As HERO and PL continue their warring in Catch, today HERO caught a reprieve from the string of heavy losses they’ve suffered in recent days. Today’s fight over the station armor timer in 3GD6-8.
HERO brought a mixed doctrine. Ishtars and “Windrunner” Tornados for primary DPS, with Crucifier Ewar and Scythe/Scimitar Logi support. There was also a Cormorant/Hawk/Harpy and bomber support wing to protect the fleet against PL support fleets. The fleet numbers for HERO were about 250.
The main PL Fleet was a mix of TFIs, with Bhaalgorn, and T3 support. The T3 support and a small bomber wing was there to kill HERO frigs and drones. The main triage wing was a force of Archons. Unfortunately the PL Archons were set upon by Ewar and fast tackle on the DSS-EZ gate in 3GD6-8. The force was about 100 strong.
At a point in the fight, Nulli Secunda showed up to brawl with HERO on the DSS gate in Svipuls and support frigs, about 50 pilots total for Nulli.
As the timer ticked down, the various HERO fleets came on grid ahead of time to setup their DPS and support fleets. As the timer came closer to expiring, PL moved toward the system, but was headed off by HERO scouts. The decision was made to move the bulk of the HERO forces onto the DSS gate to tie down the PL fleets. Giving the HERO fleets time to rep the station.
As PL loaded into grid, the HERO Ewar was first pn grid and began focusing on the PL Tengus. As the PL Tengus were dropped off field by HERO DPS, Ewar switched to TFIs. At the same time, HERO Ishtars split into two wings. One repping the station, one applying DPS on the PL fleets. PL had made the decision to try and break it’s TFIs from the gate engagement and hit the repping fleet on the station. Ewar and bombers for HERO constantly harassed them, succeeding in tying them down for quite a while.
The TFIs and remaining T3s were able to disengage after several minutes, having killed quite a few HERO pilots, they then moved to the station and engaged the DPS and Logi HERO ships there. HERO then moved to react, initially planning to move back to the station, but due to a change of plans by PL they kept the Ewar on gate.
What was this you ask? Well, PL had decided to try and bring a reenforcement Archon fleet to dry and drop it on the station too support the TFIs. This proved costly for them as the HERO support fleets swarmed the carriers and set about tacking and TDing them on the gate. The dleay for the PL carriers meant that PL was unable to keep up with incoming HERO fire, and were forced to disengage. The presence of the HERO Ewar and bombers meant that the TFIs would be too exposed trying to save the multiple Archons that had been tackled.
As Archons and other valuable PL ships started dying, PL made the ultimate decision to abandon the Archons to their fate. HERO did quite well, despite losing a fair number of their ships to the various enemies on field. As the fight drew to a close, HERO was able to edge out PL and rep the station winning the timer.
It was at this point that Nulli Secunda arrived with a mostly kitchen sink fleet of some T3 Destroyers, bombers, and support frigates. The Nulli fleet warped around the gate engaging both the PL Archons and the various HERO fleets.
At the end of the fight, HERO fled through the 3-OK gate with Null hot on their heels. The remains of the Null fleet managed to kill several HERO pilots before being destroyed themselves and having to flee.
The overall butcher’s bill for the fight stands at around 25 Billion ISK. With Null taking less than 1 Billion, HERO taking around 11 Billion, and Pandemic Legion at around 14 Billion.
