The Pecos Meeting

[Ca'h'veh]

Aggregator reports fringe extractor interlopers ready to aggress against all other interlopers in area. Possible new vector?

Jasper feels almost naked without her Mykolaiv surplus power armour, instead in a recently panic-cleaned set of casual attire (thick off-brand jacket, aping a design all the rage on Manhattan three years ago), but this is a small concern. Her nervousness stems from possibly having to report the Tunja's failures in its expedition, but with the everyone else focused on the latest outrages by literally everyone else, she expects there is almost no way she will be in the hot seat this meeting. Some hot-blooded Malta-adjacent Kusari woman is suggesting the Guild start playing hardball with Crayter. Jasper hears herself speaking up, in spite of herself not wanting heat. "If I could weigh in, Guildmistress Akibara is right. We're getting pushed around like we're an isolated Zoner community, especially by people who would call us friend. It's outrageous. We can't do it alone, however." Jasper has to remember to breathe. "We could see about reaching out to The Technocracy, I believe they already permit some of our explorer ships in the area." Jasper raises her index finger, proposing an alternative, though her expression belies her sincerity. "Or we could get pressure off Falkland and cut some kind of deal with Malta, we can quietly take their poison and choke those Liberty pricks with it. We could also re-tool our miners to move Liberty and Kusari goods through the Taus around the embargoes, and command a premium, if operations elsewhere are getting untenable." Terrible, short-sighted, money-grubbing ideas, clearly only suggested to be publicly kiboshed. She ignores the boos and dodges a thrown lowball glass and continues. "Our good word and our reputation have not mattered one bit to the imperialists sitting in unearned luxury off the backs of the labour of their exploited. We are giving up so much opportunity by fairly dealing with these people, as they slap our face and call us friend. I ask you, why?""Because it's who we are". Aggregator's echo of its shell's brain burned with pride even as it thought the words, unbidden.