Corsair Benitez family

[Carlos_Benitez]

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An ancient family of the Corsairs, our ancestors where among those who traveled to this sector from Sol on the Hispania. We have come to defend our home. Our aim is the advancement of the Corsair Nation and expansion of the empire. Our concerns are the prosperity of the Corsair people, and our business; piracy, smuggling and conquest.

Benitez Family Overview, Who are the Benitez?
[color=yellow]The Corsairs Benitez family are a group of players devoted to Roleplay on Freelancer. Taking on the role of a Corsair crime family acting on behalf of the Council of Elders on Crete, the Benitez family's main role is as a pirate faction, taxing Corsair patrolled space, for their own advancement, and the advancement of the Corsair civilization as a whole.
Today, the Benitez command one of the most significant forces in the edge worlds, and due to procreative restrictions to allow Crete's populus to remain sustainable, the majority of Benitez agents around today are adopted into the familia shortly after they complete their basic pilot training. Despite this, members of the original Benitez lineage still exist within the organisation.

When a player is brought into the Corsair Benitez family they are welcomed by our hermanos (brothers) and hermanas (sisters) as full and equal members of our family.
They are treated with respect and courtesy no matter what their history might have been. Once they become Benitez they are honored members of the family, and so long as they act according to the Corsair code of honour they will remain Benitez as long as they wish.

The Benitez family are governed by a Council of Elders made up of highly decorated and respected agents. The views of the Council are presented, more often than not, by the patriarch of the familia, who holds the title of "Commandante" of Benitez forces and occasionally referred to as "Don".

Benitez fly Corsair ships, and carry Corsair IDs.

A Benitez is expected to be brave and honourable. Unafraid to die, Benitez pilots are expected to complete the right-of-passage that takes them to the Nomad Jumphole to look upon the face of death. Doing so musters within the pilot's sole a sense of unmeasurable courage that is often named as the key the Corsairs' exemplary dogfighting skills.

Benitez are one of the most respected families in Corsair society. Above all, a Benitez must never dishonour his family through disrespect or cowardice. A Benitez holds his family, and his honour higher than all else.

All Benitez are expected to follow and understand a strict code of honour.

Code of Honour

• As Corsairs we try to follow four virtues: honor, respect, loyalty and bravery. You represent the Corsair family, and your representation of us better be one of honor.
  
  
  
• A Corsair will exhibit honor and respect to the Admins of Discovery. He will respect all laws, both server and within the family, and he will accept the consequences for violation of those laws.
  
  
  
• A Corsair will obey all orders given to him by a higher ranking member. He will accomplish all tasks to the best of his ability.
  
  
  
• A Corsair will always give his opponent a fair chance. He will never dockrape. He will pirate and tax, but in an honourable way that is worthy of our proud family . He will defend himself at all cost from any and all offenders.
  
  
  
• A Corsair will never backlash at or insult another player of Discovery. He will not respond to threats or provoking messages from other players. He will exhibit maturity and honor.
  
  
  
• A Corsair will remain in character while on the server, and will perform within the role of a Corsair to the best of his ablilty. A Corsair will carry a Corsair ID, and will play within the guidelines set upon it. Weak insults, specificly RP are allowed, but must specify be used towards the faction and not the player. Eg. "Outcast scum (rp)"
  RP in brackets can be used to clear up any confusion. (Im assured that this kind of RP is acceptable to the Admins.)
  
  
  
• Anglo-Spanish hybrid is encouraged in both forum posts and in-game; using phrases such as "Hola" "Adios" "si" "bueno" "senor" "Buenos dias/noches" "hermano" "hermana" "familia" "Viva los Corsairs" "Vamos", but it is preferred that use of Spanish is restricted to phrases non-Spanish speakers will recognise.
  
  
  
• A Corsair will not use RP insults to disguise blatant flaming, and will not use such communication in a volatile situation, or in the aftermath of a serious argument or battle.
  
  
  
• A Corsair will exhibit honour.
  
  
  
• A Corsair will show respect to others.
  
  
  
• A Corsair will commit his loyalty to the family.
  

Severe violation of the Code-Of-Honor will be met by trial by the Council of Benitez Elders, and possibly suspension or excommunication from the family.

Our family has a structure designed to maximise efficiency, and emphasise each of our hermano's value to the clan. As soon as a Corsair-to-be is accepted into our family, he deserves respect from his familia, and equality with his hermanos.
Family Structure

Whilst ranks do exist to allow for efficiency and clarity of the leadership system for outsiders to view, our hermanos are familia first, colleagues second, and not subordinates.

Family History

The Hispania

The Story of the Corsairs began on the Sleeper ship, the Hispania.
Sabotaged by one of the passengers, 4 out of the ship's 6 engines where almost completely destroyed.

Automatically, the Sleeper Ship's inhabitants where woken from their stasis. Panic took over. Arguments arose, and suspicion between the passengers was rife. The identity of the saboutager remained a mystery.
Managing to obtain order, our ancestor, Santigo Miguel Alvarez (the first) managed to obtain order persuaded the rest of the passengers that it would be best to return to stasis and wait for the Ship to find its way to some kind of suitable planet.

A shudder, and the passengers awoke. The ship had detected planets. Looking out of the windows, 3 where visible. One, an ice moon, the other lacking any real atmosphere was instantly rejected by the ship's computer due to high radiation levels. One remained, a desolate world of Mountain peaks and fields of ash. The ship did it's scans. The people waited. Then the report came;

"Atmosphere can support life." The passengers breathed a sigh of relief as the computer continued it's report. "Planet lacks enough arable land to support a population this size. Hazards include dust storms and volcanic activity."......they waited..."Planet deemed unsuitable for colonisation."
Mayhem broke out once again.
Should they land and try to begin a settlement there, or should they move on? Some argued that they may not come across another inhabitable planet, others argued that they would starve if they landed on the one they had found.
Unable to calm the passengers, Santigo-Miguel Alvarez engaged the engines of the Hispania. The engines shuddered, and the computer cut in, stopping the ship. "Warning, fuel level critical. Current fuel reserves will only be enough to provide 1 short burn".
The news caused many arguing passengers to change their views on landing.
No consensus was reached, and eventually around half of the group made for the escape pods. The rest remained on the ship. Many of the Alvarez family chose to leave. Santigo-Miguel stayed with his vessel.
The pods fell towards the planet, through its atmosphere, crash-landing on an ash field on the planet's southern hemisphere.
Those who remained on the ship decided that they would burn the remaining fuel, and use the momentum to drift to another system.
In the dark sky of the planet, a bright light sped through the heavens, before fading, and going out, as a faint outline of a huge object drifted out of sight.


Planet Crete

Over the next fifty years, the settlers battled with famine, and over half died out. Their children continued to farm the little arable land on the planet they had named "Crete" but marooned on such a desolate and bleak planet, the suffering continued for many generations. The settlers became resentful and jealous of those who had remained on the ship. They began to believe that perhaps even death in empty space would be preferable to the purgatory of Planet Crete.

This attitude caused many changes within the settlers. As the family of the "drifters" leader Santigo-Miguel Alvarez, the Alvarez "settlers" where persecuted, even accused of being the ones who sabotaged the Hispania in the first place. The Alvarez settlers changed their name, and became the honorable family Benitez.

Lacking the resources to build ships, the settlers became resigned to the fact they may be stranded on the hell of Crete forever, but eventually, after 400 years, something came that changed their fate forever.


Franz Schulman

Financed by the Rheinland Government and Daumann, the explorer Franz Schulman was dispatched to the great unexplored expanse of the Walker Nebula. His exploration ship eventually stumbled across a bleak planet of ash and mountains. To his surprise, his scanner picked up life.

His landing party was met by a group of apparently savage humans. All of them where killed, except for Schulman himself. The settlers had, sensing an opportunity to break out of their ashen prison, attacked the party and taken Schulman hostage.

Bargaining took place over Schulman's communicator, and a the settlers negotiated their way on board the exploration vessel. Using hidden weapons, they took the remainder of the exploration team by surprise, and took over the ship. They left no survivors, and after Schulman was tortured and revealed the details of how to fly the ship, he was also killed.

The settlers used the ship to explore the surrounding systems, and to bring back supplies to the people trapped on Crete. Eventually, enough metal was obtained to build more ships, in a similar style, and they began to mine fields of resources in the system, bringing back their loot and taking it to Crete.

Eventually, they stumbled across a mysterious jump hole in their system. The ship was attacked by strange creatures, but the settlers managed to fight them off. They obtained strange objects...alien objects.

It was around this time they discovered a space station in a neighboring system, belonging to a group of traders calling themselves "Zoners". The relationship between the Zoners and Settlers of Crete thrived, and trade lead to living conditions on Crete improving dramatically.

The Zoners had food to trade, and soon the Settlers had enough food to sustain a larger population.

Through their involvement in the Schulman incident, our Benitez ancestors where among the first to benefit from the use of his ship, and subsequent exodus of the settlers out into space. Due to this, the Benitez quickly gained significant military and economic power.

The Outcasts and Corsairs

The settler ships explored further, and eventually came across another group of humans...speaking in Spanish accents. The settlers destroyed the ships they found, resentful of the drifters for leaving them to suffer for 400 years.
The drifters had a new name now though, they called themselves "The Outcasts".

The Settler's expanded further, eventually constructing a space station of their own, Tripoli. Exploration teams came back with more alien artefacts, and it became a right of passage for a young pilot to venture towards the mysterious alien jump hole and bring back an Artefact.

The Settler's then stumbled across something else...a huge civilisation, with hundreds of ships, settled planetary paradises (in comparison to Crete) and lanes linking all their many outposts. Their noisy comm chat revealed they where the people of the sleeper ship Bretonia.

The settlers began hostile actions against these Bretonians, raiding their ships and taking their cargo for the benefit of the people of Crete and Tripoli.
50 years after Schulman's hijack, the settlers had earned a new identity; the Corsairs.

An Empire

Inspired by the wonders they had seen, the Corsairs became determined to live like the Bretonian's, and the Rheinlander's that where discovered soon after. Not just like them, they wanted more.

The Corsairs ploughed their resources into ship research and manufacture, as well as constructing more stations across the desolate Omega systems. Their ships became the scourge of all traders in Bretonia and Rheinland alike, and soon Hunters from Liberty found their way into Corsair space, after pirate blood. They were no match for Corsair technology, and never provided more than a minor nuisance to the growing Corsair civilisation. An Empire of Crime began to form.

As the Benitez developed into one of the most significant crime families within the Corsair Empire, a democratic leadership was formed. Separate from the Senate of representatives that ruled Crete, the Benitez set up their own assembly to co-ordinate the efforts of the family of crime, ruled democratically by representatives of the highest level of respect within the familia, and presided over by the respected leader of the familia; a patriarchal commandante sworn to serve the welfare and interests of his familia above all else. Thus, the Benitez Council of Elders was formed.

The Creatures of the jump hole infiltrated the house systems, but it mattered not to the Corsairs. The Houses nearly destroyed each other, but the Corsairs didn't care, after all, did they ever go to find the lost people of Hispania? Did they send out search parties to rescue the people of Crete from the suffering and torment? No. After 100 years living by the Alien jump hole, the Corsairs knew how to deal with the creatures. They would simply wait for the Houses to be destroyed, then move in and create a Corsair Empire. It was not to be.


The Order

A group of men and women from Liberty arrived on Crete with a proposition for the Corsairs. They where a secret group formed to fight the alien infiltrators. They offered Liberty Battleship technology. The Corsairs had never built anything bigger than a gunboat before then. In exchange, the group who called themselves the "Order" wanted the Corsairs to design a Battleship with the finesse and skill only Corsair ship builders had, and use it to hold back the nomad infiltration of Sirius.

After many months of work at Tripoli, Osiris class battleships rolled out of the spacedocks of Tripoli. The Order, satisfied with the effort, returned through the nomad jumphole and where not heard from again for some time. Meanwhile, Corsair engineers, thanks to the technology given by the Order, designed new classes of ships inspired by Corsair art and engineering.

News came from the colonies a year later that the aliens had been driven out. The Corsairs didn't care, they where content to continue their piracy under their Benitez leader, and perhaps one day move against the Outcasts traitors, Liberty and Bretonian deserters and Rheinland scum, and build the Corsair empire across the stars.

An envoy from the Order returned years later, this time with a proposal for an alliance. The Council of Elders agreed, and pledged the power of new Corsair fleets to assist the Order in holding back the Nomad scourge and preventing further incursion.

Today the might of the Corsair military forces is greater than ever before. We are poised for invasion of the territories of those who deserted us. The time of the Corsairs has come.

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[Carlos_Benitez]

Joining the Benitez Family

The Benitez family offer;

• Fully funded Titan or Praetorian Bomber profile, along with any number of extra ships (only suitable types) funded privately.
  
• The opportunity to roleplay in a team of Corsair pilots, defending our home of Crete from invading undesirables.
  
• Access to shared ships managed by the familia.
  
• The opportunity to fly legendary ships such as the Battleship Talos, when the rank of "Elder" is achieved.
  
• A chance to be a member of an RP clan dedicated to fair play and management by democratic discussion.
  

The Benitez expect;

• All members follow the Code of Honor.
  
• All members follow other directives set on the forums.
  
• All members should use the forums regularly, to keep intouch with their family.
  
• All members should obey server laws.
  

To sign up, visit our forums and post an application in the appropreate forum.

Viva los Corsairs.

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[Enrico_B]

[color=#FF0000]VIVA DON CARLOS

[color=#FFFF00]VIVA LOS BENITZ

[color=#FFFFFF]VIVA LOS CORSAIRS

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<span style="color:red">Viva los Corsairs</span> <span style="color:blue">viva Los Benitez</span> Viva Don Carlos

[12:28 PM] Aaron: ENRICO YOU GENIUS

[Ximen_Benitez]

Viva Los Corsairs!

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[Carlos_Benitez]

Joining the Benitez Familia

Corsairs wishing to be adopted into the Benitez Familia should send an application to the Benitez Headquarters at Myrtos Villa, Planet Crete after completing a basic pilot training course.
New recruits will be dispatched immediately to Planet Manhattan, where they will be made intimately familiar with the Benitez Artifact Trade by our operatives in New York.
After making a small ammout of profit dealing in artifacts for afew weeks, recruits will purchase a basic Starflier and make their way to Bretonia.
After successfully reaching the New London system, new Benitez will rendezvous with Benitez operatives on the Junker Base "Trafalgar" where they will be provided funds to purchase M3 Class "Legionnaire" Light Fighters and suitable weaponry. Young hermanos will be given contact details for a number of different Corsair and Gaian operatives on Trafalgar and in Edinburgh, and will work for these operatives until such a time as they are recognised as Elite Corsair Pilots by local forces, at which point they will have earned the respect of the Corsair nation for their work in Bretonia.
During this trial period, new Benitez will be assessed on their skill and more importantly their conduct. ((roleplay skills in particular)).
After completing their time of work experience in Bretonia, young Benitez pilots will be instructed to proceed to Omecron Gamma where they will be kitted out with Elite M10 Class "Titan" Very Heavy Fighters and the best equipment Corsair credits can buy, ready to serve the nation and the fly with our familia.
At this point, new Benitez will be wholeheartedly welcomed into the familia, and enjoy the respect and privileges therein.


To encourage roleplay in Bretonia, and to encourage the RP representation of Corsairs in House space, this new policy for recruits will take effect immediately.
Senior members of our familia (inlcuding myself) have done this challenge in our own time to ensure that is possible, and so as not to appear hypocritical.
The harder one works for something, the more one values it, and therefore the familia believe that this new challenge for young recruits will be beneficial to the familia, the Corsair nation, the server and not least the recruits themselves.

To summarize, OORP;

• Those wanting to join will be asked to post an application on our forums.
  
  
• Once accepted, recruits will be aksed to make their characters, and in their Starflier start-ships, proceed to Trafalgar in New London.
  
  
• Recruits will be provided money and guns to allow them to obtain fully armed Legionnaire Light Fighters.
  
  
• Recruits will then be challenged to do missions and etc. to forge a Corsair reputation, with a Corsair IFF (tag before their name). ie. they will be asked to attempt to gain maximum-green reputation with the Corsairs.
  
  
• After completing this challenge, recruits will be asked to proceed to Gamma where they will be given their Titans.
  

[color=skyblue]
Please note...during their time in Bretonia, Benitez recruits in their Legionnairs will be low level, with Civillan IDs and therefore NOT elligable for PVP combat.

This challenge is not to be taken lightly, and flying around in Bretonia in a Legionnaire is no easy undertaking. Bretonian police and military, Junker CSVs, Molly Wolfhounds can all outgun a Legionaire, and a recruit must show skill, tactic and cunning if he is to survive in the harsh and unforgiving world of the Corsair front-line in Bretonia. Do you have what it takes?

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