Early morning on the 30th September 2014 a combined fleet of wormhole inhabitants Lazerhawks, Hard Knocks Inc. and Sleeper Social Club alliance attacked and destroyed eight dreadnoughts, two Archons and two Loki’s worth 44 billion ISK belonging to The Dark Space Initiative, part of the Scary Wormhole People alliance, while only losing one Proteus and a Guardian Logistics.
I spoke to Exookiz, head diplomat for The Dark Space Initiative and he had this to say;
We were running some PVE sites, and our guys got lazy and didn’t close our static C6 it wasn’t active so they decided it wouldn’t be a threat but just because its not active one minute doesn’t mean it won’t become active the next. We did have a scout on the static, but it sounds like the Lazerhawk scout who found us running the sites, likely slipped into our system during one of our breaks.
Lazerhawks batphoned for the two other groups (Sleeper Social Club and Hard Knocks Inc.) to come help them gank us. They didn’t need 91 people though that was a bit overkill in my opinion and I want to highlight that Lazerhawks and friends brought 1 Guardian for every pilot we had online.
When they came in I think most of the fleet was in siege, it was definitely mid site so we didn’t stand a chance to get away. Luckily it was a quiet night so the fleet was pretty small. This type of thing happens to everyone at some point, NOHO, HK, SSC have all been ganked running sites, I don’t know if Lazerhawks has, but they’re new, they will be eventually. This kind of ganking is common practice in C5/C6s.
Anyone who thinks these losses are huge blow to my corp doesn’t understand wormholes and the money involved. A week, maybe two and most of those pilots will have replaced their losses.
I mean, I won’t lie, i’m downplaying how dumb last night was. Closing your static is pretty standard practice and the pilots involved just got lazy.
As anyone from wormhole space will know, and Exookiz freely admits, closing your static is the number one rule and should be done as soon as it spawns unless it is being used to transport stuff in or out. Scouts should be awake and scans kept open for probes. This is pretty basic stuff and yet, somehow the pilots of The Dark Space Initiative forgot all of this or they just didn’t bother with it.
I also spoke to Keith Planck, member of Lazerhawks and who was in the gank fleet;
The scouting was by accident really, it was just regular scanning down of the chain from our own wormhole. Our scout found a k162 that led to a C6 and it turned out to be the static they left open and didnt mass (IE bring it to the edge of closure so a large force can not come through it).
Hard Knocks had a nullsec wormhole that was super close to one we had already scanned down, so we shared chains and they managed to get to us really quickly. So when the enemy fleet was finally in a vulnerable position, HK was already with us and ready to support us. Sleeper Social Club was a bit late to the party, they had a longer drive from their home.
When asked about whether it was overkill or not, Keith said;
If the enemy caps were fit correctly and the pilots were smart then, no.
Using the carriers and refitting to anti-subcap fits, popping strong mindflood and with a good shield tank, the enemy ships would have taken a lot longer to kill and would have put up more of a fight. Also, if their Dreads had slowly started to starburst rather than staying together in the ball, it would be a lot harder to keep transversal up on ALL of them.
Most of the caps were probably half way through their siege/triage cycle when we landed, judging by how much of the site they had done. Most of them also kept their siege cycles green even if they weren’t being shot instead of repositioning and the re-sieging.
So overkill? No, it just seemed like it because the Dreads were PvE fit and the pilots didn’t handle the situation correctly.
It was amazing though, typically when you get three wormhole groups together comms are a mess but everyone was working together really well and comms were great.
As Keith Planck mentions, not only did SWP forget the major rules of closing, or at least bringing the static close to it’s mass limit as soon as it spawns, having an active scout on the open static if you are going to leave it open and keeping scans open to watch for enemy probes. They also made a number of tactical errors that while may not have saved their fleet, might of at least helped to take some of their attackers with them. Hopefully, SWP will now be more aware of these tactics and not repeat the same mistakes again.
Lastly, I spoke to MyrddinBishop, Director and Ex-CEO of Future Corps from Sleeper Social Club who was also present on the fleet;
It was lazerhawks who had found the target running sites so they kept an eye on them while they called out for support from Sleeper Social Club and Hard Knocks.
All three entities formed up T3 fleets to support Lazerhawks. Hard knocks were closer so their support actually arrived after Lazerhawks started the engagement. When Hard Knocks landed on field most of the subcap support from the target was wiped off the field (IE the two Lokis’ and the Malediction).
From that point on it was a matter of time and working down all the Capitals on the field. Sleeper Social Club arrive near the middle of the engagement and just lent extra DPS to the fight.
I also asked Myrddin if he considered the fleet they had turned up with as overkill;
That really depends on how you look at it. As with most engagements there are ganks and then there are actual PvP engagements. Since we were dropping in on a PvE fleet that it would fall under the category of ‘gank ‘and in that case, the more the merrier.
There is also no telling what they could have brought in addition to what they already had on the field. In which case being prepared is key.
Even if all these ships can be replaced in a week or two it is still an expensive lesson and I am sure that Scary Wormhole People will have learnt well from it. I don’t envisage them leaving an ‘uninhabited’ static open in their system again and I reckon that, for a while at least all members of that fleet will be glued to their directional scanner and watching for those probes.
On the bright side for SVP, Hard Knocks Inc. lost one Guardian to sleepers (though the final blow was done by a Lazerhawk Tengu using smartbombs) and it is rumoured that they may have lost a couple more to just sleeper rats, which don’t show up on the killboards. Hard Knocks Inc. would not confirm this rumour.
