Hi! I'm doing logistics work as part of Task Force Prometheus, and was one of the people in space escorting your Yellow Brick Road convoy earlier in my fighter, Pyrgilauda. I just wanted to reach out and apologize for the mess the LSF caused earlier over Erie—we were hoping they would be able to keep their bloodlust in check long enough to actually do their jobs and take care of civilians, but I guess blowing up their fellow escorts was more important to them than you were.
More importantly, did everyone make it okay? You didn't run into any trouble, did you? We tried to make sure they weren't distracted for too long, but a lot can happen very quickly out there and they basically cut your escort in half even after they got done.
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George E. Rolf, CEO, DSE
LOCATION: Susquehanna Station, Cortez
SUBJECT: RE: Your Concern
Well Mz. Mori, I gotta tell you that I don't really know what to make of this apology.
Even if that whole situation in Erie orbit was one big misunderstanding, that is something for your people to take pointers from. As it happens, we did run into a spot of trouble on our way back, in large part due to our escorts and the Freelancers tagging along distracted by your "discussion". But it was nothing the Navy couldn't handle, and all our vessels still have their pain unscratched, as it were. Next time, you make yourself known in advance, and I'd smooth out any issues before they come up.
How about we start off on the right foot here? You folks tell me just who the hell you are, and I'll decide if DSE wants to associate itself with your group. I've had some of my people pull some of older company logs, so I have some ideas about what's going on, but I'd like to hear it all from you. Let me be clear about something, however. DSE is NOT interested in the repeat of what occurred in Kansas and Vespucci. But as long as you can play along with the Republic, we're always interested in working with new partners, especially out there in the depths of space.
Despiteallofthat,theCommonwealthandDSEhavealonghistorytogether.Wehosted your bases,weprotected your people,weevenwent to war against the Unionersforyou-becauseyou'reLibertonians,you'reourownpeople.TheHellfireLegionwasfoundedonbloodandrage,amilitarythatgrewacountry,andthatmadeitturbulentandvulnerable.Wewannadothisrightthistime.Wewantourpeopleback,butwealsowanttobuildafuturewherethingsliketheRepublic’sinvasiondon'thappenagain.
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George E. Rolf, CEO, DSE
LOCATION: On board the Williamson
SUBJECT: RE: Your Ideas
Listen Mz. Mori,
I will preface everything else I'll say with this: I am a patriot. Hell, I've got kids in the Navy, and friends in the LPI. Probably some people I know in the LSF, though they'd never admit it. Point is, if you want us to work together, you just have to make your peace with this fact.
Now I ain't saying the Republic never made an error. And I ain't pretendin' that I've got all the details about who started what in Vespucci, and what was proportional. At the time, I was just keeping my head down and doing my best to grab the owner's share of this here hauler. I now understand that if cooler heads prevailed, maybe we woulda been talkin' about this in Veracruz orbit. But that's all gone to crap, and it's left to people like us to pick up the pieces.
If you want this done right, you need to make an effort to show that you'll be different from the last group. Otherwise, any op we plan will get taken over by the Navy and LSF in the interests of House security. Keep the Gaians off our backs, chart Kansas and its supposed anomalies, and I'll make sure you're well-paid. And if the Navy ever comes callin', steer small and don't engage - they've got bigger fish to fry and will lose interest soon enough. Unless you give them a reason not to.
If you can agree to all that, I'm gonna have my reps start drawin' up a contract for you. Bog standard security and deep space exploration. And once we get to the next phase of the op, you'll get to show me how much your word is worth.
You can be a patriot and still have problems with the government. I'm pretty sure most of our people would say they are too. There's a reason it was called the Commonwealth of Liberty and not the Commonwealth of Vespucci.
Anyways, that's kinda beside the point. We're more than willing to thread the needle. Our people are trapped in internment camps on Liberty, and we can't just not fight the government or they'll stay there. I don't like it any more than you do, most people in the Navy have very little to do with it and just want to serve their country, but at the same time they're contributing to the problem. I hope they learn better, but we can't afford to wait for all of them to flip.
On the other hand, we don't really want to fight them at every turn, nor are we able. Xenos? Sure, they're harboring Knight and Battlegroup Harmony. But Navy? We're sticking with surgical operations—stuff we've gotta do—and anyways, we're not exactly basing out of Vespucci or Kansas in general, and it's hard to call down the hammer on people who aren't actually there. Most importantly, if we're with you, you're our priority as Libertonian civilians. We aren't the LSF, we're not run by psychopaths who teach people to run off to fight the military when there's more pressing stuff at hand.
But yeah, I do agree with you that cooler heads should've prevailed. The traitor Knight dissolved our civilian government and replaced it with a military dictatorship that called itself the 'Insurgency,' and the Republic's government responded with brutality. The civilians took it both ways. In a better world, we would be talking about this not just in Guadalajara orbit, but on the surface.
Which all of that's a lot of words to say: That sounds good, we're in, let's do this and make that better world.
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