On the 1st of January as the rest of New Eden was recovering from celebrating the new year’s arrival, Dead Terrorists [IKILU] and their allies Shadow Cartel [SHDWC] clashed repeatedly with Did he say Jump [JMP-N] and FETID [FETID] across several regions in a number of battles that spanned the entire day.
The war between the two entities over the moons in and around the Heimatar region has been going on for more than a month, with both sides experiencing losses and victories. Regardless, Dead Terrorists, (backed by FETID and Shadow Cartel,) managed to rebuff the efforts of Did he say Jump and protect its many moons, stalling all progression and seemingly solidify their control of the war.
However, things drastically changed in the last week when reports of financial difficulties and internal strife in Dead Terrorists started circulating. This was coupled with the departure of one of its corporations to FETID. FETID soon broke off diplomatic relations with Dead Terrorists and joining forces with Did he say Jump.
While the corporation leaving did not dent Dead Terrorists’ pool of manpower by much, it did take a large chunk of the towers in and around the Heimatar region with it. In one fell swoop the roles in the struggle were reversed with Dead Terrorists losing its commanding position in the war and Did he say Jump gaining the advantage.
This led both sides to frantically rushing to reinforce each others’ towers as Dead Terrorists tried desperately to regain its moon empire while Did he say Jump and FETID pushing to exploit their opponents’ weakness. Thus more than 4 reinforcement timers were set to expire throughout the 1st of January for both entities. New Year celebrations would take a backseat to a string of costly battles.
The first battle on that day took place in the Auga system of the Heimatar region. A Did he say Jump tower was exiting reinforcement mode and the two sides geared up to fight over it.
Dead Terrorists, backed by Shadow Cartel, formed a joint 55 pilot Proteus strategic cruiser fleet. The Dead Terrorists fleet bridged on top of the Did he say Jump tower while the Shadow Cartel reinforcements waited in wormhole space, hidden for sight. It didn’t take long for Did he say Jump to bring their defence fleet into the system and warp on top of the Proteus fleet.
Did he say Jump brought an estimated 50 pilot mixed armour battleship fleet. Once it landed on the Proteus fleet it opened fire, starting the battle.
With the battleship fleet engaged, the Shadow Cartel Proteus fleet jumped into the system and linked up with the Dead Terrorists force. Facing even numbers and fighting at close range, the battleships found themselves at a disadvantage. The Proteus fleet gained the upper hand, managing to destroy a few battleships at the cost of a couple of logistics ships.
The strategic cruisers swarmed over the battleships who’s turrets had difficulties tracking the much smaller ships and so, the battleship fleet had no choice but to concede the field or risk further losses. Disengaging, the fleet retreated, leaving the Proteus fleet to claim victory and destroy the tower.
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With the hostile tower destroyed, the Proteus fleet deployed its own tower, guarding it as the structure slowly anchored and came online. But, Did he say Jump did not give up on the fight and re-formed, mustering more pilots and expanding their fleet with additional support battleships including webbing Vindicators and energy neutralising Armageddons. A capital squadron which included triage carriers were also put on standby as the fleet re-entered the system, warping to the Proteus fleet and engaging it at close range.
This time the engagement went the other way, the Vindicators and Armageddons slowed the hostile strategic cruisers to a crawl and shut down their armour hardeners, making them an easy target for the mainline ships to hit. What’s more, the battleship fleet quickly its capital force on the field, bringing in not only triage carriers but a few dreadnoughts as well. The huge dreadnought guns simply tore through the strategic cruiser hulls, forcing the Proteus fleet to increase range while sustaining losses.
However, as usual, when several capitals jump into the same beacons, ships bump. This was the case for a Revelation dreadnought which catapulted away from the battleship force and its supporting capitals stranding it outside of remote repair range of the carriers. The Proteus fleet took advantage of this fact and quickly dispatched the ship.
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With the Proteus fleet forced to stay at maximum range and only able to snipe a few support ships, the Did he say Jump fleet and its allies directed their attention at the Dead Terrorists tower. With the combined firepower of the capitals and battleships, the newly deployed tower could do little to resist and was simply destroyed, attempts to fuel it with strontium so it may enter reinforced mode having been foiled before.
With the tower destroyed, Did he say Jump deployed its own tower once more. Having lost the objective and unable to contend with the sheer size and firepower of the Did he say Jump force, the Proteus fleet withdrew from the system, allowing Did he say Jump to claim both the field and the objective.
Battle report for the Auga system can be found here.
The second engagement took place in the Kourmonen system of The Bleak Lands region. Another Did he say Jump tower which was reinforced by Dead Terrorists was exiting its invulnerability period.
This time FETID led the charge, forming a 32 pilot mixed armor battleship fleet and gathering its pilots along the way as it raced to the system to save the tower. However by the time it arrived to the system, a 26 pilot Dead Terrorists Ishtar heavy assault cruiser fleet had already set up on the tower and was grinding it slowly with its sentry drones.
The FETID fleet quickly warped to the tower and started clearing the drones, firing at the Ishtars who strayed away from their anchor and into the range of the battleships’ guns. Yet for the most part the Ishtar fleet maintained its distance, sniping at support ships before losing most of its drones and withdrawing, unable to seriously contend with the battleship force.
With the Dead Terrorists fleet retreating and the tower already damage, the battleship fleet simply destroyed the tower and deployed a new one instead, securing the moon once more and successfully defending another objective.
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Battle report for the Kourmonen system can be found here.
The last engagement for the day took place in the Arnher system of the Metropolis region. This was an offensive timer for FETID and Did he say Jump, who spent most of the day defending their moons. While both sides were tired from previous engagements, they still formed impressive numbers.
Dead Terrorists and Shadow Cartel managed to assemble a 75 pilot joint Proteus fleet again. Against them FETID and Did he say Jump pulled a 110 pilots in a mixed armor battleship\Proteus fleet with triage carrier support.
Pandemic Legion [-10.0] was notified of the timer by FETID and chose to bring an estimated 50 pilot Confessor tactical destroyer fleet. Pandemic Horde [REKTD] also caught wind of the fight and brought a 40 pilot Cormorant destroyer fleet.
At first FETID dropped a single dreadnought on the tower as it was exiting reinforced mode, starting the work of removing it. the joint Proteus fleet seeing this and having scouted the FETID fleet and their triage supported, decided to engage regardless. Quickly entering the system, the Proteus fleet warped on top of the dreadnought, attacking it.
At this point FETID had a ship lightt a cynosural beacon near the dreadnought, ushering in their triage support. However, due to human error, the FETID fleet did not bridge in time before the joint Proteus fleet destroyed the ship lighting the beacon, thus dispersing it and forcing FETID to scramble and get a new cynosural beacon up before it could attempt to bridge in its support fleet again. At the same time, Did he say Jump bridged to the Egmar system next door and jumped into the system, warping to the dreadnought.
With the mixed fleet finally assembled, the two sides exchanged fire, the joint Proteus fleet quickly pulling range as the mixed fleet anchored up, starting the battle proper.
The two sides fought long and bitterly, trading mainline ships as the Proteus fleet maintained maximum distance from the hostile fleet. The mixed fleet attempted at times to chase it, burning towards the strategic cruisers but was shackled by the range of the triage carriers’ remote repairers. Whats more, the Pandemic Legion and Pandemic Horde fleets had arrived to the system and joined the fight, adding further complications.
The mixed fleet attempted to use its Guardian logistics cruisers as stepping stones, putting them in range of the triage carriers while the main fleet pushed further in pursuit of the Proteus fleet. That way the fleet could extend its reach and chase the Proteus fleet, the Guardians able to give remote repairs while being repaired themselves by the carriers. However, the Confessor fleet quickly interfered with this formation.
Though informed by FETID and not engaging any of its ships, the same courtesy was not extended to FETID’s allies. Time and time again the Confessor fleet swarmed over the support ships of the mixed fleet, including the Guardians, webbing them down and causing them to get out of range of the main fleet. With the added pressure of the tactical destroyers’ firepower, ships being webbed and forced off anchor and the loss of optimal remote repairs, the Confessor fleet managed to contribute more to the losses of the mixed fleet than be any help.
This forced the mixed fleet to open fire on the Confessors, which disengaged quickly, though kept returning to the field with each time bringing a few more ship losses before completely retreating. The Pandemic Horde fleet for its part attempted to snipe from long range as well, but was quickly dispatched by both sides, forcing it off the field altogether after a while.
As this was going on, the dreadnought managed to finally bring down the tower, and the mixed fleet used the opportunity to quickly anchor and deploy its own tower as the fight raged on not a 100 kilometers away! With the tower needing time to anchor and come online, the mixed fleet fought on in order to finally secure the moon, guarding the tower and beating back the Proteus fleet. As minutes ticked by the two opposing fleets, already battered and bruised, kept fighting regardless.
Battleships were traded for strategic cruisers, logistics ships on both sides became the primary targets and losses mounted for the opposing fleets. Yet when the tower finally came online, its raised shields signaled the end of the battle. Having lost the objective and facing the mixed fleet which showed no signs of backing down, the Proteus fleet finally decided to retreat, cutting its losses short and conceding the field to the mixed fleet. Thus for the third time that day, Did he say Jump and FETID forces managed to secure their objective.
The Battle from the Perspective of the Mixed Fleet
Battle report for the Arnher system can be found here.
Throughout the day, Dead Terrorists and their allies lost 48 ships including 16 strategic cruisers and 2 heavy assault cruisers for a total of 29.438 billion ISK damage.
Did he say Jump, FETID and their allies lost 75 ships including 1 dreadnought, 13 strategic cruisers and 12 battleships for a total of 24.991 billion ISK damage.
All told Did he say Jump and FETID managed to defend two towers, and secured two more moons for their coalition, the fourth tower having been abandoned by Dead Terrorists. Currently, it seems the two alliances are beating back Dead Terrorists forces across the board.
However, until the final shot is fired, it is too early to tell whether the two can manage to defeat Dead Terrorists, or whether Dead Terrorists and its allies will be able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Salivan Harddin is a member of Reikoku, Pandemic Legion, and covers battles across New Eden
