For the past few weeks, the HERO Coalition and Black Legion. [MEN.] have been embroiled in fighting across the Fountain region. Both are relative newcomers to the area. HERO moved to Fountain after their withdrawal from Catch after the Imperium abandoned Fountain, choosing to consolidate its holdings in preparation for the coming changes to the Sovereignty system. Fountain Core (a group of alliances and corporations who have been operating in the region for many years) initially resisted HERO’s entrance into the region. Knowing the significant value of the regions moons, Black Legion also moved in, intent on taking systems and moons for themselves and assisting Fountain Core in its fight against HERO.
An I-Hub shield timer in 00GD-D sparked a clash yesterday between [MEN.] and Hero, with some Fountain Core members also participating. Hero FC Extrems Tivianne formed a 75 man Eagle fleet supported by bombers. HERO jumped into system early, and warped to a TCU 85km from the C-N4OD gate, and began the slow process of grinding it down, after which they would move on to the defense of the I-Hub. This process was interrupted however when BL jumped into the system with 18 Gilas, supported by a small logistics wing and a Chimera Triage Carrier. HERO quickly destroyed several Gilas, assisted by the bombers dropping void bombs on BL logistics. One HERO member uploaded a video of the first half of the fight to the Brave Collective subreddit as seen below:
[MEN.] quickly sent out a request for help, as their fleet was dying, and the Chimera was tackled. Within minutes, [MEN.] FC Raknor Bile jumped in with a Tengu fleet. Supported by Triage, the Tengus were unable to be broken by HERO forces, who quickly disengaged. Several HERO ships were tackled as the fleet warp occurred and many of them were unable to escape. Throughout the HERO retreat [MEN.] interdictors continued to tackle HERO ships who were steadily picked off, but at a price, as 7 of the 10 interdicters [MEN.] brought to the fight were destroyed in the process.
HERO Military Director Gertrude the Goat led a cautious retreat back towards the main HERO staging system of YZ-LQL, bouncing off tacs along the way. [MEN.] on the other hand burned after HERO forces directly, and managed to come between the HERO fleet and their home system. HERO decided not to run the gauntlet and docked up for the night in the station of I-CUVX, avoiding further casualties in a fight already lost.
By time the dust settled, HERO had lost 53 ships for a total of 4.94 billion ISK, and Black Legion lost 57 ships for a total of 6.96 billion ISK. A full battle report can be found here.
