What started as a combined LAWN/BASTION strategic op to save a tower in Hakonen turned into a titan kill in Vale of the Silent earlier today.
The LAWN and BASTION contingents, a fleet of armour T3 strategic cruisers led by Cainun, met up in WBR5 and proceeded to Hakonen, where they saved a friendly tower and reinforced several enemy towers belonging to Body Count Inc. without opposition.
While this operation was going forward, a small gang of Legion of xXDeathXx came to LS-JEP, an entry system to Vale of the Silent from Geminate and Kalevala Expanse. xSynnx and Dictator127 of No Refunds undocked their carriers to play with them and killed an Armageddon, which had lit a cyno on the undock.
xXDeathXx then used an Arazu to light another cyno 100km from the station, before dropping a 70-man Machariel fleet on the carriers. Although he had deagressed by this point, XSynnx did not notice that there was a titan with the fleet until the Avatar of s0n1que used his doomsday to destroy his Thanatos.
Having used his doomsday weapon, s0n1que now could not move for thirty seconds and could not cloak or use his jump drive for 10 minutes. This was a calculated risk on his part. Many members of LAWN were participating in the strat op far away in low sec, the response in LS-JEP could only be limited. But Q Sertorius of TGRAD had a scanning alt in LS-JEP, who immediately began scanning down the titan. Vulan of BASTION also had an alt in neighbouring 9-GBPD which he logged in and sent to scan in LS-JEP.
When Cainun got the news, it was all systems go to get interdictors into LS-JEP via jump and titan bridges. The T3 fleet immediately started burning there from Hakonen. At the same time, Cainun ordered the triage carrier and dreadnought fleet standing by to support the strat op to race back to central Vale into range of the titan to be bridged to LS-JEP. He also called for an additional dreadnought fleet in FH-TTC under Ashkrall to get into range ready to drop.
Q Sertorius got a first hit on the Avatar, which warped off as he landed. He got a second hit and landed, but unknown to him, the Avatar was cloaked. Seeing that his spot was compromised again, the titan pilot risked uncloaking to warp out, but the few tackle pilots in system landed on grid in time to bubble him. These were quickly killed as a Machariel fleet came to the rescue, and the Avatar warped off to the 9-GBPD gate.
The operations to scan down, decloak and bubble the Avatar are complex to describe. Q Sertorius’ alt got the first hit on the Avatar, and warped in at 10km in his cloaked Tengu. He approached and called for interdictors, but none were available to warp to him. The Avatar pilot may have seen the probes and warped off. Q Sertorius’ alt was in a LAWN Standing Fleet, and could not get into the Strat Op fleet which was full.
Kwa Zulu and Hector Centauri had interdictor alts in the Standing Fleet and were trying to get them out of LS-JEP station in order to work with Q Sertorius’ alt but the station was bubble camped. Hector’s alt managed to get away when he was pulled out of the bubbles by a hostile strategic destroyer! Meanwhile Vulan’s alt, who was in the Strat Op fleet, was now in LS-JEP, also scanning and working with the few interdictor pilots in the Strat Op fleet who had managed to get to LS-JEP.
Both Q Sertorius and Vulan got separate hits, landed, and called in their interdictors who decloaked and bubbled the titan. But in both cases the Machariels came to the rescue and killed off these hero interdictors, allowing the Avatar to escape. Vulan’s scanning alt was also killed. By now, the Avatar pilot must have decided that it was not safe to remain in LS-JEP with more and more scanners and interdictors piling into system and undocking from LS-JEP station.
He made the fatal decision to warp to the 9-GBPD gate where he was bubbled. He jumped through and was bubbled again by Challu Ni who lit the all-important cyno that Cainun had been bellowing for. Cainun’s fleet now took the Titan bridge from G5ED-Y to the cyno and the fight was on.
For a short time time, the T3 fleet alone chewed through the Machariels and Typhoons trying desperately to save the titan, which was now very well-bubbled by the fleet. The first LAWN ‘Dread hammer’ was dropped and began burning down the Titan.
In a last-ditch attempt to save the day, xXDeathXx gated in several carriers from L-TOFR. Their arrival on grid was delayed by bubbles placed on the gate, and stop bubbles placed 100km off the titan. The carriers were very quickly burned down just as the second LAWN ‘Dread hammer’ was dropped on the field. Once the last carrier was down, the titan was primaried once more and exploded amongst the field of wrecks of his fallen comrades. More xXDeathXx carriers arrived too late on field, and were also destroyed.
In the end, LAWN and allies lost 20.0 billion ISK in materiel, while inflicting approximately 156 billion ISK in damages, with the vast majority of that down to the titan.
LAWN and alllies: 20.2 billion isk lost, Legion of xXDeathXx and allies: 156.35 billion isk lost.
2016-02-28 Legion of xXDEATHXx Avatar Kill
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Ion Blacknight.
