FWST-8 system, Delve region. On the 11th of July at 20:30 EVE Standard Time, forces belonging to Pandemic Legion [-10.0], the Imperium and The Gorgon Empire [-GE-] clashed over a Confederation of xXPIZZAXx [PIZZA] tower in the system.
The tower was reinforced by [-10.0] forces earlier and its timer was nearly up. [PIZZA] brought mainly Osprey and Scythe Cruisers to repair the tower’s shields, while the Reavers Squadron, an Imperium unit which specializes in behind the lines deployments, brought a Tengu Strategic Cruiser fleet (Estimates vary from 30 to 50 pilots) to help [PIZZA].
[-GE-] surprisingly showed up for the timer as the alliance is a resident of the Curse region. It brought a mix of Zealot Heavy Assault Cruisers and Proteus and Legion Strategic Cruisers, the entire fleet estimated at 50 pilots.
The [-GE-] and the Reavers’ fleets maneuvered on the tower’s grid, the latter keeping out of range of the [-GE-] ships. [-10.0] had eyes on the proceedings and decided to form up, bringing a 60 pilot Sleipnir Command Ship fleet. The fleet quickly warped to the grid and ended up in between the two fleets, who pinged away from each other. [-10.0] forces then attempted to land on top of the [-GE-] force, but some badly placed interdiction probes blocked their path. This allowed the [-GE-] fleet time to reposition while the [-10.0] managed to burn out of the interdiction probes and finally land too late, only catching a single straggler.
At this point both the [-GE-] and Reavers fleets were off grid, and the [-10.0] force turned its attention on the tower, and most notably on the [PIZZA] Cruisers attempting to repair the shields. A couple were volleyed as the [-10.0] force skirted the edge of the tower’s shields, when [-GE-] forces warped back to the grid at close range of the [-10.0] forces.
This time an actual fight flared up, with [-10.0] able to tank for the the most part the enemy barrages. At first the [-GE-] side was able to keep its ships alive, but after a couple of Logistics ships were destroyed, the battle changed. The Zealots were the first to pop, followed by a couple of Legions. Realizing that they couldn’t hold against the Sleipnirs’ artillery fire, the [-GE-] force quickly conceded the field and attempted to withdraw, losing a few ships in the process.
The Reavers Tengus attempted to snipe at the [-10.0] ships during the fight, but were easily tanked, their fit a peculiarity as they appeared to be Heavy Missile fit. Another attempt by [PIZZA] to use the confusion of the battlefield to repair the shields was again blocked by [-10.0], who by now decided to bring Dreadnoughts to the field and quickly finish the tower.
The Peculiar Missile Variant of the Slippery Pete – Click for Killmail
With two Dreadnoughts on the field, the Reavers fleet may have been overconfident, thinking it had the range over the [-10.0] Sleipnirs and attempted to focus fire on the Dreadnoughts. Instead, it found out it was in range, and a few Tengus were volleyed as the Reavers scrambled to disengage and concede defeat.
This did not mark the end of fighting, as an Ev0ke [EV0KE] Orthrus Cruiser gang consisting of around 20 pilots loitered at the edge of the battlefield. For some reason it was dragged by the [-10.0] defensive bubbles attempting to ping, and was quickly annihilated. With hostiles quickly clearing out, [-10.0] brought forth more Dreadnoughts and quickly disposed of the tower, planting its own.
After securing the moon, [-10.0] forces then re-formed and quickly moved throughout the Delve region, reinforcing more towers before calling it a day and docking up again, thus ending large scale hostilities in the region for the night.
Footage of the Battle from Pandemic Legion’s Logistics PoV, Courtesy of fin1712
Battle report for the FWST-8 system can be found here.
The battle lasted 40 minutes, with 300 pilots present in local at the peak of the fighting with no Time Dilation reported.
Numbers are sketchy due to some losses not recorded, but so far [-10.0] lost only 6 ships for 300Mil ISK damage. The Reavers and [PIZZA] lost 12 ships including 2 Tengus for 1.66Bil ISK damage. [-GE-] lost 8 ships, including 5 Zealots and 1 Legion, for 2.5Bil ISK damage and [EV0KE] lost 11 ships, including 4 Orthrus for 2.97Bil ISK damage.
While [-10.0] managed to claim both the field and the moon, this was merely the first skirmish between [-10.0] and local powers. How it will go from here is anybody’s guess.
Salivan Harddin writes for The EVE Scribe, Providence Bloc’s News Portal. When he isn’t busy writing articles, he usually shoots towers with little result.
