Brotherhood Bar-Talks

[McNeo]

Juan stares at the glass in his hand, and frowns as he responds.

"I see your points entirely Ares. But the days of simplicity when the Corsair cause was small and united have since disappeared. There are many factions and their leaders vying for power, most without a sense of honour, pride and dignity. Even more without a sense of right or wrong. Those within the Corsair nation we have to put in their place every so often, but we have to do it more subtly than you wish us to."

Juan then leans back on his chair and speaks to Ares directly.

"Even if I wanted to do something about it, I couldn't without consulting the other Elders or putting myself in the firing line. I am sure, you can appreciate that I can't afford questions to be asked about the leadership of the Brotherhood, especially in a time of great internal turmoil, such as this."

Juan pauses, and then continues to speak.

"Brother, I ask this of you. What would you do, if you were in my position? You cannot risk a civil war due to the enemies at our gates, and you need a garrison on Crete while the rest of us attack Rheinland. What would you do? What could you do?"

[bluntpencil2001]

Ares laughs,

"I'd cut the Gorrdian Knot, brother!

These fools, who spy on us, should get in line and fly for the Brotherhood if they're such honourable Corsairs. If they did this, you wouldn't have to worry so much about their fraternising with Outcasts and the like, since they'd be under your command.

If they didn't submit to the Brotherhood, I'd force them to. There is no way that pilots that are stupid enough to attack the Phantoms then spy on two of the best pilots Crete have to offer and then openly admit it, without a hint of shame, could pose a threat to the Brotherhood's pilots.

Hell, they've not even been made to realise that spying on la familia is a touch, well, wrong and damn insulting!

If they got in line, they'd gain too. They'd have real Corsairs watching their backs and they might learn something. Maybe. If they spent more time getting trained in Titans (and manners) instead of practising hacking skills, they might be more useful.

Ahh.... too many little bands of cocky Corsairs are flying around with an invincibility complex. They'll bring a train-load of trouble down on Crete, and it will be us that will have to clean up the mess."

Ares is obviously irritated at all the upstart Corsair bands that think they're something new or important. News flash: They aren't.

---

[majkp]

Pedro entered the bar. He was still carrying the sledge-hammer he used to 'fix' the testing terminal a few moments ago. He put it down next to the table where Ares and Juan were sitting, then he took a beer from the passing bartender, no matter it was probably for someone else and sat next to the guys.

Ares laughed: "So you're now going to crack heads of Rheinlanders with that?"

Pedro smiled at him: "No, I just arrived from Yanagi. I recieved an urgent call from the newest recruit, brother Ricardo. Our automated testing terminal was stuck again and he was waiting there for a long time. But after I used a bit of brutal force, it seems to be working now."

Pedro drank the whole glass of beer at once. Then he sighed loudly: "Ahhh, finally something drinkable. Not like the chicken's piss they serve down there at Yanagi." And he waved at the bartender to bring another one.

Then he turned to Ares again and said: "So what's up, my friend? Are you still taking everything personally? Are you still having troubles with some corsair groups? They fired at Phantoms? I'll talk to them, no need to kill them because of that. They hacked your comms? Heh, I did it several times..."

He fired a long cigar and continued...

"Corsairs always had a lot of proud and uncontrollable rogues. So it's nothing new. But they were always able to get united once a real threat came. Come on! I once knew a different Ares. It was a long time ago. He was calm, decisive and focused on the real target. And he never got distracted by some trifles. He waved his hand instead and moved on. What happened?"

While Pedro was inhaling tastefully, he registered an agreeing look from Juan.

[bluntpencil2001]

Ares smirks, this is the Pedro he knows well.

"Heh, you know I take it personally when the lives of my pilots are at stake, Pedro. These little bands of upstarts think that they can prove something by picking fights with the SCRA, comprende?

There's only so much we'll ignore, with respect to the Brotherhood's wishes, before we show how proud Corsairs like myself deal with insults and plain stupidity. We don't like shooting Corsairs, but they seem to think that there's prestige to be gained in defeating us... not that they will, of course."

Ares stops to finish his beer, takes a breath and continues,

"They, and others, have poor leadership...

...They should be made to join the Brotherhood. The same goes for the Benitez and any loyal OPG that's left. That way they can be made to stay closer to the Corsair way. You remember that the LDDLG had Outcast weaponry, right?

Having all these groups under one banner would make the Corsairs more united and provide a stronger arm in dealing with the likes of Rheinland and the Outcasts. Also, you would be able to keep them in line diplomatically..."

He indicates with his empty glass, now more relaxed, indicating that Pedro shoud continue...

---

[majkp]

Pedro stopped drinking and said: "They should be made to join the Brotherhood? Oh, Ares, that's only one step to 'They should be forced to...' No brother it doesn't work like that and I am surprised you already forgot that. For a long time we have treated each other like a brother and it can't be changed quickly even if we wanted to. There is no chain of command among us. I know this brings some issues, but that's simply how we are."

He took another tasty inhale and continued...

"SCRA works differently and you indeed are very effective and loyal to your superiors. If we wanted Corsairs united, and you know that it's my dream to have it that way, we'd have to act differently. We already lost the Benitez family, who seemed to disappear after those mercenary murders assasinated their best members, paid by Unseelie. And we lost OPG, although I was never sure whether they were our brothers. I don't want to loose LDDLG and all I ask for is a little patience with their rogue members."

Pedro took a look at his personal comm pad and said: "Well, now if you excuse me, there is a lot of things to get ready before tonight's battle in Franfurt."

He turned to Juan Montoya and asked: "Juan, are you going to join me on the route to Yanagi Depot?"

But then he looked slowly at Ares again. "Ares, I know there was something personal between you and Gentle, but would you agree to meet with the leader of LDDLG in person one day? I'd be there too if you wanted to. I am not forcing you to do it, just asking you as my brother..."

[jammi]

Almost on que, a Benitez staggers into the room clutching a bloodied cloth to his head. He wobbles over
to the bar orders the strongest they have, downs it at collapses into a nearby booth. He waves a photo
about laughing manicaly. He mutters to himself, probaly drunk form visits to other less well known bars
over Crete. 'We showed them *hic*, we showed them all! heh heh!*hic* The outcast's no so strong.' Custo'
orders a few more drinks and finaly falls asleep. A Corsair pilot draggs him away to the pilots dorm. The
photo Custo' was waving around is still on the table. A few investigative pilots have a look...
It depicts a large force of Corsairs laughing outside Malta and shooting down Outcast fighters.

((the outcast players had already been killed and were about to leave))

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[bluntpencil2001]

"Ha! Good work, Benitez! Good to see you kicking in those drug-addicts!" says Ares, thinking better of giving the drunken Corsair another beer.

He looks over the photograph with Maniaco, then points at the 'Kruger' tag on one of the LDDLG before clenching his fist, restraining himself enough to stay quiet...

He collects himself before responding to Pedro's points.

"Yes, I mean you should force them. However they should be considered full members of la familia, not some distant relations, who, in effect are utterly inferior to yourselves when it comes to the affairs of Gamma. The Brotherhood does acte like it is more important in Gamma, after all. They'd get their rights as Brotherhood members, correct? They retain the freedom of your average Brotherhood pilot, which is considerably great, yeah?

Also, you mentioned the OPG and Benitez families largely falling apart... if they were memeber of the Brotherhood instead of these little bands, then they'd be a part of a cohesive whole, not crumbling thanks to bounty hunters and the like.

Besides, when they act as a separate entity, they represent the Corsairs as a nation, whether you like it or not. This is the sort of thing that can bring the Phantoms down on Crete, or similar, right?

In fact, I will meet with the clown. And I will suggest that he joins the Brotherhood and learns to act like a bloody Corsair."

Ares grins.

"I'll even try to watch my language!"

---

[jammi]

Custo' wakes up in the pilots dorm, falls out of his bed and staggers over to the bar again.
'eh... I feel horrible. What was I drinking...'
The barman looks at him unsypatheticaly but gives him a cloth to wipe away some of a dried
blood still stuck around a cut on his forehead. Clutching the cloth he wanders off to a dark corner
to wait for some other Corsair pilots to turn up.

---

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[Lucend]

The barman walks around refilling everyone's drinks and conversing with random pilots about everything from soccer to the rumored Brotherhood defeat in Frankfurt. Everything was going well until the barman suddenly disappears.

"Oi, were did that bartender go? I actually wanted alcohol this time..." Asked Lucendez of a random pilot at the bar.

The bartender stood straight up, relieved he wouldn't have to make another stupid concoction.
"What would you like? Ale? Tequila?"

"Brandy Alexander, extra cream de cacao." Said Lucendez, he took his drink and sat opposite Custo.

"Greetings. We haven't met but I'm Juan Lucendez of the Brotherhood. Heard about your victory over Malta and wanted to get a first-hand story of what exactly took place. I got some time in between patrols."

---

"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."

Osaika Moto, the Fall and Rise of a Kusari Farmer

Juan Lucendez, √ Corsair

[jammi]

Custo surveyed the pilot in front of him, finished his drink and slumped down into his chair.
'Fair enough. I'll tell you what happened...
It was a busy day at Crete, lots a' pilots furthering the borders of the Corsair Empire, whether it be through exporting our homelands famed Artefacts or destroying the cursed Bounty Hunters that plague us. There were a few of us outside Crete, (I had just launched) and I stopped to talk with some other pilots I knew. Well anyway, the peace was short lived, two ROS turned up, Cap ships I think. heh, our mini- armada of gunboats and fighters took em' down no problems. No ejectees this time either. Zero casualties for us. Once the ROS were out of the picture, all the other Corsairs rallied at Crete to try and find out what had happened. We then decided to go for a revenge attack, straight for the corrupt heart. The plan worked a treat, we destroyed the Outcast defenders with again, zero casualties. There were four or five I think ((players))... Oh yeah and swarms of fighters outside Malta ((NPCs)). Well we all got out pictures taken outside the enemys heart then we returned home. Oh yeah... a TBH and a few independent Corsairs remained behind in case the Outcasts tried anything clever whilst we were gone. A SWARM guy turned up. No idea who they were, but the guys at Crete wern't too pleased to see him and took him out. I'd say that day we got a fair amount of hunting gone. Still I managed to get this done.'
Custo' gestures at his head. 'Whilst battling Outcast cap ships, and numberless bounty hunters, I manage to trip and fall out my gunboat. Typical.' Custo' Clutches the wet cloth to his head whilst Lucendez cracks up laughing.

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