Hello, my name is Johann Landier, and I’m a writer and political analyst for EN24. The thoughts and opinions written here are mine and not meant to represent anyone else’s.
For those hiding under a rock the last few months or still recovering from the World War Bee after-party, there has been am on again/off again war over Circle of Two held space in Tribute. The conflict has been heavily propagandized on Reddit and, according to both sides, neither are losing. Other than the UMI-KK IHUB changing ownership more often the a Minmitar Rupture sold by a “Buy Here Pay Here” ship dealer, Circle of Two, led by GigX and backed up by TEST Alliance Please Ignore have managed to plant their feet and hold the line against the combined forces of the “PanFam” (Pandemic Legion, Pandemic Horde, and Northern Coalition). I guess at this point I should mention that it was recently announced by Darkness alliance, and by extension the Guardians of the Galaxy Coalition, are also supporting PanFam in this conflict. This announcement by Darkness leader Sort Dragon came as a particular shock to members of TEST Alliance who really thought Sort was on their side this time and really, really, really would not break up with them again.
Now that I have had my fun I should probably get to the serious part of the article. The war has seen back and forth fighting over the X-VN63 constellation with most of the focus of PanFam’s attack being in the system of UMI-KK. So far, the fights have generally resulted in strategic, but costly, victories for Circle of Two and TEST. The presence and heavy use of Northern Coalition and Pandemic Legion Super-Capital Fleets have ensured that every defense of Tribute by Circle of Two and Test has carried with it a heavy price tag. With Super-Capital and Titan dominance clearly favoring PanFam, the defenders have had to rely on Sub-Capital fleets and the ability to quickly re-ship to continue holding the region. So, while Circle of Two and TEST have fiercely defended there space over the last month they are paying a heavy price in ISK to do so. Any attempt to escalate to capitals by the defenders has generally resulted in greener killboards for the attackers.
Loss Mail Courtesy of Zkillboard.com
However, on the afternoon of October, 12th in the system of B-S42H over a Tribute defense timer, the gods smiled on the defenders and their perseverance was rewarded in the form of a Ragnarok Class Titan piloted by Northern Coalition’s Poision Kevin. I reached out to Poision Kevin(PK) and he was willing to discuss the battle and how it all went down.
PK entered the fray flying his battle-hardened Titan and everything seemed to be going according to plan:
“I was with the super fleet and we were clashing with the sub-cap fleets. I landed on the gate and CO2 jumps through. TEST then lands 20km off the gate once I load. I noticed that the CO2 (Brutix) fleet is balled up and realize I have a chance to act and erased that fleet.”
Killboards and battle footage show that PK fired his Basonic Field Generator (Super Weapon) and instantly destroyed the CO2 Brutix Fleet (around 100 kills including pods) in a single shot. At this point TEST warped off and more back and forth entosising occured throughout the cluster. About 30 minutes later, Circle of Two had returned and PK went back to work.
“CO2 is back in the game and ready to rock so I start solo hunting them with a dictor buddy and they (CO2) end up warping to the S8- gate in B-S so I align there while our sub-cap fleet jumps after TEST. I land on the gate thinking I was 20KM off the gate but in reality was on 10KM from the gate (PK attributes this to a desync issue with the client). So knowing I could not do much I fired my DD were the hurricanes were aligning and got a few.”
At this point, as ships started engaging PK’s Titan and he found himself “le bubbled” he realized something was off.
“I started approaching the gate also knowing I still had a 4 minute DD timer and 1 minute aggression timer. At this point I see (CO2) dreadnoughts landing on the field and I start taking pretty good damage. We make the call for a Lance to be fired at the dreads and some die but some hit there emergency hull energizer and survive. Another NC Titan fires a Basonic Field Generator but as the CO2 dreads still have Emergency Hull Energizers active they survive. A 3rd NC Titan lands and finish’s off that group.”
However, the re-formed CO2 Brutix Fleet and remaining CO2 dreads overwhelmed PK’s Titan. I asked PK if he would have done anything different:
“When I died my aggression timer was over and no hic point. I would have approached the gate from the start DD’ing at full speed to save travel time I guess, and maybe have gotten out. At the time of my death I was reported to be 5km from the gate. Shortly after I died another group of our titans showed up and cleaned up the remaining dreads/subcaps. We had eyes on their(CO2) Keepstar but the intel that they had jumped out and it was first reported by me when they landed on field with me. “
The titan killmail shows that PK took significant damage from his fellow NC Titans:
“The damage I took (from NC Titans) was the Lance and BFG (fired at the CO2 dreads). Maybe if the Lance would have been timed better I would have had more shields and the dreads would have all died from the first group (meaning the initial three titans who first warped in to help PK when he got bubbles). But it is always easy to point out errors in battles after they happen. This is Eve and its how we make improvements”
I asked if he had any final thoughts:
“WTB kill marks back, I had aver 350 kill marks on this titan when it was destroyed. Ships can be replaced but those kill marks take time to build.”
Ships certainly can be replaced, and as PK’s killboard shows this loss has not slowed him down. Recent activity on his Titan pilot shows him once again back into the fight in a brand new Ragnarok. CO2 and TEST line members are excited to try and catch PK again,but have also expressed admiration for PK actually using his Titan to fight and being willing to jump right back into it and keep fighting.
I would like to thank Poision Kevin for the interview.
