Yes, Your Friend

It's fascinating how two people can witness the same thing, yet interpret what they saw in two totally different ways.

A dozen Knights of the Order killed Flora Katelo's Orca. Agent Nitetime Video found it to be an exhilarating battle. Flora didn't.

After the ice-breaker (no pun intended), Nitetime casually mentioned the fact that he sells mining permits. Flora was a cautious consumer. She was only interested in buying a real permit, not a fake one.

Nitetime had the proof of the Code to back him up. Flora said she couldn't believe him. She underestimated her capacity for belief!

Running the numbers, the deal was too good for Flora to pass up. The math is very simple. You'd be surprised how many miners have trouble with math, though.

This is what separates a good permit salesman from a great permit salesman. There's a reason why people who work at fast food restaurants are trained to ask, "Do you want fries with that?"

Speaking with a freshly-killed carebear can be a bit like walking through a minefield, even if they've just bought a permit. You never know what might set them off:

The "F" word made Flora explode. Our hero already had her money, though.

Luckily, Flora cooled off. She knew she needed more information to ensure the safety of her future Orca(s).

Things were touch-and-go for a moment there, but the story had a happy ending for everyone involved, and the two parted as friends. And if there's one thing the New Order has a lot of, it's friends.

Keep Our Jars Full

It's been a while since we've seen a lot of new artwork for the New Order. Agent Bao Xi was contemplating the Code the other day and suddenly realized that the crusade for highsec compliance is an awful lot like World War II. Poster time!

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No one wants to be left out. Do you really want to be the one miner in an asteroid belt who doesn't own a permit? Not a good situation to be in, my friend.

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Our Agents are authorized to check miners' permit status at all times. If an Agent comes into your system, have your permit ready for inspection. Papers, please!

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Every highsec miner should strive not to be the wealthiest or most efficient miner, but rather to be the most perfectly Code-compliant miner in every way. Read and obey every provision of the Code, not just the easy ones.

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The wave of destruction visited upon Code violators over the past few months has been due in part to the tremendous amount of isk flowing into the New Order treasury. Keep it coming and we'll lick the bot-aspirant menace in no time.

Thanks again to Bao Xi for his artistic contributions. Permanent links to all New Order artwork may be found on the Links page.

Kills of the Week: The Battle of Aufay

Before this week, no one had ever heard of the Aufay system. Now they will never forget it. Agent loyalanon and the Knights of the Order looked upon Aufay, a quiet little 0.5 security system in Sinq Laison. Despite its placid surface, they knew terrible things were happening there. Major highsec trade routes go through anonymous Aufay. The system has long been used and abused by bot-aspirants, especially auto-piloting freighters.

This, too, our Agents knew: Aufay belongs to the New Order.

What you (barely) see above is not the CODEdot's entire killboard for the month. It's a list of freighters ganked by the New Order in one system, in one week.

KILLMAIL

Jump freighters, of course, are the primary target for any serious ganking operation. They're not easy to take down; this is only the fifth jump freighter killed by the New Order, ever.

KILLMAIL

As loyalanon continually kept me updated with reports from Aufay, we were both amazed by the degree of decadence. Shockingly, an Orca worth over 5 billion isk was destroyed. Judging by the cargo, the Orca contained everything the carebear owned, including a library of blueprints. Bizarrely, the anti-tanked beast had a cloak, a probe launcher, and even a warp scrambler. A kill such as this would be worthy of its own post. But in the carnage of Aufay, it is easily overlooked.

KILLMAIL

Industrial ships weren't the only high-value kills in Aufay. A faction battleship worth 2.7 billion isk was vaporized for the crime of autopiloting without a permit. Or perhaps the ship merely went AFK on the gate. In the fog of war, tragedies piled on top of each other.

KILLMAIL

Behold, the first freighter to be suicide ganked after the Kronos "expansion" went live. CCP's long-awaited nerf to freighter ganking was implemented by buffing freighter EHP at the expense of cargo space, and giving freighter pilots fitting options. It was all for nothing. The New Order has already become too powerful. Saturated by anti-matter delivered by our terror weapons, the post-Kronos freighters went pop, just like the ones who came before.

KILLMAIL

Meanwhile, the freshly-buffed freighters turned their new fitting options into an excuse for more bot-aspirancy and immodesty. Bantam Rage, who was soon to live up to his name, chose to anti-tank his freighter for more cargo space--all so he could carry a single blueprint!

The reports of dead freighters continued to pile in. Though Aufay is merely another link in the auto-pilot chain for most, pilots began to take notice.

DrysonBennington > Eventually the ganks will stop IP because the entire high sector will be at war because of CODE

As recounted in yesterday's post, the white knights were powerless to stop the ganking. The New Order simply had too much firepower at its disposal. In despair, at least one white knight biomassed himself (or his "son" did it). Though the freighters' EHP had been buffed by CCP that very same week, the carebears put their hope in more nerfs to ganking. That was quick!

DrysonBennington > No but word of their exploits will spread and even more CODE will form...Jita, Dodixie, Hek, Amarr, Ours...all will burn with the fire of CODE....at least thats what they want

Apocalyptic visions of an Order-dominated highsec filled the rebels with dread.

KILLMAIL

Two more jump freighters were killed in Aufay, the one seen above and this post-Kronos one, the sixth and seventh jump freighters ever killed by New Order pilots. The seventh jump freighter was, as I said, killed after Kronos went live. Jump freighters have lowslots now. The jump freighter pilot didn't care, and left them empty. Our Agents brought their gank ships and made the jump freighter's cargo bay empty, too.

As the violence reached its peak, Aufay burned. The faint red blob, extending from the words "Caldari State" to the bottom of the picture, represents Aufay.

Curious pilots were drawn into the system. Not since Burn Jita had anyone seen something like this happen in a highsec system.

Aufay became the killing-est system in the entire EVE galaxy. Other systems have experienced intense violence. EVE pilots have engaged in spectacular battles over territory. This time was different. This time, they fought for the Code. And the judgment of the Code rained down upon those who worked evil in the Aufay system.

45 freighters, 3 jump freighters, 10 Orcas, and numerous other bot-aspirants were killed in Aufay in the name of the Code. The damage is estimated at more than 200 billion isk, all in one week. The freighter count rivals that of the first Burn Jita in 2012 (though they also killed a dozen jump freighters).

That sound in the distance is the steady march of progress. Carebears of highsec, are you listening?

The Demise of the Free Miners

We've seen time and again the futility of resistance to the New Order and its Code. Countless anti-Order resistance movements have sprouted like weeds, only to wither away.

One of the new crop of rebels was a fellow named Xan Staraider, founder of the "Union of Free Miners". His particular angle was to encourage miners to become "white knights", disrupting ganks and hunting the gankers.

As many rebels do, Xan added to the clutter of the internet by creating his own blog. Xan called the carebears of highsec to arms, offering a six-week contest for white knights to pop New Order pods. By the end of the second week, the rebel army had destroyed a grand total of two pods. Both were empty. Xan celebrated the victory.

Then came the "The Battle For Aufay":

The New Order and their monkeys have once again laid siege to another system of HighSec, and again they are attacking freighters. This time however our regional fleet was already in place before their attack started and the regional commander had the foresight to set up warning beacons at the gates entering the system.

The White Knights were better prepared this time as well. The Eagle’s Talons are grabbing them by the nose, while the other anti-gankers, minions, bush ninjas, and solo-White Knights are kicking them in the ass.

A lot of New Order pods have been exploding in Aufay.

Xan breathlessly reported the daring deeds of the white knights. Multiple anti-Order resistance movements rallied together to stop the slaughter of freighters in the Aufay system. (In the next Kills of the Week post, we'll see how they fared.) Judging by the blog post, the rebels had won the Battle of Aufay. Xan concluded his battle report by claiming that "a lot" of New Order pods were destroyed.

...Which turned out to be one more pod. This time, the pod wasn't empty; it contained a 1.5 million isk implant. Things were escalating. For nearly two years we've been told that the carebears of highsec would "eventually" stand up to us. At long last, was this the end of the New Order?

No, it was the end of the Union of Free Miners. Let's see where this resistance movement went wrong.

Xan was originally a member of the 75th Star Ranger Regiment corp, one of the few members of the Blackwatch. alliance. This opened his army of white knights to the threat of wardecs.

Amused by the rebel, some of our Agents decided to wardec him. Seen here, one of Xan's Daredevils.

More than one corp took an interest in Xan and his rebels' alliance. Among the Code enforcers was the notorious Cannibal Kane, who made short work of the uppity carebears.

Wardecs continued to pour in against the Blackwatchdot alliance corps. It was too much for them. Meanwhile, the success of the anti-Free Miner wardecs was paralleled by more anti-rebel wardecs from other good citizens of highsec.

By gathering together in the Aufay system, the rebels were efficiently identified and wardecced. As seen in the EVEmail above, the rebels were also slaughtered. Some of them used cheap anti-gank ships, but others made the mistake of using expensive PvP ships, operating under the assumption that they could safely attach themselves to a bunch of CONCORD killmails. Instead, they got their corps and alliances wardecced and lost everything.

After the rebel defeat at Aufay, the Xan Staraider character was biomassed and his Union of Free Miners was disbanded. Xan explained his decision to quit EVE as follows:

Wow, I am truly amazed at how quickly things can fall apart. As some of you may know the white knights have been dealing with perpetual wardecs from the New Order’s mercs. After going out of town for a couple days my son decided that the best way to get dad to stop chasing pirates was to delete my guys. Needless to say it worked. And yes I have changed my password now. I petitioned CCP to resurrect my guy but I fear it is too late. The alliance that we had worked so hard to create had fallen apart over-night.

I talked to Max last night and after a heated exchange he made it clear that he is not giving me back control of Blackwatch. He has turned the alliance from white knight bad-asses, to bounty hunters.

He expressed outrage at having been wardec’d constantly for 2 months and having very little to show for it. The total cost of the war was over 6 billion in ISK, and a third of his team. It is very hard to get out and stop gankers when mercs are trying to shoot at you. He was equally outraged that other people in the Anti-Ganking community could not do more to help.

Personally I don’t know who else there was and what else they could do. Most people have the burning hatred for CODE, so if anything could have been done, it was done. I also understand Max’s frustration, the second time Kane wardecd the Star Rangers, all my co-workers just stopped playing.

So this is it for me. My alt has a 1v1 duel with Capt Starfox tonight in low sec and I have 2 more people I need to send ISK to in order to make amends. Then I’m done. I’m switching to Star Trek Online. I wish the Anti-gankers the best of luck. I hope you keep fighting.

Fly fearless! Fly Deadly!

- Xan

Xan's story about his son biomassing his characters (as opposed to the more common phenomenon of carebears rage-quitting without the assistance of their progeny) may or may not be true. If his son really did annihilate Xan and his alts, then perhaps he qualifies as an honorary Agent of the New Order. Lest we feel sympathy for Xan's plight, let us not forget that he violated the EULA by account sharing. It's appropriate that this happened at the time of the Kronos expansion, since in Greek mythology Kronos overthrew his father, and was later overthrown by his own son.

In any event, the demise of the Union of Free Miners was inevitable. It happens to every anti-Order organization. At their core, the carebears just want to be AFK, face no challenges whatsoever, and to play a single-player game. Those aren't exactly ingredients for a successful team. Also, they lack the Code. Big mistake on their part.

Hardcore Denial

The sheer extent of the New Order's meteoric rise is difficult to quantify. The New Order is like an iceberg. Only a small fraction of its members receive publicity from MinerBumping posts and the like. That's the surface. Underneath, there is a vast number of Agents who work in quiet dignity. Even so, these lesser-known Agents are celebrities in the systems in which they enforce the Code.

Agent Kalorned was satisfied with his work in the Gamis system, so he went to nearby locations to hunt for bot-aspirants. By chance, he met up with Agent Rollotamasi. There are so many Agents now that they frequently bump into each other--if you'll pardon the pun!

Kalorned's ganker alts destroyed a bizarre Mackinaw piloted by illegal miner rockerhardcore. The mining vessel melted before Rollotamasi could even get on the killmail.

The 15-minute aggression timer is sometimes called the "cool-off" period. For the carebears who get ganked, however, it's often a time when they get themselves even more worked up. rockerhardcore seethed. She suggested she was an important person. Powerful friends in nullsec?

In fact, this time the miner had some originality. She claimed to host the TeamSpeak servers for "the major alliances". Would she leverage her control over nullsec's communication networks to rally an attack against the New Order? No, she wouldn't. Because she was a highsec miner. No highsec miner is important in EVE.

Kalorned declined to entertain rockerhardcore's delusions of grandeur. Instead, he introduced her to some real grandeur: the Code, and his status as an Agent of the New Order.

Some in local questioned whether mining permits are a scam. I feel sorry for miners such as these. The Code forms the bedrock of highsec society. If it's a scam, then we're all doomed.

Kalorned presented himself as a tether to reality. But rockerhardcore persisted in her denial.

rockerhardcore claimed she would get revenge. Not by pulling the plug on everyone's TeamSpeak servers, but by using killrights--or worse!

Out of nowhere, the highsec miner said she had access to the assets of a random nullsec alliance. Since a ganker had destroyed her Mackinaw, she no longer felt bound by her loyalty to the alliance. She would steal everything.

As time went on, rockerhardcore only tumbled further down the rabbit hole of denial. She refused to believe in the existence of macro-miners in EVE.

In her mind, rockerhardcore was busy executing an elaborate heist within a nullsec alliance. She'd lost a Mackinaw, but taking into account the imaginary assets she stole, she could come out ahead for the day.

Our Agents smiled and nodded, and continued to destroy the carebears in system who refused to submit.

It was a good day. rockerhardcore's psyche was a bit worse for wear, but the rest of the system sparkled with Code-compliance. What a contrast! On the one hand, the misery of the denialist; on the other, the satisfaction of the Code enforcer. Citizens of highsec, which will you choose?

If You Can't Hack 'Em...

Highsec is a well-populated place. More EVE players live in highsec than in all of lowsec, nullsec, and wormsec combined. No matter how many people choose to make their home in empire space, the New Order never forgets a face.

Agent Mildron Klinker previously reported encountering a dangerous hacker named Th3 s7rYn6.

As you'll recall, in retaliation for a Retriever gank, Th3 threatened to take down MinerBumping once and for all.

Th3 believed he had forced the site offline several times in a row, but that only someone with high-level access to the website's infrastructure would be able to notice the attacks. As with all of the other doomsday threats against the New Order and its resources, nothing actually happened.

Eventually, Mildron and Agent Zane Arnolles caught up with Th3 again. Once again, Th3 lost a Retriever. This time, however, things were different.

Since abandoning his cyber-attacks, Th3 had read MinerBumping and perused the Code. The more he read, the more he began to appreciate the Code's potential for improving the quality of life in highsec.

Th3 eventually decided to purchase a mining permit, and to send an additional 100 million isk gift to the New Order.

This is yet another example of a recent trend: rebels joining the New Order. Unlicensed miners of highsec, if a "dozzer" knows to buy a permit, what's your excuse?