Resistance is Futile

The fact that Waldemar Pawlak was hanging around in our pub channel was bugging Utari. I know what you're thinking -  the former prime minister of Poland hanging around in the public channel of an eve online wormhole corporation might bug a few people, but it wasn't actually him. It was his Hard Knocks Inc. recruiter namesake. He did eventually find a way of breaking the ice:

Waldemar Pawlak > so... whats going on in here?

Utari Onzo > Sharing fail fits

Jay Joringer > Nothing. Pub channel stuffs.

Utari Onzo > Wanna see my drake fit?

Waldemar Pawlak > nope, thanks

Jay Joringer > I do

Jay Joringer > Unless it's not armour/sensor damp fit

Utari Onzo > Aw damn

Waldemar Pawlak > well, i have my own

Waldemar Pawlak > i dont really need to play with others' drakes

Utari Onzo > RUSE is on sale on steam. Nostalgia time here I come

Waldemar Pawlak > i bought rise of nations last night

Waldemar Pawlak > ffs, i loved that game but now its so tiny on a 4k screen that it made its unplayable

Utari Onzo > Lol

Utari Onzo > I looked at playing stronghold crusader 2

Utari Onzo > Was bitterly dissaointed it's jsut a Stronghold Crusader 1 reskin

Utari Onzo > Anyone know if they fixed Assassin's creed Unity yet or is it still broken as fuck?

Waldemar Pawlak > dunno

Hemez PeYo > o/

Waldemar Pawlak > sry, slow to respond - carrier tackled

Waldemar Pawlak > so... you guys are c5-c5...

Waldemar Pawlak > and youre recruiting?

Jay Joringer > Aye

Waldemar Pawlak > if youre capable of c5-c5 wh how come i didnt see your application to HK?

Jay Joringer > Didn't realise you were recruiting

Waldemar Pawlak > we always are!

Jay Joringer > Actually, I do prefer the smaller gang fights.

Waldemar Pawlak > i see

Well, it was a small fib. I was well aware Hard Knocks were recruiting. I just didn't realise they considered it obligatory for C5 pilots to put in applications to them. But still, it's cute of them to try to absorb WH corporation while they are still new and trying to expand, rather than having another populated J-space system.

Another offer. This time it was an invitation to join an alliance. Enter Falconsfury via eve mail:

Hello!

After looking into your corp I wanted to extend an offer to join my alliance Vanguard of the Phoenix.

We are a WH C5 Alliance who does mainly PVE content with PVP when it comes our way.  We hope to expand both our PVE and PVP options with the addition of some new people.

If interested we can talk further about the Alliance to see if you would fit in.

Our posting can be found here.

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=5383174#post5383174

"PvP when it comes our way" That one killed any consideration stone dead. Not to mention any alliance whose name you could append to phrase "Harry Potter and the..." and have it legitimately sound like a rejected book title should perhaps be avoided. I ignored the mail.

Then another. This time a merge, and merge offers tend to come from people whose activity has dropped off or have been evicted so that larger alliances *cough*[KICK]*cough* can have a farming hole.

Hi Jay,

My alliance is looking for another WH group to merge with.  While we are trying to recruit new blood to our current alliance, we are certaintly open to joining up with another group.  The years and real life have cost us some valuble members that its been hard to replace.

We currently live in a C5 / C3 WH and are open to options for working together with another WH alliance (including moving / mergers etc).

We have about 15 active people throughout the week, with numerous alts etc.  Everyone is tech 3 / with numerous capital alts, Archons etc.

Our main problem is numbers, 15 people just isnt enough to keep the ball rolling every day with RL and such.

If this interests you, please send me a mail.

Thanks!

Once again, it was from Falconsfury. Scrutiny of their killboard looked like they'd be pretty hard to work with. Couple that with a leadership base in a different timezone, which in my experience is asking for trouble. And these guys looked suspiciously like Solus Blacksun all over again - someone who could talk the talk, but not walk the walk.

The next mail was my favourite. It was another merger offer from Henrick Toralen of Jaded.:

I'm contacting you in regards to your corp, in curiosity about a possible alliance merge, If you'd have any intrest in this let me know.

Here our the stats.
C5-C5 WH 
The Natural Order
Jaded: Currently 12 PoS's 89 Members. 
High Self Esteem: 9 Members fairly active. 

Both Corps live in the WH.

Yours truely,

Hendrick Toralen [Jaded]

This one even had pretty colours. I remember Billy Hardcore from RCC's invasion of Void Legion's home system and I had to wonder what the offer had cost him to make. Either way, I had no intention of flying with the guy, so I said no in the most diplomatic way I could administer:

o/ Hendrick

Thank you for your interest in our alliance. Enigma Project is not currently considering recruiting corporations, however 13. will look at applications from individual pilots who are active in the EU window. 

We are listed as 'newbro friendly', which is true of our recruitment doctrine, however I would be sceptical about recruiting rookies en masse at the moment. In the meantime, I would recommend Red Federation/ Blue Republic as well as Noir Academy to augment the skills of anyone in your alliance interested in PvP, and also this online course in spelling and grammar for yourself.

Kind Regards,

Jay Joringer

To his credit, he took it well and responded with a simple "lol".

But this wasn't the end of things. Perhaps spurred by the success of Utari's birthday roam in mining barges, to which he invited United System's Commonwealth, Galdur Trudaihnel made the same offer of a merger.

When me, Utari and Odi left USYSC, we all hoped things would carry on as normal and we'd have two active groups in C5 space instead of one. Obviously things hadn't panned out that way. The prospect of flying with the guys again was something we all thought would be a great thing, and to be honest, all the offers of merges an recruitment had worn me down. USYSC would still exist, but Enigma Project would be assimilating some good pilots into our collective.