In the vast space sandbox EVE Online, there are AI aliens that invade the supposedly safe areas of HIGHSEC. Since some players helped them during an invasion and things escalated completely, an essential trade route has been interrupted and chaos reigns in the game.
What happened? In EVE Online, there are frequent invasions by AI-controlled alien races. The aliens attack the sectors in the so-called High-Sec area, which are regions of the game where things are calm, and players can trade in peace while conflicts are limited. One does not feel anything here from the absurd giant wars between mega alliances that make EVE so famous, as these conflicts take place in the lawless null-sec space.
But when an alien invasion conquers a system, it falls out of the safe nest of High-Sec protection and is essentially lost to High-Sec players. This causes chaos and unpredictability in the game. Therefore, players generally help when the High-Sec defense forces confront the aliens.
Recently, however, there was a drastic incident where the conflict over an essential hub escalated so greatly that in the end, the aliens won, and now one of the main trade routes in the game has been interrupted for the foreseeable future.
The background on the aliens and trade routes
What is the background? From time to time, the developers initiate targeted alien invasions. Thus, the race of Triglavians, which has conducted invasions multiple times, has returned to the game, and there have been hints that they are after the Niarja system.
What makes the system so important? About 90 percent of trade in High-Sec occurs between the systems of Jita and Amarr. The two trade centers connect nine jumps, and each jump takes about a minute. Therefore, freighters constantly fly back and forth between Amarr and Jita, delivering goods in under ten minutes.
Niarja is located at a critical point in this route, and if it falls, one would have to take an absurd detour requiring 45 jumps. This would take five times as long and completely ruin the current trade routes. However, this may not necessarily be a bad thing.
Why should one help the aliens? Stagnant trade routes are only beneficial for the systems that directly profit from them. Some players would like to see trade shift to other systems, especially if they have their own branches in those systems. Therefore, they considered it a good idea to actively assist the aliens against the High-Sec AI defenders.
Rival player groups ruin the economy in High-Sec
Initially, the battle unfolded as follows: True to their plan to support the aliens and cut off the trade route between Jita and Amarr, some players assisted the invaders, and they gradually gained the upper hand.
Then came the first twist: However, players from null-sec who belonged to the Brave alliance, a group that primarily supports new players, suddenly appeared. They sided with the defenders and initially halted the invasion. But it was not to stay that way.
Things escalated slowly: According to reports from the game, which were summarized by PC Gamer, the situation has now become more complicated, and in retrospect, it is no longer clear exactly what happened. Suddenly, the Imperium is said to have appeared. This is the currently largest alliance that is waging a massive war against almost all other alliances in null-sec.
Since the big player seemed to want to know what was going on in High-Sec, a small expedition fleet was sent to Niarja. They presumably observed everything, and when the commander saw that Brave players were helping the defenders, he apparently immediately decided to assist the aliens. Because Brave are bitter enemies of the Imperium in the null-sec war.
It kept getting worse: With the help of the Imperium, the aliens were able to regain the upper hand, and the battle for Niarja raged back and forth for hours. At some point during this time, the TEST alliance, the major rival of the Imperium and ally of Brave, seemingly caught wind of the situation.
The leader of TEST sent a message to the members, asking them to come to Niarja and backstab the Imperium by fighting on the side of the defenders. And indeed, a few TEST members arrived in the battle and seemed to influence its outcome.
The Imperium strikes back: Now, the Imperium apparently also had enough, as two of their archenemies were already busy in High-Sec, and this could only mean they were gaining some advantageous leverage from the outcome of the battle.
Therefore, it was apparently clear to the Imperium that they could not let TEST and Brave win, and a large imperial fleet was sent to Niarja. They ultimately mixed things up for the defenders and finally helped the aliens achieve victory.
The Niarja system has been removed from High-Sec, and the essential trade route between Amarr and Jita is now out of the picture for the time being.
Was it all just a ruse in the end? As a final note in this conflict, there was an announcement from TEST at the end. One of the founding members smugly stated that TEST and Brave had planned from the very beginning to destroy the trade route and had only pretended to fight on the side of the defenders.
For they had understood that the Imperium would definitely help the aliens out of sheer envy and thus do their dirty work for them.
What exactly happened during the battle of Niarja and who fought where and why is hard to determine, as each side tells its own version of the story.
However, considering that the Imperium was probably only there to check on things initially and only escalated the conflict when they saw their hated enemies there, the scenario described here seems quite plausible. More info about the great war in null-sec can be found here.
