This is Ministries Pellion, for the independent press organization, I Reject Your Reality, reporting live from Hek.
This is a follow-up op-ed article to my original report: Is Hek......Haute?
Unbeknownst to me, and many others, a struggle has been taking place in the Hek surrounds for the last year over, one of the most ephemeral of treasures, ideals.
During this struggle disparate and unaligned parties fought against one organization in defense of a singular vision, Might Does Not Make Right.
The Hog Collective, an organized group of capsuleers espousing a philosophy of Greed Is Good had settled in and around Hek, with strongholds in Finanar. According to some, their business model depended upon the suppression or economic emasculation of smaller entities in their claimed space. Smaller corporations were approached by Hog representatives and given the option of joining them, the Hogs; in essence, assimilation, for a requirement of Hog inclusion was the restyling of a corporation’s name, i.e. my own corporation I Reject Your Reality, if I became a Hog member would be dissolved and reincorporated as HC – I Reject Your Reality. Should a corporation choose to remain independent in Hog space nuisance attacks would commence, culminating at times in wars.
The Hog’s arsenal, reportedly included, ganking, war decing, and trade wars.
They were the prototypical my-way-or-the-highway group, and they had the economic might, at one point, to employ their own “mercenaries”, the Hog Hitmen. In addition they either employed, or sheltered gankers within their ranks, whose job it seems included harassing those smaller entities who stood up to the Hog leadership and declined Hog overtures.
These Hog business practices can be successfully documented going back for years.
I want to emphasize that, for years.
For years, Hog leadership has been using their position in the Central Cluster to bolster their members financially, at the expense of, certainly at times, newly licensed capsuleers who chose freedom.
In fact, one case of intimidation inspired political satire. The song White Raven was written to commemorate just one such example of the Hog Collective’s drive to succeed.
So, without further ado, the meat and the bones of the matter:
A year ago Electus Matari, a self-described Minmatar loyalist group, decided to take a stand and oppose the Hogs and their predatory business practices. I have no eloquence to equal their raw report, so I will direct you to their own news announcements here: [EM] Hostilities between Electus Matari and the Hogs Coalition to end and here The Year Long War You Never Heard About.
During this year, under pressure from Electus Matari splits formed within the Hog Collective. These splits in turn, provided a setting Danger Gnomes, a shadowy Central Cluster mercenary group, could exploit and in the end use to successfully divide the financial arm of the Hogs from their mercenary unit. This operation weakened the Hogs as they now had no recourse to a dedicated in-house strong arm to turn to, or to turn loose.
A group called The Insurgents began cataloging Hog assets in the Hek area. They would employ political propaganda and weaponize paranoia.
And lastly, The Comedy Team of Reeeeebo and Zooty Zoot Zoot sensing the tide had turned against the Hog Collective, decided to strike and release their ballad, White Raven. This one act proving political satire has not yet died in New Eden.
Electus Matari were in their own words supported by other entities, specifically cited in their news announcement was Phoenix Naval Systems and VINDI.
Hog Collective was supported at the end of this conflict, however casually, by Pandemic Horde.
So, what we have here, is eight groups of widely varying sizes all locked at some level in a single struggle over an ideal.
That Might Does Not Make Right.
I contacted various parties in this struggle and asked each a question. These are the questions and the responses, from those individuals who were gracious enough to reply.
Ailiece Ardua, Hog Collective.
The question was: Do you feel your efforts in this year long struggle was worth it?
Her response: “Do you feel your efforts in this year long struggle was worth it?: absolutely, hek is a great place with alot of opportunities. and make some cool friends and enemys.”
In addition Ailiece told me this, which I feel is pertinent (but did not actually address the question): “Hog collective will stand tall even if ■■■■hits the fan.”
Challis Drant, Electus Matari.
The question was: Is this public stance to encourage others in the Cluster to take up arms and fight against oppression?
His response: “In answer to your question - no this is not a desire to see others rise up. We would be more than happy if other groups stepped up, but we are not foolish enough to expect this to happen.
Hogs Collective was engaging in what we considered unacceptable behaviour in Minmatar space. The Republic owns Minmatar space and only they have the authority to decide who can and cannot place structures or go about thier business. We felt that Hogs was violating this by claiming a section of space and we decided to act.
We did not expect this to take over 12 months, and we surprised that it did, but in the end the strength of our cause insited that we continue to the end.
The Republic was not built by people who went - oh this is too hard - lets just give up.
It was built by those who said Never Again and were prepared to put thier lives on the line. In many ways thay are truly more heroic than any of us. We pod pilots seldom risk actual death, but the founders of the Republic paid for it in blood and thier own lives
It would be petty of us to not put in a similar effort if needed.
C MARIVS CFCN, The Insurgents.
His question was: Your group planted political propaganda in the Hek area. Do you feel this was effective?
His response: We did what we could when we realized EM had the stamina to see this through. Whether that had any impact beyond ourselves? No idea.
One final point, to mention, in addition to the Hog story, Hek’s very own resident outlaw, Solstice Projekt, continues to wage verbal warfare, and has done so for months now, in various media outlets for Freedom of Speech.
So I posit, readers, that not only is Hek haute……but its scorching.