Originator: Hattori Hanzo, Representative of the Honorable Takeda-sama, Sei-i Taishōgun of the Takeda bakufu. Konnichiwa to the valiant sisters of the Sisterhood of Dreams. I bring greetings and salutations from the honorable Takeda-sama, Sei-i Taishōgun of the Takeda bakufu. We are a new bakufu that has risen in response to the dangerous and sometimes downright corrupt actions of the current standing shogunate and their unwillingness to seem to want to stop the escalating conflict between outsiders.
Takeda-sama has been watching, with disgust, the escalation of conflict between outsiders that could and most likely will endanger the liberation of Kusari from the republican menace in some way. While the Crimson Cross bears a small portion of the responsibility, it is Takeda-sama's view that the vast majority of the responsibility lies with the Order and their increasing violations of Kusari.
He is most interested in sending a representative to discuss the matter with your esteemed organization, among other common topics concerning the effort to liberate Kusari.
For the establishment of the Takeda bakufu!
For the Honor of Kusari!
Taget ID:Takeda Representative H.Hanzo. Target Location:Chugoku node, Okamura cloud, Kyoto node. Encryption:Encrypted. Sender Contact :Masayume Minori Rei. Subject: I used to hide behind nebulae, from what I thought I saw.
"Onscreen."
"Salutations, representative. Since you've been lenient enough with me to avoid issues of station, I'll start with mine. I'm Minori Rei, Masayume of the Sisterhood of Dreams and as high on the celestial order as I'll ever hope to achieve. Our names follow western conventions for the sake of greater Sirian integration, so with respect, I'm Mistress Rei to you. The line of success runs thus; The Goddess, the Empress, the Hatsyume, and myself and my countersister mistress Takahashi take up equal positions. If the Kusari Chrysanthemum is a human body and the empress is her heart, then it follows the Hatsyume is the head and we are her shoulders. Now, I don't know your station, Sir Hanzo, and I don't particularly care for it either. Beyond all consequence, we gladdened considerably that your I'm glad enough you're here and the Takeda's had enough of the divine wit to reach out beyond the whims of the Niwas and the Yoshitsunes."
"It is both eminently satisfactory to the Regina to hear of a revolutionary clan equally unwilling to collaborate with the actions of intervening foreigners. Our predicament with the Order is rooted inherently in the fact that they operate without accountability to the people of Kusari. Even the Kusari Navy, whilst misled, are staffed mostly by vocational career soldiers who fight for the entirely virtuous pursuit of protecting their families. Their only crime is being misinformed, that and mismanagement by a political system which is neither effectual nor favours them. No. In Kusari, we are divinely blessed for having no native enemies."
"The Order however lack accountability. They are accountable to none but their own administration located Goddess knows in the veil of the edge nebula. They meddle in the politics of Kusari along a several hundred lightyear long logistical string. They lurk warships in the spaces between the stars without a clear objective or campaign. They are, in effect, the most intimidatingly armed, connivingly astute network of political agitators and assassins in the colonies."
"Since the battle of Nagano, the Overwatch has manipulated our two hundred year alliance with your own brotherhood for its own aims, staging frequent shadow raids against Chrysanthemum positions within Tohoku, Chugoku, Okinawa and even Honshu and Hokkaido. They are the masters of delivering innumerable cuts, Dragon. They're cowards, deceivers. The kinds of individuals who'd willingly keep a pocketbook of Musashi handy just to have something convenient to slap you around the head with. One of our former Hatsyume's has fallen to their endeavours, along with one the most esteemed of Masayume's. As you are doubtless conscious, this interminable situation is only possible because we have not had the ability to smoke the rats out of their holes. To date, we have innumerable guncamera and nerualnet evidence that the Order is and has been repeatedly and systematically staging major combined fleet assets from every major Blood Dragon installation in Kusari, including Kyoto, Mito Shipyards and Sendai Research Complex. Whilst our patrols can defend themselves to a reasonable degree, we are robbed of the ability to counterattack whilst Bakufu Yoshitsune permits Order agent provocateurs to stage from Kyoto's halls. The situation has become so trying that the Order have even had the audacity to fly Blood Dragon Ships into open conflict against us; the tengu admiral Golanski's personal craft is a cardinal example."
"The Order are openly trying to sabotage a two hundred year old alliance which has lead to innumerable intermarriages and logistical dependencies between our organisations. Never mind the moral impact, any break in our alliance would be existentially catastrophic to both the Dragons and the Chrysanthemums. We believe that this is the situation the Order is attempting to impose - after all, divide and conquer is the first rule of war."
"The Overwatch have only -publically- declared hostilities for a matter of days, a declaration we immediately responded to in kind after they rejected our ceasefire terms. The Yoshitsunes are desperately attempting to repair the situation, and a number of interested parties are vouching for both sides, the majority of which is little more than vocal arm waving. The Order have attempted to deflect the blame on the actions of Crimson Cross fleet elements who have been present in Kusari space of late - however, these incursions are limited, and are without exception authorised by higher elements within our own organisation. Malta is acting under our supervision, and only at our request. Their motivation is virtuous - they wish to see our cause succeed. Yes, Malta is an external influence, but they are behaving under accountability and any negligence on their part will not go unnoticed. In addition, no Crimson Cross warships or fighter craft are authorised to be stationed on Golden Chrysanthemum bases, for reasons which should be obvious. The Order by contrast, have no such oversight, and appear to have been actively encouraged to operate in Yoshitsune's territories."
"Be advised the event which triggered the Order's public declaration of war was a combined fleet operation between the Yoshitsunes, the Golden Chrysanthemums, the Samarrans and the Crimson Cross against a recently constructed Samuran modular station. The combined fleet had cleared the area of KNF and pro-Samuran forces and had inflicted critical structural damage to the installation before the siege was forcibly lifted by an overwhelming strike force of Order vessels. That station is still in existence only because of the direct intervention of the Order, an intervention they commenced in the direct presence of the Blood Dragons. Yoshitsune's men, in the spirit of two hundred years of dying together, merely observed as we were shot down in the swarms."
"This is why we fight."
-Minori
THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)