Gallic Royal Navy Recruitment and Transfer Office

[Haste]

Comm ID: Maurice Cornett
Encryption: Medium

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Monsieur, Madame,

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Maurice Cornett, Chief Security Officer of EFL Oil & Machinery. Or at least, up until mere minutes ago.

I have seen what His Majesty's Navy can achieve. I have seen Leeds. I have seen the many brave souls that fight for you force the Bretonians back further and further. Even significant Libertonian forces have fallen before you.

However, we all know that it will take great courage and valor to defeat both the Bretonians and Libertonian forces combined. Many a pilot will inevitably find their death at the hands of the militaries of these two houses.

I wish to aid your cause. Our cause. Although I am only one pilot, and I will not make the difference between victory and defeat, I cannot watch our brave men and women fight while I stand at the sideline.

I have no military training, but I have learned a great deal in the Tau region. I can pilot a Lynx; I can pilot a Cougar. It should hopefully take little to bring me up to your standards.

I eagerly await your response.

Signed,

Maurice Cornett

(formal) Chief Security Officer
EFL Oil & Machinery

[Omi]

Lucie was dozing off in her chair when the message arrived in her inbox. Of course, given that she was now personally managing recruitment, she had configured her terminal to treat all low-priority messages (such as Royal Naval applications) as low-volume alerts, rather than the usual harsh beep beep beep that accompanied a standard message being delivered to her neural net address.

Unfortunately, this particular sender had not used the regular recruitment channel, and the full-volume alert blared out in the middle of Lucie's midday reverie. Startled, and already a little bit irritated by the interruption, she jabbed at the "new mail" icon as if it had personally insulted her, wondering what was so important. If anything ever made it up to her personally without being flagged as a low-priority message, it was generally something that needed some proper attention.

This transmission, however, did not fall into that category. It was a simple Navy application which had, somehow, managed to both evade her prioritising system and interrupt her happy little daydream, where she was finally being awarded the title of Maréchal in the incompetent Charbonneau's stead.

Lucie glared daggers at the screen, which, if screens had feelings, would have been a little frightened by the venomous stare it was being subjected to. Then, after taking a deep breath, she began to type:

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TRANSMISSION ENTRANT
PRIORITÉ: LOW
SUJET: Re: WRONGLY-ADDRESSED APPLICATION TO ROYAL NAVY


ID: Général Lucie LeBlanc, Marine Royale Gauloise

Monsieur Cornett,

Applying to the Royal Navy of Gallia is generally something a person only does once in his or her lifetime, so there will likely never be a "next time". That said, if by some chance there ever is, feel free to send your application to the correct address on that occasion. Don't bother re-sending this one, though, as I have already processed it, and I wouldn't want you filling up my inbox with spam.

I hope you fly Lynxes and Cougars better than you manage your neural net mail. I would have expected the ex-Chief of Security for EFL Oil and Machinery to be good at both those things, but you've already shown your incompetence at one.

Regardless of the errors outlined above, your credentials are more than adequate. I have reviewed the records of your time at EFL, and the improvement in shipment security statistics since you replaced your predecessor is a markedly large one. Therefore, on account of this and other elements of the routine background check:

Your application for entrance into the Primary Fleet of the Gallic Royal Navy has been APPROVED. Report to your nearest Royal Navy recruitment office in person within three days for applicant processing and assignment to your designated area of operations. Further instructions will be given upon your arrival.

In service to the Crown,



TRANSMISSION TERMINÉE

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