Taggart WHs: A brief history (updated 3-19-2014)

Since leaving null years ago, Taggart needed a new focus for its activities, and wormholes filled that need. Wormhole life is perfect for capitalists because of its independent nature - there is no empire out here, no Concord, no nullsov, no mandatory CTAs. Taggart has been involved in wormholes since the release of Apocrypha over two years ago.

2009

Our explorers, led by Petyr Baelich, and others, set up the facility formerly known as "Gulch" shortly after Apocrypha released in spring 2009, and it has been consistently inhabited ever since by a wide variety of Taggarts, although it has been renamed "Rapture" by its current owners. The Gulch pilots would later expand their own facility and open a second WH. Because WHs were still brand-new at that time, the Gulch pilots spent their first few months developing the tactics and fits needed to defeat the powerful sleepers. Their methods are still used today by contemporary Taggart WH pilots.

Shortly after the founding of the Gulch, Taggart pilots MidasMulligan and Musagetes opened a facility in lower-class wormholes, called Farpoint Station, to cater to newer pilots who wanted to learn about w-space. Located first in a class 2 and then a class 3, Farpoint was focused on sleepers and mining. Because of the less dangerous nature of sleepers in these system, Farpoint pilots were able to work in much smaller groups than in Gulch. Farpoint moved several times throughout its tenure and would eventually become a kind of "plague of locusts" operation, staying in a system until all of the resources dried up and then moving to a new one.

In the summer of 2009, Naphead and Zweet Zen, who had been working in Gulch, set up a class 4 WH known as Parsec. Parsec was mostly interested in sleeper salvage and made ludicrous amounts of ISK using the methods they had learned in Gulch. Later that fall, a thief from a neighboring WH made off with some of Parsec's hard-earned salvage while they were doing a different site, and Taggart retaliated by shredding their POS.

Around the same time, James Wagner opened We the Living, a class 5 wormhole with a class 6 static that was originally intended for gassing and mining operations. Class 6s have a large number of high-quality harvesting sites. Later in the year, combat pilots Oleksandr and JudgeBob began sleeper ops in We the Living and were quite successful, refining Taggart's PvE tactics. Also in the summer of 2009, Oxigun and Kushan purchased the original Gulch, privatized it, and would be its sole owners and pilots for the next year and a half. A few months later it was sieged by an attacking force that even managed to set up a POS there. Kushan initiated an alliance call-to-arms and many pilots responded, resulting in the enemy POS being destroyed and its forces routed and expelled from the Gulch.

2010

In early 2010 former We the Living pilot and Taggart CEO Oleksandr opened his own facility, Atlantis. Although he had problems with his initial location, he quickly got settled in and began operations once again. In fall 2010, Gulch and Parsec veterans Redslay and Yeshmiel opened Rockdale station, a 5/5. They briefly trained Taggart newcomers Lucius Arcturus (LA) and Linux Box (LB) in the ways of the wormhole.

2011

In early 2011, LA and LB opened Anthem, a 5/3 intended to serve as a training ground to less experienced corp members. They made a lot of isk and a lot of mistakes and had a great time training a new generation of Taggart pilots.

After assembling a crew and learning the ropes of WH space, LA and LB sold Anthem to Hideo Mazatsuki and moved into Gulch in the spring of 2011, which was being vacated by Kush and Oxi. Hideo was unable to maintain his facility and Anthem closed down permanently. Meanwhile, LA/LB renamed their wormhole Rapture and took much of their Anthem crew with them. Rapture would later be bought by Ethan Bellator.

In summer 2011, former Anthem pilot Jarek Avanti, after living in highsec for awhile and becoming disgusted with it, started his own facility, named Rampart. The system had been discovered by Rapture pilots, who also assisted with its anchoring. Rampart was a 5/1 system, suitable for very new WH pilots and veterans alike. After about a month, JA bought Rapture from EB and moved his Rampart crew in. In fall 2011, Cynn also founded her own facility, Valhalla, a C3. Later, Alraxan would purchase Valhalla. Recently, new Taggart pilot Khyra Rae established a facility in a 5/2 geared towards EU TZ pilots, and Taggart's first shield gang. It is called VISION. LA also tried his hand at a 6/5 called Olympia with his Rapture crew, which lasted a few months.

Many changes occurred in the realm of Taggart WHs in late 2011. LA purchased Rockdale Station and rechristened it Purgatory, and in so doing combined his own crew with the Rockdale crew and continued to hire more Taggarts from k-space. Jarek Avanti left Taggart and operation of Rapture fell on on Izz for a short time. Luckas Beckott, after some experience in VISION, left that crew to found his own WH in a 4/5, named Dispater.

2012

In 2012, Valhalla petered out, as did Rapture and Dispater. Dispater's operator, Luckas, formed a new corp within the alliance and continued his WH operations. Rapture operator Izz left the corporation under mysterious circumstances, and both Rapture and Rampart were dismantled. VISION was sold to another alliance operator, Dan Conia. The former VISION crew started their own 5/5, Lateralus.

2013

In 2013, LA left Taggart to head up CAPLF, an initiative designed to reinvigorate the VoS alliance while leaving Taggart's HR policies intact. One of the new CAPLF recruits, Monk O'Loki, discovered an inhabited C2 while scanning. He fell in love with it and decided to ask the current residents if we could co-habitate. Surprisingly, they agreed, and Monk founded the Prometheus facility. That lasted a few months.

On the Taggart side, Purgatory was left to Stealthgogi in the wake of LA's departure from EVE, and he later sold it again to its former owner, Redslay. Red soon left and the WH facility was divvied up into a share structure, with Sylvia Lafayette running the show. Sylvia would later go on to become the Taggart CEO.

2014

LA returned to EVE in 2014 after nearly a year in absentia. He decided that he had had enough of the carebear lifestyle and, with his old friend Jarek Avanti in tow, opened up a 3/null. That kind of sucked and a week later they purchased a class 2 for a song. The WH facility, named Naraka after the Hindu concept of hell, is mostly interested in pvp. LA recruited many of his old friends and crew from over the years, including Keliana Loqiri, Linux Box, Khyra Rae, Aspen Maddereck, and JBmidnite, and also began collecting new recruits from k-space.