The Forsaken Empire Mounts Massive Operation with Newfound Allies

D7-ZAC. Allied forces consisting of The Forsaken Empire, Kaos Empire and The Five were joined by Gurista Pirates in an effort to dismantle the hostile Starbases placed by IRON and G.

In a bid to impress their newfound allies as much as to ensure the security of the Capital-class vessels, the coalition assembled a fleet of more than 320 vessels on the spot, consisting of around 150 Battleships, 150 miscellaneous support vessels, as well as a Carrier and four Dreadnoughts, with over a dozen on stand-by within jump range.
Once they were joined by an additional eight Phoenix-class Dreadnoughts brought by Gurista operative Lucash Helmatt, operations commenced and the assault on the Control Towers began.

Six hours later, with little resistance to face, three of the enemy Starbases were in reinforced mode. The fleet then slowly dispersed, and the Guristas were seen returning to their home system, H-PA29, leaving the final task of destroying the towers to the F-E and combined forces.

Reports indicate that F-E leadership had met with Gurista negotiator Pel Reton, and that a mutual agreement had been reached, the terms of which are still unknown. While collaboration between both parties has been confirmed now, the question as to why remains unanswered.
Speculations have since been running, with some observers wondering whether this has to do with the Guristas’ efforts to reverse the clone-damage suffered by Fatal during the Crielere incident. Others, however, worry about the Guristas operating closer to Caldari State borders, and the fact that a capsuleer alliance is assisting them.
According to Kep Ekatemi, a political analyst from the University of Caille, “The Caldari State is understandably worried that a pod-pilot alliance helping Guristas might set a bad precedent, and would encourage more of them to join outlaws, in hopes of basking in the prestige surrounding the milieu. The older factions are slowly realising that the pod-pilot community is not a negligible factor in the political balance, and an increasing number of factions are collaborating with, or even seeking help from pod-pilot alliances. However, most of those agreements are very unstable.”

When asked about the motives behind the joint operation, Lucash Helmatt refused to elaborate, bellowing “Why can't anybody accept that this is just a playful romp in the neighbourhood? I needed to shoot something.” However, later on Helmatt hinted on the local communication channels that nothing was without a cost: “I am but a humble pirate. You give me something I want, and I might return the favour.”

On the coalesced front, no further information could be garnered as to the motivation for the Guristas’ involvement in the territorial conflict, only that they were happy with their newfound allies, but that the operation would have been successful even without their presence, with The Five filling the void in terms of firepower.
F-E ranking officer, Naphtalia, simply rehashed Helmatt’s statement; “They need to come through this system to move between Empire and their home systems. Having Hostile forces blocking D7 is unacceptable.”