Message subject: Are you there?
Encryption: MUCHO
To: Capitan de Andromeda, Mighty Armada
From: Juan-Raul de la Cruz, Capitan of battleship Athos
Buenos dias, respected Senor Kapitan. Sorry for not even knowing your name. *bridge behind Cruz looks recently repaired and painted to standard Corsair rust color*
We know you are there somewhere, by simple fact there is no wreck of your battleship. I guess you know your previous commander left the bridge of Athos in Gallic shuttle and we lost any trace of him and his loyal officers. I could only guess your last order was to get lost too and see what will come from all the mess, after the War. This would be el right place to introduce my self:
I'm Juan-Raul de la Cruz, former first officer and now new capitan of battleship Athos. It makes me new commander of yours too. My mission is to make Athos and her fleet strong again.
Being trained by high Custodi officer, I can afford being more gentle than some other Brotherhood captain. That's why I will not simply order you to come back to your fleet. I will try to know you better and make a judgement if we need you back at all. So... today I have only two questions for you:
- where are you approximately?
- why are you hiding?
Take your time and answer using this encrypted neural frequency. Your unknown status and whereabouts might be the best asset you have.*wide smile of freshly promoted Latino*
He was Juan-Raul de la Cruz, Capitan of battleship Athos. Sounds good, si? Depends what you want from life. Cruz wasn't a fan of titles, climbings up the ranks, big celebrations, loud music, messy battles with lot of dead enemies... and so on. He prefered silence, strong colors of Cretan desert sunrasings and warm dry wind on his face. He was born rich, only one lucky male child of old big Cruz family owning several clean water wells on Crete. Family Cruz was always friendly to Cretan nature and that's how their lands remained clean and water wells so well preserved. They were only Cretans glad to employ a Gaian, so after a fall of Gaia there were plenty of them, even some very beautiful girls. They were very interested in young Juan-Raul, so his father rather sent him to Escuela naval, an expensive school for pirate navigators. He was pure-blooded Cretan land owner and didn't want to raise Gaian grandchildren. Cruz family were quiet people, totally not like common Cretans, so other families didn't like them. In school Juan-Raul was called El Paleto. It means redneck, or hard working ignorant peasant. But he was smart and healthy, never involved in rum and marijuana fiestas, so he graduated surprisingly young and was assigned to Custodi battleship Athos. Custodi captains had to have mixed Latino-Hellenic crew, as strongly recommended by The Brotherhood. He was from Cruz family, so other ships weren't available to him that year. He started in cleaning department, but captain noticed him fast and started to give him more complicated tasks than rubbing the deck.
But there he is now, seating at the central table at Athos notorious tavern, surrounded by his drunk officers, celebrating his promotion to a captain, while worst Corsair mariachi band was playing Cretan hits very very loud on very very old instruments. He wouldn't allow all this, but there was no real danger to think about since huge Coalition fleet demolished Stirling. No one expected that. Stirling's pieces are all over Gran Canaria now. Cruz was told it will be his job and looks like job was done by simply hiding behind gold-sparkling rocks of Dublin and doing nothing. Feeling of relief was huge on all Athos's decks and steam had to go out. With BAF so weakened, more and more pirate units were coming back to Athos with loads of plundered gold. Even those Furiosa grannies were loaded and they had new teeth and freshly replaced other prosthetic body parts. They were eager to rendezvous with Fes and start bombing... anything.
Something was making Cruz sad, besides that mariachi performance. He has found all code frequencies keys and managed to assemble most of his fleet back after that fiasco over New London. Even Athos herself was half-wrecked, but he managed to patch her up. One ship was missing. He sent a message to them, but it was still blinking in his message box as just delivered. He'd be happier if it was read at least.
Are they alive at all? were his thoughts at this loud evening.
An expressionless Alveron appeared, with the Custodian emblem in the background of the bridge.
My name is Alessio Alveron, capitan of the Andromeda. I have well received your message and I wonder how. Our communication system is damaged but I believe we still have enough energy to send transmission, si?
My crew and I thought we'd never hear a Corsair brother anymore. The Andromeda is still operational but we are lost. Lost people too.
So dices que you are the new commander of the Athos ? She is still alive after all this time? Impressive.
Everything went wrong when the siege of New London failed. The Andromeda remained almost untouched, haha she is a potente ship!
Right after these events, we received contradictory orders from the Athos, we heard rumors saying her former commander had disappeared. I think confusion is the word. We attempted to join the remaining Athos' forces, in vain.
Our last option was to escape north of Bretonia. We managed to reach Leeds where we helped the Gallics in their last attempt to push the Allies back. Though the Andromeda was separated from the Gallic forces and was left alone.
We found ourselves later between the Taus and the Omicrons, isolated from our brothers. We have been fighting the Outcasts there since as it is the last thing that holds us to the life actually.
We had no hope. The despair replaced our pride. Till today. So I am asking you commander, what do you expect from us? Would you be able to restore the dignity of this battleship and her crew? There is no enemy that can stand in our way, Capitan de la Cruz. We can offer you that.
Message subject: Founded!
Encryption: MUCHO
To: Alessio Alveron, Capitan de Andromeda
From: Juan-Raul de la Cruz, Capitan of battleship Athos
Awesome news, Senor capitan. *bridge behind Cruz looks recently repaired and painted to standard Corsair rust color*
Good to hear your ship and crew are battle ready. But, we have no orders about any battle coming soon. So...
I have el other plan.
I see your ship is still having Custodi signature. So, let's use that in el name of el Empire. Your ship will not be suspicious to Gallic forces, so she can penetrate deep into their territory and collect info. And info we need are prices and selling points for our best Artifacts and Relics. We would also want to know what can we buy in Galia and sell it with profitos grande anywhere in Sparta, preferably food and drinks.
But, even more than that, we would like to know what Galia wants from us? Will they bring peace and prosperity? Or would they ally with Core for example, or who knows what enemy and backstab us.
Also leave this channel highly encrypted and open, so we can call you in case Athos fleet would need you, no matter if defending or just supporting Mighty Armada raiding filthy sniffing Maltesers.
In case you need any repairs, or supplies, I can organise that to be sure you'd miss a thing to accomplish your missions. *wide smile of freshly promoted Latino*
When I sent my message, I thought you would never received it...What a relief that this communication network works!
Si, entiendo what you are saying Capitan. I will make sure to bring you useful information. I hope I can have from them some Gallic wine. Some drunk gauls gave us some during the war and we had an appreciable stock...I fear we have none at the moment.
We shall remain listening to the Athos' command in case the Mighty Armada needs our help. During that time, we shall proceed according to your wishes.