Yesterday morning I had several ships to move from the Hi-Sec system next door to our Low-Sec headquarters. I had to use Ana for that, but unfortunately her Impel can't transport BS hulls. As I was wondering how best to proceed, one of my Corp m8s offered to move them for me. Seeing as how his transport alt was already in system, I agreed.
The long story short, so we can get to the meat here. I was on Comms. I had Rixx stationed off the gate in his cloaky Manticore to make sure the way was clear for Ana and then for the other transport. Ana arrived fine and so I waited for the other transport to arrive. My Corp m8's main was also off gate cloaked in his Rapier, to web the transport and get it safely to station.
This was explained on Comms, amid much derisive joking around and kidding, but it was made clear that this was a Corp Alt being supported by us. In fact the alt shares the same name as my Corp m8, only with a different number at the end. Kind of like Rixx and Anastasia Javix. Pretty obvious. I didn't expect any trouble. Despite this exchange in channel:
ItsmeHcK1 > Just making sure you know we're blue.
ItsmeHcK1 > So, if I were to jump in my freighter now...
ItsmeHcK1 > You're gonna kill it, aren't ya?
Kasper Skov > yea :)
However, the blues warped off the gate. The Rapier de-cloaked and immediately the "blues" arrived and began pointing the Rapier. Shortly after that the transport de-cloaked and immediately they began shooting at it as well.
Rixx Javix > that thing has mah stuff in it
Thoraxxis > pls dont kill his fucking freighter
ItsmeHcK1 > for god's sake
Thoraxxis > hes an idiot
Thoraxxis > but seriously
Rixx Javix > thanks guys, 300m blown to hell
Rixx Javix > so who's paying me for the lost tempests and canes?
ItsmeHcK1 > And freighter + stuff.
Rixx Javix > I need a Director to talk to and I need him now
Yes the Alt freighter was red. But clearly the attack came first against our Corp who was clearly blue. Not to mention the fact that on Comms it was made extremely clear what our intention was going to be and that this was considered a Corp asset. There is no question in my mind that this was a pre-meditated action on the part, mostly, of our light blue 'friends' KWL.
It turns out I'm backed up by their own people in local chat:
Kasper Skov > just killed a blue freighter
A HOBO > na thier director told us to do it cos he thaught it would be funny
I won't bore you with the endless back and forth conversations and the hopeless nature of talking to anyone from KWL. I will share with you a few choice tidbits that illustrate my position and theirs. I'm fair after all.
Rixx Javix > the rapier was blue
Rixx Javix > the friegher was flown by itsme3, not hard to tell
Rixx Javix > especially when announced in channel ahead of time
Rixx Javix > we've got a lot of assets to move, this doesn't bode well
Thingymawotzit > cool man
Thingymawotzit > i ujnderstand your angry but if we see a red freighter we dont think twice about it
Rixx Javix > yeah normally i'd agree with that
Rixx Javix > but this isn't one of those and you know it
Rixx Javix > so let's stop playing pirate hard ass and make something happen
Thingymawotzit > well it looks like itsme doesnt wana let this go
Rixx Javix > can you blame him
Thingymawotzit > fuck off
Rixx Javix > i dont fuck off m8
TinkerHell > i can get the loot back, but we leave it at that
TinkerHell > itsme has rubbed them up the wrong way
Rixx Javix > whatever, itsme is in my corp and blue
Rixx Javix > end of story
Rixx Javix > some of them are rubbing me the wrong way
Rixx Javix > well i can say this, if they don't give the loot back we will set them red right now
Rixx Javix > end of story
Rixx Javix > and i will exhaust our assets to make them suffer believe me
Rixx Javix > i've done it before
TinkerHell > with an attitude like that you will have no solution sorry
Anyway, long story short I got my 2x Tempests and Cane back, plus whatever loot was dropped from the freighter. This issue wasn't concluded in my opinion, nor in the opinion of my Corporation. We continued to take it thru the proper channels, whatever ones happen to exist in such an Alliance. But it quickly became clear that we were not going to be satisfied.
I want to say this clearly, at any point along the way a simple apology or gesture towards this obvious case of Blue on Blue violence would have cleared the air. We took it to the top and we were told, in essence, that the Alliance was siding with the light blues. Not us. Even though we were the ones actually IN the Alliance.
This wasn't enough for some people in my Corp. And many angry and creative eve mails were sent. These were done without my knowledge but I have to say if I had known, I wouldn't have stopped them. Honestly, they weren't as bad as some of the other things I had in mind.
So once again Lucifer's Hammer is on its own. As you can see from the above, I'm the kind of CEO that goes all the way for his m8s when I know they are in the right. I wasn't joking about my threats and was ready to take this incident as far as it needed to go. Even amongst Pirates, there has to be some honor. If we are free to shoot anyone, then we are crippled. That means no Alt Scouts, no Alt Cyno drops, no Neuts in fleets, etc. We'd all be done and chaos would reign. This is the line of bull we were being feed.
Blues were attacked. Corp assets destroyed. Simple as that.
So once again Lucifer's Hammer is on our own. I'm kind of liking the sound of that.