Intergalactic Summit

Watching the footage, I can't help think: schools of fish, flocks of birds ...

Beauty. Synchronicity. Effortless.

If we are barbarian tribes, these are disciplined soldiers. If we are chaos, this is order. If we are individuals, this is unity.

But whose soldiers? Whose order? Unity in what?

Why not speak?

Is there nothing to be said after all they've learned?

They don't act like they mean to wipe us out. They don't strike at the superstructure, the civilization that supports us.

But would they, at the start, even if that were their intention?

Is there a reason to hold silence, aside from having nothing to say to the dead?

Even if they meant to exterminate us, they could divide us with words, prevent our uniting against them. But they don't even do that.

We can destroy their ships. Surely we're not harmless?

. . .

Watching those ships ... watching their guns firing ... the spatial warping around their weapons, around their exploding vessels ...

... it's an amazing, a beautiful way to die, if it comes to that.

I had some spare time when I heard about the Drifter presence in Safizon, so I flew in to check it out.

Arrival in Safizon

I did manage to take a lot of photos, because, as usual the Drifters were very peaceful. There were over 30 Drifters at the gate I entered.

At least, towards me.

The Ammar Navy then warped in and engaged them. They were wiped out in seconds. I don't know why they engaged and I asked my superior in the 24th Imperial Crusade if she wanted me to attack the Drifters. She seemed unconcerned and told me she needed me to wipe out some illegal stargates in tribal territory and wanted me back in twelve hours.

So it was none of my business. I started orbiting around one of the Apollo ships and took photos.

Suddenly I thought I did something wrong because they abruptly aligned all at once, startling fast. They warped away to another gate. I was a little scared at that point but I followed them. Now the group of Drifters was numbering more than a hundred.


Someone decided to try and kite them in comms. CVA and PIE were attempting to coordinate an attack, which I said was a really bad idea. I don't answer to either of those organizations. I didn't know what was going on at that point, whether the Navy had been commandeered by a rogue FC or it was another kind of operation.

It was clear that the Drifters only fired on people who fired on them first. I sat on top of one of them for about twenty minutes to see if it would attack me. I hailed it on the ships comms and talked to them about the Amarr religion and tried to show them some hospitality, because they are travelers and deserve hospitality.

So then the Bob Fundamentalists showed up in chat. They are really annoying and all they say is "All praise Bob" and that made me really angry because they were in Amarr space and what if the Drifters were judging our religion. I don't want them to hear that. So I was forced to read out of my prayer book to counteract it.

Something happened and an Oracle pilot announced they would be attempting to harass and kite a Drifter at the station. They form a circular formation and shoot laser-like beams at the target. This Oracle pilot ran back and forth at the station for over an hour I lost count. The beams are very strong they can obliterate a ship in seconds, but he was quite fast. I will also note that many people were following the Drifters and were not being targeted by them. because they did not fire on the Drifters. The Drifters are precise and single minded in their attack.

They were acting in self defense.

This went on for over an hour or so like I said.

http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/Golden/drifter-24aug1.jpg

http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/Golden/drifter-25aug1.jpg

A lot of people were saying terrible things in local about the Empress not showing up and the Bob Fundamentalists were going berserk. Someone set up a channel to welcome the Drifters. I went in to talk about it, and took a ship control shot to show the precise circular formation they made.

Suddenly they all aligned to a gate and shot off. They split off in different directions and mostly sat their peacefully without engaging any capsuleers who did not engage them.

At this point the CVA and PIE fleets began to attack.


However, they continued to be docile to me during the fights when I came up right next to them as they were idling on the gates.

I sat in station for a while to denounce the Bob heretics and listened to the local battle chatter.

It seems clear to me this is not a war we can win if the Drifters bring in the full force of their arsenal.

Not once did they attack any infrastructure or pilots who did not antagonize them. Also in my opinion the Navy engaged first, they warped in on top of the Drifters not the other way around. I don't know what happened in other parts of the system. The weirdest part is, the Amarr Navy warped in multiple waves, each one a tiny contingency of 3-4 ships in the battles I witnessed, against 30-50 Drifters at a time. It was frightening to see such blatant stupidity. I can only hope it was the study that the Empress inferred in her speech that Kaylie Jenn logged for us.

"Jamyl Sarum I: We believe the threat posed by Drifter forces to be contained. We continue to study these... creatures. Their origins are unknown, but they are certainly no product of the Lord's work."

In Kamela, life continues as usual. There is no Drifter presence and no one is ordering us to deploy to other areas or even telling us to avoid Drifters.


On the other hand I think that the overreaction of the other capsuleers was deafeningly stupid. Justifications include references to the Empress's older speeches, and baseless hysterics, bloodthirstiness and warmongering, or chest beating.

No you're an idiot! I don't take orders from PIE, I would never associate with them, it was their choice to attack on their own there are no standing Crusade orders.The Navy attacked them, I saw it. I don't know what's going on until there's an official press release. I defend Amarr everyday from the real threat, stupid tribals. Oh by the way, the only person who attacked me the whole time in Safizon was a bloody Minmatar militant and guess what, PIE just sat there as usual like that time in like, Lulm when you left our whole fleet to die. But hey whatever keep patting yourself on the back like you were defending anything but your own trigger happy leaders.

They never fired a single shot on any of our Infrastructure, I myself am in the Crusade and they never fired on me once.

You are out of your league with these and everyone knows it except reactionaries with half a brain.

It's not cowardly to obey orders, it is cowardly to run away, PIE can't get along with any of the other militias that swear allegiance to the 24th you cannot see any value of action in inaction, obvi cuz you run your mouth about Khanid all the time.

PIE and CVA lost their ships because they fired on the Drifters, that was their choice, there is no order to fire on them from 24th proper. The militias can do what they want, whenever they want including stupid stuff, I don't have that luxury of choice. Go ahead and run around doing whatever you want in PIE and see how long your superiors put up with it.

Like stop talking smack about Khanid and trying to start a war with the Drifters I bet that will **** off the Ardishapur with their hand moving your mouth which is covered in feces. Those are your orders, huh, they can't send one of their own to do it they need a outsider who can take the fall for it if it goes wrong.

The order comes from Empress Jamyl (my emphasis):


It is clear that Her Majesty wishes her subjects to prioritise the Drifter threat over the Shakorite menace. That's not to say that the war against the TLF and their patsies should be ignored - but given the choice between two targets the primary objective is clear.

As a Gallente with a strictly academic interest in the Drifters, I can't help but wonder a few things about the recent events in Safizon. We see, time and again these "unprovoked attacks" in the wake of events which can easily be regarded as threatening. The attack on Sarum Prime is one. Two Amarrian loyalist fleets assembling in one system could appear as a rallying of troops in preparation for an attack. Hence the assault by the drifters. And this week with the destruction of the SoCT vessel and its pilots pod, followed swiftly by the largest assault to date. We know there is a connection between the Jove and the Drifters, so how can we be so naïve as to think these events are not connected?

The evidence is there. The faked requests by Hilen Tukoss for jovian body parts was followed by the presence of the drifters becoming public. We know Tukoss was unable to make those requests, so the logical assumption is it was the drifters. Their interface technology is merely an extension and advancement of jovian capsule technology. The connection is there. So for the impetuous empress to fire on, and destroy, a Jove ship should leave none of us surprised at the results.

May we all weather the coming storm.

So if Roden decides to to assemble a fleet, does that give the Caldari the right to invade?

The Empress has determined that they are a threat. "Loyalty" by definition, means that we of the Empire trust that she is making the right decisions, even if she is not entirely forthcoming with specifics. If the Drifters feel "threatened" by non-aggressive military actions that are designed to provide our citizens with extra security, then maybe she is right in her assessment of them as a threat?

The same goes for the SoCT. They were ordered to stand down. They didn't. They died for their disobedience. Harsh, yes. But given the nature of these emergent threats, is it better to be harsh, or to damn millions of innocents do to inaction? If this action provoked the Drifters to again attack, what does that say about them?

We are on the verge of war. We, as a species, are threatened. That Amarr seems to be on the front lines may be nothing more than a strategic decision to remove the greatest threat first, before the rest of humanity can mobilize. But do please enjoy the "freedom" we provide you by facing this threat while you sit in the back spouting your opinions.

That in fact was not the reason for the shuttles...

Now that... if we can reliably confirm this... that gives us options.

More along the lines that the Empire can't stop being arrogant pricks for long enough to ask properly.



Also, we can't stand you cheating on us with the Drifters......