After destroying assets in a wormhole a few weeks ago it appears pirate alliance ‘The Bastards’ [BSTRD] have gotten a taste for wormhole destruction. Immediately following their previous campaign scouts had been deployed far and wide to find new, suitable targets.
[BSTRD] scout Dwaigon Aumer located two dreadnoughts in J120431 a few weeks ago and decided a class 1 wormhole should not be allowed to house these capitals without going unpunished. J120431 has 14 medium towers of which more than half still in operation. The two towers of interest where the capital maintenance array on planet 3 and the Naglfar and Phoenix class vessels floating at Planet 6.
To speed up the process Bastard Alliance CEO, Nashh Kadavr, invited WH friends ‘Illusion of Solitude’ [IoS] under command of Oreamnos Amric whom gladly joined forces again for a common goal.
Late Thursday evening 26th of March the flashy Bastard pilots from Cosmic Odyssey [CODC] and [BSTRD] burned their Ishtars through Hi-sec and met up with [IoS] already in the target system. Without pause the attackers started the assault on the Medium Blood Tower housing the two dreadnoughts. Within just a few hours the first POS was besieged and all offensive modules incapacitated before being heavily bubbled, trapping all assets inside.
Over the course of the night or early morning the wormhole residents ‘End of Natural Lifetime’ [EOL] managed to clear the bubbles and free the two dreadnoughts and stored them in the Large Blood Tower on planet 3. Bastards and friends returned in force early evening however and made short work of the defenses and the tower itself. Bubbles were placed expertly by [CODC] pilot isca and where protected overnight by Bastard pilots pulling a night shift, adamant not to let the dreads escape again.
Repeated attempts to start negotiations for a ransom where declined and the fate of the two towers seemed sealed.
The first tower was due to come out on Saturday and with little to no resistance being offered so far, the collective of attackers formed up in Ishtars and Oracles with Scimitar support. A small gang of logistic boats and Nestors had been spotted but posed no real concern. Moments after hitting the POS scouts called out a small gang of 8 Tech 3 cruisers, inbound from the Hi-sec entrance and again caution was thrown to the wind. The call was made to remain on grid as the estimated damage output from the T3’s would not be able to punch through the Scimitars repping power.
Mercenaries and friends of [EOL] poured on field in quick succession; not the reported 8 but no less than 35 Tech 3’s and guardians with tackle support. A short fight ensued, Bastards managed to kill off some tackle but the Oracles could not keep up with the speed of the Ishtars and where simply not fit for the task at hand. Bright blue flashes lit up the battlefield as 11 ships on the invaders side exploded and were forced to retreat.
With their tails in between their legs and no control of the wormhole, the decision was made to prepare evacuating the hole and abandoning their campaign. The threat of the now amassed numbers against them and half of their fleet being without ships made the intended goal impossible.
Expert probers from [IoS] managed to locate a new exit and some pilots prepared to take out some of their remaining assets just as the unthinkable happened. Tower 1, despite being repped back to above 50% and with guns back online had run out of fuel. Not a second was wasted as new Ishtars were rushed back in and the tower was swiftly liberated of its modules and guns. Some of the offensive Items were salvaged and used to bolster up the [BSTRD] staging POS and the tables seemed to have turned back into their favor.
As the previous entrance closed up and time zone difference held back what remained of the T3 fleet it appeared the second tower would also soon fall into the same fate and be destroyed, with all its assets inside.
A few of the pirates remained online to keep a vigil on entrances and to keep eyes on the target POS. at 5:00am Saturday morning, [EOL] resigned to their fate and started ejecting their valuables including the two Dreadnoughts. Despite Nashh Kadavr’s repeated attempt to negotiate a ransom, the CEO of [EOL] began self-destructing all assets including the two dreads, which he referred to as worthless.
The invaders achieved their goal of destroying the class 1, purpose built dreads, but had no killmail to show for it. Upon destroying the tower as it came out of reinforced the invaders celebrated, claiming at least moral victory and a share of the spoils.
