Fade & Deklein

"You would think they had seen us coming by now."

The MC cap fleet crashed into Fade, reinforcing all enemy towers in C4C-Z4 while YouWhat did the same to the station system in FI01-8.  Operations quickly expanded to include I-UUI5 and L-C307.  By now, FATAL, Corelli and AXE were actively involved in the campaign, lending support and what capitals they could.  Despite signs of D2 abandoning the area by removing some towers, there were several shows of force, most resulting in another sound defeat for Northern Coalition forces.

Of particular note were a few nights in C4C that saw D2 make an effort to save towers coming out of reinforced.  At one point we engaged a POS under the eyes of 120 hostiles including the D2 Erebus, four D2 Motherships, nine Carriers and eleven Dreads.  Enemy numbers were high but they seemed unwilling to openly engage Alliance forces.  Perhaps the most amusing incident of this period was the lack of a force field password on a D2 starbase, resulting in Tom McCash dropping a DD that melted most of the D2 support fleet right in front of our eyes.

Our push into Deklein began even as we were still fighting in Fade.  FLA and a few of their friends had, by far, the largest daily presence in the area.  Large battleship bubble camps, roaming patrols, you name it.  The MC became absolutely merciless in ‘Carrier-bombing’ every FLA blob within jump range.  Thirty, twelve or two enemy battleships… it didn’t matter.  Over and over again we continued to drop capital ships on FLA in an attempt to completely break their will.

Talks were opened with FLA leadership with regard to allowing them to keep their space.  After a couple days FLA rejected the offer, electing to go down fighting or hoping that D2 might still come in to save the day.

With negotiations failed, on April 9th the MC corp Eternity planted a Medium Minmatar tower in O-2RNZ, FLA’s home system.  FLA wasted no time in trying to remove ‘Karla’ (ex-girlfriend names 4TW) and assembled a massive BS fleet in an attempt to take down the starbase.  The attempt ended in disaster as a cyno field opened up on top of the FLA fleet and two MC Motherships and 15 allied carriers jumped in with predictable results.  At the same time, Storm Armada began dropping five large towers in 3JN9-Q.  FLA had nine towers in the system and we began dismantling them immediately. 

By now, Aftermath Alliance had joined the fray on the Alliance side and were instrumental in providing support ships to the ever-growing capital ops.  Axiom Empire’s carrier fleet got involved as well, wrecking havoc in the US time zones.  As FLA was being pounded, we continued the pressure in Fade.  C4C soon fell to MC.  F101-8 and I-UUI5 were taken by YouWhat.

10 April 07 – MC claims C4C-Z4
15 April 07 – YW claims F101-8
21 April 07 – YW claims I-UUI5

Even as D2 began to split and the new alliance Ev0ke was formed, the remaining D2 corps rallied over 170 pilots and struck back hard in L-C307, which would become one of the focal points of the Battle for Fade.  D2 reinforced a pair of towers in L-C and forced a new weekend of fighting in the area.  We shifted back down from FLA space and met the challenge with everything we had.  All was going well until Saturday afternoon where miscommunications and outright lies resulted in the loss of 2 MC Carriers and 3 YW Carriers on the 21st of April.

An attack on an enemy starbase in L-C was being used as a trap to DD a large portion of the D2 support fleet.  Orange Species was in the area so we decided to use him, or in this case, use some misdirection and have him “screw-up” for an even bigger surprise.  All was going to plan, with Orange setting off his DD and killing 7-8 D2 BS and some support.  His DD also caught a decent chunk of the YW support.  Oooops.  Anyway, the D2 fleet came back on top of our capitals, just as we’d hoped.

You see, we believed that we had a second, secret, Minmatar titan in jump range.  This was YouWhat’s titan, piloted by C4W3, who was on our TS ready to jump in and DD the remaining bad guys to hell.  Everything was in place except for one thing – C4W3 was not flying a  Titan, nor was he unable to jump in for five minutes due to “lag” in a system where others were re-logging fine.  The ship did not, and does not, exist.  As a result, five allied carriers were lost because we were deceived.

As the battle in Fade went on, Storm Armada began to move into Deklein.

19 April 07 – Storm Armada claims 3JN9-Q

For nearly the next two weeks, Fade became a back and forth slug fest.  While D2 was not putting up much overall resistance, the number of towers to deal with prevented L-C from being completely taken.  Meanwhile, FLA and a few smaller alliances continued to get hammered.  D2 seemed to be unable to focus their efforts and there was no sign of Razor, IRON or Morsus Mihi.  With things well under control, MC Command calls a halt to capital ship operations for a few days but D2 had other things in mind.

On May 1st, L-C and C4C saw twenty-one large towers with 12-14 hardeners spammed by D2.  We wasted no time, immediately putting as many of the towers into reinforced as we could putting our initial focus on L-C.

19 April 07 – YouWhat claims L-C307

It was generally acknowledged that this was a dangerous time and we kept our eyes open and focused for enemy capital ship movements.  The moment of truth came in the early morning of the 3rd of May.

While finishing off an enemy tower in C4C, I’d received reports of two separate enemy support fleets moving about the area.  An enemy cap ship fleet was also lurking about so I gave the order to run an extra cycle of siege in order to see if the Coalition would jump in on us.  They did.  The twenty-two minutes that followed claimed seventeen enemy capital ships for four lost.  While initially outnumbered, we ended up cynoing in more support as the battle continued.  It was the first and only time in the entire campaign that a Coalition cap fleet jumped into one of our own.

Invasion of the North Vid

Of special note, about mid-way through the fight approximately four of the enemy cap ships cyno’d out.  The dreads and carriers of Sparta Alliance died to a man, their efforts making a difference and resulting in the loss of a 4th MC dread before finally being brought down.

On the night of the 4th of May, Alliance forces made a trip down to Fountain.  Morsus Mihi had been attacking a series of Xelas starbases in C-C99Z.  Alliance capital ships shifted down to a staging point and waited nearly three hours to spring the trap.  When it was time, twenty Alliance Dreads and nineteen Carriers jumped into the Morsus Mihi fleet.  One MC dread was lost in return for three enemy Dreads, three Carries and ten Battleships. 

Within a few days, Morsus Mihi ceased all attacks in Fountain and pulls back to their home in Tribute to begin organizing a more effective defense against the swelling tide of Alliance forces filling the North.

By the 5th of May, all twenty-one towers that D2 had spammed in L-C and C4C were destroyed.  Fade was completely secure and D2 had pulled completely back to Branch.

By now FLA could see the writing on the wall and made one last attempt to negotiate a settlement which was rejected.  The time for negotiation had come and gone.  Storm Armada has already placed five large towers in the system.  All that was left was the elimination of enough enemy towers to ensure FLA lost control.  FLA made plans for a glorious last stand using everything they had.  We weren’t interested in being fair, just thorough.

On the 8th May thirty-two Alliance dreads and twenty-seven carriers in a gang of 175+ arrived in O-2RNZ. It was beyond overkill and within 12 hours of the attack FLA leadership formally requested terms for surrender and withdrawal from the area. Out of respect for FLA’s tenacity and the damage they’d endured, a 72 hour cease fire was issued to Alliance forces.

Like an angry dragon, the massed fleets of the Alliance cast their eyes upon Sparta’s newly established space.  Sparta had no realistic choices in the matter. Having watched FLA be abandoned by those who swore to assist them, Sparta could either stand aside or be crushed with no hope of survival.  For our side, we really didn’t want to waste time taking out Sparta because the real prize was IRON.

As Vigilance Infinitas, M.Pire and FATAL fully moved their logistics in place for the next push, Sparta withdrew from the conflict and declared themselves neutral.

On the 10th of May, the largest Northern Alliance fleet yet assembled poured into IRON space. FIX dreads and support ships were present for what was, for them, a large measure of payback.  The revenge for FIX turned out to be a bit anti climatic, however. The assault on IRON territory was quickly followed by IRON vocally proclaiming that they did not want to defend the region anyway. Given that they had only one starbase defending sovereignty per station system that was almost believable.

Two days later, all IRON starbases were destroyed as part of ongoing operations to finish the removal of the towers in FLA space.  Aftermath Alliance and Vigilance took up residence in the stations.

Deklein was won.  For the next 24 hours, Allied command debated what our next step was.  Against all sanity, when logic said we should spend a few days sorting logistics and making more formal plans, MC Commanders made the call to push ahead NOW.

Introduction - Prelude to War - Querious & Lonetrek - Period Basis - Tribute - Pure Blind

Fade & Deklein - Branch & Tenal - Bonus Wallpaper