Big Blue Loses Outpost, Plans to Leave Geminate

GEMINATE: Recent history has repeated itself for The Big Blue alliance after the capture of the outpost in the 8MG-J6 system by forces of Euphoria Unleashed, joined with SAS, Exotic Dancers and The Corporation.

In a short statement made soon after the conquest, Escador, diplomatic contact for the new owners, stated, "Our new capital pilots have gained some much needed experience, and we now have a nice staging point for our future plans."

For many in the Big Blue, the invasion is reminiscent of Mercenary Coalition's recent contract against them. Seleene, leader of the mercenary alliance, had this to say about the current conflict: "We shattered the perception that Southern Geminate was one of the most heavily fortified places in New Eden, largely because of a lack of will on Big Blue's part to actively resist past the initial clashes." She continued her commentary with an indictment of Big Blue's combat endurance: "One can only assume that their problem was a lack of resolve and willpower to keep hold of their sovereign space. When we left the area, the local predators obviously smelled blood in the water."

Stepstone corporation's Roma Shaftoe, who has been an active part of the IPS-QB constellation open access project since its inception, when questioned on Big Blues loss said, "The Mercenary Coalition invasion broke the bubble that had protected us from any serious attempt to threaten the territorial integrity of the constellation." With Mercenary Coalition apparently failing to live up to their commitment to cover the Big Blue while they rebuilt, it left the alliance, in Roma's words, "...with a degraded starbase defence grid, and no real military after our backbone combat corporation had to be set free." This set the stage for, as Roma said, "...an unprecedented level of harassment," from local pirate and non-allied forces.

She then went on to state that a decision was made over a month ago to withdraw from the area, but that they hoped to find a friendly entity to turn the space over to, even if they operated it under a policy of shooting neutrals on sight. "The key issue behind our decision to leave wasn't that we were invaded; when we started the open access project we knew one of the conditions to success or failure was we would only be able operate on a non-profit open space if people were willing to cooperate," explained Roma. "We never had the military might to enforce the demilitarised zone, nor the will."

After NAGA and The Big Blue turned in the public eye from someone too much trouble to attack, to a potential and actual target, it apparently was no longer an option for them to maintain a neutral stance. Roma continues, "The obvious conclusion was that IPS-QB management had to be turned over to an entity that can afford a more militaristic stance, which is what we hoped to do before Euphoria Released entered the picture." When asked what next for the alliance, Roma commented, "We are already working on a different project for general access to zero security systems in the near future, which will probably shape up with different means and modus operandi, accounting for what we learned over the eight months in IPS-QB."

Big Blue's next project will be a sharp contrast to what Euphoria Unleashed has planned for their conquered territories. When pressed about what they expect to do from their new base of operations, Escador stated, "The BLUE Pill is in our line of fire and will be next on our agenda. As for future plans, New Eden will have to wait and see. I can, however, see more conflict soon."

Asked for a final comment, Escador's belief in the strength of Euphoria Unleashed being measured by their skill and commitment was apparent in the simple statement, "Numbers aren't all."