Perhaps one of the most flying visits of the round saw Death Valley wiped from the statistics almost as quickly as they had arrived. But to whom do I owe the fury of a now virtually redundant introduction article? We set to work investigating this mystery and did not have to wait long before it became apparent that The Sacred Empire were the perpetrators of said crime! Deep in the archives of the Buzz can be found a paper trail of history between the two crews, or crews closely associated with renamed groups, such as The Senate and Eternal Labyrinth. Had this history lead to the events of the present? We found out.
We kicked off our interviews with Retribution, more commonly known as AbuRagheb and one of two Bosses of The Sacred Empire. Many expected Death Valley to be hit upon their return to the Statistics page, however it came as a surprise to these same people that it came from the guns of The Sacred Empire's soldiers. But what had brought about the attack? AbuRagheb told us, "Our feud with several members of Death Valley seem to have been going for years since the early days of The Sacred Empire's creation. In addition, both Pronunciation (Scandalous) and Alexander have directly attacked and shot down many members of our crew not too long ago and proudly state it on their profiles." So past shootings live long in the memory of many, not least those who head up The Sacred Empire. With little backlash being seen at the original time of the shootings AbuRagheb referred to, it can perhaps come as little surprise that Death Valley feel the consequences now.
So it would appear this is the latest in a saga of events and shootings, as oppose to the beginning of a new war. We asked AbuRagheb if this plan became immediate when Death Valley appeared on the Statistics. He told us, "We believe so, yes. The minute Death Valley went back on stats, we felt we had to take action and so we did." Decisive and it has to be said effective action indeed. The spot eventually dropped to an unsuspecting member of the crew and was passed onto a The Sacred Empire member in one of the more bizarre set of circumstances seen this round, with the panicking visitor passing on the crew after creating a cry for help topic in the Game Forum.
But what of the future between these two crews? We asked AbuRagheb for The Sacred Empire's side on what would be in the future, to which he replied, "Depends on the situation at hand. One can never predict the future, but we will always look out for the best of our members. The Sacred Empire wouldn't be the crew that it is now without them." So it may be seen from this comment, that if Death Valley are ever viewed as a threat in any way to The Sacred Empire that action will be taken. This of course cannot be predicted however, and only time will tell what the future brings in terms of events between the two crews.
We closed out time with AbuRagheb by asking for any final comments, as always! To which he was full of praise for his members, saying, "I'd like to thank the members who contributed in the shooting. To see everyone coordinating with one another smoothly and expertly can only make a crew boss proud. It was a fun night to say the very least." It has to be said it did appear a well co-ordinated attack, both precise and efficient. Appreciation for members is also something not always seen from crew Bosses, but felt in full here with out close from AbuRagheb.
From a floundering visitor to stranger circumstances still. The spot which lay in the hands of The Sacred Empire's at least former members saw members of Most Wanted arrive. Before much time had passed the crew had been passed to SitOnMyFace, more commonly known as Spong. Other users were removed from the crew and Death Valley accounts signing back up from the massacre were quick to rejoin. All be it in far smaller numbers that were seen in the spot before, but rejoin they did none the less. Hallelujah, it appeared my introduction article had been rendered useful again! We at the Buzz got in contact with Scanda, also known as Scandalous and Boss of Death Valley, to quiz him on both the wipe, and his crews apparent alliance with Most Wanted, that so many of his members had campaigned against under the name of Decadence.
Our first question for Scandalous however concerned the wipe itself. What did he make of this surprise attack? He had little comment to make, saying, "I heard they shot us because I shot The The Senate with my account Pronunciation and Alexander shot them one time when he was LDon for Axteze. But that was ages ago, I guess they were still holding grudge against us." Grudge killing or not, it was perhaps naive to think that it would go unnoticed that Scandalous was making a bid to host a Statistics based crew without there being any consequences for his past actions. Understandable that is may be felt as a surprise, but there was no feeling of an undeserved nature in this shooting. Scandalous went on to decline a comment on whether he felt this was a new war started or the continuation of an old one.
We went on to ask whether the lack of comment was a wait and see type of response, to which we were told, "Yes, and we are not going underground anymore we will keep coming back." Continuing, "I already thought we would get shot in a few days I just didn't expect it to be The Sacred Empire." A statement of intent then that we are far from seeing the end of Death Valley, and that perhaps they will show more strength and character than other crews of the round who have disappeared after a single wipe.
Our next focus moved away from the shots fired, and onto the apparent new forging of a partnership between Death Valley and Most Wanted. This was a very interesting move, as the majority of Death Valley members had come across from previous crew Decadence, whos choice to move away from Most Wanted was made quite public as the crew was wiped for what was viewed as such a disrespectful move by the groups leaders. They seemed happy now however to join a crew held by a Most Wanted member, and to once again provide home for the largely underground crews Bullet Factories. We asked Scandalous about this potential alliance, and what it meant for the former Decadence members who had fought to end such a tie. He was short with his answer, saying, "I'm not losing members because of this, I'm just good friends with people in MW nothing more is going on." Many would view being 'good friends' with a group such as Most Wanted a probable alliance. However Scandalous seemed unwilling to state such a relationship, or even to comment on the situation.
We went on to pursue leads that had come to us that Scandalous himself was a member of Most Wanted. We also asked if Death Valley could now be called an ally of Most Wanted. Scandalous was selective in the parts of these questions which he chose to answer, as he said, "Im not a member of mw." People reading this can be forgiven if they find this answer a little ropy and are skeptical of its truth. However Scandalous clearly wants to keep ties with Most Wanted as off the radar as possible. A feat not achieved easily and perhaps already failed, however, one which he is prepared to attempt none the less.
Where will these relations lead? What will be the situation between The Sacred Empire and Death Valley in times to come? Only time can be the true telling answer to all of these questions. However one thing you can be sure of is when or indeed if it happens, we will be there to scoop together a story out of what little may remain!
