The Background
Much has been talked about with regard to events in the East. Now you will have to excuse me here for what some will call bias but it is not without good reason. So let’s recap very quickly on the events so far.
Winter Coalition and Holy Rental Empire declared their intent to move against Legacy Coalition, headed by TAPI. Their declaration was made while Legacy was finishing up in the region of Providence, where Legacy had been very successful in thwarting the plans of Pandemic Legion. PL were very keen on taking all the faction Forts from Providence but Legacy snagged them all instead.
WC and HRE have been declaring very loudly that their move was all in gaining good fights. This was coupled with other PanFam members making wild accusations against Legacy as being mean evil people. This narrative was being increasingly pushed, which is quite typical in attempting to gain supporters for a war. There were even neutral parties claiming here at INN, in the comments, that Legacy were the aggressors when it came to the region of Immensea.
This last week Vily (TAPI) and Garst Tyrell (Triumvirate) were both on the Talking in Stations show. In the show it felt like Garst was taking the stance of “this is all for good fights”. But Vily countered this and said that this was more a move by PanFam as a whole. In this I suspect that Vily is right. The DRF had been dismantled by PanFam and its associates, or bluetrals if you prefer. So with the DRF rental empire out of the way what was next? Well a number of parties could easily have had good fights in a number of places. But instead they headed for Legacy held space in Immensea. Now I am no strategic genius, but it did look suspiciously like a move by PanFam and affiliates to secure and expand their rental empire even further.
Build Up
WC and HRE had already declared their intention in words but this was also evident by their actions. The system of LK1K-5 in Immensea was the staging system for WC. WC had two fortizars within this system. Yes I said “had”. Yesterday one of the Fortizars owned by WC was destroyed leaving just one Fortizar remaining. With this strategic defeat WC committed fully to defending the last timer on their remaining Fortizar. This was being touted as WC’s “Last Stand”. This was underlined by WC and allies moving assets into the system over the last 24 hours.
Chatter on Reddit and elsewhere about this fight was increasing and propaganda machines were in full force. Vily had stated that this situation was coming down to Legacy versus all of PanFam and associates. Although Vily also hinted that he hoped for support from The Imperium. Regardless of which side you were on this fight was being hyped.
Legacy called and The Imperium answered. Just after 12:00 the call for the first Imperium fleet went up. This was to be a Cerberus fleet and it filled up very quickly. A second Imperium fleet was called for and this one was to be Jackdaws (the old Asher favourite).
The Fight
Just after 14:00 the battle commenced in earnest. Capitals were looking to play a major role in this battle with fleets of fighters being fielded from both sides. The
defenders, WC and HRE, would have the advantage as they would also have the Fortizar active. The adashboard can be seen here, remember to check the tabs for fleet comps and local numbers.
With almost three thousand people in the system TiDi was in full effect. There was also a number of mass disconnects at points. Although this seemed to settle as time went by.
At around 15:00 the Fraternity fortizar was still at around 70% with the repair cycle paused at 21m 51s. The fight was bloody on both sides.
Just before 15:45 the fort timer was counting down again. Legacy had not been able to apply enough DPS to keep it paused. Adjustments were made by The Legacy and soon enough DPS was applied again to pause the timer. But perhaps this was a sign of things to come.
Just after 16:00 the fort timer was unpaused again. This time it looked like Legacy would not be in a position to apply enough DPS again to pause the timer.
16:20 and the Fort was still repairing with the timer counting down. The Imperium Cerb and Jackdaw fleets then departed.
16:30 still some action but the fight was winding down. There were still kills to be had though with those unfortunate enough to DC or get lost.
By 17:00 things had wound down considerably, the objective already secured by WC, HRE and “friends but not friends really”.
There was another battle still in progress. This was for the LK1K-5 Ihub currently owned by Siege Green. This battle continues but may be resolved by the time this article is published.
Ultimately this is a great victory for WC, HRE and PanFam. A disaster averted which could have set them back considerably. Such a win can also offer a real boost to their own war efforts against Legacy.
In this there is perhaps a consolation prize for Legacy. They had made the claim that it was not just WC and HRE they were up against. This seems to be born out by the numbers fielded and who shot who. A somewhat ropey battle report can be found here. The Imperium featured in their own column as someone has to pick up the slack left behind by PL. There are other variants on the battle report, but all are somewhat of a mess, as with all big fights.
The total loss for Legacy was also slightly higher than the defenders at around 96B. The defenders lost around 78B. The Imperium did lose about 17B but I am confident that this loss was easily covered given the duration of the battle.
We will have to see how events in Immensea will now shape up. If Legacy had committed harder and used that mighty capital fleet they were so keen to speak of not so long ago, the result may have been quite different. But as it stands WC and HRE are likely to be emboldened by the victory they had today.
As always feel free to comment should you wish. Also note that if you would like your story told then INN is the very best place to tell it, using the submission form here.
[Editor’s Note: We have reached out to FCs from the various parties involved, and hope to bring you an AAR in the next few days]
