Early on Wednesday September 18, Legacy forces began to lay siege to the O3-4MN system held by Fraternity (FRT), knocking out cynosural system jammers, as well as striking the Ansiblex jump gate and reinforcing it in preparation for a full-scale invasion. Fraternity, caught in a bad time zone, was unable to contest the initial assault effectively, using only Stealth Bombers and citadel weapons from the Keepstar in O3-. The assault ended with the Keepstar reinforced through to armour, and the system Infrastructure Hub (iHub) reinforced and set to begin spawning nodes at 1030 EVE-Time on September 20.
At the same time, Vily (Lord Commander of TEST forces) issued a statement on behalf of the Legacy Coalition aimed towards the non-Fraternity or Therapists members of Winter Coalition. Vily outlined that Legacy have no ill will towards the smaller groups, with examples such as Aurora Tandem Federation, VINDICTIVE, and Lord of Worlds Alliance, as well as any Chinese corporations and alliances in Winter that may be looking for a new leader. Vily also highlighted Fraternity’s statement about how Detroid will most likely be lost and fall to Legacy forces.
In the 24 hours following the initial assault, TEST forces continued to take ground, with the destruction of four iHubs in U0W-DR, OFVH-Y, 2-X0PF and 1-PGSG. Both sides were then told to rest easy and prepare for the main O3-4MN timers.
TEST Alliance member RonUSMC provided comment on Winter Coalition forces choosing not to respond to timers due to a lack of numbers on Winters side. Ron had this to say: “We know that that they had called their allies [in] Pandemic Legion, Northern Coalition, Pandemic Horde to also form with them. We anticipated a maximum CTA formup and we prepared for such. It’s unfortunate they didn’t form because it could have been a great fight.”
For the contest, Alphastarpilot sent this message after standing down a fleet that was forming to help Winter.
“Hello everyone. Regarding the upcoming redpen, we are not going to form, it is cancelled. Here is my straight up no spin reasoning: Initial plan was to go assist WinterCo with trying to kill a TAPI Fort onlining in their Staging, but with it being 4-5am in China right now, FRT is crippled in terms of manpower. Meanwhile, TAPI/Legacy/FIRE/Imperium are all planning to attend on the opposite end of this fight, and while I enjoy the challenge of being outnumbered and outgunned, it’ll be just way too much. So instead of taking you guys for a 2 hour blueball ride to Detorid and back, we won’t even bother. Apologies if you changed your schedule for this, I did myself so I understand. I’ll be around for a few more hours to do some pewpew with everyone if any content comes nearby drones. Thank you for understanding and sorry again”
INN watches with great interest to see how the fighting will unfold in the next few days as the Siege of O3-4MN continues.
