Aboard the Kinetic Regret, Docked in E8-4
Captain Gobbins stood at the main holotable, fingers steepled, a faint smudge of blueprint toner still smeared across one knuckle from some earlier encounter with a stubborn industry hub. The map of nullsec hovered above the surface in flickering 3D, glowing with the aftershocks of recent upheaval.
“Delve and Querious,” he began, his voice echoing slightly in the command deck. “Officially evacuated about a week ago. The region’s been a bit like a nullsec garage sale ever since.”
Several crew members chuckled quietly. One of them—Ensign Brin, possibly regretting her transfer from Jita customs enforcement—tapped through ownership changes on a side console.
“So who’s moving in?” she asked.
Gobbins zoomed in with a flick of his fingers. “The biggest chunk’s gone to a new mid-sized coalition—XIX, Siege Green, OnlyFleets, SYN, and a few others. Not bloc-aligned, working together, and from what I can tell, not completely exploding yet. Promising start.”
He tapped again.
“Streamer Ahront—yes, that Ahront—and his crew took a decent slice too. Remember those guys that anchored the BWF Keepstar way back? Looks like they finally carved out a piece of Delve for themselves. Credit where credit’s due: they did it without bloc support and somehow didn’t implode. Yet.”
Another swipe.
“The rest? Sold off to Init. Classic Goonswarm move—sell the furniture before the house catches fire.”
A quiet ping sounded as Gallente Citizen 4586793463 entered the room, datapad in hand, taking notes silently from the corner. No one greeted them. They didn’t expect it.
“But here’s what isn’t being talked about,” Gobbins continued, walking slowly around the glowing map. “The way Goons pulled out. Or more specifically—how many neutral groups they shoved out the airlock on their way.”
“Wasn’t XIX neutral?” Brin asked.
“They were,” Gobbins said. “So were Siege Green. SL4GS. All of them made deals just to be left alone. Gave up space. Agreed to neutrality. Guess what it got them?”
“Nothing?”
“Eviction,” Gobbins said flatly. “Goons demanded they give up the rest. No more pretexts, no more lies about ‘Panfam pets’ or jump bridge fairy tales. Just straight-up ultimatums.”
A ripple of silence moved across the bridge.
“And yet,” Gobbins said, “compare that to what we did when we had the South. From the collapse of FireCo in early 2023 to late 2024, we held the strongest force down there. Did we evict neutrals? No. We protected them. SEA agreement. Even when it ended, we left them alone. When we pushed Catch, we didn’t demand space or bridges. We just flew smarter.”
Brin raised an eyebrow. “So what changed?”
“They overextended,” Gobbins replied. “And that gave us the opening. Their reach into Delve and Querious cost them everything they tried to hold. And now—neutral entities can thrive there again. Irony’s a lovely thing, when properly aged.”
He tapped the map off. The lights rose slightly. In the pause that followed, Gallente Citizen 4586793463 scribbled a single note:
“When Goons go full tyrant, the void grows fertile.”
“Oh, and before I forget,” Gobbins added, turning back to the room, “local notes: industry hub is now active in E8-. New ratting areas are going live around us. Our allies who lost ground are being resettled in Outer Passage—which also makes the region tougher to crack.”
He looked directly at the crew.
“Train Maelstroms. Buy Titans. And for the love of Bob, stop asking if MJ- is still safe.”
With that, he walked out, coat flaring slightly, trailed by a muted chorus of murmured “Yes, sir”s and one distant ping of someone trying to buy a Revelation off-contract.
A Pixel Nomad 