A hologram appears on the screen, showing 4 men sitting around a table. One of the men in the centre stands up and starts talking.
"Gentlemen" he intones, "and ladies of the Bretonian Government. This communique is to address a serious issue that has arisen, and to inform you of the consequences of said issue." He picked up a remote, and a picture of a Rhienland Train appeared on the holoprojection at his feet.
"This is RepEx shipping vessel 101, captained by Tiberius Nicholl. 4 days ago he was pirated by QCP|Queen's.Ransom, who demanded 3 million standard Sirius credits in the middle of New Tokyo. I would like to express how disgusted I am at your pilots utter disregard of the diplomatic repercussions of this act. We have, for the last several months, been helping the Bretonian government by supplying materials and resources, ranging from food supplies to medical supplies to tanks and weapons. Due to the piracy of our vessel, I am now saying that no RepEx vessel or Republican vessel shall deliver Military Vehicles to the Bretonians until further notice."
He pauses for a second, and clicks the remote again, making the Train disappear.
"In order for us to resume our regular supplies of Military Vehicles, I would like to see the 3 million credits returned to RepEx-Shipping|101, and a formal apology issued to us."
He clicked the remote for a third time, and a table showing numbers of military weapons and vehicles delivered to Bretonia from Republican and RepEx vessels appeared.
"This table shows how many vehicles you will be losing while this embargo is in effect, and it may be necessary to remove other commodities from our delivery lists, should this be ignored. We will however continue to deliver food and medical supplies, as death and starvation are not things that we would like to see."
He cleared his throat.
"However, our warehouses have limited room, and if you decide to ignore this and refuse to acknowledge or agree to our terms, which seem quite fair to us, we may have to consider selling these Vehicles to other parties. Thank you for your time Gentlemen, our signatures are below."
Signed:
Sawyer Kreth -CEO
Alan Wexler -Assistant CEO
Micheal Richter -Head of Shipping
Hermann Vertz -Head of Security
--Incomming Transmission--
Comm ID: Foreign and Colonial Office
Mr Kreth,
On behalf of the official Bretonian Government, I wish to express our condolences to you for any loss of cargo or revenue that you have incurred as a result of this piracy. The pirates in question are the privateering corps under the command of "Admiral" Andrew Stuart, an independent group of patriotic and...enterprising citizens who are operating beyond the control of the War Cabinet, Admiralty Board, Ministry of Defence, or any other Government Department, including my own. We do not condone their piracy in any form, indeed they have been a cause of much trouble to us in recent weeks as they continue to disrupt our official war effort, but unfortunately they are also beyond our power to stop. "Admiral" Stuart is, in fact, not a sitting member of the BAF Admiralty Board, and it appears that he is no longer taking orders from the Admiralty Staff. I must therefore regrettably inform you that we cannot take responsibility for the actions of these individuals - if you have issues with the privateers, or wish to prevent further attacks on your vessels, you will have to attempt to deal with "Admiral" Stuart directly. However, I sadly doubt that his men will relent from their merciless attacks on civilian shipping, and as the Kusari do not allow bounty hunters to operate in their territory and appear incabable of fighting off the privateers themselves, I can therefore only advise you that if you wish to avoid further losses your only recourse would be to cease trade in Kusari altogether.
With regards to your decision to cease shipments of military vehicles to Leeds, I can only beg of you to reconsider. Naturally you are entitled to make corporate decisions about where you ship your goods to, but at such a time as this you can understand that we are greatly in need of the cooperation of civilian shipping corporations, and the goods that you transport for us. I can offer you as full an apology for your losses as possible on behalf of the Bretonian Government, but unfortunately I cannot speak for Sir Andrew who, as I have already said, is beyond our control. As for compensation, alas our budget is streched thin with all Crown funds being directed towards the war effort, and in any case as I have stated, we cannot take responsibility for the actions of the privateers. However, I promise that I shall speak with my colleague Sir Edmond Grey, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, and ask him to look into your financial situation to see that your supply of our defence industry is being sufficiently incentivised. A diplomatic and trade delegation is being dispatched to New Berlin in order to look at further ways of reassuring Rheinland Corporations and maintaining a flow of trade between Rheinland and Bretonia.
Yours sincerely,
Lord Charles Canning
9th Earl of Malmesbury
Foreign Secretary of Bretonia
The hologram re-ignites like a flame in the darkness, this time Sawyer is alone.
"Sir, upon hearing this information, I will start new discussions with the board about what to do considering this new situation. For the time being, I will make sure that the next 5 orders of your HoverPanther's are indeed delivered, which should last you at least 2 weeks. During this time, the RepEx High command should have been able to reach a desicion about what our stance and policy should be regarding Kusari.
Due to our nature of wanting to make a large profit, and to keep our customers happy, we will not be taking any stances on your war with Kusari, and wish to stay as neutral as possible.
Regarding the money, consider the debt null and void, the pilots are obviously either out of control, or are far too short sighted to see the consequences of their actions and as such should be treated like the children they are acting like: With disdain. I shall repay the pilot in question with my own money, I don't really need it anyway.
Thank you for the reply sir, I shall call an emergency council meeting within the next hour, and hopefully we can have a desicion quickly, so we can have this entire business sorted before the end of the fortnight.
One final point to make, is that if our escorts, the PR wing, were to open fire upon these pilots, would we be upsetting or damaging the Bretonian house in any way? The last thing we want to do is damage tensions even further, and yet I cannot allow any ship into Kusari now without an escort.
--Incomming Transmission--
Comm ID: Foreign and Colonial Office
Mr Kreth,
I thank you for your consideration and appreciation of our delicate situation, and am hopeful that RepEx and other Rheinland corporations may continue in the vital role they play in our economy, particularly at these most difficult of times for both of us. Naturally we would not presume to deny your forces the right to defend themselves from attack by these privateers, though we would appreciate it if your escort wing could exercise restraint in dealing with them, only firing in self-defence when strictly neccessary to defend your pilots and cargo. They are, after all, still Bretonian citizens, and I am sure you agree that any unneccessary loss of life amongst our countrymen at a time when so many families across Bretonia are suffering from the loss of loved ones, be they brave soldiers or dishonourable knaves, would still be a great tragedy for us all.
We await the outcome of your Board Meeting for further developments on this matter.
Yours sincerely,
Lord Charles Canning
9th Earl of Malmesbury
Foreign Secretary of Bretonia