The Defias Blog

…though perhaps not the start we had in mind.

¶ The Defias Brotherhood Corporation of the EVE Universe was founded by four previously carebear-minded pilots and two combat pilots they’d recruited with the intention of obtaining security for their mining operations. However, it didn’t take long for all six of the pilots to get bored, and when I asked if everybody was feeling the same itch I was - the itch to destroy dreams - the feedback was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Intending to continue to be able to mine in relative peace with our industrial characters, we decided that we would keep them and that original corporation separate from the new corporation which would be devoted to PvP by way of privateering.

¶ So we made some new toons and founded The Defias Brotherhood and started recruiting. We also started roaming around in low-sec with some cheap throw-away frigates and flipping cans in high-sec asteroid belts to see how much trouble we could get ourselves into before getting our ships blown up and our clones frozen in space.
¶ After a week or so, with a membership swollen to almost 20 pilots, two of whom were actually fairly experienced capsuleers with previous low-sec/null-sec ventures under their belts, I started taking some of the advice I’d read on sites like EVE-Pirate into consideration and looked for a small, defenseless target for a quick, profitable wardec. I didn’t have to look long before one guy presented himself as a candidate.

Dryson Bennington makes his first mistake.

¶ I was in Teonusude, roaming the belts in my Thrasher-class destroyer which was set up for ratting/salvaging, just trying to get some quick ISKies before going to bed, when I saw a rather large environmental offender over to my left. Someone had the nerve to field a Retriever - at that late hour! - with nothing but mining drones! I sat there for a moment, eyes wide in abject horror as I watched those drones (scarcely better than rogue drones, in my opinion) ripping, tearing and chewing at a small, helpless chunk of silvery omber that I just KNEW had once been MUCH larger. ‘How long has this monster been at it?’ I wondered. Well, he was finished, now. I instructed Aura to make a note of his jetcan’s location and warped to a nearby planet, quickly turning around and heading back to the bookmarked can which I quickly took off his hands.
¶ But now, I sorta feld bad for the guy. I’d had Aura look up his employment history for me and it showed that he was a fairly inexperienced capsuleer like myself, only recently graduated. He probably didn’t know the evil inherent in what he was out here doing. Now I’m a reasonable man, so I decided I’d give him an opportunity to learn from this encounter while recuperating a portion of his loss. I offered to allow him to reclaim his half-can of silvery and common omber for just one million ISK. Expecting to part amicably and continue my ratting and salvaging efforts for another half-hour or so, imagine my surprise when his response was far short of polite.
¶ Indeed, Dryson Bennington chose to insult me, my ship, my corporation, and most importantly my very ETHICS! The names he called me aren’t for civilized eyes, so I will omit them here. With a forlorn sigh, I decided it was best to just leave him to his misguided anger and carry on with my own business. I locked the can and set my four small artillery cannons upon it before I left - after all, my original and persisting intention was for the young man to learn something from what had happened there that night.
¶ I thought I was finished with Dryson… I was wrong.

Dryson Bennington’s second mistake.

¶ The very next day, one of my Fleet Admirals, Shar Vari, was roaming the Gelfiven asteroid belts looking for environmental offenders while I was doing the same in Gulfonodi. I was having little luck myself, when her call came over our corporate channel. The pain and horror in her words was palpable as she informed me that she’d stumbled upon a Retriever in Gelfiven. I did my best to calm her, wanting to be sure that she’d be able to carry out her duty without emotion interfering with the precise tasks should would have to perform to put a stop to this eco-terrorist in his mining barge. I arrived in Gelfiven by way of Teonusude just as the offender started to pollute the Local channel with his malicious words once again. My heart sank when I saw that Dryson Bennington had apparently learned nothing from our meeting the night before.
¶ This time, his words were so harsh that I knew what had to be done. Aura was very quick about retrieving the data on his corporation, Democratis Unitas. As it turned out, this miner was the CEO of a recently formed and very small corporation comprised of only himself and one other pilot. Shar Vari was adamant in expressing her need to see this man stopped, and I could do naught but agree with my trusted officer. I initiated the vote to declare war on Democratis Unitas.

Does not the madness ever end?

¶ The vote having passed through the board of directors unanimously, I paid the two million ISK fee CONCORD demanded of us to make our declaration official and legally binding and we waited. And waited. And finally, when the twenty-four hours had elapsed and we had still heard nothing from Mr. Bennington or his employee, I sent him a message under the guise of Michael Corinthos (for I was informed that he had set his communications systems to deny any communication from myself), detailing the reason for our declaration of war and the terms under which we could be persuaded to allow him to resume his operations in Molden Heath. In short, the forfeiture of twenty million ISK. Compared to the cost of losing Retriever after Retriever, we felt that this was quite a reasonable price to pay for the emotional and psychological damages The Defias Brotherhood’s pilots had incurred from his callous defacing of the natural universe and his terrible language on multiple Local channels.
¶ Again, Bennington seemed to disagree, choosing instead to continue with his smack talking on local as we hunted him down. He led us on a short chase before we finally tracked him down in Aeddin, docked at the single station in that system that is open to public use. After about ten minutes, he decided to try to make a run for it, undocking in a Caracal-class cruiser. We weren’t expecting to see him in anything other than a Retriever, but then again, I suppose he was expecting to see us all in Thrasher-class destroyers, too. Tit for tat, right? Aura had been instructed to lock him as soon as he appeared on the overview, just as the rest of our pilots had instructed their on-board computers, and so he really had no chance to escape. Within a couple of minutes, I was scooping a frozen corpse into my Rupture’s cargo hold and he was toweling off clone vat slime god knows where.

You’d think he’d be more receptive to seeing things our way now, right?

¶ Wrong. Roughly thirty minutes later, one of my outrunners reported that they’d sighted his signature in Austraka again. This time, after a brief hunt, I found him outside of a station in Teonusude in a capsule. Just as I arrived, he was warping off toward the stargate to Magiko. I instructed my pilots to sit on the station while I went to the gate. I was not surprised at all to find that Bennington was nowhere near the stargate, but was still in-system. I asked one of my pilots to dock and check the guest registry, and sure enough Bennington was docked. He’d doubled back on me, hoping that I would foolishly run into Magiko. We’re smarter than that, really. And so began another session of station camping and being forced to endure some of the most spiteful words ever spoken over a public channel.
¶ Finally, he undocked, again trying to run our blockade - this time in an Amarr-built Omen-class cruiser. However, this time he had a trick up his sleeve. He scarcely fought back, instead waiting for the right moment and when his ship’s shield and armor had been torn away by our autocannons, railguns, drones and missiles, he ejected his pod from the cruiser knowing that our warp scramblers would all be engaged on the cruiser itself. I watched in frustration as my J5-type Warp Inhibitor failed to disengage the dying Omen quickly enough and made note of the direction the pod flew off to - again the Magiko gate.
¶ This time, however, I saw his signature vanish from the local channel and knew he had actually jumped so I jumped as well. Knowing how long it takes a pilot to acclimate himself upon dropping out of jump-travel, and knowing that the stargates are equipped with a wonder function of cloaking your vessel for a limited time, I made no move when I’d gathered my senses. Instead, I waited for his capsule to begin moving. I was rewarded for my calculating patience soon enough, for there he appeared a mear 13 kilometers from my position. I set my Rupture in motion and kicked on the microwarp as I manually targeted his pod, frantically hoping I’d lock him in time.
¶ Please…
¶ C’mon…
¶ THERE! GOT HIM! This bastard won’t escape punishment for his deeds today! The first thing to envelop him was the warp scrambler, then the stasis web, and then my 2 energy vampires flared into life as my autocannons opened up on him. Yes, I know the nos’s would do nothing, as a capsule has less energy than my cruiser to begin with, but I just love the light show. With another dead, frozen clone I told Aura to take us back into Teonusude where my Brothers and Sisters awaited news. I needed time to think… after all, I’d never been confronted with such a determined criminal as Dryson Bennington before.

A lesson in duty and obligations.

¶ As it stands, the conflict between my Brotherhood and Dryson Bennington is not yet over. Because of his persistent criminal activities and his attempts to evade punishment, we have decided to add another five million ISK to his fine, bringing the total to twenty-five million. Hopefully, for his sake, he will come to his senses and pay the fine soon. If he loses too much, he may not even be able to make a living in the EVE Universe any longer.
¶ But it is that same persistence in wrongdoing that bolsters my own resolve as the Brotherhood’s elected leader. Evil exists in the world, and we must be there to stand in its way. It’s our duty. It’s our obligation. And we will not be denied.

-Havo out.

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