Sahdil, Domain - 08.11.113 - High bounties placed by CONCORD on invading Sansha vessels are attracting pirate forces seeking to force engagements and loot the wrecks of defenders' expensive and well-appointed ships.
"BTL Pub" and "The Ditanian Fleet" (TDF) are two of the largest anti-Sansha communities operating in high security space, formed around channels that organize full fleets from lone pilots and small groups who want to be more potently involved. Phattecia, a BTL representative, stated that BTL's goal is to allow a "secure channel for shield fleets to rally from, this is our highest priority." TDF is similar, though focused on armour fleets. Their spokesman Carmelos53 said they "allow pilots from all corners... to socialize and fly in relative safety from griefers."
BTL has a banlist of over 1000 known pilots, corporations and alliances and employs moderators to bring a measure of order and security to their channel, while TDF maintains a public mailing list of blacklisted pilots. Such measures have only a limited effectiveness, however, in the face of numerous spies. Ammzi of BTL stressed that the onus is on all pilots to ensure their own safety by "taking corp history of other fleet members and their killboards" into account.
The Skunkworks [SKNK] are one corporation that has come to specialize in baiting the pilots fighting incursions into high security-space engagements. CEO Psychotic Monk said that the best part of his business is "taking joy in knocking the wind out of some smug incursion bears who have, until recently, thought they were perfectly safe." SKNK diplomat Slimy Worm went on to say "We target valuable ships that can't really defend themselves." Recent kills included a Rattlesnake battleship which was lured into a trap by a member of Skunkworks claiming to be under attack. When the Rattlesnake pilot remotely repaired the ship, a gang of Skunkworks-affiliated vessels quickly came down on the Rattlesnake and destroyed it.
Psychotic Monk described the efforts of the incursion-fighters to defend themselves against The Skunkworks and their ilk as "meagre," citing his corporation's killboard which now claims over 40 billion ISK worth in damage dealt in a week, with very few documented losses. Pilots associated with the TDF channel, however, have collected donations to hire mercenaries to deal with The Skunkworks. SKNK claims that their increased operations is a direct response to the war declaration that they have received. Slimy Worm said "We're defending ourselves from [the incursion community] but we don't really need any justification: might is right." It's alleged that The Skunkworks use multiple shell corporations to shield their members and assets - Psychotic Monk himself was flying under a alternate ticker himself at the time he was interviewed.
After a little over a year of engaging Sansha Kuvakei's forces, BTL representatives dismissed The Skunkworks and similar predators as able only to hurt those who don't yet grasp the high security-space Rules of Engagement enforced by CONCORD, while TDF's Carmelos53 stated that "The Skunkworks is just the flavour of the month."
GalNet References
Evelopedia - Incursions
Evelopedia - Criminal Flagging
The Skunkworks Killboard
The Skunkworks War Declaration
BTL Incursion Promotional Footage
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