A Difference of Opinion

Why is it that the change of a single word can make such an incredible difference?



"Jump" becomes "Hold!" and it is to late, your ship is rematerializing amidst the enemy fleet.



"Murder" is what they call it if you attack a man without provocation. "A kill" is what they call it when you destroy a ship with hundreds aboard.



And a "slave" is somehow different than a "free man", despite both wishing to remain in service, recieving the same treatment, quality of life, and being killed with the same impunity when enemy fire tears your ship apart.

I just don't understand some people.


Let me explain fully. During our month-long operations in the Great Wildlands, we raided numerous Angel Cartel prison complexes. The poor men and women unfortunate enough to be caught in the clutches of the Cartel are taken here to be "processed" that is, stripped of any money or valuables, tortured for any valuable information, and then ransomed. Or enslaved if a ransom is unlikely or not proceeding smoothly.
And so it is when we, in our rampaging machines of death, come crashing into these complexes that these people are able to make it to industrial-grade cargo containers capable of withstanding the damage we create, and are from there taken into my cargo bay.

Really, looking at these people after we returned from the raid, I can see why so many hate the idea of slavery. They are ragged, many broken internally from the shock of it all or the beatings used to force them into compliance. Others still have open wounds from abuse - or yet worse, use - by the guards. Almost universally, however, they wish to go home. Back to the Wildlands. Seeing as how they wished to leave, and I could not remotely blame any form of crime comitted within the Empire's territory on any of them, I had no right - morally or legally - to keep them.

This proved to be tricky in the extreme. Because of my heritage, all I need to do is approach anyone in the Thukker Tribe stations, speak the word "slave" and promptly be met by a wall of stony silence. So I was forced to go to the only person I knew with Thukker affiliations who would listen to me.

Zuzanna Alondra. Again. And initially, it went surprisingly well with her. She didn't cut the line the instant I said I still had (willing) slaves, and I humbly sat through the generic lecture on how slavery is bad. And frankly, I think we would have both come out better for it, except that she just had to pass it by her CEO.

Who promptly refused to have anything to do with a slaveholding Amarrian. Even if it involved slaves being freed.

Because somehow, even if they wish to remain as such, to have a slave is wrong.

As I said, I just do not understand some people. If one brother wants nothing to do with an older sibling and fights to be free of him, is it right for the older sibling to refuse the friendlyness of another younger brother? For the older sibling to say "I am sorry, we cannot be siblings anymore. I can help and tutor you, but I am no longer the older sibling you looked up to and who protected you." ? If someone did that, the older sibling would be called a jerk.

Zuzanna is not an inherently bad person. She obviously wants the very best for people. But really, the words "naieve" and "narrowminded" do come to mind.

Reformation

...otherwise known as "We got BoB'ed."

Or at least that is how some of the other members of the alliance have termed it. Either way, the facts remain the same - on the sixteenth of February, a disgruntled ex-CEO of one of the corporations in our alliance somehow managed to gain control of the NeoCom account of a director within the executor corporation, and, in the next few hours, stole billions of ISK in assets and the proceeded to remove nearly all the corps from the alliance. He would have succeeded in completely disbanding the alliance and around twenty billion more in assets if not for the quick thinking of the CEO of the executor corporation.

His reason for perpetrating this? One of the other corporations in the alliance had accepted pilots previously in Goonswarm. He then proceeds to use a tactic Goonswarm is credited with pioneering to take his 'revenge'.

Oh, the irony.



Regardless, we persevere. Sovereignty was maintained, and the station in the constellation is now back in our hands.

Which means I still have a host through which I can - with or without their knowledge - continue to further the Empire's interests. With the situation in Providence rapidly deteriorating, I am being forced to move some of my more delicate assets out of the area.

My packup softclones, for instance.


It seems everyone is going through changes and reformations lately.
Aldrith Shutaq has started an organization, "Knighthood of the Merciful Crown," which seeks to redeem capsuleers looking for redemption but who would be rejected by some of the 'harder' loyalist organizations, such as PIE. He's been joined by a Feinlyn, a Gallente who was apparently pulled out a life of alcohol and listlessness (he credits the Knighthood for giving him new direction in life - good for both of them) and Shalee Lianne, who I had the pleasure of talking to in an out-of-the way place on Amarr. Nice girl... and a lot different than I had believed her to be. Much more open and free-willed. By the same token, she also had me pegged as a hard-core conservative, so perhaps it's better we got to know each other better. The less misunderstandings in this universe, the better.
Then there is the whole situation in Providence. Regardless of how it ends, the region will not be the same.
And lastly...

No. She asked me not to discuss that openly. Even here there is to much risk.

Maybe when all this change is done with, I will be able to speak openly. It pains me that I have to remain silent on some things, even if it is for the sake of a close friend retaining her peace of mind.

Moving up, falling away.

Twenty-four jumps.

Twelve trips.

Six rounds trips.

Eleven million cubic meters of ships hauled.

Sixty thousand cubic meters of other assorted cargo hauled.

Nine hours in transit.

Approximately 255 light years traversed.

180,000 standard units of isotopes consumed.

Approximate cost of fuel - seventy two million.

Thank God it is nearly over. In my years of piloting, I do not think I have ever moved so much equipment so far in such a short time. But I guess that it why they call them carriers.

Besides, the engineering crew is reporting that the jump drives will need recalibration and possibly some replacement soon.

So why did I do it? Why did I leave the corp that I had - as I mentioned in my goodbye mail - worked for and been supported by for two days short of a year?

The answer is simple. Change. Or in this case, the decided lack of it.

Without change, we simply could not grow. We were doomed to fall behind, and from there into failure, never really providing the support and capabilities that are needed to survive in this world.

So I advanced.

Am I happy this occured? No. Not at all

This is not what I wanted. It is not what I wanted to happen at all. There are men and women in that corp I would gladly have worked with for years to come. But so it has occured, and so here I am.

Moving up towards success, but falling away from the ones who brought me here.