I was called upon by an organisation called the Militia for Independent Research (MIR), who claimed they were planning an important combat operation and asked if I would be interested in coming along to report on the battle. I graciously accepted this offer and joined their ranks as a guest photographer for this operation. As usual I flew my unarmed Python kitted for combat survivability.
Communicating with the MIR before this operation, I learned a little about their organisation. The MIR is a group of independent pilots who banded together little over a week ago by CMDR Blade433 to address the problem of superpowers taking control of research sites. The most recent case of this which spurred the MIR into action was the Imperial blockade of the "Unknown Crash Site" in the Pleiades Sector. Outraged by this apparent abuse of military superiority, a fleet of 22 MIR commanders was hastily formed to launch an assault on the Imperial capital ship INV Dreadnought. MIR leader CMDR Blade433 made a statement about the crash site: “We believe that since [unknown sites] are not of human origin, that humans have no right to claim control over them, and that if anyone wants to conduct any form of research on them that they should be free to do so.”
So a day before the operation I journeyed out to Maia and checked in for one last pit-stop before travelling to the rally point for the operation. It was scheduled for 9pm 25/9/3302 at the well-known Pleiades Sector AB-W B2-4 body.
The rally point was of course right next to the unknown crash site, directly under the INV Dreadnought’s nose. The joke wasn’t lost on me. It was a risky location but certainly outlined the issue of the Empire enacting restrictions it can’t even enforce. Approaching the rally point I was greeted by a formation that certainly resembled a militia. A rag-tag group of various ship manufacturers all clearly customised by independent pilots. Despite the lack of a uniform, the fleet was rather organised with teams devoted to specific roles in the operation. The main fleet was to take on the INV Dreadnought directly and pull battery fire away from the other groups. The Regulator Destroyers were to focus solely on taking out the Dreadnought's weapons and then move onto its heat relays. Finally the Fighter Hunters were to do just that, pick off the capital ship's escorts and aid the other teams if they were engaged by smaller, more agile craft.
Once the launch order was called, the main fleet led the way towards the INV Dreadnought. They came down on top of the capital ship and the sub-fleets broke off to start focusing on their targets. The battle was smooth for the most part. The Imperial escorts were outnumbered and outgunned, and the Dreadnought couldn’t keep the intensity up against the number of attackers. A small mishap caused by communications failure on CMDR Hepburn3d’s ship resulted in the blue-on-blue destruction of CMDR Jin Kusanagi and CMDR Private Hix. The incident was striked up to a technical failure by command and the commanders involved, so no action was taken. They were the only two friendly casualties of the operation. CMDR Hepburn3d’s ship-cam has been released and shows the incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOKUQw9I5jE
The Imperial blockade seemed to have been complacent in their occupation of the crash site and was not expecting such a large force despite the MIR warning of its intentions ahead of time when the operation was first proposed a week ago. Because of this the Imperial escort was quickly dispatched and the Destroyers began to knock down INV Dreadnought's systems one by one. With its weapons rendered inoperable, its heat relays were critically damaged until it was forced to frame shift out of the battle.
Talking with command and the other MIR pilots involved after the operation, I got some of their perspective of the operation. Command claimed overall success, attributing its miscommunication faults to the recent formation of the organisation and commanders’ unfamiliarity fighting together. CMDR Bödvar had this to say: “[The Empire] can’t come and claim something that they didn’t discover or had anything to do with. We wanted to make that clear by assaulting the Dreadnought, which we succeeded in doing. We hope that the Empire will think twice before doing something like this again.” The MIR plans on continued support for scientific causes that have come under restriction by military powers.
The pilots of the MIR were most happy with their ability to pull off such an operation as a “rag-tag” group, and agreed that the highlight was watching the Dreadnought finally make its jump out, or as CMDR Commander Hero put it: “Seeing the faces on the Imperials once they realized they made a huge mistake!”
I voiced concerns that the assault on the INV Dreadnought could be perceived as being sponsored by the Federation or at least involved with their efforts. CMDR Blade433 insists that the MIR is and always will be an independent organisation: “We are completely independent and have nothing to do with any superpower. If this would’ve been a Farragut we would have attacked it nonetheless.” The MIR is also not concerned about Imperial retaliation and notes that this operation will have little effect on the Empire at this stage. Blade433 however states that future militia operations will be enacted against any party violating the freedom of scientific research.
When asked about the next step for the organisation, CMDR Bödvar commented: “We haven’t announced our new focuses yet, but we will do that somewhere in the future. The crash is now fully open to the public without any restrictions. We have put a few guards there to watch for any other events that will cause restricted access to the site. The wreck might be a threat in the future so we need every scientist we can get on the site.”
Finally, the MIR would like to send this message to the galaxy: “Everyone is free to join us and stand up for their rights. We welcome every single CMDR who feels that the superpowers are just dominating everything.”
Commanders wishing to join the MIR are asked to make themselves known on their Discord server: https://discord.gg/cZPWjyE
Commanders wishing to join the MIP are asked to make themselves known on their Discord server: https://discord.gg/cZPWjyE
