Intergalactic Summit

Please forgive my fury. Forgive my angst and anxiousness. Im a wild animal chained by the neck to to a fence, snapping at every ship that is just out of range of my teeth. My trainers see my impatience attempting to temper it with talk of glorious bounty to come to he who allows his crops to grow.

He trains too slowly. All his talk of honor and glory falls on deaf ears and eyes that can only see explosions of light and fire, and screams muffled by the endless everything of space. "Waste not your resources on frivolous exploits" he says. "Foolish is he who seeks out war without hands to hold his weapons" he preaches. All the while I wring my hands at each flash of the bounty board, for every incursion announcement...war is waged and I must sit back and watch like some civilian, saving his scrap salvage to contribute to the machines of war.

So as my mentor put his hand on my shoulder pleading for me to obey the tenets of the church of the skill queue, I began to think of all that the universe has to offer me. I thought of frigates flying my banner, or fleets listening for my orders over their radios and of entire systems kneeling before me. And I looked my mentor in the eye and said "No."

I could not read the reply on his lips as he drifted away from the airlock. No matter...I always wanted to fly his ship anyhow.

No response was needed. It was "self therapy". I needed an outlet and here seemed appropriate. Relevancy is immaterial, as well as the shallow attempt at mockery.

Perhaps. Trial and error is the best teacher. I may lose a few ships and a clone here and there, but with each explosion of fiery light a lesson will have been learned. One who spends his life reading of war will be impotent in the face of it without the knowledge of the experience.

My master would have had me reading skillbooks until my beard was as long and as white as his. That is the real crime. How can one conquer from a seat in the library?

From knowledge comes experience.

Its the one thing you cant buy and no one can teach you. Yep, it involves action... it also involves study.

It is a such a shame that people are so eager to cast others into the pyre for glory and self gratification. Make no mistake, I have no great issues with murder, extortion, kidnapping, piracy or any other manner of nefarious acts, however **** is where i draw the line, but Arakkis do be so good as to weigh the lives of your crews against such acts. I am the first Empyrean of my tribe, my lives are legion, but the lives of my crews are finite. Be cautious my friend, kill well, kill from the shadows and kill without pity lest they think you are weak and always remember that the saber hounds of Pator, whilst the largest land mammal in New Eden, always hunt in pacts and always follow the directions of their Alphas.

You are unworthy to walk among the immortals.

You boasted about your actions when you saw fit to post them here, Mister Arakkis. I would argue that the student doesn't need to usurp the master, when the student is ready the master will relinquish any restraint on them; wisdom is gained in patience.

I know not what your master sought to teach you, so I make no assumptions regarding his legacy. If his name is known and attached to yours, then he will indeed be party to your actions for better or for worse. However, if his name is not known or not attached to yours, then you have robbed him of any legacy he would have had and based on how you have portrayed yourself and your master thus far, I am inclined to suspect that your exploits are nothing that he would have approved of.

I begin to wonder how so many of you have survived this long. We kill capsuleers. We conquer solar systems. We make, sell and trade weapons of war and you all speak of grace? Let the one here who has not taken a life speak. Even those who seek only to labor mining minerals has had to take the life of a rat here or there.

So who are you to judge me? I know what I am as well as I know what I am not.

Feel free to join me should you choose to have greatness attached to your name.

Your err in judgment is to believe that all taking of life is equal. The loss of life is never something to be taken lightly, but one must weigh the cost of the sacrifice against the value of the outcome. In your example, the miner who is attacked by pirates takes lives in self defense, not out of pleasure or malicious intent. Life is lost and this is a tragedy, but that life was forfeited by the aggressor and lost because of the path they chose to take.

In the case of a soldier, life is lost in war, but the principle of the fight is the nation, ideals and people that are being fought for. For the aggressor, the motivation behind the aggression may be noble or it may be selfish. For the defender, the motivation for defense may be altruistic or it may be self preservation. The loss of life will occur on both sides, but the motivation for it distinguishes one from the other.

In your sense, you kill because you can. This is not greatness, it is disgusting.

I'd like to speak with you personally regarding your violent energy.

Reach me by mail.