IRON/G Reclaim Deklein Territories
Late last week the Band of Brothers (BoB) alliance, and the Coalition of the Imperial Republic Of The North (IRON) together with the G Alliance, clashed heavily in the Deklein region, resulting in the withdrawal of BoB and the surrender of the system JU-OWQ and its outpost to the attacking force.
In the early afternoon of last Thursday a sizeable contingent of IRON, G and associated ships entered the JU-OWQ system under the sovereignty of BoB. Their target, a large control tower, had been reduced to reinforced mode the previous day, and the fleet was intending to finish the task and destroy the tower as part of an overarching attempt to reclaim the system. However this was not to be, as the attacking forces discovered that the tower had rapidly regenerated its shields during the short interim, and with the fleet ill equipped to lay siege to the tower a second time they instead sought battle with the system's defenders, a token force of vessels compared to the attacking armada. Four straight hours of battle ensued, with each side escalating their forces on the field on several occasions, including the deployment of fearsome dreadnought units. DANGEROUS, fleet commander for IRON: “All IRON and G forces were called to support at this stage because the number of ships going down on both sides was huge”.
The tide finally turned when, due to the sheer number of enemy vessels and activity in the vicinity, two of the three dreadnoughts deployed by BoB suffered a catastrophic overload of their command circuits, rendering all of their systems inoperative. With only a single dreadnought remaining on the battlefield - facing the entire IRON/G armada, which itself included three dreadnoughts – the BoB forces retreated to the safety of its marshalling areas, this was too late for the remaining dreadnought which was destroyed. Although claiming victory over the battlefield, the result failed to make any impact on IRON and G's final goal – to reclaim the system for their respective alliances. An anonymous pod pilot remarked “We couldn't get superiority in the system, so we were heading back to VFK-IV”. A parting comment from DANGEROUS summed up their general sentiment, “BoB will NOT have a foot hold in the north for many more hours.”
Indeed this statement held true as just two days later, an even larger IRON/G fleet assembled and entered JU-OWQ with the intention of re-establishing sovereignty of the system and reclaiming the stolen outpost in the system at any cost. However the destructive and vicious battle IRON and G prepared for was not to eventuate, as the BoB alliance had taken down all but two of its Control Towers as a prelude to withdrawing from the system. BoB managed to evacuate the system using small fleets and freighters before the opposing force arrived, and the seizure of the outpost was but a formality as it lay undefended in IRON controlled space. Buddrow, the leader of IRON said “We were very effective today and we dealt a very serious blow to BoB's so called 'road trip'. It is my belief they tagged this offensive as such to give them a way out when IRON and G fully returned from its southern campaign”. When asked if the two alliances would pursue BoB deeper into its own territory, Buddrow answered only “Well, that's tricky to answer.”
The BoB alliance issued a single, short public statement: “As of Friday the 6th ... all our Towers were pulled down, the road trip is over. After nearly a month in hostile space, this is it. The Capital Age is coming, and we are off. For all the hostiles that wants a piece of us, you will find us at home…”. IRON and G, however, added one final statement to punctuate the days events “A road trip? ... Nothing but an excuse to be removed from the theatre, because BoB was just that, removed.”
