At 0200, a TEST citadel came out of anchoring in XWY-YM. Several sub-capital fleets of varying sizes were already in the system as the timer began, the majority of which intended to third-party on the expected battle, though that sub-capital exclusivity didn’t last for long. In a matter of minutes, 105 dreadnoughts, 20 force auxiliary, and 53 CO2 carriers appeared 20km off of the citadel, having jumped through a cynosural field.
The response from TEST was methodical. Several interdictors burned into the CO2 formation and began dropping warp disruption bubbles. At the same time, multiple force auxiliary carriers undocked and waited patiently as another cynosural field opened at the edge of tether range, bringing in a trio of titans which quickly took to striking the enemy fleet with bosons and a lance. As soon as this had been done, another cynosural field appeared at the edge of the CO2 fleet, and another group of TEST capitals—mostly dreadnoughts—joined the fight.
At this point the numbers were overwhelmingly in the favor of TEST, with 17 titans, 59 supers, 139 dreads, 61 carriers, and 13 force auxiliaries on field. I also have it on good authority that TEST had another 70 or so force auxiliaries on standby, having expected to have to deal with the combined forces of CO2, PL, and TRI. They also had fleets from BRAVE and FCON on field in sub capitals as support. Fortunately for them, they and their allies interdictors worked hard in Feythabolis, keeping the support of 120 to 150 TRI capitals from joining their CO2 allies in the engagement by harassing them as they gated part of the way to the fight.
The battle report can be seen here. The losses at this time appear to be 47.5 billion ISK to 420 billion ISK in favor of TEST. This is a staggering loss for CO2, as the strategic objective was lost alongside a large number of hulls.
The fight continued on for a while. TEST whittled down the CO2 capitals, which were unable to withdraw and had no support to speak of. On the periphery of the battle, several other third-party fleets were taking shots at one side or the other to get in on kills, but by this point the fighting was dropping to a simmer and obviously going to end soon.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article stated that the timer was the final structure timer.
