Intergalactic Summit

No. We killed them because they were conducting unauthorized surveillance of our technology and infrastructure. They were, and are, unregistered, unlicensed intruders engaged in spying on our sovereign territory.

How many times do I have to say that there are more methods of attacking someone than simply hitting them in the head with a club?

Whether we are the aggressors or the victims is irrelevant.They are now shooting at us. Hindsight is 20/20. How is us allowing ourselves to be shot at even on the table?

Actually... yes. I don't know what part of space you're from, but where I'm from, if someone's conducting espionage on you, you are within your rights to blow up those espionage assets. They're considered an aggressive act. It's pretty universal.

Are the Observatories not most likely Jove Directorate structures, rather than Drifters?
Though the Drifters certainly got some records from them and possibly more that we have from them, but certainly not the complete take.

The problem is the connection between the Drifters and the Jove - as obviously extant as it might be - is unclear. CONCORD's database has this much to say:





Let's leave aside for a moment the question of how precisely CONCORD managed to assemble this information given that the Drifters never talk and are, in fact, incapable of speech. I'm not sure I even want to know how we know the designators Apollo, Artemis and Hikanta.

Clearly, the Drifters are some sort of bizarre synthesis of Jovian and Sleeper technology, but it's unclear who's wearing the pants in this relationship. We haven't heard from the Jove Directorate proper since the beginning of the Empyrean War, and events such as the resurgence of Sansha's Nation and the collapse of their stargate network after the appearence of Caroline's Star has only furthered the concerning suspicion that they might all be dead. Did the Sleepers subsume the remains of the Jove Directorate without us realising?

I'd note at this point that it's of great interest that capsuleers have never found a single wormhole that leads to Jove space.

Alternatively, are we seeing the Jove co-opting Sleeper technology in an attempt to preserve or evolve their civilization? Certainly as we've seen from things like the smashed-open Sleeper enclaves, the Drifters are cannibalising Sleeper technology for their own ends - this isn't neccessarily completely incompatible with Sleepers evolving themselves but one would think if the Sleepers had access to their own technology they could do it in a more elegant and efficient fashion.

There does exist a third, more worrying possibility - the phrase "inheritors of a legacy left behind by some of the most ancient Jove" might seem to imply direct descent from the Jove, but needn't neccessarily do so. Those who inherit a legacy don't neccessarily need to be descendents, just beneficiaries. It's entirely possible what we're seeing here is a hithertofore unseen entity that's cannibalising both Jove and Sleeper technology.

We need more information.

You mean rapid-growth cloning from digitally-encoded stem cell blanks in a nutrient and amino bath? Yeah, that is obvious.

Honestly, why you would think it takes less money, time, and effort to reprocess human remains, given all of the issues of decomposition, potential infections, mutual autoimmune rejection reactions, and so on down the line, than just growing a new one is beyond me.

Listen, completely off-the-wall idea here, but does anyone know what the Drifters do if they see you in a Gnosis? They seem to dislike capsuleers using Entosis technology - would they also get upset at other Jovian artifice?

With the recent attack on Safizon, I decided to check for past aggression by the Drifters, I managed to find 3 attacks by the Drifters, two in Amarr space, both with an armada of their battleshipos & a small attack on Yulai. So while they seem to have a preference for the Amarr Empire, they're not above lashing out to others if they have cause to do so.

I published a more in detail overview of notable aggression involving Drifters in my latest news article: The rising threat of the Drifters

I do believe the time of diplomacy has sailed for now & that we have to ready ourselves to defend against the Drifters. So far they haven't shown signs that they desire peace. At least the Sleepers remain in their Wormholes & the Seekers only act in self defense, while the Drifters have initiated an attack on at least 3 encounters, 2 of them without any direct or clear provocation.

So let me intervene here and ask you this, from a tactical and militaristic standpoint. Let's assume we consider Drifters peaceful, let's assume the most optimistic of views in that they are non-aggressive and want to be left alone.

How many lives are you will to put at risk and how much are you willing to sacrifice for what is essentially a theory with incredibly limited evidence? Even if we don't take an aggressive stance here, and operate on a purely defensive basis, we're much better off than assuming that Drifters are naturally non-violent.

I'm getting very tired of drifter sympathizers.