I am MurderDeathKill, Former CEO of Sinister. My experience in New Eden dates back to 2007 and although I in no way consider myself an expert. I have logged over 15,000 hours flight time in New Eden. Empire, Lowsec, Wormhole, Nullsec and Abyssal Pockets. My understanding of game mechanics is pretty solid but my understanding of people and other pilots is better.

In this series I will dive into something that is not a mainstay activity of the alliance, or even something that attracts a lot of interest. Although WRECK does hold a wormhole for member use. This series is about infiltrating other wormholes and the chaos that very small contingent or even a solo pilot can cause.

Cast your imagination back to the summer of 2019 where sales taxes and broker fees were increased, the VNI was slapped hard with the nerf-stick and a monument was placed in C-J6MT to commemorate the colossal battle that took place earlier in the year. I was feeling the pressure of being the CEO and primary active leadership within a corp of 100 pilots and some much earned decompression was needed.

A large Russian native, newbie friendly corporation called CONOCO had assisted on one of the alliance wardecs, they do this sometimes for “content” but I am yet to see them appear in force or try to complete any objectives against us. It is just something they do to provide extra targets for their members in Highsec space. I thought to myself that they are a perfect candidate for me to blow off some steam (and some rounds) into some soft targets and relieve my pvp itch.

I took to my various discord servers and asked around for a ‘Hunting’ Loki. I love the loki, it is by far my favourite cruiser size ship and has everything a marauding hunter could want. Weapons system versatility with the option of recently buffed autocannons, HAM missiles for devastating DPS on similar or larger sized targets or the classic artillery platform, is the #1 reason this ship is a deadly tool for most use cases. The ability to operate a covert-ops cloak and the bonuses that come along with the reconfiguration system is the cherry on top of a very sweet minmatar flavoured pie.

I opted initially for the ‘Coward’ Loki - with a rack of long range 720mm artillery cannons, warp disruptor, range bonused webs and a MicrowarpDrive. Upgraded with some medium-to-high value abyssal modified modules. The extra range on the point and web was important for me to be able to utilise the 720mm artys to their full potential, and to keep me out of harm's way.

So with my ship fitted and my implants plugged in I was ready to cause some chaos. Or was I? The answer is a resounding “no”. The most important thing about any pvp is the preparation. The coward loki specifically is all about picking your target carefully and knowing exactly what the outcome will be. Hunting is not about good fights, or engaging pvp content with a capable adversary for honour or bragging rights. It’s about tracking, destroying and eliminating your target then extracting, all in a low risk manner to ensure you are able to repeat the process. In order to be able to achieve this. Research is required.

I had my targets in mind, the somewhat soft underbelly of the russian speaking community with one of their new player friendly corporations with enough infrastructure to attract large numbers of members to make finding targets easy. First stop ‘Zkill’ on searching for conoco I immediately found out they had members everywhere. Finding a location where more than 1 or 2 of them were present in highsec was impossible, so back to the drawing board. The majority of kills/losses were spread out all around highsec which makes sense for a WH based corp. So how to find their home? I want to use this swiss army knife of a ship and take it to their backyard and hide in the bushes, jumping out on unsuspecting pilots then returning to the darkness.



Enter ‘John’, John is a newbie. He has played lots of MMOs before but never tried eve online. His friend recommended it to him and he was looking for some guidance from an established corp with a record of helping out newbros. Alas the backstory was never needed as CONOCO has extremely relaxed recruitment policies and John (an alternate character) never has or ever will speak with another member of conoco. He has one purpose. To find the entrance to CONOCO Prime.

​

We had an expansive run in 2016, when we held our first alliance meeting. You might have thought, as I hoped back then, that our alliance would have had its own Keepstars in nullsec well before 2019.  But instead, we’ve pulled inwards. The casual roam aside, and of course Oblivion, we haven’t looked much further.  We hurried back to highsec. And stayed. 

Why?  Was it a sense of failure, or a sign of maturity?  Maybe it’s the most we could have really expected.  In a way it’s amazing what we’ve achieved.  We banded half a dozen of corporations together; we go on month-long excursions across all different regions in New Eden; destroyed countless of citadels that return a wealth on Tears; we energised others to join our journey; we created tools and websites to support our needs. But none of it is enough to build our own Titans or Keepstars. At least not nearly. 

So what happened?  What is Wrecking Machine really about?

Wrecking Machine brings a confidence, a new energy and perspective on EVE.  It did capture our imagination when we first formed the alliance.  It inspired optimism and a future for new players, and enthusiasm and a home for old veterans. 

But there is something else: the fact that, every citadel we siege can be completed only in days ahead are reminders that there is always a future.  There is always a next operation.  There is plenty of work left to do here in highsec, and our commitment to that has never changed.  We are the kind of alliance that needs a new goal, each week, and each month.  Every time we move to a new region it produces a jolt of productivity that keeps us going to the next
.  
But if you forget -for a second- the thousands of scout reports, the mundane routine of form-up pings and its bashes, and just witness our alliance for a moment, you can see that we have reached a new level of awesomeness. 

We may have found this perspective just in time, just as CCP threatens our livelihood with the upcoming War Dec patch.  Whatever the reason it was we started Wrecking Machine, back in 2016, however crazy it first seemed,  We can now look back and find the inescapable recognition of a unity in this alliance.  We find that we are more than Belt Raiders Inc, Prophets of Bob ,Common Ground, UK Freedom Fighters, or Dark-Rising: We are Wrecking Machine. 

It is beyond our powers to predict the future, but each victory, no matter how small, is only a prelude to the next. And no boundaries can be set. 

Per Aspera Ad Astra

'Through Hardship to the Stars'

TERT RAEGEN

“Some Epithals came from the HS to that new sig. It's a C4.”
"Free PI is always nice" I thought
 “Looks like they're coming back, 2 epithals and a bifrost on dscan in the C4.”

​I hopped in my new sabre and began the warp to the C4 hole, as I logged my main into his stratios. As the wormhole activation sound hit, I lay down a bubble, jumped the hole, decloaked, lay another and waited. Nothing. I switched back to my stratios pilot who was just finishing the long warp to the hole. The bifrost and one epithal were now 100km from the hole, the other must have been able to warp off after the bubble was removed from the hole. Not bad for a first attempt at bubbling, but perhaps a little eager? I cloaked my sabre up in the C4 and sat on the oblivion side in my stratios. The bifrost was well clear of the bubble now, 180km from the hole. The epithal had just managed to clear it and warped to the HS. Suddenly, the bifrost warps back to the hole and jumps through. Followed later on by the two epithals, but staggered for some reason. I decided to pounce on the last Epithal. I dropped a bubble on the hole in the C4 with my sabre. He jumps through into the C4, so I chase in the stratios. As I decloak and begin targeting the epithal, a sleipnir lands on the hole who quickly proceeds to lock me up and engage his 425 autocannons. Ouch. in 2 cycles of his guns, my stratios was down to half armour. I had to let the epithal go and I jumped back into oblivion with my stratios. All the while, Endrin was listing the enemy ships in the Oblivion Space and catches the eye of Presidente Gallente. Pres comes to the hole in Oblivion and lunges one of the dominixes into the C4, the sleipnir engages his MWD and pulls range whilst Pres' drones chase him down. As Pres' drones are about 20km from his Dominix, we all see a stratios uncloaked.
 
Pres tries to get a point, but the stratios warps away. Now at around 75km from the hole, the sleipnir slows down and starts to manually orbit the hole. Pres jumps his forward dominix back so as not to suffer polarisation later on, we know this is going to get ugly.
 
Minutes pass as I stay cloaked in my sabre on the hole, Pres pulls some range from the hole in oblivion and Elaris joins us in a prophecy. I asked Endrin to get us some intel, we clearly didn't have enough before engaging - what we thought - was two epithals and a bifrost.
"4 online on the Fortizar" Endrin calls.
5-10 minutes pass,
With polarisation now gone, Pres is formulating a plan to remove a certain pilot from a certain sleipnir. What we can't quite figure out is how we can win the polarisation war. We have eyes on their side, and they too on ours. The Sleipnir approaches the hole to try to taunt us to make the first move - my god it was tempting. He sat at 0km on the hole, my sabre cloaked at 2750m. He uttered taunts and bluffs in local as he pretends to align out, but still I stay cloaked. Finally, he warped back to the fortizar. I reship into my prophecy and re-join the gang on the wormhole. Minutes pass again as we waited for them to re-emerge, but nothing happened. Is this it? I've dragged Elaris out of bed for this? I jumped into the C4 with my prophecy and begin orbiting at 4k, being sure to manually pilot occasionally to avoid my cloaked sabre. Still, nothing happened.
 
Oh, you're gone for good now?
> I thought you were bluffing again :(

A few more minutes pass. I knew they had eyes on me...
 
"Raven undocked" was called out over discord.
​
 Oh dear, they escalated
"Oracle undocked as well" "...and a Megathron", Endrin added. 

They warped to the hole where my lonely prophecy orbited. The Raven and Megathron landing directly on me, the Oracle landing at 50km. I targeted the Raven as they landed, dropped my ogres out and fired my missiles. I asked Elaris to jump in, but barely a dent was made in the raven's shield before the oracle's DPS and the Megathron's large presence forced me to jump back to Oblivion. Elaris jumped back too, before they had a chance to focus him and potentially bump him away.

 Time for a rethink...

During the scuffle, Pres had reshipped into two stratios (rather than the usual setup he's well known for) and had managed to slip them into the C4. He was trying to think of a way we could face them and win but kept coming up short. A few more minutes passed, I'd been and tethered to restore the armour that had been blown off my prophecy whilst keeping an eye in the C4 with my Sabre. The Megathron and Raven were still sat at the hole.
"Pres, can you slowboat to the Oracle? I'm going to bubble the Mega and the Raven, then Elaris and I are going to jump in and keep their focus."
Pres agreed and began tootling towards his unsuspecting victim; the glass cannon, now sat 60km from the hole.

 "I guess this all starts with a bubble?" I asked.
"Yes, tell me when you've bubbled" Pres responded.

I decloaked my sabre and lay down a bubble.

 "Elaris jump in and grab the mega"
​
Elaris and I jumped our prophecies through into the C4, I tackled the raven and Elaris tackled the mega. We both unleashed our full ~450dps each onto the mega, it's shields quickly went down, it's armour almost as quick. Though whilst I was pushing DPS onto the mega, the raven had disappeared and now sat 100km from me. Damn it, we only had disruptors attached to these prophecies, not scrams!
 
"Oracle is dead" said Pres.
 
 Realising the raven had slipped us, the mega also used their MJD and was now sat in roughly the same place. We paused for a moment - I think, realising what we'd accomplished. "Bifrost, Prophecy and Sleipnir undocked" Endrin called out.
Nothing like impending doom to snap you back into reality.
 
We jumped back and warped home, The end. I'm a little salty that this was the only killmail and only one of the seven characters involved were on it, but we suffered no losses. So I'm calling it major victory! 

GLOR FINDEL ADESTUR

​On the 12th of June, Wrecking Machine. (WRECK) declared war on North Dominion Industries (NDI). Roughly 24 hours later, WRECK rallied up a small fleet and headed out. Their target: “Chasnaye Solutions”, an Azbel-class Engineering Complex in the Torvi-system of the Everyshore region. 

The Azbel had several services running because it appeared in full power mode, meaning it would take 3 attempts to grind the structure down, first its shield layer, then its armor, and finally the bare hull. The first evening WRECK met the Azbel unopposed and its shield layer was quickly removed. Two days later WRECK formed up again to take down its armor, but this time a small number of defenders stood their ground. Several pilots from NDI appeared in local, as well as a number of neutral pilots. As the Azbel dispatched a flight of Standup Fighter drones, NDI lost a pair of Battlecruisers and a jamming Blackbird. At the end of the evening the Azbel had lost its armor layer. The die was cast: the final structure timer would be 21st of June. 

A mercenary outfit called R I O T had been assisting in wars against Wrecking Machine. for several months, since the beginning of 2018. Despite one or two incidents, they had never disrupted our operations in all these months. However, this time Torvi would be less than 10 jumps from Dodixie, their prime base of operations. North Dominion Industries rallied up three more groups to stand by their side: Rabble Alliance, The Thirteen Provinces, and Armilies Independent Operations. They, along with R I O T, could potentially outnumber WRECK and form a threat on the final evening of the Azbel siege. 
21st of June came and Wrecking Machine. spread out its web of scouts. Indeed; all four groups formed more numbers combined than WRECK had, most of them in or around the target destination of Torvi. R I O T however hung back several jumps. Their common tactic had been to form up in Dodixie and stay behind, only to jump in when the battle was underway. R I O T brought numerous Bhaalgorns, an ideal counter ship to battle WRECK’s Nightmare fleet. North Dominion and their allies formed in mostly T1 Armor battleships and Logistics. 

Outnumbered, Wrecking Machine’s fleet started to move towards Torvi, and all the pawns moved along with it: R I O T undocked from Dodixie, having sent close to a dozen neutral Logistics forward and North Dominion and their allies splashed into Torvi. 
Wrecking Machine jumped into Torvi. If all were lined up, the defending entities would outnumber the aggressors, however at this moment the grid was still clear and WRECK proceeded to engage the Azbel Engineering Complex. A few of NDI’s allies undocked from it but stayed tethered, rendering them invulnerable for the time being. Meanwhile, scout reports came dribbling in: R I O T was on the move, coming closer and closer toward Torvi. By this time the Azbel was half way through its structure. 
The defenders were about to strike back. 

But there was one oversight that no one had accounted for. R I O T had been pestering the main trade routes through Empire for months on end, and had active wars with more than 50 other entities at any given moment. Any of those other entities could join in and take pot shots at R I O T at any moment. Among those were P I R A T and Holesale Operations, two rival mercenary groups. 
Suddenly WRECK noticed the defending allies moving their Battleships out of Torvi. Were they extracting? Why? Unbeknown to anyone, WRECK’s Fleet Commander had opened a communication link with P I R A T and Holesale Operations. No one, not even Wrecking Machine’s main fleet were aware of this. P I R A T and Holesale Operations had rallied up a skirmish fleet and secretly positioned itself between Dodixie and Torvi, stopping R I O T in their tracks. Two jumps from Torvi, in the system of Hareget, they engaged R I O T with a small Sleipnir fleet, shredding R I O T’s Bhaalgorns. North Dominion’s allies raced towards Hareget only to find themselves unable to aid the fight: only R I O T had an active war dec with them. And while Bhaalgorns vaporized, the Azbel’s hull was nearly out. North Dominion Industries knew that with R I O T off the table they could not stand up against Wrecking Machine. and withdrew from Torvi. Within moments, “Chasnaye Solutions” was no more. In all this, Wrecking Machine. and R I O T never exchanged a single shot. Despite their initial superior fleet composition, logistics and overall numbers, North Dominion Industries, R I O T & its allies had been seriously outwitted.

As the dust settled, among the wreckage, the spoils were accounted: a mere 3bn ISK loot. But Wrecking Machine’s victory: priceless.