While I'm sure some of you have particularly strong feelings given the origin of this transmission, listening is still worth it.
I'll deal with the elephant in the room first. Our movement did attack Handayan and sever supply lines to the Cohort in Vespucci. I had no direct involvement, nor did the Alliance. I will confess that when the declaration was being voted on in the Free Republic Assembly, I voted against it. I won't pretend like this was some act of altruism though, I just didn't think attacking you was worth the potential costs.
This didn't stop the others. Which puts us where we are now. At a fork in the road. And while I'm pleased to state that I've managed to maintain a cooperative relationship with the Sect and worked towards the common goal of thwarting Planetform's operations in Hudson, there's been little communication otherwise.
I'd like to address two key issues.
One, is that with the Navy's campaign in Vespucci being close to completion, their withdrawal will leave behind a power vacuum and a rush to seize anything of value on Veracruz, if not Veracruz itself. I'm not fond of this prospect however, so I'd like to see us working together and keeping people away from the former colony. There's been one too many tinpot dictatorships for our generation.
Two, is that the most likely suspect for making overly ambitious powerplays in the independent worlds will be the Technocracy, or whatever they brand themselves as now. They're already trying to ingratiate themselves with the locals of Erie and take advantage of their situation. It would be consistent with their MO for them to try and do the same thing here. And they may even rely on force given that Vespucci is close enough to their own territory.
As an added disclaimer, I don't expect for us to arrive at any kind of concrete policy to handle the issues I mentioned. It's enough for me to know we're at least on the same page. So I'll wait to hear back from you.
And to the Cohort - I regret that we never had the opportunity to work together against the Commonwealth. If we had, we might have been able to prevent the formation of the Insurgency. Wishful thinking in the present, I know - but I'm not immune to sentiment.
I'm glad. So in the spirit of cooperation, I'll keep this connection open for us to coordinate efforts on both counts.
And while I'm sure you hate the notion of handouts as much as I do - let me know if there's anything you or your people need. If it's in my ability to provide you with it, then I will.
It's been three years since I opened this line of communication.
And at least so far we've had little to talk about. That's not necessarily a bad thing. At least not by itself.
In the interest of cooperation and making sure the concerns I raised aren't getting out of hand, I'd like to know if anything's changed. It's your neck of the woods, so I'm certain you know more than any of my peers do.
Let me know if anything to do with the Technocrats or the corpse of Veracruz has come up during the passage of time. Knowing is half the battle, or so they say, I just don't want to get blindsided and there are other associates of mine who would appreciate being kept in the loop.
Hopefully you actually get this. No clue how bad interference caused by Liberty's jamming in Pennsylvania is.
But at least this tells me that Liberty's jamming isn't so intensive as to block communications to Vespucci. Not that I'm bouncing this signal in an intuitive way to begin with.
If I could ask for a favor it would be up to date astrographics data for the system. Our navmaps are all out of date by now, and there's no telling what the blackout might have done to established jump corridors.
From: Flora, Gaians To: Cobra Commander Encryption: Very Subject: Vespucci
Commander.
I'm not yet sure. You and captain Harrington might've had some patriotic bond between the two of you, but I can't say the same about the rest of us. You can rest assured Vespucci will be kept the way it is, as Harrington agreed to do. But why should we go beyond that, on your behalf no less?
My pilots need to understand how the landscape of the sector in our immediate vicinity has changed in order to be effective. Especially if jumpholes have found themselves shuffled about post-blackout. There's also the fact that any long-term cooperation will require us to trust each other, at least a little.
I'm trying to take steps towards that, my recognition of your custodianship over Veracruz being the first of those. But it's not going to work out if it's all just one-way. And you can be certain our enemies will take advantage of us working against each other, keeping secrets, and generally just refusing to see the bigger picture.
I've said all I can.
Either you see why us working together will be necessary or you don't. And I know all too well that one of the things that hardly ever changes in this Sector's a made-up mind.
From: Flora, Gaians To: Cobra Commander Encryption: Very Subject: Vespucci
Commander.
Send some men to Leniex. You will find an unstable anomaly leading to Omega-55 just beyond the perimeter. That is the only new development that we are aware of. All connections other than Kansas collapsed after the blackout.
It's only a matter of time before our newfound neighbours find their way here, I imagine.
Your intelligence has been verified by one of my men in the area. Thank you.
We'll start preparing for how this might change things going forward. Assuming you know more about the Omegas than I do, which isn't much, who would you rank as the most likely to interfere and come lurking where they don't belong?
That potential thorn aside, the Pennsylvania-Kansas route is at least relatively secure and in predominantly what I'd consider our territory. I'd honestly forgotten Wichita exists. Maybe I should finally greenlight those fishing expeditions.
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