N6G-H3 system, Venal region. On the 3rd of February at 22:00 EVE Standard Time, Imperium forces clashed with Out of Sight. [OOS] and allies over a tower in the system.
For over a month, RAZOR Alliance [RAZOR], with the support of Fidelas Constans [FCON], have been clashing violently with Out of Sight over the moons of the Venal region, following the failed campaign of Circle-Of-Two [CO2] to do the same. While both sides had their fair share of victories and defeats, it seems Out of Sight continued to enjoy the upper hand, as RAZOR Alliance and Fidelas Constans have been forced to commit more and more forces to the campaign, including super capital assets, though with little effect.
This time, RAZOR Alliance attempted to reinforce a tower belonging to Out of Sight for the fourth time, with all previous attempts foiled by Out of Sight. As has been its practice lately, RAZOR Alliance attempted to operate in Out of Sight’s weakest time zone in order to reinforce the tower unopposed, assembling a capital squadron with a Sleipnir command ship fleet while a Cerberus heavy assault cruiser fleet provided by The Bastion [BSTN] was held in reserve.
Out of Sight knew of the operation and assembled a small dreadnought force in order to counter RAZOR Alliance’s as well as informing Pandemic Legion [-10.0] of the timer. However, the movements of Out of Sight caused RAZOR Alliance to reinforce their capital force with a squadron of super carriers.
The Imperium forces quickly set up in the system on the tower with the Sleipnir fleet maintaining a perch above the grid as the capitals set to work on the tower itself. With Pandemic Legion en route, Out of Sight quickly lit a cynosural beacon on the opposite side of the tower and brought a squadron of long range dreadnoughts. The dreadnoughts quickly entered their siege cycle while interdictors raced to tackle the capitals and super capitals on field, starting the battle proper.
With the tower’s shields between them, the super capital fighter bomber swarm had difficulty reaching the dreadnoughts which started to snipe the RAZOR Alliance capitals, bringing them down one after the other. The RAZOR Alliance support fleet was not indifferent to the plight of its capitals and quickly swarmed the dreadnoughts, harassed by a small Ishtar heavy assault cruiser fleet flown by Syndicate region residents such as Mercenary Coalition [MC] and Hax. [HAX.].
By this point Pandemic Legion arrived on the scene with a Sleipnir fleet of its own and quickly warped to the Out of Sight dreadnoughts, pushing away the hostile Sleipnir fleet. The RAZOR Alliance fleet quickly warped off to a ping, only for the Pandemic Legion fleet to warp on top of it a few moments later. As the two sides exchanged fire at close range, the RAZOR Alliance fleet ended up losing decidedly. What’s more, one of the Aeon super carriers present on the field had accidentally warped to the Sleipnirs’ ping and was quickly tackled.
The Pandemic Legion fleet wasn’t fazed by this turn of events and quickly tackled the super carrier while dealing with the Imperium sub-capital fleets, as the Cerberus fleet made it to the system after being repeatedly delayed by Out of Sight interdictors and attempted to rescue the tackled super carrier. However, it proved unsuccessful and was easily ignored as the super carrier slowly melted under the Sleipnirs’ artillery fire.
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With the super carrier destroyed, the Pandemic Legion fleet then cleared some of the fighter bombers off the Out of Sight dreadnoughts before annihilating the remains of the RAZOR Alliance Sleipnir fleet, driving it off the field. RAZOR Alliance was not idle either and quickly gathered fresh reinforcements, bringing in a Proteus strategic cruiser fleet while other Imperium alliances organized relief forces, including 2 super capital fleets, which raced to the system.
Northern Coalition. [NC] was in contact with Pandemic Legion and hearing the news of the tackled super carriers quickly formed a Sleipnir fleet of its own and rushed to the system. Arriving as the Aeon went down, the Northern Coalition fleet chose to start bumping one of the Wyvern super carriers present away from its allies while helping Out of Sight and Pandemic Legion clear some of the RAZOR Alliance capitals which were still tackled near the tower.
Managing to push the Wyvern far enough from its sister ships, and applying energy neutralizers from several Curse combat recon cruisers which were brought in specifically to shut down the super carriers’ tank, the Northern Coalition fleet started to take the ship down, with Out of Sight dropping 4 more dreadnoughts on the super carrier to help expedite the process. However, due to lack of communication between the Northern Coalition and Pandemic Legion fleets, the latter joined in far too late.
As the Wyvern’s shields failed and its armor started losing great chunks, the Circle-Of-Two super capital fleet managed to get in range of the system and jump to the stranded Wyvern, its titans quickly dispatching several Out of Sight dreadnoughts while its super carriers activated their remote armor repairers on the ship, catching it in low armor.
Realizing that by now it would be impossible to separate another super carrier, and with so many of them tightly packed together, the allied Sleipnir fleets quickly increased their distance while Out of Sight got a few of its remaining dreadnoughts into the safety of the tower’s shields. Remaining a few more minutes in the system, the allied fleets fought a few skirmishes with the Imperium fleets gathered on the grid. However with news of more fleets en route, the allies decided to withdraw, allowing the Imperium to hold the field.
With the enemy fleets retreating and the Out of Sight capitals safely within the tower’s shields, the Imperium chose to extract its forces, having managed to both reinforce the tower and hold the field, though at a great cost.
With this, the battle came to an end.
The Battle from the Perspective of the Pandemic Legion Sleipnir Fleet
Battle report for the N6G-H3 system can be found here.
All told the battle lasted an hour with Time Dilation being present throughout the battle, reaching peaks of 50% though often remaining between the range of 10 to 20%. Near the end of the fight the system hosted an estimated 740 pilots.
Numbers for both sides are hard to determine due to constant re-shipping, reinforcements and other parties joining in throughout the battle.
Pandemic Legion and Northern Coalition. had approximately 200 pilots altogether, with Out of Sight aiding mainly with tackle and capitals. The Syndicate fleet is estimated at around 50 pilots, with many other parties arriving mainly in interceptors. Together their losses amount to 61 ships including 10 dreadnoughts, 1 command ship and 2 heavy assault cruisers for a total of 38.48 billion ISK damage.
The Imperium had a Sleipnir fleet, a Cerberus fleet, a Proteus fleet, a Svipul tactical destroyer fleet and an Eagle heavy assault cruiser fleet alongside a large number of capitals and super capitals. A cautious estimate would put Imperium forces at around 100 pilots at the start, with the Cerberus fleet adding perhaps another 70 pilots. With all the reinforcements it is believed by the end the Imperium had more than 400 pilots on the field. Its losses total at 173 ships which include 1 supercarrier, 10 dreadnoughts, 4 carriers, 9 command ships, 7 strategic cruisers and 32 heavy assault cruisers for a total of 103.79 billion ISK damage.
Salivan Harddin is a member of Reikoku, Pandemic Legion, and covers battles across New Eden
