EBOLA. A tiny little virus you can’t even see. Despite its size, it can wipe out villages and also threatened the entire world while raging through the continent of Africa. The alliance of the same name is no less formidable in EVE Online, despite its size.
Some days, things just don’t go as planned. Sometimes that’s a bad thing. Sometimes that’s a good thing. In the system of 9SNK-O, things did not go as planned for Dean Auduin and his corp of DIE AFFEN IHRER MAJESTAET (“Your Majesty’s Apes”) in the E.B.O.L.A. alliance; and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Let’s find out what happens when a few guys are babysitting a routine citadel timer suddenly see local light up with a page full of enemy capital pilots.
EN24: Dean! Thank you for taking the time to tell us about the encounter you had in 9SNK-O. Would you first introduce yourself and tell us a bit about you and your alliance?
Dean: My name is Dean Auduin, and I am a member of EBOLA Alliance, we live in GW borderlands in nullsec and also operate in nearby lowsec regions. I have been with this alliance almost since I was clone-born in 2011 and I’ve known some of the guys for many years. My (in-game) job is doing public relations for the allies and producing videos – not so far from my RL occupation where I work in the film industry.
EN24: Pleased to meet you, Dean! Actually, it’s because of the video work that we reached out to you. You’ve recently released some videos of the encounter.
Dean: So, after a week of video editing, I have produced 3 teasers with the help of Danish/Iranian producer and composer Anna Sharifi (thank you so much for your musical contribution, it’s a blast!).
EN24: Yes, I’ve seen all three. They’re quite good. In them, you can see things got pretty heated in 9S. Help us set the stage. What were you doing there?
Dean: 9SNK-O is just another system in our region which holds an Astrahus structure outpost. Since we defend every last of our structures, that one was on the schedule. It was not part of any more massive op, just another defense timer.
EN24: Ah! So just a dull day of babysitting a structure — or so you thought. Yet in the video, we see that wasn’t how the day was going to go. What was your reaction to some 20 capital pilots suddenly showing up on Local?
Dean: From the beginning, it was clear that we’d be outnumbered profoundly by NSH [NullSechnaya Sholupen]. Nevertheless, we have a motto in our alliance: instead, we lose all our ships and by chance have a tremendous personal thrilling moment, then not do shit at all – something has to go down! We are grown-ups who spend their precious time with spaceships, so the least we can
do is go into every fight “Rock n’ Roll Style.”
EN24: Brave, indeed! Yet this must have had some impact on tactics. What could your FC possibly be thinking at this point?
Dean: We staged a ‘capital’ suicide fleet with only 3 dreadnought pilots. We watched NSH in their staging systems, as they watched us. We knew they would even log in their Supercarriers if necessary, but we had to go in anyways, even for an unimportant structure, so what. When we jumped in, we knew that was it, but also we are pretty used to that kind of ‘Kamikaze’ tactics. There’s that moment you just want that fight so badly, willing to lose everything. One player manned the Astrahus, we had the 3 Dreads, a couple of sub-capitals, and so we went for it…after a while, their cyno ship showed up and warped directly onto our position.
EN24: Such a small ship, such a huge threat! This is usually where the story comes to an abrupt end of devastating destruction. Yet I believe you experienced an unexpected “TSN Turning Point” at this time.
Dean: Our hero came into play, I have to mention his name: “Assueli.“ The FC didn’t tell him to do anything, he just did the right thing at the right moment by himself, I have never seen those eve mechanics work so beautifully… Well, their cyno lighted up and Assuelli, close by in his Storck, fired his micro jump drive and jumped the hostile cyno frigate and a couple of our sub-capital vessels 100km somewhere into space. And then NSH main capital fleet jumped on to their cyno, [somehow] too far away… That wasn’t it, Assueli [had come] back and jumped their own bubble right in their alignment, so they couldn’t warp to us on zero!
EN24: Amazing! What was the fleet’s reaction to the field changing before their eyes?
Dean: Nobody understood wtf was going on at that moment when Assueli spoke up in his Swiss accent: “That was just right, ey, boys?“ I mean, that was it, that was so hilarious, but there was no time for laughing. Our FC realized what was going on and instantly reacted, gave the right commandos, so we got them bubbled, they couldn’t fire their guns on our destroyers, we got our cap fleet in and… took them out, one by one. It was breathtaking and beautiful. After about 45 minutes it was all over, we got twelve of their dreadnoughts down with three of our own, and we didn’t even lose a single ship. Imagine how that felt, there was a party on coms, we had it once more, that “EVE moment”! That moment we felt invincible, united and exuberantly happy. Genuinely unexpected that outcome was.
EN24: Dean, that’s insane. A few have had the pleasure of those “EVE moments,” and this sounded like a great one! I have to ask, you’re looking at all these guys logging in, and it’s just a forward Astrahus outpost. Sure, it was an epic outcome, but why not just let this one go?
Dean: Why didn’t we back out of an encounter outnumbering us 3 to 1? Because it’s our ethos is not to, we love to go all-in, this is EBOLA style. There was no battle plan, we already knew we would lose. That’s pretty relaxing when you got nothing to lose, no pressure.
EN24: What do you think NSH’s point of view would be on the chaos to brought to 9S this day?
Dean: For sure NullSechnaya Scholupen were not happy with the outcome of that battle, but they fought as bravely as we did. That was only one fight, and out of luck we succeeded, or fate, whatever it was, on THAT DAY we won. Totally unexpected but still with 100% efficiency.
EN24: Do you think there will be any fallout from this? We know there was no specific plan here, but now that your border is undoubtedly exciting and contested, do you think there will be a follow-up to this skirmish?
Dean: I am not really aware of NSH’s current state or their agenda, they operate in different regions. I can say that most of them are exceptional pilots and there’s a level of respect towards each other. I cannot tell what the future brings, but I hope there are more epic encounters yet to come. We did try to get a certain Moon (structure), which NSH possesses, they still try everything to keep their precious Athanor, even when no one ever is mining the belt, so we want to change that and come back to claim it eventually.
EN24: Ready to defend a structure, no matter how inconsequential, no matter what the odds. Sounds like another alliance we know! And it’s great to work with such a group. Are there any people you’d like to shout out to that helped make this such a memorable encounter?
Dean: Assueli changed the outcome of the fight with his strategic destroyer, the honor undoubtedly belongs to him, I guess he decided that out of the belly, it was just glorious! When I talk about leadership, I certainly have to mention our main FC Darvo Thellere, who is behind most essential decisions during our fleets, as well as regarding alliance daily politics. Then there is Nexuscrawler, also FC and alliance diplomat, you will see him on every killmail. In the videos, you also hear/see some other members involved in the fight, who I’d like to mention: Sidhes, Apokalyptical, Phantasmorgasm Gallentas and there are more.
EN24: Indeed there are, and we can see them, and that 100% Efficiency, in the battle report.
EN24: You say you’ve been with E.B.O.L.A. since 2011. Sounds like a great group who have a lot of fun. Has it always been this way?
Dean: Today EBOLA is entirely different than it was years ago, energy-wise. We changed a lot, many new members and corporations joined, the ‘music’ changed. There’s this nice spirit within the group, sort of companionship and respect towards each other, we have that quality of humor and fun, we love to call it our own. Regarding our larger objective as an alliance, well, I can only say EBOLA will stay in GW region, we got everything here, it’s perfect. And we will continue with our daily business of hunting down other spaceships, defending our ground and keeping up the good spirit. The goal of our fleets is always to have the most fun and to create content, not only for us but also for our surroundings, the players we engage.
EN24: I imagine others will read this and think, “I want this!” Are you recruiting?
Dean: We’d love to have brave capsuleers to join our monkey business. Recently we also got a couple of US-TZ corps on board, so we got English coms now as well, besides our German player base. Basically, we take anyone who loves eve and wants to be part of a very alive community, anyone who wants to do (mostly) PvP. Contacts for recruitment are: Darvo Thellere(ger/en), Nexuscrawler(ger/en), Dean Auduin(ger/en) and
Akhillez(en) for US timezone. Feel free to write us in-game or visit our discord channel: https://discord.gg/SPy2MuS
EN24: Thank you, Dean! Congratulations on staring down the odds in 9SNK-O and sharing your story about the efficiency of the apes. You’ve shown us that it’s not always overwhelming odds, killer skills, or devastating firepower that wins the field. Some ingenuity and Mut (courage) to stand your ground can go a long way — in this case, 100% of the way!
EN24: (UPDATE) Since then EBOLA has received several responses from the GWCS coalition. It appears 100% efficiency is tough to keep up. In a recent battle, their stats had plummeted….to 99.9%. Try a little harder guys!
