Intergalactic Summit

Greetings fellow Empyreans,

I wanted to follow up on a discussion that arose at the Seyllin Conference yesterday. At a panel concerning exploration in New Eden among myself, many members of Signal Cartel, and a few other nonaligned parties, the discussion quickly sidetracked to to a discussion concerning what exactly would happen should the rest of New Eden ever gain access, accidentally or otherwise, to Jove space. It was quickly decided that it might be in the interests of all concerned to come to an agreement beforehand of how to tackle such an eventuality, so if it ever does occur, it can be implemented quickly. Various concerns included who would coordinate research and salvage efforts, who would be in charge of securing supply lines, and who would provide front-line defenses against any remaining active Jovian defenses. And so, to follow up on that discussion, I bring it to the Summit to see if some basic ideas might be hashed out.

A few caveats and thoughts are in order, of course:

1) This protocol would only be in effect among agreed parties, of course. While I'd like to see the Protocol adopted as widely as possible (in order to ensure the orderly exploration of any Jovian technology and minimize the possibility that the technology would fall to only a select few), it seems unlikely that everyone would agree to be under the Protocol's umbrella and even more unlikely that we would be able to prevent poachers or other malcontents if they make a concerted effort.

2) Depending on how we gain access to Jovian space (should it ever occur), it seems unlikely that CONCORD (or the Jovian heirs apparent, the Society of Conscious Thought) will be pleased at the prospect of the Empyrean community gaining access to Jovian technology, especially considering that CONCORD's primary overwatch capabilities to our community derive from Jovian technology and I doubt they relish the idea of losing that advantage. Steps may need to be taken to ensure that they cannot interfere with our research.

I welcome the input of anyone who may wish to join this Protocol and look forward to any thoughts and insights the Summit may have. Also, if a prior agreement is already in place, I apologize for intruding on that agreement, but the participants yesterday were all unaware.

As I stated on the panel yesterday, I welcome this kind of preparation and collaboration. As a Force Expeditionary FC for Signal Cartel, I happily offer any assistance I can provide, barring any conflicting orders from my CEO, Mynxee.

As an aside, given that my expertise is in force exploration, I have far more experience with combat than diplomacy. Any penetration of Jove space should obviously be considered a venture into a potentially hostile environment; however, I would argue that we cannot approach this in the same manner as we would approach the exploration of, say, Drifter or Sleeper wormholes. In those instances, the type of inhabitants and their hostile intent is clear. The state of Jove space and the unknown state of the Jove Empire, however, are still unclear and there may be a measure of diplomacy required that force expeditionary specialists like myself are not best-equipped to manage.

In short, I simply want to emphasize the need for a diverse team; a collection of scientists, historians, combat specialists, engineers, etc. who all feel as though their input is needed and appreciated. There is no single "correct" way to approach this operation, not least because we technically have no idea what we will encounter should we be able to access Jove space.

If per chance I found myself in Jovian space, I have just the protocol for such a situation. Ahem...~

I call it the "take everything not nailed to the ground, sell the valuable stuff to the highest bidder and use the reset for advancing my own science while keeping my findings from Miss Makoto and her cronies" protocol. I feel this is the absolute best course of action. I've run the simulation and the crunched numbers coming out spell out a smiley face.

The beauty of Gallente technology is that with drones and plasma we can melt nails and take stuff even faster

I was hoping that we would make it to the third page before anyone noticed my misused malaprop. Mostly because that in the cold vacuum of space there are no discernable surfaces for which to nail objects to and the fact that lootability of said objects is 100% determined by their volume and mass, and by how many fanipacks your ship comes from installed with.

That, and because Jove have this lousy habit of making their trash invisible to human eyes and ship sensors. How did the Angels manage to get by this hurdle is a mystery for the ages.

During the SeyCon 5 Conference, I believe that we called for two parallel paths to be taken:

1.) To set forth an Accord of Cooperation, between our like minded Corporations, to actively search for access to Jovian space and to prepare for the time when this becomes a reality.

2.) To actively request information from the Sisters of Eve for any, and all, data they may have relating to the Drifters, or access to Jovian Space.

These procedures should be set in work immediately. To begin this process, I propose a conference be convened, for all interested parties, to document a Pact of mutual goals and Teamwork to allow this work to commence.

Also during, or after this conference, a Request for Information (RFI) must be drafted to formally document our desire to garner information from the Sisters. We may, or may not, receive anything from them but they should be placed on notice that we are aware of their escapades in the Drifter Hives, as evidenced by their Flotillas. That we are aware of the years of work they needed to preform to create the Stations of Thera, and how they hid this from the People of New Eden. And that we are aware that they know much, much, more than they are telling us, and we need this information today.

In closing, I'd like to state that I thoroughly enjoyed participating in the SeyCon 5 Conference and if I had only one takeaway from it, it would be... Only working together, we will make this dream a reality.

Mr. Mark,

I believe that in order to reach the Jove space without their consent you should send there a gate building ship. The travel will take several years and might not even reach the destination in our lifetime. I don't think that the FTL communication with the ship will be available during the transit as well, and desire of any capsuleers to participate in such project for me looks doubtful, as well as ability for capsuleers to build such a ship without CONCORD and other Empires notice.

Shall you achieve this, I still believe that this enterprise shouldn't be taken: after all, it will be technically an invasion into Jove sovereign space. If they want to be left alone, I think it will be polite to just leave them alone. Think about this, what would happen if you would lock and barricade your house door and someone would climb instead into your house through the window. What would you do?... I would shoot them down for sure. And I can bet my hookbil that Jove would shoot you as well, that would mean that mission of gate building is probably doomed to failure before it even starts.

Would you send instead a whole military expedition to guard a gate building ship?...

From an archaeological viewpoint.

Don't touch a god damned thing, if you make it to Jove Space. And if you do, then stay there. Do not return to this side of space.

Why am I saying this ?

Because: The Jovian attitude to what they laughably call "the lesser races", is that we "can't handle" such "dangerous" technologies as exist in the universe. E.g. alleged "Terran" devices.

Which means that any advanced devices are likely to have heavy security protecting them, with the intent of preventing them falling into capsuleer hands.

And given the tendency towards grabbing shiny things that a lot of capsuleers have, then, well, there are going to be all sorts of booby traps all over Jove space.

Which will include cybernetic implants. Do Not Touch Any Cyberimplant found in Jove Space. Don't even look at the damn thing. It likely contains some kind of brain-control device, an infomorphic subversion tool, or something, that will take over your mind, and make you do things the Jove want you to do.

So don't touch any damn implants. And if you do. Stay in Jove space. Do not return and infect everywhere else.


Also, the context of any artifacts is supremely important. For example, if presented with a statue, then an archaeologist such as myself, could tell you what culture likely made it, and a possible period of time when it was made. But not much more than that. Because the statue in isolation lacks context. If you say the statue was found with 10 others in what looked like a temple, then that tells me a lot more about the statue, and I could offer an opinion on what the statue represents, what it was used for, and who the intended audience were. If the statue was found in what looked like a private residence, then well, what the statue represents, what it was used for, and who the audience were, are completely different.

So, record as much as possible about the context of any artifacts. Because without the context, understanding will be slow to come.


Finally. Don't touch any damn cyberimplants. I know I already mentioned this, but it's important enough to state again.

Seriously.

Don't touch the cyberimplants.

If you do, I'm going to get Jason Galente to massage you with vegetable oil. Which will leave you confused about a great many things.

PSYCH !

I expect we'll execute our standard "Let someone else get the stuff out of wherever it is and take it off THEM" protocol. it's by far the most cost effective strategy.,