The halls and corridors of the estate have once again fell silent, with a rare sound disturbing it's firm grasp over the atmosphere inside the luxurious building; these sounds, however, have immediately fell silent, as if they could feel shame for actually disturbing the perfectly quiet atmosphere and found a sudden desire to preserve it on their own accord.
Only one sound considered itself bold enough to exist within that silence, whoever produced it was not concerned with the integrity of the calm atmosphere not even for a single second: they've had a goal, and they've proceeded towards it. "Tsok tsok tsok" - a specific sound echoed throughout the corridor, a sound of footsteps.
The younger lady have walked slightly behind Mrs. White, the dress of Royal Purple have adorned her stature, her ash white hair freely fell down to her exposed shoulders. As the person leading her over to a certain place stopped before the door and briefly nodded, Kyoko have walked inside, taking one step past the edge, bowing slightly as the person present have caught her eye - Kirigiri have went with the assumption that this should be the brother that John Steiner have mentioned prior to sending her over for bathing and changing the clothes.
The sun outside was setting.
Konbanwa.
The Guildmaster have went ahead with a polite greeting.
Peace, being the distant dream it is, comes inevitably, and goes hand in hand with justice.
Cursed be the war. Heroes never die! @Vitoniz30 @Connor
Edmund looked at the girl, cold eyes matching a cold face Guildmaster. He said simply, offering a seat on an armchair opposite him. Colour me surprised that you have shown up here and now. I imagine you yourself did not expect to be here either. So I ask you, what is it that you want? Note, in advance, that I care little for insults, especially within my own home.
Admiral, spare me from your unnecessary interlude.
The Guildmaster have tilted her head slightly in disappointment. It seemed that the person in front of her, despite being an admiral, had little to no idea of the common courtesy, and thus commenced his speech with such a ridiculous statement. Kyoko exhaled.
If i would've wanted to insult you - i would've done so on the battlefield, in space above Aland or, if it would come to this - South Shields. Preferably through the gunfire. However...
A short pause was held to divide her speech into two separate parts.
... I shall tell you the same i have told your brother earlier today: we are far beyond the childish finger pointing. And as two reasonable people - i would assume you are reasonable enough, considering you have granted me an audience - we could discuss the actual ways to end this conflict - now, that Bretonia have achieved it's goal.
Peace, being the distant dream it is, comes inevitably, and goes hand in hand with justice.
Cursed be the war. Heroes never die! @Vitoniz30 @Connor
Credit where credit was due, she raised a fair point. He nodded, and once again offered her a seat on the opposite armchair. What do you propose, my lady?
The Guildmaster have accepted the offer, taking the seat her latest acquaintance have offered to her. Kyoko got herself comfortable and, as John's brother inquired
Let me be straight, Admiral. I want Bretonia to leave the Guild alone. Your Kingdom have acquired Aland, this was your end goal; your supply lines between the New London and Omega-3. And they are barely protected, you expect Norfolk battlegroup will be able to cover it, but it will not.
There are enough entities who desire to strike at the vital spots. Mollys, Corsairs, Marine Royale. Coalition. Rote Hessen Armee.
It might cause some infighting between them, but i am sure they will prioritise Bretonia Armed Forces over each other.
Kirigiri exhaled, leaning to the back of the armchair.
There will be no cooperation between the Bretonia and the Guild. Not anymore, not even in the wake of the approximately mutual enemy - the Gauls. The Guild have suffocated enough since the beginning of their invasion. And then - Bretonia have backstabbed us.
Ignited hostilities. Pushed us even further to the brink of desperation. We could tolerate the Gauls, at least they did not intend, and still do not intend to take over our installations.
The Kingdom of Bretonia will cease any and all hostilities against the Guild.
Cardiff will be de-nationalised and turned over to the Guild in a week.
Bretonia will not threaten any of the Guild's assets within it's Sovereign Space, and, should it come to this - within Taus as well.
Dispatching marines to our installations is out of the question as well, this is not going to happen.
The Guild houses no ill feelings towards the Kingdom. Should the agreement be reached - i will personally ensure that a team of our engineers will be sent over to Aland to assist in it's repairs and maintenance of the shipyard.
No one knows our stations better than we do.
Whenever Bretonia has no more use for it - Aland will as well be denationalised and handed over to The Guild.
Do not hesitate to speak if you have something to add.
Peace, being the distant dream it is, comes inevitably, and goes hand in hand with justice.
Cursed be the war. Heroes never die! @Vitoniz30 @Connor
He stood and walked over to a spirits cabinet where he poured himself a glass of scotch. You speak of the original terms which Bretonia offered the Guild to begin with. He took a sip from the glass before turning back to the lady I find it slightly perplexing that you would say that the guild will not cooperate with Bretonia, yet you expect to have your stations within our House. What am I to make of that? Why would I turn over the shipyard when you fought so hard to defend it? Make no mistake, I do understand and I respect your decision. But after we have fought and died to take it, why would we give it back? You, of course, might argue for the sake of decency and common respect. I would support these ideas, except for the fact that you allied with Hessians and other types to ensure we would not take it in the first place. So, why would I give it back to a group who has shown no willingness to work with us and who has also shown a total willingness to ally with hostile groups? I can't imagine the guild would be quite so forgiving were our roles reversed. He took another sip and moved towards the woman, sitting himself back into his chair before continuing.
The terms you offer, which is what we offered to begin with may I remind you, are simply no longer viable. You refused to work with us, now that we have what we sought, I see no reason to oblige you on your wants, especially since you went to great lengths to prevent us from taking it in the first place. Yet another sip was taken from his glass before he spoke again Unless the IMG has an actual proposal that sees Bretonian needs satisfied, there is little else to discuss. And so long as the IMG continues to engage our forces alongside the Gallic Royal Navy and raid our traders in the Omegas, there will be no negotiation, although I do thank you for the courtesy of your visit.
There is a few key moments that you, Admiral, should keep in mind while attempting your plays from the position of force.
Of course, the Guild's paramilitary assets are incomparable to the Bretonian fleet, even crippled by the prolonged war efforts.
Yet, over the short period of time intrusion of The Kingdom have managed to raise a Sirius-wide resonance, and it was anything but pleasant for Bretonia. Many entities have supported us - not only with the words, but with their actions too. You probably know about that, too.
The fighting have costed us both plenty of lives.
Kyoko exhaled, visibly irritated by what she's going to say next, but having enough restraint to keep the personal thoughts away from the conversation.
I might convince the Guildsmen to cease all hostilities against the Kingdom of Bretonia and provide a degree of support in the Omegas.
This, however, will require a certain amount of deception on your side.
First, and foremost - you will have to convince Sirius that you are putting the very survival of the Guild at stake, and will put any efforts in to ensure there will be no safe space for the Independent Miners.
I would expect you to be smart enough to figure out the way to handle that on your own.
Then, we conduct and ratify a "forced" peace treaty on the terms of The Kingdom.
For the sake of further convincing Sirius in that it is all forced and Guild has nothing to do with it - we will even allow you to temporarily deploy marines to our installations, our version should be looking as plausible as possible.
Cardiff will be handed back over. Our installations will not be further threatened. The Kingdom of Bretonia will not demand military assistance against Rote Hessen Armee, Marine Royale Gauloise and The Republic of Dublin.
The marine garrisons will be extracted in one week since the initial announcement of actual intentions to go for everything to erase The Guild for existence, The Guild paramilitary will ensure that Cardiff, South Shields and Hood will not be used by the aforementioned entities for hostile operations against the Armed Forces and Police Authority within the Kingdom Sovereign Space.
Furthermore, ALG Waste Disposal will have all it's sanctions removed and will be considered a legal entity within the Bretonia Sovereign Space.
At the end of the war Aland Shipyard will be handed over to The Guild, in accordance to the initial conditions.
I will give you some time to consider this proposition. If you agree - provide me with a Neural Net access point, so i would send an initial communication to The Guild. And, please - serve me something to drink.
I am thirsty.
Peace, being the distant dream it is, comes inevitably, and goes hand in hand with justice.
Cursed be the war. Heroes never die! @Vitoniz30 @Connor
He stood, and wordlessly moved over to the drinks shelf to fulfill her request, a glass of brandy would be a bit strong for her, although it might help her deal with the shock. Riddle me this, my lady He began as he poured her a drink How many people make up the IMG? A few thousand? a hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand at a stretch? Of that number, how many are children? or elderly? How many can, and will fight? I'm going to wager not all of them. Bretonia has a population that stretches into the billions. He turned back to her and handed her the glass of brandy and sat down opposite her So you demand, and make no mistake, it is a demand, that we return your holdings back to you in favour of the status quo. That offer is gone, it was made, we tried, you refused. It's over, you will not be getting Aland or Cardiff back, Aland was taken, not bloodlessly I grant you, but it now lies within our control. Being honest with you my lady, what you propose only benefits you, and I can fully understand that, except..well it comes at a cost to us, the ALG loose nothing and get away with killing Bretonians, the IMG receive the same treatment. I ask you, would the IMG forgive that were our roles reversed? You gambled on us not being able to take what we have, and you lost. Now you come seeking a better deal. Again, I can respect that and I can say with some confidence that if the IMG were to sue for peace right now, South shields and the Hood would be left alone, but Aland and Cardiff? No. He took a drink from his cup and paused again before continuing You have no means of forcing us to give up the two stations, as the population of your organisation clearly demonstrates. So, sue for peace and then we can come to an arrangement. Not before hand, and certainly not because you think you can wage war against us in any serious capacity.
Snakes tend to bite when you step on them, Steiner. You have stepped on us - we bit you.
However, the injected poison did not kill you - you've had an antidote.
The Guildmaster's irritation have significantly raised, with an infighting stacking up to that irritation: her pride against the greater good of her people. And keeping this conflict going will not give The Guild any good, it already did not - Cardiff and Aland were gone, and whatever have remained was threatened - this or another way.
Kirigiri have rubbed her temples, visibly annoyed by what she had to acknowledge, and tell to her acquaintance.
As was said - i only care for the good of the Guild and it's men and women, pride has little to do with this. You, Bretonians, will receive reparations, the sum will be discussed later. Furthermore, any prisoners captured during the conflict will be set free and delivered to the preemptively discussed extraction points.
And, as a conclusion, i will personally oversee assigning some personnel to send necessary supplies to Aland - not on the Guild's ships.
Except that, Bretonia and The Guild will have no further business and quarrels between each other.
Peace, being the distant dream it is, comes inevitably, and goes hand in hand with justice.
Cursed be the war. Heroes never die! @Vitoniz30 @Connor
He nodded his agreement, Very well. I will allow you to contact the appropriate people after we have had dinner together, from there you will be allowed to stay one night under our protection, but afterwards you will be returned to the PoW camp. I will await word from the remaining IMG leadership and should they agree to what you have said here, you and the remaining prisoners will be handed back to the Guild in good order.
![[Image: 1EEZnqd.png]](https://i.imgur.com/1EEZnqd.png)
![[Image: K21Vaai.png]](https://i.imgur.com/K21Vaai.png)