GM Week 2025 - EVE Vanguard Story Competition

[GM_Chaos]

Capsuleers!

GM Week is upon us, and this year we’re taking the action planetside with the EVE Vanguard Screenshot Competition!

It’s time to suit up, drop into the battlefield, and capture the intensity, atmosphere, and beauty of the ground war in New Eden. This isn’t just about taking a single good screnshot, we’re challenging you to submit a short series of ~5 screenshots, with accompanying text, to tell a story.

The best entries will earn PLEX and other unique prizes and some honourable mentions may even receive some PLEX.

Your story can be anything you experience in Vanguard:

• A squad prepping for deployment

• A chaotic battle unfolding

• A moment of quiet reflection in the field

Just make sure your screenshots are original, unedited, and, most importantly, tell a compelling story. This is your chance to highlight not only the environments and tension of Vanguard, but also the unique role of warclones in shaping the future of New Eden.

To participate, post your story in this forum thread, and by doing so, your submission will enter the competition!

Here are some general rules:

• Only 1 submission per player.

• My fellow GMs and I will vote on the top 3 stories

• We will not provide specific details on how we judge the stories or what we look for, it’s up to you to think of the most compelling work

• Please do not write anything that violates our Terms of Service (I will be forced to delete it, which I don’t want to do)

• Submissions close this Sunday (28th Sept) at midnight GMT.

There is a lot to play/create for, so let me show you the prizes up for grabs below:

1st Place:

3000 PLEX

SKINs

• Sanguinary Savant SKIN x1

• Vampire’s Hex SKIN x1

• Eden’s Hunters SKIN x1

2nd Place:

1500 PLEX

SKINs

• Vampire’s Hex SKIN x1

• Eden’s Hunters SKIN x1

3rd Place:

500 PLEX

SKINs

• Eden’s Hunters SKIN x1

We wish you luck, and we can’t wait to see your CREATIVE CREATIONS.

p.s. Make sure to check back on Monday, the 28th, and vote on the top 3 creations!

[Tony_Ripper]

“Shadows on Solstice”

The drop onto Solstice began in silence — only the crash of waves against broken metal to greet me. The various wreckages loomed on the horizon, fractured yet still intimidating.

Inside the ruins, silence didn’t last. Enemies were already scattered across the wreckage. One went down hard, his armor flickering with failing shields. Reviving him wasn’t my concern — every warclone on Solstice is a rival, and hesitation is death.

I pushed deeper into the shattered tunnels, where the dark pressed close and every corner could hide an ambush. Then came the chaos — gunfire, shadows darting through steel corridors, desperate bursts of fire echoing in the gloom.

Breaking through into the open, smoke and dust revealed more reinforcements. My mission was simple: steal the data and survive. But in Vanguard, survival is never guaranteed.

For warclones, the battlefield is home, and Solstice had just claimed another chapter of mine.

[Respires]

“Extraction Denied”

#1. “I saw the tripwire too late… A loud explosion and purple gas flooded the area. I had just set foot here and I already know I am not welcome here. Through the gas, a shadow begins to appear.”

#2 “I ran through the the purple fog in search of surveillance units. I slipped between some metal plates to get inside one of the crashed ships. Immediately I hear footsteps… very close by..”

#3 “I managed to avoid the threat and ran into an open field. Debris from the crashed ship cover the area, large structures float in the sea or are washed up on the beach. But there is no time to process, another party has arrived by the coastline…”

#4 “I look around and it seems my only way to escape is a pathway between some rock formations further ahead.. Almost certain it’s a trap, I felt I had no other choice and fight my way through whatever is coming..”

#5 “Gunfire from every direction, I am surrounded.. it is just too many… Everything is lost“

[Jamilah_al_Azhid]

“you give up a lot of yourself becoming a warclone, we all knew that, the problem is when what you left behind resurfaces….”

Gunfire makes way for silence as the last legionaire crumples at your feet in a small heap of biomass and implant parts. You reach for the back of your neck, where your neuro-interface socket is located. The scuffle with one of the Punishers has knocked it out of alignment, but it is easily fixed. When the loose connector slips into place however, a wave of vertigo washes over you….

These crates seem familiar, a different life, far distant, when you had just finished a field research assignment with Chemal Tech. Are these your memories? Or is your personality data file corrupted with a crossed transmission?

Cryotanks, your research vessel was full of them. Was it your vessel? To keep the DNA specimens stored. To keep the Planktic colonies in stasis long enough to transport them to the research base. Uncover the dormant strains that Dr. Taril-Taren said were going to be the next breaktrough in cloning research.

Why would a researcher march into battle?

Heaps of Biomass. They remind you of the heaps left after processing the Planktic Colonies that were not needed for the research. “Waste not” was the motto, and the biomass was sold back into a local planetary industry corporation renowned for their Supertensile Plastics. Why does this remind you of things a soldier should not remember?

Contamination. Oil leaks. Months, Years of research wasted. These are not your memories. Being ousted by Dr. Taril-Taren killed any hope you had for a biochemical carreer, or working in clone biotech alltogether. Are these your memories? Uncertainty. Doubt. You feel the pangs of regret at hitting rock bottom as money runs out. You are sure these are your memories!

You look up at the sky, admire it’s glow in the eclipse, when suddenly a voice in your head snaps you straight back into the reality of where you are

“Unauthorized personality template detected, purging anomalies, resetting personality data file in 3….2….1….“

The Stasis beam looms in the distance. Your allies’ ships are caught, and you need to deal with it. Did you forget something?…

[Teodo_Dastem]

The Storm Within

I just crash-landed, and I don’t even know what the hell is going on… The air stinks of scorched metal and ozone. The pod’s readouts are fried, and my visor flickers with half-dead telemetry. One thing cut through the haze — my instincts screaming: stay alive. That’s the only mission now…

My lungs burned as I lifted my gaze. Above me, two ships clashed, tearing the sky apart. Metal shards rained down like fiery rain, each one a reminder of how insignificant I was in the grand chaos of this world. Yet even as my pulse raced, a strange clarity settled in. The smoke curling on the horizon told me I wasn’t alone—that the planet held stories, dangers, and maybe answers. I could run, hide, or cower… but I didn’t. I tightened my grip on the gun and whispered to myself: stay alive, stay moving, stay — bloody calm…

Black columns of smoke clawed at the sky in the distance, fat and unbroken, the kind that only devastation and death can leave behind. I stood frozen, wondering if that was my destiny burning there, or some twisted omen meant for me alone. And yet—somewhere deep inside—I felt it: a sick, magnetic pull. I wished, in some odd way, to be right here, right now, in this violent universe. Yeah… right here, right now.

I stared at the wreckage scattered around me, the twisted skeletons of ships and dreams alike. So this is it… life and death, reduced to a heap of scorched metal. Everything we worked for, lived for, fought for—now just a pile of rubble. No. Not me. I won’t be the one who tries to scrub this shitty‑fated universe clean of its ■■■■■ karma. I’m the one who will survive it, crawl out of it, and get the hell out.

I glanced down at the rifle resting across my knees. My beauty. My best friend. My lover. My fate. In a universe this cursed, it’s the only one that’s never lied to me. This ugly, glorious thing in my hands — a Guristas gun, left behind by the very bastards who unleashed this chaos — their unintentional, unwilling gift. It’s more than steel and polymer. It’s my chance. My key. My way off this god‑forsaken planet.

I brushed the grit from the rifle’s stock and held it close, its weight as familiar as my own heartbeat. ‘Now, my love,’ I whispered into the wind, ‘let’s find a place to hide and spend the night. We’ll protect each other. That’s the only thing certain tonight.’ The sky above burned and roared. Whatever is out there won’t be enough to break me. Tonight, survival is the only mission. And I’m still on it…

[Curtis_Crease]

Part I - Carrion

I’m thinking about the bodies on Carrion again.

“The pilot you’re looking for was last seen in the H74-B0 system,” I hear a voice say.

I’m thinking about seeing the proof with my own eyes that unfinished clones can have their consciousness activated. We’re told it’s impossible, but now I know better. I’ve seen the bodies, and I’ve seen enough death to know what an agonizing one looks like.

“The pilot you’re looking for was last seen in the H74-B0 system” the voice says again, more urgently this time.

You can see it in their eyes, when they have eyes. Waking up in an unfinished body, trying to breathe through unfinished lungs, scream with an unfinished mouth. 30 seconds of that existence before the failsafe euthanasia process triggers.

“Vanguard, there are others waiting, please move along.”

I wonder how many times that’s happened to me. There are some things you don’t mind getting filtered out between clones.

“Vanguard?” the voice says.

Locator agents. They happily take your ISK, then act like their precious time is being wasted.

I got what I came here for though.

H74-B0.

The hunt continues.

Part II - Aftermath

It took longer to get to the H74-B0 system than it did to figure out which planet I needed to deploy to once I arrived.

H74-B0 II. Aftermath the locals call it.

Fitting.

More carnage. More bodies. More Mordu’s Legion.

Mordu’s Legion? They were patrolling around Carrion too.

I start to consider the implications, then quickly remind myself I’m not the warclone that gets deployed to solve problems with logic.

I’m the warclone that gets deployed to solve problems with Backlash slugs.

I get to work turning reservists into piles of biomass until one finally gives me something while trying to bargain for their life. Just a single word.

“Solstice.”

I make sure to thank the reservist before turning them into a pile of goo.

Part III - Solstice

The smell hits me as soon as I’m out of my pod, and my visor HUD tells me what I’m already piecing together.

Salt water. Structure fuel. Nanites. Biomass.

I look out across the ocean, thinking about the scale of ecological damage taking place.

The nanites are in the water cycle now, and they’ve got fuel and biomass to feed on.

I don’t want to be here when whatever runaway process is happening beneath the waves reaches critical mass, so I begin my search.

A lone, fragmented datachip, barely noticeable amongst the wreckage has just enough of its contents intact to give me the next piece.

The next stage of the project is taking place in the Vale of the Silent Region, in an otherwise quiet system on a planet only known for its severe equatorial storms.

Part IV - Maelstrom

I understand the endgame now.

The smell was stronger here, but I recognized it right away.

Salt water. Structure fuel. Nanites. Biomass.

Just like Solstice, but heavier. Thicker. You can taste it in the air here. Which probably means the nanites are doing the same thing to my body as they are to these planets.

The tremors are increasing in frequency. My hand starts to shake. I can see the structure the nanites are building growing out of the water.

Soon this planet will break apart, and the ability to shatter a planet will have officially been weaponized.

Not a bad death, as far as deaths go.

[concretebreaker]

I want to contribute in this competition but got hit with this:

Is there another way to send my contribution to the competition?

[GM_Chaos]

Hey there Warclones!

The submissions for the first-of-its-kind EVE Vanguard Story Competition looked great and we enjoyed reading everyone’s stories. It was great to see different parts of the battlefields in every submission and see what your minds came up with. And now, without further ado, let’s jump straight to the important stuff!

In first place… @Jamilah_al_Azhid
In second place… @Curtis_Crease
And in third place… @Teodo_Dastem

Please EVEMail me from those characters with the chosen SKINs from each line.

Congratulations to the winners, and everyone else who participated, and thank you all for sharing your Vanguard Stories with us!

Best regards,
GM Chaos

[concretebreaker]

Good Job ignoring my post, congratz to all winners

[Teodo_Dastem]

GM Chaos, I have contacted You in the game yesterday, but you haven’t get back to me.

Please, check the EVE Mails (in game mails) e-mails, as I provided timely all the requested info, as well, please proceed with the sending of item(s) and PLEX rewards. Thank You in advance.