The Second Great EVE War: Disband of Brothers (Part 5)

(Disclaimer: These articles are being written from memory, so while the events themselves as detailed are largely accurate, single events may have been skipped or remembered incorrectly. This is also written from the perspective of a single Goonswarm pilot, so keep that in mind.)

The greatest empires in EVE have often been brought down by the smallest events. Defeats in major battles will take their toll, but nothing has proven to be more destructive than a well placed spy. True power comes from information, and the side with more well placed spies usually wins the conflict. The spying meta is such a powerful weapon that it’s now essential for any large entity to employ a competent counter-intelligence director, solely to mitigate the amount of information your alliance leaks to your enemies. The threat of theft is so prevalent that the roles and permissions needs to be tightly audited so that no single person can completely paralyze their alliance. Band of Brothers lost the southern conflict, not because of any defeats in battle, but because a single inactive pilot with critical roles defected to their enemy.

One of the easier ways to make ISK is to scam other pilots. Scamming, unlike ratting or mining, does not require skillpoints or a ship. A charismatic individual can make hundreds of millions of ISK with little effort by simply knowing how to gain the confidence of their marks. Even though you can’t scam in the EVE recruitment channel, the rules don’t prevent you from approaching the people looking for corps in the channel via private messaging.

When a miner named Harkani let it be known he was looking for a nullsec corp, a Goonswarm pilot named Tamir Lenk approached him with an offer to join the Goonswarm corporation Igneus Auctorita. The plan had been to scam for 50 million ISK and to kick him from the corp once he moved his assets; but a change of heart by Tamir would disregard the scam and let Harkani into the corp for real. However, a background check by one of the members of Goonswarm’s counter-intelligence group found some questionable corp history. The order to kick him was given and the news was revealed to Harkani.

Harkani enjoyed the short time he was in Igneus Auctorita and revealed to Tamir that he was a director in Band of Brothers and was willing to make a deal to stay. Not sure what to make of the situation, Tamir approached his corp CEO Aaron Static to find out how to proceed. Aaron Static then approached the leader of the Goonswarm Intelligence Agency, The Mittani, with Harkani’s claims. Harkani passed a basic test by providing a login and password to Black Nova Corp’s forums. He also revealed he was Haargoth Agamar, a full director in Tin Foil, the executor corp of Band of Brothers. A plan was made to rob Black Nova Corp of all their corporate assets, including their Dreadnaught cache.

Because of the damage they can do to an alliance, executor corps are often small and filled with a handful of alts of trusted people. With the right roles in the executor corp, you can kick any corp out and close the alliance. When the Mittani realized that Haargoth was also a full director in Tin Foil and capable of disbanding the alliance, the plan of a simple robbery was changed to the complete disbanding of Band of Brothers. BoB wouldn’t just be losing their name; they’d be losing all their sovereignty claims. Under the old sov mechanics, certain systems could be set at level 4 sov, making every structure in that system invulnerable. Capital ship assembly arrays, the structures used to build supercapitals, were often placed in those systems. With no cyno jammers, jump bridges, or sov 4 immunity, Band of Brother’s home region of Delve would be completely exposed.