The War Ends.

The War has concluded, with the Empire ordering it's pilots to stop all fighting, and Federation following the lead. The War lasted for more than three months, in which entire clusters were decimated. The faction clusters of EWS, FHC, FSH, and minor damage done to union territories, and the NZ clusters of Lane, Split, to name a few.

All faction leaders, recognising the damage the hostility has caused to the universe as a whole, set aside their differences and worked together towards a new path forward.

The Treaty that the faction leaders came up with, is:

"The war was long. Many folks have lost their interest in the universe because of the war. The leaders of both sides hope that the future of the universe will be bright, and we are working together to make that possible. It’s in that spirit that we draft the below agreement.

1. Both sides agree to end hostilities based on the terms outlined below. 48 hours will be given for ambushers to come online and withdraw.
2. During peace both sides agree that PvP is not acceptable in any of the following locations like:

• Faction space or sectors within one WH jump of faction space.
• On the same tile as any exotic weapons or armor station.
• On the Lahola choke.
• In certain faction controlled systems like Veedfa, Mebsuta, or Silaad.

1. Strictly no PvB, PvSB or Squad vs SB unless specifically sanctioned by the owner or owning alliance’s leadership. This is universe wide not just in PvP sectors.
2. The Empire will transfer all 8 PFC bases to federal pilots and remove all buildings from the PFC within a few days of the treaty signing. The Empire will transfer all 8 PFC bases to pilots nominated collectively by DS, TTG and DW.
3. The Federation will exchange 100m credits to Zodiac for Zodiac’s PFC SB AND Zodiac must make himself known as Zodiac the Useless for no less than 30 days. Zodiac may choose not to rename if he’d rather pass on the credits.
4. Beurso Starbase will be demolished, and Baar SB to be transferred to the federation or a neutral alliance like Lane Legends if the Federation doesn't have someone who wants the base.
5. Any pilot who breaks the treaty will be asked to pay reparations and agree not to repeat their actions. If that pilot who either refuses to pay reparations or is deliberately breaking the treaty repeatedly, then they will be removed from their alliance and made KoS by all parties to the treaty, including their own faction friends.
6. Any pirate who wishes to return to a treaty alliance must cease any piracy for a minimum period of 2 months before they can be removed from any KoS list. Any party may retain a pirate on their KoS list beyond the 2 month period at their own discretion, but may not hunt for that pilot in territory claimed by any alliance for which that pilot is no longer KoS.
7. A pirate may not hold a starbase.
8. All sides agree that any squads launched from a base owned by a treaty alliance are the responsibility of the owning alliance. In the case of that SB owner having recently left a treaty alliance, or the SB having recently been transferred to a non-treaty alliance, there may still be a degree of responsibility attached to the treaty alliance. Any damages caused by those squads must be paid for by the alliance owning the base from which the squads were launched. Any rebuilding work required must also be assisted by the alliance owning the base from which the squads were launched.
9. In the event of a squad attack in P*C, it will be assumed that the Empire, or the strongest faction at the time, is responsible for the event as both sides work together through the investigation of events. Both sides agree to 100% cooperation in finding the errant starbase owner.
10. Both sides agree to no less than 2 joint Operations following the end of war. One to assist the Empire in cleanup efforts and one to assist the Federation. This provision may not be needed if pilots have already been working together successful to remove Vyrex and other issues. Removing this requires agreement from leaders on both sides.
11. Once this agreement is in effect either side may cancel the agreement with not less than 2 weeks notice to all parties. It is our hope that this agreement will stay in place for as long as it is needed for Artemis to become a friendly, fun server. Both sides agree to not cancel this agreement for at least 6-12 months and beyond if not canceled as specified above.
12. This treaty is a living document. With agreement from all parties, this treaty can be adjusted as needed so that it lasts for as long as it is needed. Anyone exploiting loopholes or missing elements in the treaty will not be looked on kindly by the treaty alliances.
13. No participant in the treaty will construct any buildings in territory belonging to another faction or alliance without the explicit consent of that faction or alliance.
14. Both sides will work together to protect skilling critters such as E’s, Lucy, and Z nooks.
15. Even though PvP is not allowed in faction controlled systems, this cannot be used as a tool to expand faction space to unreasonable places or to set up a "New Veedfa" near the other factions borders. However, allowances for building near your own faction space is reasonable. For example, rebuilding the Z skilling base in SPR, or the Federation rebuilding the Grefaho base.

Expectations for the Next War

These expectations will be impossible to enforce, but we are wrting them here to show that all leaders want future wars to be more fair, more fun, and more friendly. This section isn’t meant to blame any particular person or side. We are creating a list of things that we’d like to see not happen in the future.

• When a pilot with a starbase switches sides, that starbase should stay with that pilot’s previous side.
• Wars should be fought within the war declaration system.
• If one side doesn’t want to war, the other side should not force a war with lobby funds.
• Friends in other factions should not be used to scout ambushes for chokes to break on offensive combat.
• Starbases with bad settings should not be used to destroy starbases or launch squads.
• Abusing improper MO settings should be avoided.
• New pilot’s buildings should be avoided. New pilots should not build in neutral or open space to make it easier to avoid shooting at them.
• Starbases with unlocked advanced goods should not have their goods bought out by the opposite side.
• Spying on or participating in the other side's text chats should not happen.
• Wars should end with a good faith treaty at the end of the the official war declaration.
• No faction should attempt to claim entire clusters from other factions.
• Unrestrained squad war such as capturing an entire cluster or capturing a homeworld starbase should be avoided. This may require more specific agreements for Premium space.
• Starbases that are captured in the war will be returned to alliance that held the base before the war, unless otherwise decided by the faction leadership structure. Alliances in treaty negiations will be chosen by their faction leadership structure. An example of a faction leadership structure is Federal Congress.

And so it begins... again

About 35 days ago another circle of inter-faction carnage and destruction started.

With the Empire having taken the Federation by surprise - and apparent disarray within Federal ranks, both regarding strategy, war goals and morale - it is pretty safe to say that the outcome of this war has been decided already, although its official end is probably months away.

As always, combat zones have been spread around the whole universe, and not just confined to the Imperial and Federal zones and strongholds in the NZ. We have reports that there have been many instances when the total outcome of the Federal effort has been nil for a number of consecutive days, with the Federation getting their targets wrong and getting lost by popping up in areas near Union sectors, instead of the Pardus Contingents or Imperial cores. Arguably, however, the Union is helping the Empire war effort, and as such, any Union-affiliated pilot is liable to be shot down.

The Empire seems to be more constant(ish) in its attacks, while the Federal gains seem to be ever-changing.

The novelty of this war is definitely an all-out withdrawal of the Federation from the pardus Contingent which resulted in Empire taking it over without a fight so it may be a bit more difficult to assess an overall combat performance. However, the retreat may have been an elaborate scheme to entrap the Red forces in hostile space because there are numerous reports of combat still taking place there.


We will monitor events very closely and report them here, but there is one piece of advice we can share to our younger readers out there: STAY in the cores, at least, until the war is over.

Peace for Our Time... Again

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The Artemis Powder Keg Far from Dismantled?

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Peace with honour, peace for our time

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Unpire Strikes Back! Will the Federation be able to recover?

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The Vyrex return!

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And so it begins!

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War Update: Tides have turned.

Artemis - The war is still going between the Federation and Union, this time with the Federation having a strong lead in points. Could it be that despite having a war forced down their throats, the Federation managed to turn the tide? It certainly appears so. But the Union still has the motivation to fight, and might make a comeback. The blame was largely put on the wormhole monsters that spawned in the Split cluster, important for mission runs, as well as multiple federal attacks on Union space, for which the Union simply did not have enough defenders to respond.

Before the Galactic Council meeting, large offensive operations were performed by the Federation in the Union Contingent. These are often done at the last moment to capture a sector, or cripple it until the next Meeting. It succeeded. The losses on the Union side led to Quaack and Nhandu being turned into a no-mans-land. Meanwhile, the Federal logistics crew managed to reclaim Sargas again.

Many smaller operations are done almost daily. A small summary from other news sources: Union pilots broke through Pass FED-07 multiple times. Federal forces tried to invade the Union North Rashkir cluster, and were held back by an elite team of imperial defenders. Federation pilots also attacked the East Pardus Rim, scoring easy war points by attacking small Union settlements there.
 

Current Federation-Empire relationship.

A more interesting turn of events is the relationship between the Federation and Empire. With many imperial pilots supporting the Union's war effort, the logical consequence is that relations also decline between the Federation and Empire. Not that the Imperial High Council and the imperial lobbyists seem to mind this development, as they push for war. At this rate of decline the Federation may find themselves fighting two factions at once within the next few days. Such a 2v1 war would be an unicum in all of the Pardus universes.

A Union&Empire versus Federation War!

So the Federation may be winning the war against the Union, they are still spending a lot of resources to do so. Once the Empire gets their war machine at speed the Federation might be steamrolled into submission as they likely don't have enough resources to fight the second war.
Of course that's just a theory. With the Federation you just never know. 
They might even miraculously win such a war. 
To know for sure, we will just have to see what the future holds!

 

Destruction Continues while Neutralities are Disputed

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New Vyrex tech, or a hoax?

The Vyrex, invaders of the multiverse.

ARTEMIS - An artefact that has no name, and would be invisible for a cargo scanner? It sounds unlikely. Yet a pilot, while flying an enigmatic BOP-X, claims she found something while scanning wrecks.
She prefers to remain anonymous in this report, but you can probably find her on the public comm channels.

She claims that upon finding it, she got a message from the Vyrex (the ship "talks" to its pilot), inviting her to a specific hidden location so that the device and her ship could be harmonized and used for a "Dimensional Exchange via Vyrex Stabilization".
Upon using it on an X-hole, she somehow travelled to an unexplored area that she calls Reunion. And from there, she can go to any other universe. She describes Reunion as a maze, where the warp fields (as she calls it) rotate and you can easily get lost. There is no protection here, and there is always a risk of death thanks to the unstable nature of Reunion. Death here might be permanent. It also seems that there could be incarnations of yourself in these other universes, and will cease to exist if you jump into their universe... unless they travel to Reunion first.

The pilot claims that she is skilled enough to hack the organic interfacing with the BOP-X, which is why she thinks she was chosen as a candidate for this mysterious Vyrex program.
She is now publicly selling information; maps of the Reunion universe. And also a few devices, so that others can travel to Reunion as well. She asks an absurd amount of money for it, but that is to be expected for something so exclusive.

However, it is much safer to assume it's a hoax and a scam to take your money; a clever trick to take advantage of the gullible and fund her own efforts in the active Federation-Union war in which she participates.
But considering we know so little of the Vyrex, it's just as likely to be true, as to be false.
Make your own choice as to what you want to believe...

War Update: While Feds smash, Onions deliver

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War Update: Sargas lost, Federation starts destructive operations.

ARTEMIS - Due to the loss of faction assets, Sargas is no longer Federation territory! This was the decision of the Galactic Council that held their bi-monthly meeting of the Pardus Cluster yesterday, which was predictable due to the three starbases destroyed by the Union a few days before war broke out. As a result, subsidy has been cut for the Federation, causing less income per starbase and potentially losing millions in the long term, at least until the next meeting which is planned on October 1st.

War statistics as of this report.

The war is still raging in the Contingents. While squadron combat was extremely prevalent the first few days, it appears to cool down now as the active squadrons in space are tired and worn out; their supplies are likely running low and bringing logistics to the squadrons inside hostile space is impractical and dangerous. It's unknown how many squadrons are still on standby though, so combat may flare up again, most likely around the time of the next Council Meeting.

Despite the large amount of squadrons seen, surprisingly few starbases have been lost in total: 4 Federation bases and 3 Union bases. No captures have been reported yet.

Operations now seem to move toward the neutral zones and the faction Core clusters while the Contingents continue to smolder. The first war missions have been completed, and many more are on their way. There are reports of bombings being conducted as well, killing thousands of starbase inhabitants deep within faction territories. Bombings have so far been reported on: Sol Base (FHC), Alioth Station (FRC), and Stark Industries (Somewhere in Union space)

The Union took the lead at first, earning most of their medals with dogfighting and ambushes, as well as completing missions into the Federation cores. The Federation seems to strike back with powerful blows to various military outposts and other buildings all over Union space. Surgical strikes to important structures, causing supply chains of critical resources to be disrupted, are very common tactics. As of writing this report, the Federation is at a small lead in terms of earning war medals, most of them from these destructive operations, but also due to the fact that the main Union combat operation was a pre-emptive strike that happened before the war was officially declared.

Either way, it is way too early to say who might prevail in this conflict, as both factions seem to be about equally matched for now.

More carnage as the war unfolds

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Federation Strikes Back?

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The beginning of a beautiful friendship

Art by Camosaurus.

ARTEMIS, ESC - Gaijin, the leader of Edax Rerum, an alliance with some really bad reputation, seems to have finally acquired himself a friend. As expected, it happened by accident (all previous deliberate attempts failed miserably) when he poked a Spectre in Edvea. Spectres are not exceedingly resistant to incoming fire and this particular one proved to be no exception.

It is yet uncertain what Gaijin's goal was, but the result was loud: the public channels were filled with all-caps transmissions by the victim: a young pilot named Acturius. It seems that he did not prefer the prospect of quietly going down: he started sending angry messages to Gaijin, insulting him, his mother, and his aunt's three-legged dog (another unfortunate attempt at making friends). Not only that, he also queued a bounty of 1 million credits on Gaijin's head, which became active today, and spreading the word on all the channels. 
Let's see if anyone finds the reward enough to avenge Acturius!

This kind of tenacity is unique to such young pilots, yet admirable. 
Either way, a welcome is in order to this dark and unforgiving universe. Acturius, may your future be bright!

Sargas in Flames, Devastation in Ras, War Imminent!

ARTEMIS, PFC - Three Federal starbases were destroyed leaving Sargas in ruins after Union forces carried out a surprise attack on the Pardus Federal Contingent yesterday early morning (GMT). The attacks went on today, wiping out a fourth starbase in Ras Elased and continuing with skirmishes on all fronts with losses on both sides. The attacks were spearheaded by Fidstickle's squadrons supported by a force of so far unknown strength. This development has confirmed the last suspicions that the galaxy is plunging into an all-out war, the first since a long-lasting peace treaty had been signed between all three major factions nearly two years ago.

Relations between the two factions were already deteriorating throughout the summer, with talk of war being a main subject on the networks for the last few weeks. Even though large-scale destruction is imminent, comms are filled with excitement, and more pilots are waking up from their slumber to fight in this war.

Previous wars were initiated and largely dominated by the Federation. The Union attacked first now, which was a surprise to many people. It is clear that, while the Federation may be Artemis' superpower that has won its last 5 wars against the other factions, the Union likely has prepared a strong assault in order to prevent the enemy from gaining ground. This may prove to be crucial in the following weeks as the Federation has to recover from the initial blow, and the Union has to maintain this tactical advantage. 

If relations continue to decline at their current rate, war will officially be declared in approximately three to four days.