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It was a typical Saturday evening in the lawless deep space reaches of New Eden. Far from the prying eyes of Concord Security or the four Empires, an eGO fleet had formed and was in action.
The day prior eGO scouts had scanned a neutral space station, deep in the unknown reaches of a wormhole. The corporation that owned the space station had committed a cardinal error and defended their home very lightly, indeed they had not even set up defensive guns yet, relying only on electronic warfare for defense. This is a huge mistake in wormhole space, where the only law is protect your own.
Anticipating a large payout from the hangers and assembly structure anchored around the station, eGO put together a fleet of stealth bombers; small, fast covert ships designed to inflict huge damage at high speed, but with little to no defensive capability. This was to be a stealth strike; attacking, claiming the prize, and retreating to our own home before the enemy can respond with a fleet of their own.
The fleet spent multiple hours firing on the stations substantial defenses until it entered reinforced mode, where the eGO fleet had to stop for 25 hours, as the station was invulnerable. When the 25 hours was up, the eGO bombers resumed, pouring volley after volley of high damage torpedoes into the now vulnerable station. Hours later, the station finally exploded in a shower of sparks into space.
Our scouts had picked the target well, several highly expensive ships were found in the wreckage of the station, including a Marauder class Kronos; a ship who's hull alone is worth nearly one billion ISK. eGO Community Manager Dominion jumped in the Kronos, preparing to evacuate it to empire space, where it would sell for a huge profit. Just as the fleet began to loot the wreckage of the station, one pilot suddenly yelled over the Ventrilo voice comms:
"A THANATOS JUST SHOWED UP!"
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For those not in the Eve-know, a Thanatos is a Carrier class Capital Ship, a behemoth of deep space, fielding massive defensive capabilities and wave upon wave of automated drones; small robots capable of dealing damage, repairing friendly ships, or providing electronic warfare support. Included in these drones were deadly Einherji fighters, built to shred enemy ships with the greatest of ease.
The shock of seeing such a massive (and expensive) ship didn't stun the eGO pilots for long, and within seconds the small eGO ships had the Carrier tackled, disabling its warp drives and effectively holding it in place. Backup pilots hastened from all corners of New Eden to assist in the battle that was beginning.
At first the battle seemed to be going in favor of the Carrier, as it massively outclassed the smaller eGO ships, deploying waves of damage drones, killing 4 eGO bombers, while using its huge capital armor repair modules to heal the damage the bombers were dealing. Indeed, it seemed that the bombers would not have the damage dealing capabilities to break the mammoth tank of the carrier.
EdgeGamers Corporation is nothing if not persistent, and the pilots who lost their bombers were not idle. They raced out of the wormhole, purchasing battleships and battlecruisers, focusing on ships that could drain the energy reserves of the Carrier, as well as ships that could kill the drones that the Carrier was sending against the fleet.
eGO had one massive surprise for the Carrier pilot, Dominion was still in the Kronos recently looted from the destroyed station. Using the marauder's guns he started firing on the Carrier, using what was recently a friendly ship against the Thanatos pilot! With the added damage of the Kronos, and the returning ships from the downed eGO pilots, the tide began to turn. The Carrier, now out of reserve power, was forced to shut down his armor repairers, and the drones he deployed against the eGO fleet were being rapidly targeted and destroyed.
When it became clear that the battle was going in eGO's favor, the Carrier pilot attempted to self destruct his ship. This would not save his ship, but it would deprive the eGO pilots of the decisive victory they craved, as well as a Killmail, crediting the fleet with its kill. In a last ditch effort to beat the self destruction timer, the fleet overheated their guns which provids more damage, but in turn damages the guns themselves.
With mere seconds remaining on the self destruct timer, a final volley of torpedoes from eGO pilot Fallacious Anthem tore through the remaining structure of the Carrier, and it exploded into space debris. eGO had beat the odds and now have a Carrier kill to our name!
The Thanatos had equipped itself well, taking four eGO bombers with it, and absorbing over two million points of damage before succumbing to defeat. The irony being that the largest portion of damage had been caused by Dominion in the looted Kronos. The carrier had been killed, in large part, by his own ship! As the old saying goes, "hoist with his own petard!"
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If this battle sounds interesting to you, it's only one of many adventures experienced by the New Eden branch of eGO! Contact any Eve member for a 21-day free trial!
Thank you to Subtle Turtle for providing this excellent report.
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