Quote:Ares strode to Pedro Maniaco's table, his fury permeating throughout the bar.
He sat down with a slam and a sharp exhale. He was obviously taking great pains to control himself.
"Hello, brother... I need to talk...please... just listen for a while..."
He grimaced then continued...
.
.
.
However, I can only take so much, so please be understanding if my vengeance spills over and strikes at them with unfettered fury..."
A wirey thin old man walks into the bar. and looks around with his tired eyes. Takes a deep sigh and sits down. Looks at blunt and nods his head to acknowledge him, " Ola mi amigo, I need to speak to you"
he clears his throat and continues...
" You may not recognize me Hermano, but I understand your issue with the Benitez clan, better than you would ever imagine. I am very disappointed at the conduct of some of them. A few have been punished. And those who just did not show enough maturity to fly in space with their brothers, have been grounded for good. As I am not the Don, unfortunately, thus I can not speak for the clan. But the SCRA has MY personal sincerest apology on this incident. Pending investigation, I may just hang up my wings as well because I have grown old and dont want to associate the twillight of my carrier with this tarnishment.
I do ponder however as to what happened to us, The clans were supposed to become closer. A single, multi tiered unit where a brother from one faction could call upon another without even thinking about it. All I can say SCRA is if Benitez are being casted out. Atleast try to stay true, strong and close to TBH, through thick and thin. Because, at the end of the day all I wanted to do was to see my brothers enjoy success."
The next drinks are on me for the whole bar. The thin old man nods his head at the elders of TBH and SCRA and walks out.
Pedro Carefully listened to Ares' rightful complaints. His shiny metal hand was nervously knocking the table, leaving deep holes on the table's surface.
"Ares, my old friend. Not that I approve every act of the Benitez family but I have to say this. You have seen what happens in the 'battlezone' Gamma every day now. Frequent raids of enemy ships, and not only fighters, but also capital ships, and large in numbers. And brothers from both Benitez family and Omega Pirate Guild have been a great help in defence of Crete. You are a corsair, and you know that most (especially younger) brothers are rash and hot-headed. They tend to attack everything they don't know. Normally they would be dealt with swiftly but right now we really need every hand capable of piloting the Titan. We lost too many skilled pilots."
Ares didn't look very convinced: "Pedro, I am not only talking about the younger ones only. They for sure need guidance and good examples from their Elders and Dons. I am sure that Elders of the Brotherhood do their best, but I am not so sure I can say the same about Dons of the Benitez clan".
Perdo nodded: "Okay, Ares, let me speek to Don Carlos and the leaders of OPG and I'll try to convince them to try to treat the friends of the Brotherhood better than they do now. Just understand that we need both Benitez and OPG in our corsair alliance - and please understand the term 'alliance' correctly".
Pedro was interrupted by a thin incoming brother from the Benitez family. They both with Ares listened to his reasonable speach and Ares' face was slowly becoming relaxed.
After he left, Pedro continued: "See? They are not so evil as you and Ivan think. Let me just try to use some of my diplomatic skills and everything is going to be all right, you'll see."
Pedro looked to the dark corner and saw brother Spacewolf knocking one snifter by one as if drinking lemonade.
"Hey, Spacewolf, join us we need your brilliant sense of humour, there are some sad faces at this table that need to chill out!", and he smiled back at Ares. After Spacewolf joined them Pedro continued. He was very talkative that evening.
"Guys, let me start with the fist joke. You probably won't believe me this but yesterday I was contacted by certain officer Blair from MPD. He told me that I broke several NovaPG laws and therefore I am going to be arrested. He said they are coming for me. I adviced him to bring a body sack for him if he dares to enter Omicron Gamma, and he said he would bring it, but for me only if I resist too much when they arrest me...".
Both Ares and Spacewolf, as well as some brothers sitting at the nearby tables started to scream with laughter.
"Yeah, let them come", brother Spacewolf said, "we'll pack them in cans, mark them as pork, and send them back home by RepEx."
The Boozer's lounge never experienced such a noise before...
Ares was again standing on the bar, dancing with half of the ladies in the bar, celebrating his latest honour.
He dextrously tossed Pedro Maniaco, at the other side of the bar, an opened bottle of beer, which was caught without spilling a single drop.
He yells to the nearest Coalition-uniformed pilot, "Hey, Jovo, what did I tell you about Corsair hospitality, huh?!"
He continues drinking and dancing and eventually stops to speak to Maniaco.
"Hey, amigo, hermano, thanks for the honour. Truly. You'll always find me fighting to defend Crete, you can count on that! And hopefully this little medal will get all these upstarts to show a little respect, huh? Anyway, hurry up and get dancing... that lass there seems to like you!"
Before a reply could be issued, Ares was back to partying hard with every girl in sight...
Raul was sitting in the bar, slowly drinking his cold beer while watching the news, as he suddenly was interrupted by a loud noise from a dark corner in the bar, louder than ever. "Looks like they will sleep good tonight", Pedro Alonso, the barkeeper, said. Raul answered: "If they ever will sleep tonight, of course." Pedro noticed Raul and looked at him more precise, and shortly after he saw the cross of The Brotherhood sewed on his jacket he asked: "You are one of them, right?" - "One of who?" Raul asked. "One of The Brotherhood. ...Ahh, now it comes into my mind. You are Raul Diego Yanez, not very talkative, but always ready to defend the Corsairs' home, aren't you?" - "You got it." - "Maybe you should go to you other brothers, meet them personally, they are very friendly people." - "I will, Pedro, I will."
So he stood up and walked calmly to The Boozer's Lounge. "...So this is The Boozer's Lounge..." he thought. Raul couldn't see properly, beause the smell of alcohol and the clouds of smoke were taking his senses away. "...Even the atmosphere here makes me drunk..." he told himself. The smoke went away slowly, and he could see some people at a big table. He hardly could stand on his feet, but he tried to go to the people at the table.
"Raul! You finally found your way to the best place in the universe!" Pedro shouted and started to walk towards him. Obviously, his ability to walk straight was affected by the huge amount of tequillas he drank while competing with Spacewolf. He not only missed brother Raul Yanez, but he accidentally ended at the 'Ladies' and was promptly kicked off accompanied by loud scream. If he was Ares, he would never be treated in such manner, but unfortunately for him, he was Pedro Maniaco and had to get out and enter the correct door.
While trying not to miss (not very succesfully), he was thinking: "Where the hell is Montoya? He misses such a great party. He's probably frying his butt on some warm planet, while employing some pretty chicks' attention... Eh, what the hell, he'll be back in no time...".
After the 3rd attempt he succesfully zipped himself and returned to the turmoil...
The Wirey old man comes back this time he has a slight smile. He sits down and starts talking...
"Hello hermanos, Since I finally have the permission from the Don, I am finally able to tell you a little about myself. My name is Elder~Pepe_Benitez. I am now the official liason from the Benetez clan and will work with SCRA,OPG and TBH to improve the clan relations.
My first action is issuing a formal apology from the Benitez clan for the incident that took place. Benitez want to keep good relations with their brothers because frankly, you guys are family. The investigation about the incident singled out one hot headed benitez who became trigger happy and one Benitez who was just following orders from that trigger happy brother (as he was a junior officer). First benitez has been grounded for good, you will not see him as a benitez again. Second has been fined a hefty amount from his personal account and a last warning has been given to him.
I know that probably is not enough, but I feel that this is the first step Benitez needed to take, to close this wound that has opened up due to the idiotic actions of the Benitez. Also, I believe that this is the right thing to do.
SCRA or TBH may direct any questions or concerns to me and I will be happy to work with them in resolving any clan related issues that may arise in the future. I also woulld like to know who are my counter parts in SCRA and TBH so we can make sure the lines of communication stay open. Gentle from OPG is my buddy, he just doesnt know yet, so I am not worried about communication issues with the OPG.
I would like the TBH ( the oldest clan here) to take the lead and help us mend this sore. And, again let me know if there is any thing that can be done.
Viva Los Corsairz, astalivista hermanos es hermanas.
(ooc once I have some replies, I will post everything in the council of Benitez elders. our website is z11.invisionfree.com/Crete. I will request that a Elders of Brotherhood chamber be created where select elders from each clan can log in and voice their concerns. These posts will be closed to the Junior member of all these clans{including the Benitez juniors})
Edited Post: The "Council of Crete" Room has been created on our local server. Please advise what people should we expect as representatives so I can advise them of the room key combination.
"Ha Ha Ha Pedro take your drink like a man" Shouted Spacewolf at seeing Pedro stumbling. "I hope the Novas do something soon or else i wont be able to take off never mind dogfight in my ship."
Raul shook his head very hefty. "Sweet Conciousness, you're mine again!" he said. He sat down to the others at the table to listen and talk about what was going on lately. "Sadly, I have no news now, because I left a brief description about the only important thing in the message dump. People can learn better if he is sober. Anyway, I need something that lifts my tongue; Pedro! Give me 2 bottles of your finest tequila please! I'm giving you all one out." The barkeeper came after a few minutes with the ordered bottles. After everyone got a glass full of the stuff, Raul shouted: "Well then, for The Brotherhood and its allies!"
Ares looks at Elder Pepe with an unsure look on his face...
"This is a party, amigo! You aren't half as drunk as you should be... you should follow the example of Elder Maniaco, he knows how to party like a Corsair! He knows that now isn't time for business, unless that business involves one of these..."
He tosses an open bottle of beer towards Pepe, as he has been wont to do recently.
Hopefully Pepe Benitez is as quick as Pedro Maniaco at catching hurled beer bottles...