Lonetrek: Capital Massacre in Nalvula

Nalvula system, Lonetrek region. On the 20th of August at 22:37 EVE time, an attempt to bait Pandemic Legion [-10.0] titans went awry, resulting in true capital slaughter in the system.

The trap has been laid down

The trap had been laid down by Snuffed Out [B B C] and Goonswarm Federation [CONDI]’s Special Interest Group (SIG) Space Violence. Pandemic Legion had made a habit of operating its super capitals in the north of New Eden with impunity and its enemies sought to exploit that. Goonswarm Federation supplied the bait, a 40 pilot Hurricane battlecruiser fleet with four combat carriers that was bashing planetary customs offices in the system of Nalvula. Snuffed Out in the meantime positioned its dreadnought fleet within jump range of the system before telling its pilots to log off, while also preparing a bridge titan and three squadrons of heavy interdictors. Goonswarm Federation would also organize a second dreadnought fleet.

Pandemic Legion scouts spotted the Hurricane fleet with its combat carrier escorts and took the bait. A cynosural beacon was secured on the grid and lit up, allowing four titans, including a Vanquisher, to jump through. Doomsday devices quickly spooled up and fired at the combat carriers, each of the titans hitting one of the four combat carriers. The combat carriers didn’t go down as they had been specifically fitted to survive a direct doomsday attack however, surprising the Pandemic Legion pilots. Regardless, the titans continued to hammer at the capital ships and their escorts, using their more conventional weapons.

Snuffed Out dreadnoughts, seconds before the assault begins

Suddenly, a secondary cynosural beacon lit up near the behemoths and the heavy interdictor wing materialized on field. The titans were quickly tackled and the Snuffed Out dreadnought fleet was told to to log in and jump through the still lit beacon. More than 70 dreadnoughts suddenly appeared on field, entered siege cycles and focused their firepower on the Vanquisher. Goonswarm Federation had assembled its own dreadnought force numbering more than 150 ships to join the fray.

The titan pilots didn’t panic and quickly raised the alarm, prompting the alliance pilots to log in and jump into Apostle force auxiliaries while also alerting allies to their plight. The force auxiliaries jumped into the still lit cynosural beacon and landed on the field in a piecemeal fashion. At the same time, more Pandemic Legion titans and supercarriers logged in, as well as Northern Coalition. [NC]’s, to prepare for a counter strike. On the Snuffed Out side things were going poorly. The Vanquisher proved rather tough, its armor extremely thick and able to absorb much of the firepower. Not only that, but Goonswarm Federation took too long to prepare and didn’t have its own cynosural beacon in place, forcing one of the heavy interdictors to switch fleets and light it for its dreadnought fleet. All of this wasted precious minutes that the attackers didn’t have.

Apostles kept jumping in and replacing the losses easily

Finally, Goonswarm Federation dreadnoughts entered the field. The mass of capital ships opened fire on the defiant Vanquisher, adding a considerable amount of damage to the mix. Unfortunately it was too late. Pandemic Legion had already managed to amass enough force auxiliaries on the field to repair the damage done to the titan, holding its armor steady above 80%. Seeing this, Snuffed Out and Goonswarm Federation diverted their firepower instead to removing as many force auxiliaries from the field as possible in order to break the logistics backbone of the titan, but to no avail. New Apostles kept jumping in and replacing the losses easily. What’s worse, Pandemic Legion and Northern Coalition.’s super capitals were taking the field.

Confident in their logistics backbone by virtue of sheer arithmetic if nothing else, Pandemic Legion and Northern Coalition. fleet commanders had no qualms about committing their entire super capital force to the field. With Goonswarm Federation’s super capitals still based in the Delve region and Snuffed Out unlikely to commit their smaller super capital fleet to the fight, there was little opposition to the two alliances. Supercarriers and titans started materializing in the maelstrom of battle in great numbers, accompanied by combat carriers, dreadnoughts and more force auxiliaries. The newly arrived super capitals didn’t waste time in free-firing on the assembled dreadnoughts, doomsday devices and fighter bombers flying in all directions.

Snuffed Out fleet commanders realized quickly they had no chance to destroy the Vanquisher

Snuffed Out fleet commanders realized quickly they had no chance to destroy the Vanquisher nor contend with Pandemic Legion / Northern Coalition.’s super capital supremacy and told their dreadnought pilots to discontinue their siege cycles and prepare to extract. The Snuffed Out dreadnoughts held their fire to conserve energy while consuming cap charges in order to reach the needed capacitor threshold to execute a jump. Once the siege cycle had run out many of the Snuffed Out dreadnoughts simply jumped out into an emergency cynosural beacon, leaving the field with relatively few losses.

Goonswarm Federation was not so lucky. Many of its dreadnoughts were not fitted with cap boosters and thus were unable to get a quick capacitor injection. Stranded on the field, many were cut down by the ever growing super capital armada. Some managed to warp off or finally jump out but many others were quickly caught by the horde of Pandemic Legion / Northern Coalition. allies which had come to join the battle. Fleets of interceptors and squadrons of heavy interdictors landed on grid and proceeded to tackle those dreadnoughts that had exited their siege cycles. Fighter bombers and doomsday devices would then finish off the tackled ships as the desperate struggle continued.

The massacre was not entirely one sided. The dreadnoughts did continue to destroy many Apostles even as their own number diminished rapidly. That said, by then it mattered little as the stream of Apostles never seemed to waver. Finally, the last few remaining Goonswarm Federation dreadnoughts were felled, giving control of the grid to Pandemic Legion / Northern Coalition.. The two alliances and their allies turned their attention to the Goonswarm Federation Typhoon battleship fleet which came to reinforce the dreadnoughts. Against the overwhelming firepower of the super capital armada and the many sub capital fleets which had gathered around them, the battleships stood no chance and were quickly decimated. Survivors fled, leaving the allies to hold the field and secure victory.

With the titans secured and the enemy fleets quashed, Pandemic Legion / Northern Coalition. and their myriad of allies proceeded to loot the field before extracting their fleets and bringing an end to the fight.

The battle from the POV of the Snuffed Out dreadnoughts that initiated the assault

A battle report for the Nalvula system can be found here.

All told, the battle lasted 61 minutes with Time Dilation shooting up to 10% levels for most of the fight. The system itself hosted around 1366 at the peak of the fighting.

Snuffed Out and Goonswarm Federation lost a total of 393 ships in the fighting including 159 dreadnoughts, 2 force auxiliaries, 12 combat carriers and 104 battleships for a total of 527.81 billion ISK damage.

Pandemic Legion, Northern Coalition. and their allies lost a combined 147 ships including 86 force auxiliaries for a total of 194.03 billion ISK damage.

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