Providence Fight Club: E-YJ8G 18.3.2014

"Station Games" are a favorite of many EVE Players in Null Security and Low Security space. Often involving the undocking of ships with a large amount of Hit Points, and sitting in the docking range of a station. This allows them to comfortably soak the damage of an enemy fleet, while maintaining the opportunity to dock up at the first sign of troubles. Many a roaming gang have been exasperated by this tactic, which is usually meant more to delay attackers in order for a counter fleet to form, or just plain annoyance. The Carrier class of ships has been a particular favorite in this type of Peek-A-Boo games.

However, there are times when "Station Games" go horribly awry, and this is the tale of one of those instances. 

Fardendur, of W.A.S.P, Curatores Veritatis Alliance, is a known Providence-Bloc Fleet Commander, who spearheads the Black Ops division of said coalition. In his travels through the Catch region, he stumbled upon an Archon class Carrier in the E-YJ8G system, piloted by Grozny Ivan, of Imperial Guardians, Spaceship Samurai Alliance. Said Archon was sitting at the docking range of the E-YJ8G station, and willingly aggressed Fardendur. At the time, Fardendur did not have enough pilots in order to make a successful Covert Ops drop, so he declined to engage. On the eighteenth of March, however, things were very much different than that initial engagement.

After a failed drop attempt earlier in the day, Fardendur made his way in a bait ship to the E-YJ8G system, Catch region, in order to see if the Archon would still be there. To his delight, the Archon was sitting on the station, almost daring him to engage. Of course, playing the part of the bait, Fardendur acted reluctant, trying to coax the Carrier pilot into a more even fight, and even running away, warping to a safe spot, once the Carrier did engage him.

Instead, he was contacting Ladel Teravada, of Caldari Independent Navy Reserve, The Fourth District Alliance, in order to quickly form a few Dreadnaught class ships together into a fleet, in order to have enough damage on the field to destroy the Carrier. Fardendur himself had a Dreadnaught in his fleet, besides the two Carriers in reserve for logistics support, as is the case for most Black Ops fleets. Warping back to the station and trying to bump the Carrier off it, Fardendur managed to get the Carrier to aggress him fully, thus denying the Carrier pilot the ability to dock his ship for one minute.

However, Fardendur had to wait a little while to lit his cynosural beacon, as the location did not seem suitable to Ladel Teravada. After a few more moments maneuvering, Fardendur activated his cynosural generator, creating a cynosural beacon and allowing the fleet to jump to his position. Immediately, the Dreadnaughts entered into Siege mode, which multiplies their damage output by seven-hundred(!) percent, at the cost of their mobility and ability to jump out, and started firing their devastating volleys at the Carrier, with the Stealth Bombers adding their own considerable fire power to the mix.

At this point, the Carrier pilot tried to de-aggress, thinking he might save his ship in time. In what he later called a close race, the Carrier could not sustain the incoming damage, and before the minute was done, had succumbed to the damage poured onto it by the Providence-Bloc fleet. Once the Carrier's lifeless wreck floated before him, Fardendur had the rest of the fleet disperse and cloak, while the Carriers transferred capacitor to the Dreadnaughts, who were finishing their Siege cycle, so that they may jump out as soon as possible. Without further incident, the Black Ops fleet and their Capital ship escorts managed to safely extract back to their staging system.

The Carrier pilot himself, Grozny Ivan, told in a later interview that he knew Fardendur was probably acting as a trap, but engaged him willingly, thinking he would have the time to dock in the worst case scenario, which proved untrue. Outside of that, he does not regret his decision to play "Station Games", which he did mainly out of boredom, between Carrier fleets. Once he was engaged and started to take considerable damage, he did not call for help, as he did not wish for his alliance to risk more assets due to what he admitted, was his mistake. After he lost his ship, he gave proper recognition to the Providence-Bloc fleet for their successful operation.

Fardendur wished to commend the following pilots for their part in the fleet: Dylan Chan, of GeoCorp(dot), Curatores Veritatis Alliance, for fueling services rendered, republicov, of treu republic, Silent Infinity Alliance, and Wyrm Alnaden, of W.A.S.P, Curatores Veritatis Alliance, for acting as secondary bait and co-Fleet Commanders.

Special thanks are in order for Fardendur, of W.A.S.P, Curatores Veritatis Alliance and Grozny Ivan, of Imperial Guardians, Spaceship Samurai Alliance for granting me interviews.