Hey Mister Adjutant. I'm Valerie Santos, one of the Freeport's crew.
I actually met your chief guy, Cobra, a few years ago. I was really fresh off the planet then and he gave me some good advice and recommendations, and bought a gun I had found from me. I don't know if he remembers me, but he really helped me get started back then.
Anyway, I've been living as a scavenger since, living off of crap I can find. I've starting running with a crew of other drifters, and we managed to get enough stuff together to set up a little shop of our own, that's 53. Just a little home base for our collection tours.
Our intentions are pretty much just to have a place to rest and eat, and store our finds, and ideally make some money selling food and supplies, parts and such to travelers. You know, Freeport stuff. Maybe you'll find something you want to buy, it's an open port, so have a look around.
We didn't mean to violate any territorial claims, we don't claim any of our own. I don't know if you have some kind of codex or something like that but if you do, I couldn't find it.
☠ Incoming transmission.
☠ Signal source: Free Republic relay, Liberty
☠ Opening video feed...
Sender:Adjutant J. Royce Recipient:Freeport 53 Subject:Trespass
Miss Santos.
Upon verification with the Commander's office, your story checks out. I will further state that there is no codex of laws upheld by the LFR beyond its territorial claims that are asserted through force of arms.
Your installation, though humble, still represents a risk of harbouring and supplying parties whose continued presence in Ontario is subject to the previously mentioned force of arms. Namely, the Junkers, Hackers, and Rogues.
Despite this, I'm under instructions to offer you an informal memorandum of understanding which may be subject to amendment and formalisation in the future. These terms are as follows:
1. All associates of the LFR and directly affiliated members of the various militias will be entitled to docking rights at your installation, where they will be further permitted to engage in trade as free individuals.
2. You will not allow your installation to be used as a safe harbor by the aforementioned parties, the Technocracy, or any "lawful" authority that seeks to police or reclaim the system for the Republic of Liberty. Safe harbor, for all intents and purposes of this agreement, will be defined as being the indefinite provision of docking rights to such parties or the provision of supplies to their forces.
3. Scavengers affiliated with your organisation will not intrude on salvage sites marked for recovery or scrapping by the LFR or its militias. You will be notified of such sites on a case by case basis and allowed the right to dispute salvage exclusivity if you can provide verifiable evidence of being a first finder.
4. You will not, under any circumstances, disclose the location of Ontario's jump holes to any of the previously mentioned parties in clause 2.
5. You will be entitled to petition the LFR Assembly or the Alliance regarding any material needs, concerns, or matters of discussion. Including but not limited to station defence, convoy escorts, salvage disputes, or supply arrangements.
These terms are open to some degree of negotiation and amendment. Consider your response and respond expediently.
Okay, so we've talked about these points and most of this suits us just fine, but since you're offering negotiation, we'll try to do some of that.
No contention with point one, you're welcome anytime.
Point three sounds fine, the debris sea's big enough for everyone, I'd say.
Affirmative on point four, although if someone's in that area, they'd probably know about them already. But not from us.
Five sounds great to us, we're probably going to be keeping to ourselves mostly, but you never know when you might need help with something. I couldn't have gotten far without outside help myself.
So that leaves the point of dispute, point two. We don't have any docking rights registry because, well, it's a Freeport. Restricting our ports would kinda defeat the purpose of that.
Now I seriously doubt the Republic would be sending any cops out to a place like this, but I can't say the same about some of the other people in the area that you might have a problem with. Here's the problem. If, say, a Rogue found themselves in front of closed doors, or worse, saw the Alliance docking but themselves shut out, I imagine we'd be getting some pretty angry mail and very likely a pretty angry visit from them. At that point we've gone from a group of independents to being full into the turf wars of the area, and we'd just have to hope our side comes out on top.
I think the Freeport approach is probably our safest bet here, keep the doors open and let people figure it out from there. Seems to work well enough for Fontana.
Now what I can offer is that we hold a message line open to keep you up-to-date on the comings and goings. Then you'll still have an edge over the others and you won't be caught off guard by anyone, but we can still maintain the neutral harbor status.
You've become a sharp little thing since we last spoke.
I approve of your amendment to clause 5, so I'll have the Adjutant work it into our arrangement. One more thing I'd like to touch on though is the concept of a No Fire Zone, and if you intend to establish one. If you do, how large would it be? And would you permit us to enforce it on your behalf should the need arise?
Hi Cobra, I'm really glad to hear from you again. Wouldn't be here now without you, it's funny how fate has paths cross and cross again.
Anyway, it'd definitely be pretty nice if people were discouraged from starting shit around the station. The whole system is already a rough enough area, a place with a little calm aura around it might be helpful for general communication and cooperation and such. I guess a zone of that type would normally be like eight k or something around that number.
Our own ability to enforce an NFZ is pretty much non-existent. Funds, connections, military-grade ships, those are all things we have in amounts of zero to not much. If you'd be willing to slap your hand on the table on our behalf, we'd be super grateful, and we'd make it clear that we approve if anyone asks.
I'd like to actually offer something in return. We do have some metals for basic maintenance and construction, and our growhouse is putting out more food than our little crew needs. Freeport stuff, like I said.
If your people want to pick some up, come by whenever, but we can also arrange some deliveries, we have a couple cargo ships available.
Perfect, I'll consider this agreement finalized as follows:
The Free Economic Zone of Freeport 53
The Parties to this Agreement shall be the Liberty Free Republic, hereinafter referred to as the "LFR", and the Xeno Alliance, hereinafter referred to as the "Alliance", and personnel of Freeport 53, hereinafter referred to as "Freeport Personnel/Administration". The Agreement serves to outline the independence and functioning of the facility known as Freeport 53 in the Free State of Ontario claimed and inhabited by the Liberty Free Republic.
1. All associates of the LFR and directly affiliated members of its various militias will be entitled to docking rights, where they will be further permitted to engage in trade as free individuals.
2. Freeport personnel are free to self-regulate docking rights issued to other parties but will be required to provide periodic reports regarding Freeport usage by other parties.
3. Scavengers affiliated with Freeport 53 will not intrude on salvage sites marked for recovery or scrapping by the LFR or its militias. Freeport administration will be notified of such sites on a case by case basis and allowed the right to dispute salvage exclusivity if verifiable evidence of being a first finder can be provided.
4. Freeport personnel will not, under any circumstances, disclose the location of Ontario's jump holes to any parties considered hostile by the LFR/Alliance.
5. Freeport personnel will be entitled to petition the LFR Assembly or the Alliance regarding any material needs, concerns, or matters of discussion. Including but not limited to station defence, convoy escorts, salvage disputes, or supply arrangements.
6. Freeport 53 is subject to a No Fire Zone of 8 klicks. LFR/Alliance personnel are authorized by Freeport administration to enforce the No Fire Zone.
7. Amendments to this agreement may occur with the express consent of both parties to the agreement
This Agreement was confirmed on this day the 15th of January of 834.
So, about the comings and goings. There's some Lane Hackers that have been active in the area. They've rented a room and set up a little workshop in it.
They're not like....building superweapons or anything, more like tinkering for fun. I don't know, Hacker stuff.
They seem pretty smalltime, I really don't think they're going for any kind of Ontario supremacy.
So, we can always use more salvagers. If you've got some workers sitting around that don't know what to do, we'll pay a decent wage for materials. Metal from the ocean, ice from the other ocean, chemicals from that spooky gas patch. Within our means, I mean, it's not exactly a fat corporate gig, but we'll pay what we can. One of our people was a UCLA physics grad and we've got a centrifuge setup for fuel refinement, I don't know how that shit works, but we have a small output of usable fuel.
You shouldn't be telling your insurance provider how you sourced it if something goes wrong, but I guess that wouldn't be much of a concern for you.
Our security situation seems smooth so far, haven't gotten any shots or threats yet. Or at least none that were serious.
Anyway, really glad for the offer. If it's just buying a drink every now and then, we'll be grateful for that, too.