It is now four days since Legacy’s first keepstar at UALX was destroyed in the largest capital engagement since the Battle of 9-4RP2 earlier this year. The battle, which lasted a little over 12 hours, ended when a node failure and then downtime forced both sides offline. Though Pandemic Legion, Winter Coalition, and the Holy Rental Empire were quick to claim a strategic success in preventing the keepstar from anchoring, they continue to lose assets to an ongoing Legacy camp of the region. The weekend has seen us through a steady stream of low-effort content as Northern forces log in–either through carelessness or deliberate frustration to collect insurance and return home–quickly exploding and returning home.
Adding to their misfortune, claims of a strategic victory have also fallen follow, as Friday evening saw the successful anchoring of a second keepstar in the system, a mere 1150 kilometers from the thoroughly tackled and logged-off super fleet, as well as a Fortizar directly on top of the offline Northern super and titan blob.
Throughout the weekend, Brave and TEST as well as Legacy and Imperium allies have maintained an effective round-the-clock hellcamp in the system, clearing the field of Northern forces that log in. A brief controversy arose when it came to light Holy Rental Empire alliance skill urself (INGME) leadership had been encouraging trapped line members to file petitions with the GMs reporting their ships as “stuck.” Heading off any claims of bias or interference in game events, CCP quickly responded with a clarifying statement. In it, CCP reiterates its long-standing policies about not stepping in to help players who disconnected or otherwise suffered client misbehavior when engaging in large-scale battles, as well as its policies regarding moving assets for “stuck” players who have returned to the game to find their assets trapped. The list of ships ineligible for movement was also updated to include force auxiliaries and faction supers which did not exist when the policy was made. By policy, CCP will not move any ships capable of fitting a jump drive, as it is understood that they should be able to extract themselves quickly from any stuck situation- unless, of course, they are logging into the center of a 200km field of anchored interdiction bubbles.
Meanwhile in the North, the Imperium has taken advantage of the indisposed state of much of Pandemic Legion’s force projection capacity, reinforcing a number of critical structures and continuing its push in a campaign of revenge against former enemies living in Northern territories and seemingly forcing the Northern Coalition to kill its own structures in an attempt to deny the Imperium killmails. Imperium forces in the North have reinforced a number of structures including faction fortizars and the GOTG staging keepstar in DO6H-Q over the last few days.
Rumors about a possible NCdot-assisted breakout of the UALX camp shortly after downtime on Sunday morning were circulated earlier today, but whether or not NCdot or other Pandemic Legion allies would be willing to commit the necessary forces to save the PL fleet remains to be seen.
