DISCLAIMER: Stats and figures have been pulled from battle reports on zKillboard and true at time of writing. This information may still be subject to change. Additionally, due to the large amount of re-shipping done by HERO forces numbers should be considered mere estimates.
The continuing tug of war over Fountain‘s moons continues as Black Legion. [MEN.] and their Fountain Core Coalition allies clash on almost a daily basis against the HERO Coalition.
For a good number of weeks the fighting has usually kept itself to sub-caps with the occasional Carrier support, yet it appears the scale of the various engagements have been escalating with more and more capitals being deployed by both sides.
In the early hours of Saturday the 30th, forces on both sides began forming for a fight in the system of MN5N-X over a Dysprosium Moon which continues to be the focal point of this conflict with over 5 separate engagements over the last two weeks alone.
[MEN.] formed a fleet with 4 Dreadnoughts and 2 Carriers. The sub-cap fleet consisted of a Tech 3 Cruiser wing of 60 Tengus plus Logistics and mix of other support ships. this brought their force to approximately 109 pilots, which moved into position to attack the Brave Collective [BRAVE] tower.
HERO Coalition formed up a fleet of almost 300 pilots including its signature ewar / tackle Frigate wing, a bomber wing, and 100 Cruisers made up of mostly Eagle Heavy Assault Cruisers.
The two fleets moved in to engage and wasting little time HERO’s Capital ship fleet of 10 Dreadnoughts and 4 carriers arrived to start hitting the Capitals of [MEN.].
[MEN.] however were prepared for this (having lost a couple of fights last week to the HERO Capital fleet) and were ready with a counter of their own in the form of 15 assorted Super Carriers. The Super Capitals however did not arrive in time to save the Capitals that were already on field, both Carriers and two of the four Dreadnoughts were destroyed by the withering firepower of the HERO Capital ships within the space of four minutes.
HERO now found themselves with their own Capital ship fleet out gunned by the Super Capital ships who began applying their own devastating firepower towards them. The entire combined capital ship fleet (with exception of one lone Revelation) was lost in the space of 6 minutes.
You can see a video from the perspective of one of [MEN.] Nyx Pilots below.
With their objective completed, the [MEN.] Super Capital fleet began to withdraw from the field as news of a Pandemic Legion [-10.0] Capital fleet was on the move towards the system. Despite HERO’s best efforts to keep the Super Capitals on field, losing 67 Interdictors and 5 Heavy Interdiction Cruisers, the [MEN.] Super Capitals managed to make it out before [-10.0] could arrive thanks in part to Fountain Core working to clear the large number of interdiction bubbles.
This left the sub-capital fleets to duke it out over the tower for the next 35 minutes. This was recorded by an observer of the battle and covers the departure of the Super Capitals at 34 seconds until the end of the fight.
Eventually HERO suffered the loss of its entire Tech 1 Cruiser and Logistics fleet which ultimately resulted in them withdrawing from the field bloodied and battered to fight another day.
Total Black Legion. losses – 90 ships worth 29.18bn ISK
Total HERO losses – 379 ships worth 52.52bn ISK
The full battle report can be seen here.
Edit – some minor edits for accuracy i) the fight over a timer was removed. ii) ‘Super’ was removed from the headline.
