Once upon a time there was a corporation in The Crown called "Garsa Corp.". It was owned and operated by a man named Droam Mahrael. Droam was a friendly, cool dude. His structures were more or less public access, and had been in The Crown for years. They were landmarks. There were Athanors on moons in the HiSec as well as the LowSec systems. There was an Azbel and a Raitaru. Residents enjoyed a variety of moon mining in conjunction with reactions and capital ship production. Everyone respected each other and The Crown was the industrial powerhouse of Solitude.
I built my first capital ship in that Azbel. A Revelation that my corpmate and friend helped me with.
And then Cryin' Andy moved in and leveraged Garsa out of all their structures, effectively killing Garsa Corp. and most of the activity in The Crown. The ecosystem just dried up. It was like watching the death of a coral reef. When this happened, I warned Cryin' Andy - he was welcomed in The Crown only so long as he played nice with the locals and went along with the extant culture that had developed over the years. If he wanted to hold the structures, fine - but they must be public access regardless of whatever squabbles existed between local groups.
He mistook kindness for weakness, and took advantage of the hospitality that was offered to him. He thought that having higher numbers, and having capital ships, meant he could throw his weight around and do what he wanted. And he refused to take me seriously. He closed off public access to the structures, locking people out of hundreds of billions in assets and destroying dozens of research and production lines. Cryin' Andy didn't care about what effect his actions would have on the locals. He cared only about himself and his own selfish goals. He lacked respect.
It ended poorly for him. He began to hemorrhage members and the members who stayed were disgruntled over the situation and leaked intel to me on a weekly basis. Eventually Cryin' Andy realized that warm bodies and capital ships are no match for sheer, unadultured willpower and dedication. He did not respect his enemies' capabilities. He underestimated them. He overestimated himself. He let his ego skew his calculations, and for that he lost. He moved out of Solitude and joined The Initiative after just a few short months. I have to credit him; he did put up more of a fight than <STFU> did. But he did so out of a childish stubborness rather than true grit and resolve.
Like the theif that he is he made off with Garsa's structures, unanchoring them and putting them in his back pocket. All except one. One single Athanor, anckored on an R64.
What became of that lone Athanor in Solar Winds space?
Why, he sold it to Martin Twotongues.
I approached Martin about the Athanor, and very explicitly informed him that The Crown was Solar Winds territory, and as a matter of policy, only +10 blues, or people who respect our sovereignty, are allowed to operate in the area. Martin wasn't interested in talking about it at first (he was busy venting his feelings over my blog), but I pressed the issue. I kindly informed him that the presence of <-HC-> assets in The Crown would be problematic from a diplomacy perspective, but that we would possibly be open to an arrangement that kept all parties satisfied. We have been known to do such things in the past. Until an agreement was reached, however, his miners would be ganked and camped regardless of blue status unless they were set +10.
Martin didn't take me seriously. He said he'd "think about it" and in the meantime that I should "do what I do".
So for the next two months, I did what I do. I camped their miners and took their ore. Eventually <-HC-> stopped running the moon drill: no point in running the drill when you can't mine the ore and someone else is just stealing it. I suppose it was a Pyrrhic victory for <-HC->. I approached Martin again, bringing his attention to the fallow moon. I told him maybe <WHBOO> would make better use of the moon. It would be a gesture of good faith after <-HC-> blew up two anchoring <WHBOO> structures in some sort of strange gang initiative to "prove their strong independent alliance's loyalty to Deepthroating Alliance".
After all, Martin has been making friendly overtures towards <WHBOO> now that Timmy N-Bomb and Deepthroating Alliance is no longer holding his hand as tightly and <NFG> is putting constant pressure on their southern R64's.
Once again Martin was not really interested and didn't take me seriously. So I took the next logical step:
I removed those who were unfriendly and unwelcome from my system.
Martin made the same mistake Cryin' Andy made: He did not respect his enemies. He did not respect that The Crown was Solar Winds territory. Presumptuously, he thought he could just waltz into Straloin and start mining without having to ask the residents if it was okay. He dismissed good faith attempts at diplomacy. He ignored credible warnings and was apparently "too busy" with "more important matters" to follow up weeks later. He postured the "moral highground" by "not feeding into negativity" and "ignoring the trolls" who were "just trying to get a rise out of him".
Martin miscalculated and it cost him.
Always respect your enemies. Even if you hate them.
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