In the early hours of August 20th, a small skirmish on a null sec wormhole in Outer Passage between Why so Serious <WhySo> and Ministry of Inappropriate Footwork <KICK> turned into an hour long slug fest when G1rn4aIk2 of Why So Serious warped his Nyx to the wormhole and got himself tackled. The following report is written based off of the information gathered during an interview with StarFleetCommander, FC for the Verge of Collapse fleet present during the majority of the engagement.
Always Bring a Nyx to a Sub Cap Fight
KICK brought a small gang (6) comprising of a trio of armor tech 3 cruisers with a Guardian for logistics and pair of assault frigate tackle out of their wormhole looking for a fight. They were soon engaged by WhySo members from the Debitum Naturae corporation flying armor battleships and assorted support. During the beginning of this engagement, G1rn5aIk2 was killed in his Broadsword and decided he needed to return to the fray in something slightly bigger. Early reports from sources in WhySo say that the Nyx pilot brought his super onto the field to provide ECM support via the Projected Burst against the hostile logistics, and with no hostile capitals on field we can safely assume these reports are correct.
The ECM Burst module has a chance of breaking the locks of all the ships in the area of the target ship that you activate it against. When used against T2 logistics, who can quickly re-establish a lock, this is only a mild annoyance, and bringing in a second Scorpion to support their fleet would have caused the KICK logistics much more of an issue than the Nyx for a fraction of the cost.
The KICK gang began at once to call for backup within their own alliance and through fellow wormhole alliance Verge of Collapse <CRIT>. KICK Heavy Interdictors from within their wormhole were able to establish tackle on the Nyx, and StarFleetCommader of Verge of Collapse began to put together a small armor tech 3 fleet (12). They had a drone region connection, but it was 15 jumps from P-8PDJ where the fight was taking place. Even as the CRIT Fleet left its wormhole into K-Space to begin their hurried march to assist, things were turning dire for the KICK gang as Why So Serious reinforcements began to arrive on grid, including five carriers, several more subcaps, and a deadly anti-AHAC Phoenix.
How exactly the small KICK gang was able to survive, much less maintain tackle on the Nyx against several armor battleships – including two neutralising Armageddons and a Scorpion with a full load out of Amarr jammers to silence their logistics, all of whom were constantly repped by five carriers – is a feat to be praised. When the small CRIT support fleet was two jumps from their destination, the situation began to fall apart for the KICK Fleet. One of their Guardians was forced to jump back into their wormhole and the second, now without a cap buddy, was under serious pressure trying to maintain reps on the two HICs holding the Nyx down. StarFleetCommander felt that at any moment the report would come in that the Nyx had escaped, and yet as his fleet reached the destination and jumped in to system, the KICK gang was still maintaining tackle.
HOLDING ACTION
This is where the second phase of the engagement began. The addition of the CRIT logistics to the field helped stabilize the situation for the wormholers, but they still lacked the DPS to harm the Nyx, the carriers, or even the battleships. The CRIT fleet began to take apart the softer targets on the field; generally those shield tanked or ships that appeared to have come straight from running anoms to assist. This particular Nightmare pilot returned the field three more times in a Talos, a Gila, and a Zealot. A call for assistance was sent to allied wormhole alliances Sleeper Social Club <SSC> and Kill It With Fire <KILL>, who answered by assembling a much larger Tech 3 fleet, but they had nearly forty jumps through nullsec to travel to reach the battle.
Just as the wormholers were beginning to take control of the fight, Why So Serious reinforcements responding to a CTA call arrived with a somewhat proper doctrine: thirteen Gilas and three Scimitars. StarFleetCommander was unsure if the Gila fleet meant to warp in so close or was dragged into bubbles, but they landed only 20-30k off the armor cruisers, who quickly closed the distance and began to chew through their logistics. The Gila fleet was sporting a somewhat unconventional fit, with afterburners instead of microwarpdrives. This meant they could not pull range against the faster Tech 3 cruisers and were forced to drop Gardes to brawl it out at short range, a fight they would not win. With the benefit of hindsight and a proper warp in, the Gila fleet could’ve come in at range, dropped Bouncers, and stayed safely away from the wormholers shorter range fleet, forcing them either to weather the drones damage or chase after them away from their own logistics.
While the Gila fleet was being dispatched, more Why So Serious carriers arrived on field along with a Revelation. Unfortunately without webs and target painters to hold the sig-tanking cruisers down, the Dreadnought would be next to useless. But the sheer mass of sentry drones and fighters from the carriers soon reached the breaking point for the tank of the HICs tackling the Nyx. Both KICK HICs who made the original tackle were destroyed, leaving the Nyx free to escape. Oddly enough, the Nyx decided to stay on field untackled. Even with the CRIT fleet members bumping him out of alignment, he was receiving enough cap from the carriers that he should of been able to jump out at any time. Whether he decided to stay till the bitter end because he felt guilty that his corp’s capital fleet, who came to save him, was now locked down on grid, or because he thought this was a fight they were winning is unknown, but his comments in local suggest the latter.
G1rn4aIk2 > “yall can play wioth me all u want ill fuck every single one of ui up”
His untackled state remained for another ten minutes until SSC and KILL reinforcements finally arrived and regained tackle. Now with the required DPS on field, the wormholers began to go to work on the WhySo capital ships. Unfortunately, at this time the operation suffered a major setback when the deadly Phoenix managed to slip its tackle and warp away to safety. Sighs of disappointment went out amongst the wormholers; they would never learn its secret AHAC-slaying fit.
CALL IN THE LEGION
The Why So Serious capitals were dying, but at a slow pace, and with the risk of N3 reinforcements in the form of Nulli, NCdot, or Pandemic Legion arriving at any moment, the decision was made to contact Black Legion <MEN> for the manpower to bring this fight to a quick conclusion. Not ones to miss out on a super kill, Black Legion burned a Talos Fleet (80) from their Venal home to Outer Passage in short order. Their arrival on field brought the fight to an end rather quickly, cutting through the remaining capitals and then the Nyx itself.
Black Legion. – Nyx Kill – August 20th, 2013
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Gilles Navarien.
