I believe my envoy to you explained everything in detail, but let me repeat just the key points. The Hellfire Legion betrayal over six years ago resulted not only in a very painful loss of our flagship and numerous assets, but also made us extremely paranoid when it comes to repetition of a similar scenario in future. You knew it very well from the day one, Victoria. If there is a slightest chance you might betray us we would rather terminate our alliance now to minimize and contain the damage. From the day one we were nothing else than fully supportive to your cause. Whenever you called for help we were there asking for nothing in return. We did nothing to warrant your suspicions, while you repaid us with a breach of our trust by concealing your ongoing negotiations with The Hellfire Legion from us, when all you had to do was to trust us. If you simply had told us in January that you plan to sign a ceasefire with the Legion and kept us it the loop, current conversation would have not taken place.
Fiasco of Mr Malprave's mission and continuing silence on your end did not improve the situation either. Despite all of this, we continued to support you whether you knew it or not. Lieutenant Taylor maybe forgot to inform you that parts of the data core you mentioned were delivered by an independent associate of mine, John Silverstone. I have convinced him to choose your offer out of entire competition and even give you a significant discount. Mr Malprave was overseeing this transaction last week.
The bottom line is that it is still our intention to maintain this alliance, but unfortunately it can continue only under the condition that we have a solid guarantee of your loyalty. This time I would rather not waste breath for a gentle diplomacy and get straight to the business details of my offer.
The Battlegroup Harmony will receive 12 Vindicators and 6 Transgressors in order to fill in losses in existing wings. You will obviously participate in assembly effort which is about twice as costly as their corresponding vessels' employed by the Navy. Naturally we will continue to provide maintenance and spare parts for these vessels afterwards.
Point 6 of the alliance document is declared null and void. What was meant to be a safeguard for us proved to be highly ineffective. You are obviously free to maintain your operations center on Cochrane on your own accord, though given the fact that you are now almost exclusively contained within Bering and Texas, it might be useless.
In order to improve cooperation The Lane Hackers will maintain a position of a permanent observer within The Battlegroup Harmony high command with unrestricted access to all intelligence resources. No data will be used without a prior consent. As you can imagine a senior Lane Hacker stationed aboard Harmony is the most solid guarantee and all I need. This is also a leap of faith you have to make. Specifically, that you trust us that we do not break our own deals and will not use this vulnerability against you.
I can assure you it was never our intention to keep this concealed. The simple reason for that is that there was no plans for such an act. The Legion approached us with the promise of redemption and justice for their attack in New Hampshire. A short agreement to not fire upon each other was made. How long this will last we do not know. There is little friendship between our groups despite the similar origins.
Should their stance change or their actions speak of a different agenda, you'll be notified.
Now we weren't quite aware if it was you who manipulated that auction but it is a pleasant surprise. You have our gratitude and you can be assured that our people will put it to good use. Recently our people on Marshall Station have suceeded well in reproducing old or alternative weapon models.
I've seen your offer of support and considering we frequently have your technicians with us for the Spyglass System I see no reason to deny it.
I am most glad that you're willing to supply us with these vessels. All engineers and mechanics we can spare will support those actions. I have to ask though, will these vessels be armed? While Marshall is producing small series of unique weaponry we've not yet managed to build a production line to reproduce any of our weapons.
The current crew on Cochrane we'd like to stay for the time being. With the recent assaults on Bering we cannot risk sending transports. Apart from that our plans include a return to attacks into Liberty's core systems.
This a terrific news! I am really happy that we could progress to this stage.
As for your ships, each Vindicator will be naturally equipped with quad Hellflurries MK IV and hold a backup set of the MK V model. From experience though I expect your pilots will prefer the variant IV. We will send a first batch of ships on Monday, but expect the assembly and delivery of the rest to span over two weeks from now. As for our link officer you will know as soon as I finish the internal selection.
By the mutual agreement point 6 of the alliance is is being updated from
The Lane Hackers will provide Battlegroup Harmony a base of operations in a strategic location. A rotary crew of minimum twelve officers including one senior officer will stay at all times in the ground control located on a Lane Hacker base.
to
In order to improve cooperation The Lane Hackers will maintain a position of a permanent observer within The Battlegroup Harmony high command with unrestricted access to all intelligence resources. No data will be used without a prior consent.
It is kindly requested from the Battlegroup to remove Ageira Technologies from your Bounty Listings. We have our own people inside this corporation who provide us vital intel and allow us to maintain our unique access into the USI (Universal Ship Identication), a magnificent tool which you have benefited as well. In addition, since our foundation, Ageira Technologies has been our primary source of recruits in the Lane Hackers. I myself loyally worked there for years before my eyes had finally opened.
Deaths of prospective Lane Hackers cannot be tolerated, nor the loss of access to our most formidable asset in Sirius. I am certain you understand.
I've received a relayed message by a Felicity Willing demanding to know the current situation with the Core.
As it stands, they've not shown any hostile intent. Quite the opposite, they saved a scouting party from the nomads and their followers in form of the Commune.
There has yet to be any trade agreements as so far there's been close to no action of that kind. The Core ship in the area is not showing any obvious purpose beyond gathering information.
We'd like to inform you that we will have to make an exception of sparing Outcasts within Liberty. The Commune is clearly supporting the nomads and hunting our ships.
Also heavy warships have been seen in direct vicinity of Marshall without explanation. So in case of them not following orders we will have to take action.
On another topic, constructions at Marshall have been finished. Ships can finally be maintained in a more safe environment. But the developments in the area have come at a price in form of the trade lane dying down.
Still the ability to field more and better maintained ships should prove to be an advantage. Though our capacities to build any are still very limited. So there's been an attempt to look for alternatives. In regards to small ships, the rarely seen Lane Hacker gunship is something we'd like to have more information about if possible.
Is this something you can provide if the Lane Hackers are willing to sell or trade in one or multiple of these vessels?
It is most unfortunate that Battlegroup Harmony yields so easily to the demands of a bunch of disavowed fanatics and outlaws. Especially when the Separatists stand strong against the tide of the LN war machine whose strength and numbers are infinitely larger than those self-titled as "Zoner Miilitia".
Have you not learned anything from history? A Freeport each and every time becomes a Bounty Hunter staging ground, just ask the Corsairs and Outcasts how happy they are with their own local Freeports. Interlopers possess some of the most expensive pieces of equipment, due to their tremendous scanning and electronic warfare capabilities. They are extremely rare and difficult to produce. As a result we are very reluctant to share any with allies who are set on such a self-destructive path. But should the circumstances change I believe we can easily come to a mutually beneficial solution.
Finally I have heard of your newly-established regulations. I hope you are not planning on enforcing your contraband laws on Lane Hacker transports, as you are keenly aware, the blackmarket is the only place for an "unlawful" organization to purchase and sell goods. It is where we procure our resources and is a major source of income for our organization, whether we like it or not. Finally, for many years now Gaian transports have a contract with my organization to bring us artifacts. And they are using Bering quite frequently in their smuggling routes. I am hopeful you will add them in your exceptions list and avoid disrupting our trade, after all they have been a stalwart friend to your cause.
I'm sure like the Union and the rest of the Battlegroup who were relayed the contents of the message you're aware of the stipulations placed against them. In no way have we submitted to them, as we are merely attempting to deal with this without needless fighting. Our goal, as always, is the corrupt and infested Naval command, and not a group of Zoners wanting their home back. If they want it back, fine, but they have to work for it. Otherwise, it's their ball. They play it how they want.
We'll keep minding our business with the Navy. If they turn violent, we'll purge that carrier and be done with it.
As for regulations, I'll notify High Command of this issue, not that they probably aren't notified already, and see what can be done. If you have people and other exceptions you'd like added to the whitelist, we an try to accommodate for our allies, but I'll note here that if they end up being detrimental to the campaign, then we'll do what we must.