To: Mrs Lily Ward, Foreign Minister, CR || From: Bretonia

To: Mrs Lily Ward, Foreign Minister, CR || From: Bretonia - Printable Version

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To: Mrs Lily Ward, Foreign Minister, CR || From: Bretonia - The Kingdom of Bretonia - 04-24-2021

Kingdom of Bretonia - Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Her Grace The Duchess of London

Good day Mrs Ward,

I am glad to write to you again. How are you? How are your negotiations with Kusari going?

We have had a development in our own. Kusari has offered certain terms that I find less than ideal, but I will present them to you nonetheless, because it is my belief that they are worth bargaining.

Firstly, Kusari wants to sell you what still remains usable of your ship in Tau-29, the Helios. This is, at the first glance, unfair, but on the other hand, Tau-29 is their space, and my own country too claims all wrecks within our space as our property, and thus eligible to be sold at the price we determine. I can give no advice concerning this offer and it is entirely on you to decide whether it is fair or not.

Secondly, Kusari wants to scuttle Barra and build you a new, military grade station at your expense. They claim that Barra is in such a hopeless state that it is barely usable and in fact presents a lethal hazard to whoever works aboard or even passes nearby. I do not know if this is true, but I understand that they have motives to convince me to believe it, so I have attached their report to this letter and I must ask you what is your opinion about its veracity.

What may further incriminate this offer is that Kusari will be in charge of construction, while you will cover 90% of the cost. This gives Kusari too much liberty of budget and I must stress that, if you accept this offer, you must organise the construction together so that the expenses do not spiral out of control or so that quality does not suffer.

In addition, and what worries me most, is that Kusari would finish the basic structure of this military outpost, and then delay the final works on purpose, so that they do not have to transfer it to you and so that they can continue using this military base in our system themselves with this excuse. If you accept this offer, I advise that you demand that Crayter may keep a platoon of marines aboard the station to ensure proper adherence to the agreement by Kusari. Kusari's surprise tactics in their invasion of Gallia reminded me that they should not be trusted and I must warn you to keep this in mind.

Finally, I think that you have an open avenue for bargain with services if you lack the funds to finance these projects. Your navy can do something that both Kusari's and our own lack the power projection capabilities for at the moment. With the military base built, your patrols will be able to cover more of the Taus than any of Kusari's or ours, especially Tau-23 and especially against Outcasts. We also spoke about a possible joint embargo on Gallia with Kusari, but I am afraid we lack the power projection to fully enforce it. I think that you could gain points with Kusari if you offered to enforce this hypothetical embargo in their stead, provided that they build you a staging post.

I eagerly await your response. The Kusari report is in the attachment.

Extract Rep-Tokk-0562x

Lady Sarah Mountbatten
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary for Foreign & Colonial Affairs

BRETONIA SUPRA OMNES

NUNQUAM ITERUM

CARINA, REGINA, IMPERATRIX

RE: To: Mrs Lily Ward, Foreign Minister, CR || From: Bretonia - Crayter Republic - 04-25-2021

Lady Mountbatten,

I find it interesting that Kusari has maintained talks with Bretonia regarding this pact against Gallia, but has yet to formally answer our inquiry regarding the cessation of hostilies. I find it even more interesting Kusari is offering analyses of Barra to you, yet not to us, despite their illegal occupation of it. The offer of 'selling' us our people's own property is just the icing on top, and gives me the impression that they are not interested in dealing with the Republic, which is quite telling.

To be clear, the Republic is not interested in 'buying' back the wreck of the Helios, which is, again, sovereign Crayterian property. The Ministry of Defense, once deployments to the Taus are complete, has planned salvaging operations to retrieve the Helios and bring her back home. Should Kusari think to salvage the wreck themselves and violate Crayter's salvage rights, then Crayter would have no other option but to react accordingly.

As for Barra, a talk with the Minister of Defense can confirm some of the Naval Forces' findings, particularly the acts of sabotage. The Royal Navy, from whom the station was acquired during Operation Ice Lance, seemed adamant to make the station as infuriating to operate as possible, but that did not stop the Ministry from trying to remedy the issues through reworking of the systems aboard. The damage from Ice Lance is still mostly there as well, and Crayter was in the process of organizing an engineering operation to get the station back into proper shape at the time when the Hades' battlegroup was forced to withdraw. This is all verbatim from Minister Westbrook, mind you, though he has assured me that the Military is still very interested in reacquiring the station. I'm not sure what 'more strategical position' means to Kusari, but our analysts have affirmed time and again that the station's position within the exclusion zone of the Crossroads is quite valuable to the Republic, particularly now as a potential impound lot for any ships violating border customs coming from Gallia once this pact goes anywhere.

The issue I am sensing here is that Kusari remains unwilling to admit any fault of their own here, and would rather offer terms to the Republic through a medium rather than speak to us themselves about our own property. For a nation that prides itself on courage and honor, they seem to have very little of either when it comes to the negotiating table, but this is just a personal observation.

To put it short, no. Crayter will not accept either of these conditions, and though I thank you for bringing this to my attention, I would be much appreciative if you could remind Kusari of Crayter's attempts at contact, as I would prefer that details regarding Crayter property be discussed between Kusari and the Republic. Though my Ministry has attempted reminders since initial contact was made, they appear adamant to ignore it. Perhaps a Great House properly reminding them of it will get me the response I need to get this off the ground.
Thank you Lady Mountbatten, and should Kusari make any further updates regarding Crayter in your talks I would be most appreciative if you'd send them our way like you did here.

For those we left behind.

Lily Ward
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Crayter Republic