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

I have faith in our R&D budget, so that does not really concern me as much as the fact that the Reactive Shield Hardener does not exist yet. On top of that, I am cognizant of the fact that the Drifters and Triglavians are both a product of the Jove. A people who rendered themselves extinct. We should think very carefully, about what technology has to be adopted for the sake of survival, and what technology would result in detrimental effects. The capsule was a necessity, but it has also caused a lot of upheaval when the mistake was made to let Capsuleers be independent. The Rogue Drones exist because of Gallentean mistakes already. Sansha’s Nation exists because of one man’s hubris already. I would rather see cautious steps forward, than a great leap forward, that takes us off a cliff.

Depending on what is to be found, that may have been better for everyone.

Until someone takes responsibility for the decision, the organization as a whole shall be held responsible.

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Let me spell this out, Ms. Malitia, to you, Ms. Tereven, and to whoever else:

This is a matter of capsuleers, intelligence assets, treaties, and maneuvers with potential significance on the level of empire. Empires, even. Plural.

“Justice” in that domain is PR and nothing else. Empires and similar-scale entities don’t have friends; they have interests. They don’t have morals; they have interests.

Powers clashed. Eggers got involved, took sides. People who were in the way, died. That’s what capsuleers are. That’s what capsuleers do. More than any other, that is THE service we provide.

What came of it, I don’t recall, if I ever knew. But it doesn’t matter one whit– this stuff doesn’t happen because of any guaranteed payoff. It happens because of the potential, or the perception of same.

Nothing needs justifying. If that is troublesome to you, I recommend retirement, because you are all but inevitably going to wind up killing a lot of people for reasons you would probably not want to have to try to explain to their mothers.

You probably already have. That’s just how we are.

I recommend you make your peace with it, or go find someplace where keeping a spotless conscience doesn’t demand quite so many shield hardeners to keep your denial from burning through.

Are you not embarrassed to be posting things like that?

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You mean that I’m part of a warrior class whose primary service is hot and cold running murder, and so are you? And so getting really worked up about certain specific but really pretty ordinary deaths kind of feels a little … hypocritical?

(I mean seriously I’ve seen entire fleets of battleships predictably reduced to wreckage just for the sake of proving we had the will to fight. Best of all: in the circumstances it was probably the right move.)

… Not really, no. Sometimes kind of depressed, sure.

This was not a vote of the Empires, but of capsuleers who wish to influence the Empires’ positions. We don’t know if they will or will not.

Now I do support the positions that Capsuleers should be the ones influencing Empires. We are humans who have transcended the mortal coils of a singular fleshy vessel. We live through several lifetimes, we are more wealthy, and we are the future. CONCORD serves to limit our potential, and the Empires follow suit, as they are scared of what we can do once we become unshackled. I am glad someone outside of the CONCORD circle has gotten hands on this technology at least. The Triglavians understand our potential. I look forward to seeing what comes of the research.

Yeah, I saw that, after; sorry, I should have edited that bit, too.

I hadn’t been paying very close attention for a while, so the news was, well, news, and I misinterpreted it a little.

Ah– pilot? You … might have bought into the marketing a little bit hard.

So far we’ve been around in numbers only for a little over twenty years and few of the original eggers are left. I gather the average career lasts about a year. It’s not clear how many retire versus how many, at some point, properly die.

I, personally, didn’t make it even a decade unscathed. Whee, sabotage-induced informorph damage.

(No, actually, it’s not bad in my case; my former self was not a very good or happy person. You, though, might prefer not to have your every personal memory reduced to digital noise.)

Anyway, don’t count your decades before you’ve lived them and maybe try not to upset your crew unnecessarily. We really don’t have a good counter for a knowledgeable baseliner with a tool kit.

Very mercenary opinion of you. I approve. But you’re right and you’re wrong; our actions tend to fall outside of a baseliner’s ideas of justice and accountability, but definitely not outside of our peer’s ability to impose THEIR ideas of justice and accountability.

You can think of it as trivial a matter as you like, but don’t be surprised when people shoot you over it.

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And thereby kill my crew, while I just wake up in a tube for the bazillionth time.

Yes, that does indeed sound like somebody’s idea of justice and accountability.

(I like Caldari mercenaries– very practical, very professional. The State’s the only society that treats it as an honorable profession, you know? So when working with them you can expect to be dealing with honorable people.)

(… also since when do eggers need justice as an excuse for shooting people? … And come to think of it as a goal it seems like it ranks up there with revenge as a bad piloting idea– apt to get your own ship blown up, repeatedly, giving you more and more things to seek justice for. The universe isn’t going to join in on your side just because it feels like it should.)

(I’m not going to say something stupid and prideful like “bring it,” but it does seem like the sort of thing that just kind of leaves wreckage– all fire, no light. “Justice,” as a word, sounds pretty foul in a capsuleer’s mouth to start with– naïve at best.)

(Deeply hypocritical at worst.)