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I doubt it'll escalate far enough to warrant the deployment of the Fleet or the involvement of the rest of the Confederation. This is a purely 'local' beef. But if mercs get called in, it's going to be VERY ugly.

I resent that.

Besides, if it's in the Confederation it'll probably be a battie-heavy Suns unit (Sapient Resources like tailoring the species to the locale), and they won't want to fuck up their planets anymore than they already are.

Hey, no offense meant, in regards to the merc thing. You're average joes trying to make a living. I mean, hell. I'm a career criminal. I'm not going to bite a guy's head off for holding a weapon for a living. Now, one thing I need to say: This does not excuse the existence of psychopaths and undisciplined glory-seekers in the mercenary industry.

Shit WILL go down if mercenaries are called on down to Erszbat, and the fighting probably will spread as a result. Karval's right across the county line, and if they have the muscle, they'll start bullying ALL of their neighbors. Lok-cal County's just the main target of Karval County's general annoyance in regards to the rezoning, but if Karval gets their way here, then Ertl County might be on the hitlist.

They hire on a good Suns unit, one under batarian leadership, that won't be a problem. I'm not fond of blinks, but they know how to run a tight ship---fuck, just look at Del'Serah versus Vosque.

EDIT: And like I said before, they won't want to wreck their own fucking world.

And then there's the main problem there. Discipline and skill take money. Lok-cal, Ertl, Karval - they're all generally poor counties with very few large towns, and no major cities. There's an upper class, but nobody's going to be able to afford the Suns. We're talking small-time freelancers and mercenary companies. It's all about bulking up the numbers with cheap muscle and the occasional ad-hoc mechanized platoon. We're not talking a genuine all-out fighting force; I'm talking a warzone with no large-scale pitched battles. It's just not the way this is going to go because none of the belligerents have the budget or the ability to keep the fighting going until the other side loses. If mercs come in, it'll be widespread skirmishes, with no discipline on either side, heavy weapons and armored vehicles deployed only intermittently (if at all), and generally large amounts of collateral damage in relatively-isolated communities.

Well then, as the late great Captain Jonathan Nielson once said,

bitch, you fucked.

Don't I know it.

I feel like I have something of a... personal stake in the current political situation of the Confederacy and my own fortunes could be bound up with it one way or another. Now, as a very high caste batarian, you would naturally think I would support the Na'Hesit, partially due to my own beliefs and also the fact that my usurper of a brother only gained power by promising to support the Ub'Hesit (his own actual thoughts on the matter being totally non-withstanding); and it is true, I do support the existence of the slave caste as a fundamental component of batarian society. However, I am also heavily dissimilar to the average Na'Hesit supporter for many reasons. Firstly and most obviously is my political background. Shortly before the Reaper Invasion as you may recall, the Hegemony was on the verge of an out-and-out war with the Alliance, something which I vehemently opposed due to having an ounce of business sense. You see, Greklon had and, dare I say it, still has the potential to be a Galactic trading hub to rival Illium. Perfectly situated on Relay routes between Alliance/Council, Batarian and Terminus space, it was left to metaphorically and physically rot by a Hegemony too lazy to see that war with Humanity got us nothing. For this reason, I agree with your points about repairing the image of the batarian people in the Galaxy at large. I do however, find it laughable that Ub'Hesit thinks that can just eliminate millennia of tradition and prosperity based on an alien political theory.

Sir this was masterfully said! I can't agree more.

Let's just put it this way.

'Tradition' can mean a lot of things. In this case, slavery and a caste system that is rather horrendously out of date.

2000 years of doing stupid shit is not an excuse to continue doing stupid shit.

Except slavery isn't a stupid system, and neither is it out of date, at least for the batarian species itself. The caste system works because it gives every individual in batarian society a direction in their life that they can work towards to benefit the greater whole of society. Abolishing this, especially now, would be incredibly dangerous (more so than if the Hegemony had fallen due to internal factors). I mean, look at it this way; if a servant aspires to lead and is successful in leading, are they truly a leader, or a servant that is leading? For me, it seems to be obvious that they are still a servant. To use and even more simplistic metaphor, feet can never be arms.

I would also hasten to add that I am totally against the war-time policy of using independent slaver bands and their produce in the batarian state itself, this is a cornerstone of the whole "improve our galactic image" idea.

I agree. But you need to consider that the caste system is largely out of date because of what happened during the Reaper War. Some of the new leaders who came out of the lower castes are, by and large, ineffectual. Others are not. This is not because of breeding or genetics or any kind of eugenics 'science' at work. It's a multitude of factors determining whether or not someone ends up leading successfully or running their followers into the ground. It is also a multitude of factors at work that determine whether or not someone's success as a leader is consistent.

Now, with this in mind, knowing fully that your caste failed in its duties to adequately protect the batarian people during the war, are you seriously going to say that it wasn't due to internal factors? The Reapers may have been super-powerful god-squid, but the Hegemony could have presented a stronger front had it not been for the incompetence of the ruling castes. They tore through the Hegemony in a matter of days, when a centralized government and command structure should have allowed the batarian people to hold their ground for far longer.

Do not preach to me about the inability of the lower castes to lead. You had your chance. You blew it.

I find myself agreeing with you far more than the other batarian. It is not my place to get involved in your species affairs but I am curious to see how things unfold and would just like to say that a strong unified government supporting egalitarian policies is infinitely better than either a loose coalition or a return to the status quo given what little I've studied about the defunct Hegemony.

I disagree. I think that the inflexible nature of the caste system is a significant failing. There needs to be a way to allow mobility between castes. People need to be able to rise and fall in status. If a slave can be a great leader, then he does not belong in the slave caste. If a leader cannot lead, if his intelligence can be compared unfavorably to a morshko, he does not deserve that status.

The caste system can work, but not in the form that was prevalent in the Hegemony. Simply discarding it wholesale in such a short period of time is also a risky wager. If the abolition of the castes is to be done, it will take time. Or it will take war. War we cannot afford.

[Cross-posted to CrossNet Prime, DarkNet, Electronix, Undernet, Cerberus Daily News, and Erszbat Social]

Alright, people. This week's going to have entertainment, conspiracies, and then we'll do electronics and cybercrime, and this week's entry of Big And Bad. Also, this week, I'm bringing you guys a very special article on the ongoing conflict between Lok-cal and Karval Counties.

ENTERTAINMENT

All I'm gonna say is 'holy shit, the Marauders kicked ass.' This last UCL match was phenomenal, and I knew the team would pull through. They tore the Spartans apart like varren ripping into a chunk of dead meat. Now, the Spartans put up a good fight, especially with antiquated tactics. Not sure if the Marauders just had an off day or if they were just caught off-guard by the Spartans using a tactic like that. It could be both.

Now, the real highlight of the match for me was when the krogan got the shit shot out of him. Nothin' against krogan personally, but I've seen interviews. The guy's an asshole. Anyways, I'm looking forward to seeing more from both teams, honestly. The Spartans, for a human team, were damn good at what they did and how they did it, and the Marauders were everything I expected. Hope to see more of the Marauders later, and good luck to the Spartans next time!

CONSPIRACY

Alright. Today we're gonna talk about the alleged Alliance N8 program.

Apparently, colonial separatism supporters in Alliance space have been actively propagating this conspiracy theory. Whether they actually believe it or not is a different story, but the core of the N8 theory is that the Systems Alliance is kidnapping children with a specific genetic build for the purposes of training them from childhood, along with giving them new experimental gene-mods and hyper-advanced training, into super-soldiers intended to put down political uprisings on colonies for the purposes of enforcing SATAE.

Kind of ludicrous, isn't it? Let's look at this in detail to examine just how insane it is. For one, the Alliance is hardly in a position to devote more resources to military R&D or training programs after the war, with all the reconstruction going on. Second, the Alliance has perfectly-viable N7s and (if you talk to some people, although I personally don't believe this one) Corsairs. N8s just wouldn't be practical, or at the least they'd be redundant. Third, the timeframe on the project's subjects to reach an appropriate combat age would be far too long for the project to actually be viable for the purposes of suppressing a colonial insurrection. And fourth, it just sounds pointlessly-evil. Kidnapping kids? Really?

If this theory is all pro-independence supporters can throw out there to back up their claims that the Alliance needs to be fought over SATAE, then their propaganda department needs to work on making it sound somewhat credible. I think this whole N8 theory is utter varrenshit.

Case closed, we're done here.

SPECIAL ARTICLE - WAR UPDATE

OK, the conflict between the counties Karval and Lok-cal is escalating. There's been talk of roving militia in garbage trucks outfitted with scrap-metal armor and some heavy machine guns wandering across the county line from Karval's side. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of coordination among the militia forces on either side, and so far, there's been no reports of mercenary activity. Incidents of violence against unarmed civilians in Lok-cal by Karval County militia are being reported as widespread, but that's from Lok-cal County media, so it makes sense they'd punch it up to the point where it'd sound ludicrous. That's not to say it's not happening. Innocent people ARE getting hurt. No word of any anti-armor equipment or heavy support units being deployed by either side, yet, but it can't be too far off.

I'll be keeping you up to date on the situation as it develops, readers.

ELECTRONICS

Alright, today, we're going to be talking about the release of the Burn Protocol. It's a virus, allegedly made by colonial independence supporters in Systems Alliance space, for the purposes of hacking into government databases and generally purging everything in them. Not even stealing any information - just wiping the databanks clean and totally destroying anything connected to them. In other words, it tries to get at backed-up information too.

Burn has been making the rounds on Undernet, getting distributed to a lot of people with the credits to pay for the source code, meaning it isn't just being used against SA government facilities anymore. There have been reports on Undernet and DarkNet of minor crime syndicates and several corporations getting hit with it, as well as a few small-time Terminus governments. Everyone update your firewalls and anti-virus programs, and then get a hard-copy back-up of all your important information somewhere for good measure.

CYBERCRIME

Two little tidbits, this time around, fellow hackers.

Let your actions speak for you. Talk is cheap. Focus on your business, get as good as you can, and word will eventually leak out about what you're doing, or people will learn on their own, even if you don't take credit for it openly. Impress your peers. 'A dead man's words hold no meaning' and all that.

Second tidbit, do not brag about jobs you've pulled. Do not rant on extranet forums about how you pulled off the greatest cyberheist in history. Because for one, you didn't and you're also full of varrenshit. Second, it makes it easier to track you down. People looking for you might want to hire you, but they might also want to kill you or put you in jail.

BIG AND BAD - A WHO'S WHO OF WHO NOT TO FUCK WITH

Today, we're talking about the Barhak Brigade. A group of extremists firmly in the pro-slavery camp, the Barhak Brigade allegedly consists entirely of ex-Batarian SIU operatives. These guys have a growing reputation after the Reaper War in the Confederacy. They're the ones who claimed responsibility for the Gerak Town Hall bombing here in Ertl County a few months ago, and apparently have an extensive informant network among the Confederacy's lower echelons of government, as well as access to pre-war SIU supply caches and computer networks. Here's what I mean by that. They've been able to secure access to fortified Confederate government installations, and conduct a campaign of sabotage, targeting various secure facilities here on Erszbat and, to a lesser extent, on Camala, including water purification and mass-transit systems. Several facilities ended up offline for months following the declaration of the Confederacy's formation, and only recently were repaired and pushed back into service. They've also been claiming credit for the death of a member of the Camalan Grusto not five months ago, and have publicly claimed credit for the sabotage of at least three transports in Erszbat docks, in various counties across the planet, resulting in numerous ship crashes and some nasty Eezo problems in these areas.

And that's how little I've been able to concretely dig up - public declarations of their activities. These guys are like ghosts, to the point where looking into this got me jumping at shadows for a bit. They're driven, they're pure evil, and they know what the hell they're doing. And that's just fucking terrifying.

That's all for this entry of Prophet, ladies and gentlemen. Also, I'm taking submissions for suggestions for Big And Bad and Conspiracy. You guys tell me what you want to hear about, and I'll do my best to provide. Also, I'm running a contest! You guys send in your suggestions for a new type of article here on Prophet, and I'll pick the one I like the most. Then I add that to the weekly entries alongside Entertainment, Cybercrime, and Electronics.

Stay safe out there!

N/8 designation? Come on, that sounds like someone's written a science fiction novel. :/

Weapons for a knew article typo. If you even knaw anythick about then you whacking peace of sit.

...also could you plise remove this virus all ready.

No. YOU get to suffer.

I always feel incredibly insincere saying "good luck" on the extranet, but, uh, good luck out there, Mekan.

And can I just say that the whole "N8" thing is completely ridiculous? I know the colonies are chafing under SATAE, but really now. If they're trying to get support, saying "oh no, satae kidnaps babies and makes them into supersoldiers" is not going to convince anyone.

Maybe viable if you give them next-gen powered armor technology or else the casualty rate might be to high to sustian such a program, you know, return of investment. But yeah, the N7s have some inpropable yet surprisingly feasible equiment they work with so that may be where the rumors are coming from. After all, Cerberus tried to mimic (and mass produce) some of them with their reaper-augmented troops.

Now this is something to my tastes. With further honing of the pruging algorithms and inclusion of an adaptive stealth code, this can be a bane for databases everywhere. While I expect that most firewall will be able to deal with this sooner or later, on-site insertion of this virus into a database could be devasting. Keep an eye out, this thing could become a staple in every prefessional saboteur's tool kit.