Blood Raider Temple taken down!

Prelude

Blood Raiders always have been a thorn in the side of the Amarr, as they attract a variety of violent & psychotic capsuleers that see justification in their cruelty through the twisted Sani Sabik faith.
Among these, Nauplius has gained infamy among the capsuleer crowd as he claims to be a prophet of their 'Red God', committing horrifying acts in his name... Some examples of his propositions & acts: Stuffing slaves with Inferno, a deadly brain-drug, murdering over a hundred-thousand slaves for his 'Red God' and more...

Ever since his revelation to be a follower of the Blood Faith, Nauplius has been the target of capsuleers, attempting to cull his 'message from the Red God'. This even led to certain capsuleer organisations putting a bounty on his head, with a full payout on handover of his corpse. There's even talk that a capsuleer, outraged by Nauplius' actions, spared no effort or isk to rally like-minded individuals & organisations behind the cause to stop Nauplius once and for all!

The First Blood Temple

However, Nauplius was hardly slowed by all these actions against him. He even saw it as proof that he was doing the 'Red God's ' work... So he took it a step further, announcing that he would build Blood Raider temples for his 'God' across the cluster, where slaves would be tortured and eventually sacrificed...
Nauplius announcement: The Red God Commands Temple Building

The first temple constructed was taken down easily, a small Blood Raider POS in the Oyemann system. A combined fleet composed of Praetoris Imperialis Excubitoris (PIE) and Imperial Outlaws (ILAW) & other supporters rallied and torn it down: Destruction of the First Nauplius Blood Temple. The imprisoned slaves have been rescued during a PIE boarding operation, as is shown here: Image of the boarding forces, rescuing the slaves

The Second Blood Temple, first attack

However, the destruction of the first temple did not hamper Nauplius. On the contrary, he learned from it. With this acquired knowledge, he constructed a larger Blood Temple dedicated to his 'Red God' & amplified it's defenses! However, under the impulse of capsuleer Daisha Voluptia, member of Imperial Outlaws (ILAW)  the location of this second temple was quickly found.

The initial task force bringing down the shield of the second Blood Temple

image provided by Utsukushi Shi

Upon learning it's location, a new taskforce has been sent out to take it down. This task force was composed of two fleets. The first one was PIE, lead by Fleet Commander Aldrith Shutaq. The second fleet was sent out by ILAW, lead by Katerina Tzestue. Supporters from Stormcrows & Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque (SFRIM) joined these fleets as well. Esna Pitoojee also joined the taskforce as independent supporter. The fleet would strike shortly after midnight on 13 September.

Upon arrival, there was no opposition present, the Blood Temple just floated there, unopposed. Without further delay, the fleets opened fire, intending to destroy this abomination as soon as possible!
Initially the shields whittled away slowly, making them believe this Blood Tower would fall as easily. However, when the shields reached minimum threshold it went into reinforced mode! This displayed to the attackers that Nauplius has learned from his previous experiences... Upon discovering this, the taskforce had to break off the attack & prepare for another go in a few days...
Hopefully without Nauplius gathering backup in the meantime, because the element of surprise has been lost now!

The Second Blood Temple, final attack

Alerted by the first attack, Nauplius broadcasted to various capsuleer channels about the upcoming attack that would surely come to take down his precious Blood Temple! It is assumed that this publicity was done in the hope of attracting thugs & criminals who would show up, just to have a fight.
Due to this, caution was advised as the second task force was gathered to launch the final attack as there was a risk of complications... On top of this, the timing that the Blood Temple tower came out of reinforcement was also badly scheduled, making it hard to gather capsuleers to assist them in this second assault. But their determination to take this structure down once and for all, allowed them to gather enough pilots in the fleet.

Thanks to the scouting of Samira Kernher, it was revealed there was no sizeable presence at the Blood Temple. The only opposing forces present was Nauplius himself, Clytoneus, a supporter, and Sister Ritual Sacrifice of the Church of the Crimson Saviour, a known Blooder organisation.
Upon hearing this positive report, Fleet Commander Ascentior of PIE gave the fleet permission to travel to Halmah, where Nauplius' Blood Temple was located.

This second assault fleet was composed of a variety of organisations, sharing the same goal, to take down the Blood Raider Temple! These capsuleer groups are: PIE, ILAW, Stormcrows, SFRIM, IRED & Pyre. Adding to this fleet were also a few individual supporters who were as dedicated to bringing the Temple down.

At 14H40, 14 september, the attack began! A combined rapid assault from Samira Kernher & Utsukushi Shi took out the first opposant; Ritual Sacrifce! Upon the arrival of the fleet, Nauplius & his supporter fled the field, realizing they lacked the firepower to take them head-on.
The combined fleet focused it's firepower upon the Blood Temple, intending to take it down as fast as they could!

The final assault on Nauplius' Blood Temple, image provided by Utsukushi Shi

As lasers & missiles battered the tower's shields, Nauplius condemned these actions through the local channel, claiming we were all under the spell of Molok the Deceiver! He even went as far as questioning individuals on their involvement in this cause. But the answer they gave him showed they stood as one behind the cause to remove this Blood Raider stain from the universe.
Despite that his Blood Temple was being demolished by the assaulting fleet, Nauplius kept on preaching & condemning the attackers during the whole assault.

"The Lord loosed upon them his fierce anger All of his fury and rage. He dispatched against them a band of Avenging Angels"- The Scriptures, Book II, Apocalypse 10:1

Quoted by Lady Lunarisse Aspenstar upon the destruction of the Blood Temple

And so ended this stain upon civilised space, in a great blinding explosion. Nauplius' Blood Temple was no more..., the final blow dealt by Lord Lucas Raholan.

Now the fleet split up in two parts. The heavy assault wing continued to take down the remaining structures like ECM Batteries & defunct shield hardeners. The other part of the fleet prepared boarding operations to rescue the imprisoned slaves.
They had been warned that Nauplius has stationed marines, hounds & slavers to defend his sacrificial slaves from being liberated. With this in mind, Imperial transports approached the hangars, ready to deploy their large boarding regiments against these brainwashed defenders.

The boarding operation was a success & many thousands of slaves have been freed, despite the heavy opposition provided by the fanaticism of Nauplius' defenders. Samira Kernher has stated that they will grant all rescuees medical aid & time to recover, irrelevant of their status due to the cruel captivity these people had to endure.
The one bright point in all this is that most of the freed slaves are not Vitoc-dependant, as they were meant to be sacrificed...

Amarr Victor! Aftermath of the battle, taking down the last defensive structures.

 Image provided by Marcus Gord

Aftermath

Many wonder what will happen to Nauplius after he has been found guilty of such cruelty against baseliner humans. The sad truth is, that nothing official will happen.... Capsuleers have been placed above most laws & are expected to police themselves... This policy can be extremely frustrating when faced with capsuleers like Nauplius.

The bright point in all this is that capsuleers from various organisations can band together & fight as one when the cause is just! The takedown of two of Nauplius Blood Towers in 3 attacks proves that it can endure over longer duration as well!

As for my role in all of this? Normally I remain neutral as reporter of Aurora News Networks. However, exceptions can be made on a case by case basis. In this case the extremism of Nauplius' Blood Raider faith created such exception, as slowing down his operations would help people staying out of his cruel grasp.

Images & information of this combat operation are freely available on these links:

Confirmation of the Blood Temple Destruction : listing the damage done by all involved.

Image-Album provided by Utsukushi Shi : The first 5 images are from the second assault on Nauplius' Blood Temple, the rest are from the first attack.

Image-Album by Jandice Ymladris: A series of images showing the second assault, from the start to the cleanup of structures afterward