Breaking News: H.E.R.O Coalition Capital Fleet Lost in N-8BZ6

With the shock waves of Darkness of Despair's disband still subsiding, H.E.R.O Coalition continued its assault on Catch. However, it seems over confidence led H.E.R.O Coalition to deploy a small capital fleet in N-8BZ6 system in order to reinforce an AAA Citizens station, a renter Alliance of Against ALL Authorities. Their mistake was aggravated by the lack a substantial sub-capital fleet to escort said capitals. This resulted in thirteen dreadnaughts and four carriers destroyed, along with an assortment of sub-capitals who tried to rescue the tackled capitals.

The fight started by coincidence, when republicov, a Providence Block Fleet Commander belonging to the Silent Infinity Alliance, led an interceptor gang through Catch, hoping to snag a few kills. Moving through the N-8BZ6 system, one of the fleet members, Myster0816 of Curatores Veritatis Alliance, checked his directional scanner and was noticed that capital ships were showing up near the system's station. Without a second thought, republicov ordered his fleet to warp to the station and tackle the besieging capitals, while pinging Providence for reinforcements.

The battle through republicov's fleet's perspective

Luckily enough, corebloodbrothers of The Volition Cult Alliance, was assembling his daily fleet. Getting reports from republicov, corebloodbrothers ordered his fleet to re-ship to heavy neutralizing battleships and assemble on a titan to bridge. PIXSE, another pilot of The Volition Cult, was told to fit a cynosural generator on an interceptor and burn to the site in order to allow the force to drop on top of the tackled capitals.

In the meanwhile, Chee Sao of Apocalypse Now. Alliance, who was part of republicov's fleet, kept the tackled capitals bubbled with his sabre, giving corebloodbrothers the time needed to organize and bridge his fleet. In less than twenty minutes the first wave of battleship was on the field, applying heavy neutralizers and DPS on the bubbled capitals.

A recording of the early stages of the battle, just as CFC forces enter the system

The fight's outcome, was not, by any definition of the word, clear at the time. The first wave of battleships was having a tough time breaking the capitals' tank, and losing many of its ships. corebloodbrothers hastily organized reinforcements, only to find that his titan had run out of Strontium Clathrates to open the bridge. This led to a rather comical moment in which fuel had to be brought up and dragged to the titan. After they were done with their shenanigans, Provi-Block reinforcements bridged into the system and kept piling in, reaching one-hundred and eighty pilots, mostly in sentry ships.

At the same time, a CFC Tengu fleet have heard of the tackled capitals and burned to the system. corebloodbrothers quickly opened communications with the CFC's FC, reaching an agreement of a temporary ceasefire in order for both fleets to focus on the tackled capitals. With the CFC reinforcements, the H.E.R.O Coalition capitals melted away, and were destroyed to the last one. A token H.E.R.O cruiser gang numbering more than fifty pilots tried to free the tackled capitals, only to end up destroyed alongside them.

Once all the capitals were destroyed, the CFC Tengu fleet extracted itself from the system, without incident, allowing Provi-Block to loot the field and return home safely. In just over an hour H.E.R.O Coalition lost five Moros, three Naglfar, two Phoenix and three Revelation class dreadnaughts, as well as three Chimera and one Archon class carriers. The damage done is valued at fifty billion ISK.

Battle Report

While Test Alliance Please Ignore has not given me any official response, Brave Collective's PR officer, Markonius Porkbutte, directed me to his subreddit post, where it was claimed that poor coordination, lack of consolidated communication lines, absence of a backup fleet and operational oversight caused the losses.

However, it has been claimed that a H.E.R.O Coalition reinforcement fleet was assembled and ready to bridge on a titan, only to find out the titan pilot in question was AFK. This may explain why several Provi-Block pilots saw a second H.E.R.O Coalition cynosural beacon go up, without anyone entering the system. This has not been confirmed by either side, though corebloodbrothers confessed that there were multiple cynosural beacons on the field, and he could have overlooked it.

Regardless of the outcome, many people in Providence are looking forward to H.E.R.O Coalition's continued deployment in the region and hope for many more good fights in the future.

Special thanks are in order to JedsZero, Dragoshi Drambuie and Exclevori of Apocalypse Now. Alliance and Judiciary Pag of Curatores Veritatis Alliance for their contributions to the article, as well as corebloodbrothers, of The Volition Cult Alliance for the interview.