It's been some time since I last flew alongside your people, myself and the crew of the Arleigh Burke were always thankful to be able to rely on the support of the Xeno Alliance within Liberty.
It comes as no great surprise that you have many questions for our new Insurgency, the Captain of the Amenhotep relayed as much to us and we're keen to ensure that the fledgling relationship between Battlegroup Harmony and the Alliance is something that can continue with the Insurgency.
Whereas Fleet Admiral Knight is currently bogged down with having a vast civillian population dumped on her lap, I'm sure you may be able to appreciate the logistical nightmare of such a thing, I've been assigned to try and answer as many questions that I am able too.
to: <"austin south">
reg: ""<problematic inheritance>""
South.
I'm of half a mind to congratulate you for deposing the Commonwealth, truth be told I would have done it myself if you'd failed. But this is very much a situation like a coin, if you've ever seen one, it has two sides to it. As good as it is that the Commonwealth is gone, it also means that you have directly inherited all the problems we take issue with.
Chief among these is the issue of immigration. The Commonwealth was quite happy to let outsiders pour in and eliminate a majority of the economic opportunities my people were told to look forward to. Our demand in that regard was quite simple, evict them all. Do you intend to meet this demand directly or is the allure of cheap labor from across the border simply too tempting?
Secondly, there is the fact that the Alliance and wider Xeno movement possess a significant stockpile of ships and weapons that belong to the now defunct and unrecognized Commonwealth. Prior to our preemptive assault to maintain our independence, we made it abundantly clear that any such stocks of ships and weapons were now property of the Xenos and would remain this way until phased out by our own decision. Will you take issue to this or accept our right to property we currently possess?
Thirdly, there is the issue of corporate exploitation. This prompted a schism that produced a band of pirates that now plague your recently acquired real estate, they call themselves the Atacama Cohort. Their cause is distinctly opposed to the exploitation of the system's mineral wealth by corporate entities such as DSE. This is something we also take issue with, and one of our issued demands to the Commonwealth was the prompt eviction of DSE from the system. These legionnaires who took up arms against the sham Government of Vespucci are entirely justified in their fight, and I would very much like to have them repatriated. Will you take measures to ensure this?
Fourthly, there is the fact that your forces have been willing to shelter foreign elements from the treacherous House Rheinland. The initial incidents of this were represented in the early days, with your open cooperation with the Unioner cause and now the apparent sheltering of ALG vessels, which are all too eager to flee to your installation and more surprisingly be accepted. It is worth noting that this incident occurred within the borders of House Liberty, and has greatly diminished our enthusiasm to work with you. Will you address this ideological transgression and finally snap ties with all elements from the treacherous House Rheinland?
I am aware that this might be a lot to take in, but nobody ever said this would be easy. Relations are a tricky thing, all the more so when you complicate them by assuming a position of power that another institution previously occupied. And while Knight might enjoy the apex position of a military dictatorship, that is not the nature of my office as Alliance Marshal. And if your answers are received negatively by my people and tip consensus against cooperation, then there is nothing that I can do to offset that.
Congratulations would likely not be particularly well recieved, we moved from one bad situation into another - this wasn't the outcome we had hoped for but its the situation we are in, so now we must deal with it.
I'm unsure if you're aware of the current situation on Veracruz. Mass riots have broken out across the city and while they are being quelled, it isn't in the cleanest of manners as we find ourselves heavily outnumbered. While I can assure you no further immigrants from outside of Liberty will be permitted to settle on Veracruz, we're not currently in a situation where we're able to ship so many people off of the planet.
We're military men, not administrators, we're not entirely sure what we'll do with the population once we've got them under control.
Your ships and weapons, as far as i'm concerned are yours.
As for corporate exploitation, a problem that is rather close to my own heart. I am aware of the existence of the pirates within Vespucci and they frequently raid our already infrequent supply convoys, we had intended to reach out to them and hopefully reconcile our differences, we will speak with them and see where that goes. I am sure you'll be kept up to date.
The early days of the Battlegroup were plagued with many issues, the primary concern of which was survival. The Unioners have long been painted as an enemy, despite a half-assed cease fire that someone negotiated. I don't think it ever stood up to much, especially when we encounter them within Liberty.
I understand your unwillingness to work with entities from outside of Liberty, but at the time of our inception, beggars couldn't be choosers, we accepted help from wherever and whoever was offering at the time. ALG has often proven itself to be a more progressive corporation, one that shuns the idea of the exploitation of the labor market, something that many Libertonian corps could learn and model themselves on in a new Republic.
I fully expect you have further questions for me, and while our views may not always align exactly, I feel as though we have significant common ground and I would like for us to pursue further positive dialogue that hopefully leads to a fruitful relationship between our two groups.
to: <"austin south">
reg: ""<problematic inheritance>""
South.
ALG's place on the political scale doesn't interest me or anyone else in the movement for that matter. Even if I put ideology to the side for a moment and looked at this purely from a practical perspective, do you truly expect a corporation currently mired in a civil war to be able to help prop up a movement of your scale? How do you even think that's going to work South?
What'll end up happening is that the Xenos beyond my direct control will start viciously hunting down your newfound business partners and inhibiting the already diminished effectiveness they have. I'm sure you've heard of the freshly established Fontana Freeport. We're closer to it than you are, I could have the Xenos of Milford make runs between it and your installations to bring in all the trade goods you might require. This would be remarkably more feasible than calling in an outside element without a reliable presence to assist you.
From where we stand, what the Liberty corporations should be really doing is learning to stop playing with the lives of people beyond the border, and likewise stop making our own lives worthless with outsourcing to Kusari and Rheinland. That sounds like a sector you could actually live in, where how you live your life is up to you and not dictated by a grander scheme orchestrated on an inter-house level.
I can also tie up this loose end you have in the form of rioting immigrants that you can't get rid of. But our willingness to help you work through all these problems is entirely contingent on your own willingness to see the problem with outside influence. It leaves me wondering, honestly.
I am aware of the new Freeport, yes. If a supply deal is something we're able to work out with the Alliance then I'm all for it.
Out of curiosity, what would your proposition be regarding the population we have on the planet? The current thinking we had was to prioritise citizens of Liberty on Veracruz, giving them a preferential status, while also not throwing out tens of thousands of people who are already settled there.
They are only civilians living their lives after all, if they wish to stay under the new regime and fight for a better Liberty, why should we deny them that?
to: <"austin south">
reg: ""<problematic inheritance>""
South.
What does it matter where they go? The fact of the matter is that if they're being problematic then they need to be gotten rid of, and that's something I can do effectively. Your decision there, but you'll have to understand that keeping any of them is going to make it harder for me to convince people of the common ground between us, which will then in turn make your dilemma of logistics just that much more problematic.
What do you even need a civilian population for? Especially when a movement that's practically a ready-made army already exists but just lacks the tools to make use of all the expertise contained within it. I'm referring to ourselves, some of my people are mechanics, engineers, dock workers, foremen, the list goes on. We're all the practical people Liberty forgot about over the years, and that can be quite useful so far as the establishment and maintenance of infrastructure is concerned. At least so long as the necessary hardware can be provided.
And yes, they might only be civilians trying to live their lives, but I simply cannot believe or expect my people to believe that an Outsider can ever truly love or be trusted to fight for a better Liberty. The reality is simple, we don't want outsiders, they're better off staying in their own House of origin and fighting to make it better instead of coming here and getting involved in a fight that isn't their own.
My people wanted to just go about their lives as well, but that was stolen from them when it appeared to be vastly cheaper to bring in a refugee from some other corner of the sector and effectively pay them nothing. This is what the Commonwealth was also willing to do, just like Liberty herself. And you could very well fall down the same pit, but I'd rather you didn't dig one to begin with. So I must caution you against defending their opportunities in the face of people who have had all of theirs stolen from them.
While pacifying the population is currently our first priority, moving them offworld against their will isn't something we're willing to do.
I appreciate this will be a continued sticking point in any future relation. We seem to still have a lot of common ground, I have offered concessions to the Alliance to try and work past the obvious elephant in the room, Is there any point continuing these talks considering my prior statement?
to: <"austin south">
reg: ""<problematic inheritance>""
South.
We want what's best for Liberty and hopes were high that this would be a shared sentiment. We will not tolerate outsiders meddling in something so paramount as the fight for Liberty. No, that's a future which should very much determined by her own people.
I must therefore retract my offer of support in regard to supplies. I'm sure your business partners from Rheinland will compensate for such critical shortfalls despite the ever hardening border between them and you.
I invite you to reconsider the foolishness of standing beside foreign influence, but all the same I won't offer you any compromise. There isn't any room for it, at least not in the future that we are fighting for.
I'm sorry, but that will have to be all for now, South. My time is better spent equipping my people in the wake of a new era.