An open letter to Kril Efrit

Fiction Portal Intergalactic Summit
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To Kril Efrit
Assistant Director,
Clandestine Activity Division
Republic Security Services
Seconded: Matar Planetary Security

Director;

I have been given a lot of thought to what is going on in Sundsele, and the conclusions I draw are not pretty.

Here’s what I think happened.

During the coup in YC110 and the purges, also personnel of the Republic Security Service was ‘replaced’. The Service has no doubt since concerned itself with not just the continued freedom of the tribes but also with suppression of counter-coup activities. My anti-government speeches and my involvement with the so-called ‘Gultratren Conspiracy’ has no doubt caused concern. As you probably also are very aware threats have been made towards me and mine before by various people variously affiliated with the government. (No, I still do not have concrete proof. Who the hell leaves concrete proof about such things? Your people are not, most of them, idiots.)

My renewed voicing of opinions about the coup in the past couple of years no doubt convinced someone the threats were not effective enough. My guess is this was a problem not just because of myself, but because similar threats in effect against other people, who might draw the conclusion from my public appearances that these threats are, in general, empty. That someone felt they had to act on some or more of them, just to show us that they will follow through.

In May this year Seykal came in possession of Orlon Zashev. While he was in Seykal custody, this someone learned of a planned Blood Raider attack against my hometown and against Atgur, where I grew up. (And don’t tell me the RSS does not work with Seykal or Krullefor. Of course you do. I was with the Service once myself, so give me a break. We - you - work with anyone if you feel the benefits have a fair chance of outweighing the risks.) At this point, someone got the stellar idea to use that attack to follow through with the threats.

My guess is, Director Efrit, that this is the point when you were seconded to Planetary Defense. Maybe it was your job to see that the attack gets through just enough that it can then be used to pressure me, and scare others like me. It is not like you are new to this kind of business, is it? It was just before the Purge of YC110 that you transferred to the Service, after all. Maybe the plan was at the same time to play heroes of the defense against Blood Raiders, so that you could then tell me that my people could also be protected if I played nice? Or maybe you are just covering up for the actual someone of this story?

But then you or someone you relied on botched it. Maybe the Blood Raiders were better than you estimated. Maybe someone betrayed you to them and let them know of where your defenses would be, and more importantly where they would not be. Maybe Zashev had gotten wind of this little plan of yours and had just enough time to drop a hint to a relevant party. Maybe someone decided to follow your instructions just a little too carefully, to purposefully cause a situation that would lead to whistles blown. Maybe someone misunderstood - I am quite sure these instructions were not given clearly and in a written format. But whatever happened there, you botched it, nevertheless.

Instead of a limited attack suitable for posturing, you devastated Sundsele. Thousands of innocent kin in a major city on Matar died. Planetary defense looked like incompetent morons, and you knew they would look like worse if your plan ever saw daylight. And then someone in RJD found their guts and started to look into Seykal a little too closely. Trying to disappear Sundsele Six into Tribal Council custody failed when riots broke out and Chief Midular refused to play along. The Tribe did not buy your Starkmanir as a neutral party. Too many questions were being asked about how this happened, and what did those six know.

Of course you took precautions, too. Did they even know in Tronhadar that it was about more than the Triglavians, I wonder? Does the Free Guard or the Shock Troops even now realize why they are patrolling Sebiestor lands?

The saddest thing is, Director, that this whole charade was completely unnecessary. No, I am not a fan of the current regime and yes, I know I did not quite stick to “not talking about not being allowed to talk about those things we are pretending never happened”. I recognize I did call this on myself, to some extent, twice: with Chakaid, and with Shakor’s regime.

For Chakaid, certainly, this was pretty much his only chance to get at me. For you, though, and especially for the Service in general, it was not. Loyalty takes wild forms and Fate walks on twisted paths, Director, but despite appearances mine has always remained the same at core. I work and I fight for the continued existence of the free tribes. I know I have an earned reputation as a loose cannon, but I can be reasoned with. I will take orders.

I demonstrated that in Colelie, did I not?

Director, you have put us on the brink of a civil war. Someone who should have protected us has allowed an attack on one tribe in order to preserve power for another. This is an escalation far further than I would have imagined in YC110. This is an escalation far further I want this to go now. It needs to stop.

I trust it, Director, that in all this madness you and yours were attempting to serve the tribes to the best of your ability. I can follow the reasoning that lead to attempts to silence me and those like me. These things are not always pretty. But someone crossed a line that should not have been crossed, and now they need to back off, and own to it, and take what that brings. In the Service, often, yes, the ends justify the means. But there needs to be a balance between gains and sacrifices, and when the ends are not reached, the means are not justified either.

So call off the outsider troops in Mikramurka. Return the Six. Let Justice do its work.

Because if you do not, more will fall in the end than those involved in this misguided attempt by some cloak-and-dagger cell of the Service to curb dissenting capsuleers. Any attempt to cover it up further will lead to further unrest when this whole thing will come to light, and trust me, Director, it will come to light. If not now, then next year, or the year after that, or in ten years, or twenty.

But sooner than we can afford a civil war, in any case. The Republic is, in the end, nothing but an alliance of tribes against a common enemy.

I have been called a traitor, Director, but I have always worked for the continued existence of the Free Tribes. I have been misguided and I have misjudged situations and I have taken part in operations I regret now, but never have I knowingly taken a political act that would have served personal power, or that of my tribe’s alone. I have always cared less for glory and honor than I have for the future of the Republic. I ask now that you do the same.

And yes, if you need something from me, we can talk. You did get my attention, I give you that, though an evemail would have been a preferable way. Set terms by all means, and I will listen and negotiate. Charge me with treason if that is what it takes. And if you need to say something you cannot in public, you know where to reach me. Just understand you can no longer stop this escalation by force, and act accordingly.

Never again another Long Night.

Elsebeth Shaninn
Of Rhiannon, born Rhiannon
Member of the Sebiestor Tribe
Independent capsuleer

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I’m sure this will get a respectful, well thought-out reply where Kril Efrit comes clean with everything.

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I doubt that, and it was not the intent.

But they need to start backing off.

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I’m sure they won’t either. But I will say this:

If my clan just so happened to find the Six tied up and sheltered at the foot of the southern mountains today, I would be willing to look the other way on any other recent sins our good friends Efrit and Berialsh might have committed.

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Careful Elsebeth, they might take action against you for this. Outting their mistakes publicly

Personally, I would have done the same thing.

So for some reason if they are on Huggar, I will find them. My people will bring them to me.

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I understand that. How do they say? ‘A calculated risk, too bad I am bad at math’?

To be serious; I am an indie capsuleer. I will co-operate with my tribe and with the government - mostly - but I cannot be forced to. You can put pressure on my kin and it has worked before though I am estranged from them - but at this point things are public enough that coming after my clan would spark riots like we haven’t seen since the Vindication Wars.

And I am 99% counting on the Service (or whoever runs this train wreck) not being far-gone enough to incite an actual civil war, and 1% wanting to see it if they actually are.

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Clan Ramijozana would ride for Clan Rhiannon and their associates.

We may be small, and we’re not rich, but we control some vital resources, including: a long stretch of the Snow-eater Road, access to two mountain ranges and a beach, and a significant manufacturing concern and its related infrastructure.

I hope that would be enough to be worth a second thought.

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Let’s not talk about war quite yet.

No one wants a civil war, and my letter above is about preventing one, not about starting one.

Rhiannon definitely does not want war. They are completely civilian, they are not political in matters wider than Sundsele, and by their own announcement are co-operating with all relevant authorities. They are completely innocent bystanders in this, just like anyone in the city.

And that is why I predict riots if it escalates more, too, I guess.

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Matari politics has always fascinated me. I always expected more fighting and less talking, yet somehow you’re more boring than watching a board room full of suited twits decide what is best for their “people.”

I vote for more civil war. More war equals more profits.

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Which makes us only massively more exciting than self-serving profiteers rooting for millions of senseless deaths so they can make a quick ISK.

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Fortunately, we aren’t actually the barbarians that the cluster seems to have painted us… Most of us at least.

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Which empire decides their leader with armed conflict again? Hmm… succession trials…

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Common mistake, I think.

In reality we talk endlessly. Seeking compromises simultaneously satisfying multiple separate requirements of tradition and honor is basically what Matari politics and law is about and it is a time-consuming process.

We also yell and quarrel pretty frequently and do not consider it particularly hostile or rude. When things escalate, there might be formal duels, not inviting a person to your niece’s Voluval party, writing them out of a trade contract for a special spiced wine, or other similar horrors.

Roughings-up on dark alleys, breaking store windows, informal duels, embezzling rival funds, and such unruly conduct also happens, of course. Conspiracies to hijack a clan by a set of marriages to insert or remove key people, assassination attempts, strategically placed embargos to drive someone out of the area completely, riots against government decisions? Sure, sometimes. We are not saintly spirits.

Actual fighting to settle an internal issue? Not that much.

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Spoken like a true sociopath.

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Now that’s harsh.

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Oh, come now. Let’s not inject the common moralities of a planet dweller. You, like every other capsuleer, are responsible for thousands upon thousands of deaths. We’re all sociopaths, darling. It’s a function of immortality.

Back to Ms. Rhiannon’s topic, though, I’ve just been very interested in Matari politics for years, especially when it comes to the Matari pod pilots. Unlike my brethren, I don’t see an inferior race nor do I agree with the treatment of the Matari by the Amarrians.

I see a highly intelligent and resourceful race that is being led astray by its leadership. I see traditional Matari culture being overrun by the cultures of the other empires. It just seems like such a… waste.

I remember a day when there was a place called Unity in Providence. I remember when names like Ushra Khan, Stormriders, and Electus Matari struck fear into the hearts of Amarrian loyalists. I was there the day Unity fell and a dream seemingly died.

I just find it a bit hard to swallow that the Matari have essentially sat on their hands for almost two decades since capsuleer technology became widespread and allowed their people to slowly, but surely, become a thing of the past.

That’s just me, though. I don’t know much about the way the cluster works.

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Oh, lovely, another one of those idiots.

So the ultra-conservative ‘RAR everything must be traditional Minmatar or it’s bad and evil and we’ll do horrible things to your family pet in the night over it’ social environment the Republic’s been in for the last decade is… ‘overrun by the culture of other empires’. Gotcha.

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Argue with it all you want. The psych reports of every pod pilot in empire service suggests I’m correct.

Okay, I can see where an uninformed individual may think I’m very conservative. They’d be wrong and a simple search of my details on file will state that I’m definitely not in the business of conservatism. It’s a fair mistake, though, so I’ll let it go.

What I’m saying is that traditional Matari culture should be preserved for the betterment of the race so they don’t lose their heritage which an aloof theocracy tried to steal from them. I have absolutely no issue with forward progress of said culture.

That is not what’s happening, though. Gallentean values are encroaching on Matari values. It’s hard to tell anymore if the Minmatar are governed by a sense of unity or a sense of self. I see more Matari capsuleers living outside of Minmatar space than in it.

With the exception of a very few holdouts, the Minmatar government sold you out. The truth hurts.

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Newsflash: They didnt try to steal it, they tried to erase it - and largely succeeded. What remains of the Minmatar culture from our Golden Age, is just scraps of what was. Traditional culture practiced today is just best guesses of those who studied and collected those scraps after the rebellion.

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What do you know of traditional Matari Culture? This just reeks of the stereotypical outsider arrogance that assumes they know best.

The restructuring of the government into a Tribal Council is allowing each tribe to reclaim our heritage, as Tein has mentioned, after the Empire wiped large swaths of it from living memory.

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