Siege of LS-JEP Jan-Feb 108
Siege of LS-JEP/ (Vale of the Silent)
Principle Attackers: Morsus Mihi
Principle Defenders: The Forsaken Empire
Date: Jan 19th 108 EST to Feb 15th 108 EST
Result: Formal limited surrender by F-E
January 19th 108 EST - Morsus Mihi unveils dreadnaught fleet and siege of The Forsaken Empire held LS-JEP refinery in Vale of the Silent begins. F-E is the then largest capsuleer alliance and ten times the size of RAWR.
January 20th - Morsus Mihi alliance formally registered in the morning. In the afternoon F-E co-leader Krullz loses Revelation in a tense battle that sees RAWR's dreadnaughts capture the refinery. A large F-E battleship fleet travels from F-E's more populated territory in Tribute and counter-attacks the exposed dreadnaughts but is forced back by RAWR battleships.
January 21st - F-E and Kaos Empire mass in the evening to defend F-E starbases and announce they will siege RAWR starbases. RAWR is outnumbered and unable to engage but successfully dissuades the enemy fleet from attacking it's starbases and a tense stand-off begins as night turns to early morning.
January 22nd - Sporadic fighting and mental attrition over 12 hours wear down the F-E/Kaos fleet as RAWR's fleet strength holds steady. In a final frustrated bid to turn the situation around Kaos deploy dreadnaughts and lose one, handing RAWR a significant morale victory. RAWR capitalizes immediately and deploys dreadnaughts again to finish off the key sovereignty holding F-E starbase. Fully 20% of Morsus Mihi pilots miss a night's sleep to secure the victory.
Both sides increase sovereignty claiming starbase numbers and there is heavy sub-capital fighting but Morsus Mihi control of the system remains tight. Morsus Mihi offers F-E terms and states that it's goal is symbolic capitulation by F-E, not long term control of LS-JEP. F-E leadership is torn but they decline stating they can't trust RAWR to uphold any agreement.
F-E's attention is soon on D7-ZAC in Tribute as Arcane Technologies siege it. Frustrated by a lack of support from it's northern allies F-E agrees to a truce with ATUK and completely realigns itself politically. F-E members Rage of Angels leave in disgust, they would later join RAWR.
February 2nd - Arcane Technologies invite RAWR into a planned ATUK/F-E/RAWR/KAOS axis to control the north-east. RAWR declines. ATUK then tries to mediate a truce between F-E and RAWR because LS-JEP is tieing up F-E and delaying ATUK's plans. ATUK state that they will liberate LS-JEP if F-E and RAWR remain hostile. RAWR concedes they probably could but restates it's former terms to F-E. F-E is more bullish and sees no reason to give in now ATUK help is promised. RAWR rallies full fleet strength during negotiations in case of attack but F-E and ATUK remain stood down. In an attempt to regain some initiative in the face of ATUK threats RAWR deploys it's dreadnaughts again within an hour of closing negotiations and destroys four of the offline moon-holding control towers which F-E has littered LS-JEP with. The next day F-E removes all remaining offline moon-holding towers.
February 8th - Twelve ATUK dreadnaughts staging from ZLZ-1Z reinforce all Morsus Mihi starbases in LS-JEP backed by huge F-E and The Five support fleets. Sovereignty is already neutral so they capture the station too. RAWR ship-scan the ATUK dreadnaughts and are surprised to see them all fitted with Expanded Cargoholds. ATUK and .5. withdraw following the attack but F-E remain in full force and lockdown LS-JEP for 36 hours solid displaying a noticeable step change in morale.
February 9th - RAWR engage in frantic diplomacy while attempting to break F-E blockades and get extra battleships into LS-JEP ready for the showdown. Few get through. A new small control tower is deployed and succesfully onlined but reinforced before it can be armed. All spare RAWR ships are evacuated from the original starbases and crammed inside the new tiny forcefield.
February 10th - RAWR confidence is extremely high despite the precarious position. The stated goal is to kill 'at least one' dreadnaught, not to save starbases. F-E stamina has noticeably slackened and RAWR control the LS-JEP gates for an important hour during the early morning. Morsus Mihi starbases are staggered to leave reinforced mode at 9am, 5pm and 11pm to maximize hostile dreadnaught exposure. However allies are scheduled to arrive early evening and the first starbase is expected to be lost.
Plague Black's debrief of that morning battle was later declassified: "We had a small gang of people chatting... and then... CYNO FIELD... I warp at 100, 6 dreads... then the last victim appears... FE dread... 7 dreads.
They warp straight at hirr pos and start shooting... I go there and start approach... Arka is setting the gang... people are complaining about not attacking right away... Zakon gets on comms... Arka comments about 'something stinking' to Zakon... It was not my feet... I also thought it seemed too easy.
Finally the fleet warps on me on 15, I'm about 20km from the closest dread and he goes pop very fast... fleet goes out... AND THEN... FE SUPPORT FLEET WARPS IN!!! I thought - FTW?!? 4-5 battleships and rest frigs... And then they start going POP, POP, POP... 6 cans in less then 30 sec... they warp out... one guy stays in trasher... he goes POP... 7 support ships owned by the pos...
I change warp in spot, and place myself above the dreads but a bit too far... 55km from closest... he goes POP while our fleet is warping out...
And then Atuk gets cold feet and starts running... dreads start jumping out... I SCREAM IN GANG CHAT THAT ONLY ONE IS LEFT... Silus Yarmon... gang warps to me and he dies
So no losses, pos saved... 3 dreads and many small ships down."
It was a totally unexpected victory, the goals for that evening had been exceeded 12 hours ahead of schedule before a single ally had arrived. The control tower was left with structural damage but re-stronted in the early afternoon. As evening drew closer allies poured in from Geminate (Stella Nova United), Tenal (NBSI Alliance), and even as far away as Fountain (Cold Fusion Inc. who would later join Morsus Mihi as part of Shiva). Working with other entities in large numbers was completely alien to Morsus Mihi at the time and not something their FCs were comfortable with but it was clearly experience that would be invaluable in the future.
ATUK dreadnaughts did not return. The evening saw a large sub-capital battle which went moderately in F-E's favour as Morsus Mihi attempted to coordinate three seperate fleets assaulting F-E's entrenched gate positions. All Morsus Mihi starbases were saved and noone was in doubt who the day belonged too. ATUK expressed shock on Galnet and admitted the defeat was hard for their proud corporation to come to terms with.
February 15th - F-E finally accept surrender terms: LS-JEP refinery will be held by Morsus Mihi for one month before being handed back to F-E. F-E will also publically acknowledge RAWR's control of Geminate, minus the The Big Blue controlled IPS-QB constellation. All Geminate will be open for neutrals with NRDS rules-of-engagement adhered to by all including The Forsaken Empire despite it's roots in piracy. Morsus Mihi however later abandons these Geminate plans before they go public, as a result of choosing to relocate to the north instead.