Angus O'Conor, who up until this point has been listening carefully to everything being said by his compatriots, enters the dialogue.
"Well then, gentlemen, if I may.
First of all, my qualifications for Consul. What could those be, now? To tell you the truth, there's many of you here who have been active in the Molly Republic far longer than me, some of you even got a proper schooling and could hold your own in the Bretonian Parliament, I'd fathom. And me, well...I can find my way around a Newgate cell block, that I can for sure. But hear me out, lads, because I've got plenty to say about our lovely little Republic.
Right, I believe that this organisation of ours has lost a bit of its edge over the years; we've settled into a routine and we're too comfortable with it. On top of that, the Corsair and Kusari issue needs a lot of thinking through on our part. We have the heart to fight, sure, but what we really need now is tact and careful planning. In my few short months under Daniel's direction, I put much of my time into studying history, both contemporary and ancient, in an effort to find some sort of model for us to follow. But it seems our situation is rather unique in history.
Who are we? The Republic, and the Mollys as a whole, are of Bretonian blood. We model ourselves after the Ancient Irish people of Sol, but in reality there is little ancestry between us and them. Nay, we're more like the Puritans who came to North America to escape the persecution of the old British Empire. But the Puritans followed the calling of their strict and righteous God -- who do we follow? It's not gods that drove us here. It was BMM and Edmund Graves, pushing our people too far until we decided to strike back...remember, the original members of the Founders Day Revolt were mutineers, not statesmen. They knew how to fight, but maintaining a Molly nation was something entirely different. It couldn't survive on hatred of Bretonia alone.
Well then, it's well near seventy years since the Revolt, and somehow this little experiment that we call the Molly Republic is still alive and functioning. And how have we gotten here? In the beginning, we didn't have much food or supplies, just whatever we could scrape off from the Hood. We had every chance to come back to the Bretonians with our tails between our legs and begged for forgiveness and a chance to return to our old homes. The treacherous Union of Gold, lackeys of the Queen, almost brought it to that. But then we discovered Londonderry; now look at our fortunes! Expansion, beyond the contested borders of Dublin and into the bountiful borderworlds -- expansion is the reason why we're still here. And further expansion will be the key to not just our survival, but our prosperity.
So in answer to the question, "who are we?" I say, we are the outcasts of Bretonia, kicked from the nest and forced into separation from our brothers and sisters. Some of us may still harbor feelings of kinship with Bretonia, but rest assured that these feelings will fade with time. We are on our own now.
With that all in mind, let's take a look at the issues we're facing right now. I'll start with the Kusari-Bretonian War. Now, Colin says that we should ally with Bretonia in the hope that the Queen grants us independence in exchange. I can tell you all that independence will never be granted to us by those stuffing eejits in Parliament; they're all rigid stiffs who wouldn't negotiate to save their wives from rapists. Let me paint you a more accurate picture of what would happen should we assist the Brets against Kusari: we will lose lives and money defending the Queen and weaken ourselves to either a crackdown from Bretonian forces (once the war is over) or a massive Corsair invasion as soon as they smell our weakness. No, this war is working to our favor; while Bretonia's eyes are elsewhere, we are free to sell our gold and build up our fleets.
Now, let's turn our attention to the Corsairs. I tell you all, they are a much greater threat to us now than the Bretonians. Why? They are vicious, smart, their numbers are practically endless. They don't know what beaurocracy is, so they're efficient, while Bretonia needs permission from Parliament before it can wipe its own arse. In Omega 49, they've gathered up a swarm, just itching to get at us -- but we will strike first. We have powerful allies in the Red Hessians; our joint shipbuilding with the Rogues has granted us the best bombers in all of Sirius; we've got tremendous gold reserves. If we open the offensive on the Corsairs, possibly in Omega 49, possibly elsewhere, we can push them back and secure our territory in Dublin and Londonderry."
Angus' long-winded speech came to an end at last.
"Well fekkin' eh, that took a bit longer than I planned!"
