Tip-Off Leads to Three-Way Fight in Fountain

U-SOH2 - A week ago, on 30.01.111, U-SOH2 system was locked in battle as an approximately 120-strong Force of Evil and Cult of War fleet engaged with fleets from Arcane Alliance (estimated at 130 ships) and Sons of Tangra (estimated at roughly 100 ships) and roughly 100 ships from the coalition commonly known as the Greater BoB Community who were fighting Arcane Alliance and Sons of Tangra as well as Force of Evil.

The conflict arose when members of Arcane Alliance received advance intelligence that their sovereign space might be invaded by Force of Evil, and that there were two Force of Evil titans positioned two jumps away from U-SOH2 - the system which houses the Minmatar Service Outpost, Arcane Endeavour.

The battle started at 21:00 and ran for roughly three hours. With three sides formed from almost a dozen different alliances, some confusion over what happened to whom should be expected.

Eve Zui, Arcane Alliance diplomat, gave this account of the battle:

"Intelligence suggested that Arcane Alliance was to receive a large Force of Evil fleet that evening with the sole intention of taking the station system. ARC responded with a 100 man+ battleship and support fleet to camp the incoming gate from L-1SW8.

"It all kicked off at around 21:00 hours when we had confirmation that this large fleet was inbound. At 21:30 hours, the entire Force of Evil fleet jumped into U-SOH2 and the fighting ensued.

"Over 200 Arcane Alliance fighters were on the gate. Heavy losses were taken on both sides - almost 200 pilots were showing in local. "During this battle, we received intel that there was a 140-man Greater BoB Coalition fleet in the pipe towards U-SOH2. The Arcane Alliance ships pulled back to one of our "death stars" to regroup in anticipation of the arrival of the Sons of Tangra fleet [incoming to provide reinforcements].

"Whilst we regrouped, 140 Greater BoB Coalition [pilots] in sniping nano heavy assault cruisers and some battleships jumped into U-SOH2 and engaged Force of Evil on the gate. Shortly thereafter, a 100-man Sons of Tangra heavy assault cruiser and recon fleet entered U-SOH2, formed [up] with [the Arcane Alliance fleet] and engaged the Force of Evil and Greater BoB Coalition ships on the L-1SW8 gate - the time was now 22:30 and there were 362 in local.

"The Greater BoB Coalition and Force of Evil [fleets] continued to slog it out on the gate with Arcane Alliance and Sons of Tangra, with all factions pulling out to regroup several times. "The Greater BoB Coalition and Force of Evil then camped the station where it became apparent [to us] that they had formed a temporary coalition. Arcane Alliance warped a number of carriers to the station to deal with the threat - the Greater BoB Coalition ships were torn apart by Sons of Tangra's HAC fleet and damage from the carriers' fighters."

Gabriel Karade provided his viewpoint:

"So we take a 90-Man Rodrigez Boys [(a nickname for FOE)] plus Cult of War gang up to U-SOH2, Arcane are setup bubbling the L-1 gate with a largely Battleship gang, and up to 10 Carriers worth of fighters (going off KB for that), we jump in.

"After the first battle we hold the gate, with the remaining Arcane warping off, possibly because they heard a ~100 man GBC mostly HAC gang is inbound, they (GBC) jump into us and round two starts. GBC then warps off after quite a long fight, guessing they heard the SOT gang was inbound.

"We pull back one jump, repair and re-arm and jump back in, this time with SOT on the L-1SW8 gate. Someway into this fight, the GBC gang warps back in right on top on the SOT snipers. Anyway after round three and with local at 346 we hold the gate... and decide to call it a night."

LambChop of Sons of Tangra, however, disputed whether holding the gate could be taken as an implicit sign of victory:

"It went on for a lot longer [after FOE's departure], with the result of GBC's marginal annihilation. I wasn't there at the start but if you held a gate it was because fleets were repositioning to welcome new arrivals [to be honest]."

GalNet References

Force of Evil Battle Record
Sons of Tangra Battle Record
CAOD Thread: "Today U-SOH2"