With the completion of this campaign Serpentis high command has requested we direct our forces back to Federation space in order to assist them with safeguarding their operations and interests in the region of Placid.

The Serpentis give the people what they want, is that such a bad thing?

I disagree.

Serpentis take advantage of a lifestyle of excess that exists throughout the Federation, peddling their narcotics to an unsuspecting people. Their promises of care free indulgence are soon broken as the innevitable dependency takes root and pains of withdrawal take their toll on the victims.

No, Serpentis does not give the people what they want. They give the people what they come to need.

Only through intervention, through challenging Serpentis when and where possible to interrupt the supply of these poisons, and through concerted treatment and recovery programmes can this cycle be prevented.

What the people want is a stable, secure peace to go about their lives, free from the interference of drug pushers and pirates. Simply something Serpentis cannot provide.

We of the Ishkone-Raata Enforcement directive are ready to assist our long time allies in the Intaki Prosperity Initiative...

Serpentis are a blight upon New Eden. If their intentions were magnanimous as Joshua Foiritain wants everyone to believe, we capsuleers would not be employed by reputable agents on a regular basis to eliminate their forces from our skies..

We would not find them infesting our asteroid belts, waiting to prey upon miners or patrollers alike. Their ships would not fire upon us when unprovoked. They would not lurk in dark corners like vipers hoping for unsuspecting prey to stray into striking distance. We would not hear the distress calls of their victims.

There is no nobility nor honor, no peace nor prosperity, in trafficking drugs. These pirates know only greed and a perverse desire to create dependency in order to exert dominance.

Media corporation?

There is no nobility nor honor, no peace nor prosperity, in trafficking drugs. These pirates know only greed and a perverse desire to create dependency in order to exert dominance. IPI will not stand for it, and neither will our friends.

If you really want to defend the interests of the Serpentis cartel, then I wholeheartedly invite you to come down to Syndicate as well. I'm sure the crippled Serpentis forces here are in some desperate need of assistance after a focused campaign to weed them out where they do not belong.

Should you ever become more then an insignificant nuisance we will let you know.

While to the shortsighted neural boosters may appear to be mere drugs I can assure you they are far, far more than that. Neural boosters allow a pilot to exceed its limits beyond anything you can imagine and offers massive tactical advantages on the battlefield. When this little cold war turns into a full blown war between the empires and the Caldari Navy fleets are burning your precious Placid region to the ground; think of us and all the things we have to offer.

...think of us and all the things we have to offer.

your ships have been decimated, your assets are burning and your pilots are cowering. You stand for so little two of your fellow pilots have already turned traitor and are supplying us with intelligence.

Let's just pump ourselves full of narcotics and bathe in each other's blood while we trip out instead.

...Coreli Directorate issued a declaration of war against the Intaki Prosperity Initiative, the purpose of this war is to disrupt the IPI... ...by decimating the IPIGÇÖs combat and industrial capabilities...

...peaceful Serpentis trading ships...

...the important work of the Serpentis for a better tomorrow.

...your ships have been decimated, your assets are burning...

You overestimate the strategic importance of the Syndicate region and that of your organization. Should you ever become more then an insignificant nuisance we will let you know.

How is your custom office busting going?

...the Serpentis for a better tomorrow.

pilots of the State militia intervened, despite there being no agreement with the IPI, to challenge Coreli Corporation and other opportunistic pirates.

So because boosters make people into more efficient killing machines, that makes them acceptable? Of course we shouldn't try to focus on ending the war, no, not at all. Let's just pump ourselves full of narcotics and bathe in each other's blood while we trip out instead. Yes, that sounds exactly like the kind of world I and many others want to live in.

The collective pool of knowledge your organizations represent could offer New Eden drugs that do actual useful things. But Serpentis drugs don't cure disease, manage mental or physical infirmities, or anything else positive. They simply promote death.

Besides, if boosters really were the boon you proclaim them to be, pirate organizations like yours wouldn't be the ones manufacturing them. Sarpati and company wouldn't need to hide behind Angels in lawless space in order to do their dirty work.

The majority of boosters originate outside of empire space, and what can be found inside empire space has to be smuggled in or produced in shady, underground laboratories where I can only imagine the health and safety standards leave much to be desired. The majority of these boostersGÇöthe ones you say bestow that so-called "massive tactical advantage"GÇöcarry legal penalties in a long list of jurisdictions. These penalties didn't come about by accident.

There are billions of common people who are at very high risk from using boosters. Don't for a second expect me to believe you take any care whatsoever in making sure the drugs you peddle are kept out of their hands. The more you sell, all the better for you.

Regardless of who uses them, narcotics, which as I pointed out form the base of booster production, are highly addictive in both a physical and emotional way. Boosters, like any drug, are poisonous to the body and interfere with areas such as neurotransmission. With repeated use, substances which alter natural brain functions result in destroyed nerve fibers, which in turn means the user has to use even more of (or more potent variations of) the drug to achieve the same level of functionality experienced before. Being off the drug reveals the damage done, as nerve fibers don't grow back. The stronger the drug (booster) required, the higher the chance of suffering even more serious side effects becomes.

Of course if Serpentis and their Coreli affiliates really were interested in the "innocent" pursuits of trade and commerce, I'd expect them to make good use of established and growing markets such as Intaki 5-5. The system benefits from established infrastructure but instead their pilots make repeated attempts to undo the efforts of others, through repeated (failed) attempts on ILF customs offices, we must assume with the intention to start over, at cost.

It's not quite the efficient business model I'd expect from a group of their age, intent on "peaceful trading".

Hiding behind your allies.

The Serpentis Corporation on the other hand has had military assets in the region for years and has made many attempts to improve its infrastructure.

As for the war; 15 days in, 1.3 billion isk in your assets destroyed, any effort on the IPI's part to fight back has been without result and ~10% of the IPI's member base has left and sought employment elsewhere.

Hiding behind your allies

...disrupt the IPIGÇÖs anti-Serpentis military operations...

seems they allready won the morale war considering they had to move on to destroying customs offices due to lack of engagement in space

Though i've heard reports that they like to hide in high-sec space under CONCORD protection. This of course is extremely ironic bureaucratic oversight on their part...

In contrast though, as our activities continue, regardless of any Coreli threat, we have noted a drop in presence from their pilots. Instead they are reported as active, away from Intaki in Black Rise.

It seems they will even completely contradict their attempts to play the upstanding, concerned antipirate group, attacking an unrelated corporation - the Department of Health and Wellness - who they refer to as "innocent bystanders" but are all too happy to inflict losses regardless and then congratulate themselves on their own GalNet portal over the theft of a small POS tower.

So again, this is not a war of numbers, but one of patience and commitment to one's cause.

I said in my initial response here, Coreli Corporation are not the first to arrive and loudly proclaim a change in the landscape only to move on afterwards. And so as I flew throughout the Viriette constellation earlier this evening I noted that I was there and Coreli Corporation were not. Some things never change.

Intaki endures.

Wow. Didn't think Damar would coroborate my sources, but yeah. Warp-stabbed battlecruisers? I mean, really?

Though i've heard reports that they like to hide in high-sec space under CONCORD protection. This of course is extremely ironic bureaucratic oversight on their part...

With the massive loss of active pilots you are suffering

The other pilots who have recently left us were advised by us to do so. These individuals are miners and industrialists who have no interest in war. They work with us because their interests align with IPI's economic goals for the Intaki sovereignty. They did not want to go, but they do have quotas to fill, contract deadlines to meet, and so on. We wish them well and look forward to having them rejoin us in the future.

we found ourselves short on targets

Besides, you were the ones that threw them under the bus to begin with, not much point in protesting now.

Its interesting how the IPI calls us the bad guys for working with Serpentis but then turn around and join forces with an organization which is not only an enemy of the Federation but has also been deemed worthy of being killed on sight by Navy and Militia forces

I guess Serpentis Damage Control wouldn't be better than Tech II after all.

Our battlecruiser setups allowed us to quickly and repeatedly reinforce their customs offices

I was building off Andreus Ixiris' comment for mere humor, actually.

Anyone who only considers the mathematics of our member count will probably come to this conclusion, and I suppose if this shallow assessment satisfies such people, there is little to be done about it. On the other hand, it occurs to me that if Coreli had initially done better research into IPI then they might not need those DC II units that Mr Ixiris is so kindly offering.

I'll take this opportunity, then, to freely provide some illumination for those who care to know what the math actually means.

[...]

Where does this leave us? Ah yes. The movement of a handful of non-combat pilots from IPI. But as I already stated:
The other pilots who have recently left us were advised by us to do so. These individuals are miners and industrialists who have no interest in war. They work with us because their interests align with IPI's economic goals for the Intaki sovereignty. They did not want to go, but they do have quotas to fill, contract deadlines to meet, and so on. We wish them well and look forward to having them rejoin us in the future.

You chose to declare war on a corporation which was not a member of the Intaki Prosperity Initiative. True, that corporation had initially taken in a number of our non-combat pilots. But since that corporation was not a member of IPI, IPI leadership had no authority nor influence over any action its CEO undertook.

Since IPI is not aligned with any empire, it doesn't matter to us who anyone's navy/militia deems an enemy. IPI maintains relationships with many groups across New Eden, and many of those groups hate each other. We judge them on their own merits and how they interact with us.

You do realize there are more efficient ways of setting up battlecruisers for attacks on static infrastructure that don't imply- well, gross incompetence?

I was building off Andreus Ixiris' comment for mere humor, actually.

Isn't humor against State Law?

For this reason we will be dropping our official declaration of war against the IPI and refocusing our efforts on supporting Kobro Division's combat operations throughout the Placid region and strengthening the reconstruction of our neural booster research and development network.

Out of curiosity; How exactly have we been shooting ourselves in the foot?

I'm sorry, Warp Core stabbed Battlecruisers?

All you've really achieved is pushing groups who wouldn't usually go after Serpentis forces into action against them. Good job.

Haha right.
One of these days someone should explain why the concept of using war core stabilizers seems to cause violent spasms in the space-honor of various IGS visitors.

Ah yes the populace has risen up agai... wait no they didnt, Kobro Division just nuked an entire city from orbit and stole billions in assets from Combined Harvest and a grand total of 4 people cared; one of which was a reporter and one was a Sansha mutant.

It's got less to do with honor and more to do with using those warp core stabbed tier 3 battlecruisers is a great way to never lose a fight (but never win one either)

A lot more than that cared.

Right except we never used warp core stabbed battlecruisers to fight (since it takes +2 minutes to lock another ship), we used them to destroy customs offices, the entire point of the stabs was being able to run max dps setups without getting murdered by a tech 1 frigate.


Not enough to do something about it apparently, a grand total of two pilots actually tried to stop the assault on Evaulon.

The masses of destroyed Serpentis ships we harvested speak otherwise, Captain Foritain. This included two carriers.

I suggest you get your intelligence apparatus in order.

You'll find the Snuffbox fleet that came in destroyed the Serpentis ships did not care about Evaulon, they simply want to burn everything.