To: Order Overwatch

[Étendard Noir]

Michal Golanski;

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From our distant perspective, these "Slomon K'Hara" never have seemed like more than a barely-defined spectre, a vague threat that haunts regions faraway.
We have seen them rarely, never in force, just individuals that find their way into the Taus, floating around like blue lanterns.

I will take your apparent expertise seriously, and naturally the enslavement of humanity you suggest they aim to achieve is antithetical to our foundation to the highest degree. So, this much we can certainly find agreement upon.

As for us, it will be difficult to describe the state of the Maquis at this time. Of course the movement was founded to take violent action against the Kingdom, but the end of the war caused something of an identity crisis. There was a general agreement that the newly-founded Confederacy was a betrayal of what we had fought for, a weak-willed compromise barely touching the status quo, but disagreements about how to actually act upon this have fractured the movement.

However, this presented less of an issue for the Étendard: Those among the Maquis, the fringes of Gallic society in general, and sometimes from the outside who have become wholly disillusioned with all structure and organization are the ones that have formed the Étendard. For some of us, it was the realization that although we had always known that the Kingdom was an oppressive system of governance, the breakthrough of the minefield and the opening to Sirius revealed that the other grand nations are no better than feudal empires and deeply flawed oligarchies themselves.

Those who have found themselves among our ranks thus follow one clear ideology: All hierarchy must be shattered. Any organized structure must be dismantled. The only way to pursue a free and just life is in direct interaction with those immediately involved in our affairs; to have no one above who commands and no one below who is ordered.
The way we seek to effect our vision is to attack every organization: All military and corporate entities, every station, ship or individual tied up in the greater hierarchy is a target to us. Though it is admittedly naive, it is our intent to attack these structures until something breaks.
This is why prior to the end of the Bretonian war, it is there that we spent most of our efforts, as the Bretonian Kingdom seemed most liable to collapse and rebirth into a free anarchic society.
With that phase over, we must now seek new targets to break. While the Confederacy is the most natural, as it is the home of most of our members, there are those who believe we must look further abroad to find the weakest link - such as the civil-war ravaged house of Rheinland.

I hope this makes our diplomatic situation somewhat more clear, if you can call it that. The Maquis have long held ties with the Gallic Brigands, who follow some of our ideals - though not nearly all. Still, we maintain some level of relations with them. And we have great respect for the Zoner movement, who seek a more peaceful way to achieve an independent existence. But aside from them, any organized entity that employs hierarchy is considered hostile to our ideals.

This I'm sure is not an easy stance to work with, but our convictions are what brought us together. The only way one can pursue such a suicidal struggle is through complete absence of compromise, or we would become like the former Council, servants once more.

-Étienne