The designated meeting room onboard this small laser cruiser was conservative in every sense, no grandeur that one would expect from a well made capsuleer like Corbin Tajak, but in retrospect how would she know what the inside of another capsuleers ships looked like, in her own 300 years of life today was the only day she was ever invited aboard another capsuleers ship.
The other capsuleers a mixture of big shot tycoons to decorated admirals and everyone in between, their clothing a mixed bag of nuts sprinkled with children's cereal, the saying that no two capsuleers were the same was very true and each and every one of them stuck out like sore thumb.
They stuck out like sore thumbs and equally plastered on them are their blank and emotionless faces, everyone scanning the room with none keeping their hands away from their holstered side-arms myself included, trust was a very rare commodity amongst our kind and only a handful of capsuleers could be trusted but only due to the fact that they made their fortunes brokering deals between massive corporations and individuals of worst repute, and right now in this small room only one of them fit that bill.
Corbin Tajak, capsuleer middleman and overall host for this evening, this man already renowned for brokering more than a few billion ISK worth of deals across Null-Sec is well respected and is owed a few favors by some of the biggest names in New Eden, and right now everyone trusted him but not each other, so much that we all agreed to meet in person/avatar, to face this little dilemma together.
The dilemma, the wormhole gate collapsed on them leaving them stranded on this, at current believed to be an average sized spiral galaxy close to the core at relatively 10/190° from its spin, along with a couple dozen capsuleers and thousands of Evers and an assortment of ships and no shortage of problems.
"The standards are getting restless, it has been three weeks and we have yet to find a way to reopen that wormhole" Corbin stated breaking the uneasy stalemate in the room "This might be another stranding only this time the standards are unsure because we are in a different galaxy"
"The uncertainty makes them uncomfortable, most of them want to return to their families and are already clamoring that their respective captains do something" Tekor Brimar the renowned Admiral said "Some small mutinies have already broken out on a few ships, and the number is only bound to rise with time"
"Squabbles between standards are beyond any of our concerns, none of them work for us and their ships are not our property, we leave them to their own devices as per usual" Rugue Enil the Tritanium Tycoon said "Might even be some ISK fighting for the winning side"
"Having them kill each other is good for grunt work, but overall detrimental to all of us if this does prove to be a stranding" Corbin stated "Because if it is we have a severe lack of available manpower in the future, and if this all goes to shit be stranded out here with only other capsuleers for company"
Even the thought of only having capsuleers for neighbors was anxiety inducing, and with so little everyone has for the near future it would be a brief future. This little problem with the standards will have to be dealt with for our own sakes at the very least, but sentimental attachments of standards do still pull a few strings or whatever is left of the strings, living for so long will make you quickly see the futility of attachments.
"Jaden any insights, your lips curled into a frown for a moment" Corbin said as he noticed my brief emotional outburst.
"Just at the prospect of having all of you as my only neighbors" I answered to the huff of the other capsuleers "And to avert that future, what do we do know"
"First we need to take stock of everything they have left, we can't make any uninformed moves, our recyclers are great but they are not perfect, the standards may not have enough food to last the year" Rugue stated, immediately interfacing with his wrist computer and hacking the inventories of the standards ships, we all noticed since he was not masking his attack well enough for us to miss "I am downloading their manifests now, will take me a few minutes having the need to use my own ship as an intermediary data channel"
"We would also need to get them off their ships, having them close to ship-based weapon systems flying across the vacuum of space is not a relieving idea" Tekor stated, and like Rugue started to interface with his computer, to which Corbin drew his sidearm and pointed towards Tekor.
"My sensors indicate your ship maneuvering beneath my cruiser with weapons and shield raised" Corbin said.
"If I wanted to do harm to your ships I would have blasted apart your engines first, get that weapon out of my face" Tekor warned "I was moving my ship into a defensive posture around the cruiser in case Rugue is detected and the standards take it the wrong way"
Leave it to the Admiral to hope for the best and prepare for the worst, but that move he pulled got detected on everyone's sensors, and if you look around the room all hands are currently holding their weapons in their holsters.
"This room is as dangerous as a Titan sale, this entire meeting could have been set-up without any of us here, and if anyone other than you pulled that weapon, half our avatars would be dead" I stated as I removed my hands from my own holster.
"The only thing I learned about working with capsuleers is that, they only work together in no win scenarios" Corbin stated raising his left hand which contained a grenade.
Figures that the biggest gambit in the room was also the man that was the most trusted, which only furthered the other saying, it is wise to never trust a capsuleer or the most well used one by the standards, the only diplomacy the capsuleers understand is gunboat diplomacy, and after this crisis is resolved we see what is left of everyone.
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The typical response by standard ships when confronted by capsuleer ships were point every gun you have at it and hope it feels unlucky today, and right now this was the response the standards gave them after Rugue tried to convince them to take a walk on the garden world below them, their ships arrayed in a close ball around their heaviest ships with the world's moon to their backs and every gun pointing outwards.
Their low grade military weapons did not even come close to equaling the firepower most of the capsuleer ships came with, not to mention each and every one of use must have more or less seen more combat than their average captains, but they held the numbers advantage and they were outnumbered exactly 4-1, regardless our own military man have defeated equal or higher odds than what was currently presented.
"The standards don't seem very keen on surrendering their ships" Rugue stated over the squad comms aligning himship according to the screen proposed by Tekor "I can't say I would not have done the same thing though, surrendering their ships to us is tantamount to giving us power of over their lives"
"We can hold this blockade indefinitely against them, but that might just prompt them to strike now" Corbin stated over the comms "And if they do we start a battle where none of us win anything"
"This is the reason I left high-sec, dealing with standards is stupid" a random capsuleer shouted over the air.
The man did have a point though, dealing with standards is annoying enough, but now having the need to deal with them without killing them is worse. The worst part is that with all the collective experience all of us had, none of us knew how to deal with this current problem and none of us had any experience doing this.
"We could trade unpowering our shields against them unpowering their weapons, deescalate the situation" capsuleer Matpat the stock broker suggested "Maybe even having it snowball from there, but that is just a theory"
"It could work" Tekor stated "Exchanging tactical advantages until neutral ground is made"
"Next you'll suggested we exchange hostages" I said jokingly.
"They would never accept those terms, our avatars are of little tactical value and their captains essential to their ships" Corbin interrupted "We could start with the de escalation plan first, then we go from there"
"Then I am transmitting the terms now" Rugue stated.
To the surprise of everyone those standards did power down their weapons after we powered down our shields.
"That worked, now what" I asked.
"Now we try to reason with them, this time without the guns" Corbin stated.
The negotiations went as good as what could be expected from two factions pointing guns at each other only moments ago, the captains agreed to let people off their ships to vent their frustrations down on solid ground, but the most likely explanation for the sudden change of heart was probably the increasing tension for them to do something and the rising discontent of the crews and colonists.
In retrospect these people did plan on colonizing this world in their original plan, but the subtleties of attachments to people you decided to leave make the idea of them clamoring for home a bit hypocritical of them. The only good that can come out of this is that these people were not I'll prepared at the prospect of staying here, in fact given the amount of supplies and prefabs they setup it won't be long before they start clamoring for supplies from capsuleers, which means easy ISK, but being disconnected from the greater markets of New Eden would mean prices rising due to scarcity, now the only thing left is to find a worthwhile asteroid to mine and sell or stockpile, because every other capsuleer is probably doing the same thing.
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