Deklein Adventures

My first major move into naught-point-naught (aka 0.0 space) was dragging LMPG kicking and screaming north to Nonni, where we made a new Empire base of operations. Thankfully with the help of my new Providence Freighter, the move was pretty simple (just a few hours to jump 15 hops at 82 m/s between gates!). However, convicing everyone in the corp that it was the right thing to do, took a little while longer :)

Before gaining access to 0.0 space, LMPG had to agree to a number of terms and conditions required to join up with the alliance Northern Freedom Coalition (NFC). There were some general restrictions about where to mine, where not to mine, what complexes were open or closed, and basic defensive 0.0 tactics to help alert and protect the collective alliance assets from invasion.

LMPG was the smallest corp admitted into the NFC, but we had proven ourselves capable at mining ice, acquiring POS fuels, and more importantly, providing a secure and regular 0.0 to Empire transport service for various customers who didn't want to leave 0.0 to sell their wares.

Things were going along pretty smoothly for a couple months - five major contracts established, pulling in 70+ million a week - until I decided to take an extended vacation with the family, and leave things in the hands of the NFC Senate. Talk about a bad idea!

I don't want to get into the finer details of the whole mess, but it went something like this: NFC gets pissed at FLA and IRON who talk big in local, and act like they own all of Deklein. Wars are declared, battles are fought... FLA and IRON get backed into a corner. A mad scramble of Mercenary Corp hiring ensues on both sides, more allies come in to the area. Guerilla tactics and rogue MC teams keep mining on the backburner for all the industrialists in NFC.

Things escalate, carriers and dreads start appearing and stomping on POSs all over the place. Further verbal exchanges rile up members on both sides, somehow Goonfleet and BoB get involved, D2 plays the "Switzerland" card, and NFC joins Sparta to try and gain numbers and systems. Bigger battles ensue, further losses on both sides, still no mining, no POS fuels delivered, more friends of FLA/IRON show up. Chaos ensues within Sparta/NFC leadership, stupid choices made, and eventually everything comes to a grinding halt within 2 weeks of the start of hostilities. A truce is agreed upon, and Sparta/NFC are forced to pull out of Deklein within a week.

This is about the time I arrive back on the scene from holidays. Stuck in a hostile station in 0.0, unable to leave (blockade outside now has me hostile - truce is over), and no rights to use or enter the station again if I do leave. Somehow I had been smart enough to set up some jump clones between 0.0 and Empire, so for the next 3 weeks, I spend most of my time flooding the Deklein market with considerable personal and corporate assets (about 1 billion ISK worth after the dust settled). During that time, I'm also able to secure myself a cloaking device and descent hauler + equipment, and manage to sneak out additional assets back to Nonni (like my entire skill book library for the corp and myself).

Aside from the "Disaster in MQ-NPY", my overall losses in 0.0 ended up being two Ravens (both insured), and two Retrievers. One of each lost to PVP enemy pilots, and one of each lost to nasty Raven belt rats. Most of that was recovered from the extensive Crokite mining that was able to be conducted in the months prior to the breakout of hostilities.

Although LMPG never did manage to get a POS set up in 0.0 (things like Senate squabbling and war prevented it), we did sneak ourselves back to Empire a little richer than we left (Corp wallet was +200 million after extraction). Overall, we made some great friends, battled some new enemies, learned some valuable lessons on PVP, and came out considerably wiser for our next adventure into 0.0!