This is incredible news! I'll be down as soon as I've informed the Senate. They're going to want a full report, of course, but let's focus on taking care of our people first. Get me the cliff notes version at your convenience, and I'll make sure the other Senators give you some space to focus on what's important.
OTS Another Won has priority clearance with Aquila's engineers, alongside OTS Fallen Leaves. Get it inspected and get your civ identity ready, we're off to Leeds.
The Resistance is rising up, and we're going to assist.
There have been a lot of rumours going around amongst the civilian populace that the IMG's relationship with Gallia is more than a simple alliance of convenience. The word on the street is that the IMG is now fully aligned with Gallia and has been cooperating with GRN forces in the Taus as well as Bretonia. While I am willing to look the other way if the IMG's just defending their remaining bases in Bretonia, active collaboration in the Taus would make this horse a different colour.
The frustrating thing about rumours, however, is they tend to come short on proof to back them up. I'm not about to ask the Senate to authorise an expansion of the war without solid proof. I would like the OIC to look into this matter and, if you can, prove or disprove these rumours.
Consul Riley, you have One new message. Security protocols require biometric verification.
Riley,
What I'm about to tell you is an intelligence matter of extreme security. While I don't believe there's a formal process for this, I'm told that the favored handling of a non-permitted disclosure of this information involves an airlock, and does not involve an EVA suit. You understand, yes?
IMG's trying to play both sides, likely in a bid to preserve what independence they have left. I don't forsee it going well for them, but for the moment we can use this information.
At the moment, what I can disclose is limited in order to protect my sources, but I can confirm that they are supporting friends of Natio Octavarium that Gallia very much disapproves of. Further commentary would either be speculative or a threat to my contact.
That is interesting indeed. I'll table any further discussion of the Miners Guild until we see how things develop. If we can possibly work it to our advantage without starting another shooting war, that would be preferable. Carry on, and keep me informed.
One other thing, Taskmaster. I know that the Commission gets off on keeping everyone in fear, but I'm not interested in playing that game. The Commission answers to the Government. The Government, at least until the next election, answers to me. Keep that in mind next time you consider making threats. If you ever threaten me again, make sure you're willing to carry it out, because it will be the last thing you ever do as Taskmaster.
I take the my work very seriously, and have no desire to serve a leader that cannot be trusted with classified information. There are numerous examples throughout history of why such a leader is a problem. You don't want the Commission to have to keep the civilian government out of the loop about everything, do you? Down that path lies nothing good.
So when I make such a statement, I'm always ready to carry it out. Hopefully your concern for the well-being of Natio Octavarium outweighs your pride and I'll never be forced to.
My attempts to source cruiser blueprints have been unsuccessful. An offer has been floated to sell us additional Hel-class cruisers, but that still runs into the same logistics issues that Black Cloud II has.
We know the Houses won't part with their blueprints, Crayter didn't share Hydra plans so I rather doubt they'll share Thanatos blueprints, and we can comfortably write off the Storta and Fearless.
There are, of course, other options.
How hard would it be to convince Bretonia to allow us purchase of some of the wrecks from the invasion? I don't much care if we get Crecy, Storta, Triumph, or Penance wrecks, but if we can get enough samples to work with, Aquila should be able to reverse-engineer enough to accelerate their own design work.
While a corvette would be an easier project, I'm less concerned with our corvettes as several effective models are available on the open market already, and sourcing Montante, Condor, or even Ahoudori blueprints should be little trouble. And we need something heavier than a corvette as a successor to Metropolis
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