On the 8th May Spaceship Bebop [BEBOP] declared war on fellow Gallente Militia member Rapid Withdrawal [RDRAW], quickly followed by Villore Accords [GMVA] and Black Fox Marauders [BLFOX], also of the Gallente Militia.
There has been a gradual buildup of tension between the main Gallente Warfare corporations and Rapid Withdrawal ever since RDRAW decided to accept an offer of friendship from Snuffed Out [B B C] back in January of 2016.
The deal was that they would set blue standings with Snuffed Out and have a strong ally in any upcoming conflicts while being able to ‘graduate’ their best pilots into Snuffed Out while also being able to participate in higher end game play that RDRAW decided they would not be able to otherwise experience as a member of Gallente Militia. You can read the mail sent out by Tek Stalker, CEO of RDRAW, regarding their new friendship with Snuffed Out here.
This new direction by RDRAW did not sit well with the rest of the Gallente Warfare alliances and corporations, who had been actively at war with Snuffbox since they had relocated to the Gallente FW area. RDRAW was quickly removed from Gallente Militia services such as the Slack intel channel and in-game channels to decrease the risk of RDRAW leaking fleet intel to Snuffed Out.
The situation seems to stem from an incident that occurred in the system of Nisuwa last night, when Gallente Militia came upon two Caldari capital ships who had jumped to a station in which they could not dock. These two capital ships were dispatched quickly but this is where things started to go wrong. Thanatos Killmail, Archon Killmail.
I spoke to the FC of the Gallente Militia fleet, BacardiDesire, and his colleague and fellow FC Pellit1, both members of Spiritus Draconis, part of the Spaceship Bebop alliance, who gave me their perspective on the recent developments: 
BacardiDesire: I was the FC of the ‘final straw’ incident in Nisuwa. We found out two Caldari carriers cyno’d in on the Nisuwa station, where they can’t dock, so we put out a 911 to flash form for these dudes to dunk them. Around 10 mins after pinging through slack and our intel channel we ended up with I think two fax machines and a dread (I was the dread). One of those faxes was a GalMil alt. We burn down the carriers and somewhere during that a few RDRAW dudes show up.
During the looting they eject a Loki from the wreck and kill it while we asked in local for them not to. Then a RDRAW fed navy comet starts pointing the neutral fax, later this was stated by RDRAW that it was not blue, even though it’s a known alt for the most of GalMil. The Pilot of the neutral FAX is blue for bebop, GMVA etc but RDRAW said it was not blue for them.
So with the squids (Caldari) dead and me as the FC I told fleet to open fire on the RDRAW ships as I wanted to clear the field so we could assess the situation. This was done out of fleet safety point of view and not because I hate RDRAW.
There were 4 other RDRAW ships on the field, a Bifrost, ‘nado, fed navy comet and something else. We killed the comet and some local swearing ensues. After about a minute a 30 man Snuff gang bridges in blops, carriers and faxes. At this point our caps are pretty much safe, they shoot my dread and I dock in 90% armour as I was exiting siege
A lot of discussion started on who lit the cyno, an RDRAW guy a neutral alt or Snuff Box? The pro Galmil/anti RDRAW camp instantly said it was a RDRAW cyno but I have done my own research and I’m 100% positive its snuff box since it was docked in Teskanen, snuffs home station after the fight (10 min). The issue was spun from Snuff Box attacking us that Rdraw must have phoned snuff while my own belief, being the FC on site, is that it was a leak in our intel channels.
Pellit1: Well you see that’s where the drama has come from, some will tell you it was RDRAW. We think on reflection that it was a snuffbox, neutral alt but we have no way to tell.
However, the speculation that RDRAW alerted Snuff to GalMil capital assets being vulnerable has come from both RDRAW’s previous affiliation with Snuff and also this dude (who is in RDRAW) fanning the flames
CPT LongJohn UKNOWIT > awox first
CPT LongJohn UKNOWIT > so you deserved itBacardiDesire: There has been a lot of blue on blue in the past week within the Militia.
The essence of this situation is the relation between RDRAW and Snuff is kinda odd. You see, they (RDRAW) share intel channels with us and paranoid people might scream ‘witch’ even though it’s not and that creates friction within militia.
I’ve been in that situation myself with my own corp back in 2008 as well and it’s really bad for diplomatic issues.
The issue that a lot of people have is the fundamentals of being blue with one of your supposed allies’ (the rest of GalMil) largest and most deadly threats.
As you can see in the video, there is a murky area to this story as the RDRAW pilot was tackling a presumed neutral FAX when he and his RDRAW colleagues were engaged by the other Gallente Militia pilots on the order of their FC. However, common sense says that if your fleet is looting destroyed carriers and not engaging the ‘neutral’ FAX on grid, maybe you should ask for clarification before engaging.
Below is a post from r/eve written by Villore Accords CEO Julianus Soter (be warned it is an ‘in character’ form of post and should be taken with a grain of salt):
In the long history of the Gallente Militia, there has been a sense of community, comradeship, and teamwork as we struggled against the evil Caldari State. We have succeeded where many have failed, fought against insurmountable odds against warp core stabbed condors and merlins, and defeated EVOKE, TEST Alliance, and other nullsec groups that sought to farm our facwar plexes for ISK.
During the past six years of unrelenting war in the regions of Black Rise, Placid, Essence, Citadel, and Verge Vendor, we have seen opportunistic pirate alliances, such as SNUFFBOX take control of vast fleets of capital ships and terrorize us and our allies. We have learned, through frequent painful lessons, how to work around such a indomitable foe.
After several years of continuous conflict, Rapid Withdrawal joined the Gallente Militia. Ignoring the advice of veterans of the conflict, they moved to the system of Sujarento, directly adjacent to the strongest concentration of Caldari militia forces, and next to many of the most active pirate organizations in the game, in Tama system.
The Villore Accords and many other Gallente Militia organizations attempted to support them in this audacious and precarious strategic position. Over time, Rapid Withdrawal, under the leadership of Tek Stalker, grew, mostly through cannibalizing smaller Gallente militia corporation members.
In January of this year, Rapid Withdrawal accepted the Suzerainty of Snuffbox, becoming in essence the Sniggwaffe to their Pandemic Legion. This violated many of the core concepts of membership in the Gallente Militia, and participation in our collaboration and intelligence channels. As such, the Villore Accords and many other Gallente Militia organizations terminated their active cooperation with Rapid Withdrawal, while maintaining an Armed Neutrality, not shooting them unless provoked.
RDRAW Drama – RDRAW becomes feeder for snuff
Until this morning, I did not truly know the proper course for the Villore Accords in the new escalation of conflict between Rapid Withdrawal and the Gallente Militia, after the black ops battleship hotdrop in the system of Nisuwa, on the only station there. https://zkillboard.com/kill/53798201/
Rapid Withdrawal encouraging Snuffbox to participate in this act was clearly a response to the ongoing animosity RDRAW has against the Gallente Militia, however, there was no hard proof of their malice until the destruction of a Villore Accords ship, without provocation, by RDRAW forces: https://zkillboard.com/kill/53822071/
This egregious violation of the friendship between Gallente Militia corporations cannot be ignored. The destruction of a hallowed Atron, long heralded as the steadfast flagship of the Gallente Fleet, is a blow against the heart of all Free Gallente, Everywhere. Therefore, GMVA is forced to declare WAR against Rapid Withdrawal.
RDRAW has renounced their privileges as a member of the Gallente Militia through their hostile acts, and by allying themselves with a hated pirate enemy of the Gallente Militia, which has so cruelly terminated the lives of so many of our ship’s crew and pilot clones. We will brook this no longer, and we shall see Tek Stalker and his minions in space, where they shall answer for their crimes.
That is all.
Julianus Soter
VILLORE ACCORDS EXECUTOR
I also managed to get an in-depth statement from the CEO of Black Fox Marauders, Roy Henry: 
The war was caused almost directly by their Blue/feeder corp status with snuff, and the long list of diplomatic and relationship issues persueant to that fact.
The feeling are almost entirely “we should have done this when they blued our pirate enemy.” Very few people are against the war and most people really thought it would have happened sooner.
RDRAW’s relationship with snuff is almost entirely the reason for this war. Their leader, Tek Stalker, would sit back and tell you that what they do outside of militia has no bearing on internal militia politics. Unfortunatly he chose to become a pet to the one organization who has spent more time then anyone else infiltrating, attacking, baiting, and overall just victimizing the greater Gal Mil community. If he cant see a problem with this, then he is blind.
When we found our we immediatly removed them from any shared intel sensitive services, and tried to quell the clamor for civil war. We know we have spies, were a militia so security is not really something we can keep under lock and key, but we try at least. RDRAW openly recruting alts of snuff serves as a direct loophole for our enemies to get eyes into our fleets and spies watching our movements. I personally took it as the final straw in RDRAW deciding it does not want to be part of the gal mil community and would rather persue a life as a pirate, which is fine with me.
If the caldari push a system, gal mil will respond as it always has. Unless that system is sujarento, thats a RDRAW problem and they can call their best allies snuff to come save them, not us.
This war is a direct result of RDRAW leadership kicking sand in the rest of gal mils face. Physical agression is not the cornerstone of our argument against Rdraw, it is the numerous slights and fine-line acts that RDRAW has committed against us that have finally lead us to just pull the trigger. We don’t really want to see RDRAW destroyed, but I personally feel that with all this passive aggressive bullshit being spewed it was just time to make it a more classical agressive-agressive.
Rdraw would have you believe that we are the bad guys- their leadership will feed you nonsense like “we farm the warzone with amarr alts to attack our own people” We spent a couple weeks using fw alts to try and drop the tier to save plummeting LP values so everyone could prosper. They will tell you we hunt their neutral alts and boosters, when in reality we hunt all neutral alts and RDRAW simply refuses to do any diplomatic work to get their alts sufficiently blue to gal mil. In reality RDRAW plays its own game and is not part of the greater Gal Mil team, and as such will no longer be treated as a friend
Hopefully they will have better luck as one of Snuff Box’s “Valued Allies”
Lastly, I managed to get the other side of the story from CEO of Rapid Withdrawal, Tek Stalker, whose corporation and his own choice of friends has caused so much strife in the Militia: 
What, in your opinion, caused the war to be declared?
At the end of the day, there are split ideals within Galmil: the old guard and the new guard. The old guard is a group of players and corporations that have been involved in FW for a long time. They have views based on their experiences, but the way they attempt to coerce other FW corps to follow their guidance doesn’t sit well with the new guard of Galmil. On the other side of the coin, you have corps (of which RDRAW is the largest) that take a different view. We have staked out our claim to the southern part of the warzone much closer to active squid opposition where we get content on a daily basis rather than a couple of times a week. We desire to do it our own way. We see a clear separation between FW objectives and goals, and non-FW objective and goals. We can be members of Galmil and still have out-of-FW relationships. The old guard does not share that same vision.What are your feelings going into a civil war?
Well, some would paint the picture that we are happy with a civil war, and we caused it. However, we have actively tried to avoid this. We just really want to be left alone to do our own thing. History will show that only one group in this current Civil War blued with Calmil. Only one group of corporations declared war on another Galmil corp. The justifications for the war are based on a persecution fantasy on the part of a couple of bitter individuals. That’s just a fact. But, at the end of the day, they pulled that trigger, not RDRAW.Your relationship with Snuff seems to be at least part of the reason. Do you have any regret of forming that friendship?
RDRAW has exactly zero regrets for forming and maintaining a business relationship with the Snuff Box Alliance. In spite of the fact that Snuff Box is portrayed as a bunch of evil bastards by folks who they’re shot in the face on a regular basis for a few years, the reality is they are a good, well-organized group of people. They are a tight knit community – much like RDRAW. Since our partnership began, we have been exposed to so much content – beyond the regular local skirmishes and system pushes – that we’ve had to turn down opportunities. They’ve treated us as partners, which is an entirely different experience than we’ve had with the old guard of Galmil in the last three years. So, yeah, no regrets at all.Going back to January, how did GMIL react to the new found friendship with Snuff and how did you handle that?
When we, as a corporation, came to the decision to accept the Snuff Box deal, I went to Galmil leadership to tell them up front. I wanted them to hear it from me – man to man – and I had hoped to answer questions and concerns. Instead, I was expelled from slack. So, in lieu of an adult discussion, we ended up with an array of keyboard warrioring in Militia Chat and on Reddit. This was not 100% unexpected given the instability of some of the personalities in Galmil. At the end of the day, the whole episode more or less resembled a child’s tantrum than a discussion among militia leaders. In the end, no questions asked.What happens in the event of an organized Caldari push?
We have no control over Calmil honestly. We choose not to roll Amarr alts to try and artificially manipulate the market, like they do in the Amarr/Minmatar warzone where both sides take turns rolling over for each other. We choose to fight the squids on a daily basis. In spite of the war declaration, we are still taking part in FW and attempting to press squid systems while defending our own. The truth is that a push could come at any time and we’ll do our best to be ready for it. Our experiences with the squids that live in this part of the warzone is that they’re just looking for good fights. We hope to continue to bring those. You can say what you want about us, but we fight every month, every day…24/7.There is nothing about this war that is good for Galmil. This will not bring us closer together in any way. The reality is this will drive us further apart. I am not even sure how much support the majority of Galmil is giving it. Time will tell, I guess. War has been declared on us. There is not much we can do about that. Fights will happen! Fingers will be pointed; Reddit will be cancer. I hope everyone at least tries to have fun with it in their own way. Let the games begin!
I spoke to a number of RDRAW line members and higher-ups and all said the same thing with regards to the friendship with Snuffed Out. They have been careful to protect the intel of their allies and have enjoyed access to higher end content than Gal Mil would be able to offer. It was also mentioned that not one character from RDRAW has yet left to join Snuffed Out, even though that option is there, however a few members of Snuffed Out have joined RDRAW, stating that they prefer the type of combat RDRAW has to offer over Snuff.
With a number of its main alliances now caught up in this civil war and unable to trust one another, will the Caldari be able to capitalise on their instability and take some of the space that the Gallente forces have been holding with near impunity in recent months? Will the Caldari Leadership put aside their differences and unite under one banner to take advantage of the split in the ranks of the Gallente Militia? There have always been issues within the Caldari Militia, including a lack of coordination outside of the main three alliances (Templis/HECON/BLOC.) Is this GalMil civil war enough of a catalyst for the Caldari Militia to make a decisive push into Gallente-held space?
If you have anything that you think should be reported on EN24, please contact me at @mail_lite on Twitter, email at [email protected] or Eve Mail me in game.
