- I am afraid that there are two problems, Admiral. First of all, our logistical, technological and tactical support for the Battlegroup Harmony is a visible drain on our resources. As I have explained previously The Lane Hackers have only three domestic enemies: Liberty forces, bounty hunters and The Hellfire Legion. The first you will combat regardless of all circumstances, while the second will hunt you regardless of your intentions. If you are not fighting the Legion, from a cold tactical perspective we gain almost nothing by maintaining a costly alliance with you.
Adrian Malprave paused and took a while looking around to make sure that he caught everybody's attention before getting to a core point.
- Though what is much more important is that, unlike most of our allies, you are a domestic combatant within Liberty. It is impossible for you to remain allied to both The Lane Hackers and The Hellfire Legion. At the same time the Professorship believes that further improvement of your relations with The Legion is of a very high probability. A scenario of The Battlegroup Harmony joining forces with them against us in future is not completely unlikely, especially if we consider that you so conveniently forgot to inform us of your sudden dealings with the Legion.
The envoy looked in the Admiral's eyes for a brief moment before switching to a softer and more conciliatory tone.
- Our command understands that you are still in a vulnerable position and looking for additional enemies is low on your priority list. Should you have come to the Professorship first, I am sure this meeting would have not taken place and a right strategy would have been worked out. Please forgive me, but your lack of transparency concerning the Hellfire Legion has shown lack of respect and trust to us as your allies. This is something we did not expect after the support we have given you on numerous occasions during last year.
Malprave once again paused before finally revealing true purpose of his visit.
For these reasons the Professorship has prepared three alternative scenarios of furthering our mutual relations depending on your preference:
- strengthening our alliance by tightening integration of our forces,
- dissolution of our alliance through amicable agreement,
- dissolution of our alliance through retaliatory measures in case of failure to reach a compromise.
I was given sufficient prerogatives to preliminarily negotiate first and second option. For obvious reasons I am not at liberty to discuss details of the last one.
Admiral Knight just realized what had bothered her in Malprave. In one sentence he spoke of an alliance and a war like it was an irrelevant choice between chocolate and vanilla ice-creams. She was almost sure that it was not a Hacker's intention to offend or threaten her but simply present all logical options to the best of his abilities. But the way he presented it felt completely inhuman.
