Drums in the deep

Perhaps you know that scene from the first Lord of the Rings movie, the Fellowship of the Ring. While travelling through the mines of Moria, one of the Hobbits (that 'fool of a Took!') accidentally drops a bucket in a deep, dry well. It rattles down, chains and all, lots of noise ensues.. and then it gets silent. Nothing happens.. But just as the travellers are about to breathe a sigh in relief, a single low drum beat vibrates through the dark mines. And another one answers, and another.. Drums in the deep. The Orcs are coming! Battle is here!

Something like this happens in nullsec life too, every now and then. Rumors of a war begin to spread, tell tale signs of impending battle appear. And then, sometimes, for a while it just gets silent. Nothing happens. But just when you are about to breathe a sigh in relief (or boredom), hostile fleets are unleashed at your space, stations are reinforced, systems SBU'd. Hostiles are coming, battle is here!

What follows can be epic, just like the fight in the movie 'the Fellowship of the Rings' was. Unexpected victories or losses, strange turns of fortune, exciting events: it is all possible, and you can be there to watch it. Better yet, you can participate.. or even cause it to happen. It's your choice!

The first time sov warfare happened to me, our corporation No Fixed Abode (NOFAD) was in Querious, in an alliance that rented some very nice space from IT Alliance. I've told that story before and won't go into the details again, but I remember strongly how lonely it got in our space, as soon as we heard the 'drums in the deep'. The guys running Sanctums in carriers all day long - gone. Our prolific belt ratters - gone. Our miners in the hidden belts - gone. Familiar voices vanished from TeamSpeak, and in some corporations, membership numbers started to fall pretty drastically. As it turns out, many alliance members were there for the ISK, grazing, earning fortunes in our perfect dead end ratting system; but they didn't care for the alliance itself. They never even undocked one single PVP ship when the alliance needed them badly. What a disappointment! How utterly cynical those guys were! And what cowards, too.

The second time sov warfare happened to me, NOFAD was part of LEGIO ASTARTES ARCANUM, living in Catch. The Drone Russian Forces wanted to get rid of -A- once and for all, and LEGIO was obviously also in the DRF's way. We fought, we lost our space, we retreated to LGK-VP with -A-. And we kept fighting! Guerilla style ambushes, reinforcing stuff left and right, deploying SBU after SBU.. and slowly but surely we won everything back we once had, and then some. This time around, most pilots hung in there, and those who did still pride themselves in what they accomplished. And rightly so! It was a struggle to remember and a memory to cherish. Not to mention it was a whole lot of fun, too..

Next time when you hear the 'drums in the deep', make sure to prepare for war. Don't bug out and leave, silently. Allow yourself the chance to be part of something potentially epic, something you'll remember for a long time, whether you win or lose. It's definitely worth it, and you'll be a better Eve pilot afterwards.