>: Crayter Republic

[Reeves]

☠ Incoming transmission.
☠ Signal source: Free Republic relay, Liberty
☠ Opening video feed...

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Sender: Alliance Commander "Cobra"
Recipient: Agent Vernier; Agent "S"
Subject: Bleaker Present

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While I appreciate everything your countrymen did to bail out the Atum, I think you made a glaring mistake by doing it so visibly - and without any room for plausible deniability. International politics is always about finding the easiest virtue to signal, which in this case means pretending that none of the other “Great” Houses sponsor terrorism.

I understand why you did it, and I can even respect it. It’s the first time I’ve seen your Republic exercise real agency - making a choice that aligns with neither of your so-called “friends” on either side of the border. But they’ll make you pay for it one way or another. That’s always how the story goes. And I’m personally sick of it.

Yes, alien activity spiked, coinciding with the giant beam I mentioned earlier. Now that the beam has “shut off” on our end, that activity has plummeted - as if it simply moved on, following the beam’s trajectory to your side of the fence. Despite this lull, however, there’s been a constant stream of unidentified ships raiding our territory with no discernible motive.

Certain benefactors tell me these scattered, utterly erratic agents of chaos are thralls - slaves to the creatures that shifted their focus elsewhere, but who still want to ensure we don’t recover from the recent battle too quickly.

It’s clear to me that both our Republics must survive if the Independent Worlds are to retain even a semblance of autonomy. The real danger is the ever-present threat of Great House hegemony - especially if they grow desperate enough to form alliances of convenience in pursuit of conquest. These arrangements never last; they always collapse under mutual distrust and the ambitions of men who dream of ruling everything. Still, I doubt any of us want to live under subjugation while they run their course.

I’m willing to do whatever it takes to avert that outcome. There will be a time and place for my successors to put on a civilized face and play the familiar games of intrigue and negotiation. But this era? With the cards we’ve been dealt? It’s do or die - and I intend to do.

You need to pressure the other powers before they can muster the collective political will for the next grand, sector-spanning scheme. Off the top of my head, there’s plenty your leadership could say about Erie - after all, those people quite literally had the sky stolen from them by an army of jackboots funded by oligarchs.

Before long, they’ll be deep in your affairs, telling you how to run the show - because Jericho is now a burning world that’s set space itself on fire. And we wouldn’t want our children to grow up and think we were cowards, would we?

"Liberty or death."
-"Cobra"

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☠ Transmission signal lost.

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On indefinite hiatus because the current state of gameplay sucks - ping me over discord if replies are needed