Intergalactic Summit

If you can do better against an enemy with superior technology, no strategic vulnerabilities at the time to pin them against, and superior mobility who can hit wherever you happen to be weak and ignore your strongest points in order to whittle down your capabilities, please feel free to demonstrate.

While with proper intel and the right force mix capsuleers can engage in relative 'safety' such safety lies on carefully controlling the battlefield and only engaging very specific drifter forces. Outright open conflict doesn't allow for such control even if the majority of the Amarr navy were capsuleer forces, and were fielding the extremely advanced and rare modules & implants needed for such combat. But it's simply not possible to put the kind of forces used to engage them safely in every single system, even the largest capsuleer alliances wouldn't be able to field that sort of fleet in every single system, let alone in the six or so locations that often got struck simultaneously per system. And baseliner ships are going to get caught in the firing line often as a result.

So..... while I may not always directly agree with .... as much aggression as Alizabeth puts forward, don't go trash talking someone until you've actually been in their position, rather than sitting in the cheap seats with no investment and no risk.

Mr. Horn, from my prior comment:



Genocide is not on the table as an option, unless a state of total war exists and the Drifters would be an existential threat merely by continuing to exist. I say this only as a 'never say never' approach to the situation. Genocide is not ARC's intention, and I very much doubt it will ever be.

My criteria for a draw-down is as follows:

1. Development of a means to prevent the stabilization of Drifter wormholes, to prevent Drifters' penetration of secure space at will.
2. Deployment of systems that disrupt or prevent the use of Drifter Doomsday weapons, to ensure they do not have the first strike capability that was demonstrated on Empress Jamyl I.
3. Diplomatic communications such as to allow the Concord signatories knowledge of Drifter plans and intentions, so that we may engage in a productive peace.

There are likely more elements that would result from the third of those items, and other finer points as well.

For instance, given the deployment of Drifter response battleships to core wormhole systems, it is possible that the Drifters' strategic objective at this time is to push Capsuleers completely from W-space. That is likely an unenforceable position for Concord, given that Capsuleers have already colonized hundreds if not thousands of systems, and even considering that it would not be a desirable point to cede to the Drifters. It would be unsound unless or until we develop the ability to construct advanced technology vessels on par with the Sleepers', as we would then be ceding the only existent means to produce the most advanced vessels currently available to us.

So, that's a discussion of our general objectives, a notional situation where peace may be possible, and one of the potentially many complications from such a negotiation.

That said, while you seem concerned about potential reprisal, please do note that the Drifters have already demonstrated that they have the will and the means to wage war, and they did this not against Capsuleers generally, or even against ARC or its various affiliate groups, but against the Amarr Empire. The Vigilant Tyrannos have already demonstrated that they are a threat. As I've said before, given this demonstration, I'd prefer to be prepared than rely on wishful thinking in the case of future militancy by the Drifters.

You must really think I'm an idiot if you thought that I would think it would be this easy, and that something like this, which has likely been tried at least a few times, would work just because I'd think I'm so awesome.

No, establishing communication with the Drifters (or more accurately, the Drifter power), will likely be a long term project, and I would need to do some research before I could even think about making a serious attempt.
Which is why I am grateful for Mr. Victorian sharing his experiences, and for Ms. Priano for asking him some of the questions I've had the last day. I need to know what has been done before. I'll likely be in touch with more questions.
Keeping in mind this may very well be the true is something that may be useful in developing new methods in order to try establish communication with Drifters.

Miss Priano, like Ms. Noduri, I am grateful for your extended posts about the motivations, reasoning, goals and capabilities of ARC. While I can agree that using the same methods to try to establish communication over and over again is likely to be unproductive (I still would not call it a waste of time), I do not think we should stop to think about other methods that have not been tried yet.
I do wish to get clarification on wether or not you have an actual report on the "diplomatic shuttle" being a CONCORD shuttle, as the one in the incident mentioned by Victorian was a standard Gallente shuttle, but in the interest of returning this thread to the original topic, you may respond by mail.

While I am uncertain that you are not making a bad situation worse with your expeditions into the hives and development of defensive strategies etc., I can not deny the possibility that you may, by decreasing the offensive capabilities of the Drifters, provide a reason for them to communicate with us. On the other hand though, by becoming a serious threat, you may also provide a reason for them to get rid of us entirely. Time will tell.

In case I need to say so...I am glad that losses in your engagements with the Drifters have reduced considerably, and applaud your success in that regard. I just wish that there weren't any (reasons for those) engagements in the first place.

Peace,

-Ché Biko

Our operations in Vidette tonight were also similarly lossless from start to finish.

We had a close call when a Drifter patrol landed on and tackled a pilot in the room behind the rest of the fleet while the fleet was engaging another Drifter, but managed to backtrack to the previous room in time to save the pilot and his crew.

Eleven Drifters; no losses. I say we're pretty good, indeed.

You better hope they don't start adapting faster than you are

I think the Evocatus is right. Technological superiority might have easily made the Drifters so complacent as to think that they could eschew tactical thinking. Brute force and ignorance can be very successful, to the point of seeming unbeatable, until a dash of cleverness and a pinch of resolve presents a novel response and the whole facade comes tumbling down.

The Drifters will lose. They know more than we do. But we are smarter. And in that difference is our victory.

My main concern is that the Drifters' actual game plan might involve something entirely other than defeating us in the field. In terms of strategies for fighting capsuleers, that's exactly the wrong way to do it: hitting us where we're strongest. Considering how much intel the Drifters probably have on us, it would be strange if that was truly their intent.

You've seen a Nexus, now, Ms. Arrendis. Bearing in mind that there are four others just like that one and we still don't know what they're for (even if we have some idea what they are, at least in part), I'd be interested in your thoughts about it.

I state fact. Cockiness is for elsewhere.

You assert opinion, bereft of any empirical evidence.