The move is on. The C4 Wormhole with C2 and C4 statics that has been the home of Sudden Buggery for over a year now is being abandoned, for the most part, in search of statics that may provide better ISK and PvP opportunities. Ideally, we would be looking for a C4 with C2 and C3 statics with a Black Hole effect. Unfortunately, in all of New Eden, there are but two such systems. Shortly after finding one of those systems and seeding a scanning alt into it, plans were put in motion to evict the current residents. They were well dug in, with two faction towers credibly defended, but our chances of finding the other system like it was minimal, so we decided to go for it anyway.
Because of the Black Hole effect, our tried and true Raven POS Bashing doctrine was adjusted slightly for better application of damage and we moved the lion's share of our assets from our old home to staging systems in HiSec. Just two days before the siege was set to begin, Bob smiled on us again, connecting us to the only other C4 Black Hole system with the statics we wanted just two jumps from the one we were about to siege. A little research showed this system to be far less of a bastion and an enemy who operated in a similar TZ to our mob of rascals, so the decision to change direction ever so slightly was an easy one.
The day before our assault a home base was established with an emphasis on eWar. I won't go into the details of it, but it's a handful for any prospective assault. It mattered not however, as our target didn't have a single pilot log in before or during the siege on the tower.
My dealing with Russians in my day to day life has been limited. From what I can recall, they seem like nice people, nothing overtly belligerent about them. But when it comes to EVE I see a very different animal. In all of the POS Sieges I've taken part in against Russians, and there have been quite a number, not once have they ever even attempted diplomacy. At first I thought language was the barrier, but their very amusing tirades of abuse in local chat put that to rest. I put myself in their position and I'd at least want to know why my sand castle was being kicked over. From there, all kinds of opportunities open up. The last siege we conducted saw the previous occupant moving out with everything he owned in tact and the POCOs and two Archons were the cost of that withdrawal. We know the Russians here have at least one Archon, so such a trade would again be acceptable but no, that wouldn't do, would it?It what can only be described as a last act of defiance, with barely a word being uttered, they boarded a Rorqual from their Ship Maintenance Array and set it to self destruct. No one cares about the Rorqual anyway. We don't mine and they're something of a white elephant these days, but it could have been a useful bargaining chip.
Oh well, we shall see what the future holds. It looks like we'll just be blowing up an empty husk of a tower come Sunday morning, but I'm fine with that too.
