The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, and perhaps in hindsight that is of little real surprise. Much of the warzone had been dominated by the Caldari to a point that it had become obvious that it was as much a product of Gallente inaction as it was the States own military might. Systems were being held not because the Federation could not take them back, but rather because they did not see a reason to do so before the onslaught of Operation: Rogue Edge. With the call from Moreau to push the limits of drone technology also came a call to hold the necessary space for research and development.
I don’t feel like this is emphasized enough to the general populace of New Eden: The idea of the Federation acquiring and improving on Rogue Drone technology is as terrifying as it is exciting. The weaponry they have developed has already shown the potential power of this investment. Webifier technology integrated into subverted Rogue Drone designs has proven especially effective when paired with the Federation Navy’s newly enhanced Algos’s and Myrmidons. It could revolutionize the warfront and that in and of itself is a danger, but so too is the idea of any of the Rogue Drones characteristics and deviant behaviors pass through.
Not everyone has had the unique experience of exploring a drone hive, but I have many times over. The hallucinations they experience and human like behaviors have moved to the point where it is not uncommon for them to repurpose biomass for repair and reconstruction. Which is the most polite way I can say that without exception the mere sight of these facilities is grotesque and monstrous, and if we remake them for our own use it’s hard to fully know if those same behaviors can be completely purged from their core design. We will see what their research yields, and for better or worse most of that research is going to be conducted in my homeland of Placid. It is where the fighting has been the most fierce, and where the most ground has been made, and perhaps it is especially fitting for this to happen under the stewardship of one of the most brilliant minds to come out of the University of Callie.
Yet it’s not without its problem - seizing so much territory from the State also comes with inheriting the states problems. We’ve run into increasingly large skirmishes against the pirate organizations that have come to call the region their home, more then one system has been liberated only to find that it has also been completely overrun with corruption. Whether this is due to negligence or a deliberate attempt to make these systems unpalatable to hold is anyone’s guess save for those in charge of the state, as the Guristas themselves often say: They’re the ninth mega, the mega of crime, and where the Caldari go so do they.
I’ll be doing my best to write regular reports on the fighting and developments out here. For now the advance has stalled, but the Caldari don’t actually seem to be having an easier time of things. Despite some decisive State victories, their territories continue to be overrun. They’re regaining ground just as they lose it in other places, and it’s hard to tell how hard they will be able to hold their advantage. For now, i’m going to rest and collect my thoughts. Maybe i’ll give another report tonight, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week. But someone should let the people know whats going on out here, and I suppose that can be me.
While I do agree with some of your points and observations, I, if I may, would like to offer a slightly more defensive perspective on the matter. Please correct me if I am wrong, but when you strip away the visceral horrors you described, it feels as though we are left with what looks like an unprecedented masterclass in drone engineering. I can’t help but think that if the Gallente were to walk away, someone else would eventually see the value in the mechanical solutions the Rogue Drones came up with.
From my limited viewpoint, the Federation cannot really afford to abandon this research now that its existence has become known to every major power in the cluster. While the deviant behaviors are indeed a most troubling variable, I would like to believe they are ultimately just code and silicon connected to the vast network, waiting to be purged and subverted by strict heuristic constraints. And, given the scale of the operation, I have no doubt that the senior CreoDron engineers know exactly what they are doing with their attempts to adapt the technology.
I don’t think that’s an incorrect assumption - I would like to clarify that just because I think that this is a future worry doesn’t mean research should stop, nor does it mean that a different organization would attempt to make use of the same technology and use it badly. Quite the opposite, I think if anyone should research it, it would be use because we have the knowledge base to actually read what we’re doing with some degree of accuracy. If it has to be done, it should be now under the Moreau administration when so much of our funding is being funneled into advancements from corporations like Creodron.
I also don’t think there is anything particularly supernatural about this project, not compared to some of the other things that have come out of the Cluster. The Rogue Drones don’t have souls, they aren’t actually living, they’re just simulating the process because their intelligence has become advanced enough to mimic their creators in some capacity. I don’t know how to feel about the vast majority of that research likely happening close to Intaki, I worry about the possibility of a Rogue Drone outbreak if they spill out of containment, but beyond that I see no course of action then what we have now.
I do, however, appreciate the input. Part of these is also discussion, it helps me maintain what little sanity Capsuleers are afforded while im out here staring at a Geniss asteroid, mining it for hours in the middle of the warzone so can complete our operational objectives. My only solace is that judging from Caldari news sources the same projects to harvest Crokite hasn’t been any better for their state of mind.
I have spent entirely too long staring at this monitor.
Most of the fighting has coalesced around three core battlefields around Placid, and while the Caldari have been fighting hard to retain their holdings in the region it seems their expulsion seems more like a ‘when’ rather then ‘if’. A couple years ago I would of been indifferent to that outcome I think, neither viewing it as bad nor good. The Caldari state has enjoyed some popularity with my people through the questionable respect of Mordu’s Legion. But over the last month my opinion on the State, at least when it comes to direct influence over Intaki Prime and its surroundings has soured considerably. On some level, I have to imagine the Caldari logistics understand this too. It’s going to break sooner rather then later, if one system falls they’ll all fall.
Rogue Edge continues to complete its objectives at pace, steam has started to build as more mass construction efforts have taken hold. Enough of Placid has been captured at this point to produce most of the space needed. Monitoring Creodrons modifications to the new Pluto line of prototypes is as fascinating as it is concerning. You would expect that the solution to improving the base mining efficiency would be through improving on the original Rogue Drone design, but the inverse is true: It is actual the ORE protocols that have handicapped the Excavators ability to process resources, and it’s by stripping out those protocols that it’s efficiency is magnified several times over.
By making it mimic the behavior of an actual rogue drone constructing the structure for it’s hive the efficiency of the machine is increased dramatically, cutting the overall wastage in half, significantly reducing the primary reason these drones see less use. I can’t help but wonder given what i’ve seen of Rogue Drone particle accelerators if the very stargates we’ll be building between here and Intaki will be built in the same fashion as a Rogue Drone hive?
I am once again back to staring at floating space debris instead while patrolling the skirmishing sites around some of the newly conquered territory in Placid.
You ever think about the kind of thought process required to put together a Javelin round? the metal slugs you slot into a railgun with a solid shell and iridium flechettes on the inside, then a graviton pulse causes the shell to detonate in every direction which deals catastrophic damage to whatever it’s collided with. Terrifying for the crew, nausea inducing for a Capsuleer who is now experiencing pressure points in several different directions from the neural feedback.
Anyway, i’ve been building a supply cache of them in the warzone.
The Vice Admiral is meeting with Creodron about increasing the amount of military infrastructure devoted to drone warfare, it’s been interesting watching a pivot of a pivot. During the earlier parts of the war there was a consensus among Gallente that our ships were over reliant on drones and we needed to build more gunboats, which is how you get the Talos which is basically just an ORE mining patroller we shoved a bunch of blasters on technical-style. Though this seems different, a lot of tech coming out of the Fed manufacturing is merging hybrid loading enhancers with drone damage systems. It’s a novel idea, I look forward to seeing how future production goes.