At approximately 20:00 on April 22, Pandemic Legion launched a devastating attack against a Rorqual belonging to Initiative Associates, destroying the nearly three-billion-ISK mining ship in exchange for a mere 250 billion ISK, including 80 dreadnoughts and numerous subcapital ships. Initiative capital and subcapital fleets quickly responded, losing not only three dreadnoughts and twenty force auxiliaries – but also the objective, as the strategically important Rorqual was unable to be saved from Pandemic Legion’s skillful deployment.
The fight began as Gang Bang Team and Feign Disorder tackled the miner in the XF-TQL in Fountain. The attack caught the attention of an Initiative Snatch fleet which was already forming for another fight and quickly diverted. The fight didn’t end there, however, as a small gang of dreadnoughts belonging to NullSechsnaya Sholupen quickly arrived to ensure that the objective was not lost. This prompted Initiative Associates to dispatch their own capital fleet, as well as a Molok piloted by Honeymonstar.
The Molok, representing a now existential threat to NullSechsnaya’s small fleet, prompted a rapid escalation as Pandemic Legion moved in the full brunt of its capital fleet, rapidly deploying dreadnoughts to the area. Unfortunately for PL, Initiative had predicted this and prepared its own supercapital response, which jumped in shortly after the dreadnought fleet was fully committed. The Rorqual, however, had at this point been confirmed destroyed, so PL’s fleet initiated a rapid weapon-assisted disengagement, an elite PvP technique allowing their pilots to return to their staging without having to navigate out of the system.
Simultaneously, a fleet of Pandemic Legion Nagas distracted the initially responding Snatch fleet, preventing them from saving the target and costing them time and ammunition – ultimately using a similar trick to the capital fleet in order to rapidly redeploy to their staging system at Initiative’s expense.
In the final analysis, Pandemic Legion lost 250 billion ISK of material including 80 dreadnoughts and 87 Nagas. The Initiative and its renters lost a mere 75 billion ISK in materiel. While Initiative won the ISK war, however, it did lose 20 FAXes, important assets for the protection of supercapitals. In addition, the loss of the Rorqual may set back the Initiative renters by as much as a billion ISK, not including replacement of the ship, which could conceivably cause the entire Imperium economy to fail, if you really stretch your imagination.
A recording of the battle from the arrival of the Molok can be found here:
