(Disclaimer: The author of this piece is a member of Diplomatic Immunity.)
The station of 3Q-VZA in Wicked Creek is in itself unremarkable. A Caldari station located in a constellation full of poor sec status systems however throughout Sunday, 23rd March, it was the location of a series of clashes between Diplomatic Immunity.[DIP] and Phoebe Freeport Republic [PFR]. For the last 2 weeks, [PFR] (750 members) have been reinforcing Rebel Alliance of New Eden (400 members) [RANE] station systems in an attempt to open new freeports, so far they have been successful in taking 1 station. Diplomatic Immunity. (200 members) are part of a coalition along with Almost Awesome. (300 members) and BLUE Alliance (300 members) and are looking to expand into [RANE] held lands in the South of Wicked Creek, so far they have conquered several RANE systems including the station system of 5H-SM2. The Gorgon Empire (1100 members) were for a long time considered to be the protectors of [RANE] held lands in Wicked Creek however it lately seems they are less enthusiastic about defending [RANE] holdings and instead are preferring to spend their time farming HERO in Catch.
Phoebe Freeport Republic had killed the IHUB for the system several days before and had put the station into it’s final reinforcement several days ago however they were prevented from taking the system by a Gorgon Empire [GORGON] Ishtar fleet who quickly dispatched their SBU. Undeterred, [PFR] re-SBU’d and re-reinforced the system the next day and planned to make a large push for the final station timer which came out mid-day on Sunday. The initial final station timer came out of reinforce around 17:30 ET. [PFR] formed up a 50man Caracal fleet with significant Osprey support, they planned to camp the in-gate while their dozen capitals (50/50 Carrier/Dread) ground down the station. [DIP] had formed up a 50man ANI fleet with heavy Guardian support and so when [DIP] jumped into the Caracal fleet a massacre quickly occurred with [PFR] losing 17 ships and [DIP] losing 3. BLUE Alliance/Almost Awesome. then jumped in and along with [DIP] began attacking the station in order to flip it to [DIP] control however before they could do so, [PFR] offlined their SBU thus making the system invulnerable.
[PFR] tried harassing [DIP]/[BLUE] while they attacked the station and when they attacked the SBU however both times they lost significant portions of their fleet and in the end they chose to whelp them all rather than try to get back home. [DIP], along with [BLUE] and [N0FUX], quickly killed the SBU and erected one of their own in short order. With the system invulnerable for 3 hours both sides prepared for what was sure to be an epic fight when the SBU on-lined. However before the SBU began to online a [DIP] Aeon got tackled on grid by a [PFR] Heretic, [PFR] quickly sent in several more dictors to throughly bubble the Aeon while [DIP] quickly camped the ingate and attempted to get their super off field. It was at this point that a 150 man CFC gang showed up, they had come through a wormhole and at [PFR]’s invitation were on their way to kill the [DIP] super. Several CFC dictors died trying to bubble the Aeon but ultimately the Aeon got out in time, just before the CFC Ishtar fleet jumped into system. [DIP] stayed safe in their POS while the CFC forces grew angry at [PFR] for promising, and not delivering, a Aeon kill and so they reinforced all of the station services in [PFR]’s home (4-CM8I).
When the SBU eventually onlined at just shy of 22:00 ET [PFR] began streaming into system and immediately warped onto the station where [DIP] had setup their subcap and capital fleets. [PFR] again brought Caracals however this time they had 11 Ospreys with them, [DIP] used their ANI/Guardian fleet they already had in system. Initially very little was dying however for unknown reasons [PFR] chose to get closer to the [DIP] fleet which allowed the ANIs to kill many of their fleet. This fight was massively in [DIP]’s favour with [PFR] whelping several dozen ships and DIP losing none. [PFR] returned 20 minutes later in a torpedo bomber fleet, commonly referred to as ‘Goku’ fleet’ and they began trying to gank a Naglifar that was on grid however the Naglifar was easily able to tank the bombers and so the bomber fleet was bubbled and whelped in quick order. It seemed to many as if [PFR] would give up at this point however when the station hit 5% structure [PFR] again returned to the system in a kitchensink frigate fleet that included many bombers. [PFR] began hitting the station in an attempt to ninja the station for themselves. because of how dominion sov works, whoever hits the station last is who gets to own it and so had a [PFR] missile been the last to hit the station, the station would have been [PFR]’s. The [DIP] FC ordered all of his pilots to overheat and begin hitting the station, [DIP] won out in the end and so the station is now under their control. [DIP] then quickly killed the [RANE] TCU and put up one of their own, [PFR] did not try to contest this.
Overall it was a very fun day for all and it saw Diplomatic Immunity. enter the ranks of the sov holding entities. Over 250 pilots took part in this battle that saw 7b ISK of ships and pods lost (4.6b lost by PFR), a station/system lost by [RANE] and a new sov holding entity to arise.
