After the fleeing of CO2 from the Imperium, yet another alliance has chosen to pull back from the fighting to save themselves. While not as bad as leaving the coalition, the admission that SOV under Aegis is too much to handle in a large defensive war that is implied by the SMA announcement is pretty damning for the future of CFC/Imperium in SOV NullSec.
As of writing, the regions of Fade, Vale of the Silent, Tenal and Tribute have either fallen to MBC forces, or been abandoned to the roaming hordes by CFC/Imperium. This leaves only three regions remaining effectively under CFC/Imperium control, and the penchant MBC has for headshotting staging systems leaves little hope left for a resurgence of CFC/Imperium morale. While it remains to be seen how much impact moving most of the coalition to Saranen will have on military effectiveness, it doesn’t look like the conclusion of World War Bee is too far off. Especially given the strength and tenacity of the MBC offensive.
In contrast to the assertions above, Imperium-controlled media site TMC released a CEO update targeted to members of GoonSwarm Federation. The post itself is a wonder to behold just on the strength of it’s bitter tone and blatant propaganda and spin. There is no doubt that the machine of hostility and antagonism that drives a segment of the EVE community is having a field day with this post. I find this passage particularly interesting as well, “The platform CCP and our enemies worship is r/eve, and at every turn we will simply rubbish both that platform and scorn their attempts to control us.”. This inflammatory remark calls out implied malicious intent and willful ignorance on the part of some of the EVE community and to some degree CCP. I would question just how accurate the assumption involving Reddit is, namely that the war is one of propaganda being spearheaded by toxicity from that site, but it seems CFC/Imperium are engaging in a bit of confirmation bias. How this screed will play out among the EVE community is anyone’s guess.
I for one cannot wait to see just how much this promised retribution changes the war in the north.
You can view the full SMA announcement text below:
“Good Morning SMA (and Reddit, when this invariably leaks)
If you were online for the alliance meeting last night, you already know what this post is about. If you weren’t, well, pull up a chair, have a seat, and get ready to read a long textpost that some asshole didn’t even have the common courtesy to put any pictures in 
You may have noticed that over the last few months, we’ve seen quite a lot of action here in Fade. What started off as some fairly routine cloaky camping slowly progressed into regular hotdrops. Hotdrops turned into skirmishes, skirmishes became into all-out brawls for our homeland against the backdrop of what is rapidly shaping up to be one of the biggest wars in the history of New Eden.
Through all of this, a core of monkeys, some of whom have been here for years, rallied to hold the line. Some of you even resubbed specifically to help SMA in its time of need. My heart goes out to each and every one of you beyond words for joining SMA in a time of relative peace and growth, and sticking with us through war and contraction. I could not be prouder to fly alongside you, shoot the shit with you in comms, and steamroller your asses in DOTA.
Over the last 24 hours, after more time digging in your heels and fighting than even I expected (and I’m the optimistic one ), the front in Fade has begun to boil over. MBC is fully aware of the efficacy of headshotting staging systems and has gone after O1Y with gusto. Thankfully, despite common narratives that profess the opposite, SMA is not stupid. For weeks we’ve been working to move the assets required to keep the alliance afloat, as well as assisting the CEOs of your corporations with doing the same.
I won’t mince words to you — with headshot attempts on our staging system and the fluid nature of sov under Aegis, staging out of a capture-able station rapidly becomes untenable when the fight is as hot as this one is. Rather than continue to risk our war assets becoming inaccessible and getting shut out of our own staging system…we have begun the war march to Saranen to fight alongside the rest of the Imperium. By the time this post goes out, the USTZ will have already begun move ops, nearly all corp/alliance assets will be secure, and supers/titans will be staged.
It’s looking more and more like in order to win this war, we’re gonna have to stage out of a single system and fight as a combined force. The time of fighting on multiple fronts with multiple stagings which can be Entosised or bubbled has passed us. So watch for move ops over the next couple of days, poke me if you have any questions…..
And let’s go to war, ladies and gentlemen.”
