On the 11th June at 11:00 eve time in Gonheim of the Molden Heath Region, Space Marines and the self proclaimed IronBear Coalition (Dropbear Sanctuary and Iron Armada) clashed over a Citadel Space Marines were attempting to anchor.
Attempting to get a foot hold in the low sec fortress of Molden Heath, Space Marines tried a few weeks earlier to place a Citadel right next to an IronBear POS. With the timer exiting in Dropbear Prime it very quickly was destroyed without contest. Trying once more to setup a foothold and geared for a fight Space Marines once more anchored a Citadel in the Gonheim system.
Seeing another Citadel in one of their home systems IronBear organised a fleet to destroy the threat. Noticing many numbers just before downtime belonging to Space Marines, IronBear was expecting some form of confrontation. Forming a 50 man strong Mixed armor battleship fleet with a full Dreadnought Wing, Carriers, Force Auxiliaries and Supers on standby Ironbear decided to bait Space Marines into a false sense of security. Putting a bait fleet of 12 Armor Battleships and a Lif on Standby IronBear put there capital fleet in a staging tower in the system logged out and the rest of the fleet on a Titan nearby ready to bridge in.
Space Marines Managed to Assemble a 50 man fleet of their own consisting of Armor T3’s, Hurricanes and no less than 8 Dreadnoughts. With the bait fleet on the Citadel Space Marines headed over with their fleet with Dreads on the ready and warped straight into the Citadel starting the battle proper. IronBear started by primarying the weak Logistics wing of Space Marines consisting of a small amount of Guardians and Augorers. Battleship shells rained down on the enemy logistics wing and they crumbled under the immense firepower of the Machariels. Space Marines decided to try and head shot the IronBear FC PunkRawk in an attempt to cause confusion amongst the enemy fleet. With the battle currently 40 against 12 the call was made on IronBear coms to light the cyno and jump. The entirety of the IronBear battleship fleet bridged in with 4 Fax’s and 3 Carriers for support. With the logistics wing in tatters Space Marines fell quickly. One by One T3’s fell under the huge firepower of the IronBear battleship fleet. Unable to break even the first target Space Marines called the escalation jumping 8 Dreadnoughts into the fray.
This was the moment Dropbear was waiting for. The call was made for Dreads to login and warp into the battle head on. Unfortunately for Space Marines 3 of the Dreads jumped on top of each other bumping them well off the fight and striking disaster for the already poor tracking on these behemoths. Dreadnoughts entered their siege cycle and Capital Class weaponry pounded the fleet on both sides. Both sides were losing Dreadnoughts quickly with the immense firepower on grid. It was at this time IronBear escalated yet again. Bringing in only a single Aeon to tip the tide in their favour.
With the Space Marine fleet unable to break the huge repairs by the Force Auxiliaries IronBear decided to put the battleship fleets damage onto the enemy Dreadnought’s. Under such huge firepower the Space Marines Dreadnoughts succumbed to inevitable destruction one by one. IronBear Carriers continued to batter at the Space Marines Sub-Capital fleet with impressive results.
With the last Dreadnought down IronBear quickly evacuated it’s capitals and the Battleship fleet quickly pounded on the Citadel. Destroying it utterly.
Battle Report can be found here
Video from the IronBear Perspective can be found here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjOe6dAlF_8
All told the battle lasted 30 minutes with no time dilation reported and local holding 100 Pilots at the peak of the fighting.
Space Marines took the brunt of the losses losing 23 ships including 8 Dreadnoughts for a total of 29.4Bill
Ironbear lost 8 ships including 4 Dreadnoughts for a total of 14.3Bill
PunkRAwk is a member of Blades of Athena, Dropbear Sanctuary
