Intergalactic Summit

When capsuleers consider elite ground pounders they tend to think of ground-based immortals such as DUST mercenaries. Yet today as I came across multiple Federation bunker complexes with the Caldari-Gallente war zone and dispatched Caldari militia strike forces (as provided to us within the war effort) to lay siege, I took a moment to actually monitor the progress through gun and shoulder cameras alike. What I saw, seemed to affect me far more than it should.

In the course of thirty minutes, I saw Caldari volunteers cut through barricade after barricade of entrenched Federation defenders. I saw veteran squad leaders, men and women who knew these halls, the shortcuts, the methods of the enemy because they'd served other capsuleers days or weeks prior, escaped captivity where sieges were unsuccessful, or were aboard capsuleer ships that were destroyed in the orbital warfare above the complex and made it to escape pods to return to duty later.

Iron resolve and nerves of steel even where militia funding could barely afford to fund their body armor and weapons.

I could see the same aging within the faces of the Federation defenders. The look on squad leaders as they would calm the greener survivors and hold them to laying down their arms the moment Caldari forces breached the command deck. As if they knew the promise of being able to fight again meant captivity and the eventual turn-over at the hands of deals negotiated by the higher powers.

Faith in those higher powers that they would not be forgotten… for just as easily swift execution could await each and every one of them.

Anything for a chance to fight again…



Why does this hurt? I understand why wars exist. I'm that edgy attention whore here who revels within that fact.

Is it because we bicker over the uniformity of this conflict? How capsuleers fit warp-core-stabs or how nothing ever seems to come from the great strides each of our factions makes over the different sides of this conflict? How we consider this conflict a joke and the capsuleers involved as unimportant as the struggle itself?

And then I wonder how unimportant the crews of those ships dedicated to guarding these complexes are considered... let alone these volunteer strike teams we deploy as means to capture the complexes.

Do they get ribbons? Do they even get recognized? Do we ever remember them? Do they ever even matter?

And to think those who survive try to come back. Even in spite of so much death, they keep going. Regardless of all of these things, they still dare to volunteer...



Kirjuune, as victory (however short lived) draws nearer, even if you never fire a shot toward the enemy, reveling within the loyalty granted for your actions… do not forget the real heroes of this conflict, who will likely die long before they're ever recognized for it.

Before you capture that next complex, do the men and women on board the honor of remembering them... for that is possibly the last time you'll ever see them.




- I. Dea, Ensign

Most of my crew, technicians, administrators and marines come directly from Kaalakiota herself, but that doesn't mean I leave them on the standard benefits and remuneration package. For a start I put my people on the Isk standard when it became clear how much damage Heth had done to Kaalakiota's finances.

The terms for payout on death in service or cashing out due to an inability to continue serving is also far more generous and I also stepped up the health, education and living quarters assignments a few grades. All of these things are trivial gestures on a Capsuleers salary, but a crewmember who knows his wife and children are guaranteed housing, medical care, living expenses and education is a crewmember who can devote himself to his duty - mind cleared.

For the most part, the system has functioned without breaking down - the closest it came was the aftermath of the third battle of Caldari Prime when I lost 700 kirjuunen in 7 days. This was a harrowing period for my crew and myself both.

If you were part of my crew, I would demonstratively execute you in front of my crew for treason and showing such disrespect to the greatest Caldari Hero. And as a celebration to my promotion.

- D. Kim, Strike Cmdr.

Your crew don't board those complexes, Commander Tuulinen-haan. As this is a conflict orchestrated by the State, I find it would not be you who supplies the troops within those strike teams. Given the price of a single unit of Caldari Light Marines these days, I don't blame you.

Naturally, one would assume these volunteers are compensated by the State and the families awarded with benefits.

Yet… how much does the State actually invest in the immortals of the State Protectorate? How much does the corporate elite actually invest in this overall conflict?

Hell, the Mordus Legion tends to care more than the State does.

The real picture, should this exist for every militia or just ours, is far more grim:

A measly reward of Isk as appropriate to a fraction of the loyalty points rewarded as per the premium of all deaths sustained in the effort of a single complex is much more likely the only thing provided to each of these volunteers, families included (even in the inevitable event of death). Or perhaps even less given the scale of the entire operation and the crew needed to man the ships guarding the complexes. That would be most efficient.

They don't call it a militia for no reason.



- I. Dea, Ensign

And that's supposed to provide closure for the millions of volunteers serving the war effort, how?

Because volunteers choose where they volunteer. Why not volunteer somewhere with decent pay and benefits? And you employers - why not recognise the work your volunteers do in ways they'll appreciate?

Normally, I avoid places like this. Too much crap slinging and pseudo politics... But finding this little article caught my attention for a few minutes. So, if you actually give a rat about the PBI, here's some input from somebody who has spent their life soldiering on the ground, long before DUST troopers came into the picture. And yes, I consider boarding actions, part and parcel to the job, to be a part of that.

You want to let the ground pounders and marines know they're appreciated? Quit pandering about it and moaning over the job they choose to do and follow Pieters example. Make sure their families are set in every way you can. Beyond a salary, that brings a peace of mind that raw pay just doesn't give. Make sure they're appreciated day to day... Meaning good food and accomodations. We're not hard to please in that regard. Make sure they get not just the best gear you can afford, which isn't hard in an ISK economy, since we're not talking dropsuits and hand held artillery here... And moreover, more importantly, make sure they get the best TRAINING you can find... The reality of the matter is that most corporate training programs are a joke, and propaganda is poor armor when a Fed marine draws a bead on you with a plasma rifle. You want to show your respect? Do what Pieter did... Take responsibility for them yourself, take care of what THEY care about, and make sure they've got the training and more to leverage their odds in their favor.

There it is, straight from the source. Take it. Ignore it. Whatever. If you want to keep being a self telling joke and do nothing more than complain like some bureaucrat, go for it. One thing that NONE of us care about is 'verba non activ'.

That's the thing, even if I wanted to, I can't. The State owns these men and women, not me. My options are incredibly limited.

And you of all people know how much the military likes outsiders interfering. There might be a high chance they don't want someone telling these men and women what they truly deserve, especially coming from an immortal.

At the end of the day I'm an Ensign, a nobody, a Jaijii especially. No State official will stand to see someone like that meddling.

People enlist for all sorts of reasons, yeah. Some out of patriotism and national pride, some out of a sense of loyalty and duty to their megacorp, family military traditions, or loyalty and belief in their faith. And yeah, some to what they see as a way out of a poverty or poor economic situation. And some, to escape whatever it is they are running from.

I had my own reasons for enlisting, before I was found to be pod-compatible I did nearly twenty years in the Federal Marines. Yeah, most know what they are potentially signing up for when they enlist, same goes for volunteers. Those who thought otherwise either washed out in boot, or found out pretty damn quickly when in the field, and hopefully didn't get us killed in the bargain.

The unit becomes your family after a while, your unit and squadmates like your brothers and sisters in arms, maybe its because we depended on each other to survive. As Capsuleers we can play in the greater game, see plans unfold and maneuver forces on a larger scale, we can see the bigger picture. Most of the marines and footslogs, and ship crews, do not have that luxury, nor the advantages that things like immortality give us.

But, our goal was, generally, to get the job done, get home alive, and hope that we didn't get a load of bad intel or some ladder climbing REMF willing to throw us to the meatgrinder in order to impress the higher ups and jockey for a promotion....and sometimes, that is what exactly happened. I was an NCO towards the end, worked my way up, so I worked for a living.

I left a lot of brothers and sisters over the years in a lot of places, and maybe that is why I mostly fly industrials and haulers and delve into more industrial and scientific minded projects. Capsuleer warfare is push button death, we shoot at ships and pods, paring the rationale down to just that at times, and that is nothing new.

But, its different on the ground. Most of the men and women that I killed were at close range, sometimes in hand to hand combat when things got really hairy. With rifles, sidearms, or a laser-honed panga or monomolecular-edge combat knife...or sometimes just unarmed. It's a different thing to kill someone like that and watch the life drain out of their eyes.

But, Ms. Falken and Mr. Tuulinen have the right of it, heck Ms. Falken and I may well have hardscrabbled over the same patches of dirt and breathed the same recycled atmosphere from opposite sides at some point..

The best things you can do for the troops under your command is to give them the tools, training, weapons to get the job done. Also, the best intel you can get to give to the guys going in (and damn, I hated when the intelligence wonks screwed us over with a bad piece of info that made the mission go completely FUBAR.)


All that and two things more: A semblance of something like a home to want to return to, even if it is a heated bunkroom, showers and decent chow. And show them a reason to trust you, show them your are the kind of leader who won't just needlessly throw their lives away for no reason. A soldier will follow a leader they trust to give them a fighting chance to complete the job and get home alive.

Interesting. As if these marines were entities I could select in my cargo and "Award Benefits" as easy as that. I hate to say it but part of me either thinks you don't know what you're talking about or that you are part of some chain of command that places those troops under your direct control.

I'm not talking about crew, Ishikari-haani, I never was. These are purely the forces that launch automatically the moment you drop under range of a complex within your faction's interest to secure it. We seem to be lacking these forces until we join a militia.