With Regards to the IMG Gunboat

[beander2]

Based on the last couple of comments, let me just put in a quick blurb.

No, IMG is not openly hostile to Bretonia, but don't lose sight of the resentment and anger concerning BMM in the Taus and Bretonia's actions in the war with Kusari. This is far more than "corporate rivalry."

Now, the political situation in Bretonia is shifting, something that most folks have not realized. A new project is underway, involving outlawed politics and Bretonian political leaders gone underground. The initial backstory is here: On the Eve of a New Era. This RP development changes things somewhat, as a new underground movement - including folks with good IMG relations and a great deal of money - is getting underway.

This movement includes one IMG gunboat as the group flagship: FED)Publicola. The RP is there, it makes sense. The fact that we focus more on political propaganda than anything else means we are neither seeking "an excuse to bum-rape anything that flies by for 2 mill or 500K or whatever fee you charge regardless of affiliation" nor do we "want to be able travel to anywhere and being friendly to Outcasts, as well as Corsairs and so your ZoI will be whole Sirius sector." We need a gunboat (my first capship ever, btw, and I refused another member's request to keep his Talacara Cruiser - see, I doubt I even spelled it correctly :)), and though we're forced by the game mechanics to use Molly bases, Molly tag, and a pirate ID - none of which we really like - we certainly can't use a criminal vessel because of the RP political implications. We will be doing trade interdiction of traffic to BMM bases - we want to cripple BMM's trade in order to strike at the industrial complex supporting the monarchy - but we will be doing it creatively and purposefully, and well within a very reasonable RP.

I agree with the overall sentiment here: IMG gunboats are not for random/generic pirating. However, I don't think it's reasonable to assume there's no "unlawful" use for it whatsoever.

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Sir Alisdair Buchanan, KBE ~ Gateway)Trafalgar