TRS: Enaluri 2103

Yesterday Friday the 21st of March, the Faction Warfare system of Enaluri was the site of a large fight escalating from cruisers to capitals and finally to supercapitals. It involved several different parties and made for an interesting story. I am not attempting to write a complete and concise battle report here, but rather a single Gallente Militia line pilot's perspective. As a consequence, the following can contain inaccuracies and bias.

The beginning

Gallente Militia is currently in a state of resurgence. After a recently successful campaign to recapture the Placid system of Oicx, our military command had set it's sights on Enaluri in Black Rise. I had just listened in to our CEO instructing a new pilot when the call came to join a cruiser fleet to go fight for system control. I was a few jumps away but got into my trusty Vexor to join the fray. While listening to the coms channel I became witness of a change in plans. The Caldari weren't putting up much of a fight, but the notorious outlaws of Balkan Express were showing up in Enaluri with a fleet of Legions and Guardians. Our intelligence officers also reported that the BALEX Titan pilot was online, and so we expected a possible escalation. While I was in transit, a call went out for heavier ships.

Now, I am a low skillpoint character and flying HACs, T3s or even Battleships is beyond my reach for now, so I just kept on course while more powerful militia capsuleers prepared to commit everything up to capital ships. We went for the fight and jumped in a Thanatos and an Archon for support while trying to destroy the enemy logistics at the Enaluri - Hallanen gate. To our surprise, BALEX did not stay and fight, but rather chose to leave the field after the loss of only one Guardian logistics ship.

An unexpected turn of events

Considering what was to come, I have to wonder whether they knew something we did not. In any case, our cruiser fleet FC commanded us to follow the fleeing BALEX force into Hallanen. Our carriers prepared to extract themselves and we jumped through the gate. But then the unexpected happened: One of our carriers got pointed by another enemy ship that seemed to have come out of nowhere. The pilot of that ship lit a cynosural field and within seconds we had a very different fight on our hands: Snuffbox jumped in a fleet of carriers, dreadnoughts and battleships. Seeing no other choice if they wanted to get their carrier out, Sicarius Draconis, Blackfox Marauders and Monkeys with Guns counterdropped with militia capitals to fight Snuffbox.

Nobody wants to stand by on the other side of a gate while militia brothers and sisters are fighting and dying, so our FC ordered us to jump through and attack the battleships. Very soon it became clear that we could not break through the carrier reps that the enemy battleships received, but the onslaught from our own heavy weapons platforms did force Snuffbox carriers to enter triage and their dreads to go for siege mode. Since that made the enemy capital ships incapable of receiving repairs, our FC ordered us to primary them to support our own.

A third party and a fourth

It was a pretty even fight with our militia forces being at a slight advantage when Sniggwaffles warped in with a fleet of sniper Nagas. Quickly militia diplomatic operatives were scrambled to convince Sniggwaffles to shoot at Snuffbox rather than us. It worked only to some degree. Having no affiliation with either side, they spread fire among all targets of opportunity. With at least some firepower added to our cause, Snuffbox got put on the back foot and began to lose both carriers and dreads. They decided to escalate further in an effort to hold the field. Nyx supercapitals were dropped into the fight and now things began to look grim for us

The situation became even more dire when yet another group appeared on the battlefield: Pandemic Legion with their infamous supercapital force dropped in. They opened fire on both Gallente Militia and Snuffbox with an overwhelming force of approximately 30 Nyxes and Aeons supported by a contingent of Slowcats and their Sniggwaffles affiliates. The system hit heavy TiDi and PL prevailed. Nothing on the field could withstand such firepower.

Everyone who could, did their best to get out of there. I myself almost died to a smartbomb on my way through the gate to the adjacent system of Nennamaila. None of our capital ships made it out of there alive. When we collected our losses, we had fared better than Snuffbox, losing less capitals and other ships. Pandemic Legion - however - turned what could possibly have been a narrow victory for our side into a route of our forces.

In retrospect

While I have lived in nullsec for most of my EVE life and am no stranger to large fleet fights, this was definitely the largest one I have seen since I resubscribed and lived in lowsec. The development of the fight from the seed of a usual skirmish with Caldari Militia to a fight against outlaws and then into a capital brawl certainly was a special experience that is much different from the large nullsec fights which tend to occur around timers. I can only thank all involved parties for a great fight and I'm happy to now have one Vindicator and six capship killmails on my name ... I even got into the top 25 damage dealers for most of them with my little Vexor.

Good fights all around.

Edit: As of today, 2203, Enaluri is Gallente