Disclaimer: The following piece was submitted by Knerf, who is a member of NCDOT. Statements made in this piece are his and do not represent EN24!
”The Humbling of a commander can be a powerful lesson”
The galactic war machine of NCDOT has fired up in an offensive push into the region of fountain, to quench the craving for blood our fleet yearns for. Pushing into any cunning adversaries space can have many unforetold consequences such as the deployment of “The Reavers”. This guerrilla squad of battle hardened foes do not need a ratting pocket or cushy staging system to make a rivals life hell in eve, it is what they fly for. The full deployment of NCDOT left a large section of space hard to reach to defend our civilian population. CFC saw this opening and sent couriers to the deepest parts of space to retrieve the help of The Reavers in disrupting and possibly dismantling our industrial backbone. Asher and Reavers answered the called to arms with SBU warfare and terrorist activity.
These Reavers were merely an itch that we could not scratch which was exactly the point of their activities. NCDOT highest fleet commanders convened a meeting to discuss options to approach this new aggression. A small team of FC would maneuver a group of behemoth motherships to stage with the sole purpose of eliminating the progress of the Reaver squad at every turn. This was a successful move that over weeks wiped out all of the advances that the squad attempted.
Putting a halt to the shenanigans of the Reaver squad became an easy, but daily activity for the small FC group of stationed so far from home. The 4th of December’s daily civilian report of Reavers actions poured across our screens in the same ole fashion we had grown use to. Three systems were in grave danger of losing their Infrastructure Hubs today, which is something our civilian population would not be too keen on. The shadowed eyes of the Reaver Squad watched in system as the first two structures were saved unimpeded. With monotony at an all time high, the third and final system was to be saved with immense confidence.
One of the few FCs tasked with this deployment was Knerf (me) and after cleaning up the other two systems my shift was nearly over. Pings whispered for the small group of super carrier pilots to enter our staging system and prepare for trial at hand. Intelligence and command channels were overwhelmed with details referring to Pandemic Legion’s current situation in the HED system making scouting reports basically useless. As always the ghostly eyes of Reaver Squad sat in our staging system and destination patiently waiting for their opportunity. The cynosural field is lit off a friendly POS and orders were announced to activate jump drives on all ships. The few seconds of haze given to pilots upon jumping into any given system had yet to clear when sensors began springing to life.
After dilated eyes and immediate blood pressure changes became under control, we began to comprehend the current challenge our fleet would be facing. The Reaver Squad in full force rushed onto field with a swarm of Sabre class interdictor ships designed specifically for holding hostiles in combat with staggering efficiency. Opening orders yelled out over comms for full speed, bearing to the safety of the force field directly ahead. By the fate of the gods, three of the four colossal motherships landed rather close to the safe embraces of the POS shields leaving one lone Aeon class with over 40km to cover. The howl for reinforcements was already in full swing with three of our comrade alliances were rage forming to burn for our rescue. The decision had to be made whether our three alliance mates should take the last kilometer to safety or reverse thrusters in an attempt to save our brothers in arms and tank all together until our rescue arrives. “Turnaround” was spoken over comms as calmly as can be said.
The LS-V29 system was now nearing two hundred blood thirsty pilots, all raging through a large wormhole near the region they call home. The primary Aeon in the most danger piloted by Folko D’emon began to break apart slowly with his capacitor completely drained, unable to online defensive modules. Two brave pilots spoke through comms that they each had a triage capable carrier in range ready to jump into the fray, knowing it would be a one-way trip. Short range scans went out confirming a cynosural inhibitor was on field preventing any immediate backup. Over forty courageous fighter pilots strapped in and launched from their perspective motherships hell bent on taking down the only structure in the way of our aid. With volley after volley from waves of fighter craft the structure left us biting our nails dipping into 1% structure before the CFC flotilla began repairing it back to full working order.
The armadas burning down to assist in our dire circumstances were continually delayed by Reaver Squad slinging and anchoring warp disruption bubbles on every gate in the region. The coordinated ramming of the Ishtar class vessels into our vulnerable motherships left no hope for a safe return to the POS shield. Becoming aware of the vector changes of our three supercarriers, CFC began slamming ship after ship into our hulls keeping us just out of remote repair range. One captain spoke up over comms asking for one more shot at the inhibitor in hopes that the swarm had forgotten about it being vulnerable. The few resolute fighter pilots we had left sprang to life flying towards the structure steadfast on its destruction, as it was our only hope.
“Inhibitor down!” was screamed out as Captain Folko’s hull structure began taking damage, and hope seemed bleak. The heavily damaged Aeon opened a portal up allowing the two triage pilots and a surprised Nyx class boat to land on field praying to make some kind of difference. The Minmatar and Caldari class triage carriers began soaking up all the incoming damage as best they could to no avail. Folko’s Aeon exploded blinding the area momentarily with light, leaving the three Nyx’s left to soak up the enormous incoming damage. Support still working their way through every gate trap made any rescue look grim. What seemed to be only a few minutes the CFC horde managed to destroy the remaining lighter tanked Nyxs with ferocious efficiency. Only one pilot managed to maneuver his massive ship into the safety of the pos. Four out of the five motherships had been turned into dust floating in the solar winds, and our reinforcements arrived outnumbered and too late to accomplish anything of note. The field was cleared shortly after by both parties, leaving only the wrecks of our fallen comrades.
-The quick form up from all of my friends from Nulli, Darkness, and Kadeshi
-My FC team for helping organise the logistics of the attempted rescue
-The Reavers, Mass respect to you and your resolve for the hunt.
