Reflections on Fleet Command

I was very apprehensive about coordinating a fleet. There was no need: the quality of LUMEN pilots makes it actually not difficult at all. Mostly I warp the fleet about to wherever the next target location is, and make sure folks stay together somewhat during travel. Once on grid, the expertise of the individual pilots take over. 

Of course, I do not claim that these rescue fleets require the same capacity as real battle fleets such as those we face in Syndicate. But still, even though it is a small step, it is a step forward.

Sometimes I have to keep the pilots' zeal in check: they would take over from other rescuing fleets for example, claiming that we can be faster! But in the end, if multiple rescue workers run the same operation, they just end hindering each other. And if we sometimes have to wait for the next operation, well that is a good sign: our navy seems to need search-and-rescue operations less frequently than at the start of this conflict. We are defeating the drifter incursion.

Of course, it is not all joy and victory. The greatest dread of the fleet commander (well at least for an amateur) is losing ships. I lost two. My first loss was Dr. Larnoniette Marcelle Ellecon, a medical professional and pilot. An ideal combination of skills to have on a rescue mission, and I think that made her the primary target of the Drifters.

I fretted and felt guilt - should I have been more attentive, and warped her our or tried to save her in another way? Would she blame me? None of that! She simply reshipped and warped back and continued, apparently still happy to have me as fleet shepherd. She did not blame me at all. 

Let the expertise and forgiving nature of our pilots be an assurance to all those in LUMEN aspiring to lead a fleet out on some venture.

Angel cartel sabotage

A terrorist attack took place on one of Hedion University's research facilities. The Angels - nothing at all to do with Sefrim, quite the opposite! - have detonated a bomb at this temple of learning. Incapable of standing up to our navy, they target the innocent: students and physics professors.

Thank God the Ministry of Information are identifying the culprits and keeping us permanently safe from them. But this is not to work of a lone terror cell. The Angel Cartel as a whole is attempting to sabotage research on the telemetry we obtained through blood, sweat and tears fighting the Drifters. 

Word is that the Cartel fears getting pushed back in the race to invade the Drifter homeworlds. I do not quite believe that: through their alliance with the Deathless, these pirates should already have access to all the Jove technology they need to stage an incursion in the Drifter home systems. 

I believe their real focus is to keep us from dismantling the organisation of the Deathless. Once we control the skies over the Drifter homeworlds, we might be able to crack the defenses of Zarzakh too.

Amarr Never Sleeps

The efforts of the faithful are relentless. The fleet operations have been going on nearly continuously, with one commander taking the place of another commander when the latter needs to rest and recover. It has been a privilige to do my part in these rotations!

At some point, we had the Drifters almost completely gone from highsec Amarr, their only presence being in lowsec, or systems made lawless by other pirate incursions. 

Truly, the faith is not a flash of light, but a constant burning fire. Whereas our competitors may have outperformed us at the onset, with short-term profit in mind, I am confident that our slow but constant burn will outpace them at the end. 

However, we must not keep out of sight that the true race here is the battle against the Drifters, rather than other Concord signatories. Now more than ever it is clear beyond any doubt that they do not feel any compassion or empathy towards other life-forms. 

If they treat us as insects, it is time we let them feel that we can sting.

Uncharacteristic impulse

I do not know what came over me.

When I was ready to resume the search and rescue operations, and my communications officer told me no fleet was available for me to join, I exclaimed, "Well, then we will form a fleet ourselves."

As one, the crew turned and looked at me. Mr. Firth stared too, with open mouth. I understand their surprise: I have never led any fleet. Any real fleet that is - I think being a tour guide for a bunch of shuttles doing a pilgrimage to the Mekhios monument does not really count as fleet command in the eyes of my crew. Also, they all know I am a listener, not a commander! 

Perhaps it was the atrocities of the Drifters, or seeing Luna's pain for her wounded son, but somehow I shrugged off my concerns, and asked the comms officer to set up a fleet advert to the faithful. That is also something new and hence somewhat confusing to me. I do not want to end up enlisting enemies of the Empire by accident, or broadcasting a call to arms to Triglavians.

Gaun Arel, selfless and courageous as always, was the first to join this fleet. As much as Luna, Aria and Ishta are my unwavering guardian angels during explorations planetside and in stations, Gaun has been my guardian angel for risky missions out in space. The noble paladin can be counted on to look out for me while I do my thing in space. 

We were joined by mr. Lafisques too. He has been helping with search and rescue missions near Amarr, even though he sends his telemetry results to the Society of Conscious Thought rather than the Empire. I do not mind, I like him, and the SoCT is not an enemy of the empire - even though I do find their activities suspicious. 

A more pressing moral question presented itself when a local mercenary by the name of Tiax Atram asked whether the could join our fleet. My political officer mr. Firth gave me the green light. Even though mr. Atram is only in it for the money, his actions will help the Empire. And it will help the MIO to better document him and his flight tactics. Mr. Atram proved to be a reliable squad member.

Divine providence brought paladin commander Arline Kley to our fleet right about at the time when I was getting tired from the nervous tension caused by this first fleet command. I was happy to hand over command to this battle-hardened and most formidable leader. 

Directix Deilyx

I continued to assist in search and rescue operations in systems with a Drifter incursion, glad that a capsuleer who disavowed the use of violence finally has a meaningful way to contribute in such events.

Bringing back navy personnel home, rescuing them from their escape pods, is a meaningful task. But it is not until someone close is affected that this really hits home hard. One person rescued - not by me though, but by fellow rescue workers - is an (adopted) son of our Directrix. Asad's ship was shot down near Mishi, where Luna has family roots.

In order to care for her son, she is reducing her duties for the Societas and the Khimi Harar alliance for a few months. This news unsettled me, I have been taking her enduring guidance for granted. But then, it is not the first break for family reasons that Luna has had to take; she did not have much fortune in these matters lately. 

The new Directix for the time being will be lady Thea van Deilyx. I do not know her as well as I do Luna, but I am confident that Viscountess Deilyx will be able to lead the alliance with a firm hand in these trying times. 

We have held a service at Gottin's Lamp's chapel with prayers for Luna and her family, followed by prayers for God to bless our new Directix, and grant her success and wisdom guiding the Societas and the alliance. 

For Empress and for Amarr

Perhaps it was the sight of that ghostly asteroid and its prison rock yesterday that kept me thinking and worrying all night about the poor monks that the Drifters see fit to use in their vile experiments.

I felt the need to do more that mere covert surveying, so I resolved to join one of LUMEN's anti-Drifter fleets again. I signed up for search-and-rescue missions: due to my vow of non-violence I cannot take part in offensive operations.

The Indagatrix is not really suitable for that - our fitting experts suggested a punisher-class hull with armor repairers, capacitor stabilization, and a lot of salvaging equipment. It was not too difficult to procure one in Amarr, and I named it Lumen Salvatrix - the redeeming light. 

The final hurdle: my political officer. To my surprise he was not against this type of mission, although he clearly prefers covert monitoring operations. But he is worried (as am I) that pirate factions and Triglavians are getting ahead in the arms race that this war has turned into. Amarr dropping behind reflects badly on our beloved Empress, so we need all (capsuleer) hands on deck to respond to this situation. Even the search-and-rescue missions contribute to our progress in the race, and are therefore doubly valuable.

I was pleased to join a fleet led by commander Tather Borg and graced by the presence of Paladin Arline Kley, one of the fiercest warriors I know, and Albion Areculus and Vindica Irvam. The fleet was very dynamic: various pilots joined and left over the duration of the operations. At one point, fleet command was carried over to Maerrin so operations could continue while Ms. Borg took the necessary rest. I note with gladness that we also received kind help from non-Amarr pilots. Mr. Lafisques, a pacifist who keeps the good of entire mankind front and central, lent a hand during our rescue missions.

The depths of evil of our adversaries were revealed: they attacked rescue workers! Thank God their attacks were ineffective due to the expertise of our fitting engineers and the superiority of Amarr armor.

Knowing I have done my part today, and tired from the work of salvaging stasis pods, I will definitely sleep better tonight.

Pareidolia

Humans are primed -by evolution- to recognize faces and facial expressions. It is a useful trait to quickly see another face and interpret whether it is friendly or not. As a result, we tend to see them often also in inanimate objects, even if there is no face. This effect is called "pareidolia".

Indeed, there are many stories of people seeing the face of a famous saint appear on toast bread.

Now, I do not believe that randomly burned pieces of toast convey heavenly messages, but you have to admit that the asteroid below does look as if it has two dark eyes staring right at you (and a very knobbly head, and tentacles). 

They are not happy eyes.

The asteroid in question is located in a Drifter wormhole, where there is little reason for happiness. Of course, the pareidolia here is caused by the effect of light falling on the rock, but still, I found it an ominous sight. More evil is what the monstrous shape seems to hold in front of its tentacles:

It is a colony of sorts. Not a sleeper colony, those look very different. This one looks more suited for regular human habitation, like a regular asteroid colony. It has windowed towers sticking out from both poles of the round asteroid. Very likely it is a prison colony, given the fact that it is surrounded by four defensive Drifter sentries. There are many other unanswered questions about this, for example why this was placed near the large, unhappy looking asteroid, but not built on the larger one. 

Mr. Firth allowed me to share these pictures, as long as I do not reveal the precise location, while we find out more about it.

A new arms race

I have again done mr. Ivan Firth a favor, doing some exploration for the Ministry of Internal Order.

This is not sustainable - they treat me like an unpaid mission worker! 

Anyway, this secret mission -mostly mapping- has again been in the context of the war against the Drifters, which itself is an escalation of Drifter violence caused by the Deathless' capture of Jovian technology. Initial victories in repelling the Drifter incursions have emboldened not only our Empire, but all four core powers and even pirate factions. There is a real hunger for new Jovian technology, and even whispers of a full-scale incursion into their home worlds. 

There is a real belief that we can pull it off, and avenge the death of Empress Jamyl. But this hubris worries me, one should not forget that it is Jovian technology that we would be pitted against. And even if we do capture some shiny new toy, who knows what will happen when we push the big red button on it? The logic is that we need to participate in this race for new weapons, lest our enemies capture it first.

But, in my opinion, arms races are never good. It would be better to discuss disarmament, or a ban on such technology, enforced by Concord.

The previous race, to obtain what turned out to be a shipcaster device, came at a high cost: Republic interference in the testing of a stellar harvester in Turnur ended in disaster...

Ribbon

Tradition calls for LUMEN pilots to be bedecked by medals, ribbons, stars and badges commemorating our  participation in various (in)famous battles. But of course also baseliners get decorations (be it not from our Directrix). 

The Ministry of Internal Order commended mr. Firth for his bravery obtaining information in the heat of battle in Tabbetzur. The ministry appreciated the samples of the jump gate disrupting gas, but much more than that, they were happy with the proof that the Republic fleet in Tabbetzur was focusing their efforts on obtaining connection harmonics rather than on saving their own people. This footage will be a great weapon in the propaganda war, to be contrasted with how Amarr navy dreads are busy saving monks from Drifter torture! 

The little ribbon that is now attached to his uniform has reinvigorated mr. Firth. More than proving past bravery, I think it will instill future bravery. And increase ambition.

Wonders of the enemy homeworld

With mr. Firth on sick leave for his frayed nerves, I took the liberty to join an exploratory ARC fleet into a Drifter home system. The fleet's mission was firstly to see if any of the "connection harmonics" might have been captured by Drifters and still could be found in their battleships in their home, and secondly to see if there are any new types of anomalies in the system.

My role was to scan down the signatures in the system, something that the Indagatrix does well. It was my first excursion into a Drifter wormhole. Even though I have seen and read about them, seeing it by one's own 'eyes' or ship scanners is a different thing. 

The most awe-inspiring site is the location where Tyrannos Tekton is operating on a vast debris field. It seems to be incapsulated in some sort of spacetime distortion bubble, that creates a dome of light and curtain clouds above and below. The debris are remnants of some megastructure, and electric discharges can be seen between them. 

There was a vast number of wormholes in the system, well over fifty. It took a little while before they were all triangulated. These link to systems in our cluster that have a Jove observatory, and are created artificially. In addition there are some other anomalies. Among them structures that might have been jump gates of some sort, like this one:

The ring now contains a violent, untraversable wormhole. As the Drifters meddle more and more with space and time in their systems to create paths into our worlds, rifts like this might proliferate, and end up engulfing their entire system... Perhaps to find ways of undoing such damage, they have research facilities on ultrahigh-energy physics, using an array of accelerator rings hundreds of kilometers long, one feeding the next, in a pulse that traverses them.

Ah, how I'd like to see how close they can get to the ultimate scale where the quantum foam coarsens spacetime itself! To be allowed to design and perform experiments on such a machine! Clearly, the core empires want to invade the Drifter worlds not merely to punish the Drifters, but also to reap the benefits of their science and technology.

As for the fleet - it did not find anything new happening in the Drifter world, nor did it find any of those harmonics. 

Actually that is not a bad outcome as far as I am concerned: if the fleet had retrieved some and not brought them all to the MIO, I would surely have gotten some insistent questions.

Tabbetzur battle report

Yesterday the Indagatrix left early in the day to an undisclosed location, at the request of the ship's political officer mr. Ivan Firth. I was not allowed to write about it until after the operation.

Mr. Firth's superiors had suggested that he ask me to go "do a bit of exploration in Tabbetzur in the rebel provinces, on March 6th in the early evening". There were reports that the Republic fleet would be doing a major operation there and then. There was a lot at stake: possible access to the Deathless' mysterious Jovian "Warden" megastructure in Zarzakh. In addition, an unusual amount of large wormhole connections to Amarrian space were reported from Tabbetzur, and the Empire is always wary of another Minmatar elder fleet type sneak attack.

Mr. Firth was definitely not happy about this, I got the impression that he even hoped I would refuse. I did not. He suggested we might just watch the wormholes in Amarr space, in order to avoid his brand new MIO emergency stasis pod being retrieved (with him inside) by Republic forces in case the Indagatrix would be taken down. 

I did not completely succeed to reassure him, as was evident when he showed up for the operation wearing a disguise: he was dressed as a warp engine mechanic. Or rather, as he imagined warp engine mechanics were dressed, I do not think they spill that much engine oil on a coverall factory uniform with "mechanic" printed over it. 

We had no troubles traveling through the lawless rebel provinces, but when we arrived in Offikatlin at the gate to Tabbetzur, we found that it was closed, not by traffic control, but by an act of sabotage.

The green-blue cloud surrounding the gate, and the typical lightning strikes suggested this was the Drifter's doing. They had been active for a while in Tabbetzur, just as they are in other incursion systems, but it was the first time I have seen them disrupt a jump gate. I took telemetry and a cloud gas sample as mr. Firth monitored my progress from a terminal close to the exit leading to his escape pod.

Republic engineers were able to bring the gate back on-line, and we were able to sneak past a capsuleer pirate blockade into the system. I made several deep-space safes, and mr. Firth suggested that we stick to these deep space locations and restrict ourselves to remote probing of the situation. He was following the progress of my scanning on his datapad, this time from the close vicinity of his escape pod. 

The probes found that a large Republic fleet of dreadnoughts jumped into the system using a cynosural field, in stead of using the camped jump gates. Rather than attacking the drifters, the Republic fleet took aim to a research structure of the Deathless. The structure evidently emitted signals linked to the Warden structure in Zarzakh. So, the Republic's goal was indeed to capture materials or data from the Deathless circle, rather than to liberate their people from Drifter torture. Righteously infuriated about this betrayal of the "we come for our people" slogan, hundreds of capsuleers spontaneously attacked the dreadnought fleet in indignation. Of course, the Indagatrix on its secret mission could not take part in that. 

I decided to take a closer look at the battle and the Warden research station, despite fierce protest from Mr. Firth. This he conveyed to me from inside his escape pod, where he had pre-emptively taken place, convinced as he was of our imminent demise. It was indeed not easy even to go look at the situation, as the entire area surrounding the Warden research station had debris or asteroids that uncloaked the Indagatrix the moment she warped in. Also, no matter how far off grid a nearby bookmark was placed, the ship always landed in the middle of the fray. 

We had to warp in from a certain direction, take data snapshots, and immediately warp back out after landing, relying on the inertial stabilizers to give us enough agility to escape in time and on a warp core stabilizer as a last-ditch resort. What we witnessed using this strategy, was a shocking four-way fight that lasted roughly an hour. 

The capsuleers were battling the Minmatar dreadnought fleet, and (more often) each other. A large Drifter fleet warped in, about fifty vessels including a dozen battleships. They attacked the Minmatar fleet and the Deathless ships that tried to protect their structure against the onslaught of the Republic dreads. Deathless circle, Republic fleet, Drifters, and independent capsuleers, in the end everyone was shooting everyone. 

The Republic fleet did achieve its aim, as lancers were able to take down the Warden research station (one blow that pierces through one of the station's structures is shown above). But it came at a great loss, the Republic fleet itself was destroyed. The Drifters warped off, as capsuleers scavenged the wrecks while still at each other's throats. 

Who knows what data (and loot) they could recover from the wrecks - the field was too hot for us to try and get Warden data. But in the end, I wonder whether this will really have been worth all the bloodshed and loss of life...

We remained in the system, sitting out events in a deepspace safe, before a final scan and then making our way back to Offikatlin and then to Amarr. 

Mr. Firth has taken up a few days of sick leave.

Night terror

I had a scare last night. 

I usually do not sleep very deeply, and often wake up briefly during the night, almost immediately returning to slumber. This time, in just such a confused moment between sleep and wakefulness, I saw a ghost. As I squinted to see it better, it seemed it was an apparition of Saint Jamyl. Her faint outline seemed to hover in the room, with a drifter-green glow. 

I am afraid I screamed rather loudly.

The adrenalin shock woke me up immediately. Then, with palpitating heart, I remembered the glow-in-the-dark figurine that I bought. I may have uttered some curses that I will have to mention during next confession.

This morning I brought the figurine back to the merchant; I do not want to keep this weird idol any more. I was just in time, he was packing up shop, moving his business to Safizon. 

Indeed, it was revealed by fleet commander DutchGunner that the retrieved female corpse is now in Safizon, not Mehatoor. It also appears that the corpse may have been identified, and it definitely is not the Empress. The merchant does not believe it. "So why bring'er to Saffie then? Is just where she should be restin', it is, seeing as they offed her there", he said. 

He continued on a rather angry rant, complaining about the "extremely anti-business attitude of LUMEN". He considers himself a captain of industry in the trade in sacred paraphernalia, which he felt was singled out by LUMEN leadership in a recent memo sent to their personnel. 

Also, he told me there are no take-backs on sales, especially not for the phosphorescent figurine as he sold it at a rebate. He suggested that for a bit of extra pay I could swap it for a rivet from the Empress' Abaddon (with a certificate of authenticity), but this time I stood firm and refused the offer. So, I still have the glow-in-the-dark Jamyl. 

I do not want to put it back in my room, and I think it is too frivolous for the Chapel, so I will put it on a shelf in the bar at Gottin's Lamp.

Tetrimon monastery under threat

Adding insult to injury, the Drifters initiated a hostile incursion into Thebeka a few days ago. Thebeka is the system where the main Tetrimon fortress monastery is located. The greenish nebula that accompanies their incursions cast a sickly pale on one of the most beautiful space monasteries. 

The Tetrimon fortress monastery

The Drifters are known to torture monks during their incursions, to find the breaking points of their will and faith. Baron Redwolfe could not let this happen in the Tetrimon's space headquarters! He mustered a fleet, and I was happy to be able to assist as an Augoror pilot. Not for salvage and rescue missions, but to provide capacitor transfer to our navy's Bane dreadnaught. With its lancer weapon it is more than capable to destroy the Drifter's "Destructive Scrutinizer" structure performing the inhumane experiments.

A destroyed Destructive Scrutinizer with a monastery in the backdrop 

I noticed that some veteran fleet members felt unease, some even showing a nervous twitch, at the prospect of going into battle in Thebeka. Years ago (I was still at my own asteroid monastery, unaware of worldly affairs) a Blood Raider chemical attack on Thebeka III provoked a slave uprising, and the counter-insurgency operation turned into a bloody conflict with many capsuleer parties involved in shifting alliances.  

This time I am happy to report that things went rather smoothly. The main Tetrimon monastery was never under any real threat, as it is protected by the mighty Order of Saint Tetrimon fleet. Smaller tributary monasteries were under attack, but these attacks were foiled by the LUMEN forces, and the incursion was ended.

Glow-in-the-dark saints

Our Directrix issued a formal statement to confirm that the remains of Saint Jamyl are not in LUMEN's medbay at our Mehatoor headquarters.

It was necessary - the situation was rapidly growing out of control. 

In front of the entrance to Gottin's Lamp, people deposited flowers and votive candles, and the sheer amount of these memorial gifts has been making it difficult to enter the Lamp. Even walking past it along the main hallway is problematic because many passersby stop, to look at the huge piles of flowers and take a moment to pray. Station maintenance complained about the potential fire hazard of a votive candle blaze fueled by dried flowers, but they have not removed these tokens of devotion out of fear of a public backlash. 

I was amazed to see how quickly souvenir stores and stalls popped up around the Lamp, selling flowers and prayer cards and candles with Empress Jamyl's image, and even glow-in-the-dark figurines of the Saint, miniature versions of her statue in the Mekhios graveyard.

Anyway Luna's statement seems to have had the desired effect on most of the locals. The steady stream of flowers has slowed down to a trickle over the course of the day, and maintenance crews are finally considering cleaning up the place, be it under the cover of night.

The pop-up souvenir store merchants are not too happy. I spoke with one of them, and he said he would still wait it out a bit. Luna's message has brought the rumor to the attention of a much broader audience, well beyond Mehatoor or the Kisana constellation, and he is counting on conspiracy theory pilgrims to interpret any denial as a cover-up. 

PS. These merchants are really good at their job. I do not quite remember how he talked me into it, but at the moment it felt as if I was doing a really good deal and a good deed, and now I regret having bought a glow-in-the-dark saint Jamyl statuette. 

Vigil for a nonexistent relic

Aria confirmed publicly that a female corpse was retrieved by the ARC/LUMEN fleet fighting the Drifters in their wormhole lair yesterday. The folk who earlier showed me their self-recorded holo of the salvage operation gave me a "See? Told you!" look. 

This news has put the rumor mill in overdrive. A growing number of baseliners whisper that the body of Saint Jamyl was taken to LUMEN's headquarters and is kept at Gottin's Lamp medbay, and that her holy remains are intact and are resting there.

Some people are demanding to visit the relic, despite my vehement assertion that we most certainly do not have the holy imperial remains in the medbay. Luna would have told me, I am sure. I mean, I cannot imagine that something so momentous would be kept secret from LUMEN's chaplain?

My denials do not help: in several locations where baseliners can come closest to Gottin's Lamp (it is mostly a capsuleer facility), they are now holding prayer vigils. Little shrines are popping up here and there in Mehatoor's 24th Imperial Crusade station. 

I had to ask folks to respect the serene atmosphere of the Chapel while holding their vigils there. I will allow silent prayers, but not loud worship of relics that are not even present. Worshippers are gathered around the overflowing candle racks, and most pray to the absent relic of the Empress for either personal help or for a swift end to the Drifter crisis. But some -growing in number- seem to believing that her Second Resurrection is near, and are praying for that. The more extreme even believe that Empress Jamyl is merely in stasis and that the medbay's doctors will revive her soon. 

Short of organising medbay tours I do not know how to convince them otherwise. And probably even tours would not stop them from fabricating another wishful fable...

New rumors

Once again I find myself trying to calm down some non-capsuleer station workers in the Lamp's congregation, baseliners who are riled up by weird rumors circulating among them. Often they do their jobs unseen by the capsuleers, going in and out of ships as crew members, maintenance teams, cargo or warehouse workers, sanitary workers, and so on. 

These rumors get stranger when there is a conflict, as now with the Drifters, and tend to become  mingled with conspiracy theories old and new. 

The story that circulates now is that the latest combat fleet that entered the Drifter home system in Anoikis has retrieved the corpse of the late Empress Jamyl in one of the battleships of a high-ranking Drifter officer that was also present at the fatal attack in Safizon. The baseliners continued in hushed voices to claim that this will lead to the second resurrection of the beloved Empress Jamyl, and will bring about a new era of peace in the Cluster.

They showed me a little bit of secretly taken footage of a female corpse being transported from the Drifter wreck to the vessel of the Arataka Research Consortium commander, clearly after an intense battle with Drifters. The corpse is not of a drifter female, but looks like a regular human corpse, perhaps capsuleer.

There is no way to find out whether the footage is real, but the man (and his friends) swear by the honesty of his nephew's dentist's sister-in-law's cousin, who serves on one of the LUMEN ships that was part of the fleet, and who took the footage. Even if it is real, there is no reason why this corpse would be who they think she is. I told them to stop spreading these rumors, turn in the footage to the MIO, and reflect on how unlikely this all is.