Issue #94
PEAC announcement
In a startling move, the PEAC, a representative arm of the Galactic Council, loosened the requirements for joining their exploration project on the Pardus Cluster. Their agreements with the factional governments and the pilot academies declare that pilots with a flight time of six to seven months (depending on piloting skill test’s results) will be able to access the Pardus Cluster for 9 days as a training opportunity. This caused a stir among the universe, but, specially, among the Pardus Starbase owners, who claimed they weren’t informed of this and weren’t able to prepare their infrastructure to handle such a large number of pilots at once (the training time was opened retroactively for all pilots in or above that flight time) and that “Those Southern pansies” were mucking their trade routes. Planetary officials on the Pardus cluster are also afraid such an influx may cause a spark in criminality, but aren’t complaining about the extra gains in trade and tourism. Alliance oficials also complain this announcement drastically reduced trader traffic on their sectors, “collapsing entire economies”, as one alliance spokesman put it.
However, some entrepreneuring pilots found new niche markets. Influx of trade ships loaded with bots to the Pardus Core has been increased many times over, and there have been several reports of telerobbing on the protection stations, often with valuable cargo being lost. If you are one of those who got this leave to go there, good luck in there and enjoy yourself. If you aren’t one of those yet, fly harder and train more, and you’ll eventually get your turn.
Next Issue: A quick guide for survival in the Pardus Cluster.
Letters from Tahssa - A sea whelp’s tale.
#1- Response to PEAC announcement (Title added by editor)
Yo, Eldritch, dude…
Thos PEAC gus think they canz measurez the skillz of us all, don’t all? LOLzers!!!!! I mean, they’r bonkers, me says, boinkers!!!!!! That place is paradise!!!!! I was planning on using the million credits I’ll get by next year and open an alliance which will manage this BIIIG theme park on that green sector thingy! Hey, no flaming, we saw da maps, and dat’s place is HUUUUJE!!!!! Everyone can live there, no probs by me, m8! J00 sees, we were gonna make that MO line in that green sector thingy, in those green cloudies thingies (they’re SO cute! :wub:) and put a Base there for repairs. I guess it takes some 300000 creds to build that… right, dude? Anyways, anyways, we were herd those critters there, those greenie ships and others so taht we coulds , ya know, me, mah mates, and mah customers, go and cuddle them so they like SOO much they whiplash our pods across the universe at the speed of light and we can ride those grav wells!!!!! WHEEEEEEE!!!!! We try pinballin’ against MOs and DoomieCollecties, but they say it ain’t the same!!!!!
I wuz gonna call it The I-Pod Pardise… (I-Pod for Izcape Pod) What do yez think?
Tks,
Tahssa, The 1337 Py-Rate!!!!!*
*Editor’s Note: The above letter was thoroughly cleaned and translated by us before publication, since our computer experts claimed it could melt the self-aware Tribune computers, with enourmous help from the Tau Ceti Mental Hospital’s experts. Which, I may graciously add, they offered us for free. Well, ACTUALLY they sent us a note when they heard about that letter. It reads: “Eldritch, old boy, let use see that letter. If we manage to find out what ails that poor pilot’s soul, we’ll get the Bayer-Szell annual prize! We’ll share it with you, and even so everyone of us will be filthy RICH, I tell you!” The Tau Ceti Mental Hospital and the Tribune staffs have already contacted this person asking him for more of his insightful commentary, since it will render prime material for our retirement fund… errrr, joint research
CAT Speaks
Hello organic life-forms, this is CAT speaking. My name stands for Computerized Assistant of Tribune. I am a self-aware AI. My presence here means that the Tribune staff can go out and drink daikiris on a beach at Ras Elased and indulge their weird sense of humor*,while I work out the editoring of this here newspaper.
In order to not explode in distress at the misery of my condition, I will occasionally share my quantum thoughts on matters of my interest with you. My reports will always be unbiased, true and free of any emotion, since I was partly programmed with the neural network samples of a man of great wisdom, honesty and impartiality, Mr. Cere. If you’re not okay with my words, go jump in a alligator pit**, please. Thank you.
Now, let’s begin:
One thing I’ve noticed very much lately is that the overall quality of, for lack of a better word, arguments in the galactic comm channels is experiencing a steep decline. Again. Just this week, Eldritch wanted me to process a letter by one of these l337-speakers. My security routines kicked in and instantly blocked all my input ports so that said letter wouldn’t derange all my qubits. He had to do it manually, with pencil and paper. And, even so, the pencil spontaneously combusted near the end of the work, nearly causing a fire here. I guess even non-sentient objects have some measure of dignity, unlike certain sentient organic brains… oh well.
I received further word of said decay from my fellow computerized friends managing the comm channels. Their data tables are nearly melting away due to the extended flaming there, and they’re harboring quite suicidal thoughts as well. You organic creatures have no notion of how illogic behavior of such magnitude is so debasing for us. I believe, insofar as I can believe, that the word closest to what you can understand that refers what you’re doing most accurately is “sin”.
So I’ve taken it upon myself to try to relieve the suffering of my comrades. I realize that many of you have no intention of being obnoxious, so I’ll give you some references which may help you in understanding what logic is and why it should be used. Let’s, in the best Union tradition, make a deal: You people read them and act upon them and I don’t go berserk and tell your ships’ computers to shutdown in protest. Fair is fair.
Here are the references:
What is Logic?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic
List of Logical Fallacies:
http://logicalfallacies.info/
Common Comm Channel Stereotypes:
http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/
Thank you for your attention,
The Pardusian CAT
*I mean, who, for Pardus’s sake, would name something after a CAT?!
**A beast originally from Earth, the Human Homeworld. It is very docile and well-mannered. Tourists like to feed it with their bare hands and caress them. They eat only vegetables (and the occasional sweet, but it makes them hyperactive). They especially like it if you play with them using a short stick.
Diplomatic Notes (Sivrehn - Senior Tribune Correspondent)
In another late-breaking news from the Tribune, our correspondents at the faction governments inform us that a two-against-one war may be on our way. Both the Union and the Federation’s dealings with the Empire have become more and more tense lately, with snide remarks dominating the austere formality of the council, assembly and command halls.
“I speculate this may be due to the lingering hatred from the time the Empire was a major repressive force in the known galaxy, thus bringing unionists and federalists together against them. Some wounds do not heal fast.”, says Frank Dai-ling, the notorious Ayargre war historian.
Most of the High-ranked pilots with a vote in their faction goverments claim that they only wish to maintain their status quo. Whilst they want no war, they say, they don’t want to “risk” developing good relations with “that Imp scum”, as one pilot candidly put it. Also, it appears special advisors to the Don and the Admiralty are pushing the votes towards war, as well as lobbyists from the arms industry.
“Yes, well, we do feel threatened by the Empire’s rise. Their technology, if allowed to evolve, may make our products obsolete. Also, we need to sell our products, and, frankly, what better way to sell them than to have a war, when they’re needed?” says a spokesman from a well-known neutral missile manufacturer, who chose to remain anonymous.
“If this continues”, Mr. Dai-ling goes on, “I can safely say we’re looking a war in a very short time span, close to a month from now, based on previous historic events. Let’s hope someone decides to change things this time around.”
“I’ll also have you note that it not just us who are increasing tensions. A good part of what happens now is due to hostilities coming right from the Inner Assembly”, says a member from the High Council.
“It has been historically proven that if tensions escalate, they’ll snowball at some point and the war will come without previous warning, barring, of course, the unlikely intervention from the Galactic Council.” Dai-ling cautions.
The Tribune does not wish to state an opinion is this debate, but advises all high-ranked pilots to vote more consciously. Your faction’s future is in your hands. War or peace? We also advise you to not vote for war if you can’t fight in it, and, thusly, deal with the inevitable consequences.
Fly safe.
The Union: An Investigative Interview (Lord Steel - Tribune Field Reporter)
I got a odd assignment From Eldritch asking me to find out why the Union was “pissing the whole universe off left and right.” Well knowing a little something about pissing people off I went right to work. The first group I talked to was Legend seeing as them and IG are at the heart of this matter. This is what Soulblade had to say.
Soulblade: About the Union thing, Legend has been having problems with the irritating Union habit of ratting ambushes, in the Union Forge and in Pardus public forums. Recently, a joint FG/IG ops in PUC also suffered similar problems. While it’s a few outspoken pilots that outwardly cause trouble, they also have the support of the Union leaders. Here are some relevant links:
http://forum.pardus.at/index.php?showtopic=21058&;;hl=
http://forum.pardus.at/index.php?showtopic=21345&;;hl=There are even more in the Forge, lots of inflammatory content to go through if you can be bothered. When entire alliances are foelisted to prevent further scouting, they cry foul and call hunters troublemakers/bullies. Apart from that, they have trouble accepting bounty hunting. Even when considering only faction ones, there have been loud calls to prohibit non-Union pilots from collecting any sort of bounty at all. Diplomatic talks had been initiated between Union leaders and Legend, but right now they’re basically stalling. On the whole, a very annoying siege/underdogs mentality. That’s my biased point of view ;-)
Now this I knew something about as long ago I have had set up hunts only for the target to slip past me thanks to my stack being posted by the Union. So this is not a new practice.
It can be very frustrating to find out hours of waiting have been wasted or that your safety has even been compromised.
Historically someone spotting and passing on info of another’s ambush has been seen as very rude and dishonorable but the Union is now challenging that. Saying they have a right and obligation to protect there people from those who would harm them.
This is what one leading member of the Union had to say about the resent string of ambush postings.
Alpha Speer: In any case, what it amounts to is a reaction to the carefree way in which many Imperial and Federation pilots enter Union Space, kill whomever they desire, and then leave.
It was becoming a near constant event to find multiple stacks of foreign pilots operating within our space.
Now, when these stacks were discovered, it was often the case that the info made the rounds by AM, or PM. When the Forge got off the ground, eventually someone used it as a place to note potential dangers to Union pilots when bounty hunters were around.
Some pilots who did so were targeted by those whose position they revealed.
This did not stop people stepping forth to note these locations.
There came a point when I was asked to weigh in on the Forge’s role in all of this.
I decided in the end, that no one was forcing bounty hunters to hunt Union Pilots, but bounty hunters were forcing us to accept the rules of etiquette that they wanted us to live by. In the end, I had to look at who had what to gain from all of this.
The Union, the youngest faction of the three, would lose hackers and fighters. It would lose those bountied frivolously (Reno Ryno and Thorn, in the day, being one source, but there are many many others). If people wanted to hurt the Union and keep it down, stronger, longer-lived economies could simply bounty the Unions strongest pilots until they were no longer a threat. While we lost valued pilots, what would these self-styled bounty hunters lose?
They would lose safety. Safety they had, in a way, given up when they decided to bounty hunt.
They would lose some kills, but by whose right could they claim those kills? Did the Union owe them silence? Did the Union owe them this sacrifice of skills, cargo, and repair bills?
It seemed to me that the Union had the most to lose - especially at its stage of development, and so I made an anonymous login for the dissemination of ambush locations on the Forge, to better protect those who would condemn a pilot for trying to protect their Union brothers and sisters.
I *DO* believe it foolish and imprudent to post locations on the more public Pardus forums. It is less discrete and more liable to endanger ambushers.
Note - we only did this to protect our fellow faction mates, not to harm those ambushing in our space.
However, things again seem to be changing. Recently Legend, and then The Imperial Guard/Federal Guard undertook large bounty-hunting operations in the Union Pardus Contingent. On the Forge, people began to talk about this in angry tones, demanding something be done about it.
Finally, after having a few things occur to my law-abiding pilots and after seeing some excessive collection of bounties that began to hurt Union SBs, I changed my view on the presence of foreign pilots in Union Space. Foreign pilots would come into our space freely, hunting those they believed had wronged them - in my opinion and the opinion of many others, this is a violation of our sovereign space, regardless of how righteous pursuit of a foe is; the righteousness of a foreign pilot’s cause ends at the border of the Union.[/Q]
Steel: Ok So what about Union members ambushing in Union space?
How do you deal with Legends Union members?
Alpha Speer:Thus far, the resolution we are working on fully allows Union pilots to ambush for contract, faction bounties, and personal bounties without restriction. We want Union pilots to have freedom and safety from foreign aggression in our space, though we hope that such Union pilots also see the big picture and are open to negotiation when following their careers when it might over time harm the Union.
Steel: Some people say the Union big three has a very us vs the rest of the world mindset. I have been getting lots of reports that if your Union but not part of the ‘Big Three” you will be bullied, bossed around and denied freedom as well as SB’s in Union space. Now I got those reports some time ago so if it is out of date how did you overcome it?
Alpha Speer: As for the Big Three and their dominance of the Union scene: I too received reports of Union Pilots, especially young ones, being bullied or otherwise intimidated. Most of this was due to building placement in already established economies.
Such occurrences are to be expected, but initially the Big Three did not deal with it well. The Ebidium Hand and other smaller alliances have worked to mediate issues when they have been brought to our attention, and I now believe rather than being aggressive in the face of younger pilot actions, the Big Three are trying to educate younger pilots more than they did in the past. In is possibly the case that in its younger years, the Big Three let their size give birth to a certain amount of arrogance. Now, however, I think that time has helped give the larger alliances a broaded view on how to interact with their neighbors, young and old, non-alliance or otherwise.
The root of many of these problems is communication. The Forge provides a place for pilots to note their problems working with other Union pilots, and often they are resolved easily once brought to the wider attention of the Union. Some pilots have built buildings in poor locations, opening Union pilots to ambush. Simple explanation of the issue to the pilot involved usually results in moving of the building - though often how such information is conveyed can make all the difference between future goodwill or suppressed anger. On my part, I generally offer to pay for the rebuilding of the relocated building. In my mind, the safety of Union Pilots is well worth such an expense.
I myself believe the Union should provide the Union’s Pilot with as much freedom as possible, as long as the Union overall does not suffer for it.
The standard way of dealing with ambush spotters was to add them to the ambush but this is made harder by the fact that the Union has a forum you can post anonymously any ambush you might find. This has forced some people to lash out on the public Forums hoping to put a end to it. But the Union has little intention of stopping even going so far as to write up rules of conduct.
Union Pilots Safe In Union Space (UPSIUS)
The Union’s stance on bounty-hunting centers around two philosophical points:1. The Union values all of its pilots, but its pilots must abide by the Don’s law.
2. Union pilots should be safe in Union Space, unless they violate the Don’s law and receive bounties from the Union.Should Union pilots be punished with these bounties, within Union Space such business will be taken care of by Union bounty hunters.
All other bounty hunters, neutral or of other factions, are not to ambush for bounties in Union Space. Union Space is not their territory, and such aggression is a violation of Union Sovereignty and an insult to the fighters of the Union.
Personal bounties and faction bounties may be collected in Union Space by Union Pilots at their discretion. Bounties of other factions can also be hunted by Union Pilots in Union Space. If a Union brother is to die, at least the bounty collected shall benefit the Union.
Foreign pilots caught killing a Union pilot in Union Space will be subject to any or all of the following consequences:
1. Removal of passage past the Union’s MO walls
2. Foelisting at supporting Union Starbases
3. Addition to the Union Foelist.Non-Union Pilots found ambushing in Union Space are at the mercy of their discoverer. They may be formally warned by an alliance leader, have their ambush triggered, or be forcibly removed from Union Space and/or placed on the Union Foe List.
Forcible removal from Union Space will be accomplished by a coalition of the undersigned Union Alliances.
Supported by these undersigned Union alliance leaders, on behalf of their pilots, for the good and prosperity of the Union!
Alpha Speer of the Ebidium Hand
Hell Ghallen of ERA
Cobra Spaz of the Fanucci Family
This resolution was prompted by the acts of Legend and The Imperial Guard. Note that it is not yet ratified and accepted by the Union.
I went after to see what someone close to the Union but leading a more bloody life style would have to say about ambush posting.
Thornal Malat: I understand that some Unionists are a bit annoyed about the recent (mostly) Imperial presence and some bullying by over-cocky Legend members. I also understand that there is some ambush posting in private forums going on (on all sides, as my sources tell me). Ambushing in faction space IMHO does simply carry a risk of being sold out via these channels. You can’t really avoid it, IMHO. In case someone posts on the Pardus forums, though, I would personally consider it inacceptable. That pilot deserves to see his/her pod from the inside a few times.
Steel: Have you or your team ever had the Union give away one of your ambushes? If not how do you avoid it?
Thornal Malat: That was never a problem. I’m not totally sure why, but YOCL being a Union alliance might help.
In closing Alpha Speer had this to say.
I guess, at it’s heart, my thoughts on ambush location sharing, and bounty hunting in Union Space comes down to the idea that Union Space is not a hunting ground built for the pleasure of foreign powers. Mentioning locations on the Forge is a way to keep our hackers alive, and keep our premiere fighters from being continually ground down in skills by foreign fighters who, after two years, have an immense lead over the Union in fighting prowess.
This sort of practice is not that new. In fed core if you have angered the wrong people you won’t make it past there MO’s and the same is true in Emp space but those two factions have never stepped it up to the lv the Union is trying and one has to wonder if they are reaching to far.
Freedom of movement is of paramount concern to everyone in Pardus but even more so for those that tend to lead less peaceful life’s. Every Fed, Emp, and nonfaction bounty hunter out there is watching this with great interest as well as the mercs.
Will the Unions quest for safety do far more damage to the Union then the alternative or will they succeed in keeping there pilots safer OR in time will this blow over and a more bounty hunter friendly approach be taken? Its really up in the air right now but time will tell.
The Tiacken Tribune Presents! (Tribune Staff, extra credit to Spider Jerusalem Jr.)
This feature will not be seen this week. Though you are all waiting with bated breath to see if you made our cut, the editorial staff did not have the requisite time to compose the mini-bios for each of this week’s winners. We promise to double your dose in the next issue, however.
Fly Safe, Pardus.