In the early hours of the 8th of January, Providence Bloc forces fought two capital engagements in the low security regions adjacent to its sovereignty, with two very different outcomes.
The first battle of the night took place in the Ordat system of the Tash-Murkon region. In recent weeks, Providence Bloc and Violent Declaration [VD] have repeatedly clashed over moons in the Sukanan constellation. This time Violent Declaration reinforced a tower belonging to Providence Bloc, and the two sides geared up for another battle.
Providence Bloc formed a 25 pilot Nightmare battleship fleet, complete with a triage Chimera carrier. The force also had several dreadnoughts prepared in advance, but held in reserve. The fleet made its way to the system, setting up on the tower and starting the job of restoring its shields.
Violent Declaration for its part formed a 20 pilot mixed armor battleship fleet complete with triage Archon carrier support. The fleet made its way from the Teshkat system, warping to the Nightmare fleet and starting the fight at close range.
The battle went badly for Violent Declaration, as its triage carriers took longer to warp, meaning that for a few moments the fleet had no real logistics backbone. This led to the Violent Declaration fleet commander being unceremoniously removed from the field. Once the triage carriers did land, the battle devolved into a stalemate as neither side seemed able to overcome the others’ logistics.
Finally, Providence Bloc escalated matters, lighting a cynosural beacon and jumping in 3 dreadnoughts. Once the dreadnoughts were on the field, they quickly targeted the triage support for Violent Declaration, removing it completely. However, Violent Declaration seized the opportunity and brought dreadnoughts of its own as well as teleported the Nightmare fleet away from its capitals using a command destroyer.
With the Violent Declaration dreadnoughts on the field the tide of the battle seemed to have shifted, as one of the Providence Bloc dreadnoughts was quickly destroyed and a second entered structure as more dreadnoughts were brought in by Violent Declaration, its pilots scrambling to re-ship and return to the fight. Yet, the Providence Bloc fleet did not panic and simply re-grouped, using the tower’s shields as cover during the battle.
With the Nightmare fleet in the thick of things again, the Violent Declaration fleet started losing ground, especially as it had no logistics backbone anymore with the loss of its triage carriers. In rapid succession battleships and strategic cruisers were destroyed before Providence Bloc turned its attention to the dreadnoughts assembled on the field, managing to bring down three during the exchange.
Violent Declaration, realizing it could not win the fight, gave the order to retreat, managing to save a few dreadnoughts and sub-capitals. However one dreadnought was not so lucky and got caught, ultimately destroyed by Providence Bloc.
With the field cleared of hostiles, Providence Bloc quickly repaired the tower, managing to secure both the field and the objective before extracting home without further incident, ending the fight.
Battle report for the Ordat system can be found here.
The second battle of the night took place in the Nakah system of the Derelik region. A small Sev3rance [-7-] fleet, estimated at 30 pilots, was busy reinforcing a tower in the system. The fleet had a large capital presence, numbering 12 dreadnoughts and 4 carriers with assorted armor battleships for support.
Unknown to the fleet it was actually spotted by Pandemic Legion [-10.0], which prompted its fleet commanders to hastily form a Sleipnir command ship fleet, assembling 60 pilots and moving them into position to bridge on top of the force. Once the Sleipnir fleet was in position, a scout landed in the midst of the Sev3rance fleet, lighting a cynosural beacon.
On top of the surprised Sev3rance force landed the Sleipnir fleet, its many heavy interdictors swiftly spreading their focus points, managing to hold most of the dreadnought force, only the carriers and two dreadnoughts managing to initiate an emergency jump out of Pandemic Legion’s reach. With the points secured, the Sleipnir fleet then started to work on clearing the sub capitals, quickly pushing the Sev3rance escorts off the field.
With most of the sub-capitals either destroyed or in retreat, the Sleipnir fleet started the slow process of breaking the dreadnoughts’ tank and annihilating them. However as the process proved tedious, Pandemic Legion quickly formed and moved a supercarrer wing to the system, lighting another cynosural beacon for the super capitals to enter the system.
With the super capitals present on grid, the task of dispatching the dreadnoughts became far easier, the swarm of fighter bombers chewing through and tearing apart the hulls of the capitals. In no time the field was cleared of all remaining capitals, and the Pandemic Legion fleet extracted its super capital fleet back to its staging safely, putting an end to hostilities in the system.
The Fight from the Perspective of the Pandemic Legion Sleipnir Fleet.
Battle report for the Nakah system can be found here.
During the night Providence Bloc lost 24 ships in total, including 11 dreadnoughts and 6 battleships for a total of 36.49 billion ISK damage. Violent Declaration and its allies lost 45 ships including 4 dreadnoughts, 2 carriers, 11 battleships and 9 strategic cruisers for a total of 35.53 billion ISK. Pandemic Legion lost only 4 ships including 1 command ship for a total of 834 million ISK damage.
Salivan Harddin is a member of Reikoku, Pandemic Legion, and covers battles across New Eden
