The Spoils of War
Lordvacuous is an alliance leader in The-Express. Lordvacuous told his membership that plans were in motion to "deal with" Solar Winds & Associaties and that we would be "removed" in time. They have to "defend what they have out here", after all. Instead, Lordvacuous has begun getting rid of The-Express' structures in The Crown. He tried to sell them, but since no one wants to buy them, he has begun unanchoring them instead. (I know all this because, as usual, I have an inside source... or two.)
Recent diplomatic contacts to The-Express have gone unanswered. They asked for a 72 hour ceasefire to sort things out after their mining fleet in Ondree resulted in multiple losses, and the ceasefire was granted to them. Howeverrrr... their pilots kept shooting at Solar Winds members. Solar Winds, for our part, upheld our end of the agreement.
The-Express were given simple diplomatic terms from the start: either allow Solar Winds & Associates to dock in their structures in The Crown, or, formally acknowledge that The Crown is Solar Winds territory and unanchor their structures without interference from us. The response from The-Express has been: antagonism, purposeful tresspassing with intent to steal, violating ceasefires, and chestbeating in the face of continuous losses.
So when I scouted their unanchoring Athanor in Eggheron, I knew what I had to do: I had to confiscate the illegal property, since The-Express has yet to acknowledge that The Crown is ours to govern:
...yes. That is exactly how this works.
I knew it would not be easy. Enforcing law & order in The Crown never is. But it's important to keep the pressure on, to never ease up and let people think for a second that there's any cracked windor or door slightly ajar that they can sneak through. Solar Winds' rule must be absolute. Our eyes must be ever watchful, or actions swift and decisive and unrelenting.
And so there I sat, holding my silent vigil. The Athanor's lights blinking under my constant, watchful eyes. I didn't know exactly when it would finally unanchor. I knew the day and time that I first noticed it, and the rough timeframe of when Lordvacuous would have begun unanchoring it. This afforded me certain date markers: "if not by this day/time, then definitely by that day/time", etc. My forecasting would prove accurate, and the stucture would disappear from space at the approximate outer boundary of one of my markers.
So the hour drew to hand; The-Express began to appear in different systems in The Crown in various combat ships. I let my friends in on my plans, and they joined me.
On the structure in question The-Express had a Sin, a Merlin, and Lordvacuous himself in a Prowler. This was fortuitous because the entitity that owned the structure was not in The-Express itself, and the CEO of the 1 man holding corp was not online. I was originally expecting the holding corp CEO to be online and attempt to scoop, and was hoping I could beat him to it in a moment of lapsed attention. But instead, Lordvacuous committed a critical operational error, and all but gauranteed Solar Winds the win.
I knew that the Prowler would scoop the structures and go suspect... but I also knew that Lordvacuous would attempt to cloak. We would have to be fast. A stealth bomber with multiple scrams was on standby. It helped that Lordvacuous' fleetmates were sitting on him at zero (the Sin appeared to have the Prowler on "approach"), which would prevent him from cloaking, affording the precious seconds needed to land tackle.
We were ready. It happened.
The Athanor unanchored, and I warped fleet to the bookmark I had prepared. And as I expected, Lordvacuous scooped the Athanor...
...and promptly went suspect, handing us the win.
Had the holding corp CEO been on grid to scoop, the entire OP would have gone completely differently. It's a simple issue of understanding game mechanics. Knowing is half the battle, after all. I suppose the other half is competence, which The-Express also lacks.
Our stealth bomber automatically decloaked as it landed amongst the other ships on grid, and immediately landed tackle. My dear copilot landed seconds later in an interceptor and landed secondary (actually quaternary and quinary) tackle. The hitpoints of the Prowler slowly began to deplete. Once his shields were gone, Lordvacuous' ship simply melted like a popsicle on a hot summer day.
The Merlin, flown by our old friend nightbawk, attempted to suicide gank the bomber, but was blaster fit and openned the engagement from 10km away. He died to CONCORD before closing distance.
It was all over in 2 minutes.
Even CONCORD recognizes our rightful claim!
The Loot Fairy said yes, and now the unliscenced Athanor sits in impound, racking up storage fees.
Express Delivery: Adendum
While chronicling this amazing event, I noticed something on The-Express killboard while taking a screenshot for the blog.
Thanks for another Express Delivery!
So that's that. It's looking like yet another group of ne'er-do-wells have entered the find out phase of fucking around. I'm unsure what the future holds for The-Express as pertains to The Crown. It seems they want to pull out. For all their bluster and banter, they are quietly disengaging and retreating to their little holes in Octanneve and Syndicate. I would not be surprised if this is the last entry I get to write about them. Out with a bang, I suppose!
Until next time, adoring fans. This is Spacecat Xui, signing off.
Whatever happens, happens.
