Salve, fratelli e sorrelle.

What an eventful few weeks it has been. In just under a month I've watched my family's operations expand almost exponentially. Porto d'Anzio's cardamine production has nearly tripled and my chief smuggler "La Volpe" has personally delivered over one hundred thousand units of cardamine into Liberty alone. From this newfound prosperity and with the aid of Starfleet engineers, I have commissioned and put into service the L'ombra del Corvo, a Sarissa-class battleship - Il Lupo Nero, a Hasta-class battlecruiser - the Sognatore, a Corvo-class explorer and an Aspis-class transport for my chief smuggler. As of yesterday morning I have also secured a Hegemon-class mining and hauling ship to aid in the maintenance and supply of our starbase assets.


All of this could not be possible without Commandantes Alpha and the rest of Starfleet. As the Gotti family grows, our gratitude shall see Starfleet repaid in kind. I have instructed Il Lupo Nero to patrol our neighboring systems and hunt down our enemies and traders foolish enough to enter our system(s) without paying proper respect. The L'ombra del Corvo has been tasked with protecting Omicron Alpha and assisting in large-scale engagements. Their performance thus far leaves room for improvement though I expect this to improve as their crews gain experience and automated systems aboard are replaced with our kin. The small size of my family leaves the L'ombra del Corvo, especially, in the unfortunate position of relying heavily on automation as we cannot yet fully crew such large vessels. An unexpected benefit of this, however, has emerged. As Ms. Gomez' report details, the L'ombra del Corvo suffered significant damage and was disabled during the recent craven attack of la sporcizia cannibalistica on our home. Capitano Francesco Gotti, my nephew and Gotti capo, detailed in his report that the L'ombra arrived to find our forces significantly outnumbered and to save Outcast lives, ordered his crew to the most heavily shielded sections of his ship, allowing automated systems and robotics to manage ship systems and regions most likely to be damaged or destroyed. Il buon capitano goes on to report aggressively engaging and drawing away three capital vessels, the "Diablo Gris", "Diablo Inferno", and the "Vizier", buying time for our forces to focus fire and reduce the savages' numbers. After destroying the "Diablo Inferno", Capitano Francesco reports the remaining two vessels disabled his ship and turned back towards the battle to find their compagni consanguinei falling in droves to their betters before being butchered themselves like the animals they are.

Capitano Francesco and his bridge crew suffered significant injury, while the remaining crew ordered to central, shielded areas of the ship reported few injuries and zero casualties. The good captain and his bridge crew have earned a few new scars but after three days of recovery, he and his crew have returned to their duties. I have instructed the crew of the L'ombra to log their experiences with ship automation going forward to see if there are other practical implementations we might use to safeguard the sons and daughters of Malta.

Per la gloria di Malta e il sogno arancione,