Intergalactic Summit

Why ever would we give this pathetic failure of a Holder who has dishonored the legacy of her family in every single way possible such respect?

Sometimes, I ask myself if I enjoy wine too much. Yet, days like this make me think that I do not enjoy it enough. The duchess's actions are condemnable, but that does not mean that PIE should be pouring lox on the fire.

On that subject (and since being anywhere near the warzone would jeopardize my position despite my curiosity), what sort of outfits in the conflicts zones have efficiency ratings that high that you're aware of? I'm just wondering so that I can show due deference to them on the subject.

If it was just the Tetrimon heresy I might agree with you.

However, she has consistently been actively insulting the entirety of the Empire as well as making a mockery of the office of the Holder. Those insults must be met with resistance and not tolerance, no matter the source.

Fortunately, her actions or opinions have little to no bearing on the future reintegration of the Khanid Kingdom with the Empire.

PIE has a policy of Tolerance for loyalists to King Khanid. That tolerance does not extend to people who feel they must attack the Amarrian Empire rather than simply remaining loyal to Khanid.

It's just statistics at the end of the day, and probably doesn't mean much. I mean, you could probably do, "kills per member" and get:

Ishuk-Raata Enforcement Directive - 0.89
Pyre Falcon Defence Combine - 34.89
Electus Matari - 3.06
Villore Accords - 9.14

Which alludes to about the same as efficiency, which is not much at all, since it's easy to massage statistics one way or another and claim a, "Technical victory."

That is indeed an impressive number.

Well done, the lot of you.

A number of things contribute to Ishuk-Raata's poor numerical statistics, despite our campaign successes.

We tend to use more expensive fleet doctrines, and those that are destroyed cause significant efficiency loss. The use and occasional loss of 'ratting' vessels within our space also contributes to poor efficiency. I'd be remiss if I didn't admit we have our fair share of costly victories, and outright defeats. Committing to a fight we don't expect to win is avoided where possible, but the different concepts of nullsec warfare make that less avoidable than elsewhere sometimes.

Our member count seems bloated when compared to the kill counts, but this is partly due to Ishuk-Raata not being a pure military organization. We maintain sprawling infrastructure, and must hire the pilots to handle logistics and industry. With some exceptions, our industrial arm is counted among the total employee count, as are any other non-combat personnel. This leads to a massive number of capsuleers, a near majority of which do not fly combat missions.

Plenty of your membership have committed all sorts of heresies over these many years.

None officially sanctioned by PIE of course.


I keep a nice little collection of visual logs and correspondence with all sorts of current and former PIE membership.


Sometimes I even feel like one of your clergy; some of your best have come to me for a sort of confessional from time to time.


Off topic but the Pratorean House is not always made of solid gold; there are bits of less godly materials in a few of the structural elements. When I see comments like Ascentior's I feel it worth reminding the rest of you.

If you want to talk statistics, the only meaningful statistic regarding this pointless little war is the comparison between PIE's material losses to the Shakorites and its material losses to these Mercenaries. While I would rather talk about our successes and kills, the losses are what matter in terms of long term military effectiveness.

PIE runs through roughly 2-8 billion isk a month in combat losses. We are set up to sustain significantly higher losses if needed. We tend to kill a good deal more than that, but efficiency isn't actually as relevant as sustainability.

For an outside group to hurt us in a relevant way they would need to be able to force us to suspend operations. This would mean doing enough damage that we could not continue to sustain our standard operating losses.

My reports on the Stormcrows say that they are quite competent hunters and have some extremely competent pilots, I have not yet tested this first hand, but I trust those reports. Still, they are unlikely to be able to affect the Praetoria in a meaningful way.

I must congratulate them on finding an excellent paymaster, though. This whole affair works out very well for the Stormcrows. The only person who loses in a major way in this whole arrangement is Odelya who is demonstrating that she lacks strategic sense as well as moral fiber.

I would warn the Stormcrows that they should be cautious about letting her extend their contract too long. Steady pay from a source that is incompetent at military strategy tends to lead to a decline in mercenary quality over the long term. We saw that in our engagements with Revan's mercenaries. One group called Omnicient Order was incredibly effective when they fought us the first time, but after three years of steady pay from a heretic with no strategic sense at all they collapsed into total ineptitude. But I am sure that the crows are fully aware of that danger.

Be careful what you wish for.