Somewhere in New Eden right now, even as I write these very words, a lone Venture Mining Frigate is burning rocks in a lonely corner of Low-Sec. His motivations, his history, his hopes and dreams are unimportant. The only important thing is that he exists. A Frigate enters local, a Merlin, and he spots the Venture in the belt using the tools of his trade. He warps in and engages and most likely, and we'll agree here for the sake of the grand point, he defeats the poor Mining Frigate. As he was engaged however, several AF Class ships had moved into position and the poor Merlin is caught and destroyed by a Vengeance and an Ishkur. As the victorious AFs move to leave the system they are met by a couple of Cruisers at the gate. The Cruisers jump into a small gang of BCs, the BCs are killed by RR BS on Station, the RR BS are hot-dropped by Dreads, Carriers undock and a Titan appears and the whole thing continues to get way out of hand.
This happens every single day in Eve.
But the poor Mining Frigate knows nothing about the grand equation. He was podded back to Hi-Sec and is unaware of the small part he played in the grand story of New Eden. He is angry and frustrated and extremely pissed off. As any small fish would be.
Eve has often been compared to a Submarine Sim. It is actually a more pure expression than that. It is without a doubt, a pure expression of Darwinism in action. It is survival of the fittest. This simple fact of truth, pure and unadorned by flowery commentary and lore and technology, is the heart of Eve. The "secret" if you want to call it that.
The only way to break the chain is to be smarter, faster and more clever than the bigger fish that want to eat you. That Venture isn't doomed. He has plenty of chances to survive, if only he is smart, clever and better than the Merlin.
Yesterday my Corp mate killed a Vagabond in his Tristan. He did so, not because the Vaga was a noob or left off his entire mid-slots or something else. The Vaga was well-fitted except for one simple mod - he fitted a Nos instead of a Neut. And because of that mistake a much smaller fish was able to defeat a much larger fish.
This story also happens every single day in New Eden.
And that is why the bigger fish fear the smaller fish. And why the bigger fish often bring more bigger fish with them to kill the smaller fish. The smaller fish can still bite.
So the Venture pilot sends the Merlin pilot a nasty email calling him names and making fun of his Mother. He wants to know "why"? Why did you do it? He might as well be asking the Shark why he killed the Tuna. He did so because he was hungry. It is the nature of things. And it is the nature of Eve, the larger fish hunt. They don't always hunt the smaller fish, sometimes they hunt larger prey. But if a Tuna is just hanging out behind a rock, not moving or defending himself, the Shark would be an idiot to pass up a juicy meal.
And the Shark is no idiot.
Although, you never know what else might be hiding behind that rock. The Shark is taking risks. That innocent Tuna could be packing a Cyno after all. And he may be friends with a pack of Giant Squid. It's possible.
Anything is.