Tabbetzur battle report

Yesterday the Indagatrix left early in the day to an undisclosed location, at the request of the ship's political officer mr. Ivan Firth. I was not allowed to write about it until after the operation.

Mr. Firth's superiors had suggested that he ask me to go "do a bit of exploration in Tabbetzur in the rebel provinces, on March 6th in the early evening". There were reports that the Republic fleet would be doing a major operation there and then. There was a lot at stake: possible access to the Deathless' mysterious Jovian "Warden" megastructure in Zarzakh. In addition, an unusual amount of large wormhole connections to Amarrian space were reported from Tabbetzur, and the Empire is always wary of another Minmatar elder fleet type sneak attack.

Mr. Firth was definitely not happy about this, I got the impression that he even hoped I would refuse. I did not. He suggested we might just watch the wormholes in Amarr space, in order to avoid his brand new MIO emergency stasis pod being retrieved (with him inside) by Republic forces in case the Indagatrix would be taken down. 

I did not completely succeed to reassure him, as was evident when he showed up for the operation wearing a disguise: he was dressed as a warp engine mechanic. Or rather, as he imagined warp engine mechanics were dressed, I do not think they spill that much engine oil on a coverall factory uniform with "mechanic" printed over it. 

We had no troubles traveling through the lawless rebel provinces, but when we arrived in Offikatlin at the gate to Tabbetzur, we found that it was closed, not by traffic control, but by an act of sabotage.

The green-blue cloud surrounding the gate, and the typical lightning strikes suggested this was the Drifter's doing. They had been active for a while in Tabbetzur, just as they are in other incursion systems, but it was the first time I have seen them disrupt a jump gate. I took telemetry and a cloud gas sample as mr. Firth monitored my progress from a terminal close to the exit leading to his escape pod.

Republic engineers were able to bring the gate back on-line, and we were able to sneak past a capsuleer pirate blockade into the system. I made several deep-space safes, and mr. Firth suggested that we stick to these deep space locations and restrict ourselves to remote probing of the situation. He was following the progress of my scanning on his datapad, this time from the close vicinity of his escape pod. 

The probes found that a large Republic fleet of dreadnoughts jumped into the system using a cynosural field, in stead of using the camped jump gates. Rather than attacking the drifters, the Republic fleet took aim to a research structure of the Deathless. The structure evidently emitted signals linked to the Warden structure in Zarzakh. So, the Republic's goal was indeed to capture materials or data from the Deathless circle, rather than to liberate their people from Drifter torture. Righteously infuriated about this betrayal of the "we come for our people" slogan, hundreds of capsuleers spontaneously attacked the dreadnought fleet in indignation. Of course, the Indagatrix on its secret mission could not take part in that. 

I decided to take a closer look at the battle and the Warden research station, despite fierce protest from Mr. Firth. This he conveyed to me from inside his escape pod, where he had pre-emptively taken place, convinced as he was of our imminent demise. It was indeed not easy even to go look at the situation, as the entire area surrounding the Warden research station had debris or asteroids that uncloaked the Indagatrix the moment she warped in. Also, no matter how far off grid a nearby bookmark was placed, the ship always landed in the middle of the fray. 

We had to warp in from a certain direction, take data snapshots, and immediately warp back out after landing, relying on the inertial stabilizers to give us enough agility to escape in time and on a warp core stabilizer as a last-ditch resort. What we witnessed using this strategy, was a shocking four-way fight that lasted roughly an hour. 

The capsuleers were battling the Minmatar dreadnought fleet, and (more often) each other. A large Drifter fleet warped in, about fifty vessels including a dozen battleships. They attacked the Minmatar fleet and the Deathless ships that tried to protect their structure against the onslaught of the Republic dreads. Deathless circle, Republic fleet, Drifters, and independent capsuleers, in the end everyone was shooting everyone. 

The Republic fleet did achieve its aim, as lancers were able to take down the Warden research station (one blow that pierces through one of the station's structures is shown above). But it came at a great loss, the Republic fleet itself was destroyed. The Drifters warped off, as capsuleers scavenged the wrecks while still at each other's throats. 

Who knows what data (and loot) they could recover from the wrecks - the field was too hot for us to try and get Warden data. But in the end, I wonder whether this will really have been worth all the bloodshed and loss of life...

We remained in the system, sitting out events in a deepspace safe, before a final scan and then making our way back to Offikatlin and then to Amarr. 

Mr. Firth has taken up a few days of sick leave.