About Operation Ida
Etymology
Operation Ida’s namesake is based on Greek mythology. The legend goes that Zeus was born in the caves on Mount Ida and that when Zeus shakes the aegis, Mount Ida is wrapped in clouds and the thunder rolls. The myth resonated with the founders of Operation Ida as it symbolizes the mountains of cargo that is moved by our haulers.
History
On December 15, 3303, humanity experienced the first wave of Thargoid attacks on its orbital stations (Galnet, 3303 DEC 15). Situated in the Pleiades Nebula, the first attacked stations included Titan's Daughter - Taygeta, Liman Legacy - HIP 16753, and The Oracle - Pleiades Sector IR-W d1-55, which were recently established in the Pleiades by Aegis (Galnet, 3303 DEC 02). Independent commanders and player groups scrambled to begin the process of repairing these stations, but it was proving difficult given the sheer demand of commodities (each station requiring anywhere from 8 to 23 million tons of cargo). Operation Ida was formed three months later in order to focus repair efforts on stations and strategically select stations to repair the Pleiades. With the help of a reduction of required commodities by Frontier (as much as a 90% reduction in overall tonnage), Operation Ida was able to successfully repair their first station, The Oracle, on March 1, 3304. Following the repair of The Oracle, Operation Ida began strategically repairing the many damaged stations in the Pleiades, focusing on refinery stations in order to guarantee a local supply of the station required commodities. On March 25, 3305, one year and three months after the Pleiades were first attacked, Operation Ida completed the repair of all stations in the Pleiades.
After the completion of repairs in the Pleiades, Operation Ida turned its efforts to other sectors of the galaxy that were decimated by the Thargoids. This included the Bubble, the Witch Head Nebula, and Coalsack Nebula. After several campaigns within these locations, including returns to the Pleiades to repair newly damaged stations, Operation Ida completed the last remaining damaged stations on July 20, 3306. The completion of all station repairs was widely celebrated throughout the entire galaxy and even featured in the Elite newsletter (Elite Dangerous Newsletter, 2020).
Rest from repairing the galaxy’s stations did not last long. Two months later on September 10, 3306, more stations were attacked. This time not by Thargoids, but by humans (Galnet, 3306 SEP 10). The new wave of station attacks were claimed by the NMLA group, described as “a paramilitary force of political extremists.” Stations attacked by NMLA were fully repaired on November 26, 3306.
Two more waves of station attacks occurred after the NMLA damaged stations were fully repaired. Thargoids attacked several stations in the Witch Head Nebula and Coalsack Nebula on January 7, 3307, which were fully repaired on January 26, 3307. The next waves of station attacks were another coordinated effort by NMLA on March 11, 3307 that targeted several Superpower stations (Federation, Alliance, Empire) and Independent stations (Galnet, 3307 MAR 11). Dubbed the “‘Nine Martyrs Attack”, stations that were subsequently damaged were fully repaired on Match 29, 3307.
