[Official Event] A Cultural Exchange - Uncertain Progression

[Barrier]

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A Cultural Exchange -
Uncertain Progression
New Tokyo, Kyushu, Tau-29, Tau-31, Leeds, New London
Convoy event (Part 2)

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BAF | BPA | BIS | KNF | KSP | KOI | BD | Mollys | LSF

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art by @CuteyCAI

DATE & TIME

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May 25, 6PM UTC

OVERVIEW

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The Liberty Security Force has long prioritized its intelligence gathering operations in Kusari, owing to persistent rumors of a Jump Drive research programme. Using intermediaries and existing trade and diplomatic networks, the LSF has managed to embed low-level agents into the Keiretsu. These men and women are often simple workers who pass along efficiency estimates or cargo manifests, never being promoted far enough to get near the real humint "gold". As R&D efforts at Kansai near their final critical stages, Kusari prepares for a ground-breaking demonstration in Bretonia. More and more Kishiro personnel have been transferred to temporary support roles. This in turn has left openings which must be filled by new workers on short notice, often without the prerequisite rigorous background checks.

One such occurrence has finally led to a breakthrough in the year-long infiltration op. A Yukawa dockworker under the pseudonym "Harris" noticed unusually large deliveries of Hull Panels, and unprecedented overtime offers for a time-sensitive critical project. Chatting about the order with his fellow "deck apes", he confirmed that the items were not going to any new construction, but rather to reinforce a special Foreign Service government convoy. Harris then overheard a different crew boasting of an urgent run to Bretonia for quintuple pay, carrying an unknown cargo from Kansai. Harris’ report was confirmed by the LSF with assets inside the Bretonian Ministry of Defense, who had become aware of a highly classified arrangement between the two Houses relating to the planned Invasion of Dublin -- although its specific nature was a mystery.

LSF leadership has always taken a liberal view of its mission brief, to protect Liberty’s commercial, military and political interests at all costs. It is the assessment of the Bretonian and Kusari bureau chiefs that the successful field demonstration of a functional Jump Drive could be the single most commercially damaging event in Liberty’s history, even if it did resolve the current Gold crisis. As a result, they have determined that this cannot be allowed to happen, regardless of the price paid. Using a dizzying chain of intermediaries, mercenaries and burnable assets, details of the Jump Drive programme and the impending convoy were anonymously leaked to the Blood Dragons and Mollys -- with details fabricated or embellished to urge immediate action. Despite this, the LSF is unwilling to leave the Republic’s financial future in the hands of these terrorist groups.

A taskforce has been assembled of elite LSF agents, armed with unmarked ships flagged as pirates. The operatives were told that their mission was essential to Liberty’s future, but that they were very much on their own: their very existence would be denied if killed or captured. The LSF, Mollys and Blood Dragons all see the deployment of Jump Drives as an existential threat, and they are all clearly willing to kill whoever it takes to see the project fail. The BAF and KNF remain unaware of the looming threat awaiting them. Only time will tell whether the critical Jump Drive Parts will reach Portsmouth Shipyard, and how these momentous events will reverberate through history.

DETAILS

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Convoy Information:

• Six reinforced (3x armor) Kusari Explorer vessels will carry the critical jump bridge components
  
• The convoy will stop for five minutes at every station along the route, including the Leeds Memorial. THEY CANNOT DOCK WITH ANY STATION
  
• Convoy attackers and defenders are each assigned a pool of 12 & 13 cruisers respectively, which must be registered in advance, and will be evenly split among event factions. Established groups get preference
  
• Gunboats and below can join the event on either side without registration.
  

Objectives:

• Convoy attackers must destroy the component haulers, and either destroy the components themselves (Dragons and Mollys), or grab a load to take back "home" (LSF)
  
• Convoy defenders must escort the component haulers from Planet New Tokyo to Planet New London, at which point the Explorers will land and sell their cargo
  
• Convoy defenders can recover the components from destroyed haulers to bring them to their original destination
  

Rule Changes:

• Respawn timer in event systems is reduced to 30 minutes. You may not re-engage/rejoin the convoy within that time
  
• BAF and KNF cannot attack combat ships of each other's House
  
• Lawful event IDs have ZOI in all event systems
  
• LSF may attack and be attacked by any event IDs in event systems
  
• Unregistered capital ships and repair ships are not allowed in event systems for the duration of the convoy
  

Bounties:

• Convoy attackers and defenders get a 500,000 bounty for killing one another
  
• A 2,000,000 bounty will be shared among the killers of each event Explorer (only those displayed in the kill message)
  
• The convoy Explorers will be filled with the Prototype Components cargo
  

Restarts:

• A Blood Dragon bomber restart /restart EventBD starts on Battleship Kokura
  
• An LSF bomber restart with pirate IFF /restart EventLSF starts on Freeport 6
  
• A Molly bomber restart /restart EventMolly starts on Halifax Freeport
  
  
• A BAF bomber restart /restart EventBAF starts on Planet New Tokyo
  
• A KNF bomber restart /restart EventKNF starts on Planet New Tokyo
  

Rewards:

• at least 2 player kills: Sous Chef
  
• at least 8 player kills: Secret Sauce

• 1st: Jump Drive Module (any series)
  
• 2nd: Hyperspace Matrix
  
• 3rd: Docking Module

(Each spot can be claimed once for each leaderboard. Ties both get rewarded. Lower tier rewards can be selected instead.)

Registered Cruisers:

KNF	BAF	LSF	BD	Molly
[KNF]IKN-Chokai	BAF|HMS-Holmfirth	Sherman.C	[TSK]BD-Yoroi	RPA|PRW-Tipperary
IKN-Kasai	BAF|HMS-Avon	Mount.Shasta	[TSK]BD-Sendai	RPA|PRW-Lough.Caragh
SC-Zuikaku	BAF|HMS-Naseby	Graham.Cracker	[TSK]BD-Kitakaze	RPA|PRW-Rhodri.Yarwood
EF|Kaga	BAF|A-HMS-Crecy	=/A\=Avalanche	Chiyodagata	Darknight.Sparrow
IKN-Aiko	BAF|HMS-Highworth
IKN-Nachi	BAF|A-HMS-Exuberant
IKN-Yahagi

Results

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Event Kills (player and npc)

Lawful player kills	Unlawful player kills
IKN-Nachi 10 SC-Zuikaku 6 Yuto.Akira 5 BAF|HMS-Highworth 3 BAF|HMS-Holmfirth 3 BAF|HMS-Naseby 2 CDI)SC-Travis,Felts 2 IKN-Kasai 2 SwiftMeteor 2 [KNF]IKN-Chokai 2 IKN-Hashidate 2 BAF|HMS-Avon 1 EF|Kaga 1 Obicham.Oriz's 1 Echo-6 1 Vancouver-B38 1 IKN-Yahagi 1	Colin.Shields 3 =/A\=Avalanche 1
Lawful player total: 45	Unlawful player total: 4

I have outlined a leaderboard based on currently available information. Please let me know all the characters you played and their combined score if you want to claim/update a spot on the leaderboard. I will be updating the scores until we have our final numbers. If claiming a forum title, choose ONE title from those available, and post the combined score from across all your characters as proof.

Lawful player kills	Unlawful player kills
1st: IKN-Nachi (10) @Titan*	1st: Colin.Shields (3) @Haste
2nd: SC-Zuikaku (6) @Couden	2nd: =/A\=Avalanche (1) @Chocola
3rd: Yuto.Akira (5) @Eternal.Journey	n/a

Three out of six explorer transports were taken down:

• KTS-Makomanai died to BD-Amematsu
  
• KTS-Makomanai died to Golden.Gold, Darach, and KW-Spike.Rattler
  
• KTS-Abashiri died to RPA|Cillian.O'Malley, Golden.Gold, and [(-Irwen.Gower.
  

BD-Amematsu will receive 2.1 mil, Golden.Gold 1.4 mil, the others 700k SC. All missing credit rewards will be processed soon™.

[Traxit]

which must be registered in advance

[KNF]IKN-Chokai

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The best Video Game OST
Just Got Better

[jammi]

Story comment on the LSF involvement:

For the purpose of our collective sanity, we can approach this with the understanding that any LSF dudes who show up are appropriately undercover using appropriately discrete assets. Anyone using a restart ship will receive a Pirate IFF, although it's possible the ID will rephack it away if you dock and undock. If folks show up in glaringly obvious Liberty military ships, I'm going to consider this a concession to gameplay necessities and then go and make myself a strong drink.

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News article library, feedback and content requests.

[Barrier]

Story comment on the LSF involvement:

For the purpose of our collective sanity, we can approach this with the understanding that any LSF dudes who show up are appropriately undercover using appropriately discrete assets. Anyone using a restart ship will receive a Pirate IFF, although it's possible the ID will rephack it away if you dock and undock. If folks show up in glaringly obvious Liberty military ships, I'm going to consider this a concession to gameplay necessities and then go and make myself a strong drink.

“Admit nothing. Deny everything. Make counter-accusations.”

Some terms for anyone wanting to play the blame game: "rogue asset", "repossessed property", "spoofed transponder", "insidious provocateurs" ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[Couden]

Just for better payouts for each Kusari Explorer add additional $100.000 so each player who will kill it would recieve a clear and nice sum ($700.000)

SC-Zuikaku

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[TheSauron]

BAF|HMS-Holmfirth, a BAF cruiser. Just to be sure, the cruisers can respawn like everyone else, they're just limited by numbers?

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One MD Admiral

[Emperor Tekagi]

Do you have people for the Explorers already?

[KNF]IKN-Kashiwa (for now)
EF|Kaga (yes)

That makes 4/6 for Kusari.

[Sarwar]

Sherman.C
LSF Cruiser (if boys log)

[Mr. Lime]

Things just got spicy. I like it.

[Red]

Things just got spicy. I like it.

The plot thickens.

[TSK]BD-Yoroi for the dragons.

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