Life in Catch has been somewhat troubling for the members of BRAVE and HERO; the loss of a long-standing member of leadership to the CFC, the ongoing phoney war with Pandemic Legion, who generate timer after timer to force fight after fight on an ever-dwindling number of HERO ships & the loss of one fleet commander to Pandemic Legion, who took with him the Capital Fleet Commander and a sizeable chunk of the BRAVE budding Capital and Super Capital Fleet.
Forced to evacuate what is now dubbed GErusalem or GE-8JV, the BRAVE staging system, to the less-desirable HED-GP.
Test Alliance, one of the founding members of the HERO coalition announced its departure.
Along with a maelstrom of drama on its subreddit, the spotlight is firmly on BRAVE as people look for signs that cracks may be about to appear.
After the massive defence of GE-8JV last week where HERO formed up some 1,500 people only to have Pandemic Legion to show up in Slippery Petes, some people used the much-needed reprieve to evacuate the majority of their assets away to HED, but it wasn’t long before the station was reinforced once more.
Again, the wait began for what would be GE8’s final timer. Pre-prep pings went out telling people that maximum people were needed.
We will be forming up in he’d at 0045make sure you have eagle doctrine ready.
And ewar of course for those that cant fly eagle doctrine.
thanks all
this will be an interesting op, more info closer to form up.
This is where the story takes an interesting twist: somewhere within the ranks of N3 and Pandemic Legion there was a request for support against the CFC invasion that was underway in the system of ZXB-VC. During the form-up for the GE timer, a PL Fleet Commander approached BRAVE Fleet Commander Blue Ice and Diplomat Liquid Dressig.
While HERO leadership was unavailable to comment on the specifics of this arrangement, it was clear from a ping issued by Blue Ice shortly thereafter that Pandemic Legion stood down from their attack on GE-8JV in order to allow HERO forces to travel to ZXB-VC to assist the defence of the system.
‘We’re going to be teaming up with NC (for this fight only) to help them fight cfc invading their space.
Why are we doing this?
1. We are being paid
2. NC have been bros to us and it’s time to pay them back with a little help
3. Pl is going to leave GE-8 tonight to give people a little more time to log in and restage to HED’
And with that, the HERO Forces made its way out of Catch to Delve. Reddit user Callduron explained on Brave Sub Reddit
‘…we formed up in 2 separate fleets one of eagles and one of ewar in HED. Eventually we got moving and entered high sec. An opportunistic griefer pointed a criminal fleet member at the HED gate, which held him long enough for the faction police to arrive and stomp him. Sadly there was nothing the other 200 of us could do to help without escalating things into an unwinnable fight with NPC police, we moved off to nearby lowsec. -1 Eagle.’
After a long crossing through highsec the fleet arrived at an arranged bridging system.
‘On arriving we assembled on a DARKNESS titan and got bridged across Delve. Except one guy who muttered something darkly about taking gates and was never seen nor heard of again.
We formed in ZXB on the ihub, which was the thing that needed defending. Apparently it had been “attacked” by its own defenders which is apparently clever under the impenetrable mysteries of Dominion sov but in any event the timer ticked down with the CFC patiently not having fun in the system next door.
For some reason the CFC FC, Lazarus Telraven, jumped them in for some fun even though the ihub and the objective was never going to be taken. We met them on the Y-2 gate – BRAVE, N3 and BL.
It was at this point that Eve’s brightest-eyed newbro FC met Eve’s bitterest vet. Kira’s Ewar fleet proved no match for Wheniaminspace’s bomber squads and today we mourn many Mauluses.’ (28 to be exact)
‘Blue Ice however had positioned the Eagles neatly and we were able to primary through most of our targets (one or two, such as a FC Damnation, proved a little too tough). We got a Damnation, a Loki, a few Domis. We also got a few CFC bombers as bombers were everywhere – it was like an annual bomber convention in Bomber City where bombers can bring a guest free as long as that guest is also a bomber. Tidi was cruel and I d/ced, luckily managing to get back on and rejoin the fleet. Several other people d/ced and were probed down and killed.
Our side was getting a licking and, new to the merc life, we looked around for inspiration and example. Fortunately, one of the greatest merc FCs in Eve was on the field with his merry band of men (and women). Or was he? Noticing that Elo Knight had decided discretion is the better part of valour, Blue Ice followed his lead after a particularly hairy bombing run forced us off grid and we never returned to grid, instead taking the 30 jumps through tidi long march home.
Blue Ice informed us that we took the least losses and managed the most kills of anyone on our side making us the best loser. He then rushed to make this post. The title is possibly inaccurate but since the best fleet on grid was cloaked up waiting for more newbros in Mauluses it’s an understandable mistake.’
After giving some time for the Battle Report to Update – Blue Ice’s initial estimation of being the best looser for losing the least is actually not far from the truth. Brave fielded 227 ships and lost 111 to the total value of 2.95bn ISK with a 91.3% efficiency.
You can view the full battle report for the fight here
While overall the the timer for the system was saved and the sovereignty blockade units that were keeping the system vulnerable were destroyed, N3 and Co. paid a heavy price. In total some 290 ships were lost with the ISK value of 19.88bn ISK in comparison to the CFC who lost 153 ships valued at 8.66bn.
With the timer saved, BRAVE headed for home, but this is only half the story.
Back in GE-8JV in Catch, the HERO capital fleet and supporting sub capital support was busy repairing the station in order to take down the Sovereignty Blockade Units that have held GE-8JV vulnerable to attack for two weeks now.
Reddit user and Of Sound Mind member SirKillalot explain in his redit post –
‘Brave carriers repped the station unopposed while SOUND brought some caps and a cerberus fleet to kill SBUs. At some point during that a Bloodline bomber gang showed up to provide additional dps. My understanding is that PL had agreed not to interfere with the objective in exchange for BRAVE going off to fight goons, so this went more or less unopposed.’
Two of the three Sovereignty Blockade units had been removed and the station was fully repaired by the remaining HERO forces, but there was still a surprise in store for them as SirKillalot continued –
‘SOUND landed on the last SBU, at which point they (PL) dropped a bunch of titans (https://sound.zkillboard.com/kill/45531425/) on us. Thanks to good situational awareness and having an out cyno ready to go, the rest of the caps made it out just before the bubble went up…’
With the final SBU’s now dead and the station repaired, GE is safe again for the time being.
This of course raises a number of questions about the future of BRAVE and HERO. Has HERO/BRAVE finally had enough of the constant pressure of forcing fights? Are they to become a mercenary alliance, a baby PL? Who knows, but time will only tell.
Featured Image courtesy of kadonbeir
