“Looks like you got your story now…” – Raknor Bile to Lemba
The Stage
On February 9 at 1340 EVE time in the Syndicate system of 3KNK-A, OSS and The Culture demolished an Imperium capital fleet. The engagement began as members of the Imperium attacked an OSS-owned POS harvesting R64 moon materials. Unprepared for a counterattack and unable to call for sufficient help, the entire fleet fell.
-T C- And OSS meet Arsehole Squad cap Group
The Fleets and The Fight
The Imperium fleet attacked the R64 with eleven dreadnoughts, six carriers and a handful of subcapital ships, while the combined OSS and T-C fleet brought in five supercarriers and ten dreadnoughts supported by a twenty-man Machariel fleet.
The Australian/Pacific Imperium members, led by Lemba of Goonswarm Federation, had just finished a convoy operation to bring in more dreadnoughts for use in Syndicate. During the move op, as capitals jumped from a midpoint into 3KNK-A, Raknor Bile with a few of his fleet members began harrasing subcaps. Foreshadowing the coming loss, Lemba joking told Raknor to, “Go kill a bunch of ships and get me a story.” Raknor replied simply with, “Will do my best.”
Once in 3KNK-A, all “red flags” were ignored; T-C had eyes on the convoy fleet, they had intel that POSes in the area were being attacked by Imperium forces, and after the convoy, scouts were left in system to monitor the Imperium’s next move.
Shortly after, the nearly 30-man Imperium fleet undocked and reinforced a smaller moon. Directly after, the capital fleet warped to the R64 owned by OSS and set up to begin the siege. Imperium scouts on the gates were not quick enough to identify the soon-to-be recon cyno ship, and just as the capitals went into siege mode, a Space Violence Arazu decloaked and lit the cyno for the defending fleet.
Locked in siege mode and trapped in bubbles, the Imperium fleet had no other choice but to kill what it could. Several Machariels were destroyed, but the neutralizing power and DPS from the OSS/T-C fleet was too much for the Imperium. After nearly five minutes of fighting, the entire capital fleet was wiped out. Reinforcements were called in from Saranen, the Imperium’s lowsec staging system, but it was far too late for the dying caps.
The Cost
With its entire capital fleet destroyed, the Imperium lost the strategic object and the ISK war, taking 50.1B ISK in damages. The OSS/T-C fleet took very few losses to the tune of 3.6B ISK.
Although it was a heavy loss for the small Imperium group, many lessons were learned and they are sure to be ready for Round 2.
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Lemba.
