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Hi! I'm doing logistics work as part of Task Force Prometheus, and was one of the people in space escorting your Yellow Brick Road convoy earlier in my fighter, Pyrgilauda. I just wanted to reach out and apologize for the mess the LSF caused earlier over Erie—we were hoping they would be able to keep their bloodlust in check long enough to actually do their jobs and take care of civilians, but I guess blowing up their fellow escorts was more important to them than you were.

More importantly, did everyone make it okay? You didn't run into any trouble, did you? We tried to make sure they weren't distracted for too long, but a lot can happen very quickly out there and they basically cut your escort in half even after they got done.

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We'll definitely make ourselves known in advance in the future. We were hoping that'd make it less likely the government would come gunning for us, but oh well. Just overestimated their moral fiber again, I guess.

The best thing to answer your question with is my own story. I grew up on Pittsburgh, born and raised, same as my mom. Single hardworking mother, had a hard but good job working in your mines, I'm sure it's a story you've heard a thousand times. Deadbeat dad was a train driver with Kishiro, and the only thing he ever gave us was my name and the inheritance when he died stupidly around the time I turned 18. I used it to take a flying course and got a job flying Rhinos for DSE. We parted ways later when I got recruited by a startup out of Leeds, but my mom worked at DSE until she retired. My dad had some kind of connection to the Hellfire Legion before he died, apparently, and that meant I could get my mother a pension and a good retirement in the Commonwealth of Liberty on this gorgeous planet called Guadalajara. I think the Republic calls it Veracruz or something, for some reason? Anyways, all that changed when the Republic invaded. Now, I personally really don't care about the military side, though there’s plenty of folks who do, but they bombed civilian population centers. Most of the population, including my mother, fled to Erie as refugees from the fighting. When the Republic invaded Pennsylvania, all those refugees were labeled "insurgency," rounded up, and thrown in labor camps. I can't find my mother anywhere. Chances are she's either dead or in a Republic labor camp.

So you prolly understand why we're not really up to "play nice" with the Republic, yeah? Everyone has a story like this, and these stories are really at the core of who we are. We are the ghosts of the Commonwealth and the Hellfire Legion, come together to make things right. We aren't looking for a repeat of Vespucci and Kansas either, we just want our people back, and anyways the Navy made it real clear resettling isn't gonna be an option in the near term even if we had the industrial base.

Despite all of that, the Commonwealth and DSE have a long history together. We hosted your bases, we protected your people, we even went to war against the Unioners for you - because you're Libertonians, you're our own people. The Hellfire Legion was founded on blood and rage, a military that grew a country, and that made it turbulent and vulnerable. We wanna do this right this time. We want our people back, but we also want to build a future where things like the Republic’s invasion don't happen again.

But of course I used to be a businesswoman myself. I know good causes and old friendships don't assuage stockholders. History aside, we both have jobs to do. Since the Fall, the same battlegroup who undermined the Commonwealth to create the Insurgency before betraying us all to the Navy has settled in with the Xenos and made themselves a problem in Ontario. We used to be allied with the Xenos, back when they still cared about Libertonian industry and fighting crime rings like the Rogues. Now they're locking down one of your only options for expansion and so you're coming to our old home. Unlike them, though, to us Libertonian industry is something worth supporting, and we're ready to welcome you with open arms.

We know our old home better than anyone: Kansas is an incredibly dangerous place haunted by horrors few understand, and Vespucci is plagued by Gaians and littered with military mines and trash. Still, you are right in thinking they're both ripe for DSE expansion, especially Kansas. You have to understand, though, that if the LSF finds out about what you're going to find there, they will swoop in and annex your facilities. If you don't have military backing, though, your people will die. That's actually why the Technocracy is helping us: When they stumbled into the same things, we're the only ones who came to save them, and they felt like they owed us for it. I'd rather it didn't get that far this time.

In Liberty space, we'll treat you just like any other Libertonian civilians. That means we'll protect you, that's what we do, but we aren't going to act like you're some special friend. We aren't looking to get you in trouble. Besides, it's not like you're the only Libertonian corporation who's worked with us, you're just our first and traditional favorite.

Out where the Navy isn't looking, though, there's potential. If we're going to do this right this time, we need logistics and construction prowess and capital investment, while you need protection, knowledge, and new markets. In short, both of us have incredible opportunities ahead of us. I'm not yet ready to say "let's make a deal," but when you move into Kansas, we can make sure your people don't get jumped by things man was not meant to know. I know that sounds melodramatic, but it really is like that there, it's a wild place. We know how to navigate it and keep your people safe. Let us.

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You can be a patriot and still have problems with the government. I'm pretty sure most of our people would say they are too. There's a reason it was called the Commonwealth of Liberty and not the Commonwealth of Vespucci.

Anyways, that's kinda beside the point. We're more than willing to thread the needle. Our people are trapped in internment camps on Liberty, and we can't just not fight the government or they'll stay there. I don't like it any more than you do, most people in the Navy have very little to do with it and just want to serve their country, but at the same time they're contributing to the problem. I hope they learn better, but we can't afford to wait for all of them to flip.

On the other hand, we don't really want to fight them at every turn, nor are we able. Xenos? Sure, they're harboring Knight and Battlegroup Harmony. But Navy? We're sticking with surgical operations—stuff we've gotta do—and anyways, we're not exactly basing out of Vespucci or Kansas in general, and it's hard to call down the hammer on people who aren't actually there. Most importantly, if we're with you, you're our priority as Libertonian civilians. We aren't the LSF, we're not run by psychopaths who teach people to run off to fight the military when there's more pressing stuff at hand.

But yeah, I do agree with you that cooler heads should've prevailed. The traitor Knight dissolved our civilian government and replaced it with a military dictatorship that called itself the 'Insurgency,' and the Republic's government responded with brutality. The civilians took it both ways. In a better world, we would be talking about this not just in Guadalajara orbit, but on the surface.

Which all of that's a lot of words to say: That sounds good, we're in, let's do this and make that better world.

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