Well, last week the Federation was in trouble and still is, we’ll cover that in a moment, and now this week the Alliance is the one in trouble. Protests, Lakon news, Galactic Summit news, and a bit of a personal story from me at the end. Let’s dive into Space Tea Cup 3! Today might be a double cup because there is a lot to talk about.
This week we’re going to go with a nice cup of Earl Grey, nice and hot. One of my favorite teas, and the unofficial tea of the Fuel Rats! Do they drink it? I have no idea, but it was a nice segway into an advertisement.
You jump into a system and see you’re out of fuel.
“Crap,” you think to yourself, but you see a scoopable star in front of you. But you have to get out of this planet’s gravity well first. You turn your engines on, and you get nothing. You’re out of gas. The planet is sucking you in! What do you do? You call the Fuel Rats! They have fuel, you don’t. You turn off your modules one by one, and you sit, drifting into a planet slowly. You hear a ship jump in, and you’re saved! The Fuel Rats have arrived! Don’t hesitate to call them if you’re out of fuel! https://fuelrats.com/ Fuel Rats. They have fuel, you don’t. Well, you probably do right now but if you run out call them.
So this week, just as I was wondering what to cover in Elite, Elite dropped something right in my lap, the Alliance civil unrest. It also ties beautifully into all the other news this week. It seems this Galactic Summit is causing more harm than good in some places, particularly the Alliance. Right now the Alliance election has been postponed for three months due to this Summit. It was scheduled for tomorrow, the 25th of February 3307, but instead as of right now it seems it won’t be until May 25th, 3307, due to this huge Galactic Summit which I’ll touch on in a bit. Much like real life in 2020, this is sparking protests and anger on the Alliance worlds, which makes one wonder just how popular the current Prime Minister is. Much like a certain other president in 2020, the support for the Alliance Prime Minister Edmund Mahon
A quick background on Mahon since we have never talked about him, he’s from the Diso system, and Elite’s wiki says this about him:
Mahon is a career politician with a strong academic background who knows the Alliance political system well. While some of his counterparts lacked leadership or the ability to drive the disparate elements of the Alliance, he is known to be able to work within the system and actually get things done. He is also an expert at ensuring that the concerns of individual systems are properly represented within the Alliance, something that is seen as very attractive for new member systems. Mahon is regarded by some as the greatest leader the Alliance has seen since its inception.
So my question is, if he’s the “greatest leader”, why is he believed to lose this election to Councillor Nakato Kaine, who I believe is still involved somehow in the Starship One explosion. Why are there massive riots? Something isn’t right here. I don’t know what, exactly, but if your people love you so much, then shouldn’t they be HAPPY the election is postponed? Why then are they rioting? Speaking to the council on February 1, 3307, Mahon said this about postponing the election:
“Now that the diplomatic conference has been confirmed, we must adapt to take advantage of this historic event. A potential change in leadership occurring at the same time as the Galactic Summit would cause confusion and undermine the Alliance’s presence.”
Something smells fishy here, and it’s definitely not what the Rock is cooking.
…I’m sorry, I had to. It was just too perfect not to.
Speaking on the protests, Mahon said that it was a “vocal minority of agitators” and insisted that the delay was in the best interest of the alliance. Considering its large-scale protests on many worlds, I would say that it’s more than a few people.
Speaking on the protests, Councilor Nakato Kaine has not only fully backed the protests and become the figurehead for the dissent in a basic reversal of the 2021 US Elections where then sitting lame-duck President Donald Trump was the one behind the riots (quite interesting how Elite Politics often, quite literally, mirrors the current events in the world. By quite literally I mean exactly that, mirrors, where it’s the same thing but opposite). Kaine had been working on an election campaign and was believed to be a strong contender to win, despite Mahon saying he had the full support of the Alliance people. Again, things just don’t add up here, and I’ll keep an eye on the events as they unfold. Councilor Kaine spoke to the Alliance Tribune on the 22nd of February 3307 and had this to say:
“This is the latest in a string of short-sighted decisions, and it’s clear that the people no longer trust their prime minister. For this reason, despite believing the Galactic Summit to be a waste of time, I will be attending the conference to ensure that Mahon’s agenda does not dominate proceedings.”
Also on the subject of the summit, it seems shamed Federation President Zachary Hudson and Shadow President Felecia Winters will both be attending it. As you know Hudson is in the midst of the Rochester turmoil, and his popularity rating has plummeted through the floor, down through the bedrock, and down and out the other side of Earth. In other words, he’s going to lose the elections most likely. Now, we’ve said the term Shadow President before and I never explained it, so I looked up the definition on the Elite Wiki, and the basics are this. Let’s use the 2021 Earth election as our example.
Say we have the Shadow positions. Biden/Harris would be President/Vice President. However, the Shadow President/VP would be Donald Trump/Mike Pence, as they were the leaders of the opposite party. It’s a strange system, but it apparently works for the Federation.
So back to the Galactic Summit. Hudson and Winters will be attending, and it’s believed the only reason Hudson is attending is an attempt to clean up his reputation which has been very, very tarnished from the whole Rochester civil war. I still personally believe he had something to do with Rochester and Starship One, but so far nothing has come up regarding it. Curiously enough, a couple interesting tidbits on this. First, Brad Mitchell, the current Vice President, is believed to be positioning himself for a run at Hudson’s Presidental seat. Considering Hudson’s ruined reputation, I think my dog could win an election against him, so Michell’s chances are pretty good right now. Another is that Felecia Winters has not asked her Shadow Vice President Isolde Rochester to come with. As we covered in previous Space Tea’s, Isolde is directly related to Jupiter, who recently broke from Core Dynamics, came out as blowing up Starship One, caused a civil war between the Federation and Jupiter Division, stole a bunch of tech from Core Dynamics, among other things. Speaking to the Federal Times, political correspondent Sofia Trevino had this to say:
“President Hudson’s personal presence at the Galactic Summit sends the message that he still holds the reins of power. He clearly hopes that facing off against the Empire’s leaders will distract the public from the recent Jupiter Rochester scandals.”
“In his absence, Vice President Brad Mitchell will oversee congressional matters. There are rumours that Mitchell is positioning himself to challenge Hudson as the Republican Party candidate in the next election.”
“The conference also offers opportunities for Felicia Winters to appear presidential. She has eagerly agreed to meet the Marlinist Colonies delegation, having coordinated humanitarian aid for the refugees last year.”
“Winters has not asked Shadow VP Isolde Rochester to accompany her, perhaps as a rebuke for the criminal actions of her son. Furiously working on damage control for her family’s name, the Rochester matriarch has taken Jupiter’s two children into her care after his husband, Tomas Turai, filed for immediate divorce.”
Yeah good luck with that Hudson, as a member of the Federation, you can kiss my…ANYWAYS, moving along.
More of a personal note to end this week. I’ve recently been going through the utter nightmare of Engineering an Anaconda, requiring a lot of unlocks, and a lot of headaches trips way out of the bubble for materials, and just obnoxious annoying things. I wanted to cover three quick things that have happened this week and last.
One. Community Goals. Seriously FDev? The Civil war was a pile of crap. Unless you had a high-end ship with high end engineered weapons or a good pilot (I don’t wanna hear ‘I went out in this and did this easy. Frankly I don’t care if you took your little sidewinder and had no problem blowing up a ship down to 1% already.) I went out in two different ships, a Courier and a Gunship, and it was horrible both times. The ships were near impossible to get even the shields down on, even on a gunship that lays waste to most enemies with ease. It was a joke, FDev. It was not a “Community” goal, it was a “Get a supercharged engineered all to hell and back ship and go in and do it.” Community is just that. Everyone. A Community. That goal was not a “Community” goal, it was a “flex your e-peen goal”. It was a joke, and a lot of players were very, very disappointed in it. We wanted to take place, but could not. Newer players thought they could help with a cool storyline, and you shat all over them. Great job guys. You need to get your act together and fix these. Your scaling is a joke, and some of us don’t have highly engineered ships to go into combat with, and even with a full-on combat ship, we didn’t stand a chance. Bravo. Thanks for only letting the top 5% of players participate.
Second: I wanna share a quick few facts. I love helping people. I love showing cool things I found. Recently I took a couple friends in my Anaconda to look at a Guardian beacon the other day. I’ll post the youtube video below. It was such a great experience seeing them go “wow….” and look in awe as this ancient structure opened up and showed a massive light display. It made me think of other new players, and things they might want to see but can’t. Yet. Just remember a few golden rules of Elite.
If you want to do it, do it.
If you think you can’t do it, you’re wrong. It might take some grinding and some work, but you can do it. You can do anything you want in Elite. Heck, I’m taking a flying football stadium and making it an 80 LY jump range explorer.
There is NO free Anaconda in Hutton Orbital. Do not fall for it. Hutton only has a medium landing pad, so you can’t take a large ship out there.
Never, EVER, go into Deciat in open play. Always go in a private group or solo until you get a bigger ship. Gankers will take you out and laugh about it. There is a small community of dickheads in Elite, and Deciat is their home.
Remember KGBFOAM, remember your fuel scoop, and remember if you’re out of fuel, call the Fuel Rats, that’s what they’re there for. They have fuel, you don’t. This has been a non-paid advertisement for the Fuel Rats. Fuel Rats, they have fuel, and if you’re calling them, you probably don’t.
Alright this week’s shoutouts go to:
https://www.twitch.tv/cmdr_fembot a fellow explorer in Elite, this lady has been my morning go-to stream, watching her explore the galaxy has been great, and getting to chat with her has been awesome. Feme is a great streamer and a fantastic explorer with an amazing paint job on her ship. Go check her out!
https://www.twitch.tv/missmynxi
A fantastic streamer. Don’t be surprised if you log in and see a potato head streaming, it’s one of her various channel redemption points. No tater shaming either or you’ll end up in Cell 6. You don’t want to go there. Mynxi regularly streams Elite as well as various other games, and is VERY interactive with her chat, and a lot of fun to watch.
https://www.twitch.tv/loop_of_shame The name says it all. When you miss a planet because Supercruise decides to take the really, really long way around, you do what’s called the Loop of Shame. I followed this guy, literally for the name. Great Elite streamer though!