(IC) The Enemy of My Enemy Is…

No matter where you are in the galaxy, and no matter what you think you know, the truth of the world can always be found in a seedy capsuleer bar. The seedier the bar, the more bitter the truth on tap is. Not all capsuleer establishments are high-end, far from it in fact. These dives are where you can find the unabashed truth of how people are thinking, and anyone will tell you that if you can learn how people think, you can predict the damned future with nothing more than common sense.

Stories have been coming in from the rim. Tales of Sansha fleets, larger than what has been seen since they were sent fleeing for their lives. Vague reports of incursions are already popping up, and oddly most of these actions seem to focus on Amarr holdings. So, as I sit here in the Rectum (the bar was actually called “Rectum”, as the space was retrofitted from a waste-management area not too long ago) with a few other capsuleers who are not having as much luck as they think they should be having, throwing back some local brew and harping about rumors like a bunch of old crones.

I don’t get names because none are given in a place like this unless you pay for it. I have to come up with my own nicknames from them. One was tall, the other almost a midget, so I call them Tall and Short. Not to their faces, mind you. They’re probably well armed. Both are Minmatar.

Short seems to be loving the fact that these cybernetic experiments gone wrong are putting pressure on Amarr. The less Amarr, the better. All of Amarr needs to burn to the ground for what they did to our people. Every structure. Every scripture. Every man, woman and child. All of it tainted and all of it just as responsible for hurting Minmatar as the first slaver. Once Sansha has obliterated Amarr, everyone else can swoop in and destroy whatever is left of the fleet. In the end, any price is payable if it means Amarr turned to dust. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Tall disagrees. Everyone knows about Sansha’s Nation and what it took to send them packing the first time, so why would waiting for the Sansha forces to cybernetically assimilate an entire empire help anyone else out? In the long run, yes Amarr would be no more, but how many more lives on all the other sides would it take to bring this new larger fleet down? Would it even be possible, considering rumours that Sansha has some new Jovian tech? Also, does every person in the empire deserve Matari wrath, or just the slavers and purveyors of doctrine?

This kind of discussion comes up every so often when Damu’Khonde comes by some new recruits. They think we want Amarr destroyed and are willing to throw explosives-loaded babies at them if we need to. The vets set them straight quickly enough. We exist to fight slavery. We do not exist to commit genocide. We are freedom fighters, not terrorists or butchers. We come for our people. We don’t thirst for Amarr blood like some crazed dog. We fight what Amarr stands for, but we only add to the pain in this world if we act without clear minds and souls untainted by bloodlust. Eventually the recruits either get it right away, or they are put on support detail dealing with refugees until they can shake their need for death.

I guess it is hard for me to know where Short is coming from, him being a refugee himself and me being the adopted son of a Gallente mining tycoon. I get how horribly wrong the dogma found within the Pax Amarria is because I have read it and I disagree with it on intellectual and philosophical levels. Joining what used to be called Ushra’Khan was more about helping my people than enacting vengeance. Short would never understand because his hate is what sustained him through so much. He needs it. Looking into his eyes, I know that if he was in a room with an 5 year old Amarr girl, he would beat her to death with his bare hands without a second thought.

I don’t say anything. I just listen. Eventually I leave as they go about their circular arguments over and over. One will never convince the other. In the grand scheme of things, I am more afraid of the tainted attitude that people like Short bring into the Republic to fester and grow than I am of any Sansha fleet.

~ by psychediver on 09/24/2010.