The corporation known as The Black Crow Bandits was first registered in YC 118.09.04 in the Caldari State system of Korama, Lonetrek region^1. Within the first 48 hours the corporation grew to 15 active members , by the end of the week the corp had reached 23 active members. The Black Crow Bandits initially began as a corporation dedicated to the extortion of Industrial corporations based in High Security Space to make a name for ourselves. Within the week the first corporation Killmail appeared, and was an orca and pod worth approximately 1.2 billion ISK at the time. In addition Black Crow Bandits managed to extort 200 million ISK as part of sending a message to the remaining High Security Industrial corporations that BCROWs meant business. Many people now will say, “Who cares, it was an Orca?” However what should be remembered is that this was an Orca kill by a corp less than 2 weeks old with less than 20 active members.
It was also during this time that offers from Null Sec entities began coming in to the Black Crow Bandits given the potential we had shown. Ultimately BCROWs would accept the invitation from a nearby alliance named Sarcos Federation, a member of the Querious Fight Club and an Alliance whose style and goals seemed to mirror our own.
The Black Crow Bandits officially became members of Sarcos Federation on YC 118.09.14 and by extension members of the Querious Fight Club. Over the next 2 months aggressive recruiting and an active killboard caused membership of the Black Crow Bandits to grow from 40 line members to 130 (a growth to 30-40 heartbeats).
Voxis Accord was Founded by a Capsuleer named Ethan Zoromir who by all accounts was and is a nice guy. Voxis and Sarcos began as friends within the QFC it was not to last however.
As the story is told from the leadership of Sarcos Federation to its line members, SF helped Voxis to move into the Querious region establishing a mutual respect for each other. Soon after an outside group began attacking Sarcos Federation and taking their SOV. When Sarcos Federation called to Voxis for aid Voxis declined and began attacking Sarcos space.
The story as told from the side of Voxis states that Voxis helped Sarcos to get established in Querious and were happy to work together. Unfortunately Sarcos Federation decided to attack an entity that was a friend of Voxis. Voxis told Sarcos that if they continued with their activities they would do so without the assistance of Voxis. In response Sarcos Federation reset their standings with Voxis and began attacking Voxis ships and holdings.
The war between Voxis and Sarcos waged largely even with BCROWs providing a significant amount of the manpower in fleets. Initially things looked bleak as Voxis had the backing of the Imperium due to their standing in the QFC. This changed however when Voxis spoke of leaving the QFC, which removed a large amount of support that Voxis had enjoyed. It was not long after this that Voxis fell and the Querious Fight Club had an opening.
According to Sleepless a former member of Voxis who joined the Black Crow Bandits, if the Black Crow Bandits had joined with Voxis instead and Voxis had not turned on the QFC and Imperium, Sarcos Federation would never have survived the war.
Shortly after Voxis had been evicted from Querious a new challenge came to Querious in the form of an invasion by Mercenary Coalition, Pandemic Legion, and Pandemic Horde. The story spun by Sarcos leadership was that Voxis, in a parting shot, had hired Mercenary Coalition to wage war and destroy all Sarcos Federation holdings. Seeking a continuation of the eviction of the Imperium, after evicting them from Deklein and other regions in the North of New Eden, these factions sought to use Querious as a staging ground for their continued war. With cloaky campers in Sarcos Systems nearly 24 hours a day The Black Crow Bandits proved their worth by undocking and fighting every day despite being out numbered, outgunned, and out skilled. As we fought the Imperium came and fought alongside us to keep Querious free of the influence of these other power blocs. It was at this time that The Black Crow Bandits made a name for themselves as the muscle of Sarcos Federation by supporting these co-operative fleets as 60-70% of the Sarcos Federation composition. Battles of harassment were waged over the course of several weeks, finally culminating in a battle over an anchoring staging Fortizar in the system of W-IX39. The battle saw BCROW members die and reship dozens of times trying to keep the citadel from anchoring. The saving grace of the battle came in the form of an Imperium fleet of super-capital ships that finally swung the battle in favor of the defenders of Querious.
One of the awards given in honor of the defense of the Querious worth mentioning was the “We made them Rage” award. This award was issued to 17 members of The Black Crow Bandits (insert list here). The award was issued following a battle caused by Mercenary Collation flying a fleet imperial navy slicers and using the tactic of cloaky camping. The Black Crow Bandits fought the MC fleet at 50:30 odds and were winning fights despite being outnumbered. The constant hunting and fighting forced a change in tactics that forced them to stop cloaky camping. After forcing the MC fleet to log off at a station The Black Crow Bandits immediately bubbled the system and kept the system locked down until an Imperium fleet was able to show up and destroy the withdrawing MC forces nearly an hour later.
Shortly after the invasion was repelled new issues began arising for The Black Crow Bandits in the form of internal strife. According to reports there was poor treatment of BCROW line members by the Sarcos Fleet Commander Steve Akoi Aoiki, the alliance leader Jaqu Sterlit was missing in action, the interim leadership lead by Sirus Griffing. These in and of themselves were not the worst things to happen to BCROWs and the alliance as a whole.
The decision that sealed the fates of Sarcos Federation, their relationship to BCROWs, and the power dynamic of Querious came in the form of a 3 to 1 vote taken to leave the QFC. Sarcos Federation leadership decided that it was worth it to leave the QFC in order to wage war and wipe out a 4 man alliance. This decision, coupled with previous abuses forced the hand of Rush Crosix and the rest of BCROW leadership to leave the alliance and the region.
As the Black Crow Bandits left the region Sarcos Federation threatened the members, attempted to extort the corporation, and ultimately broke their agreements and began attacking the withdrawing BCROW members. In response to this Rush Crosix leaked audio from Sarcos Federation to Imperium FC Asher. The audio file contained damaging content which led to the Imperium dropping a 300 man fleet and reinforcing all Sarcos Federation holdings in Querious. It was this parting shot that would renew the spirits of the BCROW members on the journey to their new home in Immensea.
After leaving Querious and Sarcos Federation The Black Crow Bandits were presented with several offers, and ultimately decided to join Legio De Mortem on YC118.11.26, and were stationed in the system of D-BAMJ in Immensea. As a part of this alliance BCROWs became a part of Phoenix Coalition. Shortly after arriving in the region a variety of issues began to surface. Within the first month another the corporation Local Spike attempted a coup within Legio De Mortem. Being new to the area BCROWs remained neutral during this event that ended with Local Spike leaving the alliance. Another issue arose from the fact that we were constrained to one system despite the number of active members we came with.
Despite these early difficulties BCROW was able to make friends with other groups in the region including Lord of Worlds Alliance. This helped to completely secure the region in which we lived. When the Winter War for Stain began BCROW was there in support of our allies.
Growing drama and issues in comms such as FUBAR refusing to join comms, Sleepless and other members having issues with leadership, and Maverick Ater’s blatant disregard for respecting others on comms (which lead to the first ever BCROW con to blow up a player and all he owned) led BCROWs to look for new space. In YC 119.01.16, less than one year since its foundation, The Black Crow Bandits left Legio De Mortem and the Immensea region for the second major move to a new alliance and a new region.
On YC 119.01.17 The Black Crow Bandits offically became members of the alliance Solyaris Chtonium, and began moving into the system VFK-IV of the Deklein region. Since that time BCROWs have managed to maintain their home system of VFK at level 5 military and industry due to continued growth and increasing industrial support operations.
Over the course of the next seven to eight months BCROWs participated in a limited engagement during an invasion of Low Security, Faction Warfare space. Shortly after the deployment concluded the Imperium and Test Alliance launched an invasion of the Northern part of the cluster. The fighting lasted for approximately one month and was ended when the Imperium and Test were driven back.
On Y.C. 119.10.10 an article posted on EVE News24 http://evenews24.com/2017/10/10/undiplomatic-how-a-bad-diplomat-led-his-coalition-to-a-war-they-didnt-want/ formally declared that the Guardians of the Galaxy coalition (of which BCROWs is a member) had begun their war on the Drone Region Federation, for various reasons. Since the declaration of that war The Black Crow Bandits have seen themselves be top of the killboard for SLYCE alliance consistently as well as helping SLYCE to be one of the highest participating alliances to date.
==References== ^1: Interview with Rush Crosix