3KNK-A system, Syndicate region. On the 9th of February at 13:40 EVE Standard Time, a small Imperium capital force was ambushed by Syndicate residents and makeshift allies, leading to its inevitable destruction.
The force had been assembled as part of the Imperium’s attempt to combat the operations of alliances such as Psychotic Tendencies. [TISHU] and The OSS [OSS] who have been ravaging the Imperium’s buffer regions of Fade and Pure Blind nearly uncontested. This has come at a time when the bulk of the Imperium is committed in the neighboring low security regions following its campaign against the residents of said regions, so far with mixed results.
In order to force them to deploy back to their home region and relieve some of the pressure, a capital force of 12 dreadnoughts and 6 carriers was tasked with reinforcing their infrastructure in the Syndicate region. The capitals themselves were escorted by a small mixed fleet with mainly Augoror Navy Issue cruisers, the entire force estimated at 30 pilots.
Upon arriving in the 3KNK-A system, the Imperium fleet started reinforcing towers, seemingly uncontested, until at last reaching a tower belonging to The OSS. With the dreadnoughts entering their siege cycle, a lone Arazu force recon cruiser de-cloaked near the capitals and lit a cynosural beacon, ushering in a joint The OSS and The-Culture [-T C-] Machariel battleship fleet as well as 5 supercarriers.
Unknown to Imperium forces, The OSS had their fleet in its sights since the moment it organized. Having learned of the Imperium’s plans, the Syndicate region alliance stayed vigilant, and having spotted the fleet assembling and undocking, continued to follow it to its destination. The-Culture came into contact with The OSS when the latter asked its fleet commander to withdraw from the Syndicate region. The-Culture had been roaming around the region, and The OSS fleet commanders didn’t want the Imperium fleet to be alerted.
Once The-Culture withdrew from the area and the Imperium fleet arrived to the system, The-Culture was contacted again by The OSS, and the two formed a joint fleet of approximately 60 pilots, including the supercarriers. Once the Imperium fleet was busy reinforcing The OSS tower, the combined fleet struck. As the Machariels bridged in, they quickly swarmed the capitals, attempting to negate the tracking of the capital guns while the supercarriers unleashed their swarms of fighter bombers as they slowly burned towards the edge of the tower’s shields.
The Imperium force could do little to resist as interdictors kept the majority of the capitals tackled and the Machariels quickly got rid of most of the sub-capital support. The dreadnoughts attempted to return fire, managing to destroy a few of the Machariels unlucky enough to be tracked by their capital guns. However, they were going down one by one with no rescue in sight.
Realizing that no relief force was coming, and in order to expedite matters, The OSS and The-Culture brought a few dreadnoughts to the field, jumping them on top of the tackled Imperium capitals. With the addition of the dreadnoughts’s firepower, the rest of the Imperium capital force was quickly disposed, leaving the allies to hold the field.
Once the tower was secured, the allies departed back to their respective staging systems, bringing an end to the fight.
The Battle from the Perspective of the Machariel Fleet
Battle report for the 3KNK-A system can be found here.
The battle lasted 15 minutes with Time Dilation not reported and the system hosting approximately a 100 pilots at the peak of the fighting.
The Imperium lost 28 ships including 11 dreadnoughts and 6 carriers for a total of 50.75 billion ISK damage.
The OSS and The-Culture lost 7 ships in total, including 4 battleships for a total of 2.95 billion ISK damage.
Salivan Harddin is a member of Reikoku, Pandemic Legion, and covers battles across New Eden
