Gyrok and CyclonerM, you raise a couple of points that could probably bear some further thought...
Gyrok, I haven't been online since MS switched to Steiner, so I can't speak to who is attacking what (I literally haven't been on TS since Monday and haven't heard what directions MS is following), but Hybrid mentioned above that the push is to attack Jade Falcon and I have no reason to believe otherwise. These may not be MS initiated attacks, or, if they are, may not be done with the intention of actually taking a planet, which I'll get to a little further down. Or, like Hybrid also said above, it could be a rogue group - all factions have them, much as some won't want to admit it.
CyclonerM, I think you're getting close to better understanding how mercenaries think in regards to CW, but may be slightly off in your conclusion that "only MS takes MS". I'm not in MS leadership and I won't pretend to speak for them or for mercenaries in general, but I can tell you how I personally think about CW.
First and foremost, I want good, competitive fights and good pay for being in those fights. That trumps everything else.
Second, since there's no color on the map for mercenaries, the only other thing of perceived value at the moment is planet tags. No, they aren't worth anything tangible, but there are some bragging rights to having more of them or having them on certain notable planets. Just like Factions have planet counts and the race to Terra, Mercs have tags. In fact, Factions have both colors and tags...
So, it doesn't make sense for a mercenary unit to expend effort taking a planet they already "own" via their tag without some other driver being in place. If MS is attacking MS planets inside another faction, it's probably for lack of better options to accomplish goal #1 - good, competitive fights. If the planet switches factions but retains the unit's tag, then so be it, but "only MS kills MS" would seem to be taking it way too far.
In fact, if you think about goal #2 and watch where and when planet tags are flipping and then combine that with which faction allegiances hold the best prospects for providing goal #1, I'd wager you might begin to deduce where certain mercenary units are likely to go next. After that, there could be personal preferences or aversions that cause certain groups to lean more one way than another, and those will never be fully understood, but I think these are probably decent SWAG's at the incentives.
Like I said, I'm not involved in the discussions for MS, but if you accept that the above are the incentives, the behavior should naturally follow, n'est ce pas? So far I'm 2 for 2 in guessing MS's next move and I've only been active here for a month. Granted, it's probably easier from the inside as I hear more from the members, but I bet a number of folks in certain Wolf units who dropped with us last week had a good idea what was coming just by being on our comms for a bit.
Edited by Khereg, 11 March 2015 - 03:32 PM.