The Second SRX war with Eminence Front

TRIGGER WARNING FOR ANYONE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THIS WAR AND STILL SUFFERS FROM PTSD TODAY!

Please consider your mental health and well-being before proceeding.  

This recount of Star Revolution X (SRX) history has been put together through first-hand accounts of those who were present during events at the time, interviews with team members and ex-team members, and the historical archives of SRX's longest continuous serving member, DreadLordNaf. 

In the early morning of April 25th, 2020, Lemon on team Star Revolution X (SRX) was leading up an xp leveling group in the Shrona Pacja system of Subspace.  He stepped away for a bit and then logged in later that day to find himself in stasis with message logs indicating that the SRX AFK squad had been wiped by team Eminence Front (EF).  It wasn't clear if EF just wanted the leveling spot for themselves or if it was revenge for an earlier dust up between EF and Lemon the previous week.  EF asserted the wipe was an accident due to residual aggro from combat bots, but at least one SRX who was present and passively watching the events unfold on-screen indicated that the attack was purposeful and initiated by EF.  Either way, events had now been set in motion which couldn't be stopped.

In response to the attack on their AFK leveling squad SRX leadership convened an emergency council meeting to address the situation and unanimously agreed to a retaliatory strike against the EF squad now stationed in Shrona Pacja to avenge their teammate's repair costs.

The initial counterattack by SRX was successful but the team then made an error by splitting up which resulted in getting both fleets wiped by EF.  SRX regrouped and prepared for another counter attack and by this point EF had rallied the majority of their players online and went to work fortifying Shrona Pacja with as many drones and Shield Monkeys as they could muster, while SRX seer's and speed demon's began fighting skirmishes against EF in adjacent galaxies. 

SRX finally made an organized push into Shrona Pacja and both sides fought for dominance.  Slowly but surely SRX began chipping away at the fortified EF fleet defense setup. After much lag and warfare not witnessed in a long time, SRX emerged victorious and EF began the slow process of towing their forces.  The fight was intense and resulted in some of the most fun PvP that players on either side had had in years and ended on a cordial note with players giving each other the "gg" afterwards for a well fought fight.  

Most of SRX thought that was the end of it, a simple and fun PvP battle to settle differences over a leveling spot.  Apparently not though, and in response to losing the PvP fight EF declared /war on SRX and officially initiated the Second SRX War with Eminence Front.

First Strike

The Second SRX-EF war had now officially begun and pitted the two largest teams in the game against each other. On one side was the battle hardened SRX fleet who had become mentally conditioned to a permanent war footing from having fought nearly 8 years of non-stop conflict.  On the other side was the most credit and gear-heavy team in the game but which had not seen real conflict in years against a foe that didn't insta-surrender.

PvP fights galore ensued following the war declaration and all major content entrances and Wild Space became a graveyard for combat and trade ships.  The first real BvB occurred on the fifth day of the war when EF attempted to gain a foothold on the northern side of SRX's border by establishing an outpost in the unowned Papillon system in order to strike at the more strategically important SRX system of Dica.  SRX was quickly alerted to the single-kit BvB attempt and organized a rapid defense that warped into Dica to defend it.  SRX immediately began fortifying the kits there while the player force picked apart the EF attack until it completely faltered. The battle resulted in a defeat for EF and a victory for SRX in the first official BvB of the war.

The War Progresses

It wasn't clear when was the last time that EF fought a war against a team that could actually fight back, though it was possibly as far back as the Trader's Peacekeeping Task Force in 2014, six years prior.  In their initial PvP battles with SRX, EF appeared disorganized and unprepared for the fact that Star Sonata wars were not limited to just wild space and involved all layers of the game.  

In addition to EF trade bot taxation, SRX formed a new unit called "Gank Squad" whose sole purpose was to enforce permitting requirements of wartime enemies attempting to do content.  Gank Squad would simultaneous leave stealth scouts in Serengeti, Prejudice, Kumari, and Olympus and would ping dozens of members at a time when any EF were spotted attempting to avoid permitting regulations.  Once pinged Gank Squad first responders would then rush in to remind folks that they were in fact on a team at war with SRX.  This resulted in non-stop daily PvP battles as EF was essentially locked out of any significant Star Sonata content for weeks on end due to SRX permitting rules.  Occasionally a lone EF player would beg to be allowed to do content and claim that they didn't even agree with the war or want to be part of it.  Gank Squad members would listen patiently, sympathize with them, and then continue to enforce the content-by-permit-only policy for all EF members.    

Understanding the Animosity

To really understand how EF and SRX relations sunk to such a low point to where a simple PvP fight led to all out war one needs to go back in time a bit.  

June 2017 is really what caused the Second SRX-EF war. That was the day, documented in the Second SRX history write-up when Sundog passed out from eating too many Little Debbie cupcakes and had a vision that led him to immediately declare war on team Traders when he woke up despite the fact that SRX at the time was unorganized and in poor economic shape, not too mention already at war with the Hemp Fleet terrorists.   After the underdog SRX victory over Traders (where EF was briefly allied with SRX toward the end) several high ranking members from Traders were turned over to EF as dowry for surrender conditions.  SRX Director SunDog60 and Councilor DreadLordNaf then had a conversation on what the victory over Traders really meant for the team and where it could possibly lead.

Another major event occurred that would also help push SRX-EF relations to a new low. A few months prior to the start of the Second SRX-EF war real life events started to intrude into Star Sonata in an unprecedented way.  Lockdowns and quarantines worldwide kept people inside and on their computers and in response to this the Star Sonata admin team launched a unique event: The PvP server.  This would be a brand new server that would run for a limited time where everyone would start fresh in a universe that was open-PvP in almost all areas.  There were unique prizes for the players who reached certain milestones first (such as first boss kills) and rewards for other heroic endeavors.  SRX decided to join the the PvP server as a team but slightly renamed to better represent the times, and hence Social Distancing X (SDX) was born.   

The PvP server was at its core a grand experiment.  It showed what would happen in a pure Star Sonata meritocracy where no team or players had legacy wealth or high level characters to depend on for assistance or gear, and where everyone was starting fresh from nothing.  Teamwork, organization, skill, and outright dedication would be the primary factors affecting victory.  It was no surprise then that SDX went on to completely dominate it, winning every prize available and taking 9 out of the top 10 player leveling spots.

War of Attrition 

While the PvP fights continued on a nightly basis along with trade bot killings to the extreme, major BvB battles were surprisingly absent except for the 1-kit attempt early on at Dica.  Instead, each side started frantically building up their borders to an almost absurd amount.  Neither team expected to be at war with each other when the universe started and so had claimed numerous systems that bordered each other.  By the end of the universe numerous systems had 30, 40, 50, even 60+ Adamantium kits defending them in what would be one of the largest resource sinks that uni for both teams.

From Zero to One Hundred in Six Days

Getting tired of losing hundreds of billions of credits from SRX taxation of their trade bots and effectively being locked out of most all end-game content due to a war they initiated, EF attempted to correct their mistake and end the war in one fell swoop on the morning of May 1st, 2020, when EF attacked the SRX system of Leo with 100 kits.

The entire server felt the attack on SRX that day, literally. The server could barely handle the 100 EF vs 35 SRX kit battle and even low level players hunting space blue betas felt the pain.  Alerts went out quickly to SRX when EF kits were first detected and the team's first response was to lay more kits to help defend, but unfortunately they couldn't. There was an oversight/bug in the Star Sonata coding that improperly limited SRX from laying more kits even though no lockdown was in effect.  While the devs later fixed this three days later, this oversight/bug would eventually doom the system.

The battle at Leo ended being a turning point for SRX morale in a surprising way. At first team members were a bit somber recognizing the system would be lost, but as time dragged on things changed.  Despite being outnumbered almost 3 kits to 1, EF was struggling.  The sheer amount of kits they attacked with proved difficult to navigate and the high SRX player presence helped drag things out even further.   What should've been a quick overwhelming victory for EF dragged on for nearly 6 hours. The longer it dragged on the more SRX spirits improved. By the time it ended, even though it was loss, morale was jovial, almost ecstatic, because the fight essentially proved something that everyone on the team had wondered: That EF wasn't going to win this war.  They could barely take a system with a 3 to 1 kit advantage and only then due by having an adverse bug present that limited SRX kit deployment.

The battle at Leo raised SRX fighting spirits to a new high and a surprising thought started entering people's minds following the dismal EF performance: that SRX could actually win this thing...

The Raids Continue

Following the battle at Leo Councilor SunDog60 gave an inspirational speech to the team where he uttered the now famous line, "They have declared their team members as our prey."  With those words SunDog60 motivated the team to action and helped energize and amp up the raids on EF space to an almost ludicrous degree.

Spearheaded by Jiraque, the SRX wolf pack which consisted of seers, SDs and bobtheviking's sniper, were doing up to 8-hour non-stop sessions of camping and killing trade bots and bringing many EF industrial systems to a grind while reaping billions of confiscated credits. Having not been in a real war in years, EF wasn't prepared for such tactics and it took them awhile to fully gear up their own seer and SD strike teams to fight back, and even then had only limited success in their attempt to replicate SRX raids.

The Nightmare of Biggles

During any Star Sonata war one of the worst fears a team has is to wake up one morning, find numerous systems of theirs dead and an enemy outpost  in the middle of their territory.  This nightmare was realized for EF on the morning of May 26th, 2020.

Supported by dozens of players dropping kits and permadrones, and blasting core dumps, SRX outmaneuvered the EF BvB that was ongoing and took Biggles in record time and then outposted the system in the middle of EF space. A system which bordered 10 EF galaxies.  The capturing of Biggles was one of the most catastrophic outposting of any team's space in recent memory and gave rise to the term "getting biggled."

Immediately after the capture of Biggles SRX went on one of the most epic PvB streaks in years and took down approximately 15 consecutive EF systems, obliterating the Adamantium kits defending them purely with ships. This constituted one of the largest SRX PvB squads ever to fly, consisting of 30 individual players and their characters synced up in voice chat.

Led by S-tier level gunner, Elly, along with Lemon, the SRX deathball went on to gut the EF systems of Penedo, Kitharz, Penguin, Protean, Many, Saril, Al Thalimain, Vivace, Burns, Fisk, Free Dehli, Twin, Den of Flies, Casanova, and Agenda.  SRX had no plans to hold the systems that were flattened during their march to the space-based sea through the EF galactic core and most were later retaken by EF.  SRX did manage to outpost and hold the Kitharz system though which bordered Biggles and which EF later tried to retake with a BvB and failed.  SRX also briefly held the Penedo system and captured three EF kits in the process which were later used to defend against EF when they attacked and retook it.

After SRX steamrolled much of civilized EF space the team rapidly pivoted to try and intercept another ongoing EF BvB against AI empires in the system of Gamble.  While the interception wasn't ultimately successful, SRX laid 30 kits on the attack and forced EF to drop 66 kits of their own out of sheer desperation from not wanting to literally lose their 17th system of the night.  After seeing this the SRX forces packed and withdrew but not after creating a new form of PTSD in EF members from repeatedly deathblossoming and killing them from 12k away in a Battle Sphere.  

During the Grid™ battle for Biggles another limitation of EF became abundantly clear, their organizational capacity to manage multiple battles at once.  While the defense for Biggles was still ongoing SRX Councilor Tornado launched a BvB counterattack on the neighboring system of Vallin that EF had used to attack from with their alt team. Oddly, the system was taken without firing a shot as the EF strategy appeared to focus on having their defense kits retreat to draw out time.  Then, whether due to manpower limitations or something else, EF appeared to have forgotten that they had done this and their kits all thrustered 30k out causing them to auto abandon and which point they packed and demoed them.  So not only did EF spend 7 hours trying to take Biggles and fail, they then lost Vallin due to their "evasive base navigation" maneuvers.

After the successful defense of Biggles and the taking of Vallin without a shot, SRX smelled blood in the water.  Despite their fabled wealth of "unlimited ada kits" and dozens of high level accounts, EF's main weakness was starting to show: their lack of active players.  With SRX still tired from the 7 hour defense of Biggles but more fresh captains waking up to take their place, the team wasted no time going on the offensive and later that day launched a two-prong BvB counterattack on the border systems of Sadira and Hyatt.   The strained and tired EF players couldn't manage to defend even one system, let alone two at the same time.  Both systems fell to SRX even though they had overwhelming defense.  Sadira was sacked with 5 SRX kits vs 15 EF kits. Hyatt was taken with 5 SRX kits vs 11 EF ones.  Both of these sieges highlighted the power in small scale BvB that active players could have through micromanaging kits, core dumping, and debuffing, while at the same time showing how fast a 15-kit system could fall if it lacked player support.

Both battles also highlighted to EF the downside of using alt teams. Because both Sadira and Hyatt were owned by EF alt teams the "kits laid" notification was delayed in getting to the main EF defense force which contributed to their defeat.  Adding insult to injury both systems had base amps being built that were subsequently captured by SRX.

On May 31st, 2020, Director Faranight of SRX decided it was time to end the Cella threat once and for all.   The team's top base assault commanders assembled and went to work checking augs and equipment to prepare for the largest battle they would ever undertake.  Commanders such as Biobawls, USS Brown, Tornado, MAD187, and Lemon, organized with other BvB'ers and dozens of player support to launch the first ever 100v100 kit BvB in Star Sonata history in an attempt to purge the EF threat from SRX territory once and for all.

For those Star Sonata players who haven't yet acquired the life achievement, Participated in a 100v100 Kit BvB, it is difficult to convey the pain such a battle encompasses.  A 100v100 is essentially an endurance match that usually ends up being both anti-climactic and anti-fun.  For nearly 12 hours the battle of Cella lasted.  SRX captains went to sleep part way through only to wake up and see that it was still ongoing.  Others stayed up the whole night and into the morning to see the battle through until the end.  Of special note was SRX officer Hattori who had for hours upon hours, upon even more hours, endlessly kept the attack force primed by calling out in voice chat and performing amps on SRX battle spheres to boost their range and damage throughout the fight.  It's rumored some SRX members still go to sleep this day hearing his sultry voice call out: "AMP".   

Upon seeing the initial base drops of the SRX assault force, EF started organizing their defense into a tight clump and eventually dropped kits up to the 100 kit max, and then slowly thrustered them all away from the oncoming SRX attack. They did this for 11 hours, slowly moving around the map to prevent an actual face off against the well-equipped SRX attack kits in order to draw out the time.  No one blamed EF for doing this, it was a valid tactic, they blamed the in-game mechanics that even incentivizes and forces players into such actions in order to save their system.  After hours of some of the most unbearable lag many on SRX had ever witnessed, it became clear that the SRX attack kits weren't going to catch the EF ones.  Doing even basic things like turning on a base thruster or tractoring would have 20 to 30 second delays and the game was rendered near-unplayable due to the size of the battle.   On the 11th hour of the fight the SRX field commanders then made the call to withdraw and pack the remaining kits and call off the attack since the 12 hour timer was close to hitting.  And that is how the largest, most boring, most laggy, most anti-fun, and least interesting BvB in Star Sonata history ended.

The War in Numbers

Dedication to those who served

While active team players normally wax and wane with time, SRX has a long history of maintaining close ties to anyone who has ever flown under the Banner of the Blue X.  This has led to a deep bench of capable ship captains who were always willing to sub and join the fight when it mattered the most. 

This fourth SRX history doccunarrative is dedicated to all SRX members, past, present, and future, but mostly to the 49 players (2% margin of error) who actively fought in the war and subbed, joined from other teams, or came back from a years long hiatus to fight, die, fly, and lose sleep during the 2020 Second SRX-EF War, under the Banner of the Blue X.  Salutes to all!

Additional media credits:

Jv2 - For the battle summaries and some borrowed witty text

Jiraque - For the Keanu reaves matrix gif

All SRX - For the pictures and videos taken to help record events

Video Appendix:

The PvP fight at Shrona Pacja - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHt33IAJpqY

The Battle of Leo -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DejlyL3uPiA

PvP Server 2020 Compilation Part 1 (SDX) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USyFyhl8rE0 

PvP Server 2020 Compilation Part 2 (SDX) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDkPzkxoN0w