Personal account of the Drifter Summit (1st of May, YC 127)

Fiction Portal Intergalactic Summit
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Greetings fellow capsuleers and followers of the IGS,

The Arataka Research Consortium (ARC) facilitated a Drifter Summit on the 1st of May in YC 127, at the behest of the Sisters of EVE (SOE). I feel that with how things have developed since and the amount of time that has passed, I can now share my personal account and views regarding it. I will also include some information that isn’t known by that many people.

As this post is going to be on the bigger/longer side, I will split it. The first part is going to be about the Drifter Summit in general and the second part will be on the policies that could be advocated for.

The choice between helping to facilitate or participate
Big developments, discoveries and/or calamities in recent years have always resulted in a summit being organised to discuss what was happening and how to best proceed. Yet with the Drifter Crisis still being undeniably in full swing at the time, there was no word of anything being organised by anyone. It was around this time that the SOE reached out to ARC to address this situation.

Delegates from the SOE and ARC came to the agreement that ARC would facilitate a Drifter Summit at the behest of the SOE and take care of the opening presentation on the Drifters. The SOE arranged a suitable location and selected and invited capsuleers as delegates for either the Triglavian Collective, Caldari State, Minmatar Republic, EDENCOM or Amarr Empire. The selection and invitations were done based on availability and their contributions to these factions during the ‘Race for the Hives’.

Based on my contributions to one of these factions and my support to ARC, I was given a choice by the SOE: as I qualified for both, I could either participate as a delegate or support ARC with facilitating the Drifter Summit. As I prioritize the wellbeing of the entire cluster over an individual faction, I decided to help facilitate the Drifter Summit.

With the decision made, I worked with the SOE representatives and @Uriel_Paradisi_Anteovnuecci on what the opening presentation would focus on. Uriel focussed on the history of the Drifters and what we’ve managed to learn about them in general. I focussed on their combat capabilities and how to successfully battle the Drifters with no or minimal losses in particular.

Setback and disappointment
Just after @Uriel_Paradisi_Anteovnuecci and I had concluded our opening presentation, we did learn that there had been a setback. The SOE delegation was unfortunately delayed and could not make an appearance during the Drifter Summit. This was a big disappointment for me as I was looking forward to meeting her ladyship Santimona Sarpati. I was even hoping to be able to converse and discuss things with the Reverend Mother and CEO of the Sisters of EVE. Unfortunately it was not meant to be on this occasion. I am still extremely grateful for her efforts that made the Drifter Summit happen.

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Policies to advocate for
The representatives did an amazing job on selecting and advocating for 1 of 3 policies on the following topics:

  • The sharing of Drifter Wormhole Technology (closed, joined or open);

  • Interventions on the hyperspace network manipulated by the Drifters (revert, observe or experiment);

  • How to manage the remaining Drifter threat (pushback, secure or observe).

Regarding these topics, I continue to advocate for the following:

  • Research efforts into the Drifter Wormhole Technology should be open sourced with the rest of New Eden;

  • As the Drifter interference has altered the hyperspace network, we should try to revert the system to reveal the truth behind it;

  • When it comes to managing the (remaining) Drifter threat, our own defence and security should be the priority, not their destruction. We should spend resources on greater defences.

Why open sourced research?
The Drifters are a threat to the entire cluster and their technology is second to none. Approaching their Wormhole Technoloy in a joined and open sources effort would therefore be the best policy for several reasons.

Firstly, It allows for more and better allocation of resources and manpower to the research efforts. It increases the scope of possible breakthroughs and lowers the time needed to achieve them. This will increase the safety and for the cluster as a whole.

Secondly, and this is an often overlooked argument, it will limit the waste of resources and manpower to keep the research and breakthroughs limited to one or a few Empires/Factions. The Shadow War over the research into Triglavian Technology has proven how far factions are willing to go. It also showed how much manpower and resources are wasted to only slow down and delay others from getting their hands on information and technology. Especially the less savory entities will achieve this sooner rather than later. Why waste the resources and manpower and at the same time deny the contributions and efforts of those who wish to help.

Why revert the Drifter interference on the hyperspace network?
I was shocked by the unanimous push for aggressive and destructive experimentation on the hyperspace network. The risk to only gain a limited understanding of the hyperspace network and cause irreparable damage to it is far too great in my opinion. Reverting the Drifter interference first and following it up with open sourced research into it, we will get a much better understanding of the purpose, workings of and technology behind the hyperspace network. This can massively and permanently improve our way of travelling through the vastness of space. The more slow and steady approach means lower risks and a far greater reward.

Why prioritize our own defence and security?
The Drifters are still a big mystery that we need to understand better. While observing them would be the best and least confrontational option, I believe this option is no longer viable due to the current political landscape and the still ongoing conflict with the Drifters.

This leaves 2 options; either prioritize our own defences and security or focus on pushing the Drifter even further back. The Drifters are a threat to the entire cluster. We have achieved success and should capitalize on this by focussing on our own defence and security. We have encountered new types of Drifters and even seen them field Dreadnought class ships. Who knows how much further the Drifters are going to escalate things when they continue to be pushed back. We should focus on increasing our defence and security, while there still is time.

While there may no longer be a crisis situation, the Drifter threat is far from over. We should use the current lull to focus on our own defence and security in order to be better prepared for what comes next.

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Totally agree with the ARC proposed strategies.

There’s a small feedback: we don’t know if reverting the Drifter interference of the hyperspace network is possible as we don’t know if such thing is reversible; we could risk to worse the already done damage. The suggestion could be keeping observation as we could also see if they would be able to revert some part of the interference themselves if they would consider it no more necessary for their purposes.

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As unsurprising as it is that a group of shortsighted marauders like ARC would advocate for more chaos across New Eden by supporting this public research nonsense, I still somehow find myself disappointed.

Thankfully, it seems that the majority of the occupying polities agree that such a move would be criminally irresponsible. You think the Empires are wasting resources and manpower in tech races? Just wait to see the expenditure in resources, time and lives that is to come should we allow the spoils of this campaign to fall into the hands of every psychopath across the cluster. As if the Deathless and their pirate pets are not enough of a plague upon civilized space already.

What the Drifter Crisis has readily demonstrated is that the 5 powers that claimed and pacified the drifter hives are the most capable, in fighting back Drifter raids, outpacing all competition in reverse engineering their technology to develop filaments to invade their hives, and promptly neutralizing the present drifters and securing their foothold in their space.

Furthermore, we have been fortunate enough to not allow a group like the Cartel to claim a slice of the prize, with 4/5 occupying forces being CONCORD aligned, and the Collective, even if an outlier, is demonstrably committed to the defeat of the Drifter threat.

The clear route forwards is a joint research programme that ensures that the findings from all 5 hives are pooled together, while preventing them from falling in the hands of those who would undoubtedly only seek to weaponize them against us.

I remain optimistic that the leadership of the Republic and EDENCOM both will shortly abandon this naive nonsense and pursue the most reasonable course of action.

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Well who’s to say that the Deathless doesn’t already know these secrets and are not sharing them with the Cartel? They have the means and the resources. The Sarathiel also already has new drifter tech.

Well EDENCOM has already invited Upwell to research for them, so clearly they are not wanting to abandon.

Criminals are already getting their hands on the tech via the Deathless. Gallente are already seeking cooperation with the Minmatar (despite their abandonment of democracy), and we KNOW they are compromised by criminal organizations.

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What they don’t have is a Hive. You have no evidence at all that they have any of this, and if the Cartel’s tempo is to be considered, they were very much keen on getting their hands on it.

That is not what is being advocated for by the OP. I would be cautious about Upwell being brought onboard, considering recent security concerns, but they have been a lawful and trustworthy corporate consortium to date.

Citations needed all around.

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You’re right they don’t but it was Deathless Warden connection that allowed them enough access to begin with. Deathless research facilities were also setup before Drifters showed up in every crisis system.

All that means is that Deathless isn’t sharing everything with the Cartel.

It is very clear that the Deathless does have access with how they can track the wormholes and their proficiency with covert operations. They have repeatedly hacked CONCORD and Upwell security. Your own government is my source for Gallente being compromised by the Deathless (Leopold en Villari is still a Senator’s aide). These very forums shows Minmatar and Gallente seeking to influence their goverments to cooperate on Drifter tech.

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Just because I’m considered to be the public face of ARC, doesn’t mean that everything I state is on behalf of ARC.

Let me repeat and clearly state that this is my personal account of the Drifter Summit and contains my personal views.

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I know. What I meant is that it is unsurprising that someone associated with a group like ARC would hold such myopic views.

At least I would hope its myopia and not plain callous disregard for the wellbeing of everyone as long as it enables you and your ilk to play at being “researchers”.

Maybe I am being too charitable.

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Typical Remi. Don’t ever change.