ICC Incompetence – Yet Again

Submitted to the RK Times today:

December 2, 29476

ROME (Law Society of Rubi-Ka) - In less than one week, the Interstellar Confederation of Corporations (ICC) has proven both its impotence and incompetence, first by abandoning its mandate in Tir and then by inciting Rubi-Ka’s fourth civil war.

Chronic Cowardice in Tir?

On November 22, 29476, the Sentinels, perhaps the most militant and aggressive Clan on Rubi-Ka with an entrenched hatred of Omni-Tek of Rubi-Ka Corporation (OTRK), swept Tir clean of all ICC personnel without a single shot being fired. Rather than bravely stand its ground against the invading army, the ICC scurried back through the Whompa to Andromeda, collective tail between its legs, completely absolving itself of its mandate to protect Tir at the first occasion of being tested.

The Council of Ares and numerous other clans have since voiced tremendous unease at the new dynamic prevailing within the Sentinels’ Tir guard, who seem to take great pleasure in attacking neutral citizens on sight, among other things.

Despite this morally humiliating loss, as well as the ensuing outrage by the clan community, the ICC has yet to so much as comment, let alone reassure the inhabitants of the other territories currently under its guard that it is indeed willing and capable of protecting against any future invasion. This uncertainty has had the ancillary effect of rallying the Neutral community to a level of militancy, unity and activity never before seen on Rubi-Ka.

Civil War Disguised as Equity

ICC Secretary General Isidra Derousse shattered this ICC silence on November 29, with an announcement that sent shockwaves of fear rippling throughout the intergalactic economy. The rumour that the ICC was contemplating deregulation of the market for the mining and extraction of notum reserves was first reported by the Law Society on November 7, but few of us regarded this theoretical course of action as anything more than strategic posturing on the part of the ICC to advance post-Tir Accord negotiations with Omni-Prime.

Omni-Prime apparently called the ICC’s bluff, and is paying dearly as a result. This punitive deregulation and the accompanying and related amendments to the Rubi-Ka Lease were undertaken by the ICC to redress the vast disparity between OTRK and Clan citizens, the latter of whom were quickly devolving into a state of poverty and squalor not seen since the days of the emergence of the Manual Labourer's Guild. In spite of these seemingly noble intentions, what has actually occurred is a furious and chaotically tense grab for available mining properties by the Clans, OTRK departments and even neutral organizations, frequently culminating in full-scale warfare.

Although OTRK has retained its effective monopoly on the refinement and transport of notum, both within planetary boundaries and beyond, a cursory market analysis has revealed a material decrease in the market exchange price of notum as a result of this rapid surge in the quantities being shipped to market. Although surplus supply conditions have not yet developed, due in no small part to the necessity of notum as an elemental input for millions of other products and technologies, the demand for reclaim terminals has never been higher.

Prior to this frankly irresponsible move by the ICC, Rubi-Ka was actually coming quite close to achieving a balanced peace. The Council of Ares was taking great strides in its effort to present itself, whether truthfully or strategically, as a council of protection and peace, while the Omni-Tek Security Council was working as diligently as always to foster dialogue between the corporation and the alienated inhabitants of Tir and Athen.

However, the ICC, apparently bent on fulfilling some manner of vendetta against OTRK, interjected its characteristically irresponsible hand, and thereby eliminated months of these two groups’ work and concurrently immersing Rubi-Ka in open war.

Well Alamexis. Thank you for the vote of confidence in the CoA. I only hope we can bring this catastrophe to some sort of satisfactory agreement for all parties involved. We were sorely upst to see what the Sents had done. And we intend to fight this with all of our resources...

OOC:

It seems that FC has become a little Omni'ish. Destroying our work towards peace to line their pockets with money from the sale of Notum Wars. Maybe we should claim FC an ingame corporation hidden behind the ICC, and begin a campaing against them, lol. Wonder if that would get their attention. LMAO!!!

Anyone interested send me a tell ingame ;)

End OOC

I wonder if there is some other organization behind all this...

My statements were, to my knowledge at the time of writing, fact. The turn to peaceful solutions by the Council of Ares does indeed bode well for Rubi-Ka's future, and I wish you the best of luck in that regard.

Notwithstanding the apparently rogue actions of certain of your guild leaders over the past weekend (which I trust you will deal with in due course, as you have so advised Mr. Houston of Red Tape/Omni-Admin), recent statements issued by the Council and its Cabinet are hopefully indicative of a newly-emerging dialogue between yourselves and OTRK. I do hope this will continue.

There are, after all, many organizations manoeuvering in the shadows of Rubi-Ka. We had no forewarning of the Sentinels' actions; nor could we have ever expected the ICC to act so cowardly. The ICC itself is composed of thousands of hyper-corporations, yet its centralized decision-making structure tends to blind it on occasion.

I further wish you the best of luck in your efforts to foster dialogue with Mr. Silverstone and the Sentinels, if that is at all possible. To the knowledge of OTRK, they are responsible for the theft of Omni-AF's mining facjility and associated structural plans, and we would be most anxious to have these returned to us to correct this violation of Omni-Tek's intellectual property rights. Such an illustration of good faith on behalf of the Council of Ares would certainly help to propel our collective efforts at peace forward.

((OOC:

Actually, I think FC was preponderent towards the Clans with their recent world changes - the only thing is that those changes didn't come across as popular as they had hoped :)

They got rid of the ICC and replaced them with true Clanner guards - something all of the Clans have been wanting for quite some time. Plus, if you look at Simon Silverstone's statements, he seemed to be "rallying the troops" for the eventual war, using the same rhetoric that exists in the literature detailing the historic accounts of RK.

In all honesty, I think if anyone was screwed by the recent changes, it's the neuts - they lost their absolute freedom to go anywhere ;) . Had FC not given them the ability to attack in 25% zones, I think there would have been riots all over Newland and Borrealis!))

Yes, we understand that the Sentinels had stolen some OT mining equipment schematics. Certainly as we can all see these schematics have been used, and the product of the schematics are already publically available. I will bring this request up to the Cabinet and the Board and see what they think of these requests. I personally am willing to agree, if it is at all possible as you said. If not I am sure we can find another way to rectify the situation the Sentinels have brought upon all Clanners.

And yes as I told Kithrak, we are currently in discussion on what to do in regards to these blatant attacks. No precedents were set beforehand for such actions, but it seems now they are necessary.

It is unfortunte that the drafters of the Ares Pact actually belived that there would be no need for a mechanism to keep certain leaders in check. It was no suprise to any outside guild leader that the events that transpired (Unlawful attacks in violation of the current charter) were going to happen. What is a suprise is that you are working to remedy these errors and punish the guilty parties. I look forward to seeing your work.

I look forward to sharing my work with you Vix :)