...as opposed to the zealous pursuit of self-enrichment and power through economic, political, and military means... how silly of me to not see the methods of your people as being all-that-different in the end.

Publicly broadcast personal torture to send a message to a single individual is quite different from economic exploitation, political pandering and military might expressed by nations against nations. Even these methods are conducted with some expected level of humanity and dignity to them.

So you would weigh the life of one man against the untold horrors unleashed by the larger States of New Eden?

I imagine the millions and millions of helpless civilians caught in the crossfire on the State / Federation border conflict for the last several years would disagree with your imagined levels of 'humanity and dignity.' Or the millions stuck in grinding poverty as cogs in your State machine, or the millions of unemployed Matari in the Federation eeking out a pathetic existence due to the inactions of the political elite.

All our hands are bloody in the pursuit of our goals.

You gleefully torture an individual and then broadcast it publicly and proudly. You commit atrocities simply because you can and use them to try and provoke a response from whomever you're trying to instigate. You crave self-indulgence and power, you care nothing for those that are destroyed in your wake and seek the benefit of none other than yourself.

... make no attempt to value the lives and worth of others, you enjoy acts of sadism and revel in the suffering of others especially when you can use them to further your own desires and goals.

Yes, I am a combat pilot. I have killed and I have never denied that.

Every life has value but that value is beyond measuring from any single individual or group of individuals. It is both relative and intrinsic at once, a paradoxical level of value that can be attributed to very few things.

The taking of a life is not inherently an evil thing, it is a solemn thing.

I do not take glee in the destruction of life and anyone that knows me would attest to that. It is never something I do lightly and it is never something I do flippantly. It is a solemn sacrifice, a conscious decision that I make as I pursue and uphold that which is most dear to me. My hands are indeed stained with blood. I have robbed a families of their fathers and mothers, I have stolen a mother's son or a father's daughter. I have laid to waste hopes and dreams and trampled over them in the pursuit of my own.

These are all things I have done but I have not done them with glee and pleasure, nor with jubilation and sadism. I have done them with a solemn burden, knowing that each life taken had value to someone, somewhere and I would never seek to dishonor that value even as I must steal it from them. It is the price I pay each day in fighting for that which I hold most dear.

I am a monster and I make no qualms about it. I am a beast who dreams of beauty, a warrior who dreams of peace. There is very little joy in the duty I bear, except the joy in knowing that I pay the price so another may not have to.

We are different monsters, you and I.

It is a wicked and vile thing to take pleasure in the killing of another but infinitely moreso is it an atrocity to take life for pleasure. You are guilty of both.

I'd also pose a question to Mr. Khross here,

As a combat pilot you have killed. You've made orphans of children, mothers mourn their sons and daughters, husbands and wives cry out into the night because of your actions.

You would have us believe each and every single time this happens you solemnly think of the greater good?

Each and every single time?

Or, do you allow yourself the smallest bit of joy in your victories? Do you find yourself exclaiming positive encouragement to your fleet mate capsuleers at enemy ship destruction? No shouts of victory accross voice-comms? Do you have even a moment, if only a small one, of joy at watching the destruction of someone who was minutes ago trying to kill you? Be honest.

I believe Ms. Vitalia's issue, and indeed, overarching philosophy, is to ask yourself why you would ever align your goals in any direction other than what you enjoy doing.

I have to say I don't entirely dissagree, though we in TS-F believe it is more moral to change what you enjoy when such conflicts with the whole's moral standard, rather than to change the moral standard to what is enjoyed. In the end it is just different solutions to the same problem. We both end up doing only things we can morally live with.

Can you live with what you've done, morally? If so, you really aren't that far off from Ms. Vitalia.

That is, unless you get off from self flagellation. That's cool too.

Mr. Khross,

No amount of navel-gazing and self-loathing will make your victims any less dead. Your moral 'code' is a vestigial legacy of a set of humanity to which you no longer belong.

Then you should enjoy what you do, Captain.

That was loathsome.



If it were made to be enjoyed, we wouldn't call it 'work.'

This is a fallacy. Work does not have to be tedious.

You are a capsuleer, and if nothing else you have remarkable freedom (unfortunately).

If you don't enjoy something, then it obviously doesn't align with something inside of yourself. There are two solutions to this problem. Either you start doing something that does align with something inside of yourself, or you change what is inside of yourself to align with what you do. Anything else is, frankly, insanity.

With these good tidings however comes a directive; Those of you who follow Omir Sarikusa have been led astray. His failures are monument. His weakness is undeniable. His low-born ***** of a mother mocks our faith, and mocks your dedication. He will be purged and his sect made whole again.

I declare any of Omir's faithful the enemy of my sect. I will kill any Blood Raider I meet, and give no mercy to his followers. Renounce your allegiance and serve me. I will be merciful to those who see reason... for a time.

Capsuleer followers of Omir are especially warned.

Let it be known, let it be written.

If this is the path you wish to tread then i must warn you that deadlier foes have tried to end Omir and the Chosen and all have been bled to nothing more than withered husks.

I fear you lack the conviction to threaten us for long.