Polaris Legatus Frigate

 

Another of LUMEN's events commemorating Foundation Day YC123 was Brother Theodosius Savnar's tour of several of the Empire's most important in-space landmarks. The first tour he ran was so successful he ran a second tour later the same day, which I was honoured to join.

The tour was not limited to LUMEN members; it was publicised in advance on various media outlets as one of the many events commemorating Foundation Day, and it was open to any capsuleers who wished to join us (within reason...). It was very noteworthy then that our 'tourist' fleet was joined by Thalhack Dalhar, a member of the Interstellar Services Department, in nothing less than a Polaris Legatus Frigate - the allegedly-indestructible Jovian design that is one of the rarest sights in New Eden, especially now that Jove space is inaccessible and the Directorate has apparently ceased to exist in any meaningful form.

This is the first time I've ever seen one of these ships, ever. 

I may never see one ever again...

Fleet of Charons

 Back when I variously and at different times lived in Khanid and Genesis, a fleet of freighters was a rare sight. Now, living in a highsec 'pipe'** system, I see this sort of thing all the time, although it's no less spectacular for it:

**This pipe being what became, after the Triglavian Invasion and their 'Final Liminality' event, the new principal artery between Amarr and Jita that was for a time called the 'Silk Road' after some obscure and ancient cultural reference that is lost on me.

Sarum Tormentor

Somewhere in the warzone and on the Republic side of the border, in a system that is nevertheless under Amarr control:

Amarr Victor!

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.

Heaven

I have a vast and ever-growing archive of cam-drone stills, because New Eden is a staggeringly beautiful part of the cosmos when viewed through the visual enhancements and augmentations that are intrinsic to being jacked into a ship through a neural link. In fact it is an aesthetic unavailable to baseliners as it is not possible to, for example, view the galactic plane with a star in direct line-of-sight. But that is not the point of this journal.

I was reviewing some of this archive on a datapad while I was enjoying some downtime in 'Gottin's Lamp', which is SFRIM's bar in our HQ in the Mehatoor system (in the 24th IC station). I came across some stills from an excursion I'd taken some four years ago and which I'd completely forgotten about: a flight through the Heaven constellation in Curse.  

The Heaven constellation is of course the former home of the First and Second Jove Empires. Then the Jovian Disease happened and the Jovians departed the constellation, leaving the afflicted behind to die, believing they had escaped the Disease - or the 'Curse' that the region is named after. What happened to them after that is history. Or speculation, or rumour, or myth.

The Jove homeworld itself was Utopia III. I came here just because I wanted to visit it. Just because I could visit it.

I knew I would find no trace of the Jove here. Only the Cartel.

I docked in a station orbiting Utopia VI and took some quarters for a couple of days, and just hung out here, with no specific intent. The station was Cartel - an assembly plant for Dramiels and their other designs, that may or may not have benefited from whatever relics the Cartel found here when they moved in.

Centuries have passed since the Jove were here. There is zero trace of their existence now, yet their ghosts - or the suggestion of them - are all around. Or maybe it's all in my mind, given that I read about them so much.

We know where they went. Whether any of them exist at all today is not certain after the events of Caroline's Star and the collapse of the gates in the three regions we knew they inhabited.

It's possible - and there is evidence to suggest it - that the Drifters and those Sleeper artifacts are and were Jovian evolutionary offshoots. Other certain 'Emergent Threats' of the last couple of years mean the Jove are becoming a fading memory of decreasing relevance. How much influence the Society of Conscious Thought - their successors in CONCORD - has within New Eden culture today is uncertain. 

There are still stations all over New Eden that are owned and run by corporations and organisations that were Jovian in origin. Who owns and runs them now..?

Curse is now a pirate-infested wasteland. All that exists here now is destruction and decay. To think that it really was once a Utopia of pure technology and transhumanism. 

But now, who the hell cares..?

The Eye of the Hurricane

Who dares wins

24th Imperial Crusade Advanced Tactical and Strategic Frigate Doctrines, Vol III 

 

LUMEN has resumed fleet patrols of the warzone since the Pochven campaign ended. Our most spectacular 'kill' during the first of this new series of operations was the ambush and destruction of a Hurricane-class battlecruiser, no less, in the Hadozeko system, deep within the Minmatar border zone.

The Hurricane should have been able to make short work of a fleet of frigates, but it was God's will that we should prevail and take advantage of a few tactical errors that the Hurricane's capsuleer commander made during the engagement, most notably not ensuring the destruction of Directrix Lunarisse Aspenstar's Crucifier Navy Issue first, which used its optimised Targeting Disruptors to stop the Hurricane from tracking any of us properly, preventing it from destroying more than the single one of our ships that it did kill - kudos and in fact probably an official commendation to Faith Griffiths for sacrificing her ship by being first on the scene to tackle the Hurricane so that the rest of us could bring it down. 

The Hurricane's commander probably also should not have completely ignored me, for my Tormentor-class frigate TES Fair Warning cut through his armor and hull like a knife through butter once his shields were down, since my ship was outputting over 200 'dps' with Tech II-class Pulse Lasers. It must be said that I did have to nearly melt those guns through overheating them in order to achieve that firepower. And of course I was not the only one there. I'd be very interested to know exactly how much cumulative damage-per-second our fleet of seven frigates applied to the Hurricane. It is noteworthy that mine and Amicia Cora's Tormentors both applied over 56% of the total damage to the Hurricane, according to the independent 'zkill' statistics service. The class's reputation as a point-blank range brawling monster is justified.

Every fight is a learning experience. In the heat of the moment I made at least one mistake: basically forgetting I had ECM drones on board and not using them; although it is questionable what good they would have done against a battlecruiser, but by not using them at all, they did nothing.

But such perfectionism should not detract from the fact that this was an extremely well-planned and executed ambush by our fleet, where the odds were actually not in our favour. 

Our faith in God's will ensured we had the skill and bravery to win this fight.

Amarr Victor.

[Afterword: it's also noteworthy that the whole fight took less time than it took you to read this journal...]

Peace In Our Time

 

- is perhaps an optimistic and even unrealistic attitude to take in the long term (especially with respect to recent 'Emergent Threats'...), but given the status of the border systems between the Empire and the Tribal Hordes and the CONCORD-refereed 'eternal war' between us and them, we must rejoice in the fact that right now all the systems on the Empire's side of the border are safely under the Empire's control and authority once again.

Also, a number of systems on the other side of the border are currently being repossessed and indeed Reclaimed from the Tribal Hordes and will, if God wills it, stay that way, and the proper status quo will return - namely that the Empire will prevail once again and we will be able to reintroduce what our enemies refer to as 'slavery' - which is merely the imposition of the structure and discipline that humanity needs in order to thrive. 

It would also seem that our allies in the State are pushing the Fed back to where they belong. If this resurgence of our two sides is anything to do with Empress Catiz I and her efforts to forge a closer alliance with the State after her ascension to the Throne of Amarr, then the future is indeed bright.

Amarr Victor.