Pandemic Legion (PL) relinquished a few small capital fleets in Saranen on May 24, after being pinned down by Imperium forces led by Amyclas. The enagement occured approximately 8:00 EVE time (early morning US timezones) resulting in the loss of five Apostles and a smattering of subcaps worth 12 billion ISK. Imperium forces sustained losses of five hurricanes and six T1 frigates worth 600 million ISK.
The fight took place at an Imperium Citadel in the system. PL’s capital fleet (including a Northern Coalition Apostle and Thanatos) dropped on the citadel during its vulnerability timer. Despite the losses, the PL fleet was able to avoid losing an additional seven carriers on the field. The unforced error comes at a challenging time for PL. They have seen a precipitious drop in its killboard efficiency this past month. PL normally enjoys a killboard efficiency in the high 80s, and has for over a year, but has dipped as low in May as the lows 70s and high 60s.
PL has been boxed into the role of babysitter to defend a patchwork of allies that are holding sovereignty in recently conquered Imperium terrorities. The alliance’s presence has had a chilling effect on the Imperium’s extensive capital fleet which has been largely absent from the recent war (although the Imperium has lost over two dozen high-value capital assets over several weeks of evacuation and restaging). PL’s presence is critical to the Money Badger Coalition’s (MBC) ability to maintain its presence in the north.
Notorious for being mobile and not holding sovereignty, PL recently took several Pure Blind systems and anchored a Fortizar off of Saranen undock in attempt to provoke Imperium into some sort of defensive action. It is unclear if their new tactic of deploying capital fleets with no escort is part of this strategy. Amyclas noted that “PL showed absurd levels of hubris in using capitals without subcap support.”
Addendum: Approximately 20 hours later PL lost an additional 50 billion ISK worth of Apostle capital ships attempting to reinforce an Imperium POS tower. The Imperium suffered 11 billion ISK in return and the POS was not reinforced.
