Intergalactic Summit

The drifters.

Staying cloaked off of the Navy Assembly Plant.

20:43 EST, 20 Drifter ships sitting outside of station.

Both Artemis Tyrannos and Apollo Tyrannos present.

I have recorded some holos.

Safizon Amarr Navy station engagement - CVA and Caldari loyalists engaging drifters
Drifter flying in formation
Safizon - Eba engagement
Safizon - Atroun engagement

It all awfully reminds me of estimation of our combat capabilities. Since Sarum Prime they learned what "Squad", "Focus Fire" and "Formation" means.

Looks like the best thing we can do for now is to keep track of these changes and think about how this can be countered.

See? I said this was going to happen.

These are not sleeper drones with their one-sided subjunctive programming we are dealing with. These drifters are real people, like us in some ways, unlike us in many more ways.


I'm wondering now if the Republic is going to take advantage of the element of surprise.


Chaos is coming.

It's been a strange day. Awful, in parts. Slightly... slightly less awful in others.

I screwed up. I got proud. I underestimated the Drifters. I don't know, perhaps I arrogantly thought that when I saw them in person my mind would reveal some solution to the threat that everyone else had missed. I didn't really understand the implications of the Drifter battleship until I experienced it firsthand.

It's been hours and I can still see the flash of that weapon when I close my eyes, still hear that odd, anticlimactic wobbling vibration that it makes. Every time one of their ships lost its outer shield, we'd lose a ship, but we were losing ships to their secondary weapons before we even managed to do that. Those weapons, the Lux Kontos, I could see and feel space bending around the path of the discharge, feel metal, ceramic and plastic twisting and warping around the point of impact. And the superweapon itself... there has to be some way to neutralise its effect, to mitigate it. Otherwise they'll easily win most batltes with us through sheer weight of attrition.

I found myself flying alongside members of PIE, PAux and CVA, taking orders from their fleet commanders. That was strange. They're not bad pilots though, or commanders, and they were... surprisingly respectful and friendly, although I imagine that they would have been little else given the work we were engaged in together.

Afterwards I limped off to fight some Sansha so that CONCORD can start repairing the hole Safizon put in my wallet. Nation, at least, are an enemy I can understand - and destroy.

There were still 57 when I engaged with a Typhoon configured for extreme-range operation. Interestingly, the Drifters' standard weaponry was unable to inflict any damage beyond 150 kilometers. It wasn't until they closed to within 100 kilometers that their weapons were at all effective. Given this, it seems clear that high-sec drifter activities can be countered by high-speed sniper fleets, such as nano-mwd Orthrii configured for maximum range. At these ranges, the Drifters are utterly impotent. The package I'm currently looking at runs approximately 400 million per ship, and requires AC-603 and MP-703 implants. With off-grid boosting, the Othrus targets to 200km, which allows the fleet to begin firing early, and let the Drifters charge into the oncoming missile fire. I'd be concerned about the decided lack of defensive capabilities on the ship, but the Typhoon's only defense was a Damage Control Unit and a pair of reinforced bulkheads. So I sincerely doubt the cruisers would have much trouble avoiding the incoming fire.

Of course, this is only their normal weaponry, and does not include testing against their superweapon.

That's been my experience as well - and given the defensive ratings of my Typhoon, it would have been vaporized instantly, similarly to a Guardian I watched destroyed that way in ZXB. I did take precautions, however, aligning the ship, locking target, and then giving the baseliner crew time to evacuate before beginning the test-firing.

They closed on the Typhoon at roughly 3500m/s, which is why the Orthrus I've designed, with implants, boosts, and... and I really hate to admit this, a can of Quafe Zero... comes in at 3612. 3442 without the Quafe.

Note that they didn't attempt warping to a bounce, or any kind of complex maneuver. They simply gave direct pursuit. Whatever else they are, they are about as tactically adept as a new bee in a Rifter, out on his first hunt. At least, they are for now.

We can play that game too.

We know the speed of their ships, and the range of their weapons. The only question I have left is: precisely how many pilots does it take to remove one of these things in a single volley?

Once I have that information, I'm good.