Vale of the Silent Conflict Grows
TVN-FM, Though the battle rages between Band of Brothers and the Northern Coalition in Pure Blind and Deklein, the Northern Coalition has sent forces to engage Triumvirate in Vale of the Silent. Triumvirate are in the process of conquering Hydra Alliance’s systems in the region; should they succeed, then Northern Coalition alliance PURE. will find themselves engaged on two fronts.
Triumvirate. spokesman Sha’blach painted a grim picture (though one Triumvirate members seem to face with relish) of the forces arrayed against them.
“[We face] pretty much the whole of the north as far alliances go. The only one we have not had here is IRON. They may be still licking their wounds [from their other wars].
“The biggest fleets we have fought are from Morsus Mihi, Pure, Majestic Empire, Thorn, Fallout Project and others [are also involved]. But their numbers dropped every time we stood our ground. The past 24 hours have been relatively quiet.
“KIA were hired against us. They were hired to camp P3EN-E and at times ventured into TVN-FM. They suffered great loses. Rumour has it that they were not happy with the Northern Coalition’s demands on them and decided to leave… We were just glad for more targets to kill.”
At the time of writing, no representative of KIA was available to confirm or deny this claim. P3EN-E is the gateway from Vale of the Silent to the Forge, an important route for supplies and munitions to the warzone.
“We still hold the outpost [in TVN-FM], also C-FP70 and ZAOL-U. Hydra lost Constellation Sovereignty in T-ZWA1 a few days ago. So who knows where we go from here.”
T-ZWA1 houses the outpost Cor Hydrae III, a major factory facility, while C-FP70 is home to Rotation Station, which provides Hydra with laboratory and reprocessing facilities. Loss of these outposts could very well have a severe effect upon Hydra’s income, and be a significant boon to Triumvirate., who so far have expressed no desire to hold the space they’ve taken and will likely sell the outposts when their immediate utility is at an end.
In spite of being menaced on two fronts, the Northern Coalition has not stinted in its support for its southern neighbours. Sha’blach related that they had seen significant commitment of capitals from their foes:
“There were 3 motherships belonging to Morsus Mihi that we held down and were then hot dropped by BOB. There were also 13 dreads and 2 carriers [that we engaged and destroyed]. Plus there was a free Nyx donation from a PURE. member who reset the force field password of a control tower, so the Nyx bounced out of the shields. Luckily one of our super-capital pilots was jumping into the system at the time and got to it first, then cynoed it out.”
Free Nyx Added to TRI. Arsenal
The fitting of the newly acquired Nyx could understatedly be described as “expensive”; a very rough estimate of the value of the ship itself and its excruciatingly rare fittings places it in the region of 45 to 60 billion isk. To put this in perspective, an average family living on a planet might, in the course of a lifetime, accrue savings of about 10,000 isk.
Lt. Colus Franz, part of the engineering crew on the “Very Bad Mom” explained a little of what it’s like to be in such a situation:
“I know this ship, and being part of a mothership crew is a well-paid job, all my friends are here… and it’s sure as heck a lot safer than being on a cruiser, say. Flyhigh may not be my original captain, but… well, would you argue with someone flying this thing?”
Politics and Treachery
One question that needed answering was on the exact nature of the relationship between Triumvirate. and Band of Brothers; many believe the two to be allied. Sha’blach explained that this is not the case:
“We have no ties with BoB at all, apart from we both are fighting the Northern Coalition. We have no standings or anything. The opportunity came for the super capitals and BoB took it – we all know how BoB like their capital hotdrops.”
But Band of Brothers are not the only ones using their capitals to good effect. Morsus Mihi somehow procured the force field password for a control tower sheltering a Triumvirate. fleet. With the tower believing the Titan to be non-hostile, it was able to activate its doomsday weapon against the forces inside. I asked Sha’blach if TRI had any leads on the traitor in their midst.
“No… not at the moment, but we did return the favour the following day which, as you can imagine, was sweet, to say the least. It was the last thing they expected.”
No representative of PURE. or the rest of the Northern Coalition could be contacted for comment prior to publication of this article, but we hope to have a Northern Coalition point of view for you in our next article!