Providence Fight Club: 9UY4-H 21.3.2015

9UY4-H system, Providence region. On the night of the 21st of March, 3 fleets clashed violently in the system, leading to a prolonged battle which saw Providence Bloc's defeat at the hands of the NPSI community.

The battle started when a combined force of Spectre Fleet and RvB Ganked, some 190 pilots strong entered Providence region in 2 fleets. The first was a Heavy Interdictor fleet with robust Logistics wing and Triage Carrier support, some 115 pilots strong, while the second fleet was mainly Ishtar Heavy Assault Cruisers and Vexor Navy Issue Cruisers fleet, encompassing the rest of the pilots

The NPSI Fleet Anchoring Before the Battle

The force made its way down the pipe from the Assah system, Derelik region, when it ran head first to a Providence Bloc Apocalypse Navy Issue Battleship fleet, some 80 pilots strong, which sat on the 4B-NQN gate at zero. The NPSI fleets immediately anchored up and engaged Providence Bloc.

The fighting was fierce, with the NPSI fleet targeting Providence Bloc's Logistics wing, while the latter was focusing damage on mainline ships. The exchange saw both forces lose ships, when at last Providence Bloc brought in Triage Carriers to supplement their Logistics wing. At this point the NPSI fleet was unable to break the tank of the mainline ships and was forced to call Triage Carriers of its own.

The two forces continued to brawl, but with so many Triage Carriers on field, no side was able to break the tank of the other. Instead, the NPSI fleet decided to focus fire on the Triage Carriers themselves. When the first one was destroyed, the rest of the Carriers were forced to exit their Triage mode in order to catch remote repairs and tank the incoming damage, managing to survive.

However, this proved to be fatal for the rest of the Providence Bloc fleet. Without the power of the Triage Carriers' remote repairs, the Navy Issue Apocalypses were destroyed one after the other.

With their damage dwindling and their losses mounting, Providence Bloc decided to concede the field, with its Battleships using their Micro Jump Drives to create distance before warping off. However, this left the Triage Carriers behind. Two of them were unable to jump out and were destroyed by the NPSI fleet.

The 9UY4-H Fight from the Perspective of Providence Bloc (Provided by Mangraa Dementia)

At this point, the NPSI fleet evacuated its own Triage Carriers, as reports came of a Pandemic Legion fleet closing in on their location. The Pandemic Legion fleet was around 70 pilots strong, mainly in Proteus Strategic Cruisers. It arrived into system just as the last NPSI Carrier managed to jump out of system.

The 9UY4-H Fight from the Perspective of the NPSI Fleet's Triage Carrier

With the Carriers safely extracted, the NPSI fleet decided to retreat to the 4B-NQN system, and re-organize on the other side, resolved to keep on fighting, but in a more favorable position. Pandemic Legion pursued it, after nabbing stragglers in the 9UY4-H system, and jumped into the 4B-NQN system. An intense battle soon erupted on the 9UY4-H gate between the two fleets.

Yet, this engagement proved to be a short and one sided affair. The NPSI fleet tried to concentrate fire on the Logistics wing of Pandemic Legion, managing to destroy two of them before remote repairs could hold. At this point Pandemic Legion had their own Triage Carrier on the field, and were quickly decimating the remnants of the Heavy Interdictor fleet, whose Logistics wing was half spent from its previous battle.

The Ishtar fleet, which was anchored further away from the main fighting, decided to disengage and withdraw, exiting the region to the marginal safety of Low Security space without incurring further losses.

With the Heavy Interdictor fleet destroyed, and no more hostiles to challenge it, the Pandemic Legion fleet made its way home, safely extracting its own Triage Carrier and arriving safely to its staging system without any more losses.

Battle report for the 9UY4-H system can be found here.
Battle report for the 4B-NQN system can be found here.

Time Dilation proved to be a factor in the fighting, peaking at 60% and remaining around that region for a part of the fight. The system did not host more than 300 pilots at the peak of fighting. The battle on its two parts lasted 1 hour in total. 

Providence Bloc lost 56 ships, including 3 Archon Carriers for a total sum of 17 Bil ISK damages. The NPSI fleet lost 38 ships in the first engagement, for 7 Bil ISK damages, and 26 ships and 8 Bil ISK damages in the second. Pandemic Legion lost only 3 ships, for a total ISK damage of half a Bil.

All told, the battle proved to be a fascinating game of rock-paper-scissors, as the NPSI fleet managed to destroy the Providence Bloc fleet, only in turn being destroyed by the Pandemic Legion fleet.

Regardless, this fight continues to prove that the Providence region is still one of the most violent, and active regions in Null Security space.

Special thanks to Apex Aubaris, of Hoover Inc(dot), Pandemic Legion for granting an interview, and Mangraa Dementia, of Blue Tridents, Sev3rance for the video of the fight.