Message Class: Textual
Encryption: Rooibos
To: Premier Mehmed Selim
From: Governor-General Commodore Elizabeth Hall, BAF
Mister Premier,
Earlier today I promised you that I would look if we had some surplus ships for your state to use before you can produce your own. I have managed to find a few in Exeter and Bretonia Proper. Some of them are already waiting for their new crews by the HMS Stirling and others should be there by tomorrow. The ships are the following:
HMS Balaclava (Churchill), Exeter. She was originally part of the Stirling Fleet, but the name which she happened to have was too tempting to resist. Consider her a gift from me. She may not be new, but she is a ship with a proud and glorious history. Please do not let it end.
Independence (Condor), Exeter. The ship belonged to a Zoner that decided to fight us in Exeter two weeks ago. After our pilots had disabled their engines and our marines had boarded her, they discovered all members of the Zoner crew had committed suicide rather than be taken prisoner. Her engines have been brought into usable shape, but it is up to your men to give her more care if you expect her to fight as well. She did put a stiff resistance two weeks ago, I must say.
Shojo (Ahoudori), Poole. She used to be a pirate ship, but she was incapacitated and boarded by the BPA in Nottingham three weeks ago. She has been repaired and she was awaiting auction at the Newbury Impound Complex until I purchased her today using the Fleet's budget.
Edward Lane (Shire), Exeter. She was part of the Stirling's logistics fleet, but she was wrecked by an enemy attack months ago. If your mchanics make her fly, she is yours.
One Percheron, Newcastle. I have just bought her, so it is up to you to name her. I believe you may need a logistics wing.
Two Voyagers, Poole. I purchased these from the Impound Complex together with the Shojo. They probably belonged to smugglers.
Two Warans, Poole. I did not ask where they came from, but they were at the Impound Complex.
One Havoc Mk II, Exeter. It used to belong to a pilot of ours, but it was incapacitated in battle against the Independence. It can fly again, but this was its third time to be shot down the same year and our pilots refuse to fly it as they think it is cursed.
One Roc, Poole. The Impound Complex gave it to me for free. It appears that it either belonged to a pirate or to a Junker. Certainly to someone who never bathed in their life. The stench in the cockpit is appalling and no one wanted to buy it.
One Eagle, Exeter. Impounded Zoner craft, it has been gathering dust in a hangar on Exeter for a while.
One Starblazer, Exeter. The same.
One Raven's Talon, Poole. I bought her from the Impound Complex. Probably belonged to some sort of a criminal.
Four Templars, Nottingham. A test batch from a newly opened factory on Planet Sprague. They are missing their tea making equipment, so our pilots refuse to fly them. They are yours.
One Surveyor, Nottingham. I bought it for you in case you ever wish to mine. It can serve as a capable interceptor, too.
I do hope that you have managed to persuade enough of your people to join your cause in order to have the manpower to operate these, because we are not going to provide our own, except the technicians to teach you how BMM ships operate. By the way, under what name should I refer to your new state on Exeter? Our units have broken through their main front lines and laid siege to their towns. It is only a matter of time until you can govern over your state.
Commodore
Governor-General of Exeter
Bretonian Armed Forces
From: Mehmed Selim.
Security Encryption: TEA Message transmitted to Governor-General Elizabeth Hall.
Privyet.
These assets will all find a useful place in the roster. I am sorely short of command-grade personnel, but my core of loyalists, as well as any population your troops manage to convince planetside on Exeter, should be enough for the purposes of crew. Between what I have been able to assemble with the portion of the state budget I managed to smuggle out of New Moscow on open-market purchases, and these ships you're able to provide, we should have a fleet capable of supporting the Armed Forces and of performing independent operations.
We haven't really gotten around to naming our new state just yet, with all this logistics to do. What we HAVE agreed on, after digging in our Sol-era database a bit (and I will boast, the Coalition's sol-archives are second to none) is a name for our outfit/militia: the Crimean Privateers. The name derives from a peninsula on old Earth geographically situated between Coalition member states and with an ancient history involving predecessor nations of the Alliance that led to the founding of Bretonia, as well as Coalition predecessors. Privateers, of course, given the nature of Bretonia's sanctioning of our operations.
We also devised a provisional flag, though likely a permanent choice.
Our next move is likely to secure a sufficient officer base to utilize all this effectively, be they exceptional candidates from our side of Exeter, defectors I am able to sway from the Coalition, or volunteers from Bretonia proper who make the choice to sign up with us rather than the military, for whatever personal or clerical reason might exist.
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