Life in Solitude: The-Express

 The-Express Ticket to My Killboard

Solar Winds is engaged in a war on two fronts. From the north, <DUMPY> is encroaching upon The Crown, mining first in Eggheron, and then attempting to expand into Toustain and Ondree (we shut that down pretty quickly). From the south, another group - The-Expanse aka The-Express - have also decided it would be a good idea to set up structures in the area and steal the Rare Border anomalies from legal citizens of Mobrault.

It never ceases to amaze me how this "game" always follows the same predictable sequence of steps. It hardly ever varies. In fact, I cannot remember it ever unfolding differently. There are four "stages", or "turns". They are similar to the Stages of Grief. It's always fascinating to watch it unfold in real time, virtually invariate from group to group, player to player.

Turn One - Denial: During the first turn, I notice the presence of a group that is not set blue, and that has not reached out regarding liscensing and permissioning. My first step is to attempt diplomatic contact, reaching out to them and explaining that Mobrault, endearingly referred to by all as The Crown of Solitude, is the soveriegn holding of Solar Winds, and that if they wish to operate in the area, they must apply for and be granted +5 blue standings.

Generally speaking, we do not charge money. We are not extortionists. What we're basically looking for is an acceptance of the terms we outline. In accepting said terms, the entities in question both acknowledge Solar Winds' hold over The Crown, and also provide a tributary service to Solar Winds, usually in the form of docking rights in structures, free hauling of select imports, or selling ore to us at a reduced price.

During the first turn, the offending entities usually respond in 1 of 2 ways: They either laugh and troll in Local chat, asserting that no one can "claim" HiSec space, or they completely ignore us. Either way, the result is the same.

The owner of this Athanor, an Express associate, decided to ignore us. The result was predictable:

Members of The-Express continued to ignore attempted diplomatic contacts. They had two Athanors in Eggheron, and denied our requisition for docking access.

When told to stay out of the Empire Border anomalies, this pilot - another Express asssiate - decided to ignore us as well:

He had already been informed of the situation once before, and ignored us:

Some people are slow learners.

Turn Two - Refusal: During this phase of relations, the offending parties have accepted Solar Winds ownership of The Crown as a concept, but will not acknowledge it as reality. They may continue to ignore us, or they may actively smack talk in Local while attempting to continue their illicit operations. They may even formulate "plans" to "deal with us".

So they're going to "get rid of us". From our own sovereign space? Not happening.

In response, we decided to turn up the heat a bit. We decided to take a trip to The-Express' space and pay them a little visit. We decided, since they want open borders, we'd enter their territory and share our culture with them.

Spoiler: We shot him again.

We promised to continue sharing our culture with them in their own backyard, unless they decided to leave The Crown. Now we had their attention, and we moved on to the next step in the process.

Turn Three - Resistance: Note: Sometimes our enemies skip this part, and move directly to a resolution. That is always a favorable outcome, however, more boring than resistance.

During the resistance phase our enemies have acknowledged not only our ownership of The Crown, but our capability in enforcing the rule of law within the constellation. They are not happy with the situation, and actively resist our authority. They may form mining fleets of considerable size and boast in Local about how much ISK they're making with their mining fleet, or may attempt to interfere with the legal mining operations of naturalized Mobrault citizens. They often believe they're "one upping" or "getting at us" by doing this, however, what they never realize - until too late - is that by resisting, they are implicitly acknowledging our claim as legitimate. At this point, it's only a matter of time before resolution is reached.

They are also giving us exactly what we want: content.

The-Express decided to resist by setting up a mining operation, purposefully, to "antagonize" us. It went predictably:

Maackey thought "boy, I bet they can't do that over and over. I bet if I just undock another Retriever, they'll give up." Except that's not how this works. After his second barge died, the fleet switched over to Ventures and began to brag about the "force" they were able to field against us.

Special thanks to Bud wiezer for this gem:

The smacktalk continued for some time, with The-Express getting more and more unhinged:

Turn Four - Resolution: The entire sequence of events always ends in one outcome: capitulation. Capitulation takes two forms: accepting our rule over The Crown and abiding by the laws in place, or extrication from The Crown (which is itself an acceptance that we own The Crown and can enforce our rule with impunity).

Sometimes reaching a resolution can take some time. Cryin' Andie took a few months. Other times it's very quick. In this case, it only took a week:

The-Express is leaving The Crown, and have in effect already done so: they never send miners here anymore. So far all we've seen are a few combat ships doing... nothing.

The-Express are pretty mad. And understandably so: they have to tear down or sell their structures in The Crown. One structure in particular will be rather painful for them to remove. No one wants to buy it, and understandably. Who uses Tech2 rigs in HiSec??

No one wants to buy their shitty Tech2 rigged Athanor on a R4 moon in HiSec. The best offer they got was a couple of bil. The structure is worth 5bil+.

But it's gonna take them a while to get rid of the structure, assuming it's even alive  a week from this posting, because LOL:

Stay tuned for the next installing: The-Express Tear Jar