The Void - Tick 408 Cycle 18

 The war continues with the southern alliance whilst scheming abounds in the far west.

Okay, so a rundown of what has happened since the last update

• Ragnar and HRE are moving to the wormhole with what I hear is a mammoth fleet of several thousand ships. I don't see Ragnar's super fleet yet but you can bet I'll be watching it closely. I've reached out to him to strike positive relations and he's sent me an ally request which I can't accept at the moment because I have three allies. Promising
• I did get somewhat spooked AGAIN by Holy Roman Empire charging a 900 ship smuggler at me. Enough to cancel a few loop orders and look at contingencies. Again, the smuggler ended up going elsewhere. I've opted to trust him so far and it's worked out fine so far but I do wonder sometimes if he's desensitizing me and one day there will be a real stab.
• Dieste (Battery) made a strange 900 ship move toward TdT (CRISPR) at the same time as he didn't take up some opportunities to attack Tube-Pipe. This led to some speculation between HelloThere,TdT and me that he had been flipped. At this stage it now looks like this isn't true.
• Royluc is in big trouble out west but is doing phenomenally, by all accounts. He has attracted the attention of a whole alliance and is single handedly fighting them back off though it sounds hit and miss.
• I managed to ID Tzeenach (Zachsmack) who is way out south west I think and is on favourable terms (not allied, they don't even see each other) with my ally CRISPR. He isn't in a position to help us and it sounds like he couldn't be further away from me but it's one more picture of the puzzle in terms of alliances.

The war

Even after all this time, my net star change in the war with the southern alliance is -2. 

The front lines haven't changed much. The southern alliance are bombarding TdT and HelloThere in the center. TdT is barely holding on. Meanwhile they have been building forces up against me and HelloThere, I think with a defensive posture. We've however launched our own attacks to try and break through and relieve the pressure on TdT in the centre. We're hoping Dieste (Battery) launches his attack from the south soon, as that could result in the breakthrough we need.

Because of my scanning, you can't see HelloThere's ships attacking Kina, but he has gone in with a Seige Breaker. The hope is that his attack combined by mine is enough. My other attack with a Leiutenant and Infiltrator on Evian is purely to tie those ships down and stop them jumping across. Honestly, I expect both attacks to fail (just) but if we remove the buildup of fleets there the next attacks have good chances and the aim of the game at the moment is sapping their attention.

We just need one good breakthrough somewhere down the line. Dieste has the best prospects as he faces the smallest resistance.

The picture further south shows Tube-Pipe (LeDazz) sending heavy blows against TdT which he is barely blocking. We've been pushing Dieste (Battery) to punish Tube-Pipe's over extending and hit him back before he can rally a proper defense. He says he's attacking with an 800 ship fleet and infiltrator