Eavesdroppers: Tomoe

[Harcourt Fenton Mudd]

*Tomoe is visibly not currently onboard Bethlehem station, the stars moving behind her make that clear. The fruit trees and grass all around her, and the lattice of the greenhouse dome, give scale to the enormity of the vessel she must be on*

Well, believe it or not we agree more than we disagree.

But we do disagree on some things.

For your first demand, cutting attempts at diplomacy with liberty:

No.
There are too many civilians on Bethlehem, and the best weapon in my arsenal to keep them safe is to try to communicate and let Liberty ignore me.

It makes them feel safer, and keeps the people on Bethlehem safer.

Doing whatever might help to keep our civilians out of harms way has to come first.

And in the unlikely event they respond, don't worry I know far better than to trust them.

David Hale may not be in command of their Navy anymore, but it is still his best of vipers.

Furthermore, to preface your next point, diplomatic talks with outside parties will be made much easier if we can show a good faith effort had been made repeatedly for some time.

Now, onto your second point:
And good news, this one was already in progress.

I have allready started putting feelers out getting to know Bristol, I have just been going slow because I do not trust corporations.

However, I also suspect they see a Zoner Pennsylvania as a more permissive environment to do business, which is not inaccurate, especially if they are our friends, and indeed Bristol has helped in the past with many of Bethlehems upgrades from before I returned.

I intend to continue this contact and expand upon it, and while their influence may be limited compared to that of a house corporation, the fact that they operate on the borders of multiple houses means if we can get them to start talking, Liberty could start facing pressure from other houses eager for an excuse to give them grief.

Fear of such backlash is a big part of what has kept Bethlehem safe so far.

I do not currently have comms with junkers in Liberty, nor am I current in their politics, is the junkers Congress still a thing even ?

Either way, if you can put me in contact with them it would be appreciated.
Just do it quietly, we want Liberty to have as little forewarning as possible we are gathering allies...

I do not know of the technocracy except that it exists, they were not a thing when I left on my last survey mission, and what little I have heard has been at best mixed.

Better to hold on this one until more can be learned, that said if you allready have friends amongst their number who can provide you aid don't let me dissuade you.

And as for the Xenos, they have actually reached out to me recently, and I was weighing how to respond, so I am glad you contacted me.

Since your forces seem to be more suited to handle the military side of things currently, it might be better if you were to contact them instead of Bethlehem.

Plus this way of LSF did notice the cooperation, it would give Bethlehem plausible deniability, which gives Liberty less reason to go after making Bethlehem a scapegoat.

At the very least, see if they'll grant you docking rights
I would also suggest you try reaching out to Phoenix in a friendly manner on occasion and see if you can recruit any of their pilots or personnel, and stay friendly even if they say no, eventually your bound to get some of them to come help .

Now your third point;
I'm not going to publicly antagonize Liberty.

I want to.... ohhhhh do I want to.
But if I do that, I paint a target on Bethlehem station.
No, I shall hold off doing that.
Instead, I shall continue to plan ways to evacuate the stations population and get it to safety if the worst happens.

As for your fourth point:

No.
I am more than happy to collaborate with you on ideas to free Erie, but I will not cave in to threats.

Look up the old Zoner Alliance and ZDF archives for how well that worked out for the Bretonian Armed Forces in Omega 3 back in 818 *Tomoe whispers* 'It didn't '

Now if you wish to station a go-between on board, that would be best, because even if we dislike one another we still want the same thing.

Now, to circle back to Bristol....

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS SHIT ?

LPI has just recently started harassing random vessels leaving Bethlehem since we last spoke.

This may be a good time to thin the herd, just avoid Bethlehem during whatever you do about this, it's not that we don't support you, but Bethlehem needs plausible deniability.

It also needs a plan to evacuate the population should an attack occur, but that is also being worked on.

Now, logistics, I can always task one of my ships to make a bulk shipment to that hidden base you have in the rocks, my exploration flotilla does include multiple logistics vessels after all if you get me a list of what you need, Akbat produces some mighty fine equipment.

The good news is I have secured a border worlds staging ground, and once it gets developed further, its use as a staging ground should do much for keeping you supplied.


Oh, and one last note, publicly we need to remain fueding, just tone down the rhetoric, we want Liberty to see us as fragmented enough to ignore Bethlehem for as long there more active threats to deal with, but not incite someone to do something stupid that gets a bunch of people killed or vents a section of the station.


Oh and before I forget let me patch you in to the comms with the Xenos. I will let you decide if you wish to deal with the LPI checkpoints first, or wait for Xeno backup.