To: Project "Dragon" from K.N.F.H.C.

[Knjaz]

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To: Kaishou, KNF.
Encryption: Maximum, voice changed, video feed unavailable, recorded transmission.
Location: Rheinland Space, Undisclosed.
Source ID:Cmdr. Eric Hoffman, S.A.F. Experimental Weapons Battalion
Subject: Project "Dragon"




Guten tag, honourable Herr Kaishou. The satellite you're receiving this message from will be destroyed after it ends transmission. Sorry, but we have plenty of enemies and we ought to take such measures. Now, on to the subject.

I believe there's some significant misunderstanding going on. The ship you're referring to was never a part of the Kusari Military. Well, to be precise, not all parts of it were, and not all parts of it belonged to the same ship.
Lemme take a brief course into history.

Almost 20 years ago Rheinland fleet, under the circumstances we all know, invaded Kusari space. Obviously, we (or shall I say "they", since, well, you know who was in charge of the fleet back then) were sending salvage teams after our main forces, to fully examine ships and weaponry our adversaries are using.
These are the very first debris that put the beginning of Project "Dragon". The picture you see is from the time when our fleet was fighting in the Honshu. The crew of that decommissioned cruiser safely moved those debris into the Rheinland space.



There were more, afterwards, way more. But let's keep on the historic part, for a while. I will give you an explanation on why we had no choice but to attempt and reverse-engineer your technology.

After several military and anti-piracy campaigns over the last few hundred years (most important ones would be 80 year war, Nomad War and current war with Liberty) it became clear that battleship design that is being used by Rheinland military is... flawed. I'm not ashamed to say such things about our own technology after all the research, tests and simulations we went through. Yes, it's heavily armored, yes, it has a powerfull powercore. But at same time, due to it's size and shape, that juggernaut is very vulnerable in long range combat. And this is where the combat starts! You would be chewed by mortars and other long range weaponry before you would even get into effective range against smaller battleships with high powercore. It excels at the fleet support role due to amount of secondary weapons and sophisticated targeting software.
Up until the recent invention of cheaply produced cloaking devices it was a serious problem. We should thank all gods that Liberty Commanders are so incompetent that most of them don't even know how to use their vessels and weaponry properly, fighting at large distances. Otherwise, we would have been crushed long time ago.
At same time, it's frontal firepower was really not on par with other examples of Heavy-class battleships in Sirius.

Unfortunately, all our attempts to persuade the Head of Research & Development department of Rheinland, Herr Vorschlaghammer, to increase the firepower of our battleships by relocating fourth rear heavy-weaponry slot onto the top of the battleship which would greately increase it's firing angle, provide a 30%, THIRTY % increase in frontal heavy-firepower, at same time providing an ability to launch symmetrically allocated long-range thermonuclear missiles for the simultaneous impact on target, what would allow for far greater amounts of damage, were refused, with the explanation of "Such a project would require significant amounts of time and effort being drawed from other, more important projects, and, therefore, we do not consider it being worth". Should I mention that after such an answer to such minor matters our Commanders didn't even try to persuade the head of R&D corps to take steps toward decreasing the frontal profile of our heavy battleships, while keeping their level of survivability and firepower?

And this is where Project Dragon comes in. Before continuing, I should really express the sheer amount of respect that me and all other officers of our Experimental Weapons Battalion have towards your engineers that were projecting this ship. They got everything, no - they got EVERYTHING right! Each little detail. An extremely sly frontal profile combined with very thick and durable hull plating, allowing for extreme levels of survivability on both high and short range combat. It's overall combat efficiency at long range is more then double of that of our vessels! Add to that very heavy firepower... Well, defense turret firing arcs are slightly lacking, but nothing critical - it's easily compensated by the ideal allocation and amount of Heavy Weaponry. And a truly strong powecore. Your R&D folks, whoever they were, really knew what they were doing when creating that beast. Even those horns, seemingly useless at first glance, were found to be long range sensors, that provided high levels of situational awareness for Fleet Commanders. The only significant drawback is a higher production cost due to expensive materials. But we're currently working on it.

It took us nearly 10 years to assemble that ship with our limited available resources. But when war with Liberty broke out, it really did speed up the development. We had to fully change the internal powergrid and outer sensors, which took most time and resources (and we also couldn't reach your levels of efficiency. We came close, though), and install our own weapon systems (your designs are energy efficient, but lacking necessary punch, in our opinion). We still couldnt repeat part of machinery that is installed in it's nose with sufficient efficiency, so we had to install salvaged parts.

By the way, "Dragon" carries the very nose that you can see on that archive picture provided before. We're sorry for using your symbolic, but this can't be helped at the moment. We will make sure Kusari government won't be associated will any and all atrocities and genocidal behaviour that will be commited by that vessel and it's crew.

As you can see, that ship was never part of the Kusarian Naval Forces. No, we won't return you the nose and rest of salvaged parts that our teams captured during the war and rest of events. They've all been dis- and re-assembled already. So far, Dragon is the only of it's kind, but with the success it's showing we are pushing our research with all the resources we have. I can't say for sure if we'll be able to put it into production, yet.

Before you ask - yes, "Dragon" is not the only project (although, it's being the most successful so far) we have. We're currently looking into the battlecruisers that our military lacks, and while we, well, did manage to acquire certain information on the Komainu's, it definitely was not on par with your battleships in the way it was designed. it's a shame, really. We have options, though.

*he takes a deep breath*

Now, I'd be very glad to be mistaken, but, somehow, I'm sure that all my explanations won't let you go off your pride and let someone to attempt to reverse engineer your technology, even if it's done from the wrecks of almost forgotten war that nobody likes to mention. But, out of sheer respect for your cunning military designs, I've ordered to prepare a set of gifts. If you will personally come after me, or it will be another high ranking member of the KNF, I'll make sure to send you back into Kusari in this well crafted Burial Urn. It is made out of the best porcelain we could acquire.



In case you will find that this Urn does not match your personality, or that your ashes deserve something else, we've also prepared a set of designs especially for you.




Unfortunately, if you will be trying to send out assassin teams, and also for the rest of your crew, we won't be able to provide these expensive pieces of art. Instead, their ashes will be buried and sent back into Kusari in simple Aluminium or Zinc Urns, like this one. We got plenty of that stuff.

With respect,
Eric Hoffman.

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