EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

At the time ISS began work on Lotka Volterra's new outpost, the RedSwarm Federation had just completed the conquest of Scalding Pass and Wicked Creek, seizing the regions from LV and their allies. Both sides were exhausted from months of conflict. On the verge of a LV counterattack in Cache that would have created a new front and months of inconclusive fighting, the leaders of each side made a gentlemen's agreement: rather than risk anything of value to one another, each powerbloc would take a side in the growing ISS vs IAC scuffle and have a delightful little proxy war.

As with the 'little wars' of Cold War fame, suddenly the conflict exploded as multiple powerblocs piled in. The attraction was inescapable: pilots from the deep 0.0 alliances could have a lark blowing each other up and absolutely wrecking Catch, and there would be practically no strategic blow-back for their own homeland. ISS hired Mercenary Coalition (MC); Firmus Ixion (FIX) and Lotka Volterra joined in. They formed the largest capital fleet at the time in the game, with more than 50 carriers, 50 dreadnaughts, and two titans. On the IAC side, Goonswarm and Tau Ceti Federation threw in, trying to staunch the IAC losses; before the declaration of the proxy was, they had lost F4R and been whittled down to two stations.

Suddenly, Catch was a whirlwind of both fleet battles and shadowy politics, and the eyes of New Eden turned to this backwater war. In order to counter the formidable Mercenary Coalition, I asked UAxDeath, at the time one of the leaders of Red Alliance, to get in touch with his friend Evil Thug, since Red Alliance was sitting this war out. Evil Thug, leader of Against All Authorities (-A-), came into the fight on the IAC side, announcing that he hoped to kill the Mercenary Coalition Titan. This inspired MC "405"to find a quick 'out' from their contract with ISS and evacuate. Meanwhile, Goonswarm reached out to Dusk and Dawn (D2), the German alliance on the other side of the galaxy, and inquired about the possibility of a simultaneous attack on an ISS outpost outside of Catch. Abruptly, ISS found itself besieged on all sides, the prospects of an easy victory in a regional war dashed.

The endgame for ISS was an insult to injury, an act of long-awaited vengeance. Six months prior, after having been humiliated for his support of Goonswarm by his fellow ISS members, Jacob Majestic got in touch with the GIA and began working for us as an agent within the ISS Navy. Seemingly eager to demonstrate his loyalty to ISS despite the insult, he had recovered his roles and position as a director and primary fleet commander. As pressure mounted on ISS and the war escalated, Jacob was increasingly relied upon. On the day of reckoning, when D2 attacked ISS in Pure Blind, IAC, TCF and GS attacked in Catch. Rather than allowing a fair fight, Jacob Majestic struck from within ISS itself and delivered the coup de grace. He offlined the towers in the two remaining ISS stations - ZXIC and F4R - and stole everything in the corporate hangars of the ISS Navy. Resistance collapsed utterly as howls of outrage and treason rang from inside ISS. Within the space of two weeks, ISS had gone from contemplating an easy victory over IAC to being utterly annihilated.

The joke wasn't just on ISS, however. Proxy wars are never safe, predictable things, because it is nearly impossible guess who will intervene - the normal rules of strategic interest do not apply. Afterwards, entanglements and grudges inevitably follow. The deep 0.0 powerblocs had dabbled in the ISS war out of amusement, but the aftermath set the stage for the explosion that was the Great War. Sensing weakness in Lotka Volterra after their failure to protect ISS, RedSwarm Federation immediately renewed the war for the South and invaded Detorid and Tenerifis - now with IAC help. LV drew closer to MC and their BoB overlords, who then intervened to defend LV from RSF invasion. A war that began as an amusing diversion flared up into the largest conflict in EVE history, a war which is still raging, two years later.