Disclaimer: Battle Reports provided are up to date as of time of writing, figures may change as killboards update
It has been ten days since since Black Legion [MEN.] began to ramp up its campaign for Fountain. Starting first by using the handover process of systems from the Imperium (Formerly the CFC) to capture a couple of systems, to a full escalation taking nine systems within one night.
In that time, Black Legion have continued their push capturing a further 25 systems that make up the Constellations of Chimera, Wyvern, Taurus, and the majority of Sphinx.
The tensions between Black Legion and HERO Coalition have continue to rise, as in the last ten days over twenty separate engagements have taken place over towers located on high value moons across Fountain. Fountain’s main value comes from the large number of high value moons and their resources which provide a huge amount of ISK for any alliance’s income.
These clashes came to a head during the night of Friday the 15th of May as fighting broke out over three high value moons in the systems of SPLE-Y, Y-1W01 and 9R4-EJ which all have moons worth many billions of ISK for BRAVE Collective [BRAVE].
The first engagement took place in SPLE-Y over a Promethium moon. HERO arrived in system to set up with a force of 149 ships, made up of mostly Tengu and Eagle Cruisers with supporting Logistics and Frigate electronic e-war wing. Black Legion brought 134 ships including 11 Dreadnaughts, 4 Triage Archons, 23 Battleships and 72 Tech 3 Strategic Cruisers for support.
With HERO forces severely outgunned they attempted to harass the Black Legion fleet as much as possible, but an ill timed warp into the POS shortly before it was destroyed placed the HERO fleet within killing range of Black Legion’s support fleet. This ultimately spelled the end for the HERO fleet.
Black legion lost a total of 8 ships coming to a total value of 2.94 bn ISK where hero lost 53 ships totalling 6.73 bn ISK.
HERO had no choice but to withdraw to a safe tower as Black Legion claimed victory over the field and replaced the destroyed tower with one of their own.
The battle report can be found here.
The second engagement took place in the system of Y-1WO1 and numbers were somewhat more even in terms of ship types. HERO brought 145 ships, again formed up of their core doctrine of 76 Tengus and Eagles and a support wing of 53 Frigates against Black Legion’s 96 ships made up of 77 Strategic Cruisers, 8 dreadnaughts and supporting Triage Carriers.
As shots were exchanged the early casualties were HERO’s Tech 1 Logistics which made up the majority of HERO’s Cruiser losses and a large number of the support Frigate fleet. While HERO and Black Legion equality traded Strategic Cruisers losses, the loss of the Logistics and support Frigates severely hampered HERO’s ability to contest the tower and again were forced to withdraw.
Total lost: HERO 4.43bn ISK and 60 ships vs Black Legions 3.41bn lost and 26 ships.
The battle report can be seen here.
The third and final tower in the system of 9R4-EJ came out in the early hours of Saturday the 16th and was ultimately uncontested.
By the end of the night, HERO was forced to retreat from Black Legion, losing all towers that were contested with an 11 bn ship replacement bill.
While most of the systems Black Legion had previously intended to capture are now in their hands, the constellations of Manticore, Pegasus and Centaur, previously owned by the now closing Fatal Ascension [-FA-] have been switched to unclaimed, leaving them vulnerable for the taking and it appears Black Legion has already made moves to claim these systems as well.
As Black Legion and HERO Coalition continue to trade blows and Fozzie Sov looms over the horizon, the fate of Fountain remains unclear.
