While pacifistic notions are all well and good, at this point it's fair to say few feel any such obligation toward the Tyrannos, who have not so much as issued demands, and who have visited fire and death on the Empire, and anyone who ventures near abandoned Jove structures even in sovereign space.




The doomsday fires. We just happen to ensure it misses. Our current understanding is that it tracks comparably or slightly worse than a Drifter's regular armament. The question was how we'd ensure a fleet can withstand regular weapons fire so that we could control the flow of the engagement, especially in a worst-case scenario with multiple (three or more) Drifters on field.

Two things. First, if you think that it's odd that anyone but the Amarr would be interested in aggressive action against the Drifters just because they've only had an extended campaign against the Amarr, you are a fool or worse.

Second, the Drifters have already had skirmishes with RSS on at least one occasion as reported by the Scope. It's entirely likely they've had the same with the Federation and State, and that we have just not heard about it already.

Until they adapt. But then, we will in turn.

My apologies, Alizabeth, but I must address a few mischaracterizations.

Prior to November of last year, the Drifters' doomsday weapon never missed. At that point, we were quite right in maintaining the core ARC doctrine of Caracal and Scythe, as any heavier or more advanced ship would expose us to worse losses. Following the surprising development in November of Drifters' weapons tracking failures (I could theorize on the cause of this, but it's a digression for later), our losses started to fall. Indeed, in Redoubt, due to the Wolf-Rayet's properties, we would often have ops with the loss of only one or two cruisers, despite encounters with multiple Drifters. Conflux was, for obvious reasons, a place where we'd suffer disproportionately because of the signature-flaring element of the binary Pulsar.

The maximum assumed losses would be one per Drifter, but it was far more reasonable to assume we'd keep it to three or four cruisers on a given operation, which is still notably less value than the loss of a single advanced technology cruiser or a battleship of any class.

That said, at that point Drifters were continuing to fight at high speed and at a fair distance.

It was, what, in February or March that Drifters began responding to the use of massed fleets of destroyers and frigates by using a slower, closer-in orbit? It was at this point that efforts to further restrict losses could develop. I believe it was Captain Shutaq that identified this during an operation, was it not? And from that seed grew the current doctrine.

In any case, carrying forward, we still must establish a track record before I consider the matter completely settled. A lossless public Hive operation remains a notable milestone, but even periodic losses of a Basilisk will be an expense.

My concern remains this: there are rumors of fleet command electronics changes in the pipe which may influence the viability of this doctrine. Further, the Drifters seem to want their pound of flesh. A lossless doctrine may spur them to further refine their tactics in the way a low-loss doctrine doesn't.

As always, we will continue to adapt and refine our methods.

Just know that adaptation may require future sacrifice.

Specifically, because a Drifter's standard weapons fire would fairly quickly destroy smaller ships, and they fairly reliably hit them.

We've had several specific criteria for our doctrine ships:

1. Must be able to withstand regular weapons-fire from several Drifter battleships, allowing time for Logistics intervention.
2. Must be able to reliably apply damage to a range of small or fast-moving targets.
3. Must be able to act effectively in a range of wormhole environments.
4. Must be inexpensive, given assumption of casualties.
5. Must be effective against Capsuleer threats, given unsecure combat environment with limited operational security.

RLML Caracals and Scythes hit a sweet spot. The only location where a shield-based doctrine would be non-ideal, the Redoubt Hive with its Wolf-Rayet binary partner, is a location where the rapid light missile launcher is an ideal weapon system.

I'll admit I've generally been resistant to doctrinal drift despite pressure, simply because the Caracal is such an effective platform for our purposes.

As far as hate goes--I have that in copious quantities when it comes to the Drifters.

Arra, I can get you into ARC Coord for a billion ISK, but since we're such good friends, I can cut it down to 500m. Oh, and I can move all your ships to our staging.

We SRP everything. Even your officer fit Barghest.

Our last operation was quite successful. Five Drifters killed for no losses.

It seems that they're not quite hiding as much as before, but are now huddling together for protection. There were three Drifters in the Hive proper: two Artemis and one Hikanta. It was kind of cute. And utterly unsuccessful. There is no protection from me.

"Run and you shall be crushed.
Stand and you shall fall.
[The rest does not apply to the Drifters.]"
- Emperor Arrach Sarum

With all due respect, Elmund... no, it isn't. I've dealt with some of the cluster's biggest egos - Mittens, Piggle, Asher, Gigx, Gevlon, Del'thul, The Boatman... me... this is nothing. This is less than two minutes in local with TEST, or Horde - or us, for that matter. If there is a god, it certainly doesn't give a damn about what Ali's said. If it did, the rampant egotism that is null would've been the focus of these things, not the Empires.

There is a God and He is on the side of the Amarr.