though we’ll see how that cartel holds up with the planned changes.)  Back to ratting and mining.

I am, however, keeping a jump clone and the ships I purchased down in Delve in an NPC station.  This is TEST we’re talking about.  There is a reason they feel they have something to prove.

In the mean time, things have been awfully quiet in Jita, haven’t they?