Intergalactic Summit

I've always hated that phrase. Anyone who has actually tasted revenge knows that it is savory, not sweet. But I digress!

The name is Quaid. Derek Quaid. I'm sure you literate folks can see that, though. I understand that almost all of you have been rubbed the wrong way at some point in your piloting career. Some of you have felt powerless, but CONCORD's new bounty rules promise to change all of that, right? You may not have great combat skills, but you have deep pockets, and you're more than willing to hang a steak around your enemies' necks and let the dogs chase them to the ends of the cluster. Good for you!

What do you do when your enemy has deeper pockets? Do you really want the bounty war to escalate beyond your means, thus leaving you on the losing end again? I can help. I anonymously place individual bounties on the people that have most seriously aggrieved you.

I cater to a niche market. I only place personal bounties. Personal grudges are so much more intimate, aren't they? I require a significantly higher minimum bounty than CONCORD. I'm interested in the serious vengeance business, not processing transactions for children who are simply playing with a new toy. I do it all for a flat fee (subject to change based on market conditions).

Most importantly, I'm going to be working hard to ensure that bounty hunters know who and where your target is. I want to bring together bounty hunters of all skill levels and pilots willing to subcontract locator services to them. Interested? Join our channel, Discreet Bounties, to view our target list and start building the community of bounty hunters to hunt down every last one of them and squeeze out every ISK.

Your enemy won't know what hit them. Best of all, they won't know who hit them. Your identity is my closest-guarded secret.

I don't have anyone I care enough about to place a bounty on, and if I did, I wouldn't be scared of them knowing that I have a problem with them.

That said, I'm happy to hunt bounties. I can also provide locator agents, depending on what's needed and how I'll be reimbursed.

Mr. Ixiris, your enthusiasm for the hunt is admirable. The Discreet Bounties channel is a forum for bounty hunters to gather and coordinate hunts against any targets they please (I provide a list of bounties I've posted for my own clients). The bounties themselves and the excitement of the kill are the bounty hunters' reward. I also hope enterprising pilots will hang about and make their locator services available to bounty hunters at whatever price they negotiate. In this respect, I am an unpaid facilitator. I place the bounties for a fee, but I am trying to build a community for bounty hunters to collaborate out of my sheer love of seeing people get what's coming to them.

((Discreet Bounties channel is officially OOC to accommodate the largest possible community, but roleplayers are certainly welcome, and an explicitly in-character channel is an option if community demand is high enough.))

This whole discussion is quite sad. Vengeance is evidence of being wholly overcome by the basest and most primitive of human emotions. To yield to the desire to take vengeance is to yield to a compromise of one's soul to evil. Vengeance perpetuates violence! Instead, when someone hurts you, sate your hurting soul by helping ten people. Find out how much more healthy good is for your soul than evil. Holding a grudge will decay your insides and any satisfaction you may feel when you take your vengeance will be short lived. If you want a lasting satisfaction, do good to others. Seeking revenge is a poison. Revenge is neither sweet nor savory; it is bitter.

Whilst I respect your philanthropy, and I support the cause of helping your fellow man, it isn't a solution to a grudge. If you're helping mankind as an outlet for being personally hurt, your satisfaction may be enjoyed for a longer term, but only for as long as you are willing to lie to yourself.

Also - I can't help but think that the dulcet themes of your message are a little betrayed by the fact that ultimately, you're bumping the thread listing of an advertisement that will undoubtedly facilitate many mass-killings.

Perhaps we now have a discussion worth having. You raise the issue of defining the difference between vengeance and justice. Justice is a societal value that protects people from continued hurt. Criminal justice systems seek to punish and/or reform the offender in order to prevent repeat "hurting" of others. Vengeance is not justice. It does not have the controls nor the purpose of justice. The new bounty system appeals to vengeance, not justice. I see no value in it at all. The business model of the OP simply takes advantage of the continued desire for vengeance and does nothing to promote justice.

Justice requires societal consensus. Bounty placing and bounty hunting is mere individualistic violent grudge bearing. Especially among capsuleers, it has no redeeming value and will only generate a back and forth continued cycle of ongoing violence with no redeeming societal value.

In a better world, while I am helping the ten, law enforcement and the criminal justice system is taking care of justice so that I do not need to become a vigilante nor hire one.

Your entire analysis boils down to the notion that executions authorized by a legal system's mechanisms are inherently legitimate, and executions by vigilantes are illegitimate. The bounty system meets your criteria for legitimacy. The legal system that governs capsuleers has effectively deputized every single one of us to engage in assessing damages via bounties and leaving others to collect those damages within a separate segment of the legal framework.

I fail to see your grievance here.

Close, but slightly off...

If your bouty hunters kill anyone in high-sec, then they are breaking the law (unless the target is also a wanted criminal)

I still prefer my " In ya god-damned face" approach to vengence, than your "They'll have no idea who stabbed them in the back" approach that you're selling.

I don't give a moment's thought to the targets my clients select. I provide the service that I advertise, no questions asked.

Congratulations to you and the father on your expected bundle of joy. As no sane mother would do anything to put her child in harm's way, your concern is moot. I am sure you'll stay out of your pod until the child is born, so no one will have opportunity to collect the bounty until then.

I think you are too kind with captain Quaid, captain Sharpe. A coward like him, fueling the needs and giving tools to other cowards, clearly cares little for the harm his actions can bring. He cares not for the lives of those he places the bounties on, nor their crew members, nor the reasons for the bounty, or anything else. I'd call him a mercenary, but he doesn't actually have the guts to do himself the jobs his coward patrons expect is done, so I'd just call him an empty, soul-less, merchant. A trader in the business of death, too.