First Fleet with Progodlegend

Move ops continue to run from Delve.  It takes a while to get everybody online and moved to the front lines.  A full week of daily move ops is pretty normal for a coalition sized move, and some people will still miss their ride and have to find their way northward.

Those still hanging out in Delve thinking that they can perhaps rat and mine in peace while war rages elsewhere have been in for a bit of the usual surprise.  I may not know how wed Pandemic Horde is to defending its allies in Fraternity and WinterCo, but they have been much more active out of NPC Delve, hunting for those who think running CRAB beacons during war time is a good idea.

At the front, things have been developing slowly.  Fleets have been going out and the stage is being set, but there have not be any titanic, tidi inducing clashes since we have arrived.  There haven’t been any critical, red pen ops yet.

But there was one op I had to go on the other night because of who was going to lead it.  I mentioned back in November that Progodlegend, former CSM member, the person who declared the “million dollar battle” back in the day, one time member of TEST leadership, and a key figure in the PAPI’s 59 week war against the Imperium in 2020 and 2021, had joined Goonswarm.  He was going to take out his first fleet for the Imperium.

That seemed like it might be an event, so I made sure I was around when it was time for the fleet.  (Asher pinged this op out in advance to Reavers; we’re still special.)

So when the fleet was pinged out I was already logged in and ready to join.  But the game wanted to know if I was really ready.

I keep the log window open by default…

I was, in fact sure, and once I was in I could see that Asher was going to be in the back seat for this, PGL’s first Imperium op.

The fleet command structure

That was pretty soon after the ping.  The fleet expanded beyond 200 characters before too long and, with that, the required jokes were made.  Would we be fitting rigs and how many interdictors would we need to avoid being yelled at, both related to moments in the last war that were repeated often.

PGL, as expected, took this all in stride and, once we were set, led us off into Deklein… which is always an odd experience, that having been our home from until mid-2016, so I have a ton of out dated bookmarks for staging POSes and jump bridge arrays… and into Venal where we caught titan bridge.

I only include this pic because we don’t see a Levi all that often

Our destination was Tribute and the system of UMI-KK… once again, a system of memories.  Once the capitol of TNT’s holdings in the region, I remember taking it from N3 Coalition back in 2012.

Destination in sight

This time around it is at the edge of Fraternity’s holdings and we were there to blow up an Ansiblex jump gate that had been reinforced previously and hopefully get a fight.

We went in along with a fleet from B2 and another from The Initiative and setup around the Ansiblex.

The Ansiblex in sight

We spread out and put drones on the structure while a Fraternity HAC fleet sat on the Keepstar watching us.  There was also a report of bombers lurking, looking for a run on us, which was why we were spread out and had bubbles around.

However, we brought too many ships for Fraternity to untether and try to stop us.  Their fleet stayed on the Keepstar and we whittled down the Ansiblex.

Watching them watching us

Once it was destroyed we lingered a bit, then started a careful extraction from the system.

Another legendary moment from the last was was PAPI attempting to extract a HAC fleet from 3-DMQT and getting caught with MWDs on burning for the gate by a pack of bombers whose runs managed to destroy most of their ships before they were able to jump.  It was an ignominious feat and one that PGL was clearly seeking to not repeat as we left UMI-KK by small groups.

We managed to extract safely.  There was no massacre… well, unless you count the cost of going through B2 Coalition Ansiblexes.  The prices seemed to be outrageous compared to what we pay back in Fountain and Delve.

Using a SCUM Ansiblex

Asher assured us that the prices had not been cranked up by B2 in order to soak their new allies from the south, but were just the normal prices.  It turns out that ice products are more expensive in the north.

Otherwise it was a low intensity op with a kill mail, which everybody enjoys.  PGL as an FC was clear in communication and got us there an back.  That is about all I ask of an FC.  Would fly with him again.