☆ On Board: OSC Breezewood, Planet Baden Baden, Stuttgart System, Rheinland Space
☆ To: XA-Cobra
☆ Subject: Encounter in New York
☆ Encryption: ***Strong***
Dear Cobra
I never got the chance to properly introduce myself. My name is Jonathan Seabourne, captain of the OS&C liner Breezewood. I was pleased that we were able to negotiate our way through our encounter earlier today near Fort Bush without bloodshed and I hope the Gaian wildlife end up in good homes (again, I recommend against eating them and advise keeping them together in as large a flock as possible to reduce stress on the animals).
However, I must say that the encounter was very unprofessional. It took quite a while for me to piece together that you were the leader and spoke for your "herd of cats," and the conflicting demands were difficult to follow. I know all leadership positions have their struggles, especially for organizations that can't openly recruit in lawful space. And I, a humble liner captain, do not wish to tell a freedom fighter how to do their job. But chaos and uncertainty in encounters like that can lead to misunderstandings and shots being fired. Our organizations do not have ideological or existential conflicts with each other, and I am sure your people do not want to needlessly destroy a Liberty vessel full of civilians any more than we would want to see one of our vessels lost simply because an underling lost their cool while the adults in the room were working out a deal.
I am glad that the Breezewood was empty at the time because it would have frankly been embarrassing to explain to our passengers why we were negotiating instead of fighting with you. If you want to project an aura of an organization rather than a group of thugs, I believe you would be best served debriefing your pilots over this. Then again, for all of your... colorful personalities, you're still the ones holding the guns and I take my responsibilities as a liner captain to ensure the safety of my passengers and crew seriously. I hope in the future your pilots take their missions as seriously as you do so any future encounters are professional with no room for tragic mistakes.
And for what it's worth, I do appreciate you sparing my crew, especially the exotic dancers. Every time they show up on gravometric scans, I always get nervous about the demands that are about to be made of my ship and the choices I will have to make. I thank you for making those choices easy. Cargo can always be replaced, credits can always be written off, but I pray I will never have to hand over those who've served me well to an uncertain fate.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Seabourne
Captain, OSC Breezewood
White Spa Lines A Division of Orbital Spa and Cruise Planet Curacao, Cortez System
To: <"Captain Johnathan Seabourne">
Reg: ""<What floats your boat>""
Captain Seabourne.
I wasn't expecting to hear from you, but nonetheless let me introduce myself. I'm Damian Morreti, Squadron Commander of the Xeno Alliance. Well, Alliance in name only, we're more of a militia come to think of it. Now admittedly I'm a bit of an oddity in the organization, I had a good job and a good education and I could have sought alternative employment if I really wanted, but the straight and narrow can be quite dull. Especially when you play it on repeat for every day of every year of your life without much deviation.
If you think the Alliance is poorly coordinated now then you should have seen it a year or two ago. I can almost guarantee the assortment of people was infinitely more colorful. Where these otherwise bottom-rung thugs shine however is when push comes to shove. They always shoot to kill, and they tend to not stop until that is the case. It's actually quite admirable, given what they're up against of course.
In any case, I appreciate the constructive criticism. There's still a lot of work to be done in standardizing operations as far as Serpentis Wing is concerned. I'm still working on that, it's proving to be quite challenging but yielding tangible results all the same. I just need to be more firm with the reigns when in the field.
As for your entertainers, the Xenos aren't in on the slaver business. Not only is it a dirty business, but it's an exceptionally complicated market to gain entry into. Slave-trade is dominated by the Maltese cartels and their associated pawns across Liberty and Kusari. It would also make my mantra of Liberty or Death rather redundant on a fundamental basis, and I'd rather not have to come up with a new slogan.
If anyone does wind up snatching the girls from you then give me a call, I'd be more than happy to shoot up your average rogue, junker or outcast - for a nominal fee of course, and so long as the degenerate is in Liberty. Last but not least, the birds are being entitled to better standards than the people at this point. I'm fairly certain the basis for that demand was to acquire a pet, something many of my men and women wouldn't have been able to afford in their past lives.
To: <"Captain Johnathan Seabourne">
Reg: ""<Morale boost>""
Captain.
I'm sure you remember my proposal when we last met in Hudson. If you've taken time to consider it and of course run it by your friends then maybe we can hash out some details in this channel. I figured I could reuse it for that purpose.
While it is never a joyful experience for the Breezewood to see hostile contacts on the scope, I must say i was relieved to see that it was XA ships waiting on the other side. Our organizations obviously have their differences, but we know you're not in the habit of spacing tourists and so long as everyone keeps their cool, everyone goes home happy. The same cannot be said of all... alternative factions, so I thank you for keeping things civil for our civilians.
As to the matter at hand, I believe you were interested in booking some sort of entertainment or performance for Ames Research Station, correct? We're happy to pay the station a visit and take those interested on a trip around the system while putting on a show for them inside. Given that Kepler isn't terribly scenic, I doubt they'd be missing much staring at the stage instead of the portholes. What exactly did you have in mind?
Regards,
Jonathan Seabourne
Captain, OS&C|Breezewood
Director, White Spa Lines Division
To: <"Captain Johnathan Seabourne">
Reg: ""<Morale boost>""
Captain.
Forgive the delay, work was murder. Quite literally. I've had time to think about this though and I feel like I have an idea. Anyone that scans the ship would only see passengers and the entertainment you've arranged for them. So this allows us to bypass unwanted attention from Liberty's "finest". With this in mind, I have one of two ideas.
One is that you set course for Blezard Valley in Ontario. I hear people find a bleak and cold surrounding to be quite cozy, if of course viewed from an actually comfortable location, such as your ship.
Two is a planet that I forget the name of in Vespucci. But I hear it offers quite the view. Vespucci does present the possibility of suspicion from Liberty if you get caught entering it.
As stated before, these are just ideas. My ideas. You might have a better one, or perhaps you could pick between one of the two I've offered you.
Planet Iridescencia, I know it well. We have a liner, the Barbados in orbit there though a carefully negotiated understanding with both the Republic and the Commonwealth. Given that we already have a presence in the system, a run through Ontario is more appealing. We usually don't have much reason to head to those systems, and I am always game for exploring the underutilized corners of the sector.
Regards,
Jonathan Seabourne
Captain, OS&C|Breezewood
Director, White Spa Lines Division