Intergalactic Summit

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Release No: SP-314-15
August 04, YC117

Summary of fleet action by Caldari armed forces in Black Rise region

At 21:30 hours on the 2nd August, State Protectorate forces under the command of Brigadier General Subsparx repelled an attack by a large Federal Defence Union task force in Ikoskio.

Federal forces deployed a fleet of Tempest Fleet Issue battleships supported by Guardian logistic cruisers to attack a planetary customs office owned by Heiian Conglomerate.

The State Protectorate Kurala fleet group responded with a task force of Raven class battleships supported by Basilisk logistic cruisers and Scorpion class battleships. The defence force suffered heavy losses, but drove the Federal task force from the system by 22:30 and saved the orbital asset.

Subsequent search and rescue efforts recovered 833 State Protectorate personnel from the debris field, along with 216 Gallente combatants who will be held as POWs.

Glory to the State

Out of curiosity, was there other fleet combat going on in the system at the time? Because there seem to have been an awful lot of Machariels in action out there, and at least a few representatives of The Bastion, Snuffed Out, and Pandemic Legion in the system as well.

I'm not sure it's fair to call line military forces of the third-largest empire in New Eden 'pirates'. PL and Snuffed Out, maybe, but the Bastion...

Whilst the word 'pirate' merely indicates that the forces I describe are, shall we say, independent contractors with no allegiance to either of the sides in the Militia War, I'm still fairly certain that the forces I described are not part of the third largest faction by any reasonable measure.

I mean, who is the third largest Empire in New-Eden? The Gallente or the Minmatar?

Strictly speaking, the Minmatar Republic is the fifth-largest power in the cluster. The Amarr nation - because whatever lip service they give the culture, the Khanid Kingdom and Ammatar Mandate are autonomous - is fourth. The Imperium is currently roughly a score of systems larger, but is still behind the Federation and the State by a few star systems - those two powers being separated by as little as a single star system in their mutual warzone's struggles, it's difficult to label either '1st' and the other '2nd'.

Maybe some nullsec entities. Certainly those who abandon their friends at a moment's notice after talking them into an invasion they couldn't win. But not all. Not us. As for 'unity measured in centuries'... wasn't is the very same King Khanid II who left the Amarr empire as rules the Kingdom today?

I've recently been told 'If Amarr is destroyed and our faith wiped out, you can say we were wrong'. Well... if we fall apart and are consigned to the dustbin of history, then you can say we're smaller. Until then, a reasonable observer would be unreasonable to not look at the difference in structure and lifetime the union we now call the Imperium has established.

You are counting star systems and call it power? Is the Imperium a signatory of any of the CONCORD treaties? Are its borders protected by interstellar treaties? Does the Imperium even have a legal code? Parameters for defining citizenship? Does it have a culture of its own? A history that is older than a decade?

Your whole idea of measuring power by counting stars is absurd. You could as well measure the amount of Quafe sold on the market and make it an indicator for taste...

Have you tried Choco-Q?

And really, why would we want to be a signatory to the CONCORD treaties and cede a significant portion of our sovereignty over to a network of parasites that does absolutely nothing to provide any meaningful security anywhere? Does CONCORD put out notifications of hostile actions in surrounding systems? Has there ever been a warning from CONCORD in New Caldari that a particular pilot in Perimeter has been attacking miners? Was CONCORD even willing to forcibly eject known criminals from high-density population centers during Burn Jita or Amarr?

CONCORD is useless except as a means of stroking its own ego.

As for interstellar treaties, we currently enjoy treaties with our neighbors in Cloud Ring, Geminate, the Spire, Cache, Etherium Reach...

Legal Code? Most definitely. Tell you what, I'll go ahead and detail our legal code in depth when you do the same for the Kingdom.

Citizenship? Why yes, in fact, we do: For baseliners, live here. For capsuleers, maintain good standing in one of the member corporations of an Imperium Alliance.

Culture of our own? Most definitely. But I do understand that all of us in Null look alike to those who cower under CONCORD's thumb.

As for a history older than a decade... does that mean the Amarr weren't a people until eleven years after first receiving the Word of God?

If anything, given that the function of society is for people to band together, to set aside their individual natural rights in order to provide a greater aggregate benefit to the group (I won't kill and eat you, so I know none of you will kill and eat me), I'd have to say we're more of a society than most of you. When I fly through Deklein, Branch, Tribute, or any of our territories, I know the pilots in those systems will render aid if I need it. They already have. Can you say the same of the people you live with?

And Mr. Tuulinen: Far from empty. Temperate planets give rise to settlements, as I'm sure you're aware. The rest of your snobbery, I've already addressed.

Arrendis, please point me to even a single temperate planet in Deklein that has city lights visible from orbit.

I'll happily go take a look.

I'm seriously willing to compare the settled worlds of the rim with 'empty', which was your claim. But if you'd like to move the goal posts, by all means, don't let me trip you up with little things like accuracy and what you actually said.

I've seen what you call 'civilization'. Society exists to provide security and better lives to its members. Anything less is a return to the so-called 'Savage Garden' of our early tribal days. Your society provides... what security, exactly? When Drifters attack, your 'Empires' navies are useless - it's Capsuleers who have to stand in defense, and a pitifully small number of them. When violent predators throw wave after wave of suicide destroyers at shipping in trade hubs - over twenty thousand destroyers in three days - not only does the Empire whose capital is the site of the slaughter not intervene, they don't even lower their opinions of the perpetrators or declare them personae non grata. Sure, CONCORD blows up that ship... but they don't expel the capsuleer from the system. They don't even try actually apprehending them.

This is security? This is civilization? This is a demand for obedience and fealty, coupled with an utter, callous, quite frankly disgusting disregard for the lives of those who are giving that fealty. That kind of callous disregard for the lives of the populous wouldn't be tolerated in Deklein. People who come into our space to kill our people aren't simply given a slap on the wrist and told to get a new ship. They're forcibly ejected from our space. And we make damned sure that pilots and crews are aware of these trespassers across multiple regions. Even someone who's evading pursuit (and thus, doesn't have the time to kill anyone) is still being reported - I can watch interceptors flee from on region to the next and on out of our space by the reports, as can everyone else.

So don't talk to me about power. Your empires are impotent, concerned only with defending those who rule them.