Intergalactic Summit

Not an Empress, no.

But they did attack various baseliner and capsuleer vessels and harvest the wrecks. Even those that were minding their own business. I say that's plenty enough reason to cull them whenever they are found in locations with high human traffic.

This is not xenocide. This is pest control. And the locusts eat people and ships.

Come weekend, I am going to hunt for Rogue Drone nests and see if I can procure any of their wrecks for study. I will not get another opportunity like this is unless I am able to travel into the Drone Regions without pissing off the local capsuleer organisations.

What is this Assertion based on ?

Most people with gods think theirs is better than someone else's. Very few people pray to a deity they feel is worthless. That's where the philosophical debate, brain washing and coercion factor into things.

I'm slightly disappointed by the inconsistency of what you find in the wreckage.. Sleepers are much better, much more consistent money. Except that lucky bastard Ragnar, he found 50 PLEX for what was essentially 2 minutes of work...

I'm not even sure how incremental pilot's licensing fee credits were found inside a rogue drone nest.. but I'm not going to question free licensing.

CONCORD should absolutely do this though.

Consider the following:

They are one of few enemies humanity faces which does not reason and does not see us as of any value whatsoever.

They are of proficient combat capability and overwhelmingly numerous. Trivial to capsuleers, yes, but there aren't many of us. Not enough of us..

They possess a scale of productive capacity (and more importantly, a limitation from restrictions on production that all organic life possesses, such as sleep, food, and leisure) that far surpasses ours, theoretically.

They are not life in any strict definition of the term. Any moral systems which prescribe value to life strictly exclude them. This alone isn't justification for extermination, as we could still feasibly glean value from non-living intelligence. However, they have shown no willingness or existential ability to 'trade' with us per se.


They lack the need for life support systems. This frees them to drift endlessly into space, without even the strict need of stargate-based warp technology. They could feasibly drift off into space, harvesting everything in entire clusters of stars. Thus, they possess a unique threat in that, many millennia from now, they could feasibly harvest all useful material in the galaxy to be purposed for their hives. This could restrict future human colonial efforts at least, and at worst, it could mean a mass of drones which we are at some point incapable of repelling. In honesty, I doubt humanity will live this long, but we are, whether we like it or not, at the mantle of responsibility over the stars.. we are the sentients which have assumed this responsibility. I'm not comfortable with the thought that all future possible life could be ended by a theoretically endless, all-consuming drone mass.

They have now launched a full-scale invasion (or at least, a numerical spill-over) of human space.

In honesty, I consider them at a similar level and type of threat as Sansha's Nation before the empires wisely allied against it. In terms of the average of short, medium, and long term threats. I don't see a rush, necessarily, not like with Nation, to deal with the threat. But if we never deal with the problem, it could be the thing which eventually overwhelms us, and furthermore, long after we are gone, it could be the thing which either precludes the development of further sentient species, or ends their journey amongst the stars as well.

At the moment, we have a race of near-immortals with enormous fleets, technology, and resources. We have a central entity which has at least some capacity to rally most of the forces of humanity towards a particular threat's elimination. That's sort of an..unbelievable combination, historically speaking. We've never been more able to deal with a threat like this, and we likely never will be more ready, and quite likely will only fracture or regress as time goes on relative to these drones, who at the moment seem limited to technology based on ours (and playing defense against an enemy like this won't work forever). We should seize the opportunity and do as much as we can to stall their growth relative to ours. There's no guarantee alliances of empires, fleets of immortals and our level of technology will always be available to deal with a threat like this. The risk of their regression in centralization, technological development and effective hive-like immortality is less than ours. The longer we wait, I believe the less likely we will overcome a threat like this.

But don't freak out or anything.

I wonder Jason, if you had lived in the time when mankind feared wolves if you would have written something similar as to how they are our greatest enemy?

Perhaps it is short-sighted and alarmist people like you who drove such things to extiction. I wonder if you think the ecosystems of worlds are better now that the insects who bite us are dead.

Ooh, that's going to sting anyone of Mannar heritage.


Since, you know, that whole thing with the ecological collapse of Mannar following the mass extinction of a keystone airborne insect species.

Until there actually are fossil records proving the existence of a species of large and highly intelligent and ferocious (exceeding the viciousness of slaver hounds) canines capable of organising themselves into a clan structure, I am disinclined to believe they exist.

It's like asking me to believe in the existence of Fenrir the Moonchaser or Earth or Terra.

I think you probably should use a creature that actually exists instead of one that doesn't as an example.

A Dragon is a Mythical Creature common to Several Cultures, including the Jin-Mei and Vherokior. The Form of the Dragon varies. Common properties include it being a Large Winged Reptile creature, that can Fly, and is possessed of Malevolent Intelligence.

Other Names for the "Dragon" mythical Creature include: Void Serpent, Aether Drake, Stellar Wyrm. These are Names for a Dragon creature that inhabits Space, or some Other Dimension.