Erila system, The Citadel region. On the 15th of March at 19:00 EVE Standard Time, a black ops armada belonging to Low Sec Voltron (LSV) was ambushed by forces belonging to Pandemic Legion [-10.0].
The fight started when members of Project.Mayhem. [16-13] spotted a titan in the Erila system attempting to burn into a neutral tower’s shields. The titan, a Ragnarok, did not seem affiliated with any alliance and had jumped to a cynosural beacon lit near the tower itself. Arousing the suspiciton of the Project.Mayhem. pilots, a heavy interdictor was soon sent to tackle the titan as it attempted to enter the shields while pings were sent to allies in the LSV to ship into black ops battleships.
This was done partly as a precaution, as Pandemic Legion was sighted moving a sizeable super capital force in the area earlier. As the fleet swelled in numbers, the Project.Mayhem. pilot lit the cynosural beacon to let the black ops battleships jump in, alongside a carrier which brought more heavy interdictors to the field. The fleet landed on top of the titan, black ops battleships continuing to jump in as more pilots joined, the fleet reportedly reaching nearly 150 pilots by the end.
The black ops battleships started the long and arduous job of destroying the titan, applying heavy energy neutralizers to shut down any active hardener and just working on stripping its shields, then hopefully armor and hull. However as the titan’s shields dropped to 60%, a neutral heavy interdictor landed on the field and quickly lit a cynosural beacon, ushering in Pandemic Legion.
Pandemic Legion had a 120 pilot fleet, comprised of Rattlesnake battleships with two squadrons of supercarriers and several triage Chimera carriers in tow. The force waited in range of the system, ready to spring into action once the go ahead signal was given. With the LSV fleet not committing any capital or super capital assets and simply bringing more black ops battleships to the field, the Pandemic Legion fleet commanders decided to spring the trap.
With the heavy interdictor lighting its cynosural beacon, most of the black ops battleships quickly realized what was going on as the first wave of Pandemic Legion battleships and heavy interdictors hit the grid. Most of the LSV pilots fired their micro jump drives, teleporting away from the Pandemic Legion fleet and either cloaking up or warping off to safe spots. However, a few pilots were not so lucky and were caught due to initial confusion, leading to them being tackled by the heavy interdictors.
With most of the LSV fleet gone, the Rattlesnakes quickly removed the few tackled battleships, clearing the field and escorting the titan back into the tower’s shields, as it served its role as bait. A few attempts were made to probe some of the LSV pilots, but they managed to jump out to emergency cynosural beacons, leaving the Pandemic Legion fleet to loot the field. Once done, Pandemic Legion forces withdrew from the system, bringing an end to hostilities.
Battle report for the Erila system can be found here.
All told the battle lasted 10 minutes, with Time Dilation not reported and local pilot count estimated at 270 near the end.
Low Sec Voltron forces lost 15, including 11 black ops battleships in the fight, resulting in 21.13 billion ISK damage sustained.
Pandemic Legion lost 1 heavy interdictor in the fight, resulting in 454 million ISK damage total.
Salivan Harddin is a member of Reikoku, Pandemic Legion, and covers battles across New Eden
