Multiple Doomsdays Fired in 49-U6U
49-U6U, Querious - Multiple so-called "Doomsday" devices were fired in the fiercely-contested system of 49-U6U in the evening of the 20th.
The battles on the 20th-21st were over five control towers that were contesting GoonSwarm's sovereignty on behalf of KenZoku, that were scheduled to emerge from reinforced mode.
The attacking forces - KenZoku, Against ALL Authorities and their allies - had staged a heavy buildup over the course of the day, peaking at 300-400 ships in the system, with a heavy capital presence. Shortly before KenZoku's first control tower was due to become vulnerable, Against ALL Authorities forces suddenly left the system. Shadoo of Pandemic Legion (one of the alliances working with GoonSwarm to defend the recently-conquered system of 49-U6U) expressed his reaction at the time:
"Our 'tinfoil' meter went red with cap fight bait as -A- suddenly decided to leave [49-U6U] system."
('Tinfoil' is a metaphor used by capsuleers to denote suspicions of tricks, traps and conspiracies. It refers to the 'tinfoil hats' supposedly worn by the paranoid to protect themselves from mind-control rays.)
"We tracked them moving towards some formup system, before getting scout reports from [Red Alliance and Shadow of xXDEATHXx] that they had gone to 46d to save towers [that we think] Death had put in reinforced yesterday.
"As such, we quickly called all hands on deck to attempt to break into 49-U6U and secure system control as there were 5 towers coming out of reinforced while Against ALL Authorities was on a roadtrip. Our numbers slowly built up, but we still did not have comfortable numbers in case this turned into a capital slugfest and thus let one [control tower] be repped."
While the tower was being repaired, at 16:20, BlackHawk69 (Black Eclipse Corp, KenZoku) unleashed an Aurora Ominae doomsday weapon from his Erebus-class titan against a group of GoonSwarm and Pandemic Legion battleships and support that were trapped inside a heavy interdictor bubble generated by SFShootme's Onyx. The blast killed 39 hostiles and 4 of his allied force.
The second tower to emerge from reinforced mode saw heavy fighting. Support ships from Pandemic Legion, the Northern Coalition and Goonswarm engaged enemy carriers outside the tower's shields, trying to force them back inside where they would be unable to use their remote repair modules on either the tower or supporting vessels. KenZoku and their allies brought in snipers and trapped the attacking support ships in interdiction bubbles. Both sides took losses in the ensuing exchange of fire, but KenZoku ships were forced to withdraw from the tower by incoming GoonSwarm, Northern Coalition and Pandemic Legion capitals.
Under fire from Dreadnoughts in siege mode, the tower was sustaining hull damage when a C0ven battleship fleet warped in and attempted to snip the sieging dreads. The fleet was probed down by the defenders and a counter-attack warped in directly atop them - at such close range, the sniper ships were heavily disadvantaged by their poor turret tracking. A squadron of smartbombing battleships from Tau Ceti Federation wreaked havoc on both sides, but successfully drew the fire of the C0ven ships, allowing the Pandemic Legion sniper fleet time to work unhindered.
Pandemic Legion attempted to unleash a double-doomsday from Shadoo and Viper ShizzIe against the main KenZoku fleet, but the ships were mostly able to evacuate before the weapons were fired. The bubbled support fleet used the opportunity to escape, however, and re-engaged the Stain Wagon sniper fleet. The KenZoku fleet returned to aid them, and while both sides took heavy casualties, the greater capital forces from GoonSwarm, Pandemic Legion and the Northern Coalition took their toll and a heavy assault cruiser fleet from Sons of Tangra arrived to reinforce the sovereignty-holders' forces.
The Interstellar Correspondents attempted to reach members of KenZoku and Against ALL Authorities for comments and corroboration, but the only member who could be reached was LadyScarlet, who only said "Bright lights" as she was in combat at the time.
In the course of the day's fighting, in total one KenZoku tower was successfully repaired and 3 destroyed, along with a RED.Overlord tower (RED.Overlord are allies of KenZoku in the current conflict).
GalNet References
Interstellar Correspondents News:
GoonSwarm Defend Protectorate Sovereignty in 49-U6U
Pitched Battle in Querious Claims Over 650 Ships
KenZoku Capitals Escape PR-8CA Camp
Delve: The Rise of Protectorate Sovereignty and the Fall of Outposts
Heavy Fighting in Delve Over Capital Ship Assembly Arrays
KenZoku Secures Outposts in Delve
Delve War II Begins
Band of Brothers Alliance Disbanded
**Contemporary Accounts: **
Campaign Statistics:
Tau Ceti Federation Campaign Statistics
GoonSwarm Campaign Statistics
Northern Coalition Campaign Statistics
Pandemic Legion Campaign Statistics
Against ALL Authorities Campaign Statistics
KenZoku Campaign Statistics
