Well, well. No sooner do I complain that the war in the north is boring and that we don’t seem to be doing anything than we shift it up a couple of gears. The Southern Allies had, until recently, been operating as individual alliances and this allowed the Northern Coalition to bring their superior numbers and organisation to bear far too easily. About a week ago Against ALL Authorities began to work closely with Atlas, Gentleman’s Club, and Cult of War. We started to share communications channels and this definitely boosted our effectiveness. Joint fleets began to operate and things started to run more smoothly.

On Saturday morning I logged on and joined a fleet that had formed. We were taking battleships to a fight in KQK1-2 where we had a battle with the North at a POS. As downtime approached we made full speed back to X-7OMU, IT’s staging system in Pure Blind. At this point the weather outside was looking pretty nice and I decided to go and make the most of it while it lasted. We had an important CTA planned for Sunday and I wanted to be around for it if I could.

As it happened I was unable to log in on Sunday so it was Monday morning before I was able to think about getting Wensley home. Imagine my surprise when I logged into TeamSpeak to see Sir Molle leading our fleet and our Jabber channel to be full of IT Alliance. I was even more shocked to learn that instead of the slow drag of opportunistically hitting POSes and fleets where we could there had been a massive change in policy. Just like in Providence it had been decided that we were going to stop messing around and go straight for the jugular. H-W9TY is Morsus Mihi’s capital system. It lies at the heart of their empire and is also the de facto centre of the whole NC’s operations. Personally I think this was an excellent decision. We could have spent months chipping away at the edges of the NC’s territory while they slowly fell back to Tribute. The long, slow process would have drained our will and numbers until eventually the assault would have petered out just like the other invasions before it. This way we cut straight to the heart of the matter and both sides get to battle it out over key systems. The next few weeks should be full of amazing battles for both sides.

Enough of that, though. On to business. Wensley hitched a titan ride from Shrike (Sir Molle’s alt) and moved to 15W-GC where half of the allied fleet was holding. On Sunday the Southern allies had erected SBUs in H-W9TY and moved in a capital and supercapital fleet. The station and infrastructure hub were both reinforced and then the station was locked down to prevent the coalition from mounting a defence. At about 5am on Monday morning the NC had been able to break the station camp and had reinforced several of the South’s staging POSes. Our sub-captial fleet was split between H-W9TY and 15W-GC with a large (150ish) Northern fleet on the MSHD-4 gate keeping us from entering H-W9TY. By downtime on Monday our numbers were growing but we did not have sufficient firepower to attempt to break through the camp.

After downtime our numbers continued to grow as more titans ferried reinforcements from X-7OMU and Aunenen. At 1300 we got word that an NC support fleet was heading from H-W9TY towards 15W-GC. The order was given for our battleship fleet to adopt sniping positions and our tackle prepared itself at the gate. Twenty minutes later the hostile fleet jumped in and, from the safety of our snipe points, we were able to inflict large amounts of damage before they warped off. Some stragglers returned to the gate and we soon despatched them. It was a short but brutal fight and now the way to H-W9TY was clear.

Our fleet in H-W9TY warped to a snipe spot on the MSHD-4 gate and began to engage the Northern fleet. Both sides deployed capital ships and supercapitals. As the fight broke out we moved with best speed to lend a hand and jumped into H-W9TY to find the gate surrounded by large bubbles. The sheer number of people in the fight (about 600 or so in local at this point) meant that it took a long time for us to load grid but at least we got into system without any major mishaps. The hostile fleet was fully engaged and we were able to burn out of the bubbles and warp back in to join the main fleet. By now the numbers were starting to rise and the capital fleet had released its drones. Lag was beginning to really affect things and it took me several minutes to load grid each time I warped in. Both my modules and targeting systems suffered from huge activation delays (as did everyone else’s) and by the time we were able to get reasonable DPS onto a target they warped out more often than not. At one point I was primaried by the hostile fleet but a lack of bubbles and the inability to easily bring fire to bear meant I was able to warp off with more than half my armour still intact. The fight was long and bloody but eventually our capital fleet was able to gain the upper hand. At the same time we were beginning to take control of the battleship and support fights and forced the NC from the field.

With our fleet now united and with control of the system we began to resurrect our station camp and pick off any stragglers in safespots. Once the system was under control I logged off and went to go stretch my legs. When I came back later that evening our main battleship fleet was off killing the sovereignty structures in 4-ABS8. While they were away there was a brief flurry of NC action but our capital fleet warped to the station and kept the situation under control. At this point I logged off with the infrastructure hub due to come out of reinforced in a couple of hours but no way that I could stay awake that long.

This morning I logged into our Jabber channels to discover that the night hadn’t gone as well for us. Not only were the NC able to defend their infrastructure hub and kill our SBUs but they also bumped an Atlas titan out of the safety of its POS. Carriers were sent to aid the stricken Leviathan and with their shield transporters it was able to limp back into the POS shields. No sooner did it look like the titan had been saved than it was bumped out a second time and this time could not be rescued. (On a side note, what on Pator is that titan doing with a Capital Shield Booster?!)

As I write this the server is coming back up on the third day of the battle for H-W9TY. Our killboard suggests that not much is happening and that the allied forces are just repairing the damage of the previous night, establishing system control, and preparing to defend the POSes that come out of reinforced later today. Whatever happens next the battle for H-W9TY is not over and I think it will rage for a long time to come. Fun times ahead!

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