Ohkunen system, The Forge region. On the 4th of November at 21:00 EVE Standard Time a large battle took place in the system between Project.Mayhem. [16-13] and the Imperium resulting in 116 ships lost and 55.03 billion ISK of damage incurred to all parties involved.
The battle began after Project.Mayhem. had, once more reinforced an Imperium tower, this time belonging to The Bastion [BSTN] in the neighboring system of Obe. As the tower was set to exit reinforced mode both sides geared up to fight. Project.Mayhem. assembled its usual Machariel battleship fleet, 65 pilots in total with 2 triage Archon carriers as support. Northern Coalition. [NC] was also called, bringing a 90 pilot Rattlesnake battleship fleet. The two forces met on the Obe gate in Ohkunen.
Against them the Imperium fielded no less than 3 major fleets: A Machariel fleet, a Cerberus heavy assault cruiser fleet and a Hurricane battlecruiser fleet. All told the Imperium had 450 pilots on its side.
Project.Mayhem. and Northern Coalition. had eyes on the enemy fleets, with the Machariel and Cerberus fleets reaching the system first and maintaining position on the Ohkunen gate in Obe. As it became obvious the Imperium was waiting for more reinforcements, Project.Mayhem. and Northern Coalition. set up on the opposite side and prepared for a fight.
After more than 20 minutes of waiting, the Imperium forces gathered in the Obe system and jumped into the Project.Mayhem and Northern Coalition. fleets, starting the fight.
The battle was a brutal exchange as the two sides traded blows. Both the Cerberus and Hurricane fleets remained near the gate and started volleying the Northern Coalition.’s logistics cruisers, specifically the Scimitars who were unable to mitigate the incoming damage. The Imperium’s Machariel fleet in the meantime warped to a perch on the gate before engaging the combatants as the Project.Mayhem. and Northern Coalition. fleets raced to remove as many Hurricanes as possible from the field.
Pandemic Legion [-10.0] also entered at this point, having closely monitored the situation, deciding to jump in and assist Project.Mayhem. and Northern Coalition.. Pandemic Legion brought a 70 pilot Sleipnir command ship fleet from the Obe system, jumping straight into the fight taking place on the gate. Their forces quickly anchored up and exchanged fire with the Imperium forces.
The Bastion escalated the fight further, lighting a cynosural beacon on the Obe gate, bringing on to the field 12 dreadnoughts to remove the triage carriers of Project.Mayhem.. The triage carriers could do little against the 12 dreadnoughts and went down fast, though Project.Mayhem. were able to destroy three dreadnoughts.
At this point the logistics wing Northern Coalition. was nearly spent and the fleet was bleeding mainline ships. Their remaining Basilisks were initially able to stabilize their fleet, but electronic warfare from the Imperium quickly overwhelmed them, causing a total breakdown of the logistics.
Without their logistics, the Rattlesnakes were simply obliterated, forcing Northern Coalition. to leave the field.
Project.Mayhem. was next on the list, its Guardian logistics cruisers fared no better against the combined might of the Imperium fleets. Thus, Project.Mayhem. too was forced to retreat, leaving Pandemic Legion last on the field.
Pandemic Legion fleet commanders watching their allies retreat made the decision to leave as well, jumping into Obe and warping off, losing a few ships in the process to Imperium forces who were using a similar route. After putting another system between them and the Imperium, Pandemic Legion forces managed to extract as well, bringing the fighting to a close.
With this, the Imperium won both the battle and the strategic objective.
The battle from the perspective of the Project.Mayhem. Machariel fleet
The battle report for the Ohkunen system can be found here.
The battle lasted 30 minutes and saw 741 pilots in system at its peak. Time Dilation was ever-present, reaching 10% with strange behaviors reported. Fleet Commanders testified that drones did not follow commands and shot fleet members instead of primaries, fleet warps initiated and seemingly completed only to find out that the entire process had to be repeated and so forth.
Project.Mayhem. and its allies lost 76 ships including, but not limited to: 2 carriers, 30 battleships and 1 command ship for a total of 41.28 billion ISK. Imperium forces only lost 40 ships including 3 dreadnoughts, 2 battleships and 19 combat battlecruisers for 13.75 billion ISK of damage.
Salivan Harddin is a member of Reikoku, Pandemic Legion, and covers battles across New Eden
