Iralaja system, Black Rise region. In the early hours of the 3rd of December, Imperium forces clashed with a fleet belonging to Psychotic Tendencies. [TISHU] and Snuffed Out [B B C] over a tower in the system.
The Imperium has been waging a war against low security space alliances in an attempt to bend them to its will. As part of this campaign towers belonging to low security space entities in the north of New Eden had been reinforced with overwhelming force. A few of those towers were set to leave reinforced mode on the night of the 2nd of December.
The Imperium assembled an approximately 100 pilot Proteus strategic cruiser fleet and left its staging system towards the system of Iralaja where one of these towers was located.
Snuffed Out and Psychotic Tendencies. had been keeping tabs on the Imperium fleet, and seeing it move several dreadnoughts as well decided to form a joint Machariel battleship fleet against it. They managed to assemble a 70 pilot fleet but due to the Imperium keeping tabs on Snuffed Out staging were forced to keep half the fleet docked so as to not raise suspicion.
As the Imperium fleet reached the Iralaja system, it set up on the tower and started shooting it. After a while and possibly thinking themselves safe, Imperium forces brought 3 dreadnoughts on the field in order to make short work of the tower. Once the dreadnoughts entered their siege cycle, the joint fleet re-grouped and burned to a titan, bridging a couple of systems away from Iralaja and racing in to get the tackle on the dreadnoughts before they exit their siege cycle.
The joint fleet managed to land just as the dreadnoughts exited siege and tackle them, though there was a brief window in which the dreadnoughts could have jumped out or warped off but didn’t. With the Machariel fleet on the field, the Imperium Proteus fleet quickly perched above the grid before choosing to land on top of the Machariels and start the fight.
This quickly turned to be a mistake. The Machariels were fitted with auto-cannons and easily shredded the strategic cruisers who could do little to tank the incoming fire. As Proteus after Proteus was torn apart by the Machariels, the Imperium attempted to bring a couple of triage carriers to help stabilize the fleet. However even they couldn’t help as the Proteus were simply volleyed by the Machariels at this point.
Losing ships at an alarming rate and unable to break the tank of the Machariels which easily soaked the damage of the Proteus, the Imperium made the only choice possible for it and retreated. This allowed the Machariel fleet to focus on the dreadnoughts who quickly melted by the combined damage output on the field. However the triage carriers were able to slip away as all attention was given to the dreadnoughts.
With the dreadnoughts destroyed and the Imperium fleet fleeing, the joint fleet claimed victory before safely extracting back to their staging systems.
The Battle from the Perspective of the Joint Machariel Fleet
Battle report for the Iralaja system can be found here.
All told the battle lasted 15 minutes with Time Dilation not reported and the system hosting approximately 230 pilots at the peak of the fighting.
The Snuffed Out and Psychotic Tendencies. fleet suffered no losses while the Imperium lost 41 ships including 3 dreadnoughts and 24 strategic cruisers for a total of 25.84 billion ISK damage.
Salivan Harddin is a member of Reikoku, Pandemic Legion, and covers battles across New Eden
