"Trillions of Federation Minmatar would be alienated or perhaps even abandoned by Republic" - Elusenian government-in-exile requests clarification regarding the Republic Government's position towards diaspora in event of possible alliance suspension

Fiction Portal Intergalactic Summit
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Gentlefolk,

I am Siyu Shan “Seriphyn” Inhonores, chief commander of the Elusenian Protection, Intelligence, and Defence Activity (ELPIDA). I speak on behalf of the Director-General, Directorate, Senate, and Agora of the Cooperative Republic of Elusenia on Vale IV. Our mission to extinguish the pretender state of the Obsequious Underclade of Elusenia sees further successes with a wider internecine conflict between the Svarog and Veles Clades on our homeworld opening up multiple strategic opportunities for our forces and partners in the Vale Federal Resistance Movement. However, it is not this particular set of news that is the subject of today’s press conference.

The Cooperative Republic of Elusenia, along with its partners amidst the surviving states of Vale IV, has just lodged a formal request for clarification addressed to the Republic Government, with our Ambassador to Non-Federation Entities Criren Juimmus submitting our letter in person at a Minmatar consulate office aboard the Republic Security Services station in orbit of Adrel IV-9 in the Essence region. While we do not expect to receive a direct reply from the Minmatar Republic (given that the other major super-polities of the cluster do not officially recognize the individual member-states of the Federation), we believe it is nonetheless important to add to the dialogue. This formal request for clarification regards the current and future position of the Minmatar Republic Government towards the sizable segment of the Federation population that identify as Minmatar following the Caldari-Minmatar Security Conference in the Airaken System.

The letter, written by Ambassador to Non-Federation Entities Criren Juimmus, is as follows…

Ambassador Keitan Yun,

Allow the Cooperative Republic of Elusenia, a humble member-state of the Gallente Federation, to congratulate you on yet another year representing the Minmatar Republic at the clusterwide stage. Another decade under your belt in pursuit of interstellar diplomacy and peace remains laudable.

Let us also congratulate you on the successful Caldari-Minmatar Security Conference in the Airaken System insofar as the logistics and manpower required to plan and execute an interstellar event of such a scale. Unfortunately, along with the speculation from the Republic press, we find this turn of events outright baffling and bewildering.

The Federation census of YC114 estimated that the total population of the union was 19.991 trillion, 35% of which was identified (self- or otherwise) as Minmatar, numbering at 6.997 trillion, which at the time was estimated to be one-fifth of all Minmatar in the cluster. In fact, in YC114, there were more Minmatar in the Federation than in the Republic (6.556 trillion)! Indeed, being 35% of the Federation in YC114 made this demographic larger than the ethnicities of the major non-Luminaire signatories of the Charter itself! While this number is said to have dwindled a good amount in the intervening time period, especially with the commendable resurgence of the tribal republic in the face of the depraved Empire of Amarr, the number of Minmatar residing in the Federation remains significant.

Now, it would be ridiculous to leverage this political and social reality to strongarm a perpetual alliance, that much is certain (especially considering that the Federation Minmatar are not homogeneous). But what exactly motivates the flirtation of security cooperation with the Caldari State, and the potential suspension of the military alliance with the Federation? The Scope, in their increasingly reckless and cavalier reporting, compares the Amarr and Gallente super-polities as both being ‘ruthless and militaristic’ as being the onus behind a possible strategic realignment.

I ask you, Ambassador, what is more ruthless?

  • The militarization of the Federation’s second-most important star system with a recent history of repeated enemy military incursion by the Caldari State, including attempts at planetary invasion.
  • The destruction of the Turnur star system by the Amarr Empire using technology salvaged from a genocidal force that, in extremely recent memory, has been responsible for the deaths of countless souls across New Eden.

With regards to the first point, the Elusenian government had the position of outright condemnation for the initial unilateralism, though with the Intaki Assembly providing its apparent consent in the months hence, we have since revised our position to one of skepticism in addition to a more generalized disapproval. I would implore you to ask the Scope what makes this ‘ruthless’ in comparison to the Turnur Incident? Perhaps I would also ask the Scope why the Caldari State’s continued efforts to occupy the contested systems (which no doubt include many Minmatar residents) along with their previous military operations on the surface of Intaki Prime is not considered “ruthless” as well?

Moreover, let us not forget that the Caldari State’s Serthoulde campaign to extract Triglavian technology is a particularly egregious violation of Federation sovereignty, even considering the CEMWPA. Allegedly, they intend to use shipcasting technology for further military campaigns against the Federation, in a war they wage for no particular reason other than megacorporate profits now that the Caldari Prime flashpoint has been settled.

How the Federation’s militarization of the Intaki system (controversial as it is) is portrayed as “ruthless” and problematic by the Scope when legal consent has been provided, and the Caldari’s past incursions into that same system (the looting of the Serthoulde constellation aside) is glossed over, befuddles many of us in Elusenia and beyond.

What does the Republic hope to achieve by a closer security relationship with the Caldari State and/or suspension of the military alliance with the Gallente Federation? Trillions of Federation Minmatar would be alienated or perhaps even abandoned by the Republic. Would the Republic Fleet be set against the Federation Navy, of which we can thank countless Minmatar for their service fighting Caldari and Amarrian aggression? Would the Tribal Liberation Force aid the State Protectorate in conquering Federation systems in Placid, including the colonies of not just the Intaki but Minmatar as well (and countless other Federal nationalities)? I am sure you have heard of the amateurish and naive attempts to compare a Caldari megacorporation to a Minmatar tribe, but I could not imagine no greater insult and debasement. How can a Minmatar tribe with its rich eclectic culture and traditions be compared to totalitarian megacorporations whose sole purpose is maximizing profit?

What exactly is the Minmatar Republic’s position? Why does the Gallente Federation’s consensual (and, yes, controversial) militarization of its own major systems warrant alarm, but not the Caldari State’s repeated military aggression against systems it does not own? Why is this same Intaki issue considered with the same severity as Amarr’s destruction of the Turnur system and continued flagrant use of Triglavian technology?

We hope that the esteemed Ambassador of great interstellar import may find the time to respond to our request for clarification, even if we are but a singular planetary territory amidst the innumerable found across the Gallente Federation. Certainly, the honour would be immeasurable should we be graced with a reply.

With respect and admiration,

Dr. Criren Juimmus
Ambassador to Non-Federation Entities
The Cooperative Republic of Elusenia
Vale IV

Thus concludes our communique sent to the Minmatar Republic on behalf of the Elusenian government-in-exile and other partner states. I will do my best to answer questions and clarify any ambiguities here.

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The Caldari State and Republic seem made for each other insofar as they share a desire for military dictatorship and an overwhelming sense of entitlement borne of victimhood towards external actors.

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Without going to any wider political commentary, beyond “I really would like to have more information on this too”…

Wouldn’t it be kind of rich for clans to first leave the Republic and then complain of being abandoned by it in case it does not follow them around and babysit their relations to their new, supposedly better, circumstances and allies?

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Better might be a big stretch here. Caldari may have had the upper hand in the Athonoun events, but they were incredibly bad at handling the triglavian invasion as a whole and lost countless lives and systems. Makes you wonder if Caldari State has managed to improve their military tactics substantially since then. Having the Caldari as an ally feels more like a liability than an asset if Caldari does not manage to get a headstart on events.

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More like a fervent desire for their larger neighbors to leave them the hell alone.

Beyond that… I agree with Elsebeth: Clans who abandoned the Republic to go live off the fatted calf of the Federation, and now whining about the Republic not shackling itself to the Fed is just hilarious. Maybe they need to decide if they are Federal Citizens, or Minmatar tribespeople, first.

And while they’re thinking about it, take a long, hard look at how well the Federation respected the legally-guaranteed autonomy of the Intaki.

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Given the recent track record of the State and Republic invading the territories of their neighbours that seems counter-productive to a desire to be left alone – quite the opposite really in that it would provoke responses from their larger neighbours.

But if the State and Republic do decide to become allies I will remain curious if confrontation is an inherent aspect of the Federal and Imperial relationship or if the confrontation between Federation and Empire was mostly due to the need to provide political cover and support to our more belligerent allies at the time.

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That is an easy claim to make for someone whose polity can get by with a volunteer-only force and an unregulated economy. When you have had to increase the tax rate to 100% and institute an all-adults-serve policy to ensure the freedom of your children, then you can talk down to us.

Depends on your definition of recent. If you refer to the Elder Fleet, that is a bad faith argument, as the Republic government was as surprised by it as the Empire was. That said we certainly weren’t going to go hunt down our own kin to appease people who want to erase our way of life.

If you are referring to Colelie, we asked to have the Ray back, and the man that caused her death. The Federation said no. What followed was a reasonable response.

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You’re not talking about activities in the CEMWPA territories, are you? You know, the stuff all four powers agreed would be a constant bloodsport to keep loyalist capsuleers engaged?

Kinda hard to argue that advancing the ball through a sporting event is an invasion… unlike obviously illegal moves like the planetside invasion of Floseswin IV.

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If the Minmatar Republic didn’t have their heads up their own collective asses they would have realized that a case like Gerne Broteau’s would have usually taken months if not years to work its way through the courts.

That Broteau’s case only took less than a month was because it was being rapidly expedited by the Roden Administration with every intention of handing the man over to the Republic.

But like I said, the Minmatar sense of entitlement is so immense that they have the expectation that everyone is supposed to respect and adhere to their traditions while never respecting anyone else’s – like the legal traditions of the Federation that every citizen has a right to their day in court if they commit a crime on Federal territories.

At least I’m thankful that Colelie showed the Minmatar suffer from the same brain rot as the Caldari in thinking that engaging blaster Moros at zero is a good idea.

No I’m talking about the State and Republic invasions of the Federation and Empire in YC 110 which has both lead to CEWMPA and the current state of armed confrontation.

If the State and Republic were serious about wanting to be left alone they could have started by actually leaving other people alone.

As it stands now they both decided to start an interstellar bar fight and are now complaining that they just wanted to be left alone when they’re about to be punched back in the face.

At least it seems that getting dragged into a war with the Amarr due to Minmatar warmongering is going to be a problem for the State and not the Federation.

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With respect, Swolin;

At the time, you were barely in the Academy, I was a commander of loyalist indie forces on the field.

“Reasonable” is about as far as you can get from the events that day.

Loyalties fell like dice, and landed with snake yes.

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And we’ll be absolutely happy to, just as soon as those other people stop committing acts of violence against us. It’s really hard to argue that the State invasion of Luminaire was unjustified, since, y’know, they have a homeworld there that the Gallente pushed them from with a genocidal starvation blockade.

As for the Elder Fleet invasion of the Empire that literally saved the Starkmanir from the intended genocide of the Blood Raider running the Empire at the time… let’s set aside the whole ‘technically not even the Republic’ argument. That’s been done to death. Are you seriously telling me ‘Hey, don’t fukkin’ murder our people’ doesn’t count as ‘leave us the hell alone’?

Now, five years later, yeah, as Else says, our people went kinda… stupid, but since you’ve clarified that you’re referring to the events of YC110, not YC115, we don’t have to get into how idiotic it was for the SCOTGF to expedite their refusal of extradition in the face of even large number of Federal Minmatar openly questioning whether the Federation gave a crap about them.

Or that they had been, ever since a cultural conference and peace talks featuring a State CEO that was actively endorsed by Tribal leaders in all three nations… was interrupted by… what was that again?

Oh yeah! A FedNavy Admiral plowing a damned supercarrier into the conference to kill everyone. But hey, you’re not concerned about that, you’re only looking at YC110, and that was… huh. YC110, almost a month before even the Elder attack.

Huh.

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Whatever problems the Republic has against the Empire does not automatically also make them the Federation’s problems.

If the Caldari State wants to be allies with Shakor’s Republic then as far as I’m concerned they’re more than welcome to have him and his problems.

Likely it will only be a matter of time before a situation similar to what arised at Colelie will surface with the Caldari causing Shakor to send in a Republic invasion fleet because he spat his baby bottle and demands respect for wearing his Big Boy Pants.

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Show me where I said they did. You took the position that the State and Republic initiated hostilities as a means to interfere, to not ‘leave [their expansionist neighbors] alone’. My point is that those hostilities did not take place in a vacuum. There were causes for them.

Like, you know, the aforementioned FedNavy Admiral driving a Nyx into a Caldari-hosted peace conference.

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The terrorist attack by Admiral Noir was a tragedy but it was a rogue action never ordered by the Federal Commander-in-Chief at the time. In the two weeks between Noir’s attack in Malkalen there was no mobilization of the Federal armed forces nor was there buildup of military units on the border that would have preceded an invasion of the State.

Admiral Noir’s terrorism did however provide ample pre-text for Executor Heth and the Caldari State to stage an invasion and war against the Federation that they did advocate for in their own rhetoric and politics.

The rapid gains made by the State into the Federation at the time just goes to show unprepared the military was for war against the Caldari and how lacking military units were on the borders of the State. Which runs counter to any assertion that the Federation was preparing for war against the State at the time.

Additionally the Minmatar attack in Yulai which dropped the CONCORD cynosural jamming networks directly led to the Shiigeru being able to jump into Luminaire and threaten one of the Federation’s most populous systems. Denials of Republic involvement in that attack fall flat when it was the Republic that gave safe harbour and passage to those fleets involved which crossed into their borders.

So yes, in my view it’s the State and Republic that were complicit in starting the current era of war and if they really wanted to be left alone maybe they shouldn’t start wars?

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Yup. Sure. Totally a rogue action. Thousands of crew members, subordinate officers, all right there on the bridge, officers trained to relieve him of command if he went rogue… but totally just the act of one man, as opposed to say, the FIO, those upstanding champions of transparency and righteousness.

None of the escort ships moved to shove the Nyx out of the way, either. You know how fast a Nyx is? On a good day, it can almost get fast enough to overtake a stationary rock. Almost. Don’t tell me the escorts couldn’t have done what capsuleers do every day in every part of space, and bumped the ship off-coarse to safety. And before you start getting all ‘oh, but the mass’, eggers do it to supers with frigates.

Yeah, you can tell he was really rooting against the peace conference from the statement he issued before the unprovoked Federal aggression:

Good thing I didn’t make any such claims, huh? But here, lemme give you a wild theory, and you tell me how it doesn’t fit with not just what happened then, but what’s still happening, including over Intaki:

In early YC110, Otro Gariushi’s summit to discuss the economic and cultural issues surrounding Caldari Prime had real promise, and the plans to use that summit as a springboard to larger talks that might see a real path toward lasting peace were roundly lauded by even the most militant of nutjobs (that being Heth). After all, who doesn’t like peace?

Before we get to that, it’s worth taking a look at a big difference in the capitalist natures of the two powers… both of which, after all, are capitalist economies.

The Caldari State is organized along megacorporate zaibatsu lines. This means it’s really an interconnected set of 8 command economies. All eight coordinate their centrally-directed efforts to ensure maximum economic growth across the State. There’s some wiggle room for competition, of course, to encourage efficiency.

The Federation, on the other hand, is far more of a laissez-faire capitalist economy, where corporate activities are driven by pure profit motive, with little to no intervention from the government. In theory, this means the government and corporate interests are less intertwined, but in practice, this means corporate money and lobbyists are a source of corruption and undermine the efficient performance of the government.

Both systems have their strengths, both have their weaknesses. However, one large and glaring difference is that because the corporations are the government in the megacorporate zaibatsu state, they tend to not really need much in the way of underhanded manipulation of events in order to get the mechanisms of state to advance corporate interests, whereas in the laissez-faire federal system, corruption is their entire stock-in-trade when it comes to interacting with the government.

So, who doesn’t like peace? Well, for one thing, arms dealers don’t. For another, the FIO doesn’t. That’s been shown time and again over the years.

So, imagine an FIO operation to have a ‘rogue admiral’ trash an economic and cultural peace summit, all on his lonesome (despite, again, thousands of officers and crew on the ship, and a bunch of escorts that could have intervened, all on-site). Total deniability for the Navy, after all, he openly said it was all his own doing!

Totally ridiculous, right? Why, that sort of thing could give Heth the excuse he needed to stage an invasion! Of course, there’s no way the State could sustain that invasion, what with having to extend their supply lines right into the most heavily-guarded parts of the Federation, and considering how defending those over-extended supply lines would drain resources from all of their other essential defensive positions. So the ‘invasion’ is going to end up short-lived, no matter what. A symbolic victory for the State, at best.

And what would that sort of thing due to the Federation? Maybe push for military build-up? Record profits for defense contractors? A shift toward a militarized Federation with a more conservative, authoritarian bent that suits the FIO just fine? Heck, they might even drop a heavy-handed massive military force on one of their own, slightly-independent-minded member-state capitals! Like… I dunno… Intaki!

Good thing that doesn’t fit the facts at all, right?

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I’m a simple and uncomplicated kind of guy so I really don’t dabble in speculation over FIO conspiracy theories. I might comment that you’re probably giving the no doubt fine men and women of the FIO and its special departments more credit than they’re capable of.

Sticking to the facts however, I do think there exists a difference between the actions of a rogue actor and deranged terrorist like Admiral Noir turned out to be and the pre-meditated, calculated use of force to achieve territorial and political aims at the expense of another nation.

The former was the act of a single terrorist and the latter is the choice of a government to engage in warfare – which was the choice of the Caldari State against the Federation.

Of course the Caldari people always had other choices, they could have decided to honour the legacy of Otro Gariushi and recognize that an act of terrorism by Admiral Noir should not be an impediment to peace and understanding between the State and Federation.

Instead the Caldari people decided to throw their lot in with a hateful demagogue in Tibus Heth who despised and resented the freedoms and choices all Federal citizens enjoy. The Caldari people chose war and violence and while one such as I lament both the loss of lives at Malkalen as much as the loss of a future hope of peace I must also recognize that the people of the Federation must do what is right and necessary to defend ourselves against Caldari aggression.

It has been under the wise and talented leadership of President Jacus Roden that the Gallente Federation has rebuilt its strength, has rebuilt its pride, and rebuilt the arsenals of democracy to safeguard the lives and futures of the Gallente people now and into the future against the predation of our enemies who seek our destruction and desire nothing more than to extinguish the light of liberty forever.

Now President Aguard builds upon the consequential legacy of the Roden Administration by bringing forth the light of liberty to dark frontiers of the Federation – such as in Intaki – to build the bulwarks and defenses our enemies cannot hope to assail so that all the sons and daughters of liberty who live in the greater glory our nation know peace, security, and most of all: freedom.

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Right, except, of course, that the whole point is…

It was not. Categorically, it was not. Noir was not the only person on that ship. And Noir was not Gallente pilot present.

Here’s the footage of the event. That Nyx was not alone. We know it had escort vessels, which—as you can see from the footage—took no action to alter Noir’s course. And we know that those escort vessels were destroyed by Ishukone after they stood by and did nothing to intervene.

That’s not the act of a single terrorist. Every member of the crew—and even with an egg at the helm, even with maximum automation, a supercarrier still needs a crew—bears responsibility. Every lower-rank officer who did not step up to do their duty and prevent that collision bears responsibility. You can see from the footage that there was plenty of time. Everyone on that ship was complicit. It was not a ‘single terrorist’. It was thousands.

So how do you get an entire supercarrier’s crew and officer cadre willing to do that? They have to be hand-picked. They have to be recruited to it. So either the FedNavy is a place where seditious conspiracies to commit terrorism can spread unchecked and undiscovered… or maybe there’s a Federal agency that specializes in conspiracies and covert operations.

Which do you think is more likely?

Because it is categorically impossible for one man to operate a supercarrier. Even just to steer it and keep the engines balanced.

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That a collision course was set and inertia did the rest?

It’s not like there aren’t multiple failsafes on a capsule ship to prevent subversion of command in the case of crew mutiny.

But this is really starting to get into Nyx fuel being unable to melt tritanium beams territory.

Or those old Provist conspiracy theories that a secret cabal of Federal deep state military officers, intelligence operatives and business people control everything and they’re trying to put chemicals in the vodka to turn Caldari gay.

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Except that’s clearly not what’s happening. The ship’s correcting course in that footage almost to the last moment, homing in on the exact place it wants to strike that station.

And yes, there are multiple failsafes to prevent a mutiny. Now, I don’t know how many supercarriers you’ve flown in the month and a half since you got your license… I have a suspicion, but I don’t know. But just on the off-chance that you haven’t flown one, let me give you a bit of insight from an experienced supercarrier pilot: You can’t have failsafes that will prevent the officers and crew from simply not following orders. That’s not how that works. Your primary failsafes against mutiny are the rest of the officer cadre, NCOs, and crew.

They’re the same failsafes that, in a Navy vessel, are supposed to prevent a capsuleer or ship captain from committing an atrocity like this. And they didn’t. So was the entire crew of a Federation Navy supercarrier incompetent? The whole crew didn’t have one person to scream ‘what the hell is he doing, stop the damned ship!’?

And all of the escort vessels had the same level of complete and total universal incompetence, that none of them moved to intervene?

Believing that is a big ask. In fact, knowing how crews rotate through ships, knowing the kind of expertise you need to get a posting on a capital ship, to say nothing of a supercapital, it is a bigger ask to get people to buy that the entire crew of a Nyx and its support fleet is so incompetent that they’d let this happen, than it is to get them to entertain the possibility that there was some involvement by the FIO, who are known to do such upright and open things as operate illegal POW camps, hunt down Federal citizens, and more.

And that’s not a conspiracy theory, that’s just the law of averages: getting that level of incompetence that universal on not just a supercarrier, but throughout the supercarrier’s escort group, would require such a massive breakdown of process throughout the Navy posting process as to be unimaginable.

So no, this was not the action of a lone terrorist. The ship doesn’t work that way. The escort ships don’t fail to do their jobs that way.

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I know you cannot really answer in any satisfactory capacity either way, but are you just impressively stupid or the FIO’s laziest asset thinking everyone else is stupid?

Comes off as more comedic than anything either way. I’ve seen less humiliating caricatures of Federal drones in Provist propaganda.