[POCHVEN] The return of Tyrannos Polemos - Pondering the Drifters' future

Fiction Portal Intergalactic Summit
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Since its formation, I have been exploring the Domain of Pochven in efforts to further our understanding of the Triglavian Collective’s nature and goals, alongside those of their stated enemies; I will be periodically expressing observations and information gained in Pochven across the Summit going forward.

Upon the coalescing of the Domain of Pochven, the Triglavians seem to have immediately found themselves faced with opposing forces gaining rapid entry into this new area of space - EDENCOM, highly opportunistic Rogue Drones, and most importantly of all, the Drifters.

In each subsequent undertaking the Vigilant Tyrannos have applied themselves to, new designations of Drifters have been titled and sent out to carry out or oversee operations. Apollo Tyrannos and Artemis Tyrannos were the first to appear, performing general patrols and broad-category operations; Hikanta Tyrannos and Arithmos Tyrannos serve as the guardians of the Drifter Hives and higher-class Sleeper Enclaves respectively,;Orion Tyrannos and Cassandra Tyrannos respond to prolonged interruption of drone-facilitated salvaging of the derelict Jove Observatories; Scylla Tyrannos and Karybdis Tyrannos swim probingly in the depths of Abyssal Deadspace; and an additional sampling of uniquely named Drifters have only been encountered in temporary operations - Apate Tyrannos, Hypnos Tyrannos, and TYRANNOS POLEMOS.

At the time of their appearance, Polemos oversaw the temporary deployment and defense of fully operational Drifter Hives in K-space and commanded Tyrannos strike operations against the SoCT in the runup to their deployment of the Praxis-class battleship. A strong subcurrent of discussion was generated in concern of this Drifter’s name: where all standard Drifters follow a [(Title) Tyrannos] format, “Tyrannos Polemos” instead parallels the naming structure of the “CEO” (for lack of a better word) of the Vigilant Tyrannos command structure, Tyrannos Strategos - described by CONCORD with the following:

Aside from decrypting and identifying the personal command signature of this entity, nothing is known as to the origins of this Drifter or even if the Tyrannos Strategos is truly the ultimate authority of this mysterious force.

Many reasonably postulated that Polemos was indeed a high-ranking entity in the Vigilant Tyrannos command structure, and hoped to glean further knowledge from their activities - but after the Drifters ceased operations against the SoCT, Polemos ceased to be encountered.

That is, until the Domain of Pochven was woven.

Since that time, new sorties of Drifter vessels commanding large groups of Sleeper Drones have consistently emerged from any wormholes linking into Anoikis. Three Cruiser-piloting, and three piloting Battleships. Five of these Drifters are novel entities - but the sixth is a familiar face.

Tyrannos Polemos now patrols Pochven, piloting the most advanced superweapon-wielding variant of the Drifter Battleship-range hull yet encountered - a terrifyingly powerful vessel class, ident-transmitting as the “Drifter Polemarkos Battleship”.

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Tyrannos Polemos now operates as the paramount commanding entity in Pochven operations, with the newly observed Tyrannos Navarkos processing in subcommand.

These two Drifters, along with Tyrannos Strategos, appear to comprise the highest-observed command entities in the Vigilant Tyrannos operational structure - being the only Drifters using this inverted name format. Where their standard units are designated, these three are titled. Between Polemos and Strategos, whichever one might be considered the supreme commander of their forces remains to be seen - but it is now clear that these titled entities are of the highest significance among the Drifters.

TYRANNOS NAVARKOS - Admiral :: Navarkos Cruiser
TYRANNOS STRATEGOS - General :: [No observed vessel]
TYRANNOS POLEMOS - Warlord :: Polemarkos Battleship

I continue to wonder at the reason behind the Drifters’ absolute noema of noncommunication. Is it pride? Security? Secrecy? Whatever the reason, the onward tide of the Triglav, abetted now by their sympathizers among the Capsuleers, will one day meet them in direct conflict. If the Drifters are unable to match their combined might, they will presumably be one day forced to amend their policies - but if it takes this much to simply meet the Drifters on even ground in terms of their full capabilities, I fear for all those who live in New Eden, and beyond.

o7

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Capsuleers are long known to be treacherous, despicable and even sociopathic. I don’t blame the Drifters for distrusting us. However, there will be a long line waiting to sign up if they ever decide that a personal Capsuleer branch like the Friends of Nation or Kybernaut Clade is going to be a necessity.

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Indeed, it seems to be a vital aspect of capsuleer existence to be fiercely individual, throwing oneself into whatever passion one follows with absolute determination.

I find it somewhat amusing that those who understand the Drifters best at this time, among which those who might align or sympathize with them would number, are also those with the absolute lowest standings with them~

I am immensely curious as to the true history of the Drifters, and where their history intertwines with that of the Triglav - so much seems to be just out of reach for us.

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Hmm. An odd conundrum, which I may be able to help with. After consulting with my computer, it appears I have no standings one way or the other with the Drifters.

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They’ve communicated in the past, via puppetting Tukoss’s corpse. Their ships broadcast classifications CONCORD’s systems can interpret. I’ve no doubt that if they felt we were at all worth bothering to talk to, they could do so once again. And that they could do it without the subterfuge. That they don’t… I don’t know that I’d call it ‘pride’ so much as ‘scorn’… or even simply ‘irrelevance’.

After all, what do they have to gain from talking to us, given our history?

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Long Live the Drifters. Time will come to punish the Triglavian supporters.

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I think its the time for trigs to be assimilated now. Who lives by the sword, dies by the sword an all of that. :partying_face:

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Currently going with “contempt.”

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I might stretch the defining to include “arrogance” as well - the Drifters as a group seem profoundly driven and ruthless in the pursuit of their enigmatic goals, and appear to outright resent the idea of opening up to those outside of their circle. But why?

They emerged from the crumbling ruins of the Sleepers, hatching from this virtual coccoon into something very real and very powerful, and immediately set out to aggressively gather resources - starting with the “Sleeper Cache” sites and offline Jove Observatories, and extending to the bodies of countless baseliners as biomass during the blackout, the conduit-loop constructs of Abyssal Deadspace, and now the liminal boundary between Bujan and K-space.

The largest quizzical factor remaining for me is their connection to the Amarr - though this borders on conspiracy, I believe there was some degree of shared knowledge, or a connection between them and the Drifters.

Empress Jamyl I suddenly secluded herself from the public just days before the announcement of strange changes in Sleeper activity by the SoE - the overture to the emergence of the Drifters.

Soon after she emerged once more the better part of a year later, in order to oversee the keel-laying of an Imperial Flagship, the Elder Mentor of the SoCT appeared during a ceremony over Sarum Prime and performed a scan that could only be compared to the Drifter scanning tech the Entosis Link is based on, targeting the Empress’s ship and being destroyed after saying he had what he had come for.

Soon after this, the Drifters invaded Safizon en masse on multiple occasions leading up to 21 August YC117, when a fleet of exactly 100 Drifter Battleships simultaneously struck the Empress’s vessel as she embarked to facilitate the handover of the new flagship to the Amarr Navy. They attacked only the Empress, destroying her ship and then her pod before leaving as quickly as they arrived.

Some connected the SoCT to the Drifters, given Raish’s actions - but multiple events, including the Drifter interruption of SoCT research and development that culminated in the Praxis-clas battleship, serve to starkly deny this claim.

Some connect the Drifters’ podding of Empress Jamyl to their podding of Dr. Tukoss - whose infomorph was forcibly captured by the Drifters through some method - and suggest that they took the Empress as well.

Why did the Drifters focus so much on the Amarr, and on Empress Jamyl specifically? Why did they launch an all-out assault on the Amarr Throne Worlds mere days later, only to completely cease their attack within weeks, with no apparent goals achieved and with no follow up or return in the more than five years since? If the attack on the Empress was a simple headshot in order to cause havoc in an enemy faction, why stop so suddenly?

So many questions… so many of which might be able to find a direction to look, a clue, if the body of the Empress was ever to reappear - as it was spirited away by an unknown capsuleer during the chaos.

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Perhaps if you entertained the hypothesis that the Drifters are Demons, you might make more progress in your investigations.

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Well Empress Jamyl did essentially say as much herself after all, more or less:
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Are Demons though Lord’s creations? As far as I understand what Her Highness said, Drifters could be artificial - made by humans, or by robots, rather than by Divinity. Though, again, I am not a theologician, it’s just how I understood that. Someone or something assembled them from parts.

Besides of that what I think of them:

  1. Yes, they are enemies of the State, since they have murdered head of our allied Empire.
  2. They are enemies of Triglavians, who sure represent way higher threat than Drifters (not as high as gallente, of course, but still).
  3. If Drifters are Jovians, maybe their attack on the Empire was misunderstanding and their attempt to protect themselves from Capsuleers?
  4. Surely appearance of Drifters is tied with devastating attack on Sleepers conducted by capsuleers, they look to me as enhanced and aggressive defensive measurements.
  5. If they are what remains of Jovians, we really shall consider helping them rebuilding their own Directorate or Empire, since they helped us against Gallente menace.
  6. They still refuse to communicate, thus making alliance with them impossible and they shall still be considered as enemies of the State. IMHO.
  7. I still avoid direct confrontation with drifters myself unless they will directly attack us first, thinking that capsuleers deserve them for what they did in wormholes.
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I think this was the punishment for stealing and destroying the consciousness of many Jovians from the construct that hold them, when Amarrians developed implant technology of ground soldier clones. It was justified and the ships appeared as manifestation of the anger and to defend the Jove also in future.

I think they may be challenged by rogue drones or trigs, but that will cause only more of the ships to appear and crush the ones bothering them in the dreams they dream. They are still sleeping, dreaming in their sphere.

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Oh, really Amarrian? We are observing Capsuleers behavior. How You treat each other resembles the behavior of animals in the jungle.

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Which all leads to question:

Then true name of Sleepers is Jovians? And archeology of Sleeper gives us insight on early Jovian civilization?

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How we call them may change, but they will not change and stay ahead of us, many, many lifetimes ahead.

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