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The past few months have been a whirl for HERO Coalition. From the return of Pandemic Legion to Catch, to the chains of battles for their capitals of GE-8JV followed by HED-GP, the botched evacuation of Catch and their rapid changes of staging systems (#RememberEfu), finally to a generous deal with the consolidating Imperium to move into Fountain, and possibly more importantly, take control of it’s high number of R64 moons.
As former Imperium alliance Fatal Ascension closes it’s doors, it is transferring its systems to HERO and dropping sov in the systems HERO has deemed unfit for it’s use. However, Black Legion. has moved to take many systems and constellations in Fountain, notably Chimera and 6VDT-H, the historic system where TEST and the remnants of the Honey Badger Coalition were finally defeated in the 2013 Fountain War by the old CFC.
While BL takes these systems, it has teamed up with the “Fountain Core” (alliances and corporations who live in NPC Fountain) to try and take R64 moons from HERO, bringing high SP doctrines and extensively using capitals, confident HERO would not risk using their own whilst still shell-shocked from fighting PL Titans and Supers. This has gone slightly awry for them at times, with HERO dropping capitals and dunking BL carriers at least twice. The system if MN5N-X and it’s Dysprosium moons have been a flashpoint in the conflict, with capitals and billions of ISK dying in the many battles occurring there.
As HERO fights Black Legion and the Foutain Core, they face a few problems. The numbers HERO was legendary for bringing have been quite low recently, at times forming less than two hundred pilots for expensive moons. This has been a major point of discussion within the coalition and Brave, with finger-pointing at corporations and alliances for not bringing many people common and justifications such as their iconic FC Blue Ice being absent and many pilots taking end of year exams being used.
Especially BRAVE is exhausted, suffering a minor failure cascade after a coup and counter-coup and losing what some estimates count to be almost a third of their active pilots. Slightly less recently, TEST left HERO, taking away 100-200 pilots every fight away from HERO.
Will HERO be able to hold their space and their moons? Can they regain their strength in numbers and keep the Legion at bay? Stay tuned to news from the Southwest.
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Siaka Stevens.