Eve is all about the big story. It's that storyline, together with the unforced, natural co-operation that those stories promote that get me going.
Here is the story of the last couple of weeks for one small group in Goonfleet, and the last few days for the alliance.
Goonswarm was attacked by most of our neighbours on Thursday, with only a few hours' warning. Our main enemy was widely considered to be the new elite of the game, with massive resources and fresh from the destruction of their northern neighbour. They were funded by the real-life coffers of Ebaying goldfarmers who we took offence to using our space, and who were trying to disguise their rather tawdry motivation by provoking Russians in the game with accusations of anti-Russian sentiments in Goonswarm. This is nonsense: no alliance in the game loves the Russians like Goonswarm, who know we owe them our very existence. But the Big Lie often works.
There was a kind of shock on the boards, as people realised what we were facing. The enemy rolled into our space with well-prepared fleets of hundreds of ships in several places at once.
Then people just started saying "this is about destroying as an alliance, and it's not time for us to die, yet." People who had been whining and trolling for months started signing up for fleets. Vets who'd not played for a year or more resubscribed. Long-gone superstar fleet commanders suddenly appeared on Teamspeak with no warning, to organise people and get our defences going. Newbies who had been forced to listen to the stories about Syndicate and the defence of Detorid had an epic story of their own to be part of.
Then, something wonderful started to happen. First, little Zenith Affinity turn up in our space, and it turns out they want to help. We've always been on good terms, but they owe us nothing beyond that and by backing us they know that they will lose their space unless we win. They start jumping in in ones and twos throughout the night. Their fleet is tiny, but they put their capital fleet in huge danger and the gamble helps LOVEU - the corp in Goonfleet I am helping out - hold the line in our part of space for 36 hours or so when the rest of the alliance has to pull back.
Then, our neighbours UNL (despite being part of the same Russian-speaking community as our enemies) said "we were asked to stand aside, and told this was not our fight, but we're with you." That's hundreds of combat pilots on our side at a critical moment. I was, in all seriousness, reminded of this scene. Next, Red Alliance voice their intention to help however they can.
Things still look bleak: we're still outnumbered, and in capitals massively so. In supercapitals we simply cannot compare. But we face down the first few days of attack through our incomparable logistics, losing a little ground here and there, but holding firm. Outlying systems are abandoned and overrun. We shift to the defensive.
This left LOVEU exposed. We were committed to the attack in the rear of our enemies. Now we were alone for days. Our enemies were the cause of the whole thing: a goldfarmer alliance who eBayed much of their massive profits taken from our alliance's space, and their morale was soaring. They outnumbered us, and could turn their entire attention onto us. Our assets were attacked round the clock, and we were faced with the decision of whether to save what we could - huge amounts of strategic assets - or gamble on the alliance holding firm long enough to re-establish contact.
We decide to go for it. People log in for hours at a time, maintaining 23/7 presence (there is downtime every day) in our target system, harassing the enemy, forcing them to defend when we can, making life harder for them when we cannot. Every now and then we'll get a marginal numerical advantage, and will deploy equipment in surprise ops. Within 20 minutes we'll be outnumbered four to one and defending as well as we can.
Meanwhile, the main fleet is hard-pushed. But then we get a call: our French allies have pulled out of the north and are coming to help: they're a few jumps away, outnumbered, already engaged by the combined fleets of all our enemies. But they think they can win, with our support. At first a few, then dozens, scores and even hundreds of Goons start rushing to help. The fight lasts for over two hours, and the enemy tries tactic after tactic, but soon we gain an advantage. The momentum shifts and then, in the last twenty minutes, they shatter, flee and hide. We've faced their combined fleet and won.
I've been vocal in this fight, calling targets when the commanders couldn't, and passing target info on when they could. Now, I use this to mention that the LOVEU are facing an overwhelming attack in twenty minutes. If that attack succeeded, the enemy would move on to push harder against us: many of us were aware that we would almost certainly lose everything we had struggled for a fortnight to achieve, within days.
So a hundred bloodthirsty goons volunteer to jump through hostile space to help out LOVEU. The enemy fleet is already attacking, and we have literally minutes left before they can secure the moon from us. Just as our installation becomes vulnerable, the hostile scout sees what is coming their way. The enemies scatter. Most leave the system. Some just log out in disgust. Amidst many "fofofos" in the system chat channel, Goons pour in and cause chaos. Some help secure our assets. Others camp the entrances to shoot latecomers. More still start shooting the hostile installations in the system, reversing the momentum at once.
Of course, they don't stay there forever, but contact has been made again, after a dark few days. Soon, we are outnumbered again, and the hostiles try to attack, but our people don't budge. Some of us are running on 3, 4, 5 hours of sleep that night, but we have a second tower due to become vulnerable in 24 hours, and we know that we can pull through for another few days if we try.
Today, that second tower - which we frankly regarded as lost - was saved. LOVEU guys together with the Anzac and US West-coast Goons yet again secure the system, some staying up to 7am local time. As a nice boost, they steal hundreds of ships from an unsecured installation that our enemies have used as their supply cache. A swift line of supply to a nearby system is secured for the moment, and we take the chance to pour more of LOVEU's (admittedly huge) resources into the attack.
Footnote: I can't believe that a bunch of F13 posters, mainly newbies who decided to try griefing miners a year ago, are now pushing hard to take space from some of the toughest enemies in the game.