Intergalactic Summit

It's a good thing you're not in charge of CONCORD, or there'd be peace throughout the cluster and then where would those CONCORD employees work? Think of the unemployment!

Easy there, kirjuun! That sounds kind of dangerous!

Just out of curiosity, when's your license renewal coming up?

CONCORD wants ISK, not approval.

Defending the sovereignty of a signatory nation is not part of their mandate. You may look to the various Navies of the respective nations for that.

As for the declaration of war fees, you may call it a bribe if you want. I prefer the term "fee".

You may be unaccustomed to the concept of it, or even look down your nose at it... but paying an authority for the trouble of looking the other way while you handle some 'aggressive business rivalries' is a common enough occurrence in the State. Granted, it doesn't usually include bloodshed.



They are busy protecting the planetary bodies, gates, and stations of said systems - which is why you don't see Sansha vessels camping those areas. They have already arranged for capsuleers to handle the deadspace locations. Perhaps you didn't know we were being paid to do so? I invite you to look up something called an "incursion fleet".

You might also be surprised to learn that supervisors don't do the menial labor they are capable of doing, because they pay workers to do it for them.



Oh my! You have to pay taxes! Oh no! What a travesty!

For a moment there, I almost thought you were accustomed to a civilized society that operates at a cost.

EDIT: Did you know Stillwater charges you a 5% tax?! You might want to raise some concerns with Mr. Caine about that... surely that is a mistake, and a grievous insult!



Yes, precisely. Did it take both of your two neurons rubbing together to figure that out? That one of CONCORD's primary mandates is to protect the rest of the cluster from us? They've said so on enough occasions, haven't they?

I'll not grant you the satisfaction of a proper comments regarding the "public safety" and "nothing else".



Is this where you say "fight the power" and shave some of your hair off in a rebellious display of independence?

I'm proud of where my ISK goes. If I want it back, I'll go assist in aforementioned incursion fleets or hunt pirates. I guarantee I've been paid far more than I've paid out. Perhaps you should do something useful like that rather than dribbling inane criticisms of CONCORD while sitting safely under their protection.

No, I don't mean high-sec. I mean the laws mandating you always get a new clone. Our tax ISK hard at work, don't you know.

Keep 'playing pirate', Luftschreck. I'm sure CONCORD is most amused, as a parent is when their child waves a wooden sword at them with an eye patch. Don't worry. I'm sure as long as you remember not to stick your tongue out at them, they won't take away your sweeties.

No, but the outfit you have associated yourself with has had very strong connections with one of the few factions that CONCORD has classified as pirate. Your business practices may be on the level and legit, but regardless of what you do, many will see your corporation and they may be a little more...cautious or may be even more open to doing business with you.

Your soap-box rant on the other hand about CONCORD and their responsibilities to us was a little misguided. Madam Oniseki pointed out the shortcomings of your points and rather eloquently at that.

Now, your rebuttal on the other hand shows even more strongly that you really don't know what you're talking about and are too prideful to accept the consequences of your made statements or you really do not have any passion to hold onto your beliefs and make a stand for yourself.

To be fair, though, I wouldn't call Pyre Falcon a pirate organization. Luftschreck is clearly marked there as employed by Stillwater, which just as certainly is. Even if she isn't a pirate, I wouldn't chastise someone for thinking so, or for at least assuming she enables that behavior by running a legitimate front for an illegitimate cartel.

Lots of people call me a slaver. Whether I am or not, I sort of have to absorb the blow. It would be a bit disingenuous of me to rebuke that I'm a slaver when I ostensibly work for an Empire that still employs them and have taken part previously in the care and management of slaves. Especially if I do it just because it's a dirty word around the other empires.

It might be true to become indignant about it, but only in a most technical sense. I don't think it would be very honest to make that the center point of an argument. Likewise, I don't think, even if Katran's dealings are completely above board, that she can become indignant about being called a pirate when her employers are so clearly associated with them.

And that's assuming she actually has never been involved in actual piracy. Plenty of the less savory characters I've met in backalley bars called themselves "businessmen". They made clear what business they were involved in.

I think that's a rather dismissive view of the situation. Not all of us who partake in violence intend to profit off of it. I know I pump any rewards I get for anti-pirate actions into the communities I try to service. People who need the ISK to buy things like water condensers or oxidizers for their settlements.

Pirates have a tendency to raid legitimate non-combatants and then use their goods to fund themselves. Violence may be the great universal constant, but how comfortable you are with that violence compared to how you use the fabulous wealth we capsuleers accrue says more about you.

I think you can be just as much a pirate if you're an otherwise legitimate accountant handling blood money, and that even those wading knee-deep in battle can still be noble warriors for a truly righteous cause. Unfortunately, many capsuleers become inured to their own moral codes and simply succumb to the temptation to nihilism. We shouldn't be without a guiding light in the darkness, otherwise we simply wander in circles, repeating the same actions that didn't solve our problems in the first place.

Perhaps not, but to say that there are no pirates, that it's simply a political term, doesn't say as much about moral relativism than how you see your own actions and that of your government and benefactors. Consider, if you've no moral ground of your own to stand on, if there are no pirates in your perception, then there is no point in fighting anyone. There would be no difference if you gave up and rejoined the Federation, because the only active decision you are making would be totally relative. In essence, you can't fight the Federation in good conscience if you literally believe that there is no difference on a moral ground between you.

Even as an Amarrian, I know the difference between Pyre Falcon and the Guristas. Whereas you may no longer see the difference, I don't know that necessarily means there is none. It just means that the gauge you use to judge your own moral situation might be damaged. Hence the inherent nihilism in capsuleers, I suppose. Capsuleers tend to leech good intentions like cold air around firelight, trying to deal with the emptiness of the soul in an external way. It's come to be a sad commentary that I rather enjoy my time with my parish simply because it's so hard to find capsuleers that don't derive the bulk of their amusement solely from schadenfreude.

On the other hand, once you've said there isn't a difference between yourself and the Guristas, you might very well be right. If I were you, I would be extremely uncomfortable with that assertion.

Perhaps it's simply an insurmountable difference of opinion, but I think that when you cede the idea of the universal good, you've already failed in whatever you are trying to accomplish. Nothing of merit has ever been accomplished by the walking dead.

The best soldiers are perfected in perpetual conflict, Mr. Baracca. You may believe in such things as a righteous cause, fought by noble warriors guided by moral codes and I might say that is an understandable perspective for one who believes in the religious doctrines of the Amarr faith - but your perspective is not my own. I will simply say that for myself there exists no glory, no honour, no justice, no morality and no ethics out here among the stars where I seek to perfect my craft and ply my trade as just another merchant of death. There is no law except that might makes right, and the purpose of violence, conflict, and war is nothing more than violence, conflict, and war itself.

Whereas you may need the guiding light of moral justification for violence - just like so many who embrace saccharine delusions - I turned from it towards my own inner penumbra to come to a simple realization:

I require no justifications.

This is just who I am now, and I being myself, can but only smile at it all now I live an honest life without hypocrisy.