Call to Action: Operation Shieldbearer -- An effort to reinstate Aegis as humanity's primary anti-Thargoid coordination and defense agency

Overkill

Overkill
Salvation was always wrong.

From his self-aggrandizing name, his ego-filled speeches, to undermining Aegis as humanity's most reliable defense against the Thargoid threat, it was clear that his motives were not to help humanity but to elevate himself. A person whose motives are fueled by fame and narcissism, and manipulating anti-Thargoid sentiment to do so, was always bound to fail. The events of HIP 22460 has not only proven all of the above to be true, but it has left humanity without a coordinated line of defense against a now-aggressive Thargoid threat.

Salvation did do one thing quite well: Convince the superpowers into backing him instead of Aegis as humanity's supposed best and only hope against the Thargoids -- something any AX pilot and organization with a modicum of sense already knew was suspicious. And now, after the events of August 9, 3308, with Salvation's ego getting the better of himself and those whom he rallied to support him, humanity now has ZERO organized defense against the Thargoids, who are now more aggressive than ever (boy, no one saw that coming, huh?).

The Thargoids have generally only ever been aggressive when humans attack first, enter their controlled space, or where Guardian technologies are massed. Many (including myself) theorized that Salvation's superweapon would not only fail, but end up "stirring up the hornet's nest" and paint a target on humanity's back. Operation Wych Hunt saw this coming and made efforts to destabilize Salvation's efforts by undermining Azimuth Biotech's efforts in systems in which they were present. While the operation delayed Salvation's so-called "Proteus Wave" superweapon from being deployed, it unfortunately could not stop the device from firing. Operation Wych Hunt did correctly surmise that the real identity behind the "Salvation" persona was Dr. Caleb Wycherley, as confirmed recently by GalNet reports. For anyone who knows of Dr. Wycherley's history, that alone was an important revelation that Operation Wych Hunt brought to light. With Salvation’s (apparent) death, the failure of the Proteus Wave, and Operation Wych Hunt hopefully continuing to bring Azimuth the justice they deserve, humanity needs a PROPER coordinated anti-Thargoid defense, and we need it now.

I had initially wanted to propose this initiative alongside Operation Wych Hunt as a parallel operation; as Wych Hunt undermined Azimuth Biotech, it would have been appropriate for a separate operation to start rebuilding Aegis to make sure humanity is not left without an anti-Thargoid coordination agency. But then the events of HIP 22460 happened, and things got confusing for everyone for a while.

But now that Dr. Wycherley is dead (?) and Azimuth Biotech revealed to be the sham that it is, it is now more important than ever for humanity to have a proper anti-Thargoid coordinating agency, and Aegis is and has always been the right people for the job.

It is in this light that I urge the officers and members of the Pilot's Federation to rally behind Aegis to re-strengthen it to once more become humanity's line of defense against the Thargoid threat. While I'm aware many pilots disagreed with how Aegis have done things in the past -- whether being too passive when active response was called for, or too aggressive when there was no need to be -- it was not without merit: It was through them that we now have at least some way to defend against the Thargoids where there were previously none: intelligence gathering, ship scanners, and weapons that are truly effective against the alien threat. Things have definitely changed now though, and with the new stance the Thargoids are taking against humanity, Aegis, if reinstated as humanity's unified anti-Thargoid coordinating agency, is expected to also make a more consistent stance now. It has to. We all have to. Thanks to Salvation, we no longer have a choice.

Recent events have already shed light on just how fallacious Salvation’s beliefs and actions were: from the obvious failure of Azimuth Biotech in HIP 22460, and now, the potential backtracking of governments on how they treated Aegis-related individuals, such as the call for a retrial of Federation Admiral Aden Tanner, the Chief Military Liaison for Aegis who is now clearly justified in supporting the agency. Now is the most appropriate time to bring Aegis back to the fore of anti-Thargoid efforts.

With this, I urge all independent pilots under the Pilot's Federation to proceed to systems where Aegis factions are present -- in particular Aegis Research in Delphi and Aegis Core in Sol -- and assist these factions in their needs by taking on their missions with the goal of bringing their influence up as best as we possibly could. By doing so, we hope to send a message to the superpowers that not only were they wrong in supporting Salvation, but more importantly, that we need them to support Aegis now more than ever.

If a name is necessary for these actions, then I call this effort “Operation Shieldbearer”.

With this, I also call on Aegis (and the devs): Tell us what you need (through a CG); we will support you.

Good luck and godspeed to all.


- CMDR Obsidian Void
 
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Rainbro

Rainbro
A defence agency would be fine, but that's not what Aegis became. It started off as a research organisation, and ended up as a puppet used to escalate conflict with the Thargoids into war. Their goal was to secure the meta alloys, not peace, so they built a ton of infrastructure in Thargoid territory and used it to launch massacre missions against the Thargoids. They then acted surprised when the Thargoids retaliated.

If Aegis were to be reinstated, then it needs to be as a research organisation, not as an arms dealer which should be a conflict of interest so obvious as to be visible from space. Answer the questions that have already been figured out by everyone but them. They can start by answering why they never noticed that their own surveillance network, Eagle Eye, pointed to evidence of the Thargoid attacks on the bubble being deliberately engineered by humans.

Every Thargoid attack outside of Thargoid territory was designed. Salvation doing it too doesn't absolve Aegis.
 
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Overkill

Overkill
Rainbro said:
A defence agency would be fine, but that's not what Aegis became. It started off as a research organisation, and ended up as a puppet used to escalate conflict with the Thargoids into war. Their goal was to secure the meta alloys, not peace, so they built a ton of infrastructure in Thargoid territory and used it to launch massacre missions against the Thargoids. They then acted surprised when the Thargoids retaliated.

If Aegis were to be reinstated, then it needs to be as a research organisation, not as an arms dealer which should be a conflict of interest so obvious as to be visible from space. Answer the questions that have already been figured out by everyone but them. They can start by answering why they never noticed that their own surveillance network, Eagle Eye, pointed to evidence of the Thargoid attacks on the bubble being deliberately engineered by humans.

Every Thargoid attack outside of Thargoid territory was designed. Salvation doing it too doesn't absolve Aegis.
Click to expand...
You're referring to Operation Andronicus and the events that followed. Yes, that is very true. That was one of Aegis' less stellar initiatives, although others may have seen it at justified as, at the time, the Pleiades was more of a contested border area between Humans and Thargoids rather than it being an actual recognized Thargoid territory. It was also a time when Humans generally had little defensive abilities against the Thargoids and needed to push and test their technological development to provide an appropriate response. I'd agree that also goaded the Thargoid into an offensive stance, but it was definitely not without merit at the time. Most certainly never to the scale Salvation intended, and most definitely not at that level of screwing-up.

You're right though, it's still something that a renewed Aegis would have to address as well; in hindsight, I probably should have suggested that in the original post. But bottom line though, without Salvation, and Azimuth being practically in ruins, there is a need for some sort of agency to bring coordination back among the superpowers in defending Humanity against a now-very-aggressive Thargoid threat. In my opinion, taking what's left of Aegis and realigning it as a research, and yes, even a defense agency, would be the quickest solution as opposed to creating a brand new agency that may be bound to make the same mistakes as Aegis and Salvation previously did. At least this time, Aegis isn't starting from square one, they're starting from experience. And if there's anything consistent about life and the universe, it's that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes. Let's hope Aegis, if renewed, learned from theirs to be better than they were this time around.

I suppose that starts with how the retrial of Admiral Tanner goes.
 

Rainbro

Rainbro
The "defence" that Aegis was just incompetent, that they just accidentally took multiple targeted actions that escalated the war is a difficult theory to disprove, but I don't buy it. For starters, they already had the chance to learn from their mistakes if they were that. A year after they admitted having some understanding that the Thargoids consider areas with barnacles to be their territory, they led the invasion of Witch Head, again to secure meta-alloys. Their "mistakes" were not mistakes, Aegis was just being used to fulfil a different objective. Secure the meta-alloys, and if that leads to war, well then that just makes things easier.
“We now know that the purpose of the Thargoids’ ongoing military offensive is to remove humanity from what they consider their territory.
Click to expand...
-Alba Tesreau
This development, coupled with increased Thargoid activity in the Pleiades Nebula, suggests that the Thargoids are intent on driving humanity out of regions containing barnacle sites. Tesreau was quick to repeat that securing access to a source of meta-alloys is of great importance to humanity.
Click to expand...
-Also Tesreau, a year later during the invasion of Witch Head. Doesn't seem like a lesson has been learnt. Great importance to profits, more like.

The Thargoids only attack in defence of their territory, and yet Aegis took a very long time to publicly understand this, and even when they did, it did not change their methods at all. So was the Pleiades just a series of accidents, caused by Aegis's ignorance and then later incidents by their inability to learn? Or was that part of the plan all along? Neither seems good.

As an aside, take a look at how Aegis are written at Dominic's Corner, one of Aegis's weapon manufacturing plants.
Today we had the royal visit — a spot check from the man at Aegis. He walked in, black suited and slick haired. Hulking bodyguards like he was President of the Federation or something.
Click to expand...
He introduced himself as Mr Black. I’m fairly sure that wasn’t his real name, but I wasn’t going to question it. We walked around the plant for about an hour and he didn’t say a word.
Click to expand...
I don't think the writer for this section was given a brief of "the good guys".

The final nail in the coffin for the incompetence defence though, is the bubble attacks. Like I mentioned earlier, the Thargoids are territorial, they act in defence of their own territory, even if the space oil harvesters don't see it that way. So why were there hundreds of attacks on stations in the bubble under Aegis's watch? Aegis certainly never seemed to figure it out.

Each week, Aegis's surveillance network Eagle Eye would detect which Thargoid surface sites had become active. Travelling to these sites and activating the central device would record Thargoid navigational data to your inbox. This data indicated a target of interest to the Thargoids, detected by the surface site. You could play the data to a Thargoid Link and it would spit out the name of the system. Do it again once there, and the Link would fire a laser beam directly at the detected object. In this way, players were able to confirm exactly which stations were being targeted for attack (since apparently Aegis couldn't figure it out based on the presence of a Thargoid fleet in the system).

The beams didn't point at the stations, however. There were manmade Transmitter beacons orbitting the targeted stations, appearing at the same time as the Thargoids. It was these transmitters that were being detected by the Thargoids, prompting them to investigate, and then attack.
The monument must have sent a message, acting like a beacon and bringing them down on top of us. Whatever they are, they seem damned angry. We should have demolished that thing when we had the chance.
Click to expand...
Seems someone reverse-engineered the Thargoid signals, and placed these beacons to lead the Thargoids into the bubble. Maybe they're the same people who sent convoys of Thargoid tech to the targeted stations, to provide the motive for an attack once the Thargoids were there. So either the incompetence defence has to grow to say that Aegis never bothered to check the results of their own surveillance network...or it was Aegis.
 
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Overkill

Overkill
Rainbro said:
The "defence" that Aegis was just incompetent, that they just accidentally took multiple targeted actions that escalated the war is a difficult theory to disprove, but I don't buy it. For starters, they already had the chance to learn from their mistakes if they were that. A year after they admitted having some understanding that the Thargoids consider areas with barnacles to be their territory, they led the invasion of Witch Head, again to secure meta-alloys. Their "mistakes" were not mistakes, Aegis was just being used to fulfil a different objective. Secure the meta-alloys, and if that leads to war, well then that just makes things easier.

-Alba Tesreau

-Also Tesreau, a year later during the invasion of Witch Head. Doesn't seem like a lesson has been learnt. Great importance to profits, more like.

The Thargoids only attack in defence of their territory, and yet Aegis took a very long time to publicly understand this, and even when they did, it did not change their methods at all. So was the Pleiades just a series of accidents, caused by Aegis's ignorance and then later incidents by their inability to learn? Or was that part of the plan all along? Neither seems good.

As an aside, take a look at how Aegis are written at Dominic's Corner, one of Aegis's weapon manufacturing plants.


I don't think the writer for this section was given a brief of "the good guys".

The final nail in the coffin for the incompetence defence though, is the bubble attacks. Like I mentioned earlier, the Thargoids are territorial, they act in defence of their own territory, even if the space oil harvesters don't see it that way. So why were there hundreds of attacks on stations in the bubble under Aegis's watch? Aegis certainly never seemed to figure it out.

Each week, Aegis's surveillance network Eagle Eye would detect which Thargoid surface sites had become active. Travelling to these sites and activating the central device would record Thargoid navigational data to your inbox. This data indicated a target of interest to the Thargoids, detected by the surface site. You could play the data to a Thargoid Link and it would spit out the name of the system. Do it again once there, and the Link would fire a laser beam directly at the detected object. In this way, players were able to confirm exactly which stations were being targeted for attack (since apparently Aegis couldn't figure it out based on the presence of a Thargoid fleet in the system).

The beams didn't point at the stations, however. There were manmade Transmitter beacons orbitting the targeted stations, appearing at the same time as the Thargoids. It was these transmitters that were being detected by the Thargoids, prompting them to investigate, and then attack.

Seems someone reverse-engineered the Thargoid signals, and placed these beacons to lead the Thargoids into the bubble. Maybe they're the same people who sent convoys of Thargoid tech to the targeted stations, to provide the motive for an attack once the Thargoids were there. So either the incompetence defence has to grow to say that Aegis never bothered to check the results of their own surveillance network...or it was Aegis.
Click to expand...

All generally true, although I think you're now also nitpicking at how FDev wanted to use Aegis (especially Eagle Eye) to give players puzzles/something to do and interpreting it as being passive/incompetent, while pointing to Aegis as drawing the Thargoids into the bubble for whatever purpose that may serve is already bordering on tin-foil-hat territory. In the end, you may be justified in pointing these out. The Eagle Eye puzzles certainly would be a hard-fit into ED lore if these were to be taken as is, and may, in fact, end up highlighting the old Aegis' incompetence should it be taken into literal lore consideration. But for now, I take events/puzzles that were obviously designed to give players an Easter Egg hunt with a grain of salt. As for Aegis-led aggression into the Pleiades, I take that as is -- grave missteps in the early days of Human-Thargoid relations. Aegis and humanity in general was groping in the dark at that time not knowing much about how to deal with the 'Goids. If anything, it was spawned by a great deal of ignorance in Aegis part, but with the intent of knowing more so that humanity would know better how to deal with them in the long run. As for Salvation, his motives were selfish, self-aggrandizing, and ultimately, stemmed from incompetence.

Aegis is definitely no saint, but between those two, I'd rather support the well-intended ignorance of Aegis than the ill-intended incompetence of Salvation. The former cost them their reputation and a great deal of resources (yes, including lives); the cost of the latter is humanity as a whole unless something is done about it.
 
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Rainbro

Rainbro
I'm not saying Aegis were passive or incompetent, I just think that's the only possible defence they could have, and indeed that's basically what was used in the Baumann Report. The outcome of their actions is easy enough to see but it's much harder to prove malice over incompetence - even if I do think incompetence at this point is incredibly unlikely for the reasons listed above. Their approach has consistently been to escalate the war for the sake of securing meta alloys and Thargoid tech, and I don't think it's fair to dismiss evidence of Thargoid luring as an "easter egg". It's just another part of the narrative that Frontier have been building.

The Thargoids attack stations to retrieve stolen technology, not kill. In their own territory, this checks out, the stations that have been built in the Pleiades and Witch Head and others are being used to harvest that tech, and often used to launch military action. But the Thargoids had no reason to attack the bubble. So that was fixed, with beacons broadcasting Thargoid signals to trigger an investigation, and then convoys in the system taking Thargoid tech to the station. Probably didn't help either that Aegis outfitted every station in the galaxy with meta-alloys, too. And now the Thargoid Menace is coming for your home - even if they never seem to attack anywhere too important, we wouldn't want anyone rich to die.
 

Broken_One

B
Rainbro said:
A defence agency would be fine, but that's not what Aegis became. It started off as a research organisation, and ended up as a puppet used to escalate conflict with the Thargoids into war. Their goal was to secure the meta alloys, not peace, so they built a ton of infrastructure in Thargoid territory and used it to launch massacre missions against the Thargoids. They then acted surprised when the Thargoids retaliated.

If Aegis were to be reinstated, then it needs to be as a research organisation, not as an arms dealer which should be a conflict of interest so obvious as to be visible from space. Answer the questions that have already been figured out by everyone but them. They can start by answering why they never noticed that their own surveillance network, Eagle Eye, pointed to evidence of the Thargoid attacks on the bubble being deliberately engineered by humans.

Every Thargoid attack outside of Thargoid territory was designed. Salvation doing it too doesn't absolve Aegis.
Click to expand...
To be fair the head of Aegis research was working hard on Thargoid communication before she was removed last year.
--
 

Broken_One

B
I personally would like the keys to be given to the Pilots Federation. Let us pilots assist in deciding where and when to set defenses. We provide the bulk of the support in most cases anyway (and I use the term we loosely cause I am no ACE) -- However the point stands. The CMDRS seem to be very responsive in identifying regions of interaction, conducting behavioral studies and the rest. -- The things we do not have access to are technological -- If there were a forum to relay/request information it could potentially resolve this by giving us interplay with the powers and factions.

That or the management could be fully outsourced however the seed information should come from CMDRS. -- Currently we have player groups data farming the EDMC and player databases. Is anyone at frontier doing this? Doubtful, but they should.

A lot of the data exists but the powers and factions have failed to utilize it efficiently. What has resulted is a system where we have essentially privatized most of the data into the hands of those who run external databases.


I would like to see this in game instead imho.
--

As a stopgap I too would like to see aegis reinstated and said as much in my letter to tesaru
 

Rainbro

Rainbro
Broken_One said:
To be fair the head of Aegis research was working hard on Thargoid communication before she was removed last year.
--
Click to expand...
If there has to be one trustworthy person at Aegis it is probably Tesreau, but her stated desire to communicate doesn't change Aegis's actions. She also supported many of Aegis's military actions like the invasion of Witch Head, to secure the meta alloys. Hopefully that was just due to pressure from the military side and Aegis's backers, and she'll be fine as an independent as she is now.
 

Broken_One

B
Rainbro said:
If there has to be one trustworthy person at Aegis it is probably Tesreau, but her stated desire to communicate doesn't change Aegis's actions. She also supported many of Aegis's military actions like the invasion of Witch Head, to secure the meta alloys. Hopefully that was just due to pressure from the military side and Aegis's backers, and she'll be fine as an independent as she is now.
Click to expand...
Agreed. I am just very nervous about giving this all to Sirius, which is where the Alliance seems to be headed with this. Privatizing our defense? --- I think that just opens a lot of doors that should stay shut.
They already have a monopoly on so much.
 

jvahle3

jvahle3
There is no magic bullet in a war.

You are right we need to build something stable. Which is why I offer my own proposal for consideration.

While the Empire has stated that it will cease cooperation with others in matters of Anti-Xeno defense, the rest of the galaxy knows that only together can we survive. Thus, I call upon all the great powers of the galaxy: The Federation, The Alliance, Sirius Corp, Utopia, and the EG Union to work on a new agreement to ensure humanity’s survival in an evolving war. I ask all Commanders who recognize the need for cooperation, interdependence, and strength in numbers to join in calling for the ratification of the.

Reestablishing

and

Strengthening

Aegis

through

Resources

and

Training

Or Re.St.A.R.T. Treaty



This comprehensive treaty will be open to all systems, factions, and powers who wish to become signatories.

The treaty shall reestablish Aegis, but more then that it shall reform it into a more powerful and capable version, one able to meet the challenges this galaxy will present to it. Further, in light of the unethical operations carried out by Azimuth Biochemicals, it’s clear that Anti-Xeno research must be regulated to ensure accountability and safety. As such, Aegis’s remit shall be widened to include protection against unlawful research and other such activities.

Key points in the treaty of note:

  • Aegis shall be restored and shall act as an independent entity.
  • Aegis shall be formed of four departments listed below
  • Aegis Defense
  • Built by merging the anti-xeno forces of the signatories.
  • Responds to attacks
  • Trained by the top professional Anti-Xeno Commanders
  • Aegis Core
  • Responsible for administrative functions
  • Overseen by a board of advisers appointed by the signatories
  • Aegis Research
  • Split into two subdepartments
  • Aegis Xenological Research Department
  • Responsible for research involving non-combat initiatives
  • Aegis Weapons and Defense Research Department
  • Responsible for Anti-Xeno defense research
  • Aegis Law
  • Responsible for investigating and prosecuting violations of Xeno research laws
  • Funding by signatories shall be set as a percentage of a party’s GDP
  • Funding can only be reduced by unanimous agreement of all signatories
  • No party can withdraw from the treaty unless with the consent of all signatories.


This new treaty, designed to overcome the shortcomings of Aegis’ past, shall ensure that politics doesn’t get in the way of defense. The two research departments will allow humanity to benefit from the studies of Alien life outside of exclusively military applications. Finally, the expanded mandate will ensure that organizations like Azimuth Biochemicals are held accountable and will prevent the rise of another ‘salvation.’

To all Commanders, pledge your support for Operation Shield Bearer and if you agree with a fundamental reformation of Aegis, support Re.St.A.R.T as well!
 

Rainbro

Rainbro
Repainting a puppet won't help so long as the puppetmasters are still in business. They approved of Salvation's approach and methods and hoped to make use of him - what makes you think they'd suddenly make Aegis dance to your desired tune if it were revived? With a plan that is not fundamentally different to the old one, no less.
 

Mas s_1nhibited

Mas s_1nhibited
Alliance players shall be fighting as hard as they can to try to prevent invasion into the bubble, but at the same time pursuing any reasonable option for peace that is presented to us. Player AX initiatives, events and organisations are cued to follow the console transfer. The Alliance community im certain will continue to work closely with AXI, PDES, Canonn as well as emerging Peace Advocacy groups to provide gameplay opportunities and protection for the community and its assets.

The sirius treaty suggested by Mahon would have been ideal - to work united the empire and the feds would have been preferable but old enmities die hard.

I see a lot of people throughout the community blaming salvation for this situation, whether or not the outcome of the proteus wave deployment was fixed is up for debate;
However the wider community only has itself to account for the flavour of the current narrative.

I recognise every player faction seeks self determination and I personally congratulate the Empire in achieving this somewhat. I feel we all must trust in each other and abandon old grudges to weather the coming storm. A fundamental problem with AEGIS is it represents a threat to this self determination being a cross-faction military organisation and as such any organisation seeking to influence military policy will, of course, be viewed with suspicion. Therefore, in my opinion, for a new AEGIS to form it must be firmly player lead and consider the needs of its participants.

Groups and individuals that want to assist and coordinate in the defence of humankind using a balanced and diverse approach to the problem can go to this (cheeky and readily available) link for the main low-sec Mahon PP server: Alliance of Independents discord server
 

LiveWeyer

LiveWeyer

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Rainbro

Rainbro
Ah, I was wondering who submitted that. The Pleiades used to be almost entirely controlled by Aegis, before they were overthrown either deliberately or just by player factions wanting the territory for themselves. Aegis have also then been kicked out of all systems in the Pleiades except for five controlled by AXI and the Hive.

Which group do you intend to declare war on first to allow for Aegis's revival?
 

LiveWeyer

LiveWeyer
An Aegis return would ultimately impact both, so picking a who is irrelevant.
My question is how hungry are people to see them make a comeback? As you said, Aegis once served to protect the Pleiades. I see posts and grumblings about Aegis needing to return.

My question to you, and others is, will we just complain, or take action?

It's time people made the effort if they really want an Aegis, or if they are content with the status quo.
 

Rainbro

Rainbro
I already took plenty of action in the past, against Aegis, so for now I'm content to just complain. And it depends on how you see it with the Pleiades, "protecting" the Pleiades, or "occupying" them - or rather which way the Thargoids see it, as it is their territory.

Props to the answer of both, though, you have confidence at least.
 

LiveWeyer

LiveWeyer
Aegis will either rise from the ashes, or finish crumbling to dust. It will be up to those that either support them, or not, to decide that fate.

Perhaps the Pleiades is not the home for the future of Aegis, but it's where we can make a difference to grow their research facilities and capabilities. So it's where we can start.

It is never to late to join the cause CMDR.
 
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