To: The Owners of "Oyster Creek"; CC: [LN] HC

[Manticore]

***INCOMING TRANSMISSION***

To: "OYSTER CREEK"
CC: LIBERTY NAVY HIGH COMMAND, GOVERNMENT OF LIBERTY
Source: CAPT LAMBERT, James
Encryption: Standard
Priority: High


To Whom It May Concern:

The Liberty Navy has located your illegal base within Liberty. You have 48 hours from this transmission to respond and open discussions on how to put your station in compliance with Liberty Law, Section Two.

If you do not respond, I will be forced to pursue more... destructive options.

Regards,

Captain James Lambert
Commodore, First Fleet
Liberty Navy

***END TRANSMISSION***

---

[|nfrared]

"You'll have about 45 seconds between static discharges to get a message out, audio only..."
"OK, do it"



"Hello? Is someone out there? Inside the navigational no-fly zone too? Shizz.... Hope you took your rad-tabs, or you won't last the day! Is this some sort of Junker prank? Marauders maybe?

And you threaten us? Harrassing law abiding shippers? "Destructive options"? Your thinly veiled threat is nothing short of terrorism. I bet this was George Master's idea. I'll be telling the Navy about this. Women, and children too! You can't threaten Liberty's children and get away with it!

You sicken me.
Regar-"

*PSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!*

[Manticore]

***INCOMING TRANSMISSION***

To: "OYSTER CREEK"
CC: LIBERTY NAVY HIGH COMMAND, GOVERNMENT OF LIBERTY
Source: CAPT LAMBERT, James
Encryption: Standard
Priority: High

To Whom It May Concern:

Since you didn't seem to understand me the first time - I represent the Liberty Navy and Liberty Government.

You now have 38 hours to respond with a clear agreement to license your base under Liberty laws and pay the appropriate fees for use of Liberty space. If you continue to ignore the issue at hand, it will be taken as a refusal to comply.

Regards,

Captain James Lambert
Commodore, First Fleet
Liberty Navy

***END TRANSMISSION***

---

[|nfrared]

"Be careful babe..."
"I will. Open a channel,"

Well hello there, Captain Lambert,

The static has died down enough for us to get out a return transmission with some video this time. Forgive my husband, he was on a long shift last night at the console and we have been losing more shipments lately, in part to Junker activity and also the ambient conditions here. Our small Zoner mining station has been suffering lately, and is pushing the crew to the point of exhaustion. Some of the gunners are getting particularly jittery and the station has been mistaken for a large chunk of premium scrap a few times now.

We were unaware of any licensing requirements within the Pequena Negra, in fact we were told that you avoid the area completely. As you can tell, we have been here quite some time and have avoided discovery. In fact that's exactly why this station is where it is. Some of our crew are quite introverted and eccentric, and prefer isolation while still being within reach of the fruit Liberty holds... In this particular case a bounty of high grade scrap within our short grasp.

We admit that not licensing the base was an error on our part. While we don't welcome the threat of violence on our small mining group, we are willing to make recompense for this oversight, including any fines and back lease we owe. Please advise what these penalties will entail.

We trust that indicating cooperation will remove the threat of imminent destruction of our facility and its occupants, many of whom are family of the crew. You will surely understand why my husband got so upset.

Humble regards,
Deidre of the Void Miners

[Manticore]

***INCOMING TRANSMISSION***

To: "OYSTER CREEK"
CC: LIBERTY NAVY HIGH COMMAND, GOVERNMENT OF LIBERTY
Source: CAPT LAMBERT, James
Encryption: Standard
Priority: High

To Deidre of the Void Miners:

Thank you for the response. I will be more than happy to assist you with the base licensing process.

Please review the attached excerpt of Liberty Laws pertaining to base licensing:

The Laws of Liberty, Section Two

--------------------------- SECTION TWO: LICENSURE ---------------------------

I. Base Licenses.

Due to the high interest of individuals and groups wishing to set up their own private installations within the Republic of Liberty, we have decided to introduce a licensing procedure for these bases.

In order to legally register a base in the Republic of Liberty, it is required that the owner lease the part of space that the base will occupy for the duration of its existence. The fee is monthly, to be paid on the first of every month. As the lifetime of a base is variable, the system determining fees to be paid is also variable. This takes into account two primary factors:

Base location:

[indent]The cost of the space that you are required to lease to facilitate a private installation is partially based upon the location of that space. This is determined according to system, rather than system and sector. For example, leasing space in Texas will have a different price to leasing space in New York, but leasing space in sector 7G will be priced the same as space in sector 2C. For this purpose, the systems under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Liberty are divided up into four zones.

These zones are as follows -

• Zone 1: New York
• Zone 2: California, Colorado, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Texas
• Zone 3: Alberta, Bering, Hudson, Minnesota
• Zone 4: Cortez, Galileo, Kepler

The fees per zone are as follows -

• Zone 1: 45 million credits per month.
• Zone 2: 30 million credits per month.
• Zone 3: 20 million credits per month.
• Zone 4: 15 million credits per month.

Space within systems not mentioned here but is otherwise a part of Liberty and not available for lease. This would include systems such as Virginia and Illinois, but also the systems of New Hampshire, due to our state of war with Rheinland, and Magellan due to the overflow of the conflict with Gallia.

Base level:

As bases become larger, they take up more space, and can also be more profitable. This means that the lease cost goes up with the complexity of the base. While station modules are internal, the upgrades to the station infrastructure are not, and as such, must be costed. In this vein, the space for a level 1 base will be cheaper than the space for a level 2 base, and so on.

Base level fee modifiers are as follows -

• Level 5 base: x2.0
• Level 4 base: x1.5
• Level 3 base: x1.4
• Level 2 base: x1.2
• Level 1 base: x1.0

Here are some examples to illustrate this system in practice -

• Level 2 base in zone 1.

- 1.2 x 45 = 54 million credits per month.

• Level 3 base in zone 3.

- 1.4 x 20 = 28 million credits per month.

• Level 1 base in zone 4.

- 1.0 x 15 = 15 million credits per month.

• Level 4 base in zone 2.

- 1.5 x 30 = 45 million credits per month.

Further conditions:

This applies to everybody except the Forces of Liberty, DSE), Ageira~ and [*USI*]. That means that independent ventures of, for example, Deep Space Engineering or Kishiro Technologies, must be costed according to the values above. However, the presence of each base is still subject to approval by the government of the Republic of Liberty, and will be removed if necessary.

As you are leasing space from the Republic of Liberty, we must be provided with the location of your installation. This can be done privately to one of our high ranking officials, and will be kept secret if required to respect its potential sensitivity.

Each application will be considered on a case-by-case basis. There may be problems with certain base positioning, such as in the middle of a trade lane route or directly across an area of space that sees heavy traffic. As such, we reserve the right to refuse or request that you modify your application for leasing space.

This policy only pertains to the lease of space by you from the Republic of Liberty. The patrol paths in use by the Forces of Liberty will not be changed to incorporate your base, so choose your location carefully. For example, it may be unwise to construct a base in the Badlands in New York.

Bases already constructed within the Republic of Liberty before the introduction of this legislation will not be liable for fees due in retrospect, but will be expected to adhere to the the legislation from now on. If you refuse to comply, we expect you to move your operations elsewhere. If this is not possible, the Forces of Liberty will be tasked with removing your installation at their discretion.

If you upgrade your space station, the fee will change with the upgrade. Please notify the Republic of Liberty of any change to the status of your base so we can levy the correct fee. Failure to do so will result in consequences levied at the discretion of the Republic of Liberty.

In the event of a late payment to the Republic of Liberty, you will be given a warning and 14 days in which to gather and provide the required amount of credits. If this is not done, the Forces of Liberty will again be tasked with removing the installation. The acceptance or denial of payment later than this is discretionary on the part of the Republic of Liberty, and will not have an effect on the next due date, which would be the first of the next month.

If vessels belonging to groups that the Republic of Liberty considers hostile, such as the Liberty Rogues or the Rheinland military, use your base, you will be liable for any consequences that follow. It is your responsibility to make sure that you do not provide safe harbour for criminals and parties that the Republic is at war with. Failure to do falls under obstructing the course of justice, as described in Section One.

You will be advised as to the destination of the fees when you apply to lease space from the Republic of Liberty.

As stated above, your base license fee will be 42 million credits each month. However, fees for the first month, due immediately, will be doubled to cover your failure to license penalty. Please send your first licensing fee of 84 million credits to Ferris.Dufresne immediately. Next month's fee will be the normal 42 million amount.

Additionally, you must configure your base to allow docking access to the primary fleets of the Liberty forces - vessels tagged with the [LN], =LSF= and LPI- designations. I will be dropping by to confirm that this has been done in a few days' time. Understand that this is just for compliance purposes - do not expect Liberty forces to regularly pay a visit to your remote and dangerous corner of Texas. In fact, I would imagine you prefer it that way.

Please respond to this communication with any questions you may have.

Regards,

Captain James Lambert
Commodore, First Fleet
Liberty Navy

***END TRANSMISSION***

---

[|nfrared]

"Here we go..."



James... Can I call you James?

I have organised my papers for you to be submitted as agreed, and to confirmation your receipt of payment of the fine we incurred from my vessel account The.Medusa. I will be sure to keep up with future payments. I will authorise the encryptions for the authorities you have specified later today, and you should be able to dock within a few hours.

Datapacket - 1* 2*

As you can imagine, it has been tough running this operation with just a limited crew, but we are getting there. I will be sure to have things in order for your inspection.

Regards,
Deidre of the Void Miners.

[|nfrared]

"It's ready to go."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, as sure as I can be."
"Ok, go for it."



Captain Lambert,

We have finished configuring the docking codes you sent us and they are loaded into our docking control. The vessels will be able to dock now. Please confirm this and and advise of our compliance please.

We would ask that any future inspections are advised to us ahead of time due to the previously explained circumstances. I don't want the tenants here getting too anxious or my business of providing a quiet place for them will surely suffer as a result.

We trust you will find everything in order. Regards,
Deidre of the Void Miners.

[Manticore]

***INCOMING TRANSMISSION***

To: "OYSTER CREEK"
CC: LIBERTY NAVY HIGH COMMAND, GOVERNMENT OF LIBERTY
Source: CAPT LAMBERT, James
Encryption: Standard
Priority: High

To Deidre of the Void Miners:

Thank you for confirming your base's status and docking system re-calibration. I have been informed that your payment was received and processed.

Pending confirmation of your docking configuration, your base is LICENSED as part of the Republic of Liberty. Official documentation should reach you in a few weeks. Be advised that your license fee of 42 million credits is due on the first of each month henceforth, and you are obligated to inform us whenever you upgrade the Core status of your base.

I am in the middle of some other work at the moment, but I will make arrangements to visit your base for a brief inspection within the next forty-eight hours. For future inspections, it is our protocol to inform base owners in advance any time we intend to board your station for an inspection. In your case, I doubt that would be necessary with much frequency.

Regards,

Captain James Lambert
Commodore, First Fleet
Liberty Navy

***END TRANSMISSION***

---

[|nfrared]

Is it a good signal?
Yeah, signal strength should be high enough.
OK, I'm ready. Transmit.



Hello again, Captain Lambert.

Please excuse my tardiness, but it has been near impossible to get a signal out in this mess, let alone a credit transfer, but conditions let up enough for me to attempt it this evening. Please find the attached datapacket transfer to cover the months of March, April, and May 821 AS for the licensing of the Zoner isolation facility and scrap rig "Oyster Creek".

Datapacket - 1*

The installation has expanded and now falls under the classification of a Core 4 structure, and the payments reflect this change. I'll understand if there are some financial penalties for the late nature of these payments. For that I humbly apologise.

Until next time,
Deidre of the Void Miners.