The Culling

The Culling
A Time For Blood


I have given some serious thought in the past week to Providence space. I have come to the conclusion that I cannot fathom living in any other space. Why? I mean, these boundaries were founded on unsavory roleplaying terms of a storyline involving religious zealots who plied in human trade. How could I want so badly to live here? Let's be honest, EVE is a rich storyline, full of vast ever farther reaching and encompassing plots that are meant to entertain not preach morality. Much like any good novel, there is always a mixture of grays, and few true black and whites. By making our own way through this region, we are simply playing and entertaining ourselves, in a way we sit fit as well. Let Ushra'Khan and CVA roleplay as they desire, if they even still do so by majority (more by proxy now I am assuming from the evidence I have seen), we are here for our own reasons, and none of them involve roleplaying or storyline tales.

So, that being said, what does keep drawing me to Providence space? It is the NRDS, or at least, the semblance of it, given recent events that have given most of our veterans a rather sour taste in their mouths.

Nowhere in EVE can you exist in null security with relative freedom to grow and develop as you please, within a few mostly benign parameters, that the NRDS dictates, or as CVA doctrine says, concerning POS in 0.0 space and such.

Giving much credit to the irony of it all, CVA has provided a wonderful means by which alliances, corporations, and players such as ourselves can have the freedom to experience 0.0 space ourselves and make what we will of it. They want Providence to act as an extension of Empire space, only we the players, we are the CONCORD of Providence. We have a freedom here that is unique in a sense that we are not beholden to any particular power bloc. While UK may do their damnedest to convince Providence residents that they are merely pets to CVA, the reality of the situation is that so long as we do not have any sovereignty in this region, we are a free agent, answering to no one, except the NRDS itself. Isn't it grand? I think so. Ajax gets to do his research, HuffDaddy gets to do L4s in Mamet, Sarah Tuttle gets to mine sweet ice in 0.0, Rayth gets to utilize our PvP trained members to pursue a Wormhole project, Cmdr GAT gets to dabble in reactions, members get access to ME/PE research at no cost, members like William Amato get access to manufacture their own goods, we get to explore ratting, 0.0 combat, PLEXs, the wide expanse of player policed space, the deep roams into hostile regions where we are constantly on the verge of annihilation and pitched battle against overwhelming odds, where our members can both do missions in low security, bring out their new ships and test their mettle in PvP combat, and in general get to live as they please, experiencing every aspect of the game that they choose (besides piracy obviously). Isn't that great?

But what if anything is required of us in return for this grand scheme? That we protect it. And we shall.

So what is the point? Well the point is Providence is going to the dogs, the dogs of war, in particular guerilla warfare. There are reds, everywhere. Every night. And it does not seem to be getting any better. What are the reasons for this? I cannot say here, too many intelligence and security issues that I keep to myself to protect Providence. What can we do about it? A lot. And when I say a lot, I really mean it. What would we have to sacrifice in order to do this? We would have to begin relying more on each member's individual will to expand their gaming experience on their own two feet than what we have now which is a system based almost solely on collective efforts towards multiple goals. We would have to have one goal, that goal would be to clean up Providence. Will it come to this? Only time will tell. I can tell you that if Providence remains as blast oven hot as it has been for the past week or two, by the time I get my Ark, that we will likely have to make some tough decisions about what we want to do. I can guarantee you that the newly reawakened Gremlin squadron will get kills though, and frequently, but it will require some sacrifices. How will it get these kills, and how can I guarantee something when I so infrequently lead PvP gangs of my own? Trust me. I'm an old salt when it comes to leading operations. Been doing this since '97. I just do not make a big deal out of it because I like to see others excel and make their own way to the top without me hovering over them wagging my finger like a doting father.

There will be a culling, and it will either be us or them (the reds), and I am certain you can guess which one I am going to choose.

Is it not strange how for the first half of the year our PvP operations suffered greatly because we so rarely were able to find hostiles to engage on a nightly basis and now we cannot go two or three systems in any direction without finding hostiles bearing down upon us? My how times change. In a morbid sort of way, I hope this trend continues, Providence is much more entertaining when there is adversity and challenge than when we roam in fleets of half a dozen or more for hours only to find ice crystals of condensation and fading ion trails from hostiles who have long since moved onto other regions.

The first half of this year was so quiet you could hear a pin drop in most systems between 8-12 EST every night of the week. Things are so vastly different now. While the notion of driving these hostiles back to the rock they crawled out from amuses me, it will require a lot of focus and attention from alliances just like ours to do it.