Intergalactic Summit

Yesterday, Isbrabata finally fell.

It's been several days of intermittent fighting, with lulls in between battles when one side or the other was sufficiently outnumbered that engaging would be fruitless waste of lives and resources, punctuated in a reasonably middling fight (by Min/Amarr facwar standards) at the ihub, where we held the field quite comfortably. These days have been marked by a lot of... shall we say enthusiastic disregard for risk analysis and a "frak it, let's go for it" mentality as the capture status has gotten closer. After the last fight, where we decided to make the system costly even if it was inevitably going down, though... I got curious as to the actual cost.

How much did we all decide to throw away for bloodsport and fury? How much blood is required to sate our collective bloodlust? I decided to check the numbers on this infinitely tiny snapshot in the now years and years of unending bloodshed.

The one final battle at the ihub tallied 11 regular frigates, 2 advanced frigates, 7 destroyers, 1 advanced destroyer, 24 regular cruisers, 2 advanced cruisers and 1 carrier on the Imperial side. 3 frigates, 2 advanced frigates, 1 destroyer, 3 cruisers, 2 advanced cruisers, 6 combat battlecruisers, 6 attack battlecruisers and 2 battleships went down for the Tribal forces.

Total for both sides, 52+26 ships downed in one middling battle.

Using conservative numbers for fully combat crewed capsuleer vessels, taking the reduced crew requirements for advanced vessels into account, the average survivor rates published by official studies and giving ballpark estimates for higher survivor rates for vessels surviving long enough for more crew to escape, the tally in blood is around ten thousand dead crewmembers for the Amarr and eleven thousand for the Matari.

The numbers are obviously estimates, with room for one or two thousand casualties more or less for both sides. It'd require a far more detailed analysis of combat footage, alphas and more to get to a more accurate number unless the non-capsuleer authorities ever release actual numbers rescued from the field.

So, an estimated twenty-one thousand lives, in a tiny snapshot of the bloodsport we call "the proxy war". A very great deal more died in battles before this, yesterday alone. Many battleships and cruisers buckled and exploded quickly and bloodily when we ambushed them after the system first went vulnerable, and when we sat back and let them take it back up to vulnerable in order to actually bait out this slaughter.

One system. Very conservative estimates would count the total loss of lives for it in the hundreds of thousands. What did these people die for, I wonder? Did they believe in some grand cause we all know doesn't exist in the proxy war? Did they believe in the pay and exorbitant life insurances? How many were slaves with no choice?

One thing is for certain. No bloodlust was sated. The tidal waves of blood and suffering will not end in Isbrabata.

All for us. All for our need to inflict it upon others.

Oh, and just one minor public note. I've found it almost impossible to find myself in fleets not infested with... undesirables, the last few months. Sansha, Blooders and other creatures are an ever-present annoyance ensuring that I largely have to fly on my own and thus reducing my effectiveness both offensively and as support. As the options are completely abandoning all principles and values of the Tribes or finding a new path, I am forced to leave Ushra'Khan and go at it alone for the immediate future.

I do mourn for the complete lack of any even remotely Matari entities in New Eden these days, carrying the values and principles of home into space, but it is as it is. We will have to see what happens next, I suppose.

The numbers were equal. We were below by two, until some third parties came along and turned the numbers so we were up by two. Throughout the rest of the day, the numbers fluctuated for both sides, as usual. The system fell when we left the pods for the night.

Friggen terrible.

But really, who is the enemy of the People here?

Is it the Amarr? Yeah, kinda. I mean that's tradition. We're supposed to hate them, right?

Is it the Republic? Maybe...

I think the real enemy is this whole system where the best people from both sides die for a scrap of space. And how can you even own space? Seriously, the tech is getting so that you don't even need jump gates as much anymore. We can go anywhere, wander anywhere. Look at how effective and attractive Thukker caravans are becoming.

I was a slave. I earned my freedom. But how many of us trade slavery to the Empire for slavery to this broken-ass paradigm?

There are better ways folks.

Gravestones and mourner's
Garb, charms against dust and ash:
They quiet war drums.

I've heard tales, that most, if not all of the systems on the Minmatar side of the "designated warzone", have no civilian population left. That all the worlds had been evacuated as resources permitted, when the war broke out.

E.g. Amamake, for example, had a civilian planetary population of 0. There were only a relative handful of military personnel in various facilities on the planets. The civilian station population was presumably not zero, since Amamake has many stations, some of which would have been neutral in this particular conflict.


I expect that a fair number of the worlds on the other side of the zone had also been similarly evacuated.

"We are in control now", say the conquerors. Control of what ? Empty planets ? That will change hands again in the fullness of time ?

I was talking about the experience of fighting for them and losing.

Does it make it worse or better when you've lost a fight for something "irrelevant?" Arguments could be made on both sides.

Isn't it beautiful?

Good thing too. I just need the 24IC to push into tier 5 for a few months and an associate of mine can ensure my lifetime supply of Imperial Navy equipment.

A tip of my fedora to the dead in Isbrabata whose lives and blood contribute to the padding of my wallet.

I know this shall fall on deaf ears, but I will say it anyways - If you would just stop resisting, Ms Del'thul, none of this would necessary.

One would think that if Slavery was as good for the soul and humanely practiced as the Amarr often claim, that it'd be no problem to simply release everyone. All the happy slaves would then joyously replace their bonds and toil on in the name of spiritual enlightenment!

The answer those these questions is appalling, across all of the warzones. It is perhaps for the best that such catastrophic numbers remain unknown. If calculated the statistics would test the hearts and minds of each and every one of us.


That those in power allow the Intaki system to suffer as part of the warzone is one of the reason a group such as ours exists, and continues to draw new support from others similarly disgusted at the status quo. Unfortunately dedicated threads regarding the security concerns of the Intaki system and colonies are regularly derailed, often becoming distracted by the wider Federation/State conflict.

I'll do my best not to do the same here. My apologies in advance if my efforts fall short.


Agreed, and while those in the Federation may feel that they are the sole focus of criticism, this isn't the case. Both sides in the conflict bear responsibility for the hardship caused as a result, and the Intaki Assembly has questions of its own to answer.


Again, true, but as I have said in the past, it's interesting that when advancing through Placid, State forces observed and respected the border with the Intaki Syndicate. We believe this reinforces the argument that an Intaki outside the Federation, and by default the conflict with the State, would not suffer the specific challenges that the proxy war brings.


Capsuleer.

Singular.

A long time ago one individual acted in contravention of established policy, threatening to undermine a core part of what we are about. As a result they were given a simple choice. Follow the rules of engagement or leave. They chose the latter.

It seems that although years have passed since the pilot in question moved on, their legacy remains.

But then I understand why that is.

These events have provided the Federal militia with a convenient narrative of "ungrateful rebels" in Intaki, operating as a fifth column for the State. It stirs the patriotic hearts back home in Luminaire and Villore, and it legitimises the continuation of the status quo in the minds of those who have convinced themselves of the myth that only the Federal militia can protect the freedoms of Placid's citizens, despite evidence to the contrary.