"Until we are sick of MOOSING."
That was the listed duration on the pre-ping for TNF's February 10, 2026 ice op, and it is about as precise as mining timetables get around here. What follows is a day in the corp mining fleet, stitched together from that op and the ones around it. Every quote is real. The order is the order a mining day tends to take.
The ping
The fleet name for February was "Frozen North." By May, Lex Ashwari-Thrace, freshly titled Krabmaster Field General, had upgraded the branding to "Ice to see you, to see you Ice," and followed it a day early with a reminder for the whole corp, heart emoji included.
The ping did its job. Emperor Caligula's reply in February: "oh a fleet ping, that's nice. i think i might join you fellows for a nice round of ice mining." He followed it up with an Icelandic joke about cocktail sauce in his veins and ice in his drinks.
Others lined up behind him. SadisticSloth checked in early: "are we still mining today?" Harrat said he planned to join later in the evening. And Pict1on, never one to miss a chance, promised to turn up too: "Nice, I will even show up. I trust you will be broadcasting primaries?"
Pre-undock: hiring the bodyguards
Before anyone warps to a belt, Odysemus goes recruiting in the PvP channel. He wants pilots "dedicated to keeping us safe," and he is not fussy about how they help: "if you can't bother to be seen in a barge, feel free to bring a PvP ship and guard us Crabs."
This is the part outsiders tend not to expect. In TNF, the people who would rather shoot things than dig still show up to mining day. They just show up in something pointier.
Undock
Barges out, escorts out, everyone on comms. Ice mining is not the most thrilling activity in New Eden on paper, which is exactly why the comms matter. The rock is slow. The company is not.
Hour one: boosts on
Lex is the one most likely to be running boosts, and the one most likely to describe his setup with a flourish. On New Year's Eve 2025, he listed a mining fleet that ended, naturally, with "a partridge in a pear tree." Boosted miners dig faster, which means more ice per cycle and more time for nonsense.
Somewhere in the middle: Marbles
Odysemus's own summary of the February op, posted that evening, is the best account of what happens once the lasers are cycling: "a chance to get everyone together and enjoy some laughs, a game of Marbles and just general shithousery we are famous for."
We will not be publishing the rules of TNF Marbles. Partly for opsec. Mostly because nobody can explain them.
The shiny interruption
Ice is the bread and butter, but every so often someone spots something better. Lex is quick to call members over when a rock has "a metric fudge ton of ore" in it, and Odysemus loves flagging a particularly shiny field. When either of them does, the field rarely survives the night.
The sensible voice
Every good fleet has one person reminding everyone that greed is how barges die. On one valuable mining op, FC Pict1on put it in a single line that should be printed on every mining laser: "Just be smart about it, a barge is worth more than one extra cycle."
Last cycle
The fleet runs until people are tired, the hold is full, or the moose jokes run out, whichever comes last. Then the ice goes home.
Afterwards: where the ice goes
The point of all this is not just a fun evening. "Thanks to all of your efforts we mined a SIGNIFICANT amount of Ice that will keep the lights on," Odysemus wrote after the February op. Ice becomes fuel blocks, and that keeps the lights on for everyone in the corp.
That is where Motty 007 comes in. He is one of the people turning raw ice into something useful, and in May 2026 he went a step further and wrote a small script to compare mining ship yields, then shared it with the corp so everyone could use it. Spreadsheet PvP, but generous.
The thank-you post
The day ends the way it started, with Odysemus at the keyboard. The February thank-you closed with the only possible sign-off:
TNFED 4️⃣ Life!
Then everyone logs off, and somebody starts planning the next one.
