A Rocking Boat in Providence

In the bigger picture, Providence doesn't matter much. It's a bit of a backwash; a place one must pass-through on the way to some nicer or more important elsewhere.

Think of Providence as the Indiana Turnpike of null-sec.

Providence is far from the doings of the great war, or war of aggression, or whatever they're calling the ongoing dust-up between the Northern and Southern Coalitions. That doesn't mean we don't feel the effects of the war. Oh no. A storm far out to sea still rocks the boats close to shore.

Take R3-K7K, for example.

After the Great Eviction of CVA, R3 was given over to Systematic-Chaos. I'm not certain why. R3 is S-C's only holding in Providence, and far from their main stronghold in Period Basis. Possibly it's R3's position as a key entry points to Ammar lowsec space. As a jump-in point it may have some strategic value. Or maybe AAA thought S-C was big enough and tough enough to control a system that, by definition, was going to have a lot of potentially hostile traffic. Maybe it's cosmetic - a bump for their standings in the overall alliance tapestry. Remind me to ask around one of these days.

In any event, Systematic-Chaos appears to have left the building. R3's lousy with CVA, who reliably camp the place. Dogfights between AAA vassals and the CVA pirates are ongoing. No fleet battles, mind. We're talking ongoing gang warfare. And Systematic-Chaos seems to be MIA.

They rarely show up on the killboards as an R3 killer or killee. I've never seen them in local. They're like one of those absentee landlords who let the plumbing go to hell, the rats run wild, and never mows the crabgrass.

R3-K7K is the rocking boat.

So, where's the storm? It didn't take me long to find the flotsam Systematic-Chaos was clinging to. Dynast and John McCreedy, both of S-C told the tale. Even heard from their side, it wasn't pretty.

It seems Systematic-Chaos got their collective ass handed to them when C0VEN invaded S-C space. I mean, sounds like they got beat ugly. The word 'debacle' comes to mind. So they are presently in the midst of, oh shall we say, a major reorganization. Or, as one forum wag put it, S-C "lost the war to C0VEN and decide to move, and in the process loosing (sic) most of your corps".

S-C seems to have staunched the membership bleeding and, in the word of their press release:

"Our focus now is on securing our Period Basis holdings and bringing the fun back to our burnt out pilots."

Yikes.

With S-C leadership occupied with putting out the fire in their barn and keeping the hired help from running off, I doubt their little R3-K7K cabin, far away in the back-woods of Providence, is much on their minds. As I've said elsewhere, under the new Sov rules, a system isn't of strategic value or turning a profit quickly becomes an expensive luxury item that the down-on-its-luck alliance can't afford.

And, as I know from experience, when you're down on your luck and the money gets tight, you start looking around the apartment for something to sell.

Like that shiny little system, conveniently located next to empire space.