"It's been quite some time since we've spoken, and even longer since I've seen you with my own eyes."
"I've been watching the Xenos since I was a young, still on the streets of Manhattan, the "glorious" capital of Liberty. I've fought them, I know them. I watched them grow, Liberty watched them grow. When I returned to Liberty a few years ago, and rejoined the rogue fold, I was still regaining the strength to my bite. You and I had our first encounter, I wasn't even a challenge for you. You nearly killed me that day, Cobra. You didn't kill me when you had the chance, and to this day, that boggles my mind."
"Fast forward to current day, you set the underworld ablaze when you hit Rochester. Fires I'm still trying to put out. I watched Liberty change before my eyes, something I had previously never thought possible, and the Xeno Alliance is the reason for that change, I know it, the people of Liberty know it. While a few lone vipers occasionally show up at our bases for pot shots every now and then, raids haven't been common. Your people are more organized, you don't waste, and you don't leave behind. Now the Xenos have a rallying cry. It means something to you, that it doesn't mean to them. "For the Republic", it sounds different. It feels different. Talk of the Liberty Free Republic is all over the underworld, Cobra. I want to understand what it is supposed to be, and why your people believe in it."
☠ Incoming transmission.
☠ Signal source: Free Republic relay, Liberty
☠ Opening video feed...
Sender: Alliance Commander "Cobra" Recipient: Hemlocke Subject: What it means
I remember you.
And why does the fact that I don't slaughter the Rogues boggle your mind? You're still my people just as much as every Xeno and sympathizer on the right side of the law is. Since you're asking me about the Free Republic, it's especially important that I repeat an adage that's stuck with me for a while now.
"It takes all sorts to make a Nation."
To put it simply and spare us both lengthy discussion. The Liberty Free Republic is the collective idea of people left behind by Liberty. People who have been robbed not only of their livelihood and rights, but thrown to the bottom of a barrel as undesirables and robbed of a home. Naturally they want all of these things back, and that's exactly what they're fighting for. It's what the Liberty Free Republic is meant to be for them if it ever succeeds in materializing. A place for people just like us, who want to be left alone, free of the grasp of the corrupt LPI and domineering House powers.
So you're wrong, it's not that it means something to us. It means everything.