GoonSwarm Defend Protectorate Sovereignty in 49-U6U

49-U6U, Querious - Over the last few days, fierce fighting has continued in the system of 49-U6U as Goonswarm continue to hold the system against opposed forces.

On the 19th, the number of control towers in the system which had been claiming sovereignty for the required 7 days was closely tied between those contributing to GoonSwarm's sovereignty claim, and those contesting it in favour of KenZoku. Both KenZoku and Goonswarm had towers in reinforced mode that would become vulnerable again during the night.

During the day, dominance of the system is currently claimed to be held by KenZoku, Against ALL Authorities, Skunk-Works and their allies, with the balance of power thought to swing to GoonSwarm, Pandemic Legion, the Northern Coalition and their allies in the period late evening to late morning.

KenZoku and allies used their advantageous hours to attack more control towers and force them into reinforced mode, but GoonSwarm and their allies have been using so-called "Resistars" - control towers with heavily hardened shields that take a very long time to cripple.

When asked what KenZoku's objectives were in the system, Lady Scarlet gave an enigmatic "No comment," but expressed an expectation for "much pew pew" in the coming weeks.

20:00 19.03.111 - GoonSwarm Tower Becomes Attackable

The first to emerge from reinforced mode was a GoonFleet tower at 20:00. Notoreus, a pilot in GoonSwarm's GoonFleet corporation, described the tense start to the evening:

"The battle that I suspected might occur didn't exactly happen. There was a Goonfleet tower coming out of reinforced at around 20:00. [Against ALL Authorities] had knocked this tower into reinforced the night before and with the tower destroyed, KenZoku would have a tower majority, effectively resetting GoonSwarm sovereignty."

"Due to the importance of the system, it was critical that GoonSwarm show up to defend. [Against ALL Authorities], KenZoku and a few other alliances managed to bring a large majority (local reached 1200) and were able to control the system while they knocked the tower down. The overwhelming majority of enemy pilots in system prevented any serious action, although there was the chance of a capital battle occuring."

The defenders attacked where opportunity arose, luring attacking forces to a manned control tower and staging frequent sallies out of the shields to pick off enemies as they were wounded by the tower's armament and defenders who jump-bridged in atop their forces. They were, however, unable to repair the vulnerable GoonFleet control tower, which was destroyed and replaced by a KenZoku one.

If that was the only tower to die that night, the ratio of sovereignty-claiming towers would be 11:11 the next day and the system would become contested. But the night was far from over and the clock was ticking towards GoonSwarm's hours of dominance. By 22:00, GoonSwarm, Pandemic Legion, the Northern Coalition and their allies outnumbered the attackers in 49-U6U and took their turn at repairing their own towers and putting their enemies' into reinforced mode.

02:00 20.03.111 - KenZoku Tower Becomes Attackable

The next important tower to become vulnerable was a KenZoku tower that ran out of Stronium Clathrates (the fuel required for reinforced mode) at 02:00. At this time, GoonSwarm held clear dominance over the system and destroyed the tower quickly.

This KenZoku tower was one of those that would have contributed to the next day's sovereignty claim check. Its demise meant that the ratio of claiming towers would be 11:10 in favour of GoonSwarm.

Against ALL Authorities attempted to re-group at 04:00, but the defenders had anticipated this, crippling the offensive modules of the Against ALL Authorities rally tower and surrounding it in warp interdiction spheres, also known as "bubbles". GoonSwarm and their allies had 6 titans in the system and a heavy capital presence, against 100 hostiles - hostile numbers dropped again quickly with little combat taking place.

12:00 20.03.111 - The Sovereignty Check

By noon the next day, other towers had been put into reinforced or repaired, but the sovereignty balance held in Goonswarm's favour. As of the 18th, they have held Protectorate Sovereignty in the system.

Notoreus gave his view on why the system was such a hotbed of activity:

"The system is a bit of a chokepoint and offers good cyno range to a number of Delve systems. However, the battle is primarily occurring due to this being the area where -A-/Kenzoku decided to push back and try to break Goonswarm efforts to achieve sovereignty level 3."

Selest Cayal of Skunk-Works summed up his point of view of the battles:

"We have been fighting and both sides have lost and killed [ships and towers]... Most important, we are having fun."

More coverage of recent fighting to follow.

GalNet References

Interstellar Correspondents News:

Pitched Battle in Querious Claims Over 650 Ships
KenZoku Capitals Escape PR-8CA Camp
Delve: The Rise of Protectorate Sovereignty and the Fall of Outposts
Heavy Fighting in Delve Over Capital Ship Assembly Arrays
KenZoku Secures Outposts in Delve
Delve War II Begins
Band of Brothers Alliance Disbanded

**Contemporary Accounts: **

Delve & Surroundings

Campaign Statistics:

Tau Ceti Federation Campaign Statistics
GoonSwarm Campaign Statistics
Northern Coalition Campaign Statistics
Pandemic Legion Campaign Statistics
Against ALL Authorities Campaign Statistics
KenZoku Campaign Statistics


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