So I Had A Funny Feeling

So our week got alot better. No, not really. We incurred the single largest lost ever seen by this corp yesterday. We lost two Orcas and two Tengus. Which was enough to get us kicked from our alliance, Talocan United. Here, let me make sure that's searchable.

Which was, of course, just an excuse. They had already been considering removing us. But on to what happened, since that's why you're really here.

We all got on that evening and decided we needed to head home and run the sites that had accumulated there, not having known that Tado and Dead Space had lost a Noctis and Drake earlier in the day, which of course, we were blamed for in my mail explaining why we were kicked. Talocan would like your corp to be on 24/7, have no life, no kids, no wives, and no job, apparently. But we didn't know about those losses, and we sure as heck weren't on to defend him. Guess that makes us at fault. It gets better because he had no fucking clue we WERE in that hole at the time. Nice job of assuming making you look like an ass, Nathan.

Anyhow, so the gravs were gone, Tado's crew handled the combats, so we headed home. And found out that our wormholes were TWO jumps from each other. That whole "same Region" thing was finally paying off. Or it was random chance, I don't know. So we packed up the Orcas with as much Arkonor as they could hold, and I made a fateful decision to "just take the warp stabs off this once".

Sometimes I hate it when I'm right.

So we made the two jumps and we popped in, and the faster ships started warping while a couple of us hung around to guard the Orcas at the hole, which was EoL, so most likely no one was coming through.

As a couple of the combat ships landed at the off grid space beneath the POS and were assigned fighters by the carrier above, combat probes appeared. Hmm. Checking DSCAN, no ships other than our own appeared, so I called for everyone to warp to the off grid bookmark.

To those that don't know, we use a bookmark immediately below the POS, immediately off grid from it, because our POS is surrounded by mobile warp disruptors as traps for both ships and cloakers. When scanning for ships, you can quickly see while probing and assume that ships at this bookmark are inside the POS.

Except in this case, here's what I surmise what happened. Prior to us entering the wormhole, our corpmate that was still inside had logged in his character while we were making our way home and ran his PI. These people that eventually jumped us were probably searching for him, and had ignored all the ships at our POS. This enabled them to quickly be able to scan down the ships as they waited for the Orcas to jump to them at the off grid bookmark.

As the two Orcas entered warp to the bookmark, an Arazu uncloaked to the offgrid and started attacking one of the Tengus. The second Tengu arrived and they destroyed it. As both Orcas landed, more ships landed, a very identical fleet in composition to the one that jumped us a few days back. Machariel, Tengu, Hurricane, etc etc. So rather than lose it all, everyone that could get away warped up to the POS. I popped out the ECM drones and actually escaped a point on an Orca, but was quickly jammed and pointed by another ship.

In short, we ended up losing two Tengus that had been flying CAP, and both Orcas, fitted not with Warp Stabs, but with cargo expanders, because it was just two jumps.

Yep, in the end, I'm in charge, so the blame is mine alone. That's fine. I can live with that and I'll hope to change my decisions in the future to reflect my experiences. But it's wormhole space, and crazy shit happens. I can point at what I did wrong and learn from it.

However, the current leadership of Talocan United are hypocrites in the extreme. We've been kicked for our losses, but in reality, we had been on the chopping block for some time as examples of what and who they don't want in their "elite" alliance of wormhole corps. They are on the verge of making PvP ops mandatory. They whine and complain constantly about how not enough people show up for this op or that wormhole invasion.

Funny how their website paints a completely different picture than what Talocan United actually is. There have been major arguements over this on the Director forums. Zariah routinely throws major meltdown fits over it in chat and in Alliance public. He recently "quit the alliance" due to things not going his way, so he was going to take his ball and go home. The guy is a self described "twat" and a "cunt".

And most of the alliance is sick of his bullshit. So in that, our removal is really a relief from his childish rants and raves, and Nathan's inability to control him. I'm incredibly glad we're out. As of last Alliance dues, we were the third largest corp in the alliance. We showed up for numerous alliance ops since our joining, and nothing was ever enough for these people.

To a point, I can sympathize with them when not enough people show up for planned operations. I've run large alliances in other games before. I know how frustrating it is when people just don't care as much as you do. But the arguement of "people have lives, wives, and families" isn't good enough for these guys. You really should be on 24/7, have no life or job to speak of. You should be playing Eve! Well guess what? When you don't have anything meaningful in your life to take you away from Eve, I guess it's okay for you to invest yourself that much into a videogame.

But the majority of us living out here in real life land aren't willing to do that.

Talocan United as a general alliance is great. The people are willing to do extraordinary things to help you out and to socialize with you. I will miss a number of them very much. The "leadership", on the other hand, can DIAF for all I care. They show a complete lack of respect for people and their playstyles. Yes, their website says completely the opposite, but be warned, they want to make you one of them, one of the people who take "Internet Spaceships Seriously!". There's a limit to what most normal, well adjusted people will take in a video game, and they really expect too much.

And, to round that all out, Nathan and Zariah are giant hypocrites when it comes to ship losses. Until last week, my corp hadn't lost more than a single stealth bomber in over a year.

Here's Zariah losing an Orca. Nope, no warp stabs there. Guess you should kick him out for that, huh? Fucking hypocrites.


Here's a Mastadon that Zariah lost. Doing a run for POS fuel and mods alone, were we? For shame! Douchebaggery!


Got caught in your Buzzard and lost your POD did you? In a Cov ops??? That smacks of incompetence, right? Kind of hard to catch those cov ops.


Here's a nice CNR loss since we're busy making up excuses. WTG Nathan!


Another one!? Really? Kick him! OMG! Poor combat choice!


In the end, who cares. Behind each and every loss there's a story. And in Eve, most of the time it isn't the majority of the fault of the victim. I've never been one to shrug off the loss and say "Oh well, we'll replace it." I need to learn from every mistake I make. But it's a damn video game, and life comes first. In Talocan United, the alliance comes first. You get to have your say in your hole, but god help you if you disagree about something with either of the two aforementioned leaders. The alliance is going through a phase right now where it doesn't know what it wants to be. It contains people from all walks of Eve life, and a vocal minority, much akin to extreme politics, are driving the majority to a place they don't want to go. People don't want and can't maintain weekly alliance PvP ops. They can't and don't want to muster out at someone's beck and call while they are trying to maintain their own systems.

Helping fellow alliance members out is one thing, but all the TU leadership want is serious e-peen so they can swing it around with the likes of Narwals and Aquila.

But it doesn't matter to me, my corpmates are standing by me like they always have, and I'll keep the friends I had. We'll be more at risk if they come across us, since the leadership harbors serious grudges and talks alot of shit about people that leave the alliance.

But it's Eve and we'll endure. It's just a game, remember? Pass me the cheetohs.