PL is known for being a capable heavyweight in the NullSec space. They are also known for a few other things, like fishing for high value kills. This is a tactic where a heavy interdiction ship is sent into a system that has been scouted in advance and has a high value target in it. Once the HIC has acquired the super or other target on a grid, the full might of a supercapital fleet is unleashed on the target and then exfiltrated. Under nominal conditions, this proceeds smoothly and PL can secure its prey without casualties. Assuming no spy is involved, enter Bandwidthh.
This is how it happened
Verge of Collapse deployed the spy Bandwidthh with an Aeon Supercarrier in Pandemic Legion. He kept a low profile for a while before setting a trap for the fishing fleet. Seeing an opportunity to use Pandemic Legion’s complacency against them, he hatched a plan with the Black Legion. This involved setting a Black Legion ambush in a remote LowSec system and driving their longtime enemy directly there.
The ping, or general call over the comms, went out and the capture fleet was formed by PL super pilots to go hunting. The fleet consisted of 15 Pandemic Legion supercarriers, including one of the three remaining Revenants in the game, and they began preparing for a target that Bandwidthh had given.
Except the target was never there, and after a few jumps, the Pandemic Legion found itself facing a manned Black Legion. POS (Player Owned Starbase) and a large enemy fleet that was about to blow them out of the sky. The fleet consisted of the Black Legion and various LowSec units and had only one mission: kill everything in sight. And since the Revenant was cap-fit – meaning it was equipped to maximize capacitor recharge time to minimize time between jumps – it had no serious tanking potential beyond the hull and was melting fast.
There was one saving grace, however, as the LowSec alliances working with the Black Legion had to call in additional support during the fight, rather than having support already on standby to pounce on the Pandemic Legion fleet. This meant that once the attack was cleared with fighters, the Pandemic Legion had a window of opportunity to escape and took advantage of it.
The fallout
So this is the first Revenant to be lost in EVE Online while being piloted by a player. It is only obtainable through very rare BPC drops from Sansha Nation motherships during raids in low-security space. This, along with the material components to produce a ship of this size, makes it very expensive. It’s a status symbol, and now the Black Legion has killed it.
Bandwidthh left Pandemic Legion the following message explaining himself:
PL Leadership,
I’m not really going to go into depth today, because what’s the point, but a few necessities to get rid of the burden.
1) I didn’t steal anything from assets or anything, so this is all safe. I didn’t break into your forums or jabber security (I don’t know anything about the tech).
2) It was a creation between me and an old 3 Gun member. The old guys from the Nomads didn’t know about it (Gwhyte/Meat/Fear). I hope you don’t wipe them out or attack them for some reason, they are good guys and knew nothing about it. Fear even gave me 5 bills to buy my first Aeon, which I’m still paying him back and am very grateful for. They are really cool dudes and it would be a total travesty to spoil their fun.
3) I will also pay back the 5 bills a nice guy gave me for my Aeon fit in PL. Since I was such a poor peasant before and PL apparently had no money for super support, he was nice enough to help me for free. Must find his name in the wallet.
4) There is no need for me to explain the why/when/how. It was more of a spontaneous thing. I never joined as a spy, this or that. It only evolved into what I am today towards the end.
5) I may also return some of the loot from the Superkills to their original owners. Some of them were top notch bro’s.
6) I have not released the soundcloud to the press. My laptop is barely capable of running multiple Eve clients, let alone recording fraps and soundclouds. So you had someone else involved in the communication in bad faith.
from,
Tape
Surinea, a source close to Bandwidthh, asked him for more information about his motivations. Here are the details:
Bandwidthh didn’t originally join PL as a spy, he never wanted to. He was CEO right after Starconquer when we were still part of Lost Obsession, and when the group voted on where we should go (namely to C0nvicted), he left the CEO position and the group because he wasn’t a fan of how the CFC handled things.
From all the contact I had with him during his time in PL, he was having fun, but it wasn’t until the last few weeks that the idea even occurred to him. He had talked to Starconquer, who knew that Bandwidthh was bored and that he was upset that PL had not kept its promise to subsidize his supercarrier, and suggested that he go out with a bang.
A few weeks ago they had a chance to get some of PL’s supercarriers, but Bandwidthh didn’t feel good about it and decided not to try. At this point, Elo was really pushing for them to get kills (since BL was also in on the planning) and tried to force Bandwidthh to fire up the Cyno. Bandwidthh logged in and spent the next while logging in and thinking, and then the opportunity presented itself again yesterday.
He was able to sell some of the super pilots on the idea that there were a couple of carriers raiding a tower, but that it appeared to be offline, so they would easily be able to fly in and take them out. They had an intermediate landing point (who was also privy to the awoxing) and the target set, and Bandwidthh was waiting in his super along with others in HABIT. They made the jump, but as Bandwidthh said, I was so nervous about getting the last cyno and making it that I forgot to check that I hadn’t upgraded to cap, and when I fired the cyno I was still at 40%.
Bandwidthh said he didn’t even realize a Revenant was involved in the fight until the end, since he was in the HABIT tower and not with the Revenant pilot.
One of the first things Bandwidthh said [during the interview], and repeated at this point, was, I got into this game because of the story of the BoB collapse, and I always wanted to be known for something.
Since this is such a historic moment in EVE Online, there are plenty of videos of the event.
And of course, there is a large amount of salt to be mined here. The following video contains the immediate aftermath of the loss of the Revenants in the Pandemic Legion communications systems. I warn you though, it contains a lot of vulgar language and anger.