In times without open warfare between the houses, the Sirius Sector remains volatile but capable of slow recovery from decades of bloody wars. However, the past years effectively halted this development and threaten to kickstart a renewed spiral of chaos unleashed by distrust, resource shortages and ambitions by the higher ups within the Militaries.

Already facing several crises at once through the loss of Dublin, the floodings on Planet Kyushu, the imminent crash of the remnants of the fishing industry of Planet Junyo, the strains caused by recent escapades of the Order and Blood Dragons as well as those strains caused by upholding the embargo on Gallia, the Empire of Kusari is fully occupied trying to appease, find solutions and even pursue aggressive remilitarization efforts again. The recent growth in tensions with the Republic of Liberty, in a scale even outweighing those during the days of the Kusari Republic, adds a huge uncertainty. Within Kusari's political landscape, quietly everyone prepares for the inevitable: Armed conflict.

In times like these having friends is already a must and the Empire continuously attempts to sway the Bretonians into favoring them over Liberty, should the perceived inevitable confrontation come to be. Seizing the opportunity of relatively safe travels granted by Project Reiwa, Kusari's answer to the long lost Satsuma-class, a considerable list of key personnel of the Empire makes haste to meet up with their Bretonian counterparts on Planet New London to discuss a long list of topics, most importantly the operational planning in regards to the reconquest of Dublin. As is the nature of Kusari's political reality, every small shock runs through the system like an earthquake and so it came as little surprise that those believing in the Blood Dragons visions felt the buzz caused by the KNF rushing to prepare an adequate escort fleet and promptly informed their armed brethren about the scheduled departure of the IKN-Reiwa.

Sensing an opportunity to humiliate the Naval Forces and the Government, the Blood Dragons rushed to assemble a strike group. Careful consideration led to the conviction that the destruction of the Liner itself, whilst a hefty blow to the Government, could ultimately turn more progressive sympathizers and even more portions of the general public against them.

Meanwhile Bretonia's political landscape is hardly free of critics and resentment towards Kusari over the Tau Wars, which led to hints about the incoming delegation being sowed towards the Mollys as response to the BAF assembling a welcoming committee at their northern border. Past interactions between the Crown and Kusari proved the Mollys that they are plotting something, most likely against their ultimate achievement of a free Dublin - Little more of a reason did they need to set up an ambush.

Whilst everyone is busy assembling strike or escort forces, the Crayter Republic looms as a wild card. Whilst formally invited to the summit, it remained open whether they were to dispatch a token force to assist or not.

The IKN-Reiwa, accompanied by an agile and light-weight escort, encountered its first hurdle just before arriving at Tsushima Depot in Kyushu. A small detachment of outnumbered but dedicated Blood Dragon bombers expected the Liner and its entourage. Hostility filled the area in a matter of seconds and a part of the Reiwa's escorts broke off to intercept the Blood Dragons. Despite their best efforts, the Liner only suffered minor structural damage to one of the rear fins before they were repelled. Assumptions by the KNF that they were sent to preemptively disable the Liner's engines before reinforcements charge in were instead met with no further Dragon resistance along their way, raising concerns that this attack served purely to field trial a strategy for the eventual return voyage of the IKN-Reiwa.

Followed by a rather uneventful journey up to Holman Outpost, the Kusari delegation met up with its Crayterian counterparts. Awaiting the arrival of the Bretonian welcoming committee, they were instead met with the notification that the Bretonians were responding to the sighting of LSF vessels in Leeds. With a grain of uneasiness, the joint delegation continued on their path towards Bretonia proper.

Traversing beyond the rebuilding project for Stokes, the delegation encountered a single Molly pilot issuing an ultimatum to turn back or perish. This brave but crazed up soul attempted a futile suicide rush on the Amaterasu-class with marginal success: The right front fin was in critical condition, though as a non-critical component no measures to halt the convoy were undertaken.

Before the delegation could arrive at the Leeds Monument, the alleged LSF vessels turned out to be reality. In a stunning display, they disobeyed any commands by the local Bretonian forces to rush down a Gaian bystander observing the passing convoy, just to wind up and leave Bretonia hurling insults at the Bretonians afterwards. With mild confusion visible among the whole convoy, they've arrived at the Leeds Monument. Deciding to halt there and honor the fallen of the glassing and the Gallic war in general, words of weight and memories were shared among members of the convoy.


After skimming over several topics of pleasant chats, the delegation prepared for the final stretch to New London where it ultimately arrived without further incidents with the exception of the sighting of a Gallic Navy vessel trying to catch up - a vessel quickly intercepted and disposed of by the Civil Defence Initiative before it managed to get visuals on the convoy. Without much left to say or do but preparing themselves for the summit, both the IKN-Reiwa and the Crayterian's Azure Jewel moored at Waterloo.