On the 15th of November at 16:00 EVE Standard Time, Imperium forces clashed once more with Out of Sight. [OOS] over towers in the Venal region, leading to no less than 3 bloody engagements in the span of 2 hours.
Out of Sight. assembled a 50 pilot Cerberus heavy assault cruiser fleet and made its way to the MQFX-Q system where two of its towers were previously reinforced by Imperium forces. It also had a stealth bomber squadron for support.
Against them the Imperium assembled no less than 300 pilots in 4 fleets including a Ferox battlecruiser fleet, a Cerberus fleet, a Sacrilege heavy assault cruiser fleet and a Hawk assault frigate fleet.
As Imperium forces converged on the system, the Imperium’s Cerberus fleet arrived first on one of the tower grids, with Out of Sight. forces warping in range and starting the engagement.
The Imperium’s Cerberus fleet was quickly knocked out as Out of Sight.’s bomber wing continuously bombed the force. In just a few minutes almost the entirety of the fleet had been wiped out by the bombers, forcing its remnants to retreat lest the Out of Sight. Cerberus fleet annihilate it. At this point though, both the Hawk and the Ferox fleet had made it in and joined the battle.
Out of Sight. forces attempted to engage the Ferox fleet, the two sides exchanging fire at medium range while the Hawk fleet attempted repeatedly to maneuver and land on top of the Cerberus in order to tackle them. The missile and rail gun exchanges proved far more costly to the Ferox fleet as it was losing ships in rapid succession, managing to destroy only the odd Cerberus for 5, sometimes 10 ships in return.
By this time the Sacrilege fleet had arrived on field, with Out of Sight. deciding to focus on it. After an unsuccessful attempt to overwhelm its Oneiros logistics cruisers, Out of Sight. switched to the Sacrileges themselves, who proved far less resistant than their logistics. Quickly, Sacrileges were torn up by missile volleys, unable to receive remote repairers in time.
However, the Sacrilege fleet was not the only one present in the exchange. With both the Ferox and Hawk fleets warping in and attempting to engage the Out of Sight. Cerberus, it was only a matter of time before their fleet would be boxed in. After a chase around the grid and the system itself and losing ships with each warp, Out of Sight. forces realized they could do little on the field, and were forced to concede, retreating back to their staging system.
This allowed Imperium forces to remove two towers in the system without much resistance.
The Fight from the Perspective of the Out of Sight. Cerberus Fleet
After losing in MQFX-Q, Out of Sight. forces returned to their staging system of N5Y-4N, where another tower was reinforced and the timer running out. While waiting in station, the Imperium’s Sacrilege fleet attempted to camp Out of Sight. forces in, thus allowing the Imperium to remove the tower without interference.
Out of Sight. wasn’t going to let the Imperium have its way and quickly re-shipped into a Typhoon battleship fleet with triage carrier support. The fleet undocked and engaged the Sacrilege fleet on station. After a quick exchange and with minimal losses, the Sacrilege fleet was forced to give the station a wide berth, allowing Out of Sight. later on to exit the station and engage the Imperium once more without a problem.
After clearing their staging station’s undock range, Out of Sight. forces re-shipped once more, this time into Tengu strategic cruisers with stealth bomber support. This force warped to the tower in the system, with Imperium forces waiting. The Out of Sight. Tengus maintained maximum range from Imperium forces and started sniping while the stealth bombers dived time after time on the Imperium’s fleets, unleashing their devastating payloads.
Imperium forces attempted time and again to warp and land on top of the Out of Sight. Tengus, which managed to slip away from their grasp. However as time went on, more and more pilots in the Out of Sight. fleet aligned and warped late, which resulted in their capture and subsequent destruction. This did not impede the Out of Sight. stealth bombers though, which kept harassing Imperium forces.
While the Tengu fleet was forced to finally retreat, the Out of Sight. stealth bombers carried out one last assault, managing to once again annihilate an Imperium fleet, a replacement Cerberus fleet which was brought to back up Imperium forces.
Once more in control of the field, Imperium forces quickly destroyed the tower before extracting, ending large scale hostilities between the two.
The Battle on the N5Y-4N Tower from the Perspective of the Out of Sight. Stealth Bomber Squadron
Battle report for the MQFX-Q and N5Y-4N systems can be found here.
All told the two sides fought for nearly 2 hours with local hosting approximately 300-350 pilots at the peak of fighting and no Time Dilation registered.
Out of Sight. lost 84 ships, including 10 strategic cruisers and 12 heavy assault cruisers for a total of 12.11 billion ISK damage. Imperium forces fared much worse with 215 ships lost including 23 battlecruisers and 71 heavy assault cruisers for a total of 30.62 billion ISK damage.
While the fate of the MQFX-Q towers remains unknown at the time of writing, the N5Y-4N tower was replaced by Out of Sight., meaning that the Imperium managed to secure a tactical victory at a great cost, but may have failed to achieve its strategic objectives.
