(Disclaimer: The author of this piece is a member of Diplomatic Immunity.)
On the evening of the 29th of May, 4-CM8I and the next-door system of 1QZ-Y9 was home to the scene of a bloodbath as 100s of pilots from PFR, TEST, RED, DIP and more brawled it out resulting in the destruction of some 400 ships at an estimated cost of nearly 19 billion isk.
The evening started when a vanadium moon belonging to Phoebe Freeport Republic [PFR] came out of reinforcement in 1QZ-Y9. PFR formed up a 35 man Phantasm/Moa fleet with heavy Basilisk support and started repping the POS. REDIP (Red Alliance [RED] + Diplomatic Immunity. [DIP]) got word of PFR repping the POS flash-formed a 60 man Ishtar fleet with Dreadnought support to kill the PFR forces and the tower. Just as the tower was nearing 50% (When it cannot be killed without a reinforcement cycle) REDIP landed on grid and began engaging the Phantasm fleet. While PFR focused on targeting enemy Ishtars, REDIP focused on enemy Basilisks while burning away from the POS in an attempt to draw PFR away from the potential safety of the POS shields, when PFR were sufficiently far enough from the POS, half a dozen REDIP interdictors landed on grid and bubbled the PFR fleet. The fight quickly turned into a turkey shoot with only 2 PFR Phantasms escaping from the initial 11 Phantasms and 5 Basilisks on field. With the PFR fleet dead, REDIP quickly burnt down the tower and headed home happy with the 4b isk in kills they had harvested.
After losing the fight in 1QZ-Y9, PFR decided to have some fun with an insurance scam Revelation in 4-CM8I. They invited TEST, RANE and Spectre Fleet to participate in the festivities which saw nearly 200 pilots quickly pile into the system. Test Alliance Please Ignore [TEST] showed up in a Svipul/Frigate fleet while PFR decided to fly a kitchensink setup. The fight quickly drew the attention of the ISD Interstellar Correspondent [ISDIC] who tweeted about the fight. TEST quickly took control and were beating PFR, thanks in part to an awful grid on the planet 4 POCO, eventually the Revelation died and Spectre Fleet/PFR dis-engaged. Though the engagement was short (only 20 minutes long) it was intense and saw over 140 ships explode at a cost of 5.5b isk. REDIP saw the tweet and began forming up an Ishtar fleet. The form up was slow, however, so they did not make it into system until the Revelation was dead. Upon entering system REDIP found PFR docked up, Spectre Fleet cloaked up and TEST already back home in U-H. While REDIP camped the undock, PFR started forming up a fleet and TEST began forming up an Ishtar fleet to combat the REDIP forces.
Word came in to REDIP of a large TEST Ishtar fleet en route to help PFR so REDIP repositioned themselves onto the B-1UJC gate in 4-C in preparation. As TEST jumped into system they were met with a prepared enemy Ishtar fleet, but TEST still chose to engage despite the enemy having the advantage. PFR undocked a frigate fleet and warped to the gate and the fight got underway. The fight started off slowly with both sides failing to break the other’s reps. Because of this, REDIP refocused their fire onto PFR’s frigates and dictors at the cost of several Ishtars. With PFR now off field REDIP again focused their fire on the TEST Ishtar fleet, but were unsuccessful in applying their damage. TEST had fitted their Ishtars with 100mn ABs which made it very difficult for the enemy Bouncers to properly track them. Realizing this REDIP abandoned their drones and repositioned themselves 40k behind the enemy Ishtars and dropped a new set of bouncers. TEST immediately began burning straight for the enemy Ishtars which allowed the bouncers of REDIP to properly apply their full damage. TEST began losing Ishtars at an alarming rate and after the death of the 6th Ishtar they dis-engaged and docked up in station. REDIP followed TEST to the station and began hitting the repair service while they waited for TEST/PFR to undock.
REDIP eventually grew bored of hitting station services and set their destinations to home when they received intel that PFR had re-anchored the vanadium moon from earlier. When you online a POS it does not start with 100% shield, so REDIP decided it would be best to quickly reinforce the tower before heading home instead of waiting until later when the shields would be full. After a few short minutes of hitting the POS, it was reinforced and intel came in that TEST/PFR wanted another fight. REDIP quickly warped to the 4-C gate in 1QZ and set up in preparation for the incoming enemy forces. PFR had reshipped into a Maulus/frig setup that was designed to supplement TEST’s Ishtars and to a certain extent this worked well. While TEST focused on enemy Ishtars, PFR’s Mauluses applied heavy damp pressure to REDIP logistics which made many of them very nervous. REDIP quickly refocused their fire away from the enemy Ishtars and instead focused on clearing the field of Mauluses as the damp pressure was becoming overwhelming. After a few short minutes the Maulus pack was sufficiently thinned out for REDIP to again focus on killing enemy Ishtars. With the Maulus support gone, TEST began bleeding Ishtars at an alarming rate and eventually they began to dis-engage. Their FC was caught, however, and purposefully kept on-grid until he was the last hostile ship. While REDIP looted the field, Spectre Fleet tried to snag some kills, but they were quickly chased off and REDIP headed home immensely pleased at what had been a successful and enjoyable evening.
The 4 engagements took place over 3 and a half hours and saw over 300 pilots fight first over a largely worthless moon, then over an insurance-scam Dreadnought and finally just for the sake of fighting. With nearly 19b isk destroyed the evening certainly proved to be explosive. With the way the South-East, is heading it is likely we won’t see a fight like this in the area for some time.
Thanks to greg2010, Omar Mokhtar, Vampire Huunaras, Naliao Vee, Avery Lewis and Charles Wu-Wong for their help in the making of this article.
