Captain Matsui of the Kinokawa Maru, reporting in.

As you know, our ship is a merchant ship, and usually sails from Shizuoka to New London and back. We carry raw Uranium Ore for processing at Belvedere and various goods for the colony back, using Mekong Station as a transfer point to transport goods to the surface by shuttle, and to load the ship with ore.

The condition of the station and its poverty despite the nearby deposits of such valuable material as Uranus call into question the competence of the facility's administrative staff, their interest in the future maintenance of the station as a whole - which is, however, what the Guild is all about. To build something and then force workers to live in a weakened gravity with a constant lack of oxygen.

We have developed a plan-proposal in which we abandon the Mekong as a transshipment point and use the KSDF flagship as one, mining and transporting ore directly from the field, bypassing intermediaries. However, this plan has many flaws, but I will highlight the two main ones.

First, the pirates are a pirate problem, as well as a possible attack by Guild members who would consider our operation hostile and detrimental to their monopoly in the region (which it is, to be frank). Even having a garrison would make little difference, for without the patronage of the Kusari government and its fleet, we are defenseless. We need the constant presence of the Kusari Fleet.

The second is the lack of large mining platforms in our fleet. We will simply spend more on fuel for mining shuttles than we make from selling goods - we need a heavy mining ship, of anyone's manufacture - as long as we have one. I ask the colony government to address this problem, and the head of the self-defense force to cooperate with the Kusari fleet to protect Republic operations in the Shizuoka system.

Engineer Takagi Takayuki reporting,

Today my vessel was intercepted in the system of Honshu near Osaka wreck by two Golden Chrysanthemums ships. I did not immediately recognize the interceptors as such but out of the conversation, it became evident who they were, more so after the self-introduction of one of them. My "Drone" was on its way back to Keijo and had no cargo so nothing to pirate. Perhaps, this helped to have a civil discussion with the GC. They were interested in my affiliation and upon hearing about the Republic of Keijo they got curious about the policy of the state towards the Empire of Kusari. I am no politician or from the administration to know these matters so I answered the way I saw things from a personal point of view. After all, freedom of speech and conscience is one of the pillars of our new state, is it not?

It seems that the information provided to the GC made them ponder over it. I believe they did not know exactly how to react or quickly formed an understanding of their stance towards Keijo. Regardless, they let me go free and I seized the opportunity. Given my experience, I am not sure what further encounters with the GC might bring so our pilots must be on guard if spotting the GC on the radars. It does not mean they will try to attack us but who knows what conclusions they will draw from my simple explanations? It appears one of the GC, Yunoki Misaki, was some big wig in their hierarchy. She mentioned her rank was "shinibana" - "dead flower". A weird and pessimistic choice for a rank but who am I to judge. She was the one speaking, the other was mostly listening - hence my assumption regarding the superior position. Taking this into consideration, I believe that this encounter will be judged by their leadership and our next encounter can decide their policy towards us. The logs of the encounter are attached.

Best of luck to everyone!