– by Chiana Moro

i

Things are changing in our world. We, the Amarr of Insmother, who have lived peacefully in our small part of space, are seeing change. Change unheard of since… we know not. This is a total violation of our sovereignty, our land, and our ways of life. We are accustomed to the constant fights going on in space above our heads. We have heard that the capsuleers of our skies use to make up their own laws and punishments. They have their own ways of intrigue and conspiracies, much like we have ours. But we don’t meddle in the ways of the immortal, as they have not meddled in the ways of our people. Now this is changing. People are talking about resistance. I know not how this will end –
but I know how it began.

ii

Some time ago, according to uncle Sani it was only a fortnight, we woke to heavy flashing in the skies above, we woke to find downed space craft in our fields, or what remained of them. We gathered in the fields to view these flying contraption. Some vaguely recognizable as Amarr designs, as stylish all our constructions and vehicles, even in the state of destruction. Some of the exotic, haphazard design of our recently freed slaves. And others utterly alien and unknown, looking more like balls of metal of unknown propulsion.

All these were scattered richly around the fields of ours, for miles and miles and miles the wrecks and pieces of craft and undetonated missiles went on. Our fathers said something about a war in the skies, their grandfathers remembered stories of the Jovian war. Everyone felt unease. This had not been heard of in our generation.

iii

Arbjan and I ventured into the fields to salvage the electronics of the space craft to keep in store, for use on the days our own machines break down. Arbjan is one of my best friends and of the newly freed, and while privileged to have been given a higher education and a good position in society, still slightly superstitious. As the Minmatar of his race tend to be, no matter how much education they get. We of the Amarr have seen
through all this and found the only path – I will talk no more of this. Let me continue with the beginning.

Around midmorning on the second or third day, we saw, in the distance a rectangular object, with a glossy center piece, surrounded by black metal.As we approached we couldn’t fail to note that is stood on the border to an area we both hold sacred as it is a field dedicated to the great Saint Junip, the protector of planets. It has been graced with copious amounts of the matter that goes into our luxury products, like our personal adaption sleeping spaces (I can not divulge the information of exactly what this material is – as it known only to a few). As we approached the object is sprang to life showing a text of alien design as Arbjan was getting closer to it. When I got up close to Arbjan it also brought forth – as I guess – the same text in Amarr. Looking around we noticed several similar objects sprinkled about a vast area. Regardless of how amazingly advanced this contraption must be to recognize the cultural makeup of ourselves, what caught our attention was the message itself.

*** Attention sentient beings of Planet II in the Z182-R solar system, IV-LWJ region! ***

This, and the surrounding areas within the area delimited by the information buoys are being claimed by, and as the private property of, Celestial Ventures of the ACME alliance, according to the registered contract pII-i67-1. All occupation within the claimed area is strictly forbidden and venturing into the claimed area is from this time not   recommended and solely on the risk of the sentient beings of Planet II. All contact regarding this venture should be channeled through the Celestial Ventures representative at CV-1 Z182-R. *** ***

Needless to say, we were taken aback at such insolence. To confirm our suspicions we continued on to the next “information buoy” only to discover the same behaviour and message in this contraption. The words, the unimaginable arrogance, the violation of our hereditary claim to our own planet! I think you, dear reader of these words, can imagine the total confusion, anger and bitterness in our discussions as Arbjan and I, as fast as we were able, returned to our homes to report the bizarre incident.

iv

If we were upset and in turmoil, it was nothing of what the rest of our community was when we reported our findings at the Conference of the Elders. A long heated discussion ensued, after which the youngsters thought the only just cause of action was to destroy “the stupid signs”, disregard idiocy imposed upon a sovereign people and deal with any consequences that might follow as it (may) happen. The elders on the other hand thought that we should be bring the matter to the Celestial Venture representative mention in the information. Me, I thought this was an utterly foolish idea, of the old school of democratic thinking, as the tone and inference of the message already delivered clearly indicated that the outcome of such a trip could only be one. Disappointment.

Nevertheless, the Elders, in their infinite wisdom, decided to give the “Celestial Venture representative” a chance to explain what was going on and why they were claiming parts of our planets for their own without previous contact or negotiations on their part. A  voice coms communication with the representative was arranged. It, however, came to the generally unsatisfactory conclusion that they thought it was “their sovereign
space and they could do with it as they pleased”. All logic reasoning (among that that sovereign space didn’t reasonably include already inhabited planets) failed to bring common sense to their minds.

v

Then came the machines.

vi

Shortly after the unsuccessful outcome of the contacts with the representative we started to see a higher activity of space travel around the field. Various bits of housing and machinery were somehow brought to the location Celestial Ventures had claimed for theirown. Exactly how this was achieved remains a  point of discussion amongst those who saw, or thought they saw, or like to make others think they saw how it was done.
Suggestions range from teleportation, to magic, to people actually landing space craft on the ground, bringing stuff out and physically building the things on the site. The latter seems most likely.

And then there were machines …

It should be said that defeatist creeps among us, at the point of the buildings going up, thought that maybe it was not too bad after all. That “Maybe there will be jobs for our young to be had.”. Any such naïve notions were quickly squashed when it was abundantly clear that the only workers on the site would be remote controlled machines and drones. No “sentient beings” would be invited to gain anything from the venture on
our land. So, to add insult to the theft of our lands, only Celestial Ventures would be involved in the robbing of our resources.

vii

The installation grew, the activity increased and noise and pollution reigned supreme across the neighbouring several kilometers from the site. Our peaceful life were shattered due to the arrogant invasion of the immortals. Finally even the most naive amongst the elders lost patience and called an assembly to decide what should be done about the unbearable situation. After many hours and equally many hotly debated points of
opinion, it was decided that we were to try to grab their attention at their base station. A delegation of people were to travel to their industrial “outpost” and demand a meeting with someone from Celestial Ventures. Yet another voice communication was attempted before the delegation leaving our home planet.

CV made it clear that they didn’t really want us out there in the “their” space at all, that nothing we did could change their plans, but if we really must visit to travel them, they would secure a spot in their industrial alliance – the ACME alliance – for us for the visit. Considering the implications of this (a tacit acceptance of the planet side venture) we respectfully declined to – even temporarily – take a seat in theirgroup of likeminded. We continued to assemble a ship, someone had an old Hoarder laying about – I don’t remember who, and it really doesn’t matter as the pilot will not be missing it, selected the delegation and off they went. They never returned.

We do not know exactly what happened but the offer of a temporary seat in the alliance did, and this is my guess, include free and safe passage to their outpost and back. By declining this, we – as we have now understand their laws – aligned ourselves with the enemies of Celestial Ventures and the entire alliance. And as Concord do not uphold the universal security of space around our planet for some unknown reason or other – the
ACME alliance is free to deal with their enemies however they wish.

viii

And the planet venture site grew with more machines, more buildings and more drones.

ix

And the bitterness towards Celestial Ventures and the ACME alliance grew. Not once did they regret the loss of our delegation. Not even did they compensate the families of the missing. Not once did they show any trace of humanity, but kept referring to their space traveling policy, and the fact that we declined a  safe passage to the outpost, a policy which, as it seems, all corporations of their amoral ilk  share. Not once did they, in fact, show any respect towards, or care about other beings than themselves. We had failed to grasp the enormity of their amoral rules – and it was our loss, and the first of our lessons.

The bitterness turned to hatred. The hatred turned into action. And a a willingness to contribute in any way possible in a campaign against the invaders. We are assembling the funds for military training, and   we are assembling the funds to contract mercenaries willing to evict the intruders from our home planet. We will strike back where it will hurt the filthy bastards the most.

I know not how this will end – but I have told of how  it began. .