Technetium
History
Technetium is notable for being by far the most profitable of all moon minerals, the pursuit of it has triggered several cataclysmic wars across nullsec space. At first an obscure element of moderate value, shifting mineral requirements of Tech 2 technology in the Dominion expansion, combined with the concentration of Technetium moons in the northern quadrant of EVE, led to the Northern Coalition seizing the bottleneck for T2 production to the tune of hundreds of billions of ISK monthly. The NC held this advantageous position for years and it is this ability of suppliers to control the Technetium supply that gives it its great value rather then any intrinsic value of the mineral.
The exact distribution of this vast wealth over the extended period of NC monopoly is a mystery to the public, although it is strongly believed that many of the moons were given to favored members within Northern Coalition 'high command' where they were mostly squandered. Technetium distribution was also a source of internal conflict as well as external; for example TEST once lead an 'Aid Flotilla' to fellow coalition members OWN Alliance when a member discovered a discrepancy between services provided by OWN leadership versus Tech-derived income. Against ALL Authorities' retention of a rare Tech moon in The Initiative-controlled Immensea was one of the factors that led to the Catch War.
When the Northern Coalition was destroyed by the DRF and allies, seizure of the Tech moons was top priority of the victors. As the DRF war with the North wound to a close, New Eden's supply of Technetium was divided up between Pandemic Legion (who simply hold dozens of Technetium moons rather then bother with holding sovereignty), Northern Coalition (not to be confused with the actual coalition), White Noise., Raiden., Goonswarm and Goonswarm affiliates (Goonswarm awarding Tech moons to alliances as an incentive for performance). Under the fiscal control of these new, more market savvy owners, Technetium drove higher prices than ever. Yet the increasing value of Tech itself spelled the uneasy peace that settled in the North, as the CFC launched a massive invasion into White Noise's holdings of Branch in what would be dubbed the Winter War. Suffering something close to a 30 to 1 numerical disadvantage, White Noise - though known for hitting well above their weight, was quickly overwhelmed by the CFC's blitz into Branch. Of White Noise's one-time comrades in the invasion of the NC, Raiden. was the only member of 'Team Tech' to come to their aid, and even that decision was based less on friendship rather then the historical emnity between Raiden's leaders and Goonswarm that made rapproachment impossible; the other members of the one-time coalition decided to accept Goonswarm's offer to form a Technetium-based mutual defense pact namedf OTEC. While Raiden fought well while heavily outnumbered, long after White Noise was broken, individual pilot fatigue and attrition ultimately ground themdown all the same and they were evicted from their northeastern holdings.
After the combined forces of OTEC (CFC, Pandemic Legion and NCDOT) collectively repelled a strike into PL Tech holdings by Against ALL Authorities and assorted southern forces with relative ease, it was decided that Hulkageddon (an event centered around the suicide ganking of Hulks) would go from a prize-based annual event organized by an assortment of suicide gank-loving volunteers to a permanent state of affairs with salaried rewards sorted by programs parsing through automatically generated killmail data. The motives for this were twofold: 1) the heavy amount of Technetium needed to build Hulks meant increased Hulk 'turnover' would send Tech prices through the roof and 2) the sheer infamy from doing such a thing.
By making the act of sucide ganking mining ships directly profitable with no coordination needed, Highsec space became an open hunting ground as hundreds of unaffiliated highsec pirates roamed the belts and jumpgates in disposable, high-damage ships looking for any mining vessel to put in their crosshairs. 'Hulkageddon Infinity', funded by Technetium profits, was by far the largest and most devastating event of its kind in New Eden history, as galactic mineral output as a whole took a massive drop as miners were simply too scared to mine.
In YC 113, in response to-increasing demand for Technetium-based products, manufacturers began mass producing starbase nuclear fusion reactors capable of synthesizing Technetium out of large amounts of Cobalt and Platinum. Normally ORE listened to loud demands of miners and answered by heavily revamping their line of mining ships, including the Procurer, Retriever, Skiff and Mackinaw to the effect of greatly increasing their durability. Just some of countless changes made to New Eden as a result of a once cheap and valueless element.