Ostingele system, Placid region. On the 10th of April at 23:20 EVE Standard Time, Gallente militia forces clashed with Spectre Fleet in the system.
The fight was prompted by the Gallente militia wishing to test its new Abaddon battleship doctrine. With Spectre Fleet organizing a scheduled fleet in the system of Ostingele, Gallente militia fleet commanders jumped on the opportunity and assembled a fleet.
The Gallente militia was able to gather 50 pilots for their fleet, including 3 triage carriers. Cynosural Field Theory. [MOROS] which had also learned of the presence of Spectre Fleet, established contact with the Gallente militia promising to bring 10 more carriers to the mix, including 3 more triage carriers. Thus it swelled the overall fleet size to more than 60 pilots. However, due to the distance from Cynosural Field Theory.’s staging and the site of the battle, the force took some time to arrive, reaching Ostingele with the battle already in full swing.
Spectre Fleet managed to assemble a sizeable fleet of its own, pulling 120 pilots in an armor battleship fleet. As the fleet was assembling, its commanders soon learned of the Gallente militia fleet which had arrived to Ostingele and set up on the Dastryns gate. Being cautious and preferring not to engage the militia force head on, the Spectre Fleet force maneuvered around the system, prompting the Gallente militia to do the same, as the two fleets re-positioned around the Dastryns system.
Finally, the two fleets jumped one after the other into Ostingele from Dastryns, anchoring up and exchanging fire over the Dastryns gate, thus starting the fight proper.
As both fleets uncloaked, their respective ships found themselves facing off at close range, leading to a brutal melee to ensue. The fight that proceeded was nothing short of a brawl, as both fleets engaged each other at point blank range. The Spectre Fleet force attempted in vain to break through the triage remote repairs of the Gallente militia fleet, while the latter had no trouble simply melting through the logisitcs wing of the former, battleship after battleship evaporating to the concentrated fire of pulse laser batteries.
Quickly realizing the tank of the Abaddons was too tough to penetrate through with the presence of the triage carriers on field, the Spectre Fleet force switched its targets, concentrating its firepower on the carriers themselves. One by one the capital ships succumbed to the incoming fire, not helped by the presences of multiple energy neutralizing battleships in the Spectre Fleet force.
Seeing their triage carriers go down, the Gallente militia fleet commanders decided to continue and fight regardless, knowing that both reinforcements were on the way and the fact their fleet was able to continue and volley the hostile battleships, ignoring their logistics wing entirely.
By the time the last triage carrier was destroyed, the capital squadron of Cynosural Field Theory. had already arrived in system, jumping straight into the battlefield from Dastryns. While its combat carriers deployed their fighter swarm, which swiftly chewed through the armor plates of the Spectre Fleet battleships, its triage carriers took over the duties of the fallen Gallente militia capitals.
With replacement triage carriers on the field as well as the combat carriers, the Spectre Fleet force was losing ground fast. Having once more a full triage numbers on the field, the Gallente militia was able to tank most of the incoming damage, losing only a few battleships in the process. At the same time, Spectre Fleet was losing mainline ships at a rapid rate, dwindling its ranks and causing its overall damage output to severely diminish. In the end, the Spectre Fleet commander realized the fight was unwinnable, and warped the fleet out, conceding the field to the Gallente militia and its allies.
Having won the field, the Gallente militia and Cynosural Field Theory. safely extracted from the system, bringing an end to hostilities.
The Battle from the Perspective of the Gallente Militia Fleet
Battle report for the Ostingele system can be found here.
All told the battle lasted 13 minutes, with the system estimated to hold 200 pilots at the peak of the fighting and no Time Dilation reported by combatants.
The Gallente militia and Cynosural Field Theory. lost 8 ships in the fight, including 3 carriers and 3 battleships for a total of 7.2 billion ISK damage.
Spectre Fleet lost 49 ships, including 41 battleships for a total of 13.98 billion ISK damage.
Salivan Harddin is a member of Reikoku, Pandemic Legion, and covers battles across New Eden
