Death of a titan: Probed Out or Sold Out?
F9-FUV - Rumours are circulating among pilots of an uncommon kind of infiltrator; one who involves himself (or herself) in corporation or alliance affairs rather than remaining aloof like many spies; one who acts in combat rather than targetting industrial assets, blueprints and towers. An infiltrator who gives away the location of prized tactical assets when they are unguarded and marks them for the kill.
The death of an IRC titan on the 24th of last month (24.04.111) has been cited as one possible example of such an act of sabotage, but this is hotly disputed by the combined forces who brought the titan down, who claim it was simply a case of persistence.
Elements of RED Alliance, VooDoo Technologies, Wildly Inappropriate., United Legion, Majesta Empire, Red Army Alliance, LUCKY LEAGUE, Ultima Rati0 and The Initiative successfully engaged and destroyed an Erebus class titan piloted by Seoise of VIRTUAL LIFE VANGUARD, Intrepid Crossing alliance [IRC] in the F9-FUV system.
Kneipi from Marquie-X Corp, Majesta Empire describes how the event took place. "We had some gangs running [nearby], then we got intel about an active titan in F9" so "the combined ops channels were spammed, fleet formed, and finally the titan was tackled on a deep safe [(a safespot normally out of sensor range)]" A combined total of 135 ships, running the spectrum of all non-capital classes, arrived to engage the behemoth.
Strangely, the titan's pilot Seoise did not react initially, only deploying his doomsday device halfway into the fight. Kelegrim of R.U.S.H., Red Alliance, described the engagement as "quick" with the "titan down very fast...maybe 2 minutes." Losses for the combined fleet attacking the titan were reported as 2 battleships total. Oldma of AWE Corporation in IRC confirms the facts up to this point.
How the titan was found and ultimately tackled seems to be the where reports differ. The titan, being far out of scan range and cloaked, should have been very difficult, if not impossible to find.
Zintrex of Epiphyte Mining and Exploration corporation in Majesta Empire, whose Rokh class battleship administered the killing blow to the Erebus, had this to say: "The Erebus pilot made a mistake and our fine ‘dictor pilots managed to get him bubbled" adding that "the kill was pure luck".
Kelegrim attributes the destruction of the ship to the hard work of his covert operations pilot, Cairne Bloodhoof, who went "2 days without sleeping," dropping probes every time a titan was seen on scanner. Allegedly, the titan's location was "scanned in warp" and Cairne was able to warp close enough to cause the massive ship's cloak to disengage.
However, Oldma claims that "... the location of the titan was given to the other side" adding "at least that was what we were told." When asked what might motivate the alleged turncoat whom Oldma believes went to the titan and decloaked it, Oldma replied that he could not sure. "Maybe that someone just wanted isk, who knows."
Oldma's response to the titan loss was to say "we have a few more titans, so it does not do much, except to the guy who lost it; [Seoise] is a little sad." While Ethereal Dawn and IRC appear to be under pressure from attacks by multiple alliances, Oldma stated "we will defend the area as long as we can."
Battle Report
//kb.epime.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9839
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