Intergalactic Summit

Serial commas;

I've already advanced into the realm of serial semicolons;

When posting on the IGS.

Well the last few pages of this thread was a heap of ****.

Anyways, on the topic of the Sisters I'd prefer they leave the power balancing and cloak and dagger games to CONCORD. Not because I trust them, but because I'm a little more familiar with them then the Sisters (devil you know and all that) so I'd support the OP's petition on that principle.

As for Jaret, it's a habit of his to rail against the infamous Capsuleers among us. Saying Jaret likes to throw petty insults at warlord Capsuleers without backing said words on the field of battle is like calling water wet. I believe it's brought IKAME to uncomfortable positions on more then one occassion, but to her credit Ms Priano defends her own.

Finally we have commas and semicolons. Personally I prefer words, I'm sure my grammatical abilities, or lack there of, have had many a Grammar-Provist gouging their eyes out. I'm almost proud of that.

I'm personally more likely to put my faith in the Sisters than CONCORD, but perhaps that is because I have the opposite perspective. I've witnessed first hand the good work of the Servant Sisters. Food Relief convoys were a common sight in the Intaki colonies while I was growing up and like many on my home world I attended a school run by the SOE. Do they have an agenda? Well obviously, who in the cluster doesn't? That said, I have faith that as long as they are operating in line with the mandates they have set for themselves then whatever they are doing is in the best interest of the inhabitants of New Eden.

CONCORD on the other hand seem to be having an increasingly difficult time maintaining the balance of power. They failed to keep the peace between the "Big Four," though they were able to keep the fighting out of high security space, and they are still reeling from the blow they received 8 years ago in the Elder War. Their grip on the cluster's governments is slipping and with these new developments it seems as though their control over capsuleers is weakening as well.

As for information sharing with the Society, I would imagine as members of the Inner Circle they were present at the AG12 assembly which affirmed the legality of the new cloning tech, so I would further extrapolate that they have access to technical specification of this new technology.

So?

Not to be indelicate or disrespectful, but by and large, the people who believe in God tend (tend) to view themselves as among 'the righteous'. If they don't, they're usually striving for it.

The rest of us, the people who don't believe in God... why would we care what the Amarr say will happen upon the arrival of the non-existent being the Sisters think lives on the other side of the EVE Gate arrives? We don't believe it exists. If it doesn't exist, it doesn't matter how hard the Sisters work to get it to show up, it won't show up, and it can't end all of existence...

... because it doesn't exist.

Which means there are no 'End Times' to be inconvenienced by.

So why should we care? You might as well issue dire warnings about how the Sisters plan is to study hard vacuum so they can figure out which way they need to stand so they can survive naked in the depths of space. It's not going to happen. So let them stare at the damned thing. Doesn't matter.

Well, even if you disregard the theological aspects of what might happen should the SOE activate the Gate, there is one thing you should keep in mind.

The Gate is a Door.

And what happens if you open a door ?












Spiders.

Hello, pilots! My, what a day. I’m almost glad those meetings kept me away from the Summit.

There will be a lot to address, so bear with me.

On Jaret; please, pilots. You’ll notice Jaret hasn’t commented on this thread in over a day; please do show some restraint in baiting him and insulting him. We all know he is overly combative; he and I have discussed this before, and I’ve requested that he demonstrate some restraint. As for the matter at hand, I’ve stated my position, and have started a separate thread for a more abstract, philosophical discussion of media, documents, and legal documents here. Ultimately, as for Jaret, there’s a reason he isn’t a diplomatic contact. His virtue, spiritedness and dedication, often becomes the vice of combativeness, doubly so when he’s baited by such talented forumwarriors as we’ve seen in this thread. We’re working on it; I appreciate your forbearance as we attempt to temper his temper.

On the purges that Arrendis alluded to; this is inaccurate, and I’m saddened that Alizabeth’s best friend would get such a strange conception about ARC’s practices. To date, we have banned only a handful of pilots. To list them; Dame Death, which is self-explanatory; Anyanka Funk, which is also self-explanatory; one pilot who advocated for ARC actively defrauding its backers, and also attempted to defraud ARC itself; one pilot who repeatedly refused fleet commander instructions; one pilot who was reportedly funding war declarations against SFRIM and Sanxing, and had harassed a number of pilots associated with those organizations; shell corporations associated with PIRAT, an Amarr-centered highsec combat group. You’ll notice that not even Diana Kim is banned from ARC operations, and would be welcome to fly with us if she was willing to accept FC instructions. This constitutes a nearly complete list of our bans.

On threats; Alizabeth, you’re right when you say that Arrendis has not explicitly threatened ARC. However, I think you understandably have a blindspot for your best friend that has allowed you to miss the implicit threat. Our operations, whether as the original expeditionary group in June of YC117, or our latest fleets these last weeks and months, have never actually come under threat in the Drifter systems. In sixteen months, not once has anyone actually hunted us down. Certainly, that will change some day. However, when a Goon evemails me saying what effectively reads as, “You know, you have an awfully flammable fleet. It’d be a shame if it caught fire. I happen to know people with torches. It’d be a shame if they came for your fleet. I’m not threatening, though,” there is an implicit threat. I know she’s your best friend, so you’re willing to overlook it, but let’s be perfectly honest. This is the exact definition of racketeering. Throw a cheesy accent on it, and you have the start of a police procedural.

On one hand, I’m not terribly concerned. Ships are safe in harbor, but that is not their purpose. We’re fighting and flying in Drifter space; we’ve always assumed all ships might be lost. We expect it, even. On the other hand, it becomes difficult to build trust when your best friend glibly implies that we may just end up on fire at a whim if we’re not compliant. You understand my difficulty, I’m sure. It’s entirely possible I’m over-reading the threat, but you and I both know that Goons are not known for being pacifistic.

As to your post, Alizabeth; thank you for your acknowledgement that your time with ARC was foundational for SERAPH. I remain glad to hear that, and am glad that many of our core pilots are also flying on your venture. My only concern at present is that your aggressive operations tempo may result in pilot burn-out, but we’ll deal with that in due course. Whatever the case, as you say, we are fighting the same war, and we are stronger when we cooperate.

As to the original topic of this thread, I think it’s important to clarify on the Sisters.

We use the term ‘Sisters’ to refer to the organization as a whole. Surely, there are laudable duties performed by the Sisters, whether Food Relief or the Sisters of EVE core organization; at the same time, the Sanctuary corporation appears to be something wholly different, and I worry that by giving the Sisters as a whole a pass, we are giving the Sanctuary a pass.

I’m not worried in the slightest about the EVE Gate, but I’d say it’s clear that Sanctuary ventures elsewhere are very concerning. This novel cloning technology…? I get the impression it is likely a Sanctuary project.

Agreed that transparency is a rarity, and something we are unlikely to see. Nonetheless, asking for more information can't hurt, can it?

Certainly understood and agreed, Alizabeth. It all seemed a bit unusual, a bit excessive. Still, I do find it odd that you so thoroughly disavow your best friend's actions. Ah well.

That's neither here nor there.

More important is that we're both fighting the same war, against the same enemy.

Locks are useful! I'll admit to wondering if these sequences are, well, keys. Like they say they are.

Which means we're opening a door for the Drifters.

Might not be ideal.

Arrendis, I appreciate your concern. Please understand that you are part of an organization that is not known for its magnanimity. Please also know that I felt there were several material misrepresentations that I had to address.

We've both said our respective parts. Is this not enough?