Keepstar Down in Auga

I was done with work today just in time to get online and get over to see another Keepstar citadel get blown up.  This one belonged to the No Handlebars alliance and was being anchored in the low sec system of Auga in the Heimatar region.

My alt had a jump clone in Amarr, just 7 jumps away, so I popped him over there, grabbed a Purifier stealth bomber, and headed towards the sound of the guns.  The Imperium had a few fleets in system when I arrived, so I was able to join up and warp to people until I ended up on grid with the target.

Purifier uncloaked by the Keepstar

NCDot looked to be sponsoring the Keepstar as they showed up in force to defend it, with a super capital fleet tethered up on the citadel and a T3 cruiser fleet engaging attackers.

NC Dot supers hanging on the Keepstar

When I arrived I took a few shots at the Keepstar, but it looked like the defenders might carry the day.  The 15 minute repair timer had been stopped at 9 minutes, but the attackers were pretty consistently falling below the 7,500 DPS mark needed to keep the timer from advancing.  The timer kept starting up again, and once it reached zero, the Keepstar would be anchored and secure.

When there was still about 25% structure left to destroy, the timer fell to 1 minute.  It seemed unlikely that the attackers could do a quarter of the damage necessary.

Timer paused at 1 minute

However, more attackers had arrived including a fresh reinforcement fleet from Imperium space.  Fighters from the defending super carriers chased subcap fleets around, but one set of attackers would warp off only to have another set land and resume the attack from another position.

I had to run along and warp myself off a few times as I caught the attention of interceptors now and again.  I was a bit worried I might not get on the kill mail as my last couple of attempts to warp in and take a shot landed me very close to hostile fleets… attackers and defenders.  A lone stealth bomber is a soft target.  But then the last hit point was gone and the whole thing started to brew up.

Explosions starting to appear

And then there was the grand super bright explosion that always catches me by surprise.

The explosion starts to fade

The kill mail was up very quickly and my alt had damaged the structure recently enough to be counted among the almost 1,700 pilots who on the tally.  That is a lot of people, considering I only saw about 2,200 pilots in system at peak.

Local shows 2,202

There was some speculation as to what might happen with NCDot’s super capital fleet once the safety of the Keepstar tethering was removed.  There was a chunk of titans hanging around.

Titan when they could tether

However, nobody had anything on hand capable of giving those supers any sort of concern.  The left the scene, and I did shortly there after.

That is the fifth Keepstar to be destroyed in New Eden, though only four appear on zKillboard, as the first failed to generate a kill mail.  I’ve went to two of those kills, the one today and the Circle of Two Keepstar that died in M-OEE8.  It hasn’t gotten old yet.

A few more screen shots from the even below.