The transmission plays, showing on screen a man in full naval battle armour, un-befitting of a Zoner, which is clear from the encryption patterns
Miss Valkyrie. You will not know of whom i am yet, but hopefully we will end this transmission as friends. You will have noticed that Zoner Alliance transponders have also been blocked from this transmission. This is paramount to the secrecy of what will go on here.
I apologise for the secrecy so far. I am Solar Runners Councilman Joseph Wolf, and as you can see, we have a little problem with the so called "Alliance". We are Zoners ourselves, yes, but we have vowed to protect our allies, and as you can see from the "Alliances" own actions, we seem to have ruffled their own feathers a bit. Due to their own actions against our allies and our own ships, attacks on a Runner Carrier, we felt it time to act, in the protection of our allies and our ships.
I contact you to ask two things. Firstly, i ask your stance on the Alliance's actions. Your answer to this will spark my second question, and the relevance of it to this conversation. I will await your answer as to the importance of the second question.
Until your reply, my dear,
He bows deeply, standing to await her reply
Councilman Joseph Wolf,
Secretary Of Fleets and Diplomatic Affairs,
Solar Runners
Secrecy? Make no mistake, you have nothing to be sorry about. Actually I preffer this way rather than spam of those so called open transmissions. Answer was warranted only because of content it displayed. Otherwise crap.
So yeah, War and Zoners in single transmission do not bide for good times unless you are some kind of psychopath... I assume those arabs that surfaced during fall of Zoner Alliance fell into that cathegory well. Hell, I actually forgot to introduce myself...
Valkyrie is just callsign, an artistic name for occupation I am in. An ancient's Earth myth about divine beings choosing warriors to be slayed - sort of angel of death. My full name, including titles is Fallen Angel Kate Fenrir-Golanska. I am second in command of Reapers of Sirius, squadron commander of Devil Wings and commanding officer of RBS Valhalla, which I believe made its presence in Omicron 74 well known by now.
"Zoner Alliance" - this word is painful enough due to history I witnessed personally so let's name them simply ZA's if that is fine to you. Surprisingly they never crossed way of the Reapers until today as they announced so called blockade of Omicron 74. Reapers generally have little concern for barriers, borders and other limitations...
Which brings is to question, what the hell is going on within this system?
He stands on screen again, scratching the straggling beard that hasn't be cared for for what seems to be weeks. The stress of the conflict lines his face
Miss Fenrir-Golanska,
The talk of a beautiful maiden is true then, as i can see. A Fallen Angel, an Angel of Death... perhaps you could become my guardian angel...
he pauses, sighing a weary sigh, which clearly relates to more than just the current "conflict" he finds himself in
What is going on? Haven't i asked myself that enough times. What is going on my dear, is the ZA, as you aptly named them, have found problem, first with Order and Phoenix, and now with the Runner Allies, the Artificial Intelligence Consensus. The Runners goal is exploration and research, but we vow to protect our family and Allies, and i do so for my closest of friends. For me, they have saved my life, along with my family's many a time, so i hope you can understand that. The AI became allied to us, as they defended one of our family, a Solar Runner Carrier. Therefore, many of us feel indebted to them. They are at war with the ZA, so we must defend our allies. Our Carrier that i mentioned, was attacked, completely unprovoked, before we took part in the defense of the AI. Because of this, they have shut down the system, claiming to be its protectors, when all they are are tyrants who would dictate the lives of those whom live there...
He pauses, breathing long, deep breaths, calming his rising emotions. He turns from the camera, facing out the window of the bridge to the stars beyond
I mention family, and to you they would just be my fellow Runners. You would also be correct in assuming that they are not biologically family either. This is true, but we have been through so much together, so many shared adventures, I have adopted them as my own family, of which they agreed. They have always been there for me, and i have lost too much to go on without their aid, without their courage to share with me
He turns, a tear glinting on his cheek as it falls from his eye
Please, Kate, help me. Help me end the threat to my own family. I do not wish them to be in danger, but the ZA will not listen to reason, they would barely stop for Michael Golanski, why would they listen to a word i have to say. Kate, please. I'm not sure how much you understand my position, but now i ask, no, i beg you to help me save my family from the threat that we now face.
He turns away again, pausing to wipe the tear from his face
It is up to you now Fenrir-Golanska, my Guardian Angel. You can be our saviour, and we will drink to your legacy, but i must have your word.
Funny. So many people calling me a guardian angel for this reason or another.
Anyway, seems that infinite steam of cabbage-heads, half-brained savages and other assortment of people not exactly using their heads seemed to have flooded Omicron 74 for good this time. Same scenario happened before with fall of true Zoner Alliance. I cannot remember exact death figures put up by survivors after storm of Corsairs and BHG Core have passed.
So what needs to happen in your eyes? I have witnessed such genocides before and through my experience those never end until invaders achieved what they wanted or get routed that their losses overcomes potential gain and blind hate cycle of revenge combined. In some cases it resolves to total destruction of one side or the other...
Want me to broke the peace? I am not as diplomatic my brother is but I see world differently than others. While I await your transmission, I will ask those problematic smelly Freeport-dwellers what their problem is before they choke with so called neutrality.
He sits in the captains chair on the bridge, raising his left hand to his face and rubbing his temples
Miss Fenrir-Golanska,
I am a Zoner, no matter of my past, so i must not wish war upon anybody, yet my background... I'm a navy man through and through, born and bred, so there will always be a part of me that wishes to watch their destruction...
He sighs, taking a deep breath
No, that is my old life, the life i left behind, i must ask you to try diplomatically, but if it fails, i will not hold anything against you if you where to, allow fire control to, lets say, set a weapons test? I'm sure you understand my meaning, and I'm sure I can leave it with you from here. Thank you Kate, you are a guardian angel to us all, and clearly have true judgment in your actions. You are the saviour of our family, i cannot thank you enough.
One currently responsible for ZA's "diplomacy" stated it is do or die for them... and refused to submit any potential reason for hostility claiming it is beyond his level of clearance as his precedessors left nothing for him to look through. Obviously it is a lie as even he would question reasons behind the conflict should he not understand reasons behind it...
Anyway, ZA proved they cannot be trusted and I am forced to rely solely on information you and other combatants can provide. Ask your leadership whether they are able to share full justifications behind these events.
he smiles weakly at the camera, the troubles of the conflict clear across his face, his worry for his family, yet in his eyes gleams the glimmer of hope that kate may save him and his family from those who would become tyrants
Kate, wonderful to hear from you again.
I appologise, the conflict is not kind to us, it stresses on all the councilmen, and for now they do not know i have contacted you. They would see my actions as foolish, but i see you as our only hope, our hope of survival in the darkest of times, the times when our life style is threatened by those that have so very clearly lost their way on the path of the Zoners...
he rubs his temples, calming his nerves, glancing at the glass of whisky sitting on the desk
Claiming he does not have access is like me claiming i haven't spoken to you before this exact second in time, the most obvious of lies. If he truly is responsible for their diplomacy, he will have access to everything to make the correct judgment on everything, not to mention most of these "Alliance" folks have been around about as long as each other to my knowledge...
Now, you mention our leadership... that is me, along with various others. We are a "Council", if you like, deciding together on our course of action... this, however, is hidden from them, as i already explained.
Anyways, what is available to me. As to my knowledge of the incident, from various open transmissions and what not, is that the Alliance began with troubles with Phoenix Zoners, and Order forces. Why is unknown to me, though from recent evidence brought to light, i suspect it has something to do with the possession of nomad remains for the Order's part. That conflict went on, and, as far as i can tell from piecing bits here and there together, they succumbed to the Order, asking for mercy, more or less...
he pauses, taking a sip from the glass of whisky
Now, they have a problem with our allies the "AI Consensus". They have come under attack from Alliance vessels, as far as i can tell anyways. I usually try to distance myself from that a little, so my knowledge on that is a little... hazy.. After the "moral" support of the Runners in the Orders first encounter, we have also been put into the firing line, actually resulting in the decommissioning of a Runner Carrier. Now we are in a state that you see before you, our ships aiding the Order, AI and Phoenix forces as best we can, but under constant attack from the Alliance... I tried to convince them to leave it, i couldn't bear to lose family, but they did not take my warnings... Now i turn to you, my guardian angel, our saviour of life, to save us, from the Alliance, and ourselves.
he finishes the whisky, placing the glass on the table, before turning away from the camera, a tear glinting as it falls from his cheek
Your brother can only help so much, Miss Fenrir-Golanska, but i feel you may be our last hope, our last shred to cling onto... I leave it to you now, you must make the move on the alliance, try to convince the Runners to get out when the Alliance arrive. They won't understand at first, no-one of them will, but we will be ever thankful, you name shall be revealed as our saviour, our hope, in such beautiful form. I will make sure your name is known to all the runners, the true protector of us all, Kate Fenrir-Golanska, Battle Maiden, Saviour, The true form of Hope, a protector of humanity... And, if you do not object, a friend..
he turns back, his eyes glinting from just finished crying. He closes his eyes, nodding his respect, before turning off the camera
Before even actual talk has started, they were suddenly buried in some kind of bureaocratic bullcrap, extended into infinity to match requirements of increasing needs of bureaocracy. Their new leader have been replaced by his wife who appears to be even more ignorant about events that happen around her. Stupid and naive girl.
Anyway, I do not like either that my former neighbourhood turned into such a mess recently so I will watch over this situation. Hoped I would have actual news or their intentions while contacting you but their delays make it impossible.