Pandemic Legion are an oddity to me in many ways. Before I ventured out into null-sec I'd heard the odd mention of them, when I got out to null they were spoken of in hushed tones, fear, awe. Pandemic Legion were like sharks in the water.
Someone on the beach shouts "shark" and the sea empties of panicked swimmers. The mere mention of PL in the area lead to anything bigger than an ibis docking up as quickly as they could.
I didn't encounter them, all I had to go on was the myth, the legend.... swarms of titans and supers appearing out of nowhere to devour a careless capital ship, before dissappearing into nowhere. Cold hard killers, so organized and efficient that none could stand against them, without allegiances to any who aren't paying them at the time.
I don't know how much of this was pure propaganda, how much was fact. But not too long after that, they were hired to run interference against us in a war I was part of.
Obviously our leadership played down the importance of this, they're only pilots just like us they'd tell us....
And then one fleet, when we were on our way home from grinding a SBU, the call went up "cyno cyno cyno"... our mighty drake fleet turned and fled, leaping out through the nearby gate...
And that was the first time I saw a combat titan.... lucky me I got to see three that day, all sat at their optimals, fit for tracking...
It's pretty scary what three tracking titans can do to a drake fleet, and it certainly sends a message.
A week later, PL had moved into our home staging system and trade hub. They set up titans around the undock, with subcaps holding the gates, cloakies roaming the surrounding area for anybody who dared to try moving anything. They weren't there to take our space, just to stop us from taking someone elses, and it worked. I seem to remember we folded like wet paper bags under the pressure.
Skip forward a few years, and suddenly PL have gone from the ever hungry shark, roaming the waters of space seeking victims, mercenaries for hire to inflict shock and awe, to sov holders, with renters.
This seemed to change PL somehow, sure, they still had hunters out roaming, and they'd still drop on the odd careless capital, theystuck their nose into the HERO/PROVI war for "gudfights", they had blues and pets and everything that all the other sov holding alliances had.... they just became "one of us".
They were still very good at what they did, I watched them in the alliance tournamens and they were always impressive, creative doctrines flown excellently, but I still had this mental image of a fat shark, roaming less, sinking slowly under its bloated weight, still capable of savagery but less likely to roam far from it small patch. Easier to flee from, lazy...
But now, again, Phoebe changes everything. They're giving up their sov and seemingly going back to their old ways, already there's reports of them dropping on targets, we're already not using capitals on various ops for the fear of the hungry shark possibly coming to take a bite out of us...
Nobody really knows how things will turn out post patch, everybody "knows" that PL have a vast network of spies and informants infiltrating across New Eden (in fact if all the propaganda is to be believed, between PL and Goons most alliance members aren't real members of our alliance) and none of our secrets are safe, but whether this means that we will at some point have to flee screaming from the waters at the cry of "shark!" or whether this shark will take to roaming elsewhere, only time will tell....
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