Intergalactic Summit

That is a possibility. I think at the moment we just have to wait to see there next move.

An aggressive and powerful force is moving into territory, staging military assets and destroying things. Seems to me "just wait to see" is a very bad idea.

Well if they aren't at war with us then some form of preemptive strike would surely put us in conflict with them. Unfortunately most capsuleers have a mentality similar to yours.

Conflict with the drifters seems more and more inevitable everytime I read another post.

If they didn't want a war, they shouldn't have sent Battleships.

That said, just because you lack the strategic vision to see any options other than "just wait" and "preemptive strike" does not mean the rest of us are so limited in our thinking.

Empire Navies should be mobilizing to observe Drifter facilities and monitor any force movements. We see now that the Drifters aren't hiding their activities, neither should the Empires hide that they are capable of a forceful response. Every one of these Drifter wormholes, structures, and any other activity should have an assigned Empire Naval task force observing at extreme distance and making every effort to avoid conflict, and warning Capsuleers not to interfere.

If or when the Drifters prove to be hostile, these are the kinds of forces that we will need in place to direct the full force of each Empire's counter attacks. In order for those attacks to be successful, we need our forces fully alert and ready to be deployed. Loyalist Capsuleer forces should be utilized within the bounds of operational security to support these operations.

Mince words as you like.





I've characterized your positions appropriately.

This isn't me being snide. This is me pointing out naivety bluntly. They are provoking us and you are talking about "just" watching.

I am talking about taking active steps to ready our peoples for the very real possibility that we are about to be attacked.

I will be forward with this; I'm concerned that we're being judged.

Being provoked is something that happens all the time between Capsuleers. It's up to the personality of the individual to accept losses in the face of honour and action, or to play the long game and still potentially face further losses.

Most scenarios in this instance to me as such indicate losses either way, as they are not overtly friendly, posturing about with their flashy guns as they do.

Bringing a battleship into sovereign spaces is a threat. Absolutely obliterating ships with a super weapon is a threat. Their killboard is stunningly green, and much of it in High Sec.

I'm concerned that this advanced set of people that are not forthcoming in speaking to us is waiting to see if fear overwhelms us. Maybe they are waiting for the fear to set in and divide us. Maybe they are waiting to see if we're organized enough to stay calm. Maybe they are waiting for us to do nothing while hedging our bets, and lose everything in a slow reaction to a sudden attack. What it is that they're doing is not the point, however: An enemy will find me and attack me. They will scan me down, hunt me, or opportunity attack at leisure. They won't even hesitate, sometimes even facing losses in the doing.

They aren't doing this, they are instead acting in a way that should unsettle us.

These ships are aggressive only when disturbed. I'm not saying that this, or that not attempting to communicate when we all presume that they can is acceptable. It's not; It's rude. Do you think I'm being factious? I suspect that they don't care about the details.

I'm not sure I can clearly describe my frustration with watching people disturb what could be creatures, a peoples we can't yet understand, or the half-awake, and then claiming that they are being shot at, aggressed.

Do we call an animal unacceptable if it wanders into our house and we jab at it? What does one do when that happens?
We have two options. We kill it for entering our sovereign space, or we carefully try not not anger it.
Not angering an animal requires a certain tact. We don't know what these things are. They look like people but are they? If they are people, and we decide they are not behaving appropriately, but they are actually more advanced, how exactly do we enforce our sense of right on them? Attrition war with the Caldari is tiring and awful enough, we cannot afford to fight the men with superweapons and hoping they run out of ISK or cap.

People might think that I'm asking for diplomacy or negotiation, or 'waiting'. What I am asking for, however, is for increased bravery on our parts and our crew, to continue to investigate the circumstances to which aggression occurs and document it, and share it, as is being done here.

I hope that no one sees being cautious as 'inaction'. No one is as prepared to handle this threat delicately as we are. We have continued consciousnesses and near infinite resources. Our concerns must be our crews and not hampering terribly our ability to redeploy and shift gears at a moment's notice. Our abilities in this regard far outstrip the Navies. I'm practically a volounteer in Black Rise and I have a more than dozen different shiptypes at the ready. This is not anywhere near what the regulars have lying in wait.

I won't be bullied into simplistic thinking by a secretive or downright impaired enemy. I will do what anyone faced with unknown odds would do, and that is draw a very slow and deliberate outline around the enemy's attitude and capabilities over time, rather than call down the wrath of a cyno and a hundred supers. Has fighting the Caldari for so long, with their self depreciating manner in conflict made us so eager to take a sword to a hornet's nest? You claim that you want action rather than inaction, but it sounds very much like you'd like this action to include warmongering with a wholly unknown force.

I don't know about you, but I have full confidence that the GMVA is capable of changing tacks quickly and efficiently. If this should go poorly for all of us, and it likely will, perhaps there was nothing we could do. But perhaps our actions were the cause, and perhaps we could have done more to have mitigated our troubles.

Those of you working to further our intel on this aggressive new entity in our midst are to be commended, in particular in ways that can be construed as curious rather than as the threat I worry we actually are. I am not worried that the wrath of Capsuleers are more than they are bargaining for. We are unfathomable in cunning and resourcefulness, and rage. I'm worried that the worst of it could have been avoided. We all have too much shooting first in our histories that only ruin chances for ourselves down the line. Can we honestly claim after all of this that first strike is really wiser in the long run? We are experts, and we should know better.

I've wondered the same thing. We assume because the structures we encounter seemed to belong to the drifters they were the drifters. What if the structures were making ready to open somehow?

...

Most of that statement is naive to a truly stunning degree. I don't know what universe you're living in, but here in reality what the Drifters are doing is a provocation of the most blatant sort.

Once again, it is you talking about "poking" and "guns blazing" when what I've said has nothing to do with either.

Believe me, if I thought this situation called for overheated blasters... I'd be saying overheat your blasters!

I was done anyway, I just remembered that she isn't in a position where anything she does could really effect anything on a large scale anyway.

That being said neither am I so we were both kind of wasting our time.


"If they didn't want a war, they shouldn't have sent Battleships."

(Peaceful words of someone claiming they aren't advocating a war between capsuleers and drifters)

Answered privately.