INCOMING TRANSMISSION
COMM ID: Sub-Lieutenant Konstantin Petrovin
LOCATION: Zhukovsky Station, Omega-52 System
I went out on a brief solo patrol to Omega-7 where I ran across a band of our Red Hessian Army Allies pursuing a lone Freelancer. Evidently this pilot took out a contract on the Hessians and was rewarded in focused energy blasts. The Hessians let the fool escape, and we shared a few pleasantries before they had to move on to pressing matters. As for myself, I continued my patrol of the system, hoping to find a pirate or smuggler to "correct". The local miners tipped me off to a pirate, but it turned out to be a Hessian by the name of Benno-Fuchs, not aligned with the RHA. He demanded four million credits of a Kruger Minerals vessel, and I attempted to sway his opinion, but to little avail. The miner caved in to demands, although I suppose was emboldened enough to lower it to 3.5 million, which satisfied Comrade Fuchs.
Finding Omega-7 to be rather docile otherwise, I chose to go on a quick propaganda drive at Leeds, hoping to catch both Bretonian and Kusari military. Only the former were available, along with some civilians, but I persisted nonetheless. I tried to focus on the futility and corruption behind their war with Kusari, emphasizing the government's role in the whole affair. A full comms log is as follows for review; gun-camera shots are available but this a more expedient way of presenting it.
<Attached Data>
Comms Log (Leeds System) Wrote:SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Ah.. The merits of Capitalism..
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Look at this place.. As if it were not soiled by industrial progress, now it's soiled with blood and debris.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Is this really what we all wish for each other? The frive for territory, wealth, that greed, that only leads to wars like this?
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: How many people have died so far..? A few million? Perhaps the Bretonian and Kusari governments artificially kept the
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: numbers low in their broadcasts? I wouldn't put it past them.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: So next time you fly by Stokes, provided it doesn't fire at you first, take a look at all the wrecks floating by.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Maybe a body part or two. And remember why they're there.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Not because of simple "patriotism"; this war surely didn't start over it. Just a territorial dispute.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Money, power, and for what? For whom?
HMS-Rapture: eh...
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: The Emperor? The Queen?
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Do you really think that it was worth all these lives? What do you get out of it? You workers, even you soldiers?
Bowex)Walpole: can i ask you a question ?
HMS-Revelation: and the soldiers cry for the kingdom, we die to keep you free
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: You die because a government wanted a few balls of dust and a chunk of space
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: And yes you may ask
Bowex)Walpole: also how rich is your premier huh enough money for him to build a fleet huh ?
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: You think Comrade Premier Katz embellishes the resources of the Coalition? Golden waste-dump seats, eh?
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: You think he rides around in luxury while the rest of us get shot?
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: It's not 'his' fleet, it's 'our' fleet. The People of the Coalition. And we do not die for balls of dust or chunks of space
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: we die for a cause, that cause being the wellfare of humanity
Bowex)Walpole: then why shoot the people
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: We shoot the military and "police" oppressors, and we shoot the pirates who plague this sector. We do 'not' shoot the people
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: The workers, the miners, the traders, none of them.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: You may not be receptive to our message, but we fight for you, not against you. We do not pirate, extort, threaten
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Only the oppressive regimes you've learned to call "legitimate governments"
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Da, we shoot the military and police
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Many of them are normal people, like the workers, but they've chosen to become tools of the governments, and have been given
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: weapons with which to enforce their aims. While we'd love for them to drop those weapons and stop, they tend to turn them
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: on us, which is why we're inevitable enemies.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: We shouldn't have to be, yet we are. In a place so infested with acts of piracy and terrorism, of government-sanctioned
Bowex)Walpole: yet you killed many in the sol war many traders earning their keep
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: oppression, and even a threat of alien invasion, only a system as corrupt and flawed as capitalism could keep humanity apart
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: We killed traders in the Sol War? Comrade there were no such things as civilians in those days so long ago.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Those were horrible days, much like now, but everything was compressed into a single system
Bowex)Walpole: also another point why then you use weapons try using elections forn a coalition party
Bowex)Walpole: and use democratic diplomacy
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Comrade it matters not who votes but who counts the votes.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: We do our best to inform the people and get them to sway their governments as much as possible, but there will always
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: be armed resistance to the Red Dawn.
Bowex)Walpole: have you tried it though ?
Bowed)Walpole: yes or no ?
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: We have, with mixed success. Ever heard of the Ontario System? Dreadful affair, a political gaffe on the part of Liberty
HMS-Rapture: Quit spreading your filthy lies commie
Lev: Any information where he is?
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Putting down demonstrations with force. Militarism.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: You quit fighting a war that should not have been fought, Comrade!
Bowex)Walpole: easy
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Turn your guns on something that'll actually benefit your own family, those around you
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Look at Leeds! Look around you! Is this what you fight for? Just more death and destruction?
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: All because two corrupt governments, fueled by the greed imbibed by Capitalism, saw fit to toss lives at each other
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Over one star system.
Lev: Please Identify your location so we can talk about your grievences
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: *Laughs* You can talk from there, Comrade.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: System-wide communications, marvelous technological advancement. How far humanity has come in that respect
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Yet so backwards in others
Bowex)Walpole: really lets look on this ontario incident never once did you actually enter a party did you no
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Trial and error, Comrade. The Ontarians have elected the ODP; we shall monitor their progress
Lev: We are very interested in your opinions/ Plesae identify your location?
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: The Revolutionary Army is not in the business of training targets, Comrade Lev.
The.Disco.Train: Hey, hop aboard The.Disco.rain, and appreciate the funk!
The.Disco.Train: Hop aboard The.Disco.Train, Dalmatia!
Lev: A proper face to face chat is the democratic thing
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Democracy has a tendency of failing its own people at the worst possible moments. Mainly because it tends not to exist.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: You Bretonians would do well to see what this war of yours is really about. Don't look at the immediacy of it, either.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: It can easily be bent into a "war of survival", but you must first remember how it started
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Then you must ponder how it's been continuing for this long.
Bowex)Walpole: another point can you tell me do you have election
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Citizens of the Coalition elect representatives to the State Duma, of course.
Bowex)Walpole: oh really can i also ask how frequently they are name 10 representatives then
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: What is this, a game show?
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: How many representatives do 'you' have? How many of them have any say in what your government does?
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: I'll answer for you: Look at the faces of your currency. Look at the banners hanging here and there.
Lev: Our leader is appointed by the grace of God
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Your Queen Carina.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Da, the Grace of God.. And who speaks for God, eh?
Bowex)Walpole: no i want simple answers using freddom of speech
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Genetics? Carina's offspring?
Lev: Bowie do you know where the terroritst Petrovin is?
SCRA|Jayce.Brooks: Friggin' Battleship...
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Do you have freedom of speech here, Comrade?
Bowex)Walpole: who speeks for your premier huh
SCRA|Jayce.Brooks: I do!
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Ah, Comrade Brooks, glad you could make it.
Bowex)Walpole: really bretonian citizens have a simple power under the magna carta
SCRA|Jayce.Brooks: Don't expect me here for long. I'm whooped, just killed a Funboat in my Insurgent.
SCRA|Jayce.Brooks: Do you realize how hard it is to kill one of those things without a Mini?
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: So I've heard, Comrade. No more pirating for that Outcast.
Bowex)Walpole: uh also what year did you elect your premier uh also 'game show' freedom of speech actually
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Which is why anybody who speaks of ideals like mine is instantly labeled a terrorist.. Quite the freedom.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Tell me, where is your anti-war movement?
SCRA|Jayce.Brooks: I didn't think they had one.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: I wonder why, Comrade Brooks?
Bowex)Walpole: tell me wheres your anti communict movement uh
SCRA|Jayce.Brooks: Nobody tells me anything.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Da, we're simple terrorists, not worth a breath of air.
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Perhaps no anti-war movement exists because you've been fooled into thinking this war is just? Necessary?
Bowex)Walpole: and we have a anti war mvoement the single person cat petion thier mp whcih can speak up in parkiment but no you wouldnt
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Or perhaps anyone who has said anything has been labeled a dissenter and "enemy of the state"?
Bowex)Walpole: understand
Lev: Another Glorious Bretonia Victory At Stokes Mining station
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Glorious death over nothin, da, Comrade Lev.
Lev: For our enemies yet
Bowex)Walpole: also how would you fell if i attacked your ships you would revenge yes ?
Lev: To whome is that addressed Bowex?
Bowex)Walpole: the scra
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: It might do you some good to question why you attacked in the first place, would it not?
Lev: Ah if you have the SCRA position Bowex do inform me
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Maybe someday you'll see the error of your ways, the dead end you've convinced yourself is "just" and "right
Bowex)Walpole: also i would replie you attacked me first
SCRA|Kostya.Petrovin: Hopefully, before you die over nothing.
Satisfied I'd made as much of a point as I could with a hostile audience, I set course for Omega-52, just in time to see a ship take the jump hole into it. It was a Gull transport by the designator "REAPER_PRIME", with civilian papers and an odd cargo load that comprised everything from spare parts to refugees. Needless to say the poor fool must not have known what he was getting into, and fled the system at his earliest possible moment. I chose not to follow and complete his termination; he did not venture outside of the Omega-5 debris field and could not have left with any sensitive scan data. With my patrol complete, I set down on Zhukovsky for debriefing.