Discovery Gaming Community

My name is Sarita Ybañes, and while it is bad form, I must introduce myself to you to ask for a favor, that of your charity.

I am one of Malta's many wandering children, though lately I have been doing significantly less wandering and significantly more keeping my head down while staying firmly put. Perhaps neglectfully, I've become so absorbed in my studies and mundanities that I've entirely failed to keep up on current affairs.

The reason I believe you might be interested in generously giving me a crash course regarding the order of the day on Malta, and indeed why I bother you for this rather than simply checking the holofeeds, is because an old contact of mine informed me about your Kepler Accords. Your position in relation to such makes me think it better to get the news straight from the source, especially given my own economic interests vis-à-vis the Xenos of Liberty.

In short, while we do not know each other yet, I believe we share a common vision, and if I'm correct, perhaps we should collaborate. A lone soul can often more easily tread where a Don's fleet might struggle, and as you're party to accords of foreign relations, certainly you know that we children of Hispania have had far too many unnecessary struggles already.

Ought we countrymen not work together?

I have been removed from the bigger picture since 826 A.S. Aside from these recent years of retreat, most of my life has been spent, frankly, as a footsoldier and mercenary, and I have more skill with tactics than strategies. Despite that, don't think I view the Xenos with any special affection; they're desperate, which makes them useful. If it weren't them, it'd be some gang of Rogues or another.

Speaking of such, have the ragtag ruffians in Liberty been as blind to their position in the food chain these past three years as they were prior? There was a time when no Outcast would take orders from a Lane Hacker, let alone an alcoholic Alcatrazite, and yet my last several interactions with them gave me the distinct impression that they thought the Orange Dream flowed from somewhere other than Malta's fields. In this regard, the Xenos serve as an effective wedge to drive between them. They must be made to attribute their successes to their cooperation with us and their failures to their own inherent weaknesses if we want to see worthwhile return on our investment. If the profits they gain from serving as middlemen in the cardamine, arms, and slave trades are then returned to us somehow, say in the form of bounties on the inept corpocops, all the better.

As for the slave trade itself, I am not from a rich familia, nor am I an economist. The question of its abolition or preservation is fundamentally not up to me to decide; whereof one cannot speak, thereof must one be silent. That caveat aside, I generally agree with your outlook; it seems to me that the most harm has been done to our people either via the hands of revolutionaries or from unpredictable black swan events... most notably the revelation of Gallia and all the ensuing catastrophes. Malta is too far away from any foreign fleets besides those of the Gauls to be seriously threatened, and those lot are more prone to civil wars than we've been in the past decade. So long as the smuggling lanes remain open, cardamine does its own work in furthering our hegemony.

Ideally, northwestern powers such as the Crayterians and the Gauls will continue their feuding, and when the tensions die down, perhaps covert action could be taken to manufacture flashpoint incidents and create further mistrust between them. So long as the Cretans remain subdued to our south, it seems to me logical to focus on cautiously but assertively expanding the cardamine markets in Kusari and Liberty. I don't know what is or isn't going on with the Chrysanthemums, and as concerns Liberty, well, we're back where we started.

As a last note, the years of the Crimson Cross and the National Council saw an explosion in Maltese research and manufacturing productivity. As far as I know, these have utterly stagnated since then. This trend seems worrisome. I'm currently investigating a potential lead towards rectifying this situation; in all probability, it comes to nothing, but every avalanche starts with a single rock's fall.

Until some promising prospect appears, I envision our cooperation to be rather simple and low-level. View me as someone you can outsource various jobs to, if desired; assassinations, bounty work, and cargo transit. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume, given the Kepler Accords, that you represent a familia or consortium of some kind, and as such primarily seek to expand your influence. The similarity of our visions convinces me that you are intelligent, reserved, and probably good to work for, and that your influence isn't to be feared. It's been a long time since my old boss was around, so for now I'm just going after what work I can find while trying to hedge against any possible unforeseen events.

At this moment, the only assets of note at my disposal are my fighter ship and my transport, the Especulador. I've also established a comms server hosted on Ouray via special agreement with señor Cobra of the Xenos. Naturally, I can give you and your people access to the comms server. It has no access to any of Ouray's networks and mostly just serves as a reliable relay for any transmissions into and out of Liberty. I'm also seeking to re-establish a similar communications server on Freeport 11. Again, naturally, you and your people would have access to such when I succeed.

Beyond that, there are a few projects I have in mind that I'd rather not spoil, but if I find myself needing assistance, it would be nice to know that I could count on you so long as I make it worth your while. It's always good to have capable friends.

We can compliment each other very well indeed. If you're short on reliable distributors, I'm happy to buy any and all cardamine I ship out from Malta from your plantation specifically; I'm sure you have a very quality product. If you need any violent or electronic-slash-technical work done, my prices are reasonable and your satisfaction is assured. As a show of goodwill, I've attached a small script to this message. Run it on any device you intend to send messages from, and it will grant you user access to my comms server at Ouray, which will ensure the quality and security of any comms you send to anybody in Liberty or the adjacent Border Worlds. I've modified the script to ensure that I have no read-access to any messages sent via the credentials it utilizes—feel free to have any of your own tech people analyze it to verify.

Elsewise, I don't think we have anything more to discuss right now, but I'd like to keep a line open. I'll track down your plantation and stop by to pick up some crop. Let me know if you need anything, I look forward to working together going forward.