N5Y-4N System, Venal region. On the 5th of May, 22:20 EVE Standard Time, a Circle-Of-Two [CO2] Apocalypse Navy Issue Battleship fleet and its Capital escorts met a bloody end at the hands of Out of Sight. [OOS] and Pandemic Legion.
[CO2], a member alliance of the CFC, now re-branded as the Imperium, have been waging a campaign in Venal to dislodge the local residents and take over the moons in the region. Thus, [CO2] proceeded to reinforce a tower in the N5Y-4N system belonging to [OOS] with an Apocalypse Navy Issue Battleship fleet and Capitals, approximately 40 members strong, including 2 Moros, 3 Naglfar 3 Revelation Dreadnoughts and 7 Archon and 1 Nidhoggur Carriers. The force was quickly tackled by [OOS] Interdictors and a call for reinforcements resounded.
Pandemic Legion was one of the entities contacted. Usually, it would have been impossible for Pandemic Legion’s forces to arrive in time considering the distance between their current staging in the Curse region and Venal, which is no less than 50 stargate jumps. A quick check, though, discovered a link between Venal and Curse going through a Wormhole system. The link was only 1 jump from Pandemic Legion’s staging and 5 jumps from the scene of the action. With the route scouted and bookmarked, a ping went out for pilots to assemble. A 60 pilot Proteus fleet was organized and ships started to burn towards the system, with [OOS] keeping the [CO2] fleet bubbled.
By the time Pandemic Legion arrived on the scene some of the Capitals had already managed to escape, leaving 3 Dreadnoughts and 6 Archons still bubbled, along with their Battleship escorts. The Pandemic Legion force proceeded to go into the thick of the Battleships, managing to break the considerable tank of the Apocalypse Navy Issue ships. However, as the numbers of the [CO2] ships dwindled, the Triage Archons were able to repair them with ease. This caused Pandemic Legion to change targets to the Archons themselves, with [OOS] given the green light to bring their own Dreadnoughts to hasten the process.
One after another the Archons succumbed to the onslaught, with Pandemic Legion switching between them and the Battleships before turning their attention to the tackled Dreadnoughts. The 2 Revelations fell, but the Naglfar managed to self destruct. A futile gesture, but perhaps a moral victory gained by the pilot. By this point Pandemic Legion was reinforced by [OOS] Machariel Battleships as well as Stealth Bombers, some of which belonged to Mordus Angels [MOA], another known opponent of the Imperium. [CO2] brought in a reinforcing Ishtar Heavy Assault Cruiser fleet, around 30 pilots strong, who landed on top of one of the [OOS] Dreadnoughts. However, this force arrived too late and with too little strength. It quickly got bubbled and decimated by the Pandemic Legion Strategic Cruisers, and was forced to abandon the field.
Footage of the Fight, Courtesy of Bobmon.
Battle report for the N5Y-4N system can be found here.
The system saw no more than 220 pilots in local during the height of the battle, with Time Dilation being a non-factor. The fight lasted around 40 minutes from initial tackle until the last [CO2] ship was forced to leave the field.
The Butcher’s bill is astounding. While [OOS] and [MOA] lost some ships, mostly Stealth Bombers and Interdictors, 2 Billion ISK damage in 27 ship losses, [CO2] lost no less than 67 ships, 9 of which were Capitals, for a whooping 33 Billion ISK worth of carnage. Just for comparison, the battle fought between GemCo and the Vanguard Coalition on the 30th of April reached these figures, and that was a battle fought between 800 pilots.
With [CO2] continuing its push to clear Venal, it is certain that the region will see further fighting, as the local alliances continue their fierce opposition to the invasion.
Salivan Harddin writes for The EVE Scribe, Providence Bloc’s News Portal. When he isn’t busy writing articles, he makes horrible reddit posts.
