“And in the midst of all this the original objective, reinforcing the OOS tower on IX-11, had actually been accomplished. Dare we say, ‘OP success?'”
THE STAGE
On February 3 at around 22:00 EVE Time, in the Venal system of N6G-H3, Imperium forces suffered a massive loss at the hands of Venal residents OOS with help from PL, NC., Mercenary Coalition, and Hax.. The nearly one thousand-pilot engagement lasted for nearly an hour, as Imperium forces attempted to reinforce an R64 in the system.
THE FLEETS
From top to bottom, the Imperium, comprised mostly of fleets from CO2, RZR, BASTN, and FCON, fielded nine titans, seventeen supercarriers, fourteen dreadnoughts, nine Archons, as well as a Hurricane/HFI fleet, Cerberuses, Proteii, and Svipul. The defenders brought fourteen dreadnoughts, one Archon, fourteen HICs, a Sleipnir/Hurricane fleet, Ishtars and too many interdictors to count. With Imperium forces on one side of the fight and all others, including third parties, the engagement was 507 vs 413, with the Imperium slightly outnumbering the defenders.
Imperium VS OOS/PL/NC. 03.02.2016
THE FIGHT
Perspective of the CO2 capital FC, Sebastien Saintfrusquin:
“The fight started as a normal POS bash. OOS has been leading the fight against the Imperium for moon control in the Venal region, while RZR and FCON spearhead the defense of the area. The tension has already resulted in numerous clashes with varying degrees of success. This time, RZR was aiming to take an R64 belonging to OOS in N6G-H3.
Scouts began reporting an increase in activity throughout multiple hostile staging systems. The RZR fleet arrived in the target system on the OOS tower around 2150 EVE Time with ten dreadnoughts, four carriers and a dozen or so supercarriers supported by a fleet of Sleipnirs/HFIs. Almost immediately reports came in of OOS undocking in their dreadnoughts and a crapton of interdictors. Sahkt was hinting that NC. was ready to undock, but before they or PL arrived, a Hax/MC Ishtar fleet popped up in 9-266Q. They had been reported before, but were mostly ignored and were not followed closely. The RZR capital fleet was confronted with a tidal wave of interdictors and the Hax/MC fleet. PL was hot on their heels.
Calls for immediate assistance went out to the Imperium and BASTN and FCON quickly sent fleets out to help. CONDI and SMA also turned from their Pure Blind operations to help with the brawl. Then NC. showed their hand–a Sleipnir fleet of about 130 pilots. While all of the moving a reinforcements was happening, the fight in N6G-H3 was not going well for RZR. Confronted with far heavier opposition than anticipated, their subcapitals were quickly slaughtered. Then came more dire news: One RZR Aeon had been warped off due to a fleet warp. When he landed he was left isolated from the group and did not have a cyno fitted to call in help.”
RZR’s subcap fleet had been completely destroyed during the engagement and were sent back home to reship into a Proteus fleet. The Goonswarm Federation Hurricane fleet and the BASTN/FCON Cerberuses were also taking heavy losses as NC. finally arrived and bolstered the incoming fire.
Sebastien continued, “The enemies then attempted to kill a RZR Wyvern. Bumps were pushing him from his fleet preventing him from refitting. Neutralizers brought his cap to zero and slowly he started to drop. The Wyvern pilot opened a cyno bringing in CO2 titans, supercarriers, carriers and dreadnoughts. Now refit to armor, the Wyvern held at 10% armor and was saved. Titan doomsdays streaked through the space between the two fleets, killing several of the enemies dreadnoughts…”
Satisfied with the fight and probably tired from the long fight, PL chased after the CO2 Eagle fleet and began their trek home. The other enemy fleets soon followed and extracting friendly fleets proved uneventful for the Imperium fleets.
“And in the midst of all this, the original object, reinforcing the OOS tower on IX-11, had actually been accomplished. Dare we say, ‘OP success?'”
THE COST
Losing 103B ISK for a moon that only pumps out about 2.5B ISK per month in raw materials is a bit off from ‘OP Success’, but the Imperium did accomplish the strategic objective. Now, maybe they sacrificed a little too much for this moon, but they did reinforce it. Do we even have to talk about the ISK war? OOS and their friends completely demolished several Imperium fleets, multiple dreadnoughts and an Aeon. Although OOS lost nearly their entire dreadnought fleet, they still took the cake, losing just over 39B ISK. PL, NC and Hax left the fight with very few losses.
Update: The timer for the R64 was set for February 4 at 1704, and zkillboard from that time has shown no tower killmails.
