In a surprising move, the PAPI coalition turned their eyes towards 1-SMEB, the current Northern Coalition. capital system, and reinforced the Imperium Keepstar in the system. For more than 2 weeks, PAPI has been content to drop into M2-XFE and kill some of the nearly 500 deployable warp disruption bubbles in an effort to get some of their trapped ships out of the system.
These fleets have mostly been at the end of other operations or used as distractions for anchoring structures throughout Delve. The Imperium, however, states that all of these operations start out as break-out operations and when they are unable to do so, become based on these secondary objectives.
In either case, tonight was a different story as cynosural fields lit up in the system of 1-SMEB, and groups of carriers and supercarriers flooded a PAPI Fortizar. As fighters streamed from the structure to the Imperium Keepstar, there wasn’t a single Imperium pilot in the system. Of course, that changed minutes later, when a lone pilot came in to gun the Keepstar. Other than this pilot and a few scouts, the Imperium made no visible effort to contest the reinforcement.
This event brings into question the ability for Imperium to successfully defend their region as their priority relies solely on keeping M2-XFE under control. They are, in fact, doing that successfully. The most recent attempt of breaking out resulted in PAPI losing 107 billion ISK to the Imperium’s 52 billion ISK. In the attempt, at least 5 Titans, 5 supercarriers, and a spattering of other capitals managed to escape. Two supercarriers were lost in the process along with at least dread and FAX.
It seems one possible outcome of the hellcamp in M2- could legitimately be the Imperium being left on the two islands of 1DQ1-A and M2-XFE. One their staging system, the other their current hunting grounds. Realistically, the Imperium needs to continue to defend the rest of their region and cannot hold onto this hellcamp forever. One thing is for sure though: the longer the camp goes on, the closer the Imperium gets to onlining and activating their own cynosural jammers. This will greatly reduce PAPI’s ability to meaningfully engage on the Keepstar grid.
We will continue to bring you the latest updates on this situation as it develops as well as broadcasting on our Twitch channel (or through our friends) when exciting things happen here.
[…] first opportunity for that to happen will come this Thursday when the final timer of the Imperium’s Keepstar in 1-SMEB expires. This will allow the Keepstar to be destroyed and, if previous timers are any indication, […]