MC6-5J system, Venal region. On the 14th of February at 21:00 EVE Standard Time, Imperium forces clashed once more with a loose coalition of alliances over a tower in the system.
As part of the war between RAZOR Alliance [-RZR-] and Venal region resident alliance Out of Sight. [OOS], the latter had reinforced a tower belonging to the former over a valuable moon. With the timer set to expire in RAZOR Alliance’s prime time but too late for Out of Sight.’s pilots, potential allies were contacted for help.
Three major players answered the call: Mercenary Coalition [MC] with Hax. [HAX.], forming an 80 pilot Cerberus heavy assault cruiser fleet, Pandemic Legion [-10.0] with a 100 pilot Proteus strategic cruiser fleet, and Therabois, contributing a stealth bomber wing.
These fleets made their way to the system, with Out of Sight. Providing intelligence and tackle. At the same time, RAZOR Alliance and Fidelas Constans [FCON] gathered an estimated 160 pilots in 2 fleets: A Sleipnir Command ship fleet and a Cerberus fleet respectively to defend the tower.
RAZOR Alliance attempted to restore the tower’s shields, bringing 2 triage carriers to the system while the allies raced to it in order to engage the Imperium’s forces. The first to enter the system was the Cerberus force of Mercenary Coalition and Hax., entering through the JURU-T gate.
As the joint Cerberus fleet anchored up and gathered distance from the gate, the Imperium’s Sleipnir fleet warped to the grid, getting caught by a few interdiction probes set to drag it away. Immediately, both sides opened fire, starting the battle.
The first round of fighting went badly for the Imperium’s fleets, with the Sleipnirs unable to return fire and suffering minor losses as the Cerberus fleet continued to fire swarms of missiles from a safe distance. The Fidelas Constans fleet came to aid the Sleipnir fleet, only to see it warp off as Pandemic Legion’s fleet entered the system.
With Pandemic Legion’s Proteus fleet entering the system, jumping in as well through the JURU-T gate, the Imperium defenders quickly retreated from the field, leaving their tower undefended and their carriers to quickly burn in and attempt to safe up inside its shields.
The allies moved to the tower grid and started shooting the tower, quickly dropping its shields and forcing the Imperium defenders to engage them. This however led to a few unlucky warp ins, as the Cerberus fleet of Fidelas Constans landed on top of the joint Cerberus fleet and was quickly forced off by the combined firepower of the Proteus and Cerberus fleets.
Worse yet, the RAZOR Alliance Sleipnir fleet had warped on top of the Proteus fleet and was swiftly tackled, Proteus strategic cruisers and interdictors holding down its many ships. With its allied Cerberus fleet retreating, the combined allied forces, including the Therabois stealth bombers, pummeled the Sleipnir fleet, quickly annihilating a good chunk of its ships before the rest could flee.
Using the confusion of the battle to its advantage, Out of Sight. quickly brought two dreadnoughts in to remove the tower, exposing one of the triage carriers who couldn’t log off due to an aggression timer. Without the protection of its allies who have long fled the system, the Nidhoggur carrier could do little to resist the onslaught of the allied forces and was promptly destroyed.
With the field secured, the allied fleets departed from the system, allowing Out of Sight. to reclaim the moon. With this the allies achieved total victory, bringing the fighting to a close.
The Battle from the Perspective of the Mercenary Coalition\Hax. Cerberus Fleet
Battle report for the MC6-5J system can be found here.
All told the battle lasted 30 minutes with Time Dilation not being reported by any of the combatants and the system hosting close to 400 pilots at the peak of the fighting.
The allies lost 8 ships in total, including 1 strategic cruiser for a total of 2.6 billion ISK damage.
The Imperium lost 75 ships all told, including 1 carrier, 14 command ships and 9 heavy assault cruisers for a total of 23.38 billion ISK damage.
Salivan Harddin is a member of Reikoku, Pandemic Legion, and covers battles across New Eden
