It started off as a simple task, with the Initiative shooting an offline Azbel engineering complex in the system of D-B7YK in the region of Syndicate. The fight was initially a low key affair using just Ishtars with capital support on standby should things escalate…And oh boy did things escalate.
The Initiative had been active in the area as it falls within their area of influence. This, of course, was not going to go unnoticed by the residents of Syndicate. As you would also expect, the actions of the Initiative were not welcome by those living there. A plan was hatched by “Shoot First” to make Initiative pay for their hubris, which would involve their “mates” in Siege Green, NC and WSKY/LSH.
The 40 or so Ishtars formed by the Initiative were happily pounding away at the Azbel when Shoot First and Siege Green came in. The defenders brought in armour carriers and triage, with a few Machariels to act as the tempting bait. But the defenders were unable to really affect the Ishtars, and so had to call for further help. This help came in the form of a small NCdot Muninn fleet. Once in the fray, they made short work of the Ishtars.
This spurred the Initiative FC into dropping their capital fleet: a mixture of shield and armour titans with initially shockingly low FAX support. With the more valuable assets on the field, Shoot First and friends made their own escalation in the form of approximately a 50-man dread bomb.
The dread bomb from the defenders got right into the thick of it and started the slaughter the vulnerable Initiative titans. Shoot First were aware that the rest of The Imperium was waking up to this incident, and knew that time was short. Initiative forces, realising their error, jumped in more support in order to stabilise the losses they were sustaining.
Notable losses for Initiative are: Ashur Talon’s Avatar, two Ragnarok’s (one of which was piloted by CSM member Brisc Rubal), a Vendetta, and a Revenant.
These five losses alone account for almost 500 billion ISK down from the Initiative. This is not a bad result at all for Shoot First and their friends, with them only suffering just shy of 150 billion ISK in their own losses. Additionally, given that dreads insure pretty well, their real losses are going to be significantly lower.
CSM member Brisc Rubal had this to say about his loss of his three-day-old Ragnarok:
“I happened to be one of the two shield titans we had on grid, and we didn’t have the kind of FAX support we should have. That and the CSM target painter bonus = dead rag. Shit happens, but that was actually more fun than listening to pubbies cry on the EVE-O forums about ECM changes.”
All in all this, was a well-executed and effective trap set by the defenders. The question that remains is what action, if any, will the Initiative take to redress this slaughter. For that answer we will simply have to wait and see.
It was very nice to see that, as yet, no one from Initiative has dropped corp in order to save their killboard, and no public displays of anger have been present from Initiative leadership.
The final ISK score is 540 billion lost for Initiative and 148 billion lost for Shoot First and their friends. Not a bad exchange rate.
