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Freightergate 2012, Fatal Ascension vs. Fidelas Constans

Any community is prone to having its spats of infighting. In a military coalition, this is a known variable accounted for in long term plans and usually results in robust diplomacy to mitigate any issues that might pop up. Unfortunately, these situations sometimes leap ahead of your diplomatic efforts and you're left holding the scraps of a 20 billion isk freighter slaughter and witnessing two former space BFFs openly threatening to murder each other in command channels.

Were this the old NC, there would be a huge pissing match between “pet” alliance partisans in jabber, followed by a series of resets and posturing. Maybe a moon gets reinforced and some not-so-friendly fire occurs between blues in major fleets, until finally a “High Council” member comes in and picks the guy who's been the most proselytic. The sycophant is held up as an exemplar of the honour that the NC stood for, then the drama is declared to be “over”.

This is not the NC, Mittens isn’t TraderJohn, and no one in our coalition is a pet.

Funny thing about human nature is that we are communal creatures. Our species would never have survived if we spent half of our lives building relationships and the other half equivocating over why we just murdered our friends. A 10,000 foot view of incidents like this often finds that neither side acted from within a vacuum. Under this premise, Corps Diplo set to work to uncover the truth behind what appears to be momentarily insane lapses of reason. As in most cases, we found out a lot more about our allies than any of us ever wished to.


The Surprise Case of Resets

Depending on who you ask, the catalyst for this incident is either an ‘out-of-the-blue’ standings reset during a logistical convoy, or the last straw in a months long diplomatic cold war. The facts support the claim that Nickator took a convoy of freighters from Pure Blind towards Branch, passing through Fade. During a directorate meeting where Zagdul was explaining his frustrations with FCON leadership, it was reported that the FCON fleet were using Fatal Ascension jump bridges without notification. The previous day we had severely chastised FCON for bringing freighters through GSF jump bridges without giving us advanced notice or bringing fuel.

Zagdul summarily reset FCON:

(23:52:44 PM) zagdul: Grats FCON, welcome to our neutral list.
Three minutes later an FCON freighter died to an FA jump bridge.
Five minutes later, two dozen FA line members caught up to an FCON freighter in Deklein.


The Sordid History of FCON

FCON have been a quiet partner in our coalition for the last several months. They’ve lived in the Mantenault pipe in Pure Blind, keeping mostly to themselves. Goons may not have recognized them prior to the Branch offensive as their participation in coalition fleets had been lackluster at best. This was chalked up to negative growth statistics due to, well, you decide.

Quote
(1:35:09 PM) nerve staple: I noticed on Dotlan that you dropped 800 or so members in the last 5 months. What can you tell me about that?
(1:35:43 PM) Prijan Zhodane: Sure, the first hit of that was the Anom nerf

(7:45:40 PM) Prijan Zhodane: would it be great to have the numbers of FA, sure, the activity sure, but that won't happen overnight and when you have shit space, well, doesn't make it a strong desire for people to join you. Sure we have services we can offer our alliance mates but people are more fixated on ratting it seems than what the alliance can provide to them.
(7:46:26 PM) Prijan Zhodane: Tbh in my opinion I feel we're doing as best as we can in the situation



Starting in Providence, FCON has held on to many of its traditions, including being “anti-pirate, and NRDS in lo-sec.” They fought against Ushra’Kahn with CVA and from that war they developed their battle cry that would carry them through to the north, “Mei! Mei! (Mine! Mine!)”. As incredulous as this may seem now, this comes straight from their own entry on the EVE Wiki page, as penned by a previous leader.

FCON lived in Pure Blind under the NC and after the dissolution we kept them on as allies in the CFC. Operating with a model of a democratic federation where CEOs form the council bloc and major decisions are decided by votes, unsurprisingly FCON have gone through several iterations since we moved into the neighborhood. Previous Chief CEO Rennari was caught embezzling billions in technitium and corp dues, and was ousted by a vote of no confidence headed up by Chokta. Under Chokta relations between GSF and FCON strained, as most decisions were delegated to FCON’s resident Scrooge, Prijan Zhodane.


The Generous Case of Branch

Before we had officially announced Branch as a strategic objective Mittani, Rydis and Courthouse made the rounds with the allied leaders where we explained the campaign, outlined objectives, set expectations and generally did all the things that competent military leadership does before kicking off a big war. For this, we held a meeting on mumble and when it came time to have a Q&A session, we were surprised to hear Tarkinius field the first question: "What can FCON expect to get out of this [campaign]?"

The following day, Mittens held his SOTG through which he launched 1600 pilots through Y-1918 and into the heart of White Noisedot. During the initial rush and massive reinforcement period, Nickator, FCON's lead FC attempted to edge in a Tech moon shoot in Placid, lowsec, that FCON had intended to take for their own.

These events were tell-tale of FCON's interest in coalition activities, but were passed off as general etiquette faux pas in light of FCON's better than average turnout in strategic operation fleets.In light of this, we approached Prijan about rewards as Branch was looking more and more a foregone conclusion. We had done this with all of the allies around this time and it set the model for how we divided up the spoils of the Branch campaign, ensuring that every ally got a reward and met their growth goals, in line with their participation. Here, Sion speaks to Prijan who lays out their desires:

Quote
(12:32:39 PM) Sion Kumitomo: so I'm going to guess then that you're looking at space in branch?
(12:34:44 PM) Prijan Zhodane: in a perfect world we like to own two constellations of decent space, but if not, then unrestricted access to good true sec. Tbh it's hard to say what since I have no clue who is doing what or if for insteance the rumors of Goons moving to Branch and dividing dek or what have you is true
(12:35:44 PM) Sion Kumitomo: so let's assume that you did get two constellations in branch. what would you do with your PB space?
(12:39:26 PM) Prijan Zhodane: 2 constellations would not contain enough moons, rat space, growth area, etc to let our corps rebase and keep their current income, we would want 2 constellations for our members to rat in etc but the moon situation makes actually leaving PB completely a difficult thing to justify



So, in light of this, we decided to grant FCON FOUR constellations in Branch. We increased their Technitium holdings from 5 moons to 12, although we came to find out that one moon was mislabeled as Tech when it was actually Neo. Tarkinius came back to us a day after we had presented the offer of Branch sov to them, having needed TWO HOURS for his CEOs to vote on a move to tell us that going from 5 moons to 11 just wasn't workable:

Quote
(1:35:54 PM) Sion Kumitomo: so without a 12th tech moon, what does the picture look like?
(1:36:14 PM) Tarkinius: we'd still go to branch, that's been voted on, but our alliance will not prosper like it should
(1:36:41 PM) Tarkinius: we've been in a shit situation for a long time, and been poor for a long time, and 12 techs isnt a huge ammount of techs by any means at all, but it's a good minimum number to become successful
(1:38:54 PM) Tarkinius: the numbers we were originally hoping for in gained techs was higher than 6, i can tell you that, and hearing 6 was a gutshot to tell you the truth, but we can deal with that and still accomplish goals. hearing that 6 become 5 is... well we just cant do what needs to be done then



Following this, an FCON line member decided to inquire to us why we were choosing to give FCON the shaft, when clearly they had earned more:

industrial oblitorator, on 12 January 2012 - 02:42 AM, said:
Just wondering....

why do FA get more sov?
why do -rzr- get more sov?
why do gents get more sov?
why do sma get more sov?
why do aif get more sov?
why do BLM get more sov?

and why does FcOn get less sov?

does not add up in my mind if we contributed to the whole branch campaign and busted our members balls to loose sov seems not cool.
if the coalition is gaining new systems shouldnt ALL the alliances acquire more sov?

or is there some plan to share some of -RDN- space with FCON?

looking for answers for the guys on the ground.
thanks
0/





The Confounding Case of Prijan Zhodane

Prijan Zhodane is an action figure of the old NC hegemony, replete with the whole Entitlement Complex Accessory Kit and Kung Fu Jew Karate Chop Action. Prijan manages sovereignty, POSes and wallets for FCON, so whenever not enough money was coming in, or any money was going out, we were sure to hear from him. As the primary sov and logistics guy for FCON, Prijan was singularly responsible for all sov-related dealings in our post-Branch reorg.

The overwhelming complaint coming from FA is that FCON has been slow, if not seemingly apathetic, about handing over any PB sov or assets to Zagdul. At one point, Prijan attempted to demand that Zagdul pay for ihub upgrades, at a profit to FCON, pushing the cost of sov transfers from ~80 million per system to over 400m per system average. With the overall pain of handovers coupled with Prijan’s generally acerbic disposition, it is completely unsurprising that shots were fired. The fact that this effort took nearly two weeks, totaled over 20 billion isk in damage and assumed the form of an old-fashioned bushwacking was a matter of no small amazement.

Quote
(2:23:40 AM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/47145038: so, I'm supposed to come to you when I have problems with other alliances n' shit right?
(2:23:59 AM) Rydis: yes then if i cant handle it, diplos will for sure
(2:24:16 AM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/47145038: starting to have some problems dealing with Prijan
(2:25:07 AM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/47145038: FA has offered to buy up all the infrastructure GSF is requesting reimbursement on.
(2:25:16 AM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/47145038: for FCON
(2:25:38 AM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/47145038: it's turning into me wanting to drop SBU's
(2:25:45 AM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/47145038: and call it a day
(2:27:20 AM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/47145038: BAsically, we're giving our shit in CR to BLM... SMA are giving their shit to us... We're going to help out SMA as well. FCON are the only ones who feel they need to charge us for their ihubs/upgrades/every fucking thing.
(2:27:46 AM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/47145038: even though we've offered to give them the cost of their move to branch
(2:28:39 AM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/47145038: he then later proceeded to link me this: https://docs.google....hl=en_US#gid=15
(2:28:46 AM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/47145038: I mean... no. Just fucking no
(2:29:11 AM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/47145038: I'm trying to be civil.


(1:01:10 AM) Zagdul: I think my frustration is that he's trying to sell me ihub upgrades
(1:01:17 AM) Zagdul: that I don't want.
(1:02:17 AM) Zagdul: especially after offering to buy all the infrastructure in Branch. In the past "the CFC doesn't sell space" to each other.
(1:02:33 AM) Zagdul: which is why, we didn't sell to gents
(1:02:41 AM) Zagdul: WI. didn't sell to us
(1:02:46 AM) Zagdul: they didn't sell to FCON
(1:02:50 AM) Zagdul: we didn't sell to FCON



At this point we needed to involve ourselves in this situation and it was decided that the best way to do this would have been to have a realtalk with Tarkinius, the new Chief CEO of FCON. Mittani and Vile Rat both laid out 'The Way It Is' with Tarkinius:

Quote
[16:33] vile_rat@goonfleet.com: The problem we have is you must understand where we're coming from with FCON.
[16:33] vile_rat@goonfleet.com: because when we finally think we're making progress bringing you guys around a bit, we get prijan saying some utterly retarded things.
[16:33] vile_rat@goonfleet.com: that make our leadership see red and wonder why we're bothering.
[16:34] vile_rat@goonfleet.com: You need to make sure he never speaks to allied leadership again in any capacity
[16:35] vile_rat@goonfleet.com: I say this as the most important thing you can take home from this conversation as it relates to FCON's continued good fortune

[16:52] vile_rat@goonfleet.com: So what's happening now is you have effectively earned a chance Tarkinius.
[16:52] vile_rat@goonfleet.com: Without even realizing it you are quite feline in your 9 lives.
[16:53] vile_rat@goonfleet.com: FCON have done very well Tarkinius. Your work in our combined fleets has been fantastic
[16:53] vile_rat@goonfleet.com: Your personal diplomacy amongst allies is adequate. Some in your organization are sabotaging this and I trust you'll take care of them
[16:54] vile_rat@goonfleet.com: but you yourself need to focus on how well your alliance is fitting in.
[16:56] vile_rat@goonfleet.com: I'm going to be blunt, usually at this point in the conversation we're already cleansing the offending entity. FCON has earned the right to prove they have changed
[16:56] vile_rat@goonfleet.com: Right now the answer is unclear. Some good, some bad.
[16:57] vile_rat@goonfleet.com: We need to be sure you guys continue moving in the right direction

(7:04:58 AM) Tarkinius: the question is, what about FCON's culture is causing the problem with the CFC as a whole? Because, personally, i wouldnt want every single alliance in a coalition to have the same exact cultures, differences make us stronger as a whole imho. Like i told youbefore, we love being with you guys, but if we had the same culture our corps might as well join other CFC alliances as there would be no difference
(7:05:50 AM) themittani: Culture is a polite way of saying that Prijan makes you guys come off as greedy and petty old-NC types
(7:06:29 AM) Tarkinius: ahh, yeah, well, prijan's job is to be the money grubber of the alliance. ill keep him from doing diplo shit from now on, it isnt his strength

(7:07:31 AM) themittani: basicallly when you heard goons talk about 'cultural problems' it means 'are these guys basically just like mostly harmless and the other proud nc guys who are just in it for themselves'

(7:07:57 AM) themittani: zagdul almost fucking murdered you guys over the most recent talk with prijan
(7:08:01 AM) themittani: he showed me the logs, and it was Bad
(7:08:13 AM) themittani: it was Bad because prijan is a liar and not a very good liar
(7:08:18 AM) Tarkinius: oh?
(7:08:50 AM) Tarkinius: mind if i ask what prijan was being dishonest about? I need to fix that shit right away if there is a problem
(7:08:55 AM) themittani: well, you know how it is then, if someone is constantly reinforcing their credibility in speech by saying things like frankly, truthfully, honestly, blah blah
(7:09:32 AM) themittani: prijan was 'forgetting' things that zagdul 'had said' when zag hadn't said any such things, regarding various sov allocations or handovers.



This allowed us to have a chat with Tarkinius that set timetables and expectations for handovers that would have appeased everyone. FCON would have their Branch holdings, Zagdul would have his PB holdings and everyone could go back to counting their coppers. We even managed to specifically address every contrary point:

Quote
(7:02:23 PM) courthouse@goonfleet.com/home: Okay, we'll have the 2 BZ-10K moons to you guys tomorrow. After you have those, the expectation is that the PB tech starts moving to FA, so tomorrow all the tech should be handled.
(7:03:13 PM) Tarkinius: we'll do our best
(7:03:14 PM) courthouse@goonfleet.com/home: FA has offered to pay the tab on infrastructure, so if you guys are short on isk for towers, zagdul will have the isk available for you
(7:03:31 PM) Tarkinius: we're extremely short handed on people atm so we'll do our best to get shit done as fast as possible
(7:04:12 PM) courthouse@goonfleet.com/home: If there are problems I'd like you to let me know as soon as you're aware of them. We have options to help deal with situations when we're aware of them before they become problems
(7:04:24 PM) Tarkinius: we already explained all of this to zagdul today, thought we made it plain we were going as fast as we can in a practical safe manner
(7:05:09 PM) courthouse@goonfleet.com/home: if there are concerns with safety, I want to be informed of it.
(7:05:28 PM) courthouse@goonfleet.com/home: I'll get escort fleets to protect logi guys if there is a risk



Furthering our Good Intentions with FCON, we had offered our help to them to shore up their logistics by having our GSOL director talk to them about best practices and building a functional group, however the mere suggestion of 'sucking at the teet' was abhorent:

Quote
(7:25:36 PM) courthouse@goonfleet.com/home: getting a good logi team and keeping them happy has been instrumental for us.
(7:26:47 PM) courthouse@goonfleet.com/home: if you need help with that process, we can sit down with joe richter when this is all done and come up with some ideas to help you build that group up.
(7:42:09 PM) Tarkinius: i appreciate the offer, but this is something we need to take care of internally
(7:42:37 PM) Tarkinius: if we suck at the teet, so to speak, for every little problem we have, we're not better than some renter alliance in drone regions
(7:47:24 PM) courthouse@goonfleet.com/home: I don't see this as sucking at the teet. We wouldn't be doing the work for you. We've got hands-down the best working groups in EVE and in getting there we've learned a lot about how to do thinkgs like logistics and diplomacy better than anyone else. We exist because of our allies and for that, have an interest in our allies being just as strong and capable as we are. That starts by sharing what we've learned with our allies. We wouldn't be looking to take over your logistice from you, just talk about how your guys do it and see if we can't help figure out ways to maximize effeciency.
(7:48:06 PM) courthouse@goonfleet.com/home: and if it's a matter of motivating people or recruiting new guys for the job, we may be able to help there as well.
(7:49:39 PM) Tarkinius: ill give it a go myself, now that i have that job of leading my alliance and getting shit working. if i find my methods arent working i will ask for advice



While this should have been seen as a(nother) disaster averted for FCON, Prijan decided to up and ragequit, meaning that he was no longer interested in helping in any capacity (except for showing up on time and ready to take 4 more Tech moons from GSF in branch 2 hours later.) Meanwhile, Zagdul, whose logistics guys had been idling for the last 10 hours waiting for FCON to coordinate handovers went to his old pal, Nickator. Because of their familiarity, Zagdul was able to be a little less politic in this log:

Quote
(6:32:37 PM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/242eba6d: I'm so fucking fed up with this shit you have no idea.
(6:32:45 PM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/242eba6d: Tark has said we'd see moons transfered today
(6:32:54 PM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/242eba6d: we STILL have not heard a SINGLE FUCKING WORD
(6:33:03 PM) nickator: well yeah, the guy who handles that goons booted from the channel and made ragequit
(6:33:20 PM) nickator: he also has sov of all the fcon stations/system in branch
(6:33:24 PM) nickator: so really smart move by everyone

(6:40:09 PM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/242eba6d: My directors who are euro and been waiting all day for some movement from your side, "where's fcon with these moons"
(6:40:28 PM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/242eba6d: not a single word
(6:40:35 PM) zagdul@goonfleet.com/242eba6d: if you were in my shoes, how would you react.
(6:41:02 PM) nickator: i would be prety chill about it actually


(note: this is 23:30 GMT, 18:30EST, and Zagdul's people had been ready since before downtime, as was promised to him.)


The Inevitable Case of the Straw and the Camel's Back

Things had begun to settle. More angry words directed at FCON got them jumpstarted and their PB tech moons were handed over to Zagdul. Nothing else was, but as is customary when dealing with FCON, they will follow a request to the letter, so tech moons were the order of the week. Meanwhile, Nickator began to convoy his alliance's assets to Branch. In freighters. Through jump bridges. Specifically, OUR (GSF) jump bridges. Without informing us, bringing fuel, offering to pay, or being apologetic once caught.

Quote
(4:00:26 PM) kismeteer: btw, fcon just took 16 freighters through our jump bridge network from 3t7 to czd with no warning
(4:00:33 PM) kismeteer: and didn't tell us till they ran a bridge out
(4:01:22 PM) rydis: oh nickator told me but he didnt tell me they were using our JBs!
(4:08:55 PM) kismeteer: now that he's been busted, he is offering to pay but I said I do'nt care
(4:10:26 PM) Bos Tess: 16 fucking freighters??
(4:10:34 PM) Bos Tess: thats not insignificant

(6:01:31 PM) Rydis: omg you were just using our JBs ?!!
(6:01:45 PM) nickator: hey we got them filled
(6:01:48 PM) Rydis: wow you nigger
(6:01:57 PM) nickator: we will pay for them, i am talking to kismeteer
(6:02:07 PM) Rydis:
(6:02:08 PM) nickator: if i had a goon alt i would fill them myself
(6:02:31 PM) Rydis: wtf
(6:02:35 PM) nickator: jeeze i am not trying to freeload, but its either JBs or a titan, both take fuel
(6:02:45 PM) Rydis: but like thats something you kinda would give us a heads up on
(6:02:50 PM) Rydis: using up ALL the fuel



Niggers, indeed.

Which brings us, dear reader, to the events of Freightergate. During a directorate meeting on FA's TeamSpeak server in which Zagdul was spinning yarns to his people about the difficulties of working with FCON that a report came in of an FCON fleet having gone through FA's Pure Blind jump bridge on their way to Deklein. In the heat of the moment, Zagdul made his decision to reset standings with FCON.


The Case of the Neutered Dog

To spend any amount of time with a middle to elder-aged man from "The South" is to go through life seeing events as quirky colloquialisms for mundane and seemingly disassociated events. In this case the metaphor of being like a neutered dog who "jus' don' git it!" rings truer than the Bells of Santorini.

So here's what FCON did wrong:

• [1] FCON is self serving. This statement in light of the logs presented here should be self evident, however if it isn't, we've got LOTS more where these came from. This often impairs FCON from acting in the interest of the coalition and comes largely from the upper echelon, particularly in the case of Prijan Zhodane.
  
  [2] FCON does not play well with others. (caveat: unless they stand to gain by it.) FCON has been compared to the sort of abusive girlfriend who takes every opportunity to jab and deride her boyfriend until one day the boyfriend staps and kicks her to the curb in a furious storm of anger, at which point the boyfriend is made out to be a complete asshole because girliefriend gave him no one compelling reason to react in the manner he did. Basically this statement is true in every respect.
  
  [3] FCON doesn't integrate properly into our command structure. This is a critique of high-level issues we have with FCON that should be easily accepted as true in light of the other revelations in this thread without going into specifics of how our coalition operates at the command level.

Here's what FA did wrong:

• [1] Resetting an ally mid-op with zero warning, without speaking with the offending FC and not making anyone aware of the impending reset. - duh.
  
  [2] Destroying logistical freighters belonging to line-members of FCON when the problems are with FCON leadership, leading to highly charged showdowns that put disinterested parties into the middle of a leadership slap fight.

This gargantuan post and the conclusions within will come as a shock to some, FCON especially, as certainly our unwillingness to insert ourselves into the situation immediately did. Part of this is because we were well aware of the issues that FCON has been having and our attempts to address these issues at a level above the common rabble has been an ongoing effort since shortly after VFK.

Now that (some of) the (most relevant) facts are on the table (we have far too many more to include in just one post), we are left with a quandry; how does GSF respond?


The Case of the Value Judgement

GSF does not keep 'pet' alliances. We may be a sort of First-Among-Equals, but we're still equals, therefore, what follows isn't binding. Our hope is that FCON and Fatal Ascension can come to peaceable terms with one another and restore normalized relations. To facilitate this, we recommend the following:

• [1] FA to reimburse Jim Hendricks of Lords 0f Justice corporation and Mister Perfect from Gladius Veritatis corp for the value of the freighters and lost freight, minus any loot scooped from the wreck that can be returned. Zagdul should apologize to the freighter pilots and attempt to make peace with FCON leadership.
  
  [2] FCON needs to address core leadership dysfunction and refusal to communicate, integrate and work alongside coalition partners. This is not just with GSF, but also with partners like LAWN and SMA, who historically have had strained, if not problematic relations with FCON leadership.
  
  [3] Both sides are to stop using allied command channels for dramatic theater. As much as we all love to whip out the popcorn and be Michael Vick for a moment, we've got shit to do, take it somewhere private (then get logs and post them for us to read later.)

Obligatory statements about high roads, shot groupings, Sun Tzu and kumbayah circle jerks.