Y7-XFD system, Great Wildlands region. On the 7th of December at 21:15 EVE Standard Time, a Memento Moriendo [MEMON] capital force was destroyed by a Pandemic Legion [-10.0] fleet.
Memento Moriendo is a relatively new alliance which split off from Northern Coalition. [NC] and moved first to the Molden Heath region before settling in the Great Wildlands. Since arriving to the region, the alliance has been busy claiming moons and pushing out local residents such as E.B.O.L.A. [E8OLA]. When one of the E.B.O.L.A. towers was reinforced by a large capital force which included a Nyx supercarrier, the information was quickly passed to Pandemic Legion.
As the tower was coming out of reinforcement mode, both sides prepared to fight over it. Memento Moriendo brought a 30 pilot Proteus strategic cruiser fleet which included an Archon carrier and 5 dreadnoughts. The force made its way by gates, arriving to the system and warping to a safe spot where it lit a cynosural beacon to let its capitals jump in before warping the combined force to the tower itself.
Against this force E.B.O.L.A. mustered 20 pilots in Ishtar heavy assault cruisers, though half the force included interdictors and heavy interdictors to grab initial tackle of the enemy force as Pandemic Legion was expected to show up. The force waited in the tower’s shields for Memento Moriendo to make its move.
Pandemic Legion assembled a 75 pilot Sleipnir command ship fleet and utilizing wormholes entered the Great Wildlands region, cautiously advancing to the system so as not to alert the Memento Moriendo force to its presence.
For their part, Memento Moriendo set up on the tower and started the slow task of destroying it, its dreadnoughts entering siege mode and blasting the shields with their armaments. The E.B.O.L.A. Ishtars with the tower’s guns attempted to offer some resistance, focusing on the Naglfar dreadnought which was present. The dreadnought took heavy damage and was forced to discontinue its siege cycle, a fact which its pilot would later thank.
Once the Pandemic Legion fleet was in position and the dreadnoughts again entered their siege cycle, the trap was sprung. The E.B.O.L.A. heavy interdictors which were positioned in the tower’s shields ventured out into the Memento Moriendo capital group and activated their interdiction fields, trapping them on grid as the Pandemic Legion force burnt in to secure tackle.
The Memento Moriendo Capitals Tackled on the Tower
The Memento Moriendo Proteus fleet quickly realizing the danger acted decisively and removed the heavy interdictors, but with most of its dreadnoughts in siege could do very little to extract them. At this point Pandemic Legion forces already landed on grid near the tower. Though scattered, the Pandemic Legion force swiftly rallied, its interdictors trapping the Memento Moriendo capitals except the Naglfar, which managed to quickly jump out of the system.
A short battle developed between the Pandemic Legion Sleipnirs and the Memento Moriendo Proteus fleet. The Sleipnirs’ artillery cannons found the armor of the strategic cruisers to be tough indeed, as shell after shell exploded against the hardened plates with little impact as the Archon carrier remote repairers simply restored them. However as the Proteus fleet attempted to keep range and steer away from the interdiction probes which blanketed the grid, it soon moved out of the Archon’s range.
Without the valuable triage remote repairs, the strategic cruisers simply caved in to the unrelenting barrage of artillery fire. hastily following them were the Guardian logistics cruisers which remained on grid. Remnants of the fleet quickly made an expedient retreat allowing the Pandemic Legion Sleipnirs to focus on the trapped capitals.
First the Archon carrier was taken care of to make sure it could not repair any of the tackled dreadnoughts and thus prolong the clean up job. Then came the turn of the dreadnoughts themselves, who by now futilely attempted to slowly burn out of the bubbles.
The Memento Moriendo Dreadnoughts Attempting to Escape out of the Interdction Probe Cover
Helping in the process of dismantling the behemoths was a League of Unaligned Master Pilots [LUMPY] Naga battlecruiser fleet, approximately 50 pilots large which arrived at the system. With the help of the additional fire power the Nagas’ rail guns provided, the dreadnoughts were taken down swiftly, artillery shells and hybrid charges breaking through armor plates in an unending stream, easily overcoming the behemoths’ defenses.
With the tower secured and the grid cleared of hostiles, both Pandemic Legion and League of Unaligned Master Pilots fleets departed the system, bringing an end to hostilities.
Battle report for the Y7-XFD system can be found here.
All told the battle raged for 20 minutes with the system hosting an estimated 150 pilots near the end and Time Dilation not reported.
The allied fleets lost a total of 9 ships resulting in 900 million ISK of damage while Memento Moriendo and its ally lost 19 including 1 carrier, 4 dreadnoughts and 5 strategic cruisers which amount to 20.08 billion ISK damage.
Salivan Harddin is a member of Reikoku, Pandemic Legion, and covers battles across New Eden
