Let There Be Light

The Uchoshi system, The Forge, 03/10/126 

On a low-level impulse I rented some quarters in a Tash-Murkonite station in Uchoshi, in The Forge, as it was a good base for field-testing a new project: EDENCOM ships! Why all the way out here on the far side of the State? Because Jita is the best place to source these ships and their incredibly expensive components and ammo (the ammo!). The skill requirements are a different matter - only available from DED and CONCORD stations - but anyway Jita is the place so here I am. 

Ever since the class was announced during the Triglavian Invasion, I've been intrigued by the similarity between the physics of the Vorton Projector, and the divine manifestation of St. Jamyl over Mekhios at the final battle of the Elder War - namely the 'chain lightning' phenomenon witnessed when St. Jamyl brought forth God's wrath against the Elder fleet.

So after a very large investment of ISK I now have a Skybreaker and a Stormbringer, and I've been using them against Guristas installations in the northern part of The Forge. 

My God...

The power of these things...

All I have to do is target one thing to give the Projector an initial starting point, then fire it. It then chains up through the next-closest nine targets on its own - regardless of what they are - and I have no control whatsoever over where it goes. The effect is spectacular - spellbinding - exactly as it was when St. Jamyl appeared and saved the Empire.

But I'm troubled by it. Extravagant levels of destruction always does. I mean I'm still going to use it, but every time the chain instantaneously vaporises an entire complex of pirate hab modules and dock structures with their non-combatant populations, I will pray for their souls, for this is a weapon that doesn't give time to get to an escape pod. It is instant, righteous judgement. I wonder if the Consortium really knows what it's unleashed here.

Things being what they are, EDENCOM considers the Arcing Vorton Projector so secret that it only permits me to know how to use it, not how it works. An engineer told me there's a device in there somewhere that opens a dimensional portal into the heart of a star where it channels quark-gluon plasma as a power source and projects it out through the emitters. Personally I doubt that. Personally I think there is a whiff of the Drifter about it, because those emitters bear a strong resemblance to the 'prongs' on a Drifter battleship.

The tangled web of corporations involved in EDENCOM and Upwell and CONCORD and the rest means that they must be involved somewhere, somehow. 

Who do I mean?

Jovian tech!

A fleet of these things would be incredible. The Stormbringer has the shield capacity of a battleship, so I warp into a complex with it and just float there and unleash the lightning and everything melts before my neuro-linked digital eyes. So much more elegant than missiles.

I wonder if there are any real limitations to the scale of it, considering it was originally developed as a Keepstar defence system. Remember that as capsuleer I think this thing into being:

First, the chain reaction...

Then, a wave...

...of pure light...

...and pure heat.

Turns everything to dust and atoms...

Nothing is spared...

It is...

Divine...

LUMEN Foundation Day Fleet Review

 

In honour of Foundation Day YC123, LUMEN performed a Fleet Review over several landmarks and installations in the Home System. It was preceded by some formation rehearsals in the Sarum Prime system, followed by the Review itself over the Emperor Family Academy station, the Imperial Navy Honour Guard over the Amarr homeworld, and the newly-commissioned TES St. Jamyl The Liberator and its accompanying fleet.

All of LUMEN were present including our Legionaires (loyalist non-Amarr), which explains the few non-Amarr ships in the formations.

I brought my own Harbinger, the TES Reventador, because in its short tenure under my command it has participated in several fleet actions that were crucial to the defence of the Empire's interests, and has distinguished itself far more than any of my other ships. It deserved to be a part of this formation - LUMEN's own Honour Guard, if you will.

Formation Rehearsals - Sarum Prime

Something this important needed to be practised. Flying in line astern formation is not as easy as you think when you're dealing with battlecruisers and battleships that are slow and massive and have what seems to be the inertia of a planet; but it worked well.

Part I: The Emperor Family Academy, Oris (Amarr VIII) 

We briefed on the possibility that some blasphemous or indeed criminal capsuleer group would attempt to disrupt our show of respect to God and to the Empress. The heretic Nauplius made an appearance in the Local channel, but our show of force - and Zek's Damnation-class Fleet Command ship - clearly sent the appropriate disincentive to all present.

Part II: The Imperial Navy Honour Guard Over Amarr Prime

A hugely impressive sight over Amarr Prime, such a demonstration of power, of faith, of loyalty. An honour to participate. 

Other capsuleers showed up to observe, and they were respectful. On the other hand the Megathron in the cam drone still above was commanded by some idiot capsuleer who attempted to disrupt the proceedings, but we and the Navy collectively ignored him. I would personally have preferred to call on God's Wrath to dispose of this idiot in an appropriately biblical manner.

Part III: TES St. Jamyl The Liberator Fleet 

The Navy has commissioned an Avatar in honour of the late Empress Jamyl and her sacrifice during the atrocity in the Safizon system at the hands of the Drifters in YC117 (at which I was present so many years, so many lifetimes ago, as a naive and inexperienced capsuleer). LUMEN paid its respects in the final phase of our Fleet Review. Other capsuleers were present here too, and were respectful, which is as it should be.

After the conclusion of this final phase we broke formation and headed back to our staging system. On this day I felt no distinction between my Ni-Kunni heritage and my Amarr faith; all present here on Foundation Day are True Amarr as long as their faith is strong, because it is God's will that Holy Amarr will prevail, that New Eden will one day be safe again.

Party in Ashmarir: Darwinism vs CVA

Curatores Veritatis Alliance, well-known Amarr loyalists and self-styled Gatekeepers of Providence, came out of nowhere this week and attacked our new Citadel in the Ashmarir system.

This wasn't all we've had to put up with this week, what with the ongoing personal vendetta of Musashibou Benkei - the Renegade of Khanid - and his ex-Bergmann/ex-Darwinism followers that all have the attention spans of children.

Politics...

Back on topic: Ashmarir is one of the gateway systems to the soon-to-be-established Independent Empyrean Republic of Khanidistan. It is at the 'east' end of Khanid Lowsec and is otherwise an unremarkable system with no mainstream stations, three uninhabited terrestrials (uninhabited as far as can be determined, although you can never rule out uncharted pockets of madness, survivalism, religious extremism and hermitry), and token capsuleer industry based around a handful of resource-poor moons.

Ashmarir is not that big a deal, or at least it wasn't until we put our Citadel there.

Earlier this week, a CVA fleet manifested in Ashmarir and attacked our Citadel. We left them to it because of the Citadel's ability to withstand an initial assault. CVA made their statement and left.

We had 24 hours to prepare for their return.

When they returned, we were ready in ways we've never been before. In other words, we put some thought into it instead of winging it. The ultra-reliable Lowsechnaya Sholupen also showed up to assist us on the premise of any excuse for a party.

We were outnumbered at least 2-1 by CVA , but we still repelled them because we had Dreads and they didn't. Check out the cam drone stills and telemetry below.

FACE-OFF!

 

IT BEGINS!

APOSTLES!

[DRWIN] & [LSH] KICKS [CVA] ASS!!

CVA WITHDRAWS!

SALVAGE OPERATION AFTERWARDS

I hate to gloat, but we did in fact cane CVA and force them to withdraw.

We won.

Noteworthy: Lowsechnaya deployed some examples of the new Apostle-class Force Auxiliary ship - the new paradigm in capital starship combat. I never saw one in the flesh before so I never appreciated how damned big they are. I mention the Apostle because the Imperial Fleet's naval architects went to the trouble of designing the Apostle with armour that depicts a stylized mural of the 'Martyrdom Of Empress Jamyl At Safizon by the Drifters'.

A design statement like that is only ever about propaganda rather than operational requirement, so there is intense irony here in that we used Apostles against an Amarr loyalist alliance. Few other capsuleers involved in this skirmish would have given this issue a moment's consideration, but I look for stuff like this, which is why the idea of CVA's motivation for this attack was, to use a Ni-Kunni idiom, filling my head with sand.

As Darwinism's media & PR rep, I thought about asking them. I fired off some comms; as and when I get a response from them, I'll update this post. I'm not holding my breath though...

Until then, it's Darwinism 1 - CVA 0.

* * * 

[PHP1] is recruiting! Seriously, we're in a bit of a golden age at the moment and are experiencing a recruitment surge. Not just that, I woke up today and found out that [FCON] are our allies. When did that happen??