Intergalactic Summit

THREAT
In the system of Ghesis at Coordinates (REDACTED) at roughly 0645 hours standard time on 07.12.114 YC extremist researcher Niccolo Machievilli logged into the Capsuleer Community channel named "The Summit" and made a frantic report that his remote research establishment, dedicated to the study of a rare and active Rogue Drone AI had gone dark.

A Patrol Ship dedicated to protecting the site was also not responding to any hails or returning data via telemetry links.

RESPONSE
An adhoc fleet was formed from the following Capsuleers who were online at The Summit at that time:
1. Esna Pitoojee
2. Streya Jormagdnir
3. Sofia Roseburn
4. Pieter Tuulinen

The fleet's objectives were to assess the situation onsite, prevent the spread of any Rogue Drone contamination and to secure any survivors from the Research Staff and the Crew of the Patrol Ship.

TIMELINE
Sofia Roseburn was first onsite, followed shortly by Pieter Tuulinen. Esna Pitoojee and Streya Jormagdnir were delayed by a need to reship into combat vessels and to pick up a Marine boarding party with heavy anti-drone gear and a combat programming team.

Once at the scene, Sofia Roseburn went solo and recovered the rogue drone's AI core from the Research Installation. Very cursory attempts were made to scan the site and ascertain the condition of the Research Staff, but no rigorous safety protocols were followed. Despite the protestation of other fleet members onscene, Sofia Roseburn bore the recovered AI core away, to return it to Niccolo Machiavilli.

The Patrol Ship was clearly infested by Rogue Drones and Pieter Tuulinen, at this point, began trying to contact the DED in order to have the ship reclassified as a hostile target. DED officers in this location were extremely suspicious and refused to comply with the pilot's request, leaving the Rogue Drone infested Patrol Ship effectively protected from destruction by Concord.

At this point pilots Jormagndir and Pitoojee arrived onsite, with Pitoojee taking command as the sole Amarrian in the fleet. Whilst discussions with DED were ongoing, regarding the reclassification of the Patrol Ship, Sofia Roseburn returned and announced her intention to make off with the vessel short of being destroyed in the process. The fleet agreed that they would attempt to keep Sofia Roseburn talking with threats to destroy her pod, whilst Esna Pitoojee returned in an attempt to warp the Patrol Vessel to a safe place where the authorities could deal with it. Unfortunately Sofia Roseburn proved faster than Esna Pitoojee and made off successfully with the infected Patrol Vessel, to return it to Niccolo Machiavilli.

At this point the Fleet broke up, with Pilots returning to their respective Faction space.

CONCLUSIONS

1. There has been a Rogue Drone breakout in the Empire system of Ghesis. This Rogue Drone AI has proven extremely resourceful and very violent. There have been many deaths.
2. Information gathered suggests that Niccolo Machiavilli has been conducting illegal research into independent AI and that several members of his research team and ancilliary staff have perished as a result.
3. Information gathered suggests that Sofia Roseburn has aided and abetted Niccolo Machiavilli's research

[ 2012.12.06 19:09:56 ] Saede Riordan > When they breach containment, kill all your research staff, and come for you in your pod, I'm going to laugh, and possibly cheer them on.

Called it.

On some bizarre level I think he must have wanted this to happen. What he did was just so entirely idiotic that there was no way anything else could have happened. You'd have to be five kinds of stupid to do what he did apparently by accident. Of course the drone breached containment. He had a dangerous unstable AI, and he put it on a weaponized drone platform and tried to basically hold it in a cage. Apparently to 'watch it evolve' well, somewhat obviously, the first thing it 'evolved' to do was get out of the cage. How he could possibly have thought that this would have gone any other way is beyond me. That situation flat out did not need to occur. And if Mr. Machiavilli had any ounce of sense left in him he would hand over his research to people actually capable of activating that tissue between the ears that he seems to be treating as superfluous.

I propose that the prevention of further work by this individual should be a top priority. Additionally, the recovery and third party witnessed destruction of this AI core must be made a priority.

As soon as I am able to access my pod systems I will be placing a cursory sum on this individual to hopefully entice those of you with more mercenary ambitions to assist in such recovery efforts. Should the AI be recovered in any physical form, I am open to the purchase of such a device to destroy in the aforementioned, witnessed manner to ensure that this line of inquiry ends in a satisfactory manner. Illegal AI research is one of the single biggest threats to our ways of life. Do the right thing and end the ambitions of madmen such as this.

As for Roseburn, her involvement in this matter bears further investigation.

Since issuing this travel advisory I have been assured that Ghesis is, outwardly, free from any remaining infection. On the other hand, tales of what Niccolo Machiavilli has done with this Rogue AI are strange and disturbing.

I believe the matter of the specific incident in Ghesis has now been dealt with sufficiently by Imperial authorities and verified as cleared by independent capsuleers. Nonetheless, my own autopilot still has the Ghesis system set to avoid.

The only way to prevent this from happening again is to execute Dr. Machievilli. I don't know just how many laws he's broken with this forbidden investigation, but those like him are never set back by their mistakes and go back to continue their investigations once they found "what was the problem".

He should be executed in a permanent way. Or else, this rogue drones will keep reapearing one way or another.

Information has been recieved that Niccolo Machiavilli has interfaced directly with what he's referring to as "The Talos AI". It's safe to say that his integrity has been completely compromised and that his prior actions are almost certainly due to the influence of the Rogue Drone - whether he knew it or not, at the time.

I lack any kind of authority within the Empire to have this matter taken further. I know that at least one group of Capsuleers is now waging war against Machiavilli's research corporation, which must be assumed to be entirely compromised, simply due the CEO being compromised.

Whatever you find out, Mr Novan, I'd appreciate it if you made public note of it.

Yes, pilots. I have joined up with the Alexylva Paradox corporation, which is actively at war with him. I can confirm that he has fled by way of jump-clone to the Placid region. We currently have him trapped in a "dead-end" system that contains only a single gate. Whether or not he tries to run our little blockade in his Retriever remains to be seen.

Further news pending as events unfold!

Update 12/09/2012 [20:00]: The target opted to take a shuttle and made a suicide run into nearby nullsec. Upon being podded a bounty notification was sent to all parties who placed a bounty on him, confirming his pod-death. This was effectively a cheap form of clone-jumping for our desperate target.

Update .... [0:00] Target has returned to his high-sec hangout in Placid and has disconnected from his pod...for now.

I'd suggest blowing his brains out against a bulkhead 'the old fashioned way' to avoid any issues of compromised consciousness-transfer via his pod and implants.

Although I wonder if his pod were destroyed in space what sort of transference issues it might cause...

The infected implants would of course be destroyed but one has to wonder how much of the brain-matter has been 're-wired.'

Mildy interesting, let us know how it turns out!

Whilst this report lacks accuracy, it does summarize the events rather well. My involvement in the incident was purely one of self interest; a pro bono offering to Mr. Machievilli and a furtive attempt to perhaps gain further employment. Thankfully that is something which has now been achieved, and from a client a little more reputable than someone who feels the need to dabble in AI testing without appropriate safeguards.

That said, it looks to me as though the majority of you are quite happy to openly condemn him on on The Summit, but don't really seem to have the fortitude to actually undertake any sort of measure to contain the situation. Bounties may make you feel as though you have done your part in bringing this kvende to justice, but nothing really fixes the situation more than a sizable donation of ammunition to his ship's hull.

Of course, I imagine that the majority of you lack the backbone to do that.