Battle of Asteri

Battle of Asteri
Part of Ilios Alliance-Vask Authority War
A dynmap image showing the very beginning of the Battle of Asteri. No ships had yet been sunk.
Date June 26, 2024 Location AsteriCargoDepot, Asteri Result Decisive Vega/Vask Authority victory. Recovery of the Vask Authority battlecruiser "ARMAGEDDON".
Participants
Ilios Alliance Orovika Shadow Cortesia Del Mar Imperial Nova Arimfea Republic of Carthage	Vask Authority Vega
Strength
10k Destroyer (_Longy) 8k Frigate (NovaManGood2110) 4k Corvette (VoidsentRose) 4k Corvette (yodabird19) 4k Corvette (WatchmanPhileo) 4k Corvette (CaptainFireBall) 2k Gunship (TonyTheMage_) 2k Gunship (_s1ice) 500 Gunship (Thrawn31)	20k Battlecruiser (Vandrayk) 16k Cruiser (FellOffBridge) 4.9k Frigate (DearGhost) 4.9k Frigate (_Clone1137) 4k Corvette (GigaJeff) 4k Corvette (Melkron) 500 Gunship (Solesey) 500 Gunship (Sherbet_S) 350 Starfighter (TopTrash) 350 Starfighter (z4nityy) 350 Starfighter (WitherV)

The Battle of Asteri was a major military engagement between the forces of the Ilios Alliance and the combined armada of Vask Authority and Vega. The battle was fought over control of the Vask Authority battlecruiser "ARMAGEDDON" (which had been released several hours prior in a Vask Authority-owned siege station), for which the IA was attempting to guard the location until the siege station's window opened. The battle involved a large mercenary fleet from Vega, and was the only major military engagement in 2024 to involve Vegan forces.

The Battle of Asteri is widely renowned, including by the losing parties of the battle, as one of the most interesting, high-stakes, and enjoyable battles on the server. It was the largest ever battle on Horizon's End, with 9 Ilios Alliance ships fighting 11 Vega/Vask Authority ships, totaling approximately 95,000 blocks.

Context

As of 26 June 2024, the Ilios Alliance and Vask Authority had formally been at war for 15 days. In this time, the fleet doctrines of the two sides had clearly emerged: while the Ilios Alliance relied on rapid, evasive strike teams to respond to incidents of piracy, which centered on small ships like starfighters and gunships, Vask Authority sought to compensate for their numerical inferiority by leaning heavily on the use of supercapital warships, especially battlecruisers, which were disproportionately powerful for a single pilot. Most large engagements between Ilios Alliance and Vask Authority forces would end when a Vask Authority pilot (most often FellOffBridge) would arrive with a battlecruiser (hitherto always the battlecruiser "ARMAGEDDON"), and Ilios Alliance forces would depart rather than engage it in direct combat; despite several attempts, the Ilios Alliance had yet to succeed in sinking any Vask Authority supercapitals.

Furthermore, at this time, the extent of Vegan material support to Vask Authority was not understood by the Ilios Alliance, leading to the perception among Ilios Alliance combatants (reinforced by the fact that ARMAGEDDON was the only battlecruiser Vask Authority had ever used openly up to this point) that the disabling or capture of ARMAGEDDON would decisively cripple Vask Authority's ability to make war.

Summary of Events

All times below are in UTC-4 (United States Eastern Daylight Time).

At 12:36PM, yodabird19 sieged the Vask Authority siege station "AsteriCargoDepot", located in northern Asteri. As was typical of engagements between the Ilios Alliance and Vask Authority at the time, FellOffBridge responded to the siege by bringing the "ARMAGEDDON" battlecruiser, which yodabird19's gunship was not equipped to combat. However, this time, yodabird19 attempted to stalemate the battlecruiser, by enabling his gravity well and circling the (much slower) battlecruiser outside of weapons range, but inside of interdiction range, so it could not leave. His objective, in this case, was to hold the battlecruiser in place for so long that it would run out of Hydrogen fuel.
At 1:33PM, approximately one hour after the siege began, yodabird19 sent a message in the Ilios Alliance discord, claiming that ARMAGEDDON was "running on fumes fuel-wise", calling it the "best chance to sink armageddon we've ever had". It is now understood that the battlecruiser was not actually out of fuel, but rather that FellOffBridge could not stay on the server, and was searching for a way to disengage from the situation. Incidentally, yodabird19 also had to leave at this time, but was able to have NovaManGood2110 log on and swap with him as the pilot of his gunship. 10 minutes later, at 1:43PM, FellOffBridge was forced to release the battlecruiser (which he was able to do because NovaManGood2110 was outside of engagement distance at the time) inside of the siege station.

The Ilios Alliance plans how it will guard ARMAGEDDON for a full 22 hours.

While successfully releasing one's ship inside of a friendly claim is, in most cases, a conclusive end to that ship's involvement in the battle, and a guarantee of the ship's safety, this case was an exception, because the claim in question was a siege station claim. These claims can be captured by sieging them during their siege window, a 1-hour period that recurs every 24 hours. The siege window for Asteri Cargo Depot, of course, had passed, and would not recur for approximately 22 hours; however, desperate to capture or destroy ARMAGEDDON, the Ilios Alliance, spearheaded by yodabird19, decided that it would guard ARMAGEDDON for the full 22 hours, preventing Vask Authority from recovering it before the siege window reopened the next day.

Faked DM logs between Vask Authority and Vega leadership show Vask Authority offering Vega a 1,000,000 credit mercenary contract to rescue ARMAGEDDON.

At 3:40PM, with approximately 20 hours until the siege window would open, Vandrayk of Vega contacted the leadership of the Ilios Alliance, stating that Vask Authority had offered them a mercenary contract for 1,000,000 credits to to "get them out of this situation with combat intervention". As proof, he posted logs of a purported DM between Vandrayk, MaidPierce, WitherV, _Clone1137, and FellOffBridge. It would later be revealed in the Vask Authority Leak that these logs were faked, and indeed that the entire Vegan intervention in the Battle of Asteri was premeditated between both Vega and Vask Authority, with the 1,000,000 credit payment being ceremonial and later quietly refunded.
However, this was not known to Ilios Alliance leadership at the time. Vega offered the Ilios Alliance a chance to outbid Vask Authority - in essence, to pay off Vega from intervening in the situation. Ilios Alliance leadership were given one hour to discuss the deal and return with a verdict; following a 3-1 vote against accepting the deal, at 5:32PM the Ilios Alliance contacted Vega and rejected their offer.

Following a few small prelude skirmishes around the station, in which DearGhost's Gunship and z4nityy's Starfighter were sunk by Novan forces, at 6:28PM, with 18.5 hours left on the clock, a joint Vega-Vask Authority fleet numbering in 11 warships warped in to AsteriCargoDepot. Defending Ilios Alliance forces, which numbered 9, were collected inside the siege station radius near ARMAGEDDON. Most Ilios Alliance defenders had been scrambled to log on and arrive in warships in preparation for the confrontation, and a large fraction of them were not seasoned combatants. Due to the sheer size of both the attacking and defending fleets, both sides were forced to rely on chat comms rather than voice comms, resulting in a rapid breakdown in fleet organization on the Ilios Alliance side. As the weight of the attack fleet pushed on the defenders, Ilios Alliance forces were pushed northeast of the station, where 8 ships were sunk in the space of 9 minutes, between 6:42PM and 6:50PM.

After the battle, Vega forces patrolled the area while Vask Authority recovered ARMAGEDDON, towing it back to their space station Apollyon in Regulus.

20 days later, on 16 July, _omni would kill FellOffBridge in PvP while he was piloting ARMAGEDDON, allowing yodabird19 to create a station claim over the unpiloted battlecruiser and finally capture it intact.

Legacy

The evening after the battle, yodabird19 released a YouTube video documenting & satirizing the events of the battle and its immediate prelude. The video has over 200 views as of December 2024.