[BREAKING] Slave convoy caught by Republics Navy - Raloi in cargo

[BREAKING] Slave convoy caught by Republics Navy - Raloi in cargo

via Armali's Voice

A slaver convoy headed for the Terminus in the Crescent Nebula was intercepted by elements of the Republics Navy. Led by the cruiser Iluata, the asari task force seized the convoy and escorted them to Athena Nebula for processing.

However when marines boarded the slaver vessels to inspect their cargo closer, they were met with surprise as hundreds of slavecollared raloi looked back at them. This surprising turn of events has sparked speculations about Belon's Rift relay having been restored to working order with the other four recently repaired relays, and the 96th Patrol Flotilla that rescued the raloi has been dispatched back to confirm the situation in Crescent Nebula.

Oh! Oh! A stealth ship!

... and a hereto undiscovered second relay in the system!


...


Regardless, it appears that whether they like it or not, the raloi are destined to be dragged out onto the galactic stage again. Kicking and singing, as the addage goes.

Not necessarily. The Raloi have developed space faring technology on their own. They were ready to accept the revelation that they are not alone in the galaxy. It was them who discovered us and therefore it is considered their right to know who we were and offered a friendly greeting. The Raloi as a species are no particular threat to anyone and their leaders were willing to learn about the galactic community. It's their right to decide if they want to integrate more or not.
The fact that the reaper invasion was imminent was a bad coincidence.

Not identifying to them back then would not have protected them any better since the planet and its population was already long known to our explorers. That's why our ship was in the system.

That depends on them. The Citadel powers do not enforce this on them, the Council is undertaking steps to observe traffic in their system to prevent abuse but will not quarantine their planet as a whole. How the slaves were obtained is still not clear at this point.

Well I actually didn't consider that you would think that it would involve bribing each and every one of them. I'm really sorry for not being clearer. The ten of thousands of people mean that you have a lot of *choice*, which is good. But you only need to bribe one or two of them. It's like having multiple entrance in a structure, it's good to have a lot of choices, but you only go through one door.
For instance in this case you can bribe a clerk in charge of approving relay pass. He will make sure your case is assigned to his office and will try to keep it away from his colleague's eyes. Or you can pay a janitor to insert an OSD on a clerk's terminal during the night equipped with a malware so that you can access the clerk's privileges.
Now of course those options are complicated and need serious planning and connections, but are nowhere near the demented idea that one would bribe the *entire structure*! And financially we are far from "Slavers with a net worth equivalent to the Nemean Abyss's GDP".

I'm really surprised at how the idea of corruption seem so outlandish to you, it's like I'm defending a "the mothman did it!" theory, and that you consider corruption in government structures to be just some silly urban legend traders tell each other in hushed voice... Do you really think governmental structures entirely immune to corruption? I don't think you do.

Source controlled, insanely expensive, military exclusive technology assuming you're not talking about electronic stealth in which case, again, every ship on patrol in the system is a redundancy.
Still doesn't explain how the lockdown of the planet itself could be bypassed or why they didn't just, you know, sell the coordinates to the Illian Board and pocket the money with minimal risk to themselves.

...

Eurgh

I...no. Just no. For all practical purposes the vessels that compose the flotilla that has the system on lockdown function as individual units in addition to all the people on board being, well, individuals. You can't just bribe one sensor tech, or even several sensor techs, you would have to corrupt multiple men and women across the entirety of the battlegroup. Because it is a military. Because redundancies are a thing. Because while it is possible on the small scale what you are suggesting implies a literal conspiracy at work which, even if you take the raloi at their most lofty possible selling prices, is too dangerous and too resource intensive for such a comparatively small payday.

Credits are not magic you walking abortion of evolution, you can't wave money at a problem like this until it goes away.

Just...stop. Just please stop. It's still a restricted system. You'd still need Citadel Space Military IFFs you miserable fuckwit.

You know if you're going to hilariously conflate and exaggerate what I said (speaking of which would you kindly identify the place where I disputed the existence of all corruption ever? It's alright. I'll wait) perhaps you should wait until either a. I've drunk myself down to your IQ level or b. we all forget that you are hilariously disingenuous in addition to effectively being an intestinal parasite that's figured out a haptic interface.

Dare I return to this, Bha'Sheth, this asinine display! I do! I dare!

Yes! They didn't even discover FTL themselves! Ha! We who fools dare uplift, am I right? We fools who dare interact with other species!

What's that? Who did the uplifting? Wait a minute, it wasn't, Khar'Selen, it wasn't Batarians, was it? The blinks! I always loved that one. Every species blinks, you fool. Except maybe yours, since your eyes seem plenty moisturized behind those big glossy helmets. I wouldn't know, because I've never cracked one open, but perchance that's a delicacy.

No, the blinks aren't at fault, and the slavery conversation isn't one I feel to - Ghah'Laa - have a millionth time. Vast majority of Batarian slaves have always been Batarians! Even a toddler knows that! It's a cancer on us, sure, but you're in no place to judge our welts and our tumors. Might I remind the Anointed, Helmeted, Pretentious One of his species successes with slavery? The robotic kind? Pal'Shebe, the complaints you register when that is mentioned, but you launch similar criticisms every day.

But fie! Foe! What cruel bastards uplifted thee, thy suffering, thy struggling, the huddled and poor Raloi who now serve the cruelest of Baht'Sehal?

The Council, eh? They're the ones with the rules, right? This is a council matter, right? Straight to Citadel, right?

Perhaps... Perhaps one should consider that the fault assigned - Raloi + Uplifed = Slaves = Batarians Did It Again! - that's ridiculous. The Council uplifts and uplifts and acts innocent... Well, the last time I remember an 'uplift' it was to MAKE slaves for the council themselves! How did that work out? Let's ask some Large, Odorous Friends. The ones who almost conquered the Galaxy. I think they remember.

Batarians are not evil! We have our blemishes, certainly, and our faults! But this council... This causes these problems! With no laws, we would not circumvent them. With no precedent, would we take slaves? Yes, it was part of our society always. But look - look at the blue headed fools and the horned amphibians and tell me that they have not had the greatest slaves of all? Look at your own people - are the injustices so different? Look at some of the despicable things humans have done - since the start - and tell me that this is not merely the snake biting the mongoose. We wanted the Raloi out of this galaxy's evils, but no. The hubris not of batarians but of ALL of us! Every single species! That is what combined to make this happen!

Ugh. I suppose the ranting, Khar'Sehen, Batarian thing isn't very appealing. I'll give it rest for now.

Alright... So what do you think happened then?

You do realize that doing everything but nailing yourself to the metaphorical crucifix doesn't actually do anything to address the fact that you are both literally exploitative slaving scum (and we are entirely within our rights as non-morally decrepit sapients to despise you) and that you haven't actually countered anything I said yes?
I don't know, that's what I've been saying.

Every day I wake up, put on my boots and my Tha'Shalb, I groom and I leave my small habitation pod that is built for perhaps two people but houses twelve. I go immediately to work, where I bust my ass in hard labor, constructing and bending and mending and most of all carrying - never with any of the big useful tools, because I suppose those could be used to kill people, and we couldn't allow me to revolt, could we? I work for my master, there's no other name for him, but he's got middlemen, men who make sure I work and work until an arbitrary time when they let me go sleep for a few hours to come back again.

I don't get beaten, at least, but I don't get much options in what I do or say. They make sure I stay fed, enough to work at least, and make sure I stay safe, for the same reason, but also secured, like property.

Am I slave? Absolutely not. I never have been and never will be. I work for a corporation, ran by a large headed human male not unlike yourself, with whom you'd probably have coffee while watching Batarians work and you'd say "Look at those slave taking bastards - they're animals, aren't they?"

You're the perfect, Ghab'Shaele, at least the most precise example of exactly why I can not abide the arrogance of other species. Is my species guilty of wrongdoings? Certainly. Has yours done the same? Every. Single. Bha'Thel. Day.

Any intimations of unethical labor practices aside (which I resent on the basis of, again, conflation and the fact that just because I wear a suit doesn't mean I'm contractually obligated to curbstomp kittens) it's worth noting for the purposes of this discussion that generally corporations don't run blockades to physically kidnap workers before implanting them with chips or shackling them with shock collars.

I don't hate him because he's a batarian; that would be stupid. I hate him because he's a smug, sanctimonious, whining (and really rather dim) ass who is so impaled upon his own sense of self worth that he calls stripping sapients of their freedom, privacy, and very identities a favor and worthy of pride.

So forgive me if I take some small measure of offense at the comparison.

I think, perhaps, the problem is that, yes, he's an asshole, but he's a Brah'Pahel, that's to say, he's created, he's formed... He wasn't just born an asshole, and it wasn't just Batarian society that did it - it was everyone - and I guess - I guess what I'm poorly trying to say is that Galactic Society as a whole made these 'evil' batarians you all seem to hate - they're not monsters we bred, not particularly, but monsters you did.

I am perfectly comfortable with my chosen profession, I make no secret of it and I'm not shamed by it.
About countering your argument, I could. I could mention the Citadel coup, when with months of planning and well placed insiders Cerberus managed to circumvent the entire Citadel defense grid, despite the fact that it had been upgraded after the geth attack and that the Citadel fleet was on highest alert because of the Reaper menace.
You then perhaps would say that for some reason it doesn't apply at all here, you would definitely throw a bunch of insults taken straight from skycar tuning boards.
I could counter with explaining why it's actually the same idea (with enough preparation and enough means you can circumvent any security), and maybe doing research to show you other historical events where a well placed bribed compromised military security.
You would then get angrier, throw a bigger tantrum, and so on and so on.
I honestly don't see the point of it, I was just curious to see if you could offer something instead of just tearing down others' ideas.

Again, he's not an "evil batarian" he's a person.

Who is shit.

And just so happens to be batarian because, as I'm sure you're aware, like everyone else batarians are capable of being shit too.

...Also beg pardon how is his existence my fault?

We know. You won't fucking shut up about it. So...that's what you're going to go with? Your argument is seriously "one of the best connected and well armed conspiracies in galactic history augmented with Reaper-tech and a budget that approached 'wet dream' status could do it therefore random fuckoff slavers in the Near Terminus can do something more or less totally unrelated as well"?
It doesn't apply because the situations, actors, motivations, and scale really aren't comparable and yes, you are (to quote the esteemed facefringer92) a "gassy thundercunt and i hop [sic] you choke on a cock and die u [sic] fat ho".
You would also be largely wrong. And an idiot. And grossly misrepresenting both sides for the sake of whatever hideously malformed ego you're hiding under your impossibly skeevy exterior. And then maybe I can pull counter-examples! And maybe you can whinge about me further for not respecting your right to be completely wrong!
So, to clarify. If I have a rational answer I am a "know it all who cannot possibly be wrong" but if I admit I don't know how this could work, only how it cannot I am "a self important bully who likes wrecking other kid's sandcastles for the hell of it"?

Careful now, your double standard is showing.

(Also seriously, if you're going to play the part of the martyr and the victim it helps to be someone that people will actually care about)

The argument of semantics draws no interest from me. Obviously 'you' wasn't directed at you, nor do you actually distinguish between 'evil batarian' and 'shitty person who is a batarian slaver which i have an intense antipathy towards.'

That having been said - you are correct in that he's a dick. But I don't disagree with his opinions on everything, certainly. In either case, slavery remains a symptom.

I was about to bring up the Krogan thing. Good catch.

I hope the Raloi are safe- but I guess this means we're gonna have jackasses on the streets yelling about how they should be uplifted.

I'd just like to point out that nowhere in this article does it indicate who or what these slavers were - the assumption that they're batarian is possibly accurate but it's still quite the leap of faith. Plenty of human, turian, and krogan slavers running around, especially now with the Hegemony gone.

True, true. I've heard a lot about human slavers perking up again in place of Batarians.

Oh no doubt that they aren't all batarians (though I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of them in this incident were) but we really should be 'fair' and start remembering that turians, asari, krogan, and humans also love to do a little slaving themselves. Maybe even the geth will get bored of corralling around quarians and join in on it too. I'm sure they could makes ~waves~ in the industry with their machine logic.

Oh. And nice side blurb. It suits you.

Just a quiet reminder that I might know something about this particular topic, no more and no less. I'm glad someone picked up on it.

Maybe this is just me speaking out of ignorance on the subject, but if the Raloi state already practiced in the slave trade of their own people, then who exactly would need to be bribed? The freighters probably obtained permission (and all accompanying requisite credentials) from the slavers within the government to enter the system to pick up their intended cargo. With such permission in hand, they were more likely than not just "waved through" by the security forces on both sides of the Relay, then stopped planetside and picked up the slaves, then proceed to head out as if it was any other courier mission.

Again, this is an admitted voice of ignorance here, but would the better question not be "How did they get caught?"? Then again, that in and of itself might not even be a good question, given what Mr_Sandman stated about the customs screening. I am certain a casual cargo scan would have revealed a few hundred life forms where they should not have been. Which in turn leaves two questions:

Why did the slavers think they were going to get away with this?

and

Why were the boarders surprised at what they found?

The Citadel is still sitting there tracking all movement through the relay. It's not the Raloi government you have to bribe, it's the Citadel people running the relay. Probably one of the licensing agents, maybe some monitors, who knows. It should not have happened period.


Because you need a special kind of damage to be a slaver.


Because Belon's Rift is supposed to be the most tightly-controlled relay in the galaxy right now. It should not have happened period.