Unity Station – 9UY4-H – Providence Capital Ship Hanger Deck 4A YC 111 08-02
After several long minutes the flag ship of the Beh’hude, the Nagflar class dreadnought “Mon’tu” powers down. Karn disengages himself from the neural interface and leaves his pod, wiping pod goo from him as he strides down the bridge access corridor naked.
He lays a hand upon the ships bulk head for a moment and murmurs something under his breath, then more audibly, as if addressing the ship herself:
“Its been more than 3 years .. and still once again we have pulled through.”
He moves purposefully, upright, strong, a faint smile playing across his lips. He is back in Unity station and having trouble believing it.
The last weeks have past in a blur, a haze of blood and glory. Of untold loss, and great gain. He has seen is brothers and sisters achieve the impossible; he has seen the true worth and utter commitment of their allies in AAA.
“Against All Authorities …. ahh slavers you should have seen this coming …”, he emphasises the name to illustrate its meaning.
Fighting Goons and then seeing them utterly crumble, watching the warriors of Ushra’Khan’s endless energy for waging war. Seeing the Providence capital fleet slaughtered in D-G ... and now ... now the fall of 9UY.
Karn laughs out loud and grabs a startled midshipmen that has approached him. He pulls her to him in a fierce embrace.
“Can you believe we are here?!” he roars kissing her.
“Sir”, she splutters, trying to catch her breath , “they are waiting for you on the hanger deck. Sapphrine has asked you speak to our people, even to the people of EVE”
She hands him a worn leather jacket, a grimy pair of leather pants and a bottle of white spirits.
“Go on, they are waiting for you”
***
Half a bottle of Matar’s best later Karn exits the Nagflar via its loading ramp. The Capital ship hanger decks are enormous, small cities they seem to be, each ship a multi-storied building, home to thousands.
And this was just one deck. On other decks Ushra’Khans allies are also docked, also celebrating, but he guesses, probably not as hard. He wills a silent thanks to them, for without the likes of –A- and SYS-K Unity Station would still be in slaver hands.
He looks about him, a thousand plus capsuleers dance, no writhe, to heavy beats, his fellow commanders stand close by, Sapphrine, swamped by lithe and buxom women, nods to Karn, telling him to go on.
Recently released slaves stand dazed, watching on, or joining in the celebrations, and here and there are strung up what is left of the slavers who had herded them until put to death by the first boarding parties.
He spies Xious crossing from the AAA hangers and lifts his bottle. The grizzled fighter raises two fingers back laughing.
Then Karn steps forward, just enough to stand out from those around him, and raises both arms commanding attention.
“Brothers, Sisters, Warriors of the Ushra’Khan, we are stand once again in Unity Station!”
A rapturous cheer bursts from the crowd; shots are fired, drums beaten.
“It’s been a long two ... near three years since I last stood here, since I took a last, quick look back as we evacuated as the CVA dogs came for us.
“At that moment we set our will to one task – to return here one day, to drive the slaver back. To retake Unity.
“Strength and determination brought us through the long years in the wilderness.
“And my brothers, here we are!”
Again the crowd erupts, this time for minutes. Eventually Karn signals for attention again, and the hanger falls relatively silent. He notices for a moment the FTL feeds beaming his words to who knows where, ignores them, and goes on.
“Warriors, who would have predicted this? The slaver so weak, or allies so strong? Who could have seen this concordance of events that brought us here?”
“Xious!”, Karn calls across the hanger, “let it be known brother, that Ushra’Khan is forever in debt to your kin. Without the iron determination and inspiring courage of the Against All Authority fleets we would not be here. Without the brilliance of the vision of your commanders we would not be here.
“We could never ask for better allies, you know where to find us, if you need us just ask, a warriors debt is not forgotten.”
Karn raises his bottle again.
Once more the crowd cheers, glasses and bottles raised on high, and a chant rises out of the crowd like a living thing, like a war cry.
“TRIPLE A … TRIPLE A … TRIPLE A”
It goes on and on, the drums beating in rhythm to the chant, people swaying, leaping embracing.
***
After a time Karn finishes his bottle and smashes it against the hull of “Mon’tu” as if to end all that needs ending, and to set into motion all that is to come. Gradually the crowd falls silent again.
“Warriors, let this day go down in memory, for today is the day that marks the return of Ushra’Khan to Unity, and the day that the fire that has burned within all these years bursts forth to burn brighter than ever before.
“For, my brothers and sisters, that fire never went out!
“The fire of freedom cannot be extinguished.
“We go on; we go on for our people!
"For FREEDOM!”
A mighty roar erupts from a thousand lips and seems to go on for ever. Gradually it coalesces into another war cry, another chant. Even Butterdog looks up from his maniacal typing at a holo-deck in the corner and adds his voice in unison.
All raise their right fists into the air in time with the shout:
49-U6U, Querious- Over 547 ships have been lost in the last 24 hours and 216 of those in the last hour alone as GoonSwarm repels a Systematic-Chaos and Against ALL Authorities invasion of this GoonSwarm held system. SBUs have been deployed and battles are raging around them.
Hratli Smirks of GoonSwarm explains what he believes to be the reason for the attack in 49-U6U: "Are you aware of Liam Fremen? He runs Sys-K. He has a huge [expletive deleted] for us literally...and he decided to invade us. Mostly to help out Molle, on account of he has this [affection for] Molle (he runs IT alliance)... Also, 49-U is the border to AAA space and that's basically as much effort as you can expect from AAA [and] allies"
Although Goons appear to be holding onto the system, Hratli reports that "AAA renter" Ushra'Khan has killed 78 GoonSwarm carriers. What impact those losses will have on the ongoing defense of the system remains to be seen.
A representative from Systematic-Chaos was contacted but leadership declined to comment while the operation was still ongoing.
Details will be reported as more information becomes available.
reported by ISD Calen Orvance | 2009.12.09 20:37:19
CATCH - Celebrated as freedom fighters by capsuleers of the Republic and denounced as terrorists by those supporting the Empire, Ushra'Khan [UNITY] recently achieved five years of service to the Minmatar people since the alliance's inception in November of 106.
Flying under the mantra "we are the Ushra'Khan, we come for our people", UNITY's purpose throughout the years has remained mostly unchanged: eliminate slavery by whatever means necessary - specifically throughout Providence and Catch, regions wholly or partially under the rule of Amarrian loyalist alliances.
"We are a movement founded with one goal; to break the chains of slavery that bind our kin", explains Ugleb of UNITY. Born out of a perceived need to overcome what UNITY saw as a pervasive isolationist mentality amongst the Minmatar people, UNITY choose to take the fight beyond the Republic's borders where they first encountered Curatores Veritatis Alliance [CVA], an alliance that would eventually become UNITY's most powerful enemy.
UNITY's activist mentality has been the subject of much controversy. In particular, UNITY's "free fire" policy in Providence and Catch has been heavily criticized as a form of terrorism with the number of newer, non-Empire loyalist pilots residing in Providence often being cited.
"...if only that dedication could be used for righteousness, holiness, and following God's Will, instead of the murder of innocent pilots in Providence in the name of 'freedom' - perhaps this [uni]verse would truly be a better place," argues Alistair Cononach of CVA. In response, Ugleb cites "the level of Slaver activity and their supporters" in Providence and Catch as the reason for the "free fire warzone" policy.
The effects of UNITY have not just been limited to the conflict between the Republic and Empire. UNITY is perhaps best known among the greater New Eden community for their prolific GalNet commentary driven by notable individuals General Windypops and Butter Dog.
However controversial, UNITY's longevity has no doubt earned them a place in New Eden history along with the respect of many capsuleers. As to the future, Ugleb states, "The work ahead of us remains vast, it is the undertaking of a lifetime, not mere years, but together we move forward."
Alright, this match went a lot better than the first one. We had decided to go for a full gank armor tanked build : Abaddon, piloted by Amith Silvermoon 2x Hurricane running 1 link each, piloted by Carinae and Pylse 2x Harbinger, piloted by Seliah and Mister Rock Brutix, bait fitted, piloted by Butter Dog Guardian, bait fitted (but still doing its job ), piloted by Karazack Vengeance, tackle and tank, piloted by Kazzzi Stiletto, full EWAR, piloted by T Marvin
Everything went fine during the preparation, nobody disconnected and we had the right number of points :p. First moment of hesitation though, we were asked to warp to the arena before we could get our usual scan on the enemy ships. We then decided to warp in at 20km / 30km for safety. It turned out we were facing pretty much the same thing, all gank : Claymore, Astarte, 2x Harbinger, Hurricane, 2x Brutix, 2x Thrasher and Sabre, and they had all warped in at 0.
Before the match started, Butter Dog (FC'ing the fight) designated the primaries : the Brutix's. I quickly gave orders to spread our 11 Tracking Disruptors amongst them. We decided to try to keep some range, orbit at 20km with Barrage and Scorch.
As soon as it started, they made their first mistake (actually 2nd mistake, 1st one was to use skirmish links only) : they rushed our Guardian, giving us the opportunity to tackle them on the way and pwn them, which we did . By the time they killed our Guardian, piloted by Karazack, they had lost their 2 Brutix's. It seems they had a few tracking disruptors and also ECM Drones but it had very little effect on our DPS, whereas our own EWAR was really lowering theirs.
After the Guardian was down, they started working on our Brutix, which was baited, and they quickly gave up, and primaried one of the Harbingers, piloted by Mister Rock. At that time their DPS was already too low compared to ours, and they lost pretty much all of their BC's before Mister Rock went down. With almost all of our DPS and EWAR ships still on the field, we finished them off, small ships first then the Claymore.
It could have gone a totally different ways if their setup had been just slightly different : EWAR small ships instead of gank destroyers, A Damnation with Armor (and 1 skirmish for speed) instead of a full Skirmish Claymore ... And not primarying the guardian. With all the DPS they had, the Guardian was quite useless, they would have killed any of us quite fast, and then it would just have depended on who kills an enemy BC first.
But well, despite a few mistakes, they fielded a good setup, put up a good fight, was entertaining. And we're moving to the finals of the tournament !! Just as a reminder, last year, during AT6, we got to the final 16. Let's hope we will do even better this year !!
I thought we were going to fail epicly. As always with me, I asked the team to get ready hours before the match starts so we can make sure everything is fine. After hours of waiting, we finally get teleported into the tournament system, and then ...
GM Nova > You have 2 too many points
WHAT ?! No ... We count again, we had 100 points all round !!!
GM Nova > The tech 3 ships are 16 points each
Oops ... We thought it was 15, as it was when tournament was announced ... PANIC ATTACK !! The GM kindly offered us to switch ships, we had 2m30s to do so. We couldn't spare the Rooks or the Scimitar, the Nighthawk was running a Mindlink, the T3 were too cool to be dropped, so I asked Nova to teleport me back in my Sleipnir ...
MISSION : Fit a Hurricane in less than 2 minutes for a tournament match, with 6 gang mates shouting in your ears and a GM countdowning in fleet.
Well, I'm proud of how I fulfilled the objectives of that mission ! I bought a cane, noticed i had 6 220's in hangar, fitted that, a Y-T8, then fitted an ECCM 2 LSE's and shield rigs, found some gyros, took 1000 barrage (no time to buy more ...), bunch of warriors and I went back in !!
As I was coming back in, Karazack lost connection ... PANIC ATTACK !
CCP Mindstar > Match delayed by a few moments. It will start very soon
Ah, thanks ....
Karazack made it back in time, and we all warped to the arena, the Hurricane, Loki, Tengu and Nighthawk at 20, the 2 Rooks and the Scimitar at 30. On the other side, there was :
Makk was the FC for that fight and he did very well, given all the panic attacks we just had. As soon as the fight started, 4 bombs were launched on us, but did nothing except killing all our drones and scratching our shields (most of us were AB fitted). We primaried the 2 Rooks with our weapons and the bombers with our remaining drones, while our Rooks were making sure the Apoc was perma-jammed.
It took a while to get the Rooks down, because they were trying to keep some range (we can see on killmails that the Loki and the Hurricane did a lot less damage than the missile ships), but we finally did it. The falcons went down next, and at this point we had lost no ships at all, our Supay of Doom doing an awesome job in his Scimitar. The rest was pretty easy, the small ships were easily killed and we worked on the Apoc ...
Glad to see we actually won despite our epic failure at the beginning ! To be honest, we'd have lost against a better build, we were too disorganised, probably because of the panic at the beginning.
), piloted by Karazack